JOHN McREYNOLDS - One of the substantial farmers of Honey Point township, was born on Ridge Prairie, in Madison county, April 1st, 1835.
His ancestors were Scotch-Irish, who emigrated to Pennsylvania at an early date, first settling in Massachusetts, and afterward residing in Canada, Pennsylvania and Virginia. His grandfather, Benjamin McReynolds, was a Methodist preacher, who settled in Butler county, Kentucky. His father, Thomas Jefferson McReynolds, was born in Logan county, Kentucky, in 1803, and first came to Illinois in the year 1823, and remained for a few months on the Mole Star in the present counties of Scott and Cass. From Illinois he went to New Orleans, and from there to Mexico and South America. He returned to Kentucky, and in 1826 married Sarah J. Dixon, before settling in Kentucky. Mr. McReynolds� mother was born in 1809. His marriage took place in Butler county, Kentucky, to which part of the state of Dixon and McReynolds had moved so that they might pasture their cattle on the cane-brakes which there abounded. After his marriage Mr. McReynolds� father went into the saw-mill business in Kentucky, in partnership with his father-in-law, William Dixon. About 1833 he moved to Madison county, Illinois, where he lived till 1836, and then came to Macoupin county, where he entered the south half of section 31 of Honey Point township, and also a large tract in Brush Mound township. He lived on section 24, of Brushy Mound township till his death in October, 1869. He was a man of energy, and had many striking traits of character. His family connections in Kentucky were quite wealthy, and he came in the possession of a number of slaves, but was opposed to slavery, and so set the negroes free. When he came to Illinois he only had a horse and fifteen dollars in money, but with his industry and energy he was successful in life and managed to secure a competence. He was a decided anti-slavery man before the slavery question assumed the nation importance it attained at the birth of the republican party, and on the formation of the republican party, was a republican. He had six children, of whom only two, John McReynolds and D. McReynolds, of Montgomery county, are now living. John McReynolds was a little over a year old when his father moved to Macoupin county. He was raised in Brushy Mound township. January, 1864, he married Lydia J. Davis, daughter of Stephen Davis, an old resident of Madison county, and moved on his present farm, which he had improved four or five years previously. He owns 969 acres of land.