Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 09.djvu/62

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REAVIS


RECTOR


Roads, Va.. and finally with Vice-President Alexander H. Stephens to Fort AVarren, Boston harbor, where he was confined until October, 1865. He returned to Palestine, Texas, and woi-ked on his farm in order to support his family. He declined the appointment of military governor of Texas in 1807 from Governor Griflln; resumed liis law practice. is(»s; was a member of the stale constitutional convention of 1875, and chairman of the judiciary committee. He was a represen- tative in the 44th-49th congresses, 1875-87. and re- signed before taking his seat in the oOtli congress to take that of U S. senator, serving, 1887-91. He resigned his seat in the senate in 1891 to become chairman of the railroad commission of Texas by appointment of Gov. James S. Hogg; was re-appointed in 1893, and by Governor C. A. Culberson in 1895, and was elected to the same position in 1896, serving 1897-1903. He retired from public life in 1903. holding the unique dis- tinction of having served under three govern- ments witiiout removing from the state of his adoption, in each of wjiich he was honored with high public office.

REAVIS, James Bradley, jurist, was born in Boone county. Mo.. May 21, 1848; son of Jolin Newton and Elizabeth (Preston) Reavis; grand- son of Marcus A. and Lucy (Bradly) Reavis and of John and Jane (Raniey) Preston, and a des- cendant of a refugee, who landed with Ashley Cooper's expedition at Albemarle Sound, N.C., and adopted the name of Reavis, and in the maternal line descended from the Lees of Lees- burg, Va. He was a student at Kentucky uni- versity, 1868-71; was admitted to the bar at Hannibal, Mo., in 1872; edited the Monroe City, Mo., Appeal, 1872-74, and in the latter year re- moved to California. In 1880 he opened a law office in Goldendale, Wasliington Territory. He was a member of the upper house of the terri- torial legislature, 1888. and a regent of the Territorial university, 1888-89. On the admission of Washington as a state he was Democratic candidate for justice of the supreme court and was defeated. He was married. May 27, 1891, to Minnie A. Freeman, daughter of Smith and Martha (Butler) Freeman of Nashville, Tenn. In 189G he became chief-justice of the supreme court of Wasliington.

REAVIS, Logan Uriah, editor and author, was born in Sangamon Bottom, Mason county. 111., March 26,1831. He attended tiie grammar and high scliools: t.aught school 1851-55; was an edi- tor and part owner of tln^ Gazette, which name he changed to the Central Illinoian, Beardstown, 111., 1855-57; resided in Nebraska. 18.57-60; repurcliased and edited The Central Illinoian, 1860-66, and through lectures and otherwise, inaugurated a movement looking to the removal of the national


capital to St. Louis, earning for himself the sobriquet of " The Capital Mover," 1866-79. He also began a movement, 1879, to promote im- migration to Missouri; made two lecturing tours of England to further the scheme, and in the same interests published: TJte New Republic, or the Transition Complete, with an Approaching Cliange of National Empire, based upon the Commercial and Industrial Expansion of the Great West (1867); St. Lotiis the Future Great City of the World (1867); and A Change of National Empire, or Arguments for the Removal of the National Grtpital from Washington to the Mistiissippi Valley, with maps (1869). He also is the author of: A Representative Life of Horace Greeley, ivith an Introduction by Cassius 31. Clay (1872); Thoughts for the Young Men and Women of America (1873); Life of Gen. William S. Harney (ISlo), and Railway and River System (1879). He died in St. Louis, Mo., April 25, 1889. RECTOR, Henry Massey, governor of Ark- ansas, was born in St. Louis, Mo.. May 1, 1816; son of Elias and Fannie B. (Thruston) Rector; grandson of John Rector, and of the Hon. John Tlu-uston of Kentucky, and great-grandson of Frederick M. Rector, who emigrated from Wurteniburg, Sax- ony, and settled in Fauquier county, Va., during Lord Dun- '■" ': •

more's administra- I

tion, as a fief of the British crown.

Henry spent his early ^> -^j^

years as a laborer ^ '^

in Missouri, attended ^ school in Louisville, T Ky., 1834-35, and in / 1835 removed to Ar- kansas to look after landed interests in- herited from his father. He was married in 1839 to Miss Field, and a second time to the daughter of Albert Linde. He was teller of the State bank of Arkansas, 1839-40; engaged in farming in Saline county. Ark., in 1841, and studied law. He was appointed U.S. marshal for the district of Ark- ansas by President Tyler, serving, 1842-45; was elected to the state senate in 1848, and engaged in the pr.actice of law in Little Rock in 1854, confining himself chiefl}' to criminal law. He was elected a judge of the supreme court in 1859, and governor of Arkansas as an Independent Democrat for a four j-ears' term. He refused to furnish Arkansas's quota of 7-50 men in response to Lincoln's call in 1861. and seizerl the arsenal at Little Rock and the Fort at Fort Smith, with all arms, ammunition and stores. He was a


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