JACKSON BOGGS REYNOLDS
JACKSON BOGGS REYNOLDS, of Kittanning, where he has been ticket agent for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company for almost a quarter of a century, is a son of Withington and Isabel (Boggs) Reynolds, belonging in both paternal and maternal lines to leading pioneer families of Armstrong County. George Reynolds, the first ancestor of this Reynolds family to come to this country, was born about 1730 in Glasgow, Scotland, and came to America in 1754. He had learned the trade of tanner, and went to London, England, in 1753, about the time the king was raising troops to send to America, to fight the French and Indians. He crossed over with General Braddock, landed in Philadelphia in 1754, and marched with the army under Braddock and Washington to Pittsburgh. They were met by the French and Indians fourteen miles up the Monongahela River, at a place known as Braddock's Fields. There a battle was fought and general Braddock was killed, his army routed, and the said George Reynolds badly wounded; he was shot through the neck, the bullet going through between the big leader and his neck bone. He dropped his gun and stuck his two forefingers in the wound, ran to the river and hid in a laurel thicket. There he remained overnight, and was found the next day. He was taken to Fort Necessity, and through the skill of the surgeon got well but was excused from duty, stiffness in his neck exempting him. But he received his land warrant for military services just the same, and coming out on the frontier located a tract at the head of Woodcock valley, or the foot of Warrior's Mark Ridge, in Huntingdon County, Pa., seven miles from the county seat. Part of the town of Huntingdon, according to family tradition is now on his holding. There he married a girl by the name of Davis, and by her had two daughters and one son: John, who died at the age of twenty; Esther, Mrs. Mann; and Elsie, Mrs. Ross. In 1777 George Reynolds married (second) a German girl, Margaretta Stopp (Stop), daughter of Peter and Elizabeth (Fleming) Stopp, of French and Dutch Flanders (now west and east Flanders). She was a native of Maryland. By this marriage there were eight children, five sons and three daughters. George Reynolds resided on a farm until the fall of 1795, when he dropped dead off his feet in the yard before his own door, aged sixty-five years. His widow, Margaretta, married a widower by the name of Alexander Moore, and by him had one child, Jane, born Feb. 22, 1803, in Huntingdon, who was married to John Williams, in Kittanning, where she died February 25, 1883. Mrs. Margaretta S. (Reynolds) Moore died in Kittanning in December 1823, and is buried in the �Old Graveyard.� It is related that one day when her eldest child, Mary (afterward Mrs. Henry Roush), was a young babe and George Reynolds had �gone to mill the grain,� she saw a file of Indians coming, and snatching up her baby fled to the creek, hiding under a footbridge. Her little dog that followed her she wrapped in her skirts, and sat there in terror while the Indians ransacked the house, set it on fire and passed over the bridge. Fortunately the dog did not bark and the baby did not cry. When Mr. Reynolds returned he took them to the blockhouse, where they and neighbors who had suffered like misfortune lived together until conditions made it reasonably safe for them to build on their own land again. One boy who had been in the cornfield lost both of his parents as will as his home and Mr. Reynolds receive him into his family taking care of him until he was able to look after himself. George Reynolds, so says Mrs. Judith Dull, his granddaughter (only living child of his son David), was a man of education and ability. He was of the English type, having light hair and blue eyes, while his wife Margaretta had black hair and eyes, her son David favoring her in appearance and coloring. With the exception of George (the eldest son and second child) all of the children of George and Margaretta Reynolds came to Kittanning, Pa. George lived and died at new Alexandria, Westmoreland county, Pa.; he was the father of Mrs. Nathaniel Henry (in the Kittanning Gazette of Wednesday, Oct. 23, 1833, is found, �married on Thursday last by the Rev. John Dickey, to Mr. Nathaniel Henry, Miss Eliza Reynolds, daughter of Mr. George Reynolds, late of New Alexandria, Westmoreland county, Pa.� Same day and date, by same, Mr. John Watson, of Brookville, Jefferson county to Miss Mary, daughter of David Reynolds, of this borough). Thomas, the seventh child, lived and died at Columbus, Ohio. Richard, the eighth child (grandfather of Mrs. Maud Whitworth, and great-grandfather of Jackson Boggs Reynolds), lived and died at Red Bank, Armstrong County. William, born in 1783, a tanner, settled at Kittanning in the first decade of the nineteenth century. In an account of �The town in 1820� we find he had a leather store then on lot No. 93, on Water street between Arch and Market Streets, later occupied by the widow of George Reynolds, his son. William Reynolds acquired considerable property, married and had several children; he was the grandfather of Dr. Francis M. Reynolds, of Kittanning. Ann, the sixth child in the family of George and Margaretta Reynolds, married James Pinks; she lived on the present site of St. Paul's Episcopal Church. David Reynolds, was one of the most prominent citizens of Kittanning and Armstrong county in his time, and is fully mentioned elsewhere.Richard Reynolds, great-grandfather of Jackson Boggs Reynolds, was born in December 1792, in Huntingdon County, and was but three years old when his father died. He lived with his mother on the farm until the spring of 1800, when she moved to Kittanning, Armstrong County. He was about ten years old when his mother married Alexander Moore, and he then left his mother and went to his brother David, who sent him to school and gave him a liberal education. He taught school in Kittanning about two years. There he fell in with Sheriff McConnell who had lately purchase a large tract due north of Kittanning, about thirty miles distant in the Licking settlement (now known as Sligo, Clarion County). The old sheriff set him up there with a small store, more to hold possession of the land than to sell goods. There in 1816 he married Elizabeth Hosey, by whom he had five sons and four daughters. He resided there for five years and then moved to Kittanning, entering into partnership with Sheriff McConnell in a large store, where he did business for six years. Selling his interest in the store he then bought a farm near Sligo, moved on it in the spring of 1826, and lived there until the fall of 1837, when he sold that place and moved to the Allegheny river, at the mouth of Red Bank creek, where he had bought a large tract of land. He opened up quite a large farm and lived at that place until the winter of 1850 when he was taken ill and died, at the age of fifty-eight years. His wife lived some twelve years longer, dying in Kittanning.
