A Little Family History

A Little Family History

The earliest member of the family currently identified is one Calvin Reynolds. Calvin was born about 1802 and died on 13 September 1852. It has been stated that Calvin was born in Virginia, other indications (Newton County, Arkansas Census, 1900) that he was born in Tennessee. This makes more sense based on other factors. These other factors are that he possibly joined the Army in the War of 1812 in Northeastern Tennessee, and married Milly Spears, daughter of Samuel Spears, at Bedford Co, TN, in August 1823.

Bedford County was established on 3 December 1807 out of Rutherford County. Bedford County is in “Middle Tennessee” and is just one county removed from the Tennessee/Alabama border. Calvin later migrated south to Jackson County, Alabama, around Fackler.

According to an "Affidavit of Witnesses," dated 24 March 18?7 (1847 likely) "Calvin Reynolds a private of Capt. Saml McDavids Company, in the Regiment of North Ala mounted Volunteers, commanded by Col. B. Snodgrass mustered into the service of the United States at Bellefonte on the 26th day of October 1837, for the term of six months, and being now mustered for discharge by order of Maj. Gen. Thomas S. Jesup commanding the Army of the South, is hereby honorably discharged from the said service, at Fort Mitchell this tenth day of April 1838. Signed by S. Churchhill Maj. Art. And Ins. Gen. Army of the South."

A Bounty Land Claim of Calvin Reynolds, dated 25 Feburary 1851, which includes a copy of a document 29055(?) that indicates Calvin served in the Florida War again the Seminoles #2 in 1837-8 signed by a William A. Liddon. Calvin states that “I request that my claim to bounty land under the “act granting bounty land to certain officers and soldiers who have been engaged in the military service of the United States,” passed September 28, 1850, may be examined and if found correct, please forward a certificate or warrant for the amount of land to which I am entitled, directed to William A. Liddon of Bellefonte, Jackson County, Alabama and oblige, Very Respectfully, Your Obedient Servant, Calvin Reynolds, Witnesses present W. E. McMahan and ?? King. This was sent to the Commissioner of Pensions, Washington City, D.C.

Calvin owned 120 acres of land when he died (probate records in Jackson Co., AL). A record exists that he acquired 80.30 acres in SEC 8, E ½ of SE ¼ on May 5, 1852. Land Warrant # 30702; Act of 1850 (War of 1812).

Calvin was buried on the family farm when he died. Milly, with some of their children moved to Arkansas around 1857 and settled near in Carroll County, and later, Western Grove. In the 1860 Census, Milly is listed as living with John Spears, and the two youngest daughters and it states that she can neither read nor write.

Samuel Spears, Millie Spears father, was born in Albemarle County, Virginia on 11 May 1760. Samuel’s father, James SPEARS, may have been a friend of Thomas Jefferson’s father, Peter Jefferson. Samuel was a veteran of the American Revolution where he served under General Nelson and was attached to the first regiment of Virginia. His pension was approved 21 May 1835 in Bedford County, Tennessee. Samuel, and his wife, Sally Ann DUDLEY, moved to NC and SC after the war and then settled in Elbert County, Georgia with his father, William SPEARS, Sr. He lived with the family in Elbert County for some years until 1819. Elbert County is on the border with South Carolina. In various documents, Millie is listed as being born in GA or SC circa 1800.

In 1819 Samuel moved the family to Chapel Hill, Bedford County, Tenness, and the family lived there until 1839. Samuel died in 1837 and is buried in __________, Chapel Hill, Bedford County. In 1839, the family moved to Newton County, Arkansas and resided there. During the Bedford period, Millie met and married Calvin.

