Biographical Sketch of Henry REEVES; Philadelphia Co., PA

Contributed to the PAGenWeb Archives by Diana Smith 
[christillavalley@comcast.net] 

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Philadelphia, A History of the City and its People: A Record of 225 Years
Philadelphia: S.H. Clark, 1912; Vol. 3, page 252.
Author, Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer
 
HENRY REEVES
 
     Henry Reeves, whose death occurred April 22, 1910, was a prominent 
representative of business interests in Philadelphia, where he was well known as 
a member of the firm of Stacy Reeves & Sons, carpenters and building contractors 
and manufactures of cabinet and interior hardwood work, store, office and bank 
fixtures.  His birth occurred in this city on the 17th of September, 1861, his 
parents being Stacy and Mary Ann Reeves.  The father, who passed away March 8, 
1902, was the third president of the Master Builders' Exchange of Philadelphia.  
He was born on the 16th of June, 1828 on his father's farm near Mount Holly, 
Burlington county, New Jersey, and there spent his childhood.  His father, Abram 
Reeves, died in 1836, and two years later he was orphaned by the death of his 
mother, Mrs. Mary (Matlack) Reeves.  Soon afterward he was placed in the home of 
a distant maternal relative, where he remained until fifteen years of age, 
attending the primitive country schools of the neighborhood in the winter and 
assisting in the work of the farm during the summer months.  After spending one 
year at the Friends' school of Westtown he was apprenticed to Mark B. Hutton, a 
prominent master carpenter of Philadelphia, under whose direction he learned his 
trade.  He continued in the employ of Mr. Hutton for about two years after 
reaching his majority and frequently worked for that gentleman after 
establishing himself in business in 1851.  He served in the Pennsylvania state 
militia during the years 1862 and 1863, and in 1869 joined the Carpenters' 
Company, the oldest association of the kind in America, of which he was elected 
secretary in 1889 for a term of three years.  Stacy Reeves was likewise a 
charter member of the Master Builders' Exchange of Philadelphia and one of the 
managers of the Franklin Institute.  He was regarded as one of the most 
conservative and responsible business men of the city and his interests steadily 
grew in extent and importance.  His son, Albert A., was taken into partnership 
in 1877, while in 1885 he admitted a younger son, Henry Reeves.  Many of the 
largest structures in Philadelphia and the surrounding country stand as 
monuments to his skill as a builder.  These include the Wood building at Fourth 
and Chestnut streets; Drexel building at Fifth and Chestnut streets; Forrest 
building, on the east side of Fourth street, south of Chestnut; Hotel Lafayette, 
on the west side of Broad street, south of Chestnut; the Lehigh Valley buildings 
at Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania; Lehigh University at Bethlehem; and the Industrial 
School, built by the Misses Drexel, at Eddington, Bucks county.  Mr. Reeves was 
a delegate from the Philadelphia Master Builders' Exchange to all conventions of 
the National Association of Builders held from 1888 until his demise, and during 
the years 1891 and 1892 was one of the directors and delegates-at-large of that 
organization.
     Henry Reeves attended the public schools of Philadelphia until thirteen and 
a half years of age, when he went to Media, Pennsylvania, where he continued his 
studies in a boarding school for two years.  Returning to Philadelphia, he 
learned the carpenter's trade under the direction of his father, and in 1885 
became a junior partner in the firm of Stacy Reeves & Sons.  In 1908 he was made 
senior partner of the concern and became the head of an extensive and important 
industrial enterprise.  Thoroughness, prompt attention and close application 
constituted the salient features of a business career which gained him 
prominence and prosperity as a builder of Philadelphia.  It is true that he 
entered upon a business already established, but in successfully controlling and 
enlarging this he showed excellent business capacity and executive force and he 
did things with an ability and energy that showed he was master of the 
situation.
     On the 10th of September, 1885, in Philadelphia, Mr. Reeves was united in 
marriage to Miss Catherine S. Rindlaub, of Philadelphia, by whom he had four 
children: Maybelle G., Helen R., Edith and Kathryn, who are interested in music; 
Maybelle and Edith have taken up the profession of teaching, while Kathryn is 
still a public school student.
     Mr. Reeves found his chief source of recreation and pleasure in travel, 
having visited all parts of the United States.  He was serving at his death as 
treasurer of the New Jersey Society of Pennsylvania and was a prominent member 
of Apollo Lodge, 
I. O. O. F.  He seemed in the prime of a vigorous manhood when death claimed 
him.  With a party of friends he left Philadelphia, April 22, 1910, to visit a 
farm near Salem, New Jersey, on a fishing trip.  He had hardly arrived there 
when death claimed him.  The flag on the Builders' Exchange was placed at half-
mast, for he was treasurer of the Exchange and was held in the highest esteem by 
all of its members.  In fact, the keenest regret and sorrow were expressed by 
his business friends and by all who had known him in social relations.  His life 
was one of intense and well directed activity, resulting in the successful 
accomplishment of what he undertook, and unfeigned cordiality and appreciation 
for sterling worth on the part of others gained for him many friends, his life 
constituting another proof of the Emersonian philosophy that "the way to win a 
friend is to be one."