Tim Reeves’ grave is in a small, chain-link fenced plot north of Doniphan. Weathering (in 2011) had almost obliterated the lettering, which reads: “Col. Tim Reeves, born Apr 28,1821 Died Mar 10 1885 Separation is our lot. Meeting is our hope.”
This image popped up from my ‘google pics memory’ bank this morning. Fourteen years ago, on an equally beautiful spring morning as today, we searched out the grave of Timothy Reeves – itinerant preacher whose suspicions of Father Hogan and the Catholic Church were voiced to the early settlers of Oregon and Ripley counties – well before the Civil War. Reeves became a Colonel for the 15th Missouri Cavalry Regiment, “a local southern-sympathizing militia” during the Civil War. Our chapter “Wars Devastations” in Mystery of the Irish Wilderness carries many more details of the brutal guerrilla warfare in the Ozarks.
This image however calls to mind wonderful days seeking out isolated or abandoned places associated with Father John Joseph Hogan’s Irish settlement, begun with such hope and purpose, scattered and torn by “war’s devastation.” Still the story echoes in local history to this day and is solidified in a national account by the area’s designation as “The Irish Wilderness.”