Children of Calvin Reynolds and Milly are:

Name Born Died Spouse
Sarah Ann Reynolds Abt. 1824 unknown Marvel A. Kelley
Elizabeth Jane Reynolds Aug. 1826 unknown Eli Marion Kelley
William L. Reynolds Abt. 1831 unknown Eugenia Frances Tranquilla and Sarah Allen
Laine Reynolds Abt. 1832 Unknown
Samuel Spears Reynolds 25 Mar 1833 7 Sep 1901 Jane Catherine Ward, Elizabeth Jane Shaddox, Martha Ann Hardister
Nancy Malinda Reynolds Abt. 1836 unknown William J. Lackey (1853)
John Dickson Reynolds 13 Sep 1837 19 Dec 1915 Sarah Frances Jones (5 Feb 1865)
Mary A. Reynolds Abt. 1842 unknown -
Frances P. Reynolds Abt. 1847 unknown -

Many of the older children probably did not move with Milly to Arkansas. Nancy was already married to William Lackey. We know that John Dickson moved from Alabama to Arkansas with his mother, Milly, since he is listed in the 1860 Carroll County, Arkansas census. The two younger girls, Mary A. and Frances P. are also listed in the 1860 Carroll County, Arkansas census. They are also listed as cannot read or write.

John Dickson followed in his fathers footsteps, and is a farmer in the years leading up to the Civil War. On 9 Jan 1862, John D. Reynolds (age 25) and his older brother, Samuel Spears Reynolds (age 29), joined the Fourteenth Arkansas Confederate Infantry as privates at Camp Madison, AR, then "deserted" almost six months later on 2 June 1862. We don’t know why they deserted, however, during this period the 14th had engagements at Pea Ridge, Bentonville, Leetown and Elkhorn Tavern. Many men deserted during this time because their families were starving. There may also have been roving gangs of outlaws, known as Jayhawkers, in the area as documented on page 95 of “Come Go With Me – Old-timer Stories from the Southern Mountains” by Roy Edwin Thomas. It is likely that Milly was at home with at least Mary and Frances. Many families left this area of Arkansas during the war and resided in SW Missouri until the war ended. Especially those with Northern sympathies, as seems to be the case with both the Reynolds and Spears families.

Serving with the two Reynolds boys are two cousins, Pleasant Houston Spears and Samuel Houston Spears. We also know that there is a link to SW Missouri because in Pleasant H. Spears autobiography (Newton Co Family History, Vol 2), he states that at the end of the war he went “home” to a place 18 miles west of Springfield, Greene Co, MO. This is very close to the border with Dade Co and we also know that John D. Reynolds married Sarah Jones in Dade Co., MO after the war (1865). Pleasant also states that he then returned to Arkansas in Sep 1865 to fix up his cabin before his family returned in Mar. 1866.

Some 2,000 Arkansas soldiers served in both Confederate, then Union armies. Over a year later, on 20 July 1863, both men joined the Union Army and served in Company D of the 2nd Arkansas Union Calvary until the end of the war. They were discharged on 20 August 1865 at Memphis, TN. John D. enlisted as a Private and was discharged as a Private, while Samuel S. Reynolds was discharged a Corporal. Both men are listed as applying for pensions in 1888 (John) and 1889 (Samuel) as invalids. Guess who else was there? Their two cousins Pleasant and Samuel Spears.

Second Arkansas Union Calvary – Organized at Helena, AR and Pilot Knob, MO, July 1862. Mustered in at Helena, July 1862. Primary recruitment places Sebastian Co., Crawford Co., and Phillips Co., AR; Barry and Green Cos., in MO. Service mainly in northern Arkansas. Mustered out 20 August 1865. Total enlistments: 1,477.

After the war ended, John Dickson probably went with Pleasant Spears to Missouri where he married Sarah Frances Jones in Dade Co, MO., in Feb. 1865. We must assume that John resumed farming after the war. From the birth locations of his children, it appears that they lived in Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, back to Arkansas, then to Oklahoma, and then back to Arkansas. Two of John's sisters (Kelly) are living in Butler County, Kansas (having moved there with their husbands in 1872) where they settled in Logan Township according to the History of Butler County Kansas, by Vol. P. Mooney, Illustrated, Lawrence, Kansas, 1916. On pages 673-674, it states "M. C. Kelley, of Logan township, is a Butler county pioneer who has been identified with this county for forty-four years, and saw much of the development of this county from an unbroken and sparcely settled section to a populous and prosperous community. He recalls, with much interest, many of the early day experiences that were of the character to be found only in a new and primitively organized country. M. C. Kelley was born in Georgia in 1850, and is a son of E. M. and Elizabeth (Reynolds) Kelley, the former a native of Georgia, and the latter of Tennessee."

