Reynolds, David

David Reynolds, who was an associate judge of the Mifflin County Courts for several years, haying previously held some of the most important of the county offices, was born in 1774 in Cecil County, Md., being the son of Benjamin Reynolds, a Quaker, whose ancestor of the same family name was a preacher of the Society of Friends, who, in 1682, came with William Penn to Pennsylvania, but soon afterwards settled in Maryland.

David was the youngest of the six sons of Benjamin Reynolds, the others being named, respectively, Isaac, Levi, Jesse, Stephen and John. After the death of Benjamin Reynolds, their mother married a Mr. Bryson, a man of good family, and both remained in Cecil County until their death. John Reynolds also lived and died in Maryland, but all the other sons of Benjamin removed to the Juniata Valley, in Pennsylvania, about the close of the last century, and settled in Mifflin County. Jesse and Stephen became farmers in that part of Mifflin which was afterwards taken to form the county of Juniata, and there they lived and died. Isaac emigrated from Mifflin County to the West, and became a resident of the State of Indiana, where he died. He had one son, Major Levi Reynolds, who, in his boyhood, had been reared by his uncle, Judge David Reynolds, at his home in Mifflin County, and who afterwards was a resident of Chester, Pa. He became widely known as a public man, was superintendent in the construction of the Delaware Breakwater and canal commissioner of the State. David Reynolds early became associated with the public offices, and was one of the most prominent men of Mifflin County at the beginning of the century.

In 1809, at which time David Reynolds had been for twelve or fifteen years a resident of Mifflin, Governor Simon Snyder divided the principal offices of that county between Mr. Reynolds and William P. Maclay, commissioning the former as register of wills, clerk of the Orphans' Court and recorder of deeds, and giving to Mr. Maclay the offices of prothonotary and clerk of the Quarter Sessions and of the Oyer and Terminer. The offices were held as thus divided until 1816, when, on the election of Mr. Maclay to Congress, the offices which he had held were transferred to Mr. Reynolds, while the offices thus vacated by the latter were filled by the appointment of David Milliken as his successor. The office of prothonotary was afterwards filled by David R. Reynolds (nephew of Judge David Reynolds), who held it for two terms in the administration of Governor George Wolf.

Under Governor J. Andrew Shultze (1823-29), David Reynolds was appointed and commissioned associate judge of the courts of Mifflin County, which office he continued to fill honorably and acceptably to the time of his death, in 1839. He was a Jeffersonian Democrat and an active politician through all the mature years of his life. His business was that of canal contractor and general dealer in merchandise, grain, and other products, which, at that time, were brought in large quantities from the surrounding country to Lewistown, to be shipped thence by boats on the Juniata in times of high water. Among the buildings which he erected and owned in Lewistown was the residence which is still standing on the south side of Market Street, at the head of the Juniata Bridge, and the large brick building which occupies the north corner of Market and Main Streets, on the "Diamond," and which was for some years used as a hotel, but is now occupied by the offices of the Gazette, the Adams Express and for store purposes. Both the buildings mentioned were, at different times, occupied by Judge Reynolds as his residence.

Judge David Reynolds was first married to a daughter of Colonel Purdy, of Mifflin County. Their children were John Purdy Reynolds, who was killed at the massacre of the Alamo, in the Texan Revolution of 1836; Benjamin Bryson Reynolds, who settled in La Salle County, Ill., but died in Texas; and Mary Job Reynolds, who became the wife of John Christy, a farmer of Juniata County. The mother of these children died at Lewistown. The second wife of Judge Reynolds was Eleanor, daughter of John Moore, of Cumberland County, to whom he was married in 1813. She died in 1849, leaving an only child, Eleanor Moore Reynolds, born in 1815, and married, in October, 1839, to Dr. John C. Reynolds.

Dr. John Cromwell Reynolds was a son of Reuben Reynolds, of Cecil County, Md. At a very early age he became a pupil of the Nottingham Academy, of West Nottingham, Cecil County, under Dr. McGraw, and at the age of twelve years he entered Dickinson College, at Carlisle, Pa., where he was graduated with honors at sixteen years of age. He began the study of medicine under Dr. Nathan Smith, a distinguished surgeon of Baltimore, and had the advantage of practice in the hospitals of that city. He afterwards prosecuted his studies in Washington, D. C., and received the appointment and commission of surgeon in the United States army. His first active service was in the Seminole War in Florida. Afterwards he served in the war against the Cherokees, and took part with General Hunter in the treaty with that tribe at Washington, and in their removal to the reservations assigned to them west of the Mississippi. Later, he served under General Scott, in the Mexican War of 1846-48. From the time of his marriage Dr. Reynolds made his home chiefly at Lewistown, though for a period of about three years he resided at McVeytown. He died on the 20th of February, 1849, aged thirty-eight years, in the house before mentioned as having been built by his father-in-law, Judge Reynolds, at the head of the Juniata Bridge, in Lewistown. His widow, Mrs. Eleanor Moore Reynolds, who still survives him, is a lady of refinement and culture, who, though she has spent many years of her life abroad, yet retains a lively interest in her native village, Lewistown, and it is from her that the main facts in the preceding sketch were obtained.[bib]457[/bib]