Morty Comix # 2687

Morty Comix # 2687 was left in a real estate brochure distribution box at a gas station/minimart in McCleary, Washington.

By a strange coincidence, it wasn't until I posted this that I saw the mention of Windermere Real Estate in Centralia, Washington. Their HQ is in the house where my great-great grandfather's ghost still lurks, where my grandparents were married, where my mother was born. So many stories connected with that place. These kind of things happen when you are a 5th generation Washingtonian.

Frank Reeves

Pressed into lower right is the name of the photographer. Hard to read, but I'd guess it says: B. McArdle, Centralia, Wash.

Walter Francis "Frank" Reeves photo probably taken between 1910-1916. Those who remember him told me that at this point in his life, Frank was cranky and plain spoken, yet would cry at weddings. He was my great-great grandfather.

The old Union Army veteran lived with the family of his daughter, Jennie Hoss. He died suddenly at the breakfast table, Dec. 11, 1916. The former family home in Centralia served as a bed and breakfast under a few owners for a time and is now the local headquarters down there for Windermere Real Estate. It has been reported over the years that Frank, along with a child, are still hanging around the building in the form of ghosts.

Jessie Reeves - Wife

Tintype. Written on album sleeve: Jessie Reeves - Wife.

Jesse A. Reeves was born Aug. 6, 1833 in Ohio and died June 4, 1908 in Michigan.

Interesting this is the same background studio set as in several other tintypes in this album. For some reason in the back of my mind I think Jesse lived in Kansas for awhile. But I am incredibly rusty on all my genealogical facts.

Jesse was an uncle to Jennie Reeves, who kept this album. He was an older brother to her father, Walter Francis "Frank" Reeves. The fact she did not name her aunt suggests this couple were not really a big part of her world when she was growing up.

But like so many other photos in this album, it is an interesting portrait even without any background information. There is a certain magic to these personal visual portals into the 19th century.

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.

W.F. Reeves / Camp Douglas, U.T. ...

 

Tintype sewn into cardstock. The face is slightly tinted and the military buttons have been painted gold. This is really a most amazing artifact. This is the face of a man who survived over two years of Hell.

Written on front: W.F. Reeves

Written on verso: Camp Douglas, U.T., Jan. 24th / 66. Received Feb. the 17th, 1866.

Walter Francis Reeves was my great-great grandfather. He was born in Ohio, near Kent, Oct. 13, 1838, the youngest child of Walter Francis Reeves and Martha (Gee) Reeves. His Dad was a vet of the War of 1812 and died when Walter the 2nd was very young.

Even so, since Walter the 2nd shared his father's name, he was known as "Frank."

The Reeves family moved to Michigan. The early 1860s was something of whirl for Frank. He married Lydia Melissa Upham in 1861. Became a father in 1862. And then joined the Union Army at the very end of 1863.

Frank was one of Custer's Wolverines, being a private in the 5th Michigan Cavalry (Co. G). He took part in many battles, including the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, Five Forks, and Appomattox. In some of these battles, Frank might've been shooting at relatives of mine on my Dad's side who were serving in the Confederate Army. 

My grandmother, who remembered him well, told me Frank used to call U.S. Grant "a drunken butcher." Although he was proud he served his country, he carried very bitter memories of the War. It never ceases to astound me that I heard opinions of a Union vet only second hand, and know quite a bit about his personality from people who remembered him. Our history is closer than we think.

After marching in the Grand Review, Frank didn't get to go home to Michigan. Instead they transferred him into the 1st Michigan Calvary and sent him out West in places like Fort Leavenworth, Fort Laramie, and as shown in this tintype, Fort Douglas, Utah Territory. He did take part in some battles with the Native Americans, including at Willow Springs, Dakota Territory, Aug. 12, 1865.

Frank was honorably discharged at Salt Lake City on Mar. 10, 1866. So far as I know, at that time he had been the farthest West of any of my ancestors. He would return.

Sid, Jennie

Tintype with "Sid, Jennie" written on album sleeve.

Siblings Sid and Jennie Reeves, born in 1872 and 1869. This would've been taken during the 1872-1884 "lost years" where I cannot account for their whereabouts. What is intriguing is that these studio props show up in a few other tintypes with different people in the album.

According to family legend, their father, William Francis "Frank" Reeves served as a civilian scout for the Army on the Western frontier at some point in those dozen years, and the family sort of moved around on the edge of the frontier behind him. If that is so, these two children with serious expressions waiting by an empty chair seems a little heart breaking.

One family story tells about the Mother and her three Reeves children basically scraping by in a modest cabin in the dead of winter out in the middle of Nowhere, Kansas while Dad was gone on a long scouting mission. The local tribe took pity on the family and left a freshly killed deer at their doorstep to help them get by.

William Reeves?

A tintype supposedly identified in error on album sleeve as "W.F. Reeves," but somewhere long ago a relative said this was William Reeves (1821-1891?) and his wife Ivey/Lucy Jane (Miller) Reeves.

William was an older brother of my great-great grandfather, Walter Francis Reeves.

Mrs. W. F. Reeves, Lafe

Tintype. On the back is written: Mrs. W. F. Reeves, Lafe

This is my great-great grandmother with her firstborn, Charles LaFayette Reeves ("Lafe"), who was born in 1862, placing the date of this portrait in the Civil War era.

Lydia Melissa Upham was born in upstate New York on Sept. 6, 1842. Apparently she was known as Melissa. In 1861 she married Walter Francis Reeves (known as "Frank") in Michigan. I am guessing it was shortly after this photo was taken that Frank enlisted in the Union Army.

The Reeves family migrated to Washington Territory in 1889. In a letter Melissa wrote back home to Michigan from Centralia, Washington in 1891 we learn she had been a victim of typhoid fever in 1888 and had never been the same since. I had heard one reason the family moved West was the hope the climate would be better for her health. 

Melissa died at age 50, Sept. 25, 1892, in Centralia, Washington and is buried there in the Pioneer Cemetery.

The Ulysses S. Grant Song

My great great grandfather

Rode with Custer

In the Civil War

He was a Wolverine.

Cold Harbor, Wilderness

He was there at Appamattox

When the Rebs called out "No more!"

His name was Frank

Calvary private was his rank

And he never minced his words

Just to suit yer

He lived to 1916

And told everyone he could

That he considered Grant

"A Drunken Butcher."

 

 

Phone photo 1911

The Windermere Real Estate headquarters in Centralia, Washington

In the early 20th century this was the home of my great-grandparents, Theodore and Jennie Hoss. My Mother was born in this place. Supposedly, the ghost of my great-great grandfather, Walter Francis "Frank" Reeves, a crusty Wolverine Civil War vet, and later a civilian Custer scout (according to family lore) who came to Washington before statehood, died at the breakfast table in this house in 1916 and is still hanging around as a ghost there. Frank saw some horrible stuff in the Civil War, being at Cold Harbor and The Wilderness. He was also at Appomattox. I'm told he considered U.S. Grant, quote, "A drunken butcher."

I am so grateful to Windermere for preserving this structure. They did a beautiful and impressive job. This home was, I'm told, designed by the same architect who created Hoquiam's Castle.