William Henry Reynolds
and Mahala Hall

William Henry Reynolds II b 13 Aug 1868 Seco, Letcher Co KY d 21 Nov 1947 Seco Letcher Co KY, buried Ermine, Letcher Co KY, s/o William Henry Reynolds I and Frances Matilda Baker. William Henry Reynolds II was a brick mason.  William Henry Reynolds II m. 14 Feb 1889 (Valentine's Day) Seco, Letcher Co KY to Mahala Hall, b 14 Mar 1871 d 9 Jul 1944 Seco Letcher Co KY buried (Mayking) Ermine, Letcher Co KY, d/o Thomas Hall and Martha "Patsy" Whitaker. More about William Henry and Mahala Hall Reynolds. Children of William Henry Reynolds II and Mahala Hall;

 Nancy Reynolds b 20 Feb 1890 Letcher Co KY d 15 Jul 1911  Letcher Co KY of typhoid fever age 21. (single)

 Frances Matilda Reynolds b 11 Jun 1892 Seco, Letcher Co KY d 3 Mar 1988 age 95 years, m. 26 Dec 1913 to Henry Harrison Combs, b 6 Mar 1889 d 16 Dec 1978, s/o William Ray Combs and Catherine Polly.

Martha Ann Reynolds b 13 April 1894 Seco, Letcher Co KY d 28 July 1968 at Ermine, Letcher Co KY m. 26 Dec 1916 to John Combs, b 8 Sept 1887 d 29 Sept 1966, s/o William Ray Combs and Catherine Polly.

William Henry Reynolds III b 20 Jan 1896 Seco, Letcher Co KY d 4 July 1971 m. 20 Jan 1921  in Millstone, Letcher Co KY to Bertha Mae Combs, b 22 Mar 1900 in Letcher Co KY d 2 Jun 1985 OH, d/o Joseph "Joe" Combs and Susan Stallard.

 Stephen N Reynolds b 25 Dec 1897 Seco, Letcher Co KY d 27 Sept 1917 during WWI of appendicitis age 20 years; buried Seco, Letcher Co KY.

 Ollie Reynolds b 26 Jan 1900 Seco, Letcher Co KY d April 1988 age 88 years old; m. 19 Dec 1936 to Edward Ed Hoback (aka Hobach). No children. Ollie was Chief Operator, Southern Bell Telephone where she worked for 35 years. 

 Sallie Reynolds b 6 May 1902 Seco Letcher Co KY d 21 Nov 1985 of a stroke age 31 years; m. 17 Feb 1921 to 1st Tom Tolliver. Sallie Reynolds m. 2nd to Frank Helton.

 Cora Reynolds b 16 Jul 1904 Seco Letcher Co KY d 11 Oct 1998 of old age, heart failure, age 94 years; m. 20 Sept 1939 to Troy W Frazier. Cora Reynolds Frazier attended Eastern State Teachers College and was a teacher in Letcher County schools from 1924 to 1974. She received a Kentucky Master Teacher Award in 1996 from the Letcher County Board of Education presented by Phyllis Ann Hall Adams, Principle of Whitesburg Middle School and daughter of Charles Hall, son of Sally Reynolds and Johnny Hall. Cora was inducted into the Letcher County Distinguished Citizens Hall of Fame 1995. Cora was a person of interest in the book "My Appalachia" written by the son in law of Kentucky Governor, Bert T Combs whose name was Bill Weinberg. Written by Eloise Delzer, granddaughter of William Henry Reynolds and Mahala Hall

 Drewsillar Reynolds (Drusilla) b 13 Aug 1906 Seco Letcher Co KY d 1995 m. 31 Mar 1928 to Milburn Polly b 19 Dec 1906 d 3 Dec 1967 Whitesburg, KY buried 6 Dec 1967 Hall Cemetery, Ermine, Letcher Co KY, s/o Henry Polly and Sarah Frances Maggard. Drusilla Reynolds Polly attended Eastern University in the 1920's.

 Joe Coleman Reynolds b 18 Mar 1909 Seco Letcher Co KY d 1995 age 86 years of Parkinson Disease; m. 11 Jun 1938 to Stella Irene Lewis b 7 Jul 1914 d Sunday, 19 Mar, 2006, buried Hall Cemetery, Ermine, Letcher Co KY, d/o Willie Franklin Lewis and Ada Dixon. Joe Coleman Reynolds was a merchant and furniture store owner, a WWII Veteran and guard at the White House under the Roosevelt administration. Stella Irene Lewis Reynolds was a school teacher, a merchant, a member of the Pine Mountain Chapter of the DAR, an active member of the Republican party, a member of the First Baptist Church, Whitesburg, KY where she served as Sunday school teacher. She was a member of the Women's Missionary Union, Sandlick Bible Club and the Sandlick Homemakers.

 James Ellis Reynolds b 2 May 1911 Seco Letcher Co KY d 4 Jun 2000 age 89 years of heart failure; m. 24 Dec 1936 (Christmas Eve) to Chelsie Hogg b 17 Mar 1921 d/o Burnett Hogg and Bertha Shepherd. James Ellis Reynolds attended Morehead State Teachers College 1931 - 1933 on a football scholarship. James Ellis Reynolds was also an electrician.

