Lizzie Reeves Dean
Lizzie Ellen Reeves was born in Como Township, Panola County, Mississippi, September 15, 1870. She moved to Texas with her parents, and married Richard Hulan Dean on December 18, 1889. They settled in Merkel, Texas, in Taylor County.
A "John Reeves" e-mailed me the following:
"...from a childhood autograph album presented to my grandfather John Floyd Reeves (age 10) on Christmas day 1898 by his sister "Miss Alice Reeves." It was signed by a few relatives including "cousin" R H Dean (actually the husband of Floyd's 1st cousin, Lizzie Ellen Reeves Dean). The very next page is inscribed by another cousin. It also begins "Dear little cousin Floyd." I suspect it was by the hand of Lizzie Ellen, but she didn't sign the sentiment with a name, so I'm not sure. I have looked the inscription over with a jeweler's loop, and have ascertained it's content. It is a Biblical quote from Ecclesiastes 12:1. It says:
Dec the 24 1899
Dear Little cousin Floyd
Remember thy creator in the days
of thy youth, when the evil days
come not and thy years
draw nie, and thou wilt
say that I have no pleasure
in them. Your loving
cousin
R H Dean
Also sent to me by John Reeves, a letter written by Lizzie's grandmother, Melvina Hodges Reeves, to her son, a John Rufus Reeves (John Reeves great grandfather). Melvina's husband had recently died, and she was staying in Alvord, Wise County with another of her sons, Newell A. Reeves. Lizzie's parents were Simeon E. Reeves and Lydia C. Rutherford-Reeves. Simeon's parents were Samuel Newell Reeves and Melvina Hodges-Reeves. The 1880 Cooke County census listed Simeon's children as James A., Lizzie E, Watley C, Susan E, Melvina J, and John H. Reeves.