George Reynolds
Born: 1 January 1842
Called to Presidency of Seventy: 5 April 1890
Called as Second Assistant Superintendent in the Sunday School:1899
Called as First Assistant Superintendent in the Sunday School: 1901
Died: 9 August 1909
Called to Presidency of Seventy: 5 April 1890
Called as Second Assistant Superintendent in the Sunday School:1899
Called as First Assistant Superintendent in the Sunday School: 1901
Died: 9 August 1909
Conference TalksOct 1892
Oct 1897 - The wonders wrought by the Saints through the power of God Oct 1898 - This is God's work--Human weaknesses Oct 1901 - A God of miracles—Saints should not scatter abroad Apr 1902 - The growth of Zion—Development of Sunday School work Apr 1903 - Need of manual training in schools-Incidental reference to athletics Apr 1906 Oct 1906 Image source: Juvenile Instructor, July 1901
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Image source: Improvement Era, September 1909
Image source: Juvenile Instructor, September 1909
Image source: Young Women's Journal, September 1904
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Biographical Articles
Biographical Encyclopedia, Volume 1
Biographical Encyclopedia, Volume 3
Biographical Encyclopedia, Volume 4
Juvenile Instructor, 1 July 1901, Lives of Our Leaders - George Reynolds
Improvement Era, September 1909, George Reynolds
Juvenile Instructor, 1 September 1909, Elder George Reynolds
Juvenile Instructor, 1 September 1909, President George Reynolds
Young Woman's Journal, September 1909, George Reynolds
Instructor, November 1949, George Reynolds
Ensign, August 1986, George Reynolds: Loyal Friend of the Book of Mormon
Biographical Encyclopedia, Volume 3
Biographical Encyclopedia, Volume 4
Juvenile Instructor, 1 July 1901, Lives of Our Leaders - George Reynolds
Improvement Era, September 1909, George Reynolds
Juvenile Instructor, 1 September 1909, Elder George Reynolds
Juvenile Instructor, 1 September 1909, President George Reynolds
Young Woman's Journal, September 1909, George Reynolds
Instructor, November 1949, George Reynolds
Ensign, August 1986, George Reynolds: Loyal Friend of the Book of Mormon
Jenson, Andrew. "Reynolds, George." Biographical Encyclopedia. Volume 1. pg. 206-210.
REYNOLDS, George, one of the First Seven Presidents of Seventies since 1890, was born Jan. 1, 1842, in Marylebone, London, England. His father, George Reynolds, belonged to Totnes, Devonshire; his mother, originally Miss Julia Ann Tautz, was of German descent. George's father was a master tailor in the West End of London, and the first that George heard of "Mormonism" was in a conversation among the workmen who were sitting, "tailor fashion," cross legged, in a circle round a large, upright gas burner on his father's shopboard. The men were talking about religion, and much to George's disgust, for he was then very young, probably about seven years old, he heard one of the men laughingly declare that his was no every day religion; he was going up to heaven in a balloon with both ends on fire. This sacrilegious speech drew the child's attention and he listened to what followed. Soon he heard the tailors talking of a young man in America who had discovered, in the ground, some plates which he had translated by the help of the Urim and Thummim. George had been told by some one that the Urim and Thummim mentioned in the Bible had been carried from Jerusalem to Rome by the Roman soldiery and had been lost in the river Tiber; and he could not understand how these holy things got to America. It never entered his mind that there could be more than one Urim and Thummim. George spent much of the early portion of his life with his maternal grandmother, that is his mother's mother. When he was nine years old she lived in a large house in London, parts of which she rented to two aged maiden ladies. One of these ladies had a little servant maid who was called Mary, though her real name was Sarah White. She is now the wife of Bishop William Thome, Seventh Ward, Salt Lake City. Now George was a very timid little boy; he had a terrible fear of the darkness, he disliked the moonlight and was in terror of ghosts. One day he summoned up courage enough to speak to Mary, and the first thing he said was, "Mary, are you afraid of ghosts?" The acquaintance then strangely begun, ripened into intimacy, and George, who was of a strongly religious nature, began making enquiries as to whether Mary went to church. Learning from her that she did, he obtained his grandma's permission to go with her. She took him to the meetings of the Paddington branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and he no sooner heard the principles of the gospel taught by the Elders than he was satisfied of their truth and wished to be baptized. Then war began. He being so young, the brethren would not baptize him without his parents' consent; and notwithstanding all his pleadings and persuasions they remained firm in their refusal, and George had to remain unbaptized for several years. In the meantime, George, by many childish artifices, used to evade his parents' wishes and now and then attend the meetings and visit the Saints whom he had met. As the years rolled by, the boy, with the feeling then so prevalent in the Church that the coming of the Savior in glory was "nigh, nigh at hand." made an elaborate mathematical calculation that before he was twenty-one years old Christ would come. Consequently, if he had to wait until he was that age before he could be baptized without his parents' consent he would be outside the Church at the time of that glorious appearing and would be damned. So, when fourteen years old he went to another branch of the Church (the Somers Town), where he was not known, and asked for baptism. He was baptized Sunday, May 4, 1856, and the next Sunday was confirmed by Elder George Teasdale, who was then president of the branch. The Lord in His kindness had given George a testimony of the truth of "Mormonism" long before he was baptized, for it was not his fault that he had not obeyed this sacred ordinance, or as we sometimes say, the Lord "took the will for the deed." In the December foling his baptism George was ordained a Deacon, and if you were to ask him he would tell you he never magnified any office in the Church as well as he did that one. He took a pride in never being absent from meeting, and in being there the very first to open the doors and prepare the rooms. The next May he was ordained a Priest and sent out, with an older companion, to preach in the streets of London. He was small of his age, and occasionally some youthful listener about his own age would advise him to get a sheet of brown paper to stand upon so that the people could see him. The first time he went out, a few days after his ordination as a Priest, his companion was Elder Francis Burrell (long since deceased), who chose that well-known London thoroughfare, the Tottenham Court Road, as the place to hold forth. He borrowed a chair, mounted it and began to talk of the Kingdom of God: that the kingdom would necessarily have a king, territory, laws and officers. "And here comes one," cried a voice in the crowd. Then a policeman appeared and ordered Brother Burrell to "move on," as no preaching was permitted at that corner. So they moved on. George was not altogether sorry. He used in those days to wear a little round jacket like those we see in the pictures of the boys of Eton and other English public schools. He came to the conclusion that if he bought a coat, he would look more like a man and people would listen to him better. Before the next Sunday he did so, but it was not altogether a success—to use an expression of a facetious friend, "it fitted him like a sentry box, all over and touched nowhere." In plain English it was too large. But it answered its purpose. George felt more of a man in it, and he took great pleasure in bearing his testimony week after week, year after year at the street corners. George's parents soon discovered that he had joined the Church, and then that he was engaged in street preaching. His father used to talk to his customers about the matter. One advised that he tie his son up to the bed post and thrash "Mormonism" out of him: another that the boy be confined in a lunatic asylum; a third that he be taken befoie a magistrate and committed to prison; but "in a multitude of counselors there was safety" for George, for his father never adopted any of these harsh measures, and by decrees became reconciled to the course, his son was taking. George, notwithstanding his youth, soon had numerous duties conferred unon him. He was made secretary of the branch Sunday School; secretary and afterwards president of its tract society; he was appointed an acting teacher, and the secretary of the branch. In August, 1860, he was ordained an Elder, and in May, 1861, he was called into the traveling ministry and appointed to labor in the London conference, under the presidency of the late Elder William C. Staines. In 1863 he was changed to the Liverpool office, as emigration clerk to Pres. George Q. Cannon, and later as chief clerk, in which capacity he also served under Pres. Daniel H. Wells. During this lime he was made superintendent of the Liverpool branch Sunday school and afterward president of the branch. In May, 1865, he was released to emigrate to Zion, and reached Salt Lake City July 5th of the