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THOMAS J. REYNOLDS
Adversity furnishes the final test of character. With discouragements on every hand to retard progress, only the
man of determination rises supreme over every obstacle and achieves success in the face of seeming defeat. It was
the fate of Mr. Reynolds to meet discouragement in youth and whatever of success he has achieved, whatever of prominence
he has gained, may be attributed to his own indomitable perseverance. Destiny gave him to an old southern home,
impoverished by the Civil war, sunken in fortune, but retaining in the midst of poverty the refined tastes of the
aristocratic class. In a brave struggle to attain independence he had many obstacles and more than once lost his
little all, which forced him to start anew in the world. It was as a day laborer that he earned his first money
after he came to California and even after he had risen to a more responsible position he still found the pathway
of progress strewn with difficulties. Eventually he became one of the leading business men of Arlington and here
he still remains, honored and esteemed for the persevering industry with which he has labored.
Born in Dooly county, Ga., June 8, 1861, Thomas J. Reynolds is a son of Fielding and Mary P. Reynolds, members
of old southern families. On account of the impoverishment of the community by the Civil war he had meager educational
advantages and he left school in order to help his father on the home farm. In 1884 he started out to make his
own way in the world, his first location being Eustis, Lake county, Fla., where he bought an orange grove. Untimely
frosts, however, made the venture an unprofitable one and in 1889 he disposed of the property, after which he came
to California to start again in the world. For two years he was employed as a laborer with Frost & Burgess
and for three succeeding years he had charge of a large ranch at Palm Springs, Cal., from which place he returned
to Riverside and assumed the management of the Home Nursery Company's property at Highgrove, a suburb of Riverside.
After resigning that position in 1893 he secured employment with other parties and for a time was employed by the
late Hon. J. A. Hewitt. Going next to Redlands, he had charge of a ranch owned by George Frost of Riverside and
for two years continued in that capacity.
Upon his arrival in Arlington, Riverside county, Mr. Reynolds secured employment as a clerk in the Ormsby retail
grocery and continued in that position until 1900, when he bought out his employer. From that time he was prospered
until, through no fault of his own, he suffered a heavy loss. On the 12th of July, 1910, the explosion of a lamp
in a neighboring shoe shop burned down that building and his own as well, leaving him a heavy loser by the catastrophe.
Since then he has engaged in the hardware business at Arlington. A large circle of friends bears testimony as to
his honorable dealings in business, his courtesy as a neighbor, his accommodating spirit as a friend and his enterprise
as a citizen, while in the Methodist Episcopal Church, to which he belongs, he is regarded as a conscientious Christian
and a generous helper in all religious measures. The cause of prohibition has appealed to him with especial force
and has induced him to give support to the party pledged to its enforcement, for he believes the indiscriminate
sale of liquors to be one of the greatest detriments to national advancement. His family consists of wife and daughter,
the latter, Blanche, now a student in the Riverside high school. His wife, Ella (Tisdale) Reynolds, a lady of genial
manner and unfailing tact, is a native of Ware, Mass. She came to Riverside prior to her marriage, which occurred
on June 1, 1892.
From:
History of Riverside County, California
With a Biographical Review
History by Elmer Wallace Holmes
And other well known writers
Historic Record Company
Los Angeles, California 1912
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