The Jackson Purchase region of Kentucky is comprised of the eight westernmost counties - Ballard, Calloway, Carlisle, Fulton, Graves, Hickman, Marshall and McCracken. It is bordered on the west by the Mississippi River, on the north by the Ohio River, on the east by the Tennessee River and the state of Tennessee to the south. By Kentuckians it is generally referred to simply as "the Purchase".

Andrew Jackson and Isaac Shelby purchased the land lying west of the Tennessee River from the Chickasaw tribe and opened the area for settlement around 1820. Within the next few years, my grandfather's ancestors came there from Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee - the Beadles, Clapps, Pryors and Wingos settled in Graves County with the Reeves and Halls in neighboring Ballard County.

Monday, May 2, 2016

Reeves-Hall Family Bible

Yesterday, I received a wonderful surprise in the form of an email from my Kentucky cousin Donald J. Stewart.  I had asked him some months ago if he knew who currently had possession of the family bible kept by Perlina Hall Reeves, wife of Sidney Preston Reeves of Ballard County.  I knew the bible existed because many years ago, before the availability of copy machines and scanners, my mother had seen it and transcribed some of the information.  At that time the bible was in the possession of Donald's aunt Bonita Reeves Hutcherson.


The bible had descended through Donald's family because the terms of Sidney Preston Reeves' 1881 Ballard County will left the home place and all household goods to his youngest son, David Walter Reeves, Donald's ancestor.  What a benefit to family genealogy that those household goods included the bible and were left to a family member who continued to live in Ballard County.
Perlina Hall Reeves & Sidney Preston Reeves
The bequest to David Walter Reeves is as follows "provided my youngest son David Walter Reeves lives with me during my natural life then at my death I give to him all of my personal property after my just debts all paid provided further that if I should die before my wife Pollina Ann Reeves if my son David Walter Reeves lives with and takes care of his mother Pollina Ann Reeves during her natural life then at her death in addition to the personal property heretofore given him I give him the said David Walter Reeves the homestead containing one hundred & twenty five acres of land heretofore devised to my wife Pollina Ann Reeves during her natural life."  

Dates of birth for Perlina Hall Reeves' siblings are also recorded in the bible in addition to Reeves' family members.  Ballard County's Charles Morgan Hall was a brother to Perlina and is named.


Although the birth dates of Perlina and Sidney Preston Reeves are recorded in the bible, the birthdates of the members of their family begin with their oldest son George Adam Reeves, born February 1, 1840.  


Thanks so much to my cousin Donald for searching for the bible and scanning its pages to share with me.

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