same year. His trip to Zion was an unusually quick one for that period, as he did not travel with any regular company of immigrants, but had only two companions, Elders Wm. S. Godbe and Wm H. Shearman. It was the time of the Sioux war, the stage company could not take them, so Brother Godbe purchased an outfit, and after a few adventures, such as being chased by the hostile Indians, they arrived safe in Salt Lake City. Shortly after his arrival in Salt Lake City, Brother Reynolds secured employment from Brother William Jennings, but before the close of the year he went to work in Pres. Young's office, and soon after became his secretarv. His time has been engaged, with brief exceptions, in the employ of the Church from that time to the present. Soon after his arrival in Utah, Brother Reynolds joined the Territorial militia—the old Nauvoo Legion. He was a lieutenant in the third regiment of infantry, and secretary of the regiment. In the former capacity he commanded Company H at the famous Wooden Gun Rebellion, in November, 1870, but, unlike most of the other officers, he was not arrested and sent to Camp Douglas. In February, 1869. Elder Reynolds was elected by the legislative assembly of the Territory a member of the board of regency of the University of Deseret, and was again elected to that office by the next and later legislatures. In May, 1871, Brother Reynolds returned to Europe, he having been called to assist Elder Albert Carrington in the editorship of the "Millennial Star." In the following September Pres. Albert Carrington was called back to Zion on account of complications growing out of legal persecutions, and Elder Reynolds was left in charge of the spiritual concerns of the European Mission. Shortly before this he had suffered a severe attack of smallpox, and on Pres. Carrington's return to Liverpool, in May, 1872, Brother Reynolds was released to return home, as his health remained quite poor. Soon after his return he was placed by Pres. Brigham Young first as treasurer and afterwards as manager of the Salt Lake Theatre. He later, in connection with W. T. Harris, became lessee of that well-known place of amusement. From 1875 to July, 1879, Brother Reynolds sat as a member of the municipal council of Salt Lake City. In the fall of 1874, when Judge McKean was chief justice of Utah, strong efforts were made to find indictments, under the Congressional law of 1862 against polygamy, and the arrest of a number of the leading authorities of the Church was theatened. The Latter-day Saints, believing this law to be unconstitutional, and that it would be so declared by the Supreme Court of the United States, the representatives of the Church agreed to furnish a test case. This idea the federal officers readily accepted and agreed to give the accused a fair trial so that the constitutionality of the law could be decided. Brother Reynolds was chosen to stand in the gap. He furnished the witnesses and testimony to the grand jury,and on October 23rd, that body found a true bill against him. On March 31, 1875, his trial before Judge Emerson commenced. It lasted two ways. He was found guilty and sentenced to one year's Imprisonment and lo pay a fine of three hundred dollars. He appealed to the supreme court of the Territory, who set the indictment aside on the ground of the illegality of the grand jury who found it. Oct. 30, 1875, another indictment was found against him, and on Dec. 9, 1875, his second trial commenced, this time before Chief Justice White. The jury returned a verdict of guilty, and he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment with hard labor and to pay a fine of five hundred dollars. An appeal to the Territorial supreme court was again taken. The case came up June 13, 1876, and the decision of the lower court was unanimously sustained. An appeal was then taken to the Supreme Court of the United States, but the case was not called up until Nov. 14, 1878. Jan. 6, 1879, Chief Justice Waite delivered the decision of the court confirming the decisions of the lower courts; the hard labor clause being eliminated by the Supreme Court as being in excess of the law. The corrected sentence was pronounced by the district court June 14 1879, and on the 16th Brother Reynolds started, in charge of two deputy marshals, for the Nebraska State penitentiary at Lincoln. There he was shaved, had his hair cropped close, was dressed in the broad blue and white stripes, and became known as U. S. Prisoner, No. 14. He was appointed bookkeeper in the knitting department. The Lincoln penitentiary was then carried on under the silent system. No prisoner was allowed to speak outside the cells. There were two prisoners in each cell: Brother Reynolds' cell mate was a party by the name of Johnson, convicted of burglary. When the prisoners left their Cells for the work shops they always walked in the lock step. His right hand used to be on the shoulder of a murderer, while the burglar had his right hand on Brother Reynolds. He only remained in Lincoln twenty-five days—very long ones to him—when he was brought back to Utah and placed in the Territorial penitentiary. In those days things were pretty rough at that institution, its regulations were very primitive, and vermin was abundant. There were no cells. Brother Reynolds was placed in one of the iron cages which were contained in a thin lumber building, and had Brother Lorenzo Colton as his companion. A new bunk house was shortly after built. Into it Brother Reynolds was transferred. It was made of two-by-four green lumber. There was a crack every two inches through which the winter winds blew. No fire was permitted for fear the prisoners might burn it down. The thermometer is said to have gone down to thirty degrees below zero, and how some of the prisoners who had only one shoddy blanket to cover them escaped being frozen to death is a mystery. Brother Reynolds was supplied with plenty of bed clothing by his friends, but he generally went to bed with all his clothes on and a woolen comforter wrapped around his head. In the morning his beard would be one solid mass of ice. More bed clothing only added to the weight, it did not increase the warmth. He was released Jan. 20, 1881, having served his full time, less his good conduct allowance. While in prison Brother Reynolds did a great deal of writing in the prison yard, and for some time taught a school composed of prisoners. Ever since his arrival in Utah, Elder Reynolds has taken an active interest in Sunday Schools. In 1867 he was secretary of the Eighth Ward (Salt Lake City) Sunday Sschool and the teacher of the boys' Bible class. Having removed his residence to the Twentieth Ward, he became, in 1868, librarian and a teacher in its Sunday School, and in December, 1869, was chosen its superintendent. This position he retained (with the exception of the periods of his absence on his mission and during his imprisonment) until the spring of 1885. Brother Reynolds is now the oldest member of the Board of the Deseret Sunday School Union. He has been the general treasurer of the Union since February, 1876—more than a quarter of a century. At the Sunday School Convention held in November, 1900, he was chosen second assistant general superintendent, and at the reorganization
of the superintendency a few weeks ago, owing to the deaths of Superintendents Cannon and Maeser, he was appointed first assistant general superintendent. Brother Reynolds has been a very diligent and zealous worker in the Sunday School Union—especially as the chairman of several standing committees of its Board. March 18, 1866, Elder Reynolds was ordained a Seventy by Elder Israel Barlow, and
received into the sixth quorum. In December, 1875, he was transferred to the twenty-fourth quorum and became a member of the council of that quorum. At the April conference. 1890, he was sustained as one of the First Seven Presidents of Seventies. He was set apart to that position by the Twelve Apostles, Pres. Lorenzo Snow being mouth, on the 10th of the same month. Brother Reynolds has done much literary work in connection with the publications of the Church. At times he has acted as an associate editor on the "Deseret News," and also as assistant to Pres. Geo. Q. Cannon on the "Juvenile Instructor," of which latter periodical he is today one of the associate editors. He has also written a number of books, of which the best known are his "Story" and his "Dictionary of the Book of Mormon." For twenty-one years he has been engaged in the preparation of a "Concordance of the Book of Mormon." This is a work the magnitude of which few, who have not undertaken something similar, can understand. Its publication has been retarded by unexpected difficulties, but it is now in the hands of the printer. Besides the callings he has held in the Church and in connection with its auxiliary organizations, the subject of this sketch has occupied a number of positions in the busihess community, for instance, as a director of Z. C. M. I., of Zion's Savings Bank, of the Deseret Telegraph Line, etc., etc. He is a strong believer in the divinity of the United Order, and at the time Pres. Brigham Young was seeking to establish it among the Saints, Brother Reynolds was an officer in the original order, No. 1, and of the local organization where he resided. Elder Reynolds is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. T. Z.
