DARKE COUNTY OHIO - BIOS: REEVES, MAJ. JOHN L. M.D. (A.W. Bowen & Co., 1894)
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A PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF DELAWARE AND RANDOLPH COUNTIES, IND.
A.W. Bowen & Co., 1894  - Page 1407-1408-1409

        MAJ. JOHN L. REEVES, M.D., now of Union City, Randolph county,
Ind., was born in Darke county, Ohio, September 14, 1827, a son of James
and Rachel Reeves. May 10, 1832, the family came to Indiana and settled on
a farm four and and a half miles north of Union City, in Jackson township,
the father being about the fourth voter to build his cabin in that
precinct. John L. was reared like all other young pioneer lads were, going
to school in inclement weather only, and attending the farm duties at times
when the air was pleasant, and thus his life was passed until he reached
his majority, and during this interval the farm was cleared up. He started
to read medicine at home, however, before he was of age, and worked at
plastering, at $8 per month, in order to defray expenses. He next studied
under Dr. Noah Simons, of New Lisbon. In 1849 he married Angeline Milligan,
but his lady was taken away from him in 1854. The same year he began
practice at Pittsburg, Randolph county, Ind., and successfully continued
until 1856, when he located at Lancaster, Jay county, Ind., where he built
up a fine business and was actively employed until the war broke out. He
then recruited a company of state guards at Lancaster, which was offered to
the government at Indianapolis, but the rolls had been filled, and the
company was distributed throughout various regiments, the doctor entering
the Fortieth Ohio voluntary infantry, as lieutenant in company F, and was
first sent to Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio. Thence the regiment was sent to
eastern Kentucky, and became part of the army of the Cumberland.
        The lieutenant was then made captain of his company, and was under
Garfield at Pound Gap, and in all marches and skirmishes in which his
regiment took part. At Chickamauga, September 20, 1863, he was wounded in
the left ankle, which is still lame at times. He was also stunned by a
shell, and supposed by his comrades to be dead. But, recovering from the
shock, he was nevertheless disabled for three months. He came near being
captured the same day, but was spared the horrors of Andersonville, and the
perils, and perhaps the fact of an awful death in that fearful prison pen.
His company was then placed to guard the crossing at Shell Mound, Tenn.,
and the captain remained with them, not going to the hospital, but lying on
a brush heap until the spring of 1864. Here the company, as a company,
veteranized January 1, 1864, and in March of the same year Capt. Reeves was
promoted to be major, and served with that rank until mustered out December
10, 1864. In the meantime his company had gone into the Atlanta campaign,
and after Gen. Hood; at the battle of Franklin, the major's regiment was
consolidated with the Fifty-first Ohio, of which Major Reeves was offered
the coloneley, but, as he had been in active service three years and four
months, and his health was somewhat shattered, he declined the honor,
resigned his commission as major, returned home, and was for a short time
engaged in the grocery business at Union City. In 1866, he entered the
Eclectic Medical college, at Cincinnati, graduated in 1867, and resumed his
practice, but this time at Union City. He here enjoyed a very large and
lucrative practice until 1882, when an old army trouble (diarrhea)
returned, and he was compelled to relinquish active work. In 1890, however,
he purchased his present drug store in the opera building, which he
utilizes for both office and business room.
        To the first marriage of Dr. Reeves with Angelina Milligan there
were born two children: James Samuel, of Union City, and Emeretta, who
lived in Missouri with her grandmother, Margaret Milligan, a widow, but who
were both driven out by the rebels in the fall of 1861, and both died seven
years later at the home of John Milligan, in Darke county, Ohio, from
nervous prostration and exposure caused primarily by their expulsion. The
father of Mrs. Angelina (Milligan) Reeves, Samuel Milligan, came from Erie
county, Pa., was married in that state, and, on coming west, first located
in Shelby county, Ohio; whence he came to Randolph county, in March, 1841,
remaining until 1855, and then went to Henry county, Mo., where he died in
1860. By his first marriage he was the father of four children; by a second
marriage, to Margaret Graham, he became the father of twelve children. The
second marriage of Dr. Reeves was to Esther McFarland, of Pittsburg,
Randolph county, Ind., and of the four children born to this union three
are still living, viz.: Elizabeth A., wife of Charles W. Truitt; John D.
F., grocer of Union City, and William R., at home. The doctor is a stanch
republican and cast his first presidential vote for John C. Fremont. He
uses all his influence to strengthen the hands of the party, but he never
asks a favor at those hands.


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