Lazarus Reeves

Added by kimakamom1 on 27 May 2008
Originally submitted by astringermcdonald to STRINGER/CHAPMAN on 27 Oct 2007

Lazarus Rives (Reeves) was born in 1752 in Virginia and died in Pike County, Mississippi.  He has been accepted by the N.S.D.A.R. as being a son of William Rives and grandson of Col. William Rives.

Lazarus married first Elizabeth Massey on October 1, 1775*.  She was a daughter of Thomas Massey of Petersburg, Virginia**.  They had two known children; Green and William Reeves (Rives).  Green was born in 1776 and William about 1780.  These two sons never moved to South Carolina with their father and it is the assumption of this author that they were raised by grandparents.  Evidently, they were very young when their mother died (perhaps William being just an infant), for Lazarus was married again in 1786 and living in South Carolina.  In all probability, Lazarus was serving the U.S. Military in the Revolutionary War when his first wife died and after being relocated to South Carolina never returned to Virginia.  It has been handed down as family tradition that after moving to South Carolina, Lazarus never again saw the family which he left in Virginia.

In the fall of 1775 or 1776, Lazarus enlisted in the U.S. Military to engage in service in the Revolutionary War.  This first enlistment was for a period of eighteen months in the Virginia State Militia, Third Company of Rangers under Capt. Robert Goodwin and served with the Minute Men of the Continental Line under Col. William Thompson.  He enlisted a second time for six months and was a sergeant in the South Carolina Militia under Col. Francis Marion and fought in the Battle of Sullivan's Island in the Charleston Harbor.***  According to family tradition, Lazarus received his first military experience during the French and Indian War (1754-1763) going with his father on scouting expeditions.  This is possible, however, not likely, since he would have been a mere eleven years of age at the close of the war.

After moving to Mississippi, Lazarus filed for a war pension on December 11, 1827, in Pike County, Mississippi.  At the time he was a farmer by occupation and the reason stated for filing was that he could not work sufficiently to maintain himself and wife, who composed the family.  James Massey testified as to his service.  He enlisted the second time.  This would indicate that he was living with the Masseys (his first wife's people) upon enlisting the second time.  Benjamin Hodge, Sr., also testified as to the service of Lazarus Reeves.  He was a resident of Richland County, South Carolina and his testimony was dated August 22, 1827, by the courts of that county.*****

Lazarus Reeves married a second time, probably in South Carolina.  This second wife's name was also Elizabeth, but research has failed in the exposing of her maiden name.  They were married in 1786, probably in January or February, since their first child was born in December of the same year.  The four sons who moved to Pike County, Mississippi with their parents were all born in Richland County, South Carolina.  Thomas Andrew (1786), John (1792), Alfred (1796) and Zachariah in (1799).

Lazarus moved to South Carolina and relocated in Richland County, Camden District sometime between 1780 and 1786.  He probably moved about the time of his second enlistment for military service and the war was over in 1783, so a more probable date would be between 1781 and 1783.  This second enlistment was for six months and during that time he served as a sergeant in the South Carolina Militia.

*Personal records of Mrs. Osie (Rawls) Hope, Summit, Mississippi.
**Family Records:  Mississippi Revolutionary Soldiers, p. 244.
***"Mississippi Genealogical Exchange"
****"Mississippi Genealogical Exchange"
*****"Mississippi Genealogical Exchange"

Additional information about this story

Description "A Family History and Genealogy of Lazarus Reeves and His Descendants" , compiled by Rev. Gregory S. Smith

Date 1979
Location Rt. 1, Box 35, Mississippi 39119
Attached to Elizabeth Massey (1752 - 1780)

Lazarus Reeves was a deeply religious man and very instrumental in establishing churches within his community and neighborhood.  Upon what appears to be his first visit to Mississippi, he became a founding member of the East Fork Baptist Church in Amite County, August 18, 1810.  Apparently very soon afterwards, Lazarus Reeves returned to South Carolina to begin making plans to move his family to Mississippi.  It is very likely that his intentions were to move this family to this new territory and settle within the vicinity of East Fork and become part of this church which he had once help establish.  Although the family settled a few miles east of that location, it is still most obvious that Lazarus Reeves wanted the religious fiber which had been so much a part of the family in South Carolina to remain.  It was the same year that the family settled on Clear Creek that Lazarus Reeves was instrumental in establishing another church.  The following was taken from a history of that church:

