INTRODUCTION

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In December of 1938, Charles Everett Holyoke, Jr., married Anna Adela Reaves. Up until their meeting and falling in love in Kingsport, Tennessee, their lives and the lives of their forefathers were quite different from one another. Charles was born and raised in Brewer, Maine, the son of a teacher and grandson of a farmer. His forefathers first came to the United States during the settlement of Puritans in the Massachusetts Bay Company in the 1630s. Today, although not heard often throughout the United States, Holyoke is one of the more common names of New England. Adela was born in Reno, Nevada, and grew up in Athens, Georgia, the youngest daughter of a Spanish widow and the granddaughter of a Confederate army officer. Her earliest ancestor in the United States came to Virginia as an indentured servant in the 1650s.

The purpose of this page is to introduce these two great American families, the Holyokes and Reaveses, through pictures and stories. Most of the earliest information (such as that found in the timeline) has been taken from published genealogical books on the Holyoke and Reaves (Reeves) families - I am very lucky that so much work has been done by other conscientious family members. Stories concerning the two most recent generations are from a collection of papers written by Adela in 1982, and from Charles and Adela's daughter Sarah, my mother.

This project is very much a labor of love - Charles and Adela were my grandparents; my mother was their only child. They both passed away within the last five years, and are greatly missed by all of us. This project is dedicated to both of them, and to my own parents, Sarah and Duncan Porter.