REYNOLDS, George, one of the First Seven Presidents of Seventies since 1890, was born Jan. 1, 1842, in Marylebone, London, England. His father, George Reynolds, belonged to Totnes, Devonshire; his mother, originally Miss Julia Ann Tautz, was of German descent. George's father was a master tailor in the West End of London, and the first that George heard of "Mormonism" was in a conversation among the workmen who were sitting, "tailor fashion," cross legged, in a circle round a large, upright gas burner on his father's shopboard. The men were talking about religion, and much to George's disgust, for he was then very young, probably about seven years old, he heard one of the men laughingly declare that his was no every day religion; he was going up to heaven in a balloon with both ends on fire. This sacrilegious speech drew the child's attention and he listened to what followed. Soon he heard the tailors talking of a young man in America who had discovered, in the ground, some plates which he had translated by the help of the Urim and Thummim. George had been told by some one that the Urim and Thummim mentioned in the Bible had been carried from Jerusalem to Rome by the Roman soldiery and had been lost in the river Tiber; and he could not understand how these holy things got to America. It never entered his mind that there could be more than one Urim and Thummim. George spent much of the early portion of his life with his maternal grandmother, that is his mother's mother. When he was nine years old she lived in a large house in London, parts of which she rented to two aged maiden ladies. One of these ladies had a little servant maid who was called Mary, though her real name was Sarah White. She is now the wife of Bishop William Thome, Seventh Ward, Salt Lake City. Now George was a very timid little boy; he had a terrible fear of the darkness, he disliked the moonlight and was in terror of ghosts. One day he summoned up courage enough to speak to Mary, and the first thing he said was, "Mary, are you afraid of ghosts?" The acquaintance then strangely begun, ripened into intimacy, and George, who was of a strongly religious nature, began making enquiries as to whether Mary went to church. Learning from her that she did, he obtained his grandma's permission to go with her. She took him to the meetings of the Paddington branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and he no sooner heard the principles of the gospel taught by the Elders than he was satisfied of their truth and wished to be baptized. Then war began. He being so young, the brethren would not baptize him without his parents' consent; and notwithstanding all his pleadings and persuasions they remained firm in their refusal, and George had to remain unbaptized for several years. In the meantime, George, by many childish artifices, used to evade his parents' wishes and now and then attend the meetings and visit the Saints whom he had met. As the years rolled by, the boy, with the feeling then so prevalent in the Church that the coming of the Savior in glory was "nigh, nigh at hand." made an elaborate mathematical calculation that before he was twenty-one years old Christ would come. Consequently, if he had to wait until he was that age before he could be baptized without his parents' consent he would be outside the Church at the time of that glorious appearing and would be damned. So, when fourteen years old he went to another branch of the Church (the Somers Town), where he was not known, and asked for baptism. He was baptized Sunday, May 4, 1856, and the next Sunday was confirmed by Elder George Teasdale, who was then president of the branch. The Lord in His kindness had given George a testimony of the truth of "Mormonism" long before he was baptized, for it was not his fault that he had not obeyed this sacred ordinance, or as we sometimes say, the Lord "took the will for the deed." In the December foling his baptism George was ordained a Deacon, and if you were to ask him he would tell you he never magnified any office in the Church as well as he did that one. He took a pride in never being absent from meeting, and in being there the very first to open the doors and prepare the rooms. The next May he was ordained a Priest and sent out, with an older companion, to preach in the streets of London. He was small of his age, and occasionally some youthful listener about his own age would advise him to get a sheet of brown paper to stand upon so that the people could see him. The first time he went out, a few days after his ordination as a Priest, his companion was Elder Francis Burrell (long since deceased), who chose that well-known London thoroughfare, the Tottenham Court Road, as the place to hold forth. He borrowed a chair, mounted it and began to talk of the Kingdom of God: that the kingdom would necessarily have a king, territory, laws and officers. "And here comes one," cried a voice in the crowd. Then a policeman appeared and ordered Brother Burrell to "move on," as no preaching was permitted at that corner. So they moved on. George was not altogether sorry. He used in those days to wear a little round jacket like those we see in the pictures of the boys of Eton and other English public schools. He came to the conclusion that if he bought a coat, he would look more like a man and people would listen to him better. Before the next Sunday he did so, but it was not altogether a success—to use an expression of a facetious friend, "it fitted him like a sentry box, all over and touched nowhere." In plain English it was too large. But it answered its purpose. George felt more of a man in it, and he took great pleasure in bearing his testimony week after week, year after year at the street corners. George's parents soon discovered that he had joined the Church, and then that he was engaged in street preaching. His father used to talk to his customers about the matter. One advised that he tie his son up to the bed post and thrash "Mormonism" out of him: another that the boy be confined in a lunatic asylum; a third that he be taken befoie a magistrate and committed to prison; but "in a multitude of counselors there was safety" for George, for his father never adopted any of these harsh measures, and by decrees became reconciled to the course, his son was taking. George, notwithstanding his youth, soon had numerous duties conferred unon him. He was made secretary of the branch Sunday School; secretary and afterwards president of its tract society; he was appointed an acting teacher, and the secretary of the branch. In August, 1860, he was ordained an Elder, and in May, 1861, he was called into the traveling ministry and appointed to labor in the London conference, under the presidency of the late Elder William C. Staines. In 1863 he was changed to the Liverpool office, as emigration clerk to Pres. George Q. Cannon, and later as chief clerk, in which capacity he also served under Pres. Daniel H. Wells. During this lime he was made superintendent of the Liverpool branch Sunday school and afterward president of the branch. In May, 1865, he was released to emigrate to Zion, and reached Salt Lake City July 5th of the same year. His trip to Zion was an unusually quick one for that period, as he did not travel with any regular company of immigrants, but had only two companions, Elders Wm. S. Godbe and Wm H. Shearman. It was the time of the Sioux war, the stage company could not take them, so Brother Godbe purchased an outfit, and after a few adventures, such as being chased by the hostile Indians, they arrived safe in Salt Lake City. Shortly after his arrival in Salt Lake City, Brother Reynolds secured employment from Brother William Jennings, but before the close of the year he went to work in Pres. Young's office, and soon after became his secretarv. His time has been engaged, with brief exceptions, in the employ of the Church from that time to the present. Soon after his arrival in Utah, Brother Reynolds joined the Territorial militia—the old Nauvoo Legion. He was a lieutenant in the third regiment of infantry, and secretary of the regiment. In the former capacity he commanded Company H at the famous Wooden Gun Rebellion, in November, 1870, but, unlike most of the other officers, he was not arrested and sent to Camp Douglas. In February, 1869. Elder Reynolds was elected by the legislative assembly of the Territory a member of the board of regency of the University of Deseret, and was again elected to that office by the next and later legislatures. In May, 1871, Brother Reynolds returned to Europe, he having been called to assist Elder Albert Carrington in the editorship of the "Millennial Star." In the following September Pres. Albert Carrington was called back to Zion on account of complications growing out of legal persecutions, and Elder Reynolds was left in charge of the spiritual concerns of the European Mission. Shortly before this he had suffered a severe attack of smallpox, and on Pres. Carrington's return to Liverpool, in May, 1872, Brother Reynolds was released to return home, as his health remained quite poor. Soon after his return he was placed by Pres. Brigham Young first as treasurer and afterwards as manager of the Salt Lake Theatre. He later, in connection with W. T. Harris, became lessee of that well-known place of amusement. From 1875 to July, 1879, Brother Reynolds sat as a member of the municipal council of Salt Lake City. In the fall of 1874, when Judge McKean was chief justice of Utah, strong efforts were made to find indictments, under the Congressional law of 1862 against polygamy, and the arrest of a number of the leading authorities of the Church was theatened. The Latter-day Saints, believing this law to be unconstitutional, and that it would be so declared by the Supreme Court of the United States, the representatives of the Church agreed to furnish a test case. This idea the federal officers readily accepted and agreed to give the accused a fair trial so that the constitutionality of the law could be decided. Brother Reynolds was chosen to stand in the gap. He furnished the witnesses and testimony to the grand jury,and on October 23rd, that body found a true bill against him. On March 31, 1875, his trial before Judge Emerson commenced. It lasted two ways. He was found guilty and sentenced to one year's Imprisonment and lo pay a fine of three hundred dollars. He appealed to the supreme court of the Territory, who set the indictment aside on the ground of the illegality of the grand jury who found it. Oct. 30, 1875, another indictment was found against him, and on Dec. 9, 1875, his second trial commenced, this time before Chief Justice White. The jury returned a verdict of guilty, and he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment with hard labor and to pay a fine of five hundred dollars. An appeal to the Territorial supreme court was again taken. The case came up June 13, 1876, and the decision of the lower court was unanimously sustained. An appeal was then taken to the Supreme Court of the United States, but the case was not called up until Nov. 14, 1878. Jan. 6, 1879, Chief Justice Waite delivered the decision of the court confirming the decisions of the lower courts; the hard labor