William Guthrie Reynolds was born on 13. Jul. 1848 at Ellenboro, Grant County, Wisconsin. He married
Emoline Drake, daughter of
John Mellick Drake and
Susanna Storts, on 5. Apr. 1868 at Marietta, Wisconsin; William and Emoline had 12 children between 1868 and 1894, three of whom died young. They farmed in the town of Marietta early in their marriage, and by 1880 had moved to a farm in the town of Scott, also in Crawford County, Wisconsin. They raised grain to feed their cattle, plus a few hogs and chickens. They left the farm and moved to a home in Boscobel, Wisconsin in 1926.
Excerpted from: "The Reynolds Family History--A History of the Reynolds/McCord/Drake Families", by Deborah J. Reynolds Biesemeier. pp23-26. William Guthrie Reynolds died on 8. Apr. 1933 at Boscobel, Crawford County, Wisconsin, at age 84; Chronic Lung Disease. He was buried on 10. Apr. 1933 at Boscobel Cemetery, Boscobel, Grant County, Wisconsin. William Guthrie was born along the Platte River in southwest Grant County, Wisconsin. He was the fifth of nine children born to his parents, George Reynolds and Susanna Potts, shortly after they moved to Wisconsin from Mercer Co., PA.
On January 28, 1865, William enrolled in the Union Army for service in the Civil War. He enlisted in Madison Wisconsin for a period of one year. Because of his young age, he was a water boy and a drummer. He was a private in Company I, 50th Regiment, Wisconsin Infantry Volunteers. After being camped at Madison for 2 weeks, he became ill with measles, complicated by a cold. He was left with weak lungs. About the 15th of September, 1865, while at Camp Leavenworth in Kansas, he became ill again with "general debility" and was transferred to a hospital at Fort Randall where he remained until his honorable discharge on February 22, 1866. He received a pension based on his disability and chronic lung problems contracted while in service. It is said he was not able to do "one half of a man's labor in any one day".
Excerpted from "The Reynolds Family History--A History of the Reynolds/McCord/Drake Families, by Deborah J. Reynolds Biesemeier, pp23,24.