There is also a link to Sequoyah County, Oklahoma, where Esias Spears, and wife Ruth Howard (Reynolds) Spears settled. Ruth was John Dickson's daughter.

In the 1910 Census, John D. and Sarah are listed in Grove Township, Newton County, Arkansas, along with son George Washington Reynolds, who is widowed, and his four children, Carl, Pearl, Luther, and Virgil.

John died in 1915 and was buried in Western Grove Cemetery, Western Grove, Newton Co., AR. Sarah Frances is buried with him and Samuel Spears Reynolds, but the only headstone remaining is that of Samuel, verified on May 30, 2001 by David Glenn, Richard Pierce and Sandra Jeanne Reynolds.

The children of John Dickson Reynolds are as follows:

Rubin Estes Reynolds was the 11th child of John Dickson Reynolds and Sarah Frances Jones. He was born on 30 July 1886 in Newton County, Arkansas.

Estes, as he preferred to be called, was a musician, a “fiddle player,” and a champion one at that. In the Yesterday’s Column of the Log Cabin Democrat, a note on Friday, May 11, 2001, that 75 years ago (1926), “Fiddlers of the old school, eight in number, drew their bows in contest and also drew a throng of 1,200 at Enola. When the melodies had died away and the decision of the judges had been rendered, first prize went to B.W. Heffington of Enola, second prize to R.E. Reynolds of Naylor and third prize to W.H. Grable of Holland. Close competitors for honors were W.P. Brannon, W.H. Crockett, P.B. Matthews, G.H. Grable and Aaron Milam.” The R.E. Reynolds was none other than Estes, however, he did not live at Naylor. (Just because it's in print doesn't make it true!)

Royce, Estes son, was a fiddle player too, and had his own radio show in the late 1940’s to early 1950’s. Several other sons sang, sometimes on Royce’s radio show.

Estes grew up in Newton County, Arkansas and married Mary Jane Turney on 27 May 1906, in Western Grove. Mary Jane was also a decendant of Samuel Spears through her mother, Fanny Agnes Spears.

From the birth dates and birth places, it appears that the family left Newton County, Arkansas and moved to Sequoyah County, OK, between March 1910 and March 1912 where Ruby was born, possibly in Okmulgee. Levi was also born in Oklahoma. Then in Feb 1915, when Myrtle was born, the family is now in Faulkner County, Arkansas, and in the 1920 Census, the family is living in Greenbrier Village, East Fork Township, Faulkner County, Arkansas, along with brothers Melvin Alonzo, George Washington (Hardin Township), and cousin Seagle A. Spears (Hardin Township).

Estes and Mary raised the family in the areas around Greenbrier, Wooster, and Conway, Arkansas in the early 1900’s. Six of Estes’ and Mary’s sons served their country in WWII. Three would become ordained Ministers of the Gospel.

Estes died on 17 Mar 1938 in Greenbrier of a massive heart attack, the same day as his youngest daughters birthday. Glenn David Reynolds, the youngest of the 12 children remembers sending the neighbours to the Greenbrier school for his brothers and sisters. One of the relatives had to go down southeast of Little Rock to pick up Ruby, who was living at Lake Dick with husband Oscar Hollis.

After Estes death, the oldest son sustained the family until the next oldest son came of age and the eldest married and moved out. This continued until just before the war ended. After the war, Mary’s children contributed to her welfare and upkeep until her death on 17 Dec. 1983.

The children of Rubin Estes Reynolds and Mary Jane Turney are as follows:

Mary lived much of her later life at 127 Victory Court, Conway, Arkansas, and died in a rest home in Conway on 17 Dec 1983. Estes, Mary and many of their children and their families are buried in East Shady Grove Cemetery, east of Greenbrier.

[Back to the Home Page]

Copyright 2005. Reynolds Enterprises, All rights reserved
Send comments & suggestions to [email protected]
This page last update on 2/19/2005.