clause being eliminated by the Supreme Court as being in excess of the law. The corrected sentence was pronounced by the district court June 14 1879, and on the 16th Brother Reynolds started, in charge of two deputy marshals, for the Nebraska State penitentiary at Lincoln. There he was shaved, had his hair cropped close, was dressed in the broad blue and white stripes, and became known as U. S. Prisoner, No. 14. He was appointed bookkeeper in the knitting department. The Lincoln penitentiary was then carried on under the silent system. No prisoner was allowed to speak outside the cells. There were two prisoners in each cell: Brother Reynolds' cell mate was a party by the name of Johnson, convicted of burglary. When the prisoners left their Cells for the work shops they always walked in the lock step. His right hand used to be on the shoulder of a murderer, while the burglar had his right hand on Brother Reynolds. He only remained in Lincoln twenty-five days—very long ones to him—when he was brought back to Utah and placed in the Territorial penitentiary. In those days things were pretty rough at that institution, its regulations were very primitive, and vermin was abundant. There were no cells. Brother Reynolds was placed in one of the iron cages which were contained in a thin lumber building, and had Brother Lorenzo Colton as his companion. A new bunk house was shortly after built. Into it Brother Reynolds was transferred. It was made of two-by-four green lumber. There was a crack every two inches through which the winter winds blew. No fire was permitted for fear the prisoners might burn it down. The thermometer is said to have gone down to thirty degrees below zero, and how some of the prisoners who had only one shoddy blanket to cover them escaped being frozen to death is a mystery. Brother Reynolds was supplied with plenty of bed clothing by his friends, but he generally went to bed with all his clothes on and a woolen comforter wrapped around his head. In the morning his beard would be one solid mass of ice. More bed clothing only added to the weight, it did not increase the warmth. He was released Jan. 20, 1881, having served his full time, less his good conduct allowance. While in prison Brother Reynolds did a great deal of writing in the prison yard, and for some time taught a school composed of prisoners. Ever since his arrival in Utah, Elder Reynolds has taken an active interest in Sunday Schools. In 1867 he was secretary of the Eighth Ward (Salt Lake City) Sunday Sschool and the teacher of the boys' Bible class. Having removed his residence to the Twentieth Ward, he became, in 1868, librarian and a teacher in its Sunday School, and in December, 1869, was chosen its superintendent. This position he retained (with the exception of the periods of his absence on his mission and during his imprisonment) until the spring of 1885. Brother Reynolds is now the oldest member of the Board of the Deseret Sunday School Union. He has been the general treasurer of the Union since February, 1876—more than a quarter of a century. At the Sunday School Convention held in November, 1900, he was chosen second assistant general superintendent, and at the reorganization
of the superintendency a few weeks ago, owing to the deaths of Superintendents Cannon and Maeser, he was appointed first assistant general superintendent. Brother Reynolds has been a very diligent and zealous worker in the Sunday School Union—especially as the chairman of several standing committees of its Board. March 18, 1866, Elder Reynolds was ordained a Seventy by Elder Israel Barlow, and
received into the sixth quorum. In December, 1875, he was transferred to the twenty-fourth quorum and became a member of the council of that quorum. At the April conference. 1890, he was sustained as one of the First Seven Presidents of Seventies. He was set apart to that position by the Twelve Apostles, Pres. Lorenzo Snow being mouth, on the 10th of the same month. Brother Reynolds has done much literary work in connection with the publications of the Church. At times he has acted as an associate editor on the "Deseret News," and also as assistant to Pres. Geo. Q. Cannon on the "Juvenile Instructor," of which latter periodical he is today one of the associate editors. He has also written a number of books, of which the best known are his "Story" and his "Dictionary of the Book of Mormon." For twenty-one years he has been engaged in the preparation of a "Concordance of the Book of Mormon." This is a work the magnitude of which few, who have not undertaken something similar, can understand. Its publication has been retarded by unexpected difficulties, but it is now in the hands of the printer. Besides the callings he has held in the Church and in connection with its auxiliary organizations, the subject of this sketch has occupied a number of positions in the busihess community, for instance, as a director of Z. C. M. I., of Zion's Savings Bank, of the Deseret Telegraph Line, etc., etc. He is a strong believer in the divinity of the United Order, and at the time Pres. Brigham Young was seeking to establish it among the Saints, Brother Reynolds was an officer in the original order, No. 1, and of the local organization where he resided. Elder Reynolds is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. T. Z.
Jenson, Andrew. "Reynolds, George." Biographical Encyclopedia. Volume 3. pg. 771-772.
REYNOLDS, George, one of the seven presidents of Seventy. (Continued from Vol. 1, page 206.) Elder Reynolds continued his activities in the Church until 1907, when he had a breakdown, due to over work, from which he never fully recovered, and after long suffering passed peacefully to rest, Aug. 9, 1909, surrounded by his family, at his residence, at the corner of Wall and Apricot streets, on Capitol Hill, Salt Lake City. Through his extensive literary work and through his long association, a third of a century or more, with the Sunday school work and other prominent Church activities, Bro. Reynolds was as widely known as any man in Utah and wherever known, was universally esteemed for his honor, integrity and kindness of heart. He was a gifted writer. Besides writing a number of smaller works, he was the author of the "Story of the Book of Mormon," "The Dictionary of the Book of Mormon" and "The Concordance of the Book of Mormon." He was secretary to the First Presidency of the Church during a part of the administration of President Brigham Young and filled the same position for all the First Presidencies up to the time of his demise, being constantly in the employ of the Church. For many years he was superintendent of the Twentieth Ward Sunday School, and at the time of his death was the oldest member of the Deseret Sunday School Union Board, being one of its officers since its inception. For many years he was a member of the general superintendency and its treasurer. He was also deeply interested in the affairs of the State schools. The "Deseret Evening News" of Aug. 10, 1909, commenting upon the life of George Reynolds, says: "Few men in the Church have been more incessantly devoted to the work of the last dispensation than the man who has just gone to his rest. His connection with the Church dates from his early boyhood and was the result of his individual conviction of the divinity of the message as he heard it declared by the missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-
day Saints. Before reaching his teens, he was preaching the gospel on the streets of London and ceased not to proclaim the glad tidings until the final summons of yesterday. To him the gospel was meat and drink, breath and life. . . . Elder George Reynolds has manifested earnestness, sincerity, devotion and power, such as come only through divine inspiration. As a patriarch he passes with honor, leaving a large posterity to emulate his noble example."
REYNOLDS, George, one of the seven presidents of Seventy. (Continued from Vol. 1, page 206.) Elder Reynolds continued his activities in the Church until 1907, when he had a breakdown, due to over work, from which he never fully recovered, and after long suffering passed peacefully to rest, Aug. 9, 1909, surrounded by his family, at his residence, at the corner of Wall and Apricot streets, on Capitol Hill, Salt Lake City. Through his extensive literary work and through his long association, a third of a century or more, with the Sunday school work and other prominent Church activities, Bro. Reynolds was as widely known as any man in Utah and wherever known, was universally esteemed for his honor, integrity and kindness of heart. He was a gifted writer. Besides writing a number of smaller works, he was the author of the "Story of the Book of Mormon," "The Dictionary of the Book of Mormon" and "The Concordance of the Book of Mormon." He was secretary to the First Presidency of the Church during a part of the administration of President Brigham Young and filled the same position for all the First Presidencies up to the time of his demise, being constantly in the employ of the Church. For many years he was superintendent of the Twentieth Ward Sunday School, and at the time of his death was the oldest member of the Deseret Sunday School Union Board, being one of its officers since its inception. For many years he was a member of the general superintendency and its treasurer. He was also deeply interested in the affairs of the State schools. The "Deseret Evening News" of Aug. 10, 1909, commenting upon the life of George Reynolds, says: "Few men in the Church have been more incessantly devoted to the work of the last dispensation than the man who has just gone to his rest. His connection with the Church dates from his early boyhood and was the result of his individual conviction of the divinity of the message as he heard it declared by the missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-
day Saints. Before reaching his teens, he was preaching the gospel on the streets of London and ceased not to proclaim the glad tidings until the final summons of yesterday. To him the gospel was meat and drink, breath and life. . . . Elder George Reynolds has manifested earnestness, sincerity, devotion and power, such as come only through divine inspiration. As a patriarch he passes with honor, leaving a large posterity to emulate his noble example."
Jenson, Andrew. "Reynolds, George." Biographical Encyclopedia. Volume 4. pg. 685.
REYNOLDS, George, a member of the board of directors of the Genealogical Society of Utah from 1894 to 1909, was born Jan. 1, 1842, in Marylebone, London, England, a son of George Reynolds and Julia Ann Tautz, and died Aug. 9, 1909, in Salt Lake City as one of the First Council of Seventies. (See Bio. Ency., Vol. 1, p. 206; Vol. 3, p. 771.)
REYNOLDS, George, a member of the board of directors of the Genealogical Society of Utah from 1894 to 1909, was born Jan. 1, 1842, in Marylebone, London, England, a son of George Reynolds and Julia Ann Tautz, and died Aug. 9, 1909, in Salt Lake City as one of the First Council of Seventies. (See Bio. Ency., Vol. 1, p. 206; Vol. 3, p. 771.)
T. Z. "Lives of Our Leaders - The First Council of the Seventy, George Reynolds." Juvenile Instructor. 1 July 1901. pg. 385-389.
