Western Pennsylvania Genealogy
Compiled by Douglas H. Lusher


Family Group Record



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Thomas Reynolds and Juliana Smith




Husband Thomas Reynolds 1




           Born: 19 Sep 1807 - near Parkesburg, Chester Co, PA 1
     Christened: 
           Died: 16 May 1881 - ? Jefferson Co, PA 2
         Buried: 


         Father: Thomas Reynolds (1759-1837) 1
         Mother: Nancy Reynolds (      -1845) 1


       Marriage: 1842 3



Wife Juliana Smith 3

           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: Aft 1888
         Buried: 


         Father: Valentine Hulet Peters Smith (1796-1860) 2
         Mother: Rebecca Sprague (      -      ) 4




Children
1 M Tilton Reynolds 3

           Born: 26 Oct 1843 3
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 



2 M Arthur Parke Reynolds 3

           Born: 5 Dec 1845 3
     Christened: 
           Died: 12 Dec 1874 3
         Buried: 



3 F Clarinda Emeline Reynolds 3

           Born: 11 Apr 1848 3
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 



4 F Margaret Jane Reynolds 3

           Born: 19 Jun 1850 3
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 



5 M William S. Reynolds 3

           Born: 7 Apr 1853 3
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 



6 M Thomas Reynolds 3

           Born: 25 Sep 1856 3
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 



7 M John Daugherty Reynolds 3

           Born: 1 Sep 1858 3
     Christened: 
           Died: 19 Mar 1886 3
         Buried: 




General Notes: Husband - Thomas Reynolds


In his youth only such educational advantages were enjoyed as were to be had outside of a university; but these, although not comparable to the excellent facilities of later days, were not to be despised, as the lack of variation in studies was, in a great degree, compensated by the thorough manner in which the few were taught. Then, too, his call for solid learning found a responsive voice in his father, who was not only a competent teacher and profound philosopher, but a companion and friend as well. The education thus acquired by Thomas Reynolds qualified him as an instructor to others, and when he came to western Pennsylvania he was one of the pioneer teachers under the free school system. His language in conversation and in his limited literary products gave evidence of pure philological training, consisting, as they did, in well-chosen words, pregnant of meaning and elegant in phraseology.
Early in life he became apprenticed to the currying and shoemaking trades, in both of which he made himself master, as was his wont in whatever was undertaken. Franklin and Washington counties, in New York, were the scenes of his primitive operations, and his memory of those communities was very graphic, associated, as it was, with rich reminiscences of hunting life, colored by racy and startling anecdotes. In 1876 he revisited the hallowed grounds made sacred by youthful adventure, but civilization had crept in and obliterated nearly all the familiar landmarks, except the outline of mountain and vale, and the metamorphosis illy gratified the heart of one who once chased the deer through the far-reaching fastnesses.
He visited New York City with the purpose of making it a place of permanent residence, encouraged in the project by a millionaire uncle and other resident relatives of Manhattan Island. But "man made the town," and the roving spirit of Thomas Reynolds was antagonistic to a "pent-up Utica." "The streets were too narrow," he would later explain; and so, in 1835, he came to western Pennsylvania, Jefferson County, when the country was rich in primeval forests and undisturbed minerals. While not engaged in other communities at school teaching, shoemaking, or hunting, lived with his brother William, for whom he had the warmest fraternal feeling. At this period of his life he was yet under thirty years of age, over six feet in height, and as straight as an arrow.
His first commercial adventure was the building of a tannery on the site later occupied by James A. Cathers, but this was soon abandoned for more pretentious enterprises.
He located permanently on the present site of a portion of Reynoldsville, and built a tannery and saw-mill, which were the only manufacturing industries of the immediate community in the years between 1840 and 1860. And, indeed, not until 1870 were there any other industries save the great sustaining one of shipping timber. The log house was erected in 1843, and it became the site of mercantile trade and postal service. The post-office at Prospect was begun in the old house one day in 1850.
Previous to this Thomas Reynolds had surveyed and named Winslow township. the name having been given in honor of Judge Winslow, of whom he was a friend and admirer. The project of a town, however, was long contemplated before 1850, the dominant reasons being first to induce a physician to locate in the community\emdash for the inhabitants were frequently compelled to call medical advice from Indiana, a distance of forty miles\emdash and, secondly, to secure postal facilities. He acted as postmaster almost unremittingly, and at a pecuniary disadvantage, from the establishment of the office till his death.

"In its entirety the character of Thomas Reynolds was essentially a strong one, and in his lineal race he stands out as a type of what a Reynolds should be. He was not a "chip of the old block," but the very block itself. His strong personality and lively sense of independence isolated him from the estimate put upon every consanguineous person, whether of anterior or subsequent birth. To strangers, and sometimes even to those who were intimately acquainted with him, he appeared eccentric in his habits and modes of thought; but these were owing to the mingled threads of sentiment and independence that ran through all the warp and woof alike of his character. Beneath these exterior qualities, there was a deep and strong vein of wit and humor, that brightened each thought, which passed through his mind, making him a rarely pleasant companion.
But the most conspicuous traits of his nature were a sense of honor incapable of a stain\emdash a probity which was stubborn in its inflexibility\emdash and an abiding. deeply rooted, uncompromising detestation, even horror, of all shams and hypocrisy, whether religious, political, or of any other kind. It is easily seen that such a man, in this day and generation, however deep a reverence he might have for the Author of his being as the great and good God\emdash the Father, Preserver and Protector of all the common brotherhood of man\emdash would rather retire those sentiments and feelings, and keep them sacred within the innermost recesses of his own soul, than to make a parade of them before the world. As firm and unyielding as the eternal hills when his decision was once framed, his was the material of which martyrs were made; as gentle and tender as a woman, every helpless creature found in him a friend and protector when in distress."


General Notes: Wife - Juliana Smith


The Smith Bible, "imprinted at London by Robert Barker, printer to the King's most excellent majestie, 1607," was in the possession of Juliana Smith Reynolds. The version of which it is a copy was prepared in Geneva, and first appeared in 1560. The translators of the version were exiled English Protestants, who had fled from "Bloody" Mary's cruelty, and had made Geneva their rendezvous. Of this party, William Whittingham, a brother-in-law of John Calvin, was chief. This version was the first in which the text was broken up into verses, and was, from the rendering of Genesis iii, 7, sometimes known as the "Breeches" Bible, that term being used instead of "aprons." Upon a fly leaf, a crude picture and a description of the Smith coat-of-arms are traced.

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Sources


1 Kate M. Scott, History of Jefferson County, Pennsylvania (Syracuse, NY: D. Mason & Co., Publishers, 1888), Pg 682.

2 Kate M. Scott, History of Jefferson County, Pennsylvania (Syracuse, NY: D. Mason & Co., Publishers, 1888), Pg 685.

3 Kate M. Scott, History of Jefferson County, Pennsylvania (Syracuse, NY: D. Mason & Co., Publishers, 1888), Pg 684.

4 Kate M. Scott, History of Jefferson County, Pennsylvania (Syracuse, NY: D. Mason & Co., Publishers, 1888), Pg 686.


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