"The Bogue Chitto Baptist Church, Pike County, Mississippi, was constituted on October 31, 1812, in what was then Marion County, Mississippi Territory.  The first meeting house was located on the east side of Bogue Chitto River about a mile south of the Quin's Bridge.  There were ten charter members, five men and five women as follows:  John Brent, Sr., William Denman, David McGraw, Sr., Lazarus Reeves, John Warren, Sarah Denman, Annys Dillon, Sarah Norman, Sarah Thompson, and Priscilla Warren."*

 The first meeting house of the Bogue Chitto Baptist Church was no doubt built of rough-hewn logs of one large room with the pulpit at one end and an isle down the center to the back door, the women and girls on one side and the men and boys on the other side of the isle.  There was also a section set aside for the slaves who were received into the church from near the beginning.*

With the organization of the Friendship Baptist Church in 1817, a movement was started to transfer the Bogue Chitto Meeting House further east.  Finally in 1832, the move was made and the new location was on Carter's Creek on the east side of Otapasas Creek (now Topisaw).  This transition was made about four or five years after the death of Lazarus Reeves.  The Friendship Baptist Church remained near the Bogue Chitto River on the west side.*

In 1837, some distance north of the Friendship community, another church was organized.  Some of the founding members of the church were sons of Lazarus Reeves; Thomas A. and Rev. Zachariah Reeves.  Thomas A. Reeves and his wife donated the property for the sites of the meeting house and cemetery.  Rev. Zachariah Reeves served as its first pastor.  It was named Mt. Pleasant in honor of the church which these pioneers had left back in South Carolina.*

Many other churches began to spring up in the Pike County region of which descendants of Lazarus Reeves had a part.  In 1854, letters of dismission were granted from the Bogue Chitto Church to members organizing the Shady Grove Baptist Church.  Some of these were William J. McCullough and his wife Sarah, a grand-daughter of Lazarus Reeves, and Polly Ann Moak, also a grand-daughter.

During these early pioneer days organizing a church and building a meeting house was a community affair of which everyone took part.  Men and boys rendered their services in cutting the trees and hewning the logs.  Ox teams were donated for the hard labor such as hauling the logs and pulling the large sandrock stones which were used for the foundation.  Work was very hard with absolutely no aid of modernized construction equipment as we know it today, but of course with the availability of slaves, the work was made to be easier on some.  Nevertheless, with the completing of such a project, all were joyful in heart with a sense of accomplishment.  Not only was work difficult in those days, but traveling and getting about from place to place was likewise the same.  This was one reason for the establishing of new churches.  It was much easier to travel a little distance within one's own community than to travel many miles.  Although with the availability of a church within one's own community, worship services were still generally held only once a month.  Communities were very large in which the settlers owned perhaps large spreads of land with miles separating families.

Meeting only monthly was an advantage to the preachers.  They were able to preach every Sunday, but to three or four different churches during a month.  The Sunday when all the families gathered together at the meeting house was the highlight of community life.  This day was used for both worship and socializing with families reuniting themselves.  Services were held all day with dinner on the grounds.  However, this was not the only time when families and friends met together.  It was not at all unusual for a young man to ride miles one afternoon to be present at a social gathering and return on horseback the next morning just in time to begin a day of work in the fields.

*Boyd, Bogue Chitto Baptist Church, 1812-1962

LOCATED GRAVES OF REVOLUTIONARY WAR SOLDIERS IN MISSISSIPPI

Reeves, Lazarus -- d. 1827, Grave located at Clear Creek Cemetery, 4 miles east of McComb, off Quin's Bridge Road on black-topped road, Pike County, Mississippi. 
Marked: 1948 -- Judith Robinson Chapter. 
Rededicated and marked: 25 October 1997 -- Judith Robinson Chapter

REEVES, LAZARUS

Ancestor #: A095071

Service: SOUTH CAROLINA    Rank: SOLDIER

Birth: 1756    VIRGINIA

Death: (POST) 12-11-1827     SUMMIT NEAR PIKE CO MISSISSIPPI

Pension Number: R8636V

Service Source: R8636V

Service Description: 

1) CAPT ROBERT GOODWIN, COL WILLIAM THOMPSON