LIVES OF OUR LEADERS.—THE FIRST COUNCIL OF THE SEVENTY. PRESIDENT GEORGE REYNOLDS. PRESIDENT GEORGE REYNOLDS was born in Marylebone, London, England, January 1st, 1842. His father, George Reynolds, belonged to Totnes, Devonshire; his mother, originally Miss Julia Ann Tautz, was of German descent. George's father was a master tailor in the West End of London, and the first that George heard of Mormonism was in a conversation among the workmen who were sitting, «tailor fashion," cross legged, in a circle round a large, upright gas burner on his father's shopboard. The men were talking about religion, and much to George's disgust, for he was then very young, probably about seven years old, he heard one of the men laughingly declare that his was no every day religion; he was going up to heaven in a balloon with both ends on fire. This sacrilegious speech drew the child's attention and he listened to what followed. Soon he heard the tailors talking of a young man in America who had discovered, in the ground, some plates which he had translated by the help of the Urim and Thummim. George had been told l)y some one that the Urim and Thummim mentioned in the Bible had been carried from Jerusalem to Rome by the Roman soldiery and had been lost in the River Tiber; and he could not understand how these holy things got to America. It never entered his mind that there could be more than one Urim and Thummim. George spent much of the early portion of his life with his maternal grandmother, that is, his mother's mother. When he was nine years old she lived in a large house, in London, parts of which she rented to two aged maiden ladies. One of these ladies had a little servant maid who was called Mary, though her real name was Sarah White.[1] Now George was a very timid little boy, he had a terrible fear of the darkness, he disliked the moonlight and was in terror of ghosts. One day he summoned up courage enough to speak to Mary, and the first thing he said was, “Mary, are you afraid of ghosts?” The acquaintance thus strangely begun, ripened into intimacy, and George, who was of a strongly religious nature, began making enquiries as to whether Mary went to church. Learning from her that she did, he obtained his grandma's permission to go with her. She took him to the meetings of the Paddington Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and he no sooner heard the principles of the Gospel taught by the Elders than he was satisfied of their truth and wished to be baptized. Then war began. He being so young, the brethren would not baptize him without his parents' consent; and notwithstanding all his pleadings and persuasions they remained firm in their refusal and George had to remain unbaptized for several years. In the meantime, George, by many childish artifices, used to evade his parents' wishes and now and then attend the meetings and visit the Saints whom he had met. As the years rolled by, the boy, with the feeling then so prevalent in the Church that the coming of the Savior in glory was «nigh, nigh at hand," made an elaborate mathematical calculation that before he was twenty- one years old Christ would come. Consequently, if he had to wait until he was that age before he could be baptized without his parents' consent he would be outside the Church at the time of that glorious appearing and would be damned. So, when fourteen years old he went to another branch of the Church (the Somers Town) where he was not known, and asked for baptism. He was baptized Sunday, May 4th, 1856, and the next Sunday was confirmed by Elder George Teasdale, who was then president of the branch. The Lord in His kindness had given George a testimony of the truth of Mormonism long before he was baptized, for it was not his fault that he had not obeyed this sacred ordinance, or as we sometimes say, the Lord “took the will for the deed.” In the December following his baptism George was ordained a Deacon, and if you were to ask him he would tell you he never magnified any office in the Church as well as he did that one. He took a pride in never being absent from meeting, and in being there the very first to open the doors and prepare the rooms. The next May he was ordained a Priest and sent out, with an older companion, to preach in the streets of London. He was small of his age, and occasionally some youthful listener about his own age would advise him to get a sheet of brown paper to stand upon so that the people could see him. The first time he went out, a few days after his ordination as a Priest, his companion was Elder Francis Burrell (long since deceased) who chose that well-known London thoroughfare, the Tottenham Court Road, as the place to hold forth. He borrowed a chair, mounted it and began to talk of the Kingdom of God: That the Kingdom would necessarily have a king, territory, laws and officers. «And here comes one," cried a voice in the crowd. Then a policeman appeared and ordered Brother Burrell to «move on,)) as no preaching was permitted at that corner. So they moved on. George was not altogether sorry. He used in those days to wear a little round jacket like those we see in the pictures of the boys of Eton and other English public schools. He came to the conclusion that if he bought a coat, he would look more like a man and people would listen to him better. Before the next Sunday he did so, but it was not altogether a success — to use an expression of a facetious friend, “It fitted him like a sentry box, all over and touched nowhere." In plain English it was too large. But it answered its purpose. George felt more of a man in it, and he took great pleasure in bearing his testimony week after week, year after year at the street corners. George's parents soon discovered that he had joined the Church, and then that he was engaged in street preaching. His father used to talk to his customers about the matter. One advised that he tie his son up to the bed post and thrash Mormonism out of him; another that the boy be confined in a lunatic asylum, a third that he be taken before a magistrate and committed to prison; but “in a multitude of counselors there was safety” for George, for his father never adopted any of these harsh measures, and by degrees became reconciled to the course his son was taking. George, notwithstanding his youth, soon had numerous duties conferred upon him. He was made secretary of the branch Sunday School; secretary and afterwards president of its tract society; he was appointed an acting teacher, and the secretary of the branch. In August, 1860, he was ordained an Elder, and in May, 1861, he was called into the traveling ministry and appointed to labor in the London conference under the presidency of the late Elder William C. Staines. In 1863 he was changed to the Liverpool office, as emigration clerk to President George Q Cannon, and later as chief clerk, in which capacity he also served under President Daniel H. Wells. During this time he was made superintendent of the Liverpool Branch Sunday School and afterward President of the branch. In May, 1865, he was released to emigrate to Zion, and reached Salt Lake City July 5th of the same year. His trip to Zion was an unusually quick one for that period, as he did not travel with any regular company of immigrants, but had only two companions—Elders W. S. Godbe and W. H. Shearman. It was the time of the Sioux war, the stage company could not take them, so Brother Godbe purchased an outfit, and after a few adventures, such as being chased by the hostile Indians, they arrived safe in Salt Lake City. Shortly after his arrival in Salt Lake City, Brother Reynolds secured employment from Brother William Jennings, but before the close of the year he went to work in President Young's office, and soon after became his secretary. His time has been engaged, with brief exceptions, in the employ of the Church from that time to the present. Soon after his arrival in Utah, Brother Reynolds joined the Territorial Militia—the old Nauvoo Legion. He was a lieutenant in the third regiment of infantry, and secretary of the regiment. In the former capacity he commanded Company H at the famous Wooden Gun Rebellion, in November, 1870,. but, unlike most of the other officers, he was not arrested and sent to Camp Douglas. In February, 1869, Elder Reynolds was elected by the Legislative Assembly of the Territory a member of the board of regency of the University of Deseret, and was again elected to that office by the next and later legislatures. In May, 1871, Brother Reynolds returned to Europe, he having been called to assist Elder Albert Carrington in the editorship of the Millennial Star. In the following September President Carrington was called back to Zion on account of complications growing out of legal persecutions, and Elder Reynolds was left in charge of the spiritual concerns of the European Mission. Shortly before this he had suffered a severe attack of smallpox, and on President Carrington's return to Liverpool, in May, 1872, Brother Reynolds was released to return home, as his. health remained quite poor. Soon after his return he was placed by President Brigham Young first as treasurer and afterwards as manager of the Salt Lake Theatre. He later, in connection with W. T. Harris, became lessee of that well-known place of amusement. From 1875 to July, 1879, Brother Reynolds, sat as a member of the municipal council of Salt Lake City. In the fall of 1874, when Judge McKeam was chief justice of Utah, strong efforts were made to find indictments, under the Congressional law of 1862 against polygamy, and the arrest of a number of the leading authorities of the Church was threatened. The Latter-day Saints, believing this law to be unconstitutional, and that it would be so declared by the Supreme Court of the United States, the representatives of the Church agreed to furnish a test case. This idea the federal officers readily accepted and agreed to give the accused a fair trial so that the constitutionality of the law could be decided. Brother Reynolds was chosen to stand in the gap. He furnished the witnesses and testimony to the grand jury, and on October 23, that body found a true bill against him. On March 