Reynolds, Henry Lee, fl. 1852-1884.

Henry Lee Reynolds was a native of Norwich, Conn., merchant and cotton factor of Mobile, Ala., and New York City. Also represented are members of his family, including his wife, Mary Wilson Hill Reynolds; his father-in- law, Rev. Stephen Prescott Hill, Baptist minister of Washington, D.C.; and his son-in-law, Gardiner Greene (1851-1925), judge of the Connecticut superior court and state legislator.

From the description of Henry Lee Reynolds papers, 1802-1924. WorldCat record id: 24111430

Papers show that Henry Lee Reynolds of Norwich, Connecticut, was in business in Mobile, Alabama, as early as 1852, first with William A. Witherspoon in Reynolds, Witherspoon, & Co., importers, manufacturers, and dealers in hardware ...iron and nails ...cooking stoves ...cutlery ...tools ...and house furnishing articles of every description. The firm also received cotton on its accounts and sold it on the market. By 1860, Reynolds's associates were Jack P. Richardson and James C. Reynolds, Henry's nephew, and his firm was called H. L. Reynolds & Co.

In September 1861, Henry Lee Reynolds was arrested in the north by federal agents. After being detained at Fort Lafayette for two weeks, he was paroled in Washington, D.C., but not permitted to return south. After the Civil War, Reynolds's base of business operations was in New York, with his nephews William C., James C., and Alfred C. Reynolds, managing his affairs in Mobile with his old partner, Jack P. Richardson and others. Sometime in 1865, Henry Lee Reynolds became associated with L. Jacquelin Smith, forming Reynolds, Smith & Co., commission merchants, at New York, with interests in Mobile.

Henry Lee Reynolds's first wife, Martha Thomas Reynolds, died in June 1855, leaving a young son, Charles, who was cared for by his mother's relatives in Norwich. Reynolds remarried around 1859, taking as his wife Mary Wilson Hill of Washington, D.C. Mary was the daughter of the Reverend Stephen Prescott Hill, a Baptist minister. Among other children, the Reynoldses had a son, Harry Lee (born 1861), and a daughter, Louise (born 1868). Harry Lee studied law and was admitted to the Washington, D.C., bar in 1885. He may have died of tuberculosis at Asheville, North Carolina, in 1891. Louise married Gardiner Greene (1851-1925) of Norwich, Connecticut, in 1894. Greene, the son of Gardiner (1822-1895) and Mary Ricketts Adams Greene, was a judge of the Connecticut superior court and a state legislator.

From the guide to the Henry Lee Reynolds Papers, 1802-1924, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.)