We have the following account of the children born to Richard and Elizabeth (Hosey) Reynolds; (1) Withington, born at Red Bank, was killed by a falling tree when quite a young man. (2) Evelyn became the wife of Samuel Frampton, a well-to-do farmer of Clarion County, Pa. (3) George, of Red Bank, is deceased. (4) Elsie married John Wilkins (deceased) and (second) George Steen. (5) Minerva became the wife of Uriah Matteson, of Brookville, Pa. (6) Annie married Robert E. Brown who had a furnace at Cowanshannock and one year later at St. Louis, Mo. (7) McConnell married Aggie Blair, of Pittsburgh, now deceased and for his second wife married Ellen Butler, of Brookville, Pa. (8) Thomas Hamilton was the grandfather of Jackson Boggs Reynolds.
The following concerning the Hoseys was written by George Reynolds, the eldest son of Richard Reynolds, at the age of eighty-six:
Andrew Hosey was born in Tipperary, Ireland, in the year 1729. He was a linen draper by trade. Leaving that place he went to Dublin and hired with Lord McCann, a very wealthy man who owned a line of ships. He was a sportsman, owning a large stable of blooded horses and a large kennel of foxhounds, and was a great gentleman. He had two sons and one daughter, Elsie. When he hired Hosey he gave him charge of his stable. Hosey was well educated, a small handsome man. He fell in love with the old lord's daughter and persuaded her to run off with him. They took ship and landed in Philadelphia and were married in 1750, at which time he was twenty-one and she eighteen years old. She wrote to her father, and received an answer saying he had disowned her and would not suffer her name to be mentioned in his presence. As the young couple were without a dollar she worked as chambermaid and he as hostler at the tavern where they were stopping. They stayed there some two years, and saved money enough to pay for twelve acres of land in Lancaster County, Pa., onto which they moved and there raised their family of three sons and two daughters. In the course of time one of their sons was drafted into the army and marched with Harrison up into the lake country, with which he was so pleased that he came home and persuaded his father to sell his small farm and move out there and take up government land. They settled close to Waterford, Erie County, Pa., cleared a lot of land and planted it in corn � and when the corn was in the milk frost killed it. This left them, three miles from the nearest neighbor, twelve miles from Waterford and the nearest grocery, in a dense wilderness with starvation staring them in the face. They loaded up their belongings and moved back to what is called the Licking settlement, about two miles from where Richard Reynolds had a small grocery store. There Richard Reynolds fell in love with Elizabeth Hosey, the youngest daughter, and married her in 1816. Mrs. Hosey died in 1818, Mr. Hosey in 1821. The old stock of Reynolds were a short-lived race of people, averaging about sixty years.Thomas Hamilton Reynolds was born at Red Bank, and was exceptionally well educated. After his marriage he settled at Red Bank, where he had a steamboat warehouse, and he afterward became captain of the steamboat �Venango,� which plied on the Allegheny River. Moving from Red Bank he lived at Pittsburgh for a time, and later at Kittanning. When the Civil War came on he entered the Union army, was a sutler of the 78th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and was killed while in the service, when only forty-five years of age. He was buried in the family cemetery at Red Bank, but his remains were later removed to the Kittanning cemetery. He married Esther Ann Butler, of Brookville, Pa., who was born at Lake George, N.Y., daughter of Cyrus and Mary (Sartwell) Butler. Mrs. Reynolds survived her husband many years, living to the age of seventy-three, and is also buried in the cemetery at Kittanning. She was a member of the M.E. Church and a most devoted worker of that organization.To Mr. and Mrs. Thomas H. Reynolds were born children as follows:
Withington Reynolds was born March 10, 1844, at Greenville, Pa., and was a mere boy when he came with his parents to Kittanning, where he ever afterward had his home. He received his education in the public schools at Pittsburgh, and all his life was a great reader, acquiring a fund of practical information which made him one of the most intelligent men of his community. He was endowed with a wonderful memory, was a pleasing conversationalist, and when in a reminiscent mood was most entertaining. He was familiar with the early history of Kittanning and steamboating on the Allegheny. For some time Mr. Reynolds had charge of the Kittanning office of Piper & Lightcap stagecoach line, running between Kittanning and Brookville, a later was connected with a packet line plying between Mahoning and East Brady. At that time the Valley road ran only as far as Mahoning, and when it was extended to Oil City he was made freight and passenger agent at Kittanning. This position he filled efficiently until his retirement seven years before his death, after which he receive a pension. Mr. Reynolds had a large circle of friends, being one of the best known men along the Allegheny River. He was a high Mason, and the Masons attended his funeral in a body and conducted the services at the grave in Kittanning cemetery. His death which occurred at his home of North Grant Avenue, Kittanning, July 9, 1911, was widely mourned. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in political sentiment was a Democrat.
