Pleasants County, West Virginia - Biography of Daniel W. Reynolds.

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Submitted by Valerie Crook.

The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume II,
pg. 525
Pleasants

DANIEL W. REYNOLDS passed his entire life in Pleasants
County, West Virginia, was a representative of an honored
pioneer family of that part of the state, and in his personality
and achievement he made for himself a place of no minor
distinction and influence in connection with civic and business
affairs in his native county, especially in connection with the
development of the oil industry. He was born in Pleasants
County in the year 1859, and was a son of Isaac and Cassadora
(Bills) Reynolds. His paternal grandfather, Daniel Reynolds,
was the pioneer founder of the family in what is now West
Virginia. This sterling pioneer obtained land on an island in
the Ohio River, opposite St. Marys, Pleasants County, and
there instituted the reclamation of a farm from the wilder-
ness. His son Isaac likewise became a farmer in that locality,
and was comparatively a young man at the time of his death,
after which, in order to provide for her family, his widow con-
ducted a hotel at St. Marys, at the time when the railroad was
being constructed to that place.

Daniel W. Reynolds was the third in a family of eight
children, and owing to the death of his father his early educa-
tional advantages were somewhat limited. But he had the
ambition and determined purpose which brook no such handi-
caps, and this is clearly shown in the fact that when he was
but sixteen years of age he had so advanced himself as to
become a successful teacher in the schools of his native county.
As a popular representative of the pedagogic profession he
served for a time as principal of the public schools at St.
Marys, the county seat. Thereafter he was for some time
engaged in the marketing of railroad ties, in the period of
railroad construction in that section of the state, and when
oil was discovered in Pleasants County he was influential in
enlisting outside capital for the development of the industry
in his native county. He also became a successful operator
in connection with oil production, and through his well
directed activities he accumulated a substantial fortune. He
was one of the organizers of the Pleasants County Bank at
St. Marys, and became the owner also of a large amount
of valuable real estate in his native county. Mr. Reynolds
was a man of fine intellectual ken and of exceptional civic
loyalty. He was a staunch democrat, and as the candi-
date of his party was twice elected sheriff of Pleasants County.
He was an earnest member of the Baptist Church, as is also
his widow, was a zealous advocate of the cause of temperance
and was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
He married Miss Addie Lewis Johnson, a daughter of the late
William Johnson, who was long an honored and influential
citizen of Wood County. Mrs. Reynolds now maintains her
home at Boaz, West Virginia. Her husband passed to the life
eternal in June, 1901, honored by all who knew him and known
as one of the representative citizens of Pleasants County.
Mr. Reynolds is survived also by two sons, Dan Howard and
Arthur Hiett, who are associated in business in the City of
Parkersburg and concerning whom specific mention is made
in following paragraphs.

Dan Howard Reynolds was born at St. Marys, West Vir-
ginia, on the 20th of August, 1892, there received his early
education in the public schools, and he completed his higher
discipline by attending Marietta College at Marietta, Ohio.
He has been successfully identified with the real estate, insur-
ance and oil business, in which lines of enterprise he is now
associated with his brother, with office and residence in the

City of Parkersburg. He is an active member of the Parkers-
burg Board of Commerce, the Kiwanis Club, the local lodge
of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and in the
Masonic fraternity he has received the thirty-second degree
of the Scottish Rite, besides holding membership in the
Mystic Shrine. Both he and his brother are numbered among
the popular and progressive young business men of Parkers-
burg. May 19, 1915, recorded the marriage of Mr. Reynolds
and Miss Ethyl Marie Fenton, of Williamstown, Wood
County.

Arthur Hiett Reynolds was born at St. Marys on the 23d
of September, 1896, and his youthful education included a
full course in Denison University at Granville, Ohio, in which
he was graduated as a member of the class of 1918. In June,
of that year he enlisted in the coast artillery branch of the
national military service in connection with the World war,
and later he was transferred to the chemical branch of the
Ordnance Department, in which he eventually became a
powder inspector in the Government power plant at Nitro,
West Virginia, where he continued his service until he re-
ceived his honorable discharge on the 5th of February, 1919,
since which time he has been associated with his brother in
their successful business enterprise at Parkersburg. He has
received the thirty-second degree of Scottish Rite Masonry,
is identified also with the Mystic Shrine, and is a popular
member of Parkersburg Lodge of the Benevolent and Pro-
tective Order of Elks. The brothers conduct their business
under the firm name of Reynolds & Reynolds, with offices at
501 1/2 Juliana Street.