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, Reverend 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. The collection includes business and personal correspondence, financial and legal papers, and other items of the Reynolds family and relations, chiefly concerning H. L. Reynolds's companies: Reynolds, Witherspoon, & Co., a Mobile merchandizing firm, and its successor, H. L. Reynolds & Co., cotton factors and merchants in Mobile and New York. There are also many letters relating to family matters, especially since Reynolds was often in partnership with family members. During the Civil War, there are documents relating to Reynolds's arrest and detention by federal agents. Letters, 1866-1868, chiefly concern getting bales of cotton from Alabama and Mississippi planters to market in spite of federal agents' authorization to seize cotton as reparation payments. Also included are four diaries, written by unidentified female family members in Pennsylvania and Connecticut, recording daily life and family events, 1802-1840, with considerable gaps; papers relating to land warrants of the Mobile firm of Harding and Redditt, 1858-1884; documents about Greene family history; an incomplete biographical sketch of Hezekiah Smith (1737-1805), Baptist evangelist of Haverhill, Mass.; and a sketch book of Reynolds's son, Harry, containing North Carolina scenes.
