W. A. GREEVER. The name of Greever is one of the most influential in Boone County, Arkansas, and is one of the most respected in the community. Mr. Greever deserves special notice for his public spirit and enery, and is now a prominent trader and speculator, and one of the largest land owners in the State. He is a native of the Blue Grass State, born in Adair County in 1836, and is a son of John and Sarah (Williams) Greever, both natives of Virginia.
The father was born in the year 1807, and when but a small boy went with his parents to Kentucky. There the mother came with her parents also, when a child, and there they grew to mature years and married. Afterward the father tilled the soil, and being energetic and industrious he met with more than ordinary success. His death occurred in Kentucky in 1846. Mr. Greever’s grandfather, Abraham Greever, was born in the Old Dominion, but at an early date settled in Russell County, Kentucky, where he died about 1850. As a tiller of the soil he was very successful. His father, Philip Greever, was born in England. but when grown came to America. This was prior to the Revolutionary War, in which he served through the eight years of that struggle. He was under Gen. Greene, and fired the first gun at the battle of King’s Mountain. His death occurred in Virgina, where he followed farming. Mr. Greever’s maternal grandfather, Bennett Williams, was also a native Virginian and an early settler of Kentucky, locating in Russell County where he farmed until his death, in 1840. He was of English-Irish origin. His wife, whose maiden name was Bowin, died in Russell County. They were the parents of three children. Capt.W.A. Greever was the third in order of birth of five children born to his parents. They were named as follows: Mary Anne, single, died in Kentucky; Bennett W. died in Boone County, Arkansas, where he was engaged in merchandising (he was in the commissary department, Confederate Army, during the war); Adeline is now Mrs. Crawford; John, who was a soldier in the Confederate Army, was killed at El Dorado, Arkansas, in 1865.
W. A . Greever was reared on a farm, and received a fair English education. In 1859 he came to Arkansas, and was engaged in the manufacture of wheat-fans when the war broke out. He then joined Company C, made. up of Arkansas men, and joined Clifford’s battalion of Missouri troops, serving about two years as a private. He then recruited and organized a company, and subsequently was made captain of Company C, Harall’s battalion, Cabbell’s brigade, Arkansas troops, which he commanded with ability on many a bloody battlefield until the close of the war. He operated in Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana, and participated in the battles of Prairie Grove, Poison Springs, Mark’s Mill, Jenkins’ Ferry, etc. He was on many expeditions, and started on the Price raid in Missouri, but was detached at Pocahontas, and remained in Missouri until after Price’s retreat. He escaped without being captured or wounded, and was paroled at Marshall, Tex., at the close of the war. After that he started for Mexico, but when he got as far as San Antonio he abandoned the project and remained in the Lone Star State three years. Returning to Arkansas he was married in what is now Boone County, in 1869, to Miss Lydia Redus, who was born in Fayette County, Ala., and who is the daughter of Henry and Elizabeth Redus, both natives of Alabama, and both born in the year 1808. Mr. and Mrs. Redus were married in Alabama, and from there Mr. Redus removed to Mississippi about 1856, his wife having died in Alabama. About 1868 he came to what is now Boone County, Arkansas, and here he died in 1892. Mr. Redus was a farmer, but he was also a Southern Methodist minister for nearly half a century. For seventy-two years he was a church member, and was a Mason for several years.
To W. A. Greever and wife were born seven children: Ollie, Carrie, Auta, Edwin A., Willie, Garland G. and Joseph H. Since his marriage Mr. Greever has resided in Boone County, near Lead Hill. For some time he was engaged in merchandising at that place, but for the most part he has been a large land and stock speculator. He is now the owner of about 4,000 acres in Boone and Marion Counties and in Missouri, and is the largest tax payer in the county, and has been for ten years. Mr. Greever is also a stockholder and director in the Boone County Bank. All his property is the result of energy and perseverance on his part since the war. He is a Royal Arch Mason, a member of Polar Star Lodge No. 224, and of the chapter at Mountain Home, Arkansas, dimitted from the latter. Politically he has ever been a Democrat, and all his people before him affiliated with that party except his eldest brother, who was a Whig until after the war closed, and when that party dissolved he attached himself to the Democrat party. His first presidential vote was cast for Breckinridge in 1860.
I’d like to offer a correction on the history involving Philip Greever. He is my DAR ancestor and 5th great-grandfather. I have done extensive research with supporting documentation reviewed and accepted by Daughters of the American Revolution genealogists. I am requesting you consider changing Philip’s birthplace from England to Holland. The history below may be of interest.
Philip Greever was born 2 November 1745 in Holland. He married a woman of German descent, Margaret Bosang. Philip had a home where his wife and seven children lived downstairs and his “consort,” Mary Heninger, and six children lived upstairs.
Mary was also of German descent and the daughter of Johann “Conrad” Heninger. Philip and his wife, Margaret, purchased the Conrad Heninger farm consisting of 210 acres in 1791 for £91. In 1800, Philip and Margaret sold the same 210 acres to Mary Heninger, mother of Philips’ six illegitimate children. Mary paid £50 to then own her deceased father’s farm where she and her children then moved. Philip Greever died 26 March 1830 in Chilhowie, Washington County Virginia and is buried on the Heninger farm. Mary died a few months later and is also buried on the same acreage.
I descend from the second child born to Philip Greever and Mary Heninger, Catherine “Caty” Greever Keyes.