April 17, 1926

Dear Sister:

There is not much that I remember of my boyhood days. You see that was a long time ago. Our father, Joseph Boyer Reynolds, was born in Virginia in 1806, and married there. I think his first wife died in Ky. He had 9 children by his 1st wife and 9 by our Mother. The only one of our grandparents I remember seeing is Father’s mother. She lived with him and Uncle Nat at Arlington, Ill. She was 92. Mother was born in Grayson Co. Ky. Oct. 10, 1830. She had a sister Martha and one bro. George. Mother’s father and mother died when the three children were young. They were separated and I remember Mother saying she and Martha did not get to see each other very often. When they did she said they spent most of the time crying about having to be separated again instead of having a good time. Father was 60 years old at his death.

Walter Scott Reynolds, born July 23rd, 1852 in Hardin Co.,Ky. Do not recall anything until I was 18 mo. old. I remember seeing William kill a sheep. After Mother married Jack, I asked her where we lived when I saw William tie a sheep’s legs together and lay its head on a block, pick up the ax and cut the sheep’s head off. I described the house and yard and told her I only saw William, Margie, the house and the sheep. Mother said, "Why you can’t remember that. You were only 18 mo. old." That was when we lived in Coles Co.Ill. The next thing I remember was in Arlington. I was making a speech, one Father wrote for me. The first line was, "I am a boy 4 years old", so I guess that was my age. Cousin John Reynolds was the Principal of Arlington College, but I belonged in the basement with cousin Sarah Smith. I will always think of her when I think of school. I do not know where she got all the switches she wore out on me. About the next thing that comes to mind was when Lincoln and Douglas stood on the rear end of a the train, debating the slavery in 1858. One would talk a while and then the other, so the people heard both sides. There were no railroads in those days (1858-59) that we could get on and go out west. Kansas was out west from Illinois in 1858. Arrived in Atchison Co.Kans. Mar. 4, 1859. All through Missouri was just one mud hole with high water all the way. The Mississippi River was out of its banks. In reviewing that journey in this day, it seems like it would be impossible. We had the regulation conveyance, two yoke of oxen and a covered wagon, when we started for Kansas. Father moved on a large farm near Pardee, Atchison Co. Kans. that spring of ‘59. William and Charles raised a big crop of corn, shelled it with a small hand cornsheller that Winter and William hauled it to Weston, Mo. across the Missouri R. on the ice and traded it for lumber. Would take over a load of corn and bring back a load of lumber, until we had enough to build a good large house with (in Pardee). Horace was born in Pardee, Oct.13, 1859. We had enough lumber in 1860 to build the house. There were Indians everywhere going to the Indian reservation. They would come in the house and look all around and if they saw anything they wanted, would want to trade for it. The old squaws would come along with a papoose strapped on their back, go in any house, and sit down - always hungry - and ask for something to eat. If father was not at home when they were going thru, mother would be scared out of her wits. They were all good Indians if your were here you could watch them.

Your brother, Walter.