- (1) Withington is mentioned below.
- (2) Kate, born at Red Bank, married Scott Goldrick, of Delaware, Ohio and had one child, Ester, wife of E.R. Chamberlain, of Yonkers, N.Y.
- (3) Minerva, born at Red Bank, died July 4, 1899, and is buried in Kittanning cemetery.
- (4) Richard, who was superintendent of the northern division of the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, died in August, 1903, at the age of fifty-four years, and is buried at Kittanning. He was a Knight Templar Mason. He married Lillian Hamilton, daughter of Newton Hamilton, of Mifflin County, Pa.
- (5) Thomas died in infancy.
- (6) Rhoda L., born at Allegheny, Pa., is unmarried.
- (7) Maud is the wife of John F. Whitworth, corporation law secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, whose home is in Kittanning.
- (8) Minnie died in infancy and is buried in Kittanning.
On Feb. 12, 1873, Mr. Reynolds married Isabel Boggs, daughter of Judge Jackson and Phoebe J. (Mosgrove) Boggs, of Armstrong County, and to them were born two children, Jackson Boggs and Richard Withington.
Jackson Boggs Reynolds was born Jan. 30, 1874, at Kittanning, where he was reared, receiving his education in the common schools, which he attended until fourteen years of age. On June 1, 1889, he became telegraph operator and ticket agent at Kittanning for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, in which position he has since been retained, keeping pace with the growing interests of the company at this point, where he has made himself invaluable by his efficient discharge of the duties and his obliging attention to patrons. Mr. Reynolds is well known in fraternal circles, belonging to the B.P.O. Elks and Masons at Kittanning, in the latter connection holding membership in the blue lodge, chapter and commandery. He attends St. Paul's Episcopal Church and politically is a Democrat and a zealous worker for the party. Mr. Reynolds makes his home with his mother at No. 342 North Grant Avenue, Kittanning.
Richard Withington Reynolds was born Jan. 5, 1876, in the house at Kittanning where he resides with his mother and brother, and was educated in that borough and at Annapolis, Md., being a student for two years at St. John's College. Returning home, he was chief clerk in the Kittanning post office for four years, at the end of that time becoming clerk and superintendent at the plant of the Wick Pottery Company, Wick City, which position he held until the works shut down. Since then he has been president of the Boggs Coal Company, on the Boggs farm, a tract of 132 acres owned by his mother. This land is underlaid with valuable deposits of coal, limestone and fire clay, and the Shawmut railroad runs through the property. Mr. Reynolds owns 130 acres of land adjoining his mother's property, with similar deposits, and he is making arrangements to exploit both tracts thoroughly, being ready to put forty mines at work on the coal which is of excellent quality, and finds a ready market at Buffalo, N.Y. Fraternally he is a member of the Elks and the Eagles, attends the Protestant Episcopal Church and in politics is a Democrat.
In April 1903, Mr. Reynolds married Caroline Meredith, of Kittanning, who died the following December, of typhoid fever; she was a member of the Presbyterian Church, and a woman of exceptional character. She was a daughter of Philander and Annie (Henry) Meredith, and a niece of United States Senator William B. Meredith, of Kittanning.
Source: Pages 369-370, Armstrong County, Pa., Her People, Past and Present, J.H. Beers & Co., 1914
Transcribed March 2002 by Helen B. Miller for the Armstrong County Beers Project
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