31, 1875, his trial before Judge Emerson commenced. It lasted two days. He was found guilty and sentenced to one year's imprisonment and to pay a fine of three hundred dollars. He appealed to the Supreme Court of the territory, who set the indictment aside on the ground of the illegality of the grand jury who found it. On October 30 another indictment was found against him, and on December 9 his second trial commenced, this time before Chief Justice White. The jury returned a verdict of guilty and he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment with hard labor and to pay a fine of five hundred dollars. An appeal to the Territorial Supreme Court was again taken. The case came up June 13, 1876, and the decision of the lower court was unanimously sustained. An appeal was then taken to the Supreme Court of the United States, but the case was not called up until November 14, 1878. On January 6, 1879, Chief Justice Waite delivered the decision of the court confirming the decisions of the lower courts; the hard labor clause being eliminated by the Supreme Court as being in excess of the law. The corrected sentence was pronounced by the district court on June 14, 1879, and on the 16th Brother Reynolds started, in charge of two deputy marshals, for the Nebraska State penitentiary at Lincoln. There he was shaved, had his hair cropped close, was dressed in the broad blue and white stripes, and became known as U. S. Prisoner, No. 14. He was appointed bookkeeper in the knitting department. The Lincoln penitentiary was then carried on under the silent system. No prisoner was allowed to speak outside the cells. There were two prisoners in each cell; Brother Reynolds' cell mate was a party by the name of Johnson, convicted of burglary. When the prisoners left their cells for the work shops they always walked in the lock step. His right hand used to be on the shoulder of a murderer, while the burglar had his right hand on Brother Reynolds. He only remained in Lincoln twenty-five days—very long ones to him—when he was brought back to Utah and placed in the Territorial penitentiary. .In those days things were pretty rough at that institution, its regulations were very primitive, and vermin was abundant. There were no cells. Brother Reynolds was placed in one of the iron cages which were contained in a thin lumber building and had Brother Lorenzo Col ton as his companion. A new bunk house was shortly after built. Into it Brother Reynolds was transferred. It was made of two-by-four green lumber. There was a crack every two inches through which the winter winds blew. No fire was permitted for fear the prisoners might burn it down. The thermometer is said to have gone down to thirty degrees below zero, and how some of the prisoners who had only one shoddy blanket to cover them escaped being frozen to death is a mystery. Brother Reynolds was supplied with plenty of bed clothing by his friends, but he generally went to bed with all his clothes on and a woolen comforter wrapped around his head. In the morning his beard would be one solid mass of ice. More bed clothing only added to the weight, it did not increase the warmth. He was released on January 20, 1881, having served his full time, less his good conduct allowance. While in prison Brother Reynolds did a great deal of writing in the prison yard, and for some time taught a school composed of prisoners. Ever since his arrival in Utah, Elder Reynolds has taken an active interest in Sunday Schools. In 1867 he was secretary of the Eight Ward, (Salt Lake City,) Sunday School and the teacher of the boys' Bible class. Having removed his residence to the Twentieth Ward, he became, in 1868, librarian and a teacher in its Sunday School, and in December, 1869, was chosen its superintendent. This position he retained (with the exception of the periods of his absence on his mission and during his imprisonment) until the spring of 1885. Brother Reynolds is now the oldest member of the Board of the Deseret Sunday School Union. He has been the general treasurer of the Union since February, 1876—more than a quarter of a century. At the Sunday School Convention held last November he was chosen second assistant general superintendent, and at the reorganization of the superintendency a few weeks ago, owing to the deaths of Superintendents Cannon and Maeser, he was appointed first assistant general superintendent. Brother Reynolds has been a very diligent and zealous worker in the Sunday School Union—especially as the chairman of several standing committees of its Board. On March 18, 1866, Elder Reynolds was ordained a Seventy by Elder Israel Barlow, and received into the sixth quorum. In December, 1875, he was transferred to the twenty-fourth quorum and became a member of the council of that quorum. At the April conference, 1890, he was sustained as one of the first seven presidents of the Seventy. He was set apart to that position by the Twelve Apostles, President Lorenzo Snow being mouth, on the 10th of the same month. Brother Reynolds has done much literary work in connection with the publications of the Church. At times he has acted as an associate editor on the Deseret News, and also as assistant to President Cannon on the Juvenile Instructor, of which latter periodical he is today one of the associate editors. He has also written a number of books, of which the best known are his “Story” and his “Dictionary of the Book of Mormon." For twenty-one years he has been engaged in the preparation of a "Concordance of the Book of Mormon.” This is a work the magnitude of which few, who have not undertaken something similar, can understand. Its publication has been retarded by unexpected difficulties, but it is now in the hands of the printer. Besides the callings he has held in the Church and in connection with its auxiliary organizations, the subject of this sketch has occupied a number of positions in the business community, for instance, as a director of Z. C. M. I., of Zion's Savings Bank, of the Deseret Telegraph Line, etc., etc. He is a strong believer in the divinity of the United Order, and at the time President Brigham Young was seeking to establish it among the Saints, Brother Reynolds was an officer in the original order. No. 1, and of the local organization where he resided. Elder Reynolds is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. T. Z. [1] Now the wife of Bishop William Thorne, Seventh Ward, Salt Lake City. |
President George Reynolds
|
"George Reynolds." Improvement Era. September 1909. pg. 927.
George Reynolds.—Shortly after 2 o'clock on Monday, August 9, 1909, Elder George Reynolds died at his home in Salt Lake City. With his passing, a great and noble life was brought to a close. He acted as secretary to each of the presidents of the Church, from President Brigham Young to President Joseph F. Smith, inclusive. Besides being one of the First Council of Seventy, he was one of the oldest members of the Deseret Sunday School Union Board, the author of many valuable books, and a general and faithful Church worker, all his life. Elder Reynolds was born in London, England, January 1, 1842, and joined the Church May 4, 1856, being confirmed by the late Elder George Teasdale. He immediately became an earnest worker, filling many positions of honor while he remained in England. He came to Utah in July, 1865, and about the close of that year secured a position in the office of President Young, and since then, with very brief exceptions, he has been in the employ of the Church. He was a member of the Territorial militia, a member of the legislative assembly of 1869, a member of the Board of Regents University of Deseret (now Utah), director of Z. C. M.I., Zion's Savings Bank, and the Deseret Telegraph Co., treasurer and manager of the Salt Lake theatre, and a city councilman of Salt Lake City from 1875 to '79. In 1871 he was associate editor of the Millennial Star. In the polygamy test case he was chosen to stand in the gap while the law of 1862 was tested as to its constitutionality, being finally sent to prison June 14, 1879, from which he was released Jan. 20, 1881. While in prison he pursued his literary labors. In the Sunday schools he did much active work, and in Nov., 1900, was chosen second assistant general superintendent, and on the death of General Superintendent George Q. Cannon, in 1901, was made first assistant, which place he held up to a few months ago, when he was compelled to give up this work owing to ill health. In 1890, at the April conference, he was chosen a member of the First Council of Seventy, which place he held until his death. In writing he was very active, and was for a long time associate editor of the Juvenile Instructor. His books Story and Dictionary of the Book of Mormon are well known, also his treatise on the Book of Abraham and Are we of Israeli and his last work, begun in prison, is the crowning effort of a patient and painstaking life, A Concordance of the Book of Mormon, for which students of the Nephite scripture will bless and gratefully remember him for ages to come. Well might President Joseph F. Smith say at his funeral services, which were held in Barratt Hall on the morning of August 12, that the Church in losing George Reynolds had lost a great man and a great helper. He has kept every law, ordinance, covenant and revelation, and to him was given every key and gift and authority bestowed upon the Holy Priesthood in any dispensation known in time." Elder Reynolds was faithful in every calling, and his only failing wa3 that he took upon himself more responsibility and work than he should have taken for his own physical welfare and strength. He was buried in the city cemetery. Besides President Smith, who presided at the services, other speakers were his associates in the First Council of Seventy, Dr. Seymour B. Young, Elders B. H. Roberts, Rulon S. Wells, and Joseph W. McMurrin, also President John R. Winder and Elder Heber J. Grant. |
ELDER GEORGE REYNOLDS,
Author of many Church works and member of First Council of Seventy. Born January 1, 1842; Died August 9, 1909 (see page 927). |
"Elder George Reynolds." Juvenile Instructor. September 1909. pg. 354-357.