 John Cody Reynolds b 28 Nov 1914 Seco Letcher Co KY d Feb 1978 age 65 years, of heart and kidney failure. Never married.

Updates and details on this family submitted by Eloise Delzer, granddaughter of William Henry Reynolds and Mahala Hall, received 11 March 2008 and John Christopher Reynolds, son of James Lewis Reynolds and Wanda Rodgers. Thanks to John Christopher "Johnny" Reynolds for the family photos on this page and to Wanda Rodgers Reynolds for her updates and additions.

The following wonderful bit of history is from Eloise Delzer, granddaughter of William Henry Reynolds and Mahala Hall, received 11 March 2008;

Old Whitesburg KY High School

Old Whitesburg Courthouse, Whitesburg, Letcher Co, KY

William Henry "Bill Pap" Reynolds was born in Letcher County Kentucky in 1868 and married to Mahala Hall Reynolds on Valentines Day 1889. They lived on Friday Branch near Ermine, Letcher County Kentucky in a two story log cabin. He was jailer of Letcher County at one time and my grandmother ran the farm.

My grandfather, William Henry Reynolds and his brother, Noah Reynolds, manufactured bricks and built buildings. They dabbled in politics and raised cattle and livestock.

The clay they used to make the bricks was taken from the North Fork of the Kentucky River banks near where he and my grandmother, Mahala Hall Reynolds, lived nearly all their lives. The cemetery where they are buried is located high above the bend in the river where the clay came from.

The bricks that build the old Whitesburg High School building were from his kiln. They were darkest red solid bricks, a little larger than modern day bricks. The picture of that building has been made into a historic print and can be purchased at print and frame shops in Letcher County, Kentucky.

The picture also hangs in the Whitesburg Library downtown along with a copy of the old courthouse which also was built with bricks from their kiln.

Many other buildings in Whitesburg, Kentucky that have since been torn down or burned were built with their bricks. I have one of their bricks as a doorstop in my entry hall. In any case, I find it interesting that the trade and skills our first ancestor in America brought with him from England was still practiced by his offspring up to the mid 1930's.

My grandmother, Mahala Hall Reynolds, was a twin to Frances Hall Bentley. Grandmother, Mahala Hall Reynolds, took care of the family and the small hillside farm and along with another lady whose name I do not remember, cooked for the work hands when it was time to get the crops laid in during the fall and spring when there was planting to do.

They wanted their children to be educated. Out of the 12 children, one died of typhoid at 21 years of age and another died at age 20 of appendicitis while in the army during WWI.

I remember clearly the barn with a hand hewn shingle roof and the corn crib. Both were constructed of large logs. My Grandpa "Bill Pap" kept cattle, chickens and geese up until he died in 1947. There was a smoke house where flour sacks hung on the walls ready to take to the mill and a well with moss around the wooden box above it with a well bucket for drawing of the coldest, best tasting water in the world.

There was a black snake in the corn crib where my grandpa kept the corn for the chickens, ducks and geese. I wanted to feed the geese so bad I would brace myself to reach into the crib for an ear of dried corn to be shelled off to the ducks and geese. I wanted Grandpa Reynolds to know I was brave enough to reach into that rustling pile of corn we both knew contained not only the corn but the snake.

He would watch me do this little trick from the back porch while he pealed off a piece of chewing tobacco with his little pocket knife. He pretended he was not watching, but when I would get the corn from the crib, I would hold it up for him to see and he would smile and wave. I tried to get him to get the corn for me, but he told me I had to want to feed the geese more than I was afraid of the snake...a line that has stood me in good stead many a time when a little bravery was required.

At ten years old, I held my Daddy's hand and stood by the bed when our Dad said goodbye to "Bill Pap" for the last time as he lay in the front room of the old house on Friday Branch. He out lived our Grandmother who died of a heart attack earlier. I remember both deaths and all the details surrounding the events.

Our grandmother handled all the religion in the family. That is what "Bill Pap" said...meanwhile he played the fiddle on the front porch while she went to church. She would sock that old tired Sunday hat on her head and secure it with a hat pin and give him a look that said you better be through with that fiddle before I get back home with the preacher and his wife for dinner. She was not a woman with much fun in her.. and maybe by the time I came along, she was just tired. In any case, I loved my grandpa very much.

I remember him most when he was dressed up. Although he was a little man, he looked like a fellow of some note in his black suit, vest, homburg hat and leather bow tie. As a child, I can remember him sitting around with his suspenders on over shirts with no collar on them...I think the collar buttoned on when he went out. After he was older, hew would get dressed up and go listen to interesting cases in court.

When the day was done, he would come to the porch and motion for me to come to him. Then he would bring out a big gold watch, look at it and say, "Is it time for a little candy?" And of course, I always said it was. He brought me peppermint, horehound stick candy in a tiny little brown paper bag all warm and creased from holding it tightly in his hand during the walk from town to Ermine. I guess I was about five years old when the candy came my way.

I also remember going with him to the cemetery and to Johnny Morgan's house...the same house that is now the Dan Devlin house across the street from Mom and Dad's home on Golf Course Lane. They drank coffee laced with a little whiskey and chewed tobacco and spat the ambeer into an old pot bellied stove with no door on it. They discussed the weather and how to predict it too. Suppose that is why I think from time to time I have some expertise in the science myself... I use their method for predicting snows and have been two for three in the last three years.