WI BIO - Dane Co - REYNOLDS, George W.
Biographical Review of Dane County, WI. Chicago: Biographical Review Pub. Co. 
1893, Vol II, pp 625-626

George W. REYNOLDS was born in Roxbury Township, Dane County, Wisconsin, in 
February 1857. His father, William B. REYNOLDS, is a farmer of Dane County, 
now living retired. The latter was born in Canada in 1824, and the 
grandfather of our subject was also a farmer, who passed his whole life on 
his farm in Canada, where he died, leaving one son and one daughter. William 
B. REYNOLDS was reared in Canada to farm life, hard labor, and had very 
limited school advantages. He came from there to Ohio in 1843, when in his 
nineteenth year, and one year later came to [the Territory of] Wisconsin, and 
located at Waukesha [then in Milwaukee County; Waukesha County not created 
until 1846]. At that place he [p 626] engaged as an hotel clerk for a man by 
the name of PUTNAM, and at this place he [William B. REYNOLDS] was married to 
Miss Cornelia BOWERS, who was born in New York, daughter of Zachariah BOWERS, 
who came West with his family. The parent [Zachariah's father?] had 
conducted the hotel for about one year, and then moved to Roxbury Township 
[Dane County, WI] on a farm of 160 acres. He [the father of Zachariah 
BOWERS?] had purchased land in Fond du Lac County [WI], but did not occupy 
it, as he sold it, and it was in 1848 that the settlement was made at 
Roxbury. They resided at that place some eighteen years, during which time 
they were successful farmers, and improved the place by building and fencing, 
and also bought eighty acres more. About 1867 they sold out in Roxbury and 
moved to Dane Township [also in Dane County, WI], where they bought and 
improved a farm of 336 acres for $7,500. Here Mrs. [William B.] REYNOLDS 
[Cornelia nee BOWERS] died, in September 1887, aged fifty-eight years, 
leaving four sons and one daughter: (1) Alfred R., now a well-to-do farmer 
of Lodi Township [Columbia County, WI], has two sons; (2) Mary A., the wife 
of H. B. KNAPP, of Madison [Dane County, WI]; (3) George W., our subject; 
(4) William, a farmer on the old home farm; and (5) Joseph P., a farmer 
nearby.

Our subject [George W. REYNOLDS] was reared on the farm, and received good 
common school advantages. At the age of twenty-four he started out for 
himself. He had worked on the home farm by the month after his twenty-first 
birthday. When our subject felt like leaving the parental roof his father 
gave him a farm, consisting of ninety-two acres in Dane County [WI].

In 1882 Mr. [George W.] REYNOLDS sold his home in Dane County and bought 200 
acres where they now live, and upon this Mr. REYNOLDS carries on diversified 
farming, raising corn, oats and barley, and also horses, cattle, sheep and 
hogs. He raises about ten head of calves, and has kept as many as forty 
head. He now keeps from six to eight head of farm stock horses and about 
forty Poland China hogs, and a fine flock of eighty head of sheep.

In the spring of 1880 Mr. [George W.] REYNOLDS married Miss Ada M. GODDARD, 
of Dane Township [Dane County, WI], the daughter of William K. GODDARD, the 
present Postmaster of Dane. Her mother, named Clarissa BABCOCK, was a native 
of New England, died in Dane County [WI], aged twenty-six years, leaving 
three children: (1) Mrs. REYNOLDS; (2) Clarence E., a farmer of Kansas; 
and (3) Eugenia, the widow of W. C. RICE, a farmer of Trempealeau County, 
Wisconsin. Mr. and Mrs. [George W.] REYNOLDS have one daughter, Clara Bell, 
aged ten years; and [one son], Preston R., aged seven years, who both are 
bright children in school. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. Mr. [George W.] REYNOLDS is a Prohibitionist, who graduated from the 
Republican ranks.

Submitted by Cathy Kubly