Transcribed by Denise McLoughlin
Tampico Area Historical Society
www.tampicohistoricalsociety.citymax.com

Page 629

Tracy REEVE, Princeton, was born February 22. 1807, near Mr. Hope, Orange Co., N. Y. He is the son of Gabriel and Hannah (BARTON) REEVE. The father was born in New York, March 9, 1777, and lived an eventful life. When a young man and starting in life he went to Marietta, Ohio, in 1814, with letters of recommendation to the Surveyor General, but not finding him at home he was determined to find emplymetn. So he walked to Chillecothe, then the State cpaital, but still not finding work he went to Cincinnati, and from there to Paris, Ky., where he was engaged as a clerk for several years. Finally he decided to return to his old home. He traveled down the Mississippi River to the Gulf, and then made the  voyage around to Philadelphia, and then up the Delaware River to his home. During his stay in Ohio he was drafted into the army, and helped guard the prisoners captured on Lake Erie by Commodore PERRY, but the hardship of a soldier's life were too severe for his constitution, and while in the service hie health was so impaired that he never fully recovered from the effects. He died February 24, 1825, in Ohio. His wife, Hannah BARTON, was born in New Jersey, November 23m 1783, and died in Lamoilee, Bureau Co., Ill., October 15, 1853. She was the mother of the following named children: Volney, Tracy, Elijah B., Hugh B. and Frances A. Tracy REEVE was reared on a farm, and received his early education in the subscription schools of Ohio, in May, 1834, he came to Bureau County, Ill., bringing with him $200 in money. This Mr. REEVE applied in entering 160 acres of land. He also borrowed $100 at 50 per cent interest , with which he enterd eighty acres more. This was the beginning of a remarkably successful business career. In 1836 he laid out the village of Lamoille, and started a store at that point, which he carried on in conncetion with his farm. Mr. REEVE resided at Lamoille till 1869, when he came to Princeton, where he has lived in as much retirement at h is business would permit. Mr. REEVE has since added to his first pruchases of land till he now owns 2,000 acres in Illinois and equal amount in Iowa. He was the found of the Citizen's National Bank of Princeton, and has since geen its Presidnet. He is also the largest stockholder in the national bank at LaSalle, Ill.; also a stockholder in the First National Bank of Iowa. Mr. REEVE was first married to Miss Mary GLENN, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1817. She died March 17. 1841, in Bureau County, Ill. She was the mother of two children: Laura, widow of Rev. Benjamin THOMAS, and William G., born February 8, 1839 and died in November, 1847. His second marriage was to Miss Sarah L. BRYANT, who was born September 16, 1820, in Cummington, Mass. and is a daughter of Col. Austin BRYANT, and a niece of William Cullen BRYANT. The result of this union is the following named children: Willilam G., born June 4, 1847; Austin B., born August 7, 1859; and Frances A., born June 18, 1861, now deceased. The elder son is now Cashier of a national bank in Peru, Ill., while the younger is Cashier of the Citizen's National Bank of Princeton. The mother of Mrs. REEVE was Adeline (PLUMMER) BRYANT, born in Berkshire County, Mass., May 24, 1801, and died February 26, 1882. She was the daughter of Edward PLUMMER, a native of Massachusettes. In the quiet of his comfortable home in the city of Princeton, surrounded by his family and troops of friends, Mr. Tracy REEVE is enjoying those blessings that can only come in the evening of a well0spent life. He was the architect of his own fortunes, and in the trials and severe struggles of the new West (as was this county when he came) was only developed that inner self reliant and manly life that constitutes his green and happy age, and may well furnish a type of character for the healthy study and contemplation of the youths of the State or of the country. It is the simple and sublime story of the lives of real and true men, that should be made the fundamental text books ofour children. Nothing is more interesting to the young than biogrpahical history. It charms and leads and draws them after it, and barbarous fathers tell to their children the story of warriors and robbers, and even our civilization has long thought that it was only the great General, the noisy politician, or the individuals who were notorious, accentric or infamous who were worthy of a place in tradition, song or romance. It is time for us to know that the true life is the modest, and therefore often the obscure, life. And the story of such lives, when properly told, is the fairest page in the book of history.