Friday, December 13, 2013

W.F. Reeves

Tintype. Barely legible writing on back: W.F. Reeves

Walter Francis Reeves, known as "Frank," was my great-great grandfather. Although we have several stories, we cannot verify where the Reeves family lived from 1872-1884. The only documentation I have are some tintypes, like this one, probably taken in that time period.

The story here is that after serving as one of Custer's Wolverines in the Civil War, Frank returned to Michigan only to rejoin Custer as a civilian scout. Since his Army career had previously taken him as far West as Utah, Frank had some experience on the frontier.

Supposedly Frank missed out on being part of the fiasco at Little Bighorn in 1876 as the result of some fluke of circumstance.

But like I said, these are just stories with no documentation.