Elder George Reynolds. Elder George Reynolds died at his home in Salt Lake City on Monday, August 9th, shortly after 2 o'clock in the afternoon. This announcement will bring sorrow to thousands who have been honored in personal acquaintance with Brother Reynolds, and to many thousands more who have known him through his work alone. As a representative of the great Sunday School cause he ranked as a veteran. For over forty years he was an active Sunday School officer in ward, stake, or general capacity, and for a full third of a century held high positions as an officer of the Deseret Sunday School Union Board. Early in 1876 he was made General Treasurer of the Deseret Sunday School Union ; in November, 1900, he became Second Assistant General Superintendent, and in June, 1901, he was made First Assistant in the General Superintendency. From the last named office he was honorably released in April, 1909, owing to continued ill health. The Sunday School cause, however, was but part of the labor to which his life was devoted; his talents and energies have been utilized in many departments of Church activity. Since April, 1890, he has been one of the First Council of Seventies, and his associates in that high quorum bear loving testimony to his devotion and efficiency. Though engaged with many duties and charged with numerous responsibilities in connection with his official positions, he made for himself opportunity for literary work; and his contributions to the literature of the Church constitutes an enduring monument to his memory. Among the earlier productions of his pen are the treatises entitled "The Book of Abraham," "Are We of Israel:" and "The .Myth of the Manuscript hound." Among his later and larger publications are the "Dictionary of the I look of Mormon," "The Story of the Book of Mormon," and the "Book of Mormon Concordance." The last named work is the embodiment of a stupendous undertaking, most success fully accomplished. One of the speakers at the funeral services declared that whatever Brother Reynolds undertook to do he did so well as to make unnecessary a repetition of the labor by later workers, and in illustration of the fact cited the "Concordance" named above. It has been said that to study biography is to study history by example. Any one who becomes familiar with the life of George Reynolds will be versed in the principal events of the history of the Church during the period covered by that life. It is not the purpose of the present writing to present in detail a biography of the great man who has just been called away. The columns of the Juvenile Instructor to which he was one of the earliest contributors, have been opened in past years to sketches of his life ; and the reader will find much of instruction and encouragement in articles that appeared in Vol. 36, page 385, and Vol. 43, pages 5 to 8. George Reynolds joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of his own volition and in the face of strenuous opposition from friends and relatives, while he was yet of tender years. Within a year after his baptism we find him devoted to missionary work, accompanying the elders of the Church, and taking part with them in openair meetings on the streets of London. Neither ridicule nor abuse could turn him from the work he had undertaken ; from the time he received his testimony as to the truth of the Gospel he was never tempted to look back with desire to return to the old ways. He left the land of his birth and immigrated to the gathering-place of the Saints in 1865, arriving in Salt Lake City in July of that year. At this time he was 23 years of age. After a short period of service in the mercantile business, he was called to a clerical position in the office of the President of the Church ; and from that time to the day of his death knew no other occupation than that of devotion to Church interests and labor. In 1871 he returned to his native land and there served a short term in the missionary field. He was soon recalled to Utah, where he resumed his labors at the Church headquarters. He has been the confidential secretary and trusted representative of each president of the Church, from the time of President Brigham Young to the present. One item of his willing service in the cause of the Church stands as a unique example of devotion and self-sacrifice. As is known to students of Utah history, the so-called anti-polygamy law of 1862 remained practically a dead letter for years after its enactment. It was held by many that the law was unconstitutional in that it interfered with individual rights of conscience and religious freedom. In 1874 an agreement was made between the federal officers and representatives of the Church to test the validity of the law in question, and to this end a case was to be tried in which the defendant would furnish all the evidence against himself. Elder George Reynolds offered himself as the victim for the trial. The proceedings were long and complicated, and not until June. 1879, was effective sentence pronounced. The defendant had been found guilty, and suffered imprisonment and fine in consequence. Brother Reynolds was interested in every phase of human thought and advancement. He was not only a hard worker; he was orderly and methodical in all that he did. His mind was of the scientific type, investigative, analytical, judicial. In recognition of his interest in Anthropology, he was elected a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in 1894. Brother Reynolds was born in London, England, January 1, 1842, and was therefore in the 68th year of his age at the time of death. As reckoned in years, he did in it live to become an old man, having been summoned home before rounding out the three-score years and ten. But if his age be counted in deeds and devotion, his life was full and complete, and he has been gathered as a sheaf fully ripe. He died as he had lived, a patriarch in Israel, and leaves a large and worthy Family to continue his good work in the cause of redemption. The Church has been strengthened by his labors, the cause of truth has been advanced by his efforts: the world is better for his having lived. |
ELDER GEORGE REYNOLDS.
|
"President George Reynolds." Juvenile Instructor. September 1909. pg. 385-386.
President George Reynolds.
On August twelfth, the remains of President George Reynolds were laid to rest in the Salt Lake City cemetery. The funeral service was held in the morning at Barratt Hall.
There can be no question but that all those who were present at the service were impressed with the beautiful spirit of peace and rest that pervaded the assembly, and the sincere expressions of love and honor made by the speakers. President George Reynolds was our of the rare men of the earth. He was a choice spirit, devoted to the work of God, above—far above—the sordid things of earth.
George Reynolds was a highly gifted man withal. Not only was he thoroughly informed on all points of doctrine and Church practice, but he was endowed with superior literary gifts. His contributions to Church literature are among the most notable productions of our religious press. Some of the work President Reynolds has done is definitive : it will never need to be done again. Among the most noteworthy of President Reynolds's works are "The Myth of the Manuscript Found ;" "Are We of Israel?" "Dictionary of the Book of Mormon;" "Story of the Book of Mormon ;" the scholarly treatise on the Book of Abraham; and the monumental "Concordance of the Book of Mormon." The last named work is truly a monument to President Reynolds's persevering, indefatigable energy. To its production he devoted ten long, laborful years of his life, not counting the many years before that made it possible to undertake the work. The Book of Mormon Concordance is a work of some 851 octavo pages. There are mine than 70,000 references to passages in the Book of Mormon. The only other work comparable to it is Cruden's Complete Concordance to the Bible,
By his friends. President Reynolds is described as a most modest and humble man. Like Muses of old, he was very meek, above all the men upon the face of the earth. To the stranger he may possibly have appeared austere; but in truth his heart was kindness itself. He was thoroughly informed on all conceivable subjects. His intimate friends spoke of him as an open history of the world. Yet in council with his brethren, or while imparting information to those who sought him, President Reynolds was unassuming and meek. Indeed, one of the most remarkable qualities of this great, good man was his humility.
Always President George Reynolds was a worker. He knew but little of rest, and nothing at all of idleness. If he had a fault, it was that he accepted too much work. He wore himself out too soon. But through the long and strenuous life he was faithful to the end- Neither work nor worry caused him to swerve in the least from his path. He fulfilled a great mission. No more can be done by man than was done by President George Reynolds.
Now Brother Reynolds is gone. The great Sunday School cause will miss him. All who knew him, love him for his virtues—for his spotless honor—for the beautiful example he has set. And we shall remember President George Reynolds. His is one of those characters that grow, and become more profoundly appreciated, when their possessors are passed. We thank God for the life and work of this good man. May we now be able to emulate him, and to follow where he has led.
President George Reynolds.
On August twelfth, the remains of President George Reynolds were laid to rest in the Salt Lake City cemetery. The funeral service was held in the morning at Barratt Hall.
There can be no question but that all those who were present at the service were impressed with the beautiful spirit of peace and rest that pervaded the assembly, and the sincere expressions of love and honor made by the speakers. President George Reynolds was our of the rare men of the earth. He was a choice spirit, devoted to the work of God, above—far above—the sordid things of earth.
George Reynolds was a highly gifted man withal. Not only was he thoroughly informed on all points of doctrine and Church practice, but he was endowed with superior literary gifts. His contributions to Church literature are among the most notable productions of our religious press. Some of the work President Reynolds has done is definitive : it will never need to be done again. Among the most noteworthy of President Reynolds's works are "The Myth of the Manuscript Found ;" "Are We of Israel?" "Dictionary of the Book of Mormon;" "Story of the Book of Mormon ;" the scholarly treatise on the Book of Abraham; and the monumental "Concordance of the Book of Mormon." The last named work is truly a monument to President Reynolds's persevering, indefatigable energy. To its production he devoted ten long, laborful years of his life, not counting the many years before that made it possible to undertake the work. The Book of Mormon Concordance is a work of some 851 octavo pages. There are mine than 70,000 references to passages in the Book of Mormon. The only other work comparable to it is Cruden's Complete Concordance to the Bible,
By his friends. President Reynolds is described as a most modest and humble man. Like Muses of old, he was very meek, above all the men upon the face of the earth. To the stranger he may possibly have appeared austere; but in truth his heart was kindness itself. He was thoroughly informed on all conceivable subjects. His intimate friends spoke of him as an open history of the world. Yet in council with his brethren, or while imparting information to those who sought him, President Reynolds was unassuming and meek. Indeed, one of the most remarkable qualities of this great, good man was his humility.
Always President George Reynolds was a worker. He knew but little of rest, and nothing at all of idleness. If he had a fault, it was that he accepted too much work. He wore himself out too soon. But through the long and strenuous life he was faithful to the end- Neither work nor worry caused him to swerve in the least from his path. He fulfilled a great mission. No more can be done by man than was done by President George Reynolds.
