My Genealogy Hound

Dennis W. Reynolds, merchant, Reyno. For many years Mr. Reynolds has been a prominent resident of Randolph County, and has enjoyed the reputation of being an intelligent and honorable business man. He possesses that shrewd business tact and energy which are characteristic of people of Illinois birth, for he was born in Jackson County, of that State, in 1840, being a son of James M. and Elizabeth Reynolds, the former of whom removed from the State of North Carolina to Illinois, while it was a Territory. The father was a native of North Carolina, and the mother of Jackson County, Ill. He was a farmer and hunter by occupation; was a participant in the War of 1812, and two years after his wife’s death, which occurred in 1857, he married Minerva Foster. He was sheriff of Jackson County for four years, and also held a number of minor offices in Arkansas. He was noted for his morality and charity and his death which occurred in 1884, at the age of seventy years, was a severe loss to the community in which he resided. Dennis W. Reynolds is self-educated, and when only seventeen years of age he entered mercantile life at Cherokee Bay, which enterprise received his attention for three years, or until the war broke out. On the 11th of March, 1862, he dropped all his work to enlist in the Seventh Missouri Infantry, Capt. A. G. Kelsey’s company, as a private, and was afterward promoted to the rank of sergeant and then to captain, which position he held until hostilities ceased. He was at Greenville, Mo., Little Rock, and was with Price on his raid through Missouri. After being paroled he returned to his home in this county, and was one of the successful husbandmen of the county until 1875, when he established his present mercantile business at Corning, Clay County, Ark., and since 1878 has been at Reyno. Mr. Reynolds possesses a thorough knowledge of the business in which he is engaged, and has the necessary requisites for successfully conducting it. He also manages his farm and gives considerable attention to the propagation of stock; and it may be truly said that in every enterprise in which he has been interested, and to which he has given his attention, his labors have been followed with excellent results. He has always taken a deep interest in the politics of the county, and although not an unreasonable partisan he has always been a Democrat in his political views. He is a Master Mason, and he and his wife, whose maiden name was Mattie J. Wilkis, are earnest and consistent members of the Baptist Church. He was first married in 1861, to Miss Nancy Luttrell, but her death occurred the following year at the age of eighteen years. She left one son, James, who died in 1888, aged twenty-six years. His second wife was the widow of A. G. Kelsey, and had formerly been Miss Mary Ellis. She was born on Blue-Grass soil, and died in 1868, having borne two children: Madison A. and Elizabeth A. To him and his present wife have been born the following family: Leoa, Ervin and Pearl. Three children died in infancy. Mrs. Reynolds conducts a millinery establishment in her own store, and her bonnets and hats are always trimmed in excellent taste and the latest style. Mr. Reynolds was the first to clear the land and build where the town of Reyno now stands, which place, by the way, was named in his honor. He erected the first dwelling house and hotel, and is now doing business in the first business house in the town.