Wesley Blassingame Reynolds

	Wesley Blassingame Reynolds was born March 16, 1830, in Alabama, the eighth 
	of fourteen children of Hugh Riah Reynolds and Elizabeth Hamm. Hugh Riah's 
	father served in the Revolutionary War in North Carolina and in Georgia, 
	according to his application for a pension. Hugh Riah's family settled in 
	Alabama near the Tennessee border. There they built a plantation and 
	prospered. 
	
	When Wesley was grown, he moved just across the state line to Tennessee, and 
	lived there near the line between Tennessee and Alabama. He is believed to 
	have been living in Wayne County Tennessee, when the Civil War began. The 
	Company Muster Roll shows Wesley installed August 31, 1863, in Wayne County, 
	Tennessee. His brother, Captain James Marion Reynolds, older than Wesley by 
	seven years, installed him for three years. The company roster indicates that 
	this company was part of the 9th Tennessee Cavalry; however, it was also 
	known as the 19th Tennessee Cavalry Regiment and was commanded by Col. Jacob 
	Biffle. It was also referred to as Biffle's 9th. (See Tennesseans in the 
	Civil Wa, Volume I, pages 95-97.)
	
	Just three and one half months into his service to the Confederacy, Wesley 
	was captured, after surrendering, by Lt. Col. Gaines, 50th Illinois Infantry 
	in Lawrence County, Tennessee, December 2, 1863. His captor (a neighbor), 
	shot him anyway. He lay in a fence corner for some time before being taken to 
	a doctor. He somehow survived gangrene. He was confined at Pulaski, 
	Tennessee, Louisville, Kentucky, and Rock Island, Illinois. He was exchanged 
	March 2, 1865 ,having endured some fourteen months at Rock Island Prison. He 
	was honorably discharged. 
	
	Family legend from several sources, among them Connie Reynolds and Virgie 
	Sewing, say that on his way home from the war, he went to a hotel or large 
	boarding house that had several floors, to get a room for the night. He got 
	a room two or three stories up and went in. After he went into his room (it 
	was night), someone locked the door so he couldn't get out. When he took his 
	boots off, and set them down, they bounced back at him. He lit a match, and 
	found three dead men under the bed, probably other Southern soldiers who had 
	been killed. He stuck a nail in the key hole to keep it from being unlocked. 
	During the night, the hotel people killed a woman in the hotel, and let her 
	blood flow freely down the common bathtub. He feared they wanted to kill him 
	and rob him, too. Somehow he attracted attention from a window the next 
	morning and was able to escape. 
	
	When he finally got home, he found that things had not gone well there 
	either. There was no money to pay the taxes. There had been a battle in his 
	front yard, and Angeline's father was dead. So Wesley and Angeline joined a 
	wagon train going west. Two of his brothers, James Marion and George Riley, 
	and three of Angeline's brothers, Riley, Jim, and Alexander Brewer, came with 
	them.
	
	Traveling was difficult. Crossing the big river on ferries was frightening. 
	The eldest son, George, walked all the way carrying Wesley's muzzle loader, 
	which is still in the family. Following the river roads, which weren't very 
	good, they came to a settlement on Hacker Creek near Atkins, Arkansas. Having 
	heard that "money grew on trees in Arkansas," they spent the first winter 
	there with the Wilson family. They first settled at Old Hickory.
	
	Many say that Wesley was a very smart man and very well-liked. Some family 
	members recall he may have been a school teacher. Virgie Sewing said he 
	taught her mom, and taught her how to read! 
	
	Wesley's wounds from the war (at Walking Springs, Tennessee - see the sworn 
	declaration dated June 30, 1893) were permanent. The wound was to his left 
	hip and caused lumbago and retention of urine in his last months. The doctor 
	said, in a sworn statement, that Wesley was a "Christian gentleman and his 
	diseases and wounds are permanent, totally disabling him from manual labor, 
	confining him to his bed nearly all the time." (Dr. P. M. Tate, Physician's 
	Statement, June 14, 1901.) In fact, Wesley had to be helped onto a horse and 
	taken to the creek to be baptized. He drew his pension from August 1, 1900, 
	until he died July 22, 1901. He died, according to Martha Callahan 
	Reynolds, of "catarrh of the kidneys." He is buried at Cedar Creek Cemetery 
	near Jerusalem, Arkansas.
	
	Submitted by: Dayna Crow, P. O. Box 429, Fort Jones, CA 96032. E-mail to 
	<daynacrow@aol.com>.