Now Brother Reynolds is gone. The great Sunday School cause will miss him. All who knew him, love him for his virtues—for his spotless honor—for the beautiful example he has set. And we shall remember President George Reynolds. His is one of those characters that grow, and become more profoundly appreciated, when their possessors are passed. We thank God for the life and work of this good man. May we now be able to emulate him, and to follow where he has led.
"George Reynolds." Young Woman's Journal. September 1909. pg. 463-464.
George Reynolds.
In the death of George Reynolds the Church loses one ’of its most earnest and useful members. He has done much in the Master’s service as a missionary, as secretary to the First Presidency, as a zealous Sabbath School worker, as a member of the first council of seventies, and as a writer, Brother Reynolds was so quiet and unassuming that very few knew what a fund of information he possessed, but his intimate friends often marveled at his knowledge not only concerning things religious, but also at his grasp of world events and history.
Brother Reynolds will live through his books. There has been no more careful student of the Book of Mormon than was he and his “Story of the Book of Mormon,” “The Dictionary to the Book of Mormon” and “Concordance to the Book of Mormon” will prove a pleasure and a help to countless thousands.
To his family he has left the priceless legacy of an untarnished name, the example of a pure, upright, devoted life. May they follow in the footsteps of their worthy father.
Surely unto this good man will this welcome invitation be extended: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou has been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”
George Reynolds.
In the death of George Reynolds the Church loses one ’of its most earnest and useful members. He has done much in the Master’s service as a missionary, as secretary to the First Presidency, as a zealous Sabbath School worker, as a member of the first council of seventies, and as a writer, Brother Reynolds was so quiet and unassuming that very few knew what a fund of information he possessed, but his intimate friends often marveled at his knowledge not only concerning things religious, but also at his grasp of world events and history.
Brother Reynolds will live through his books. There has been no more careful student of the Book of Mormon than was he and his “Story of the Book of Mormon,” “The Dictionary to the Book of Mormon” and “Concordance to the Book of Mormon” will prove a pleasure and a help to countless thousands.
To his family he has left the priceless legacy of an untarnished name, the example of a pure, upright, devoted life. May they follow in the footsteps of their worthy father.
Surely unto this good man will this welcome invitation be extended: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant; thou has been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”
Ashton, Wendall J. "George Reynolds." Instructor. November 1949. pg. 542-545.
George Reynolds WENDELL J. ASHTON Services in the great-domed Salt Lake Tabernacle had concluded. Among the people streaming out of high-walled Temple Square was a thin, little man with some of his children. His was a well-formed face, with sharp, violet-blue eyes behind metal-rimmed glasses; and he had a luxuriant gray beard. He was pin-neat in his long, black frock coat. As the little man walked homeward, his small pig-tailed daughter shot a surprise question at him. The conversation that followed went something like this: "Daddy, I peeked when you were praying in the Tabernacle." "You did, sweetheart?" "Yes. And your eyes were open, Daddy. Why didn't you shut them when you were praying?" "Because, my dear, . . . because I am not at all afraid of the Lord." George Reynolds, one of the all-time stalwarts in the Sunday School cause of the Church, was like that. He was fearless toward his God. He was ever loyal to his latter-day leaders. Yet, brilliant, meticulous George Reynolds was shy toward people—so shy that ofttimes when he spoke at the rostrum he closed his eyes in fear of the audience before him. Few men in the history of the Church served longer and with more responsibility in the Sunday School cause than this scholarly son of a London tailor—a son who, according to family tradition, could read from the Bible at three years of age. For 31 years, George Reynolds was general treasurer of the Deseret Sunday School Union. He was second assistant general superintendent for two years and first assistant for eight years. During the entire eight years he was first assistant, the general superintendent was the president of the Church. First it was President Lorenzo Snow, and then President Joseph F. Smith. Because of the many heavy demands upon the president, much of the direction of the Sabbath Schools rested upon the sloped shoulders of humble George Reynolds, who liked to tell his children, "Don't blow your own horn. Act so that your actions speak for you." George Reynolds toiled hard for the Sunday School cause. During most of the years he was general treasurer, the Union depended upon concerts, excursions, entertainments, and its publications for funds to operate. It was while he was treasurer that the "Nickel Fund" was instituted. It later became the "Dime Fund." Brother Reynolds traveled far for the Sabbath schools, in the days of team and wagon, when roads were thick with dust and sharp with rocks. It seemed that no outpost was too far away for him to visit. Once, during the nineties, while Brother Reynolds was on a Sunday School convention tour into the southeastern wilds of Utah, the area was hit by a terrifying hurricane that leveled trees and "moved mountains of dust." His companion on the tour was a longtime associate in the high Sunday School councils—another little man with a huge beard, George Goddard of the general superintendency. On another occasion, Elder Reynolds made a Sunday School visit to "Wyoming's rugged Big Horn country, when the settlers there were still meeting in tents. Among the noteworthy contributions that George Reynolds made to the Sunday Schools of the Church were his charts and literature on the Book of Mormon. He helped tremendously to make its message understandable to the child and its import appreciated by the scholar. For years his Story of the Book of Mormon was a favorite. He also wrote Dictionary of the Book of Mormon. His most momentous work was Concordance of the Book of Mormon, a huge 851-page, small-type volume that was twenty-one years in preparation. Often it was a regular day's schedule of George Reynolds to rise at 5:00 a.m. and toil, with two pair of glasses, on his concordance before breakfast and retire to his room after dinner to resume his task. This was done while he carried a heavy load at his office during the day. George Reynolds' service in the Sunday School began when he was still in his teens, in England, not long after he had joined the Church at fourteen and begun preaching the gospel on London's streets, wearing "a little round jacket like those we see in the pictures of the boys of Eton." He was named branch Sunday School secretary. London was his home. He had been born there on New Year's day, 1842. Later he was transferred to Liverpool; and there, in that great port along the murky Mersey River, he became Sunday School superintendent of the branch. He also served in the mission office as emigration clerk to President George Q. Cannon. President Cannon four years later became the first, general superintendent of the Sunday Schools, and for years George Reynolds was general treasurer under him. When young George emigrated to America about the time of Lincoln's assassination, a Sioux war was raging on the plains. One of his two companions purchased an outfit, and the three crossed the prairies. Once they were chased by Indians, but arrived safe in Salt Lake City. Soon after his arrival, George became secretary to President Brigham Young. He was also elected to the territorial legislative assembly and was named to the board of regents of the University of Deseret (Utah, now) . After a mission to Britain, where he did much of the editing of the Millennial Star, Elder Reynolds became manager of the famed Salt Lake Theatre. For four years he was a member of Salt Lake City's municipal council. During the trying seventies, his was the test case, before the United States Supreme Court, of the national antipolygamy law. He was placed in the unheated, crack-filled, territorial penitentiary, where the temperature is said to have dipped to "thirty below." He was supplied plenty of bedding, but at least once he awoke with his beard "one solid mass of ice." During his trials and his triumphs in Utah, George Reynolds usually was a Sabbath school leader. Not long after his arrival in the sixties, he was serving as secretary and teacher in the Eighth Ward Sunday School. Later he was teacher and librarian in the Twentieth Ward. Then he became superintendent. Except for a mission and his imprisonment, he was superintendent for 16 years. He was named a member of the general board in 1876, the year before President Young died. Fourteen years later, George Reynolds became one of the General Authorities, one of the First Seven Presidents of Seventies. He held this position as well as that on the general board until his death August 9, 1909, at Salt Lake City, Utah. Death might have come to him years before, when he had a severe case of smallpox in England. George Reynolds had previously been vaccinated for the disease, but it struck him anyway. It left him weak and with a pock-marked face. For that reason, George Reynolds opposed the vaccination of his children. But one day he surprised his wife Mary and told her to bathe all the children in the tin kitchen tub. The children of his other wife, Amelia, were coming over. All the children were to be vaccinated for smallpox. Why this turnabout, the wives wondered. The answer was simple for George Reynolds. That day, venerable President Lorenzo Snow had called a meeting of the General Authorities. He had advised them all to have their families vaccinated for smallpox. During the meeting, Elder Reynolds had sat near Elder Seymour B. Young of the First Council of the Seventy, a physician. Almost immediately Elder Reynolds had turned to him and arranged for his families to be vaccinated. (All subsequently escaped the epidemic—except one son, out of town when Seymour B. Young called.) The life of George Reynolds was like that. His mind was that of a profound scholar. His faith was that of a child. A combination like that is what helps make Sunday School leaders great. |
GEORGE REYNOLDS
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