Meet Mary “Polly” Reeves who married Alexander B. McMillan. She died when she was 96 years old- in 1894, a mere 127 years ago. This photo was made in 1891.
Mrs. McMillan was born around Independence, Virginia in 1798- just after John Adams was elected our 2nd president- and was 62 years old when the Civil War began.
Polly’s sister was Rebecca Reeves, wife of Allen Gentry, the state representative who helped author legislation to create Alleghany County out of Ashe County in 1856. Her only son, Franklin, was a lawyer who died at the age of just 28 from Typhoid Fever in 1854. His obituary (in the Oct. 11, 1854 Raleigh Register) states he was, “the only child of his parents, the only heir to a large and rapidly increasing estate, greatly beloved by all his acquaintances, and one from whom much good was expected!”
In the 1860 federal census, Alexander listed a value of $10,000 in real estate and $40,000 in his personal estate. That’s more than 1.5 million in today’s dollars.
–From the David Edwards Estate collection, donated to the Alleghany Historical Museum by Ann Pharr.