	Sarah Angeline Brewer, born August 22, 1837, in Alabama,  went by the name of 
	Angeline (pronounced An juh LINE).  She had at least three brothers, and a 
	half-sister named Emmaline.  She was probably of Indian Descent, as she often 
	spoke of the Cherokees.  Virgie Sewing, her granddaughter, believes she was 
	1/4 Indian, probably Cherokee.  She also told of the city of Birmingham. 
	Alabama, being built on her family's property.  Mr. Brewer was said to have 
	buried his gold in barrels.  The Brewer family had a two-story house there.  
	(Virgie Sewing said their house in Birmingham was "blown away.")
	
	Grandfather Brewer gave a slave girl to Angeline when she was just a young 
	girl. He wanted the mother of the slave to work so he gave the child slave to 
	Angeline.  As a result, Angeline was not used to doing any work, and had 
	never done any.  She had to learn to do everything.  Her mother died when she 
	was young, and her father's second wife left him. As Angeline contemplated 
	marriage, her daddy begged her not to marry so young, perhaps because he knew 
	the training in work that she had missed out on in her growing up years.  But 
	she married Wesley in late fall, 1854.
	
	Grandpappy Brewer's thoughts rang true as preserved by family stories. Four 
	children came in rapid succession in the next few years.  Angeline, who had 
	married at age 17, had not changed as a result of marrying.  She was a lover 
	of sleep.  She sometimes slept until 10:00 AM.  Wesley would rise early and 
	would call her to get up and get his breakfast several times but she would 
	answer with, "Alright, Wesley, wait till I let the baby suck."
	  
	When Wesley went off to fight the Confederate fight in 1863, he and Angeline 
	already had four children: George Riley born in 1856, James Alexander born in 
	1858, Thomas Hamilton born in 1861, and Elizabeth Forrest born in 1863.  
	Angeline said that while Wesley was in the war, she, three of the children 
	(Thomas Hamilton had died in 1864), a woman slave and a child slave all lived 
	together.  During the war, the slave used to sleep on a pallet at the foot of 
	Angeline's bed because Angeline was so afraid.  
	
	There were many things of which to be afraid during the war.  The raiders 
	were just one.  Angeline's grandmother was a midwife. She had a side saddle 
	which she rode upon to deliver babies.  During the war, there were raiders 
	who robbed people of anything they had, so Grandmother Brewer kept her side 
	saddle upstairs hidden.  But one day a band of raiders found it.  She tried 
	to take it from them.  They would pull and she would pull.  Finally, she 
	pulled as hard as she could and let go suddenly and the raiders fell down the 
	stairs with it.  Their leader made them leave her alone, saying something 
	about  "anyone with that much spunk."  If anyone laid a hand on her, he said 
	he would shoot them.  So Grandma kept her saddle.
	     
	After the war and Grandpappy  Brewer's death, Angeline's brothers had 
	Grandpappy Brewer's will put aside. They felt he had been of unsound mind and 
	his sons sold the property.  They also sold Angeline's slave, but Wesley 
	bought her back for $900.
	
	The time after the war was hard for Wesley and Angeline. One more child was 
	born in Alabama, William Hickland in 1866. Wesley was determined to move on, 
	but Angeline didn't want to go to Arkansas.  Wesley had to pick her up and 
	put her in the wagon!  When Wesley and Angeline left for Arkansas, from 
	Alabama, after the war, the Negro slave girl followed them on foot.  They 
	came by wagon.  The slave was the girl that Angeline's father had given to 
	her for a wedding present.  The girl wouldn't leave.  They tried to get her 
	to go back because Negroes weren't allowed in that section of the country by 
	the people living there. They were afraid for her.  It was some time before 
	she left.
	
	Settling first at a settlement at Hacker Creek near Atkins and then later at 
	Old Hickory, Hattieville, and Jerusalem, six more children were born to 
	Wesley and Angeline.  They were Emily Jane in 1869, Hugh Randolph in 1871, 
	John Wesley in 1873, Annie Gertrude in 1875, Minnie D. in 1878, and Sherwell 
	Karah in 1881. The family lived at that time on a farm.  Wesley taught school 
	and farmed, even planting some sugar maples which are still standing today.  
	He was a very industrious person according to all accounts. 
	
	Virgie Sewing says that Angeline carded, spun, and wove.  She made clothes.  
	They lived in a one-room house.  Even when their eleven children got married, 
	they all lived together in one room.
	
	Sometime during their years in Jerusalem, Angeline felt the need to follow 
	the Lord in baptism.  Son William Hickland told her, "Mama, you're gonna be 
	pretty cool."  She went when there was snow and ice on the ground and was 
	baptized in the creek.
	
	She died just a little over a year shy of her hundredth birthday on February 
	5, 1936.  She was buried at Cedar Creek Cemetery near Jerusalem, Arkansas.
	
	Submitted by: Dayna Crow, P. O. Box 429, Fort Jones, CA  96032.  E-mail 
	<daynacrow@aol.com>.