page_title: George R. Reeves
section_title: Death and legacy
hierarchical_section_title: George R. Reeves / Death and legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of grave of George R. Reeves
context_page_description: George Robertson Reeves was a former Speaker of the House of the State of Texas and a Colonel in the Confederate States's 11th Texas Cavalry Regiment during the American Civil War. He also served as a pioneering member of Grayson County, Texas in which he also served as a Sheriff and tax collector.
context_section_description: In 1882 while visiting home, Reeves was bitten by a rabid dog. Reeves family oral history states that he saw a young child in danger from the animal and jumped off his horse to protect the young one when he was bitten. In his remaining days, Reeves was placed in a wooden shed padded with mattresses to protect him from the potential self-inflicted violent tendencies associated with the disease. He died of hydrophobia in September 1882, only three years before Louis Pasteur and Emile Roux discovered a vaccine for rabies. He is buried on the land he once owned, Georgetown Cemetery in Pottsboro, Texas. 
  Two years after his death, a 2,642 square mile county in West Texas was renamed for Reeves. Reeves County, Texas is the home to the city of Pecos, Texas its county seat. In addition, the Masonic Lodge in Pottsboro was named after the former politician and soldier, as is the Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp #349 in the Sherman/Denison, Texas area. 
  Several of Colonel Reeves's relatives still live in Grayson County as well as Tyler and Dallas, Texas, Louisiana, Colorado and California.
caption: Headstone of George Robertson Reeves, Georgetown Cemetery, Pottsboro, Texas
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