Episcopal Diocese of Northern Indiana Archives

Rev. Abraham Reeves

The Rev. Abraham Reeves was born in Warren, Ohio, on 1 June 1818, the son of Stephen and Deborah (Brown) Reeves. He married (1) Ann Maria Youngs in Geauga County, Ohio, on 29 April 1840. In 1850 he and his family resided in Shelbyville, Indiana, and he worked as an engineer. He decided to become a physician, attended Cincinnati Medical College, and in 1860 established a practice in Tipton, Indiana. He  decided to enter the priesthood, was ordained a deacon and a priest in 1865, and was assigned by Bishop Talbot to the fledgling mission of St. Andrew's in Warsaw, Indiana. He remained there through 1868, then moved to Michigan City to become rector of Trinity from 1869 to 1870. In the 1870s he moved to New Lenox, Illinois, as rector of Grace Church, and was among those signing a petition for the church to be recognized as a parish in 1877. In 1880, he lived in Worthington, Indiana, as rector of St. Matthew's Church, and in 1886 moved to Michigan. He was living in Grand Rapids by the 1890s. After his first wife's death, he married (2) Julia A. Masters on 22 November 1898 in Grand Rapids. He died there on 11 March 1900 and was buried in Oakhill Cemetery.