Thomas Ellis Reeve, Sr. (1889-1971), Methodist minister, was born to James Harris and Jennie Alice Ellis Reeve in Atlanta, Georgia. Reeve graduated from Emory College in 1909 and Vanderbilt University in 1911. He entered his first pastorate in 1911 with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South at Woodland, California, where he remained a year. He served a two-year pastorate at Alameda, California, until 1914 when he became pastor of Wesley House in San Francisco. In 1916 he traveled to the Belgian Congo to do missionary work in Lubefu with the Methodist Episcopal Church Mission, South. While in the Congo he met and married fellow missionary Etha Virginia Mills (1883-1974) in December of 1918. Etha (or Ese, as he called her) was born to John Jackson and Ann Maria Yeamans Mills and raised in Apple Grove, Virginia. She graduated from Blackstone Female Institute (Blackstone, Virginia) in 1905 and studied at Peabody College in Nashville and the University of Virginia. Before traveling to the Congo in January of 1918, she had taught school in Virginia for five years. The Reeves subsequently were assigned to the Methodist Episcopal Congo Mission South at Wembo-Nyama (1921-1923), Tunda (1923-1924), and Minga (1926-1929), with furloughs to the United States in the interim periods. Reeve authored a book, IN WEMBO-NYAMA'S LAND, detailing his experiences in the Congo.
From the description of Thomas Ellis and Etha Mills Reeve papers, 1887-1971. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 79463247
