This collection contains correspondence of B.H.(Benjamin H.) Reeves. One letter was written to Reeves, identifying him as a captain, December 30, 1812, by Maxwell Sharp in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Sharp's letter concerned the return of a company of soldiers in an army commanded by General Samuel Hopkins from battle in the War of 1812. Sharp reported the loss of eighteen or twenty men from the company. The remainder of the letter discussed politics. The second letter, dated January 9, 1839, was written by Reeves in Frankfort to Abiel Leonard, of Fayette, Missouri. Leonard was the husband of Reeves' daughter. The letter was delivered by a "Mr. Hughes," who was Leonard's neighbor. The letter concerned Reeves' efforts to purchase a female slave. Reeves also described the discord between Kentucky and Ohio citizens over the issue of fugitive slaves. He reported that it was alleged that abolitionists enticed slaves to cross the Ohio River and provided them with money and transportation for flight to Canada. Reeves repeated a claim that an unnamed Kentucky county located on the river had lost "some twenty thousand dollars worth of slaves," and referred to a legal case, the Mahan case, then being investigated. Reeves noted that resolutions were offered in the current session of the Kentucky legislature to send commissioners to Ohio to negotiate and urge passage of laws in Ohio to restrain citizens of that state from "interfering with the rights of their neighbors." Reeves wrote of his worries for the fate of the Union in reference to this issue. The third letter, dated August 22, 1846, was also written by Reeves to Leonard, who is not named in the letter. It described his departure from Leonard's home to Rocheport, Missouri, where he waited three days for a boat for St. Louis. Reeves finally took a stagecoach to St. Louis where he boarded a riverboat for his home in Frankfort. Reeves fell seriously ill on the journey and related details of the illness and his treatment by an unidentified Louisville physician who was also a passenger on Reeves' boat. Reeves mentioned stops in Smithland and Clarksville [Indiana?]. A sheet separated from the letter bearing Leonard's address and unrelated scribbled notes is also present. Another item accessioned with this collection is an election handbill, dated May 13, 1814, issued for Reeves' campaign to represent Christian County in the general assembly. The handbill contains the speech Reeves gave in announcing his bid. It is now in the Society's Broadside Collection.
