|
John Adams Reynolds was a well known and respected member
of the Reynolds family. He was a man of many talents and interests, and was an
inspiration to those who were associated with him throughout his long and useful
life. He was known to many of us as "Uncle John A". Those of us who are old
enough to remember him are very fortunate, but a large percentage of us can only
remember hearing our parents and grandparents talk about him. He was a brother
of Crawford Farmer's wife, Nancy Elizabeth Reynolds Farmer, and a brother of
John P. Fricks' wife, Suzanne Reynolds Fricks. These two couples were the
grandparents and great grandparents of many of the present day Fricks and Farmer
families.
Nancy Elizabeth Reynolds, Suzanne Reynolds, and John A
Reynolds, were three of the children of Benjamin Franklin Reynolds and Elizabeth
Ward Reynolds, who moved to Habersham County from the old Pendleton District of
South Carolina around 1850. "Uncle John A" was the first child born to them
after their arrival in Habersham County, Georgia. He was born on March 12, 1851,
and died in Clayton, Georgia, on January 31, 1936. He was married to Isabelle
Jane Jackson, daughter of Jasper C. Jackson, a Baptist minister. John A and
Isabelle Jackson Reynolds were the parents of Mary Trist, who married James
Grant, a lawyer; Myrtle, who married O. A Gunter; Zedric (Zed) Ford Reynolds,
who enlisted in the Canadian Army at the beginning of World War I, and his
troopship was sunk in the English Channel en route to Europe (never married);
Almeda, who married C. B. Brown; Ruth, who married C. R. Hendrix; James Jasper
Reynolds, who was a World War I veteran and was wounded at Soissons (never
married); and Edyth, who married James Frame, who was from New Hampshire. John A
Reynolds and his wife, Isabelle Jackson Reynolds had fifteen grandchildren,
including a baby girl of C. B. and Almeda Brown, who died in
infancy.
Although "Uncle John A" had no formal training in Engineering,
Horticulture, or Journalism, he earned his living for a large part of his life
as a Surveyor, Apple Grower, and Newspaper Publisher. He lived at a time when a
formal education was not readily available to the young people of the rural
areas, but he took advantage of every opportunity for self-improvement. He
enjoyed a reputation as one of the most highly respected surveyors in the state
of Georgia. He surveyed many land lines in Habersham, Rabun, and Stephens
Counties, and these lines remain unchallenged to the present time.
He
surveyed and laid out the town of Demorest, as well as part of the town of
Cornelia. When Stephens County was formed in 1905, he was selected to survey the
county lines. He was assisted with some of this county line survey work by two
of his nephews, Jake and Ben Farmer. On several occasions, in the course of his
survey work, he located tracts of land which had previously been unclaimed, and
was able to claim the land for himself. One such tract of land was on top of the
mountain presently known as Allen Mountain, in the Mountain Grove section of
Stephens County. He also received plots of land in payment for some of the
survey work he did. Times were hard and people needing survey work done was glad
to give a portion of their land in order to get it surveyed.
In 1898, he
moved from Demorest to Clayton, Georgia, where he spent the remainder of his
life. After moving to Clayton he bought a large tract of land in the Saddle Gap
area, where he had a large apple orchard. He later promoted the sale of some of
the property for home sites. Agnes Fricks Farmer remembered that he offered free
lots to her husband, Marvin Farmer, and to her brother, Vernon Fricks, but she
said that at that time, during the depression, they couldn't even afford to
build a pigpen, much less a house! She said that "Uncle John A.'" thought if he
could get some people to build on the property, it would be an incentive for
others to buy and build.
According to Dr. A. J. Ritchie, shortly after
coming to Clayton, John A. Reynolds established a newspaper, The Clayton
Tribune, and published it continuously for many years. Dr. Ritchie said that
"Mr. Reynolds deserves much credit for overcoming the many difficulties which he
encountered in publishing the paper. There were no trains to Clayton at that
time, and sometimes on account of the transportation difficulties, he would run
out of paper. He was forced, several times, to buy wrapping paper from the
merchants, and a few times he had to use such paper with advertisements printed
on one side. He would print the Tribune on the blank sides rather than miss an
issue of his paper. There was no type setting machines in that day. All the type
was set by hand. Most of the work was done by the family of Mr. Reynolds while
he was engaged in surveying the railroad and in other engineering projects. He
was finally forced to suspend the operation of the newspaper, largely because
his children were marrying and leaving home, and the revenue from the paper
would not justify hiring labor with which to publish it."
