Samuel Isham Reynolds – the Cattle Baron

The earliest record of the Reynolds family surfaces in Virginia. Richard Reynolds was born about 1730 in Newport Parish, Isle of Wight, Virginia.  That’s 46 years before the Declaration of Independence.  At some point, he and his wife moved to Kentucky where he died in 1816.  For historical perspective, I’ll make not of the fact that Henry Clay was 39 years old when Richard Reynolds died.

At some point, some of his descendants moved to Missouri. One of these - Samuel Isham Reynolds, was my great, great grandfather. He migrated to Texas as a young man and apparently went into the cattle business.  He was married to Louisa Howard in 1867 in Collin County, Texas.   He lived to be almost 94 years of age. He died in Denton County in May, 1941 .  

According to one story, Sam Reynolds drove some of  his cattle to the stockyards in Fort Worth where he sold .   Presumably, he sent his drovers back home and after receiving money from the sale of the cattle, he returned home alone on horseback.  Along the way, masked robbers held him up at gunpoint.  They went through his saddlebags and there was no money there.  They went through his wallet and there was no money there.  He emptied out his pants pockets and there was no money there.  Finally, one of the holdup men said, “Take off your boots.”   He had tucked the money inside his boots.   Before they left, he is said to have told the bandits, “I think I know who you are and I’ll get it back.”