Agnes Fricks
Farmer, in recalling some memories of "Uncle John A." said that when her son,
Irvin, was a baby, her grandmother, Suzanne Reynolds Fricks, came to Clayton to
help her with the baby, and to be near her brother, John A. She said that "Uncle
John A." would come by their house every day. He would always bring some apples,
and he and Suzanne would sit on the front porch and reminisce for hours about
some of the things they remembered from their younger days. After he became ill
and was in bed all the time, Agnes said her grandmother, Suzanne, would often
sit with him. One time she thought she would like to make his bed more
comfortable for him, but when she asked him if he could sit up long enough for
her to fix his bed, he said," Well, Suzanne, there's no use, I've got it just,
like it feels good, and I'm afraid you won't fix it back like I want
it."
In his book, "Sketches of Rabun County History", Dr. A. J. Ritchie,
who was a close friend of Uncle John A., gives some insight into the life of
this remarkable man, John A. Reynolds. The following is a quote from the book:
"Here was a man with a vision and an enthusiasm with which he devoted
himself to three great fields of human activity. I knew him intimately and had
something to do with him in the three kinds of work in which he were engaged.
These were the occupation of a newspaper editor, an apple grower, and a
surveyor. Although he lived to the ripe old age of almost 85, he was always so
active, so vivacious, and apparently so youthful that I never thought of him as
an old man. He came to Rabun County in 1898 and brought here the first printing
press. This was an old fashioned Washington Hand Press and a few fonts of type.
With this equipment he started The Clayton Tribune, which he published for
nearly a quarter Century. As a surveyor and civil engineer he made the first
location of the Tallulah Falls railroad and was active in getting it built in
this county. He gave liberally of his time and talent to this important project.
For many years John A. Reynolds was the (Rabun) County Surveyor. He held this
office at the time of his death. It has been said that genius is a capacity to
take pains. I happen to know with what great pains John A. Reynolds set up the
lines between land lots in this county and the trouble he took to get himself
satisfied with the lines and the maps that he made. I also knew something of the
enthusiasm with which he promoted the apple growing industry in this county. He
had his own orchard and he made it his business to attend the State Fair each
year in Macon and have there an exhibit of the apples that grew in this county.
Part of his talk was that the cool nights and warm sunshine of this region gave
apples a better flavor than other sections gave. I remember two incidents that
show his enthusiasm and activity about apple growing. One was the display at the
State Fair of the $100 check which was the prize Won at a fair in Washington
State by the so-called Fort-prize apple. That apple had been found by John P.
Fort on a seedling tree at an old abandoned house near Mountain City. Another
incident was that he found on the school farm at Rabun Gap an old apple tree
that near the ground had the largest diameter of any apple tree in all this
region. The tree must have been 100 years old. It was something like three feet
through. We allowed him to have that tree cut down, and he took a cross section
of it to the Fair at Macon to show the kind of apple tree that we grow in this
county. Although not a native of the county, we have had few men who have done
more to advertise and develop its resources than this man who adopted it as his
place of residence. The more we have of them, the better off we are by having
such citizens as John A. Reynolds."
Helen Hendrix, a granddaughter of
John A. Reynolds, recalled some memories of her grandfather. She said that he
appeared to pay little attention to the grandchildren while they were small, but
as they grew older, he began to take more interest in them. She said that
"During the depression when money was scarce, he gave me a job. He had a little
instrument that you could use to run around the outside edge of a drawing of a
piece of land to find the square footage of the property. He let me do that for
him. I guess he thought it would be good training for me when I started looking
for a job. He paid me $5.00 a week. That was a tremendous lot of money. Just
think, that was $20.00 a month!"
Helen also recalled that one time a well
respected real estate man said to her, "I understand that you are the
granddaughter of John A. Reynolds. I want you to know that anybody that ever had
anything to do with real estate, could always tell when it was a John A.
Reynolds survey." Helen said that her grandfather was extremely accurate and
precise, which was not the case with most of them in that day and time. She said
that he was very proud of this reputation, and her mother was,
too.
"Uncle John A." lived a long and useful life, most of which was
spent in the area of northeast Georgia. His contributions to the several
counties in which he lived were appreciated, and are still appreciated, even to
this day. On January 31, 1936, almost two months before his 85th birthday, his
life came to an end at the home of his daughter, Ruth Hendrix. Agnes Fricks
Farmer recalled that she and her grandmother, Suzanne, sat up with him all night
on the night of his death. The following day he was laid to rest beside his
parents in the Reynolds Family Cemetery. Snow was on the ground from a recent
snowfall and the cemetery, being in a remote area, was practically inaccessible.
Roads were wet and muddy, and many problems were encountered in trying to reach
the cemetery, but the faithful ones made the effort and paid their last respects
to this man who had meant so much to them through the years. Agnes Fricks Farmer
and her husband, Marvin, were two of those present for the funeral of "Uncle
John A." on that cold day in February at the little family burial ground near
the old Reynolds and Fricks home place in the Mountain Grove Community of
Stephens County, Georgia. Ben and Lona Fricks were still living on the old
Reynolds and Fricks home place near the cemetery, and Agnes recalled that her
mother, Lona, cooked and served dinner for all those who attended the funeral
that day.
|
