Born: c. 1855. The 1900 U. S. Census shows Apr 1860.
Died: 1923
Married: Maggie b April 1864, married ~ 1884
Children: The 1900 U. S. Census shows Maggie had 6 children 4 living to include: James Reynolds b December 1886, Fred Reynolds b November 1888, Grovner Reynolds b Oct 1889, and Anna Reynolds b August 1892.
Harry Reynolds (or Henry Reynolds) was a guide from the age of thirteen. He was said to "know the Adirondack back country from Saranac Lake to North Creek as few know it." 1 He was the son of Newell Reynolds and brother of Ransom Reynolds and Reuben Reynolds.
Harry Reynolds was reputed to own a very early "mansion" on Pine Street. One of the first two district schools supposedly was located at about the same site, whether before or after or at the same time as the mansion is not clear. 2
The Ticonderoga Sentinel, September 30, 1897
Harry Reynolds, of Saranac Lake, has discovered near his home quartz which yields some gold. He has received an offer for half interest, which he will doubtless accept and a shaft will be opened. Samples of the quartz are on exhibition at some of the business places in that village.
Malone Farmer, February 10, 1921
Harry Reynolds, a veteran Saranac Lake guide, tells a vivid story of how he escaped with only the clothes on his back when Long Lake West was swept by flames in the year of the big forest fires in the Adirondacks. He was employed as a cook in a lumber camp at the time and was just getting dinner for the men who were out in the woods stripping bark, when he happened to look out of the back door of the camp and saw the flames sweeping through the tops of the trees. He sent the chore boy on the run to warn the men, who had just time to make their escape to the rail road tracks. He himself had no time to take a thing with him except the clothes on his back and the slippers on his feet. Wives of the lumbermen at the camp made the retreat from the advancing flames rather slow, as the women could not run very fast, but they took to a big marsh and later reached Trout Pond where they sat down on the banks and waited. The smoke finally became so thick that they had to lie down on their faces to breathe, and all were ready to jump into the lake in case of necessity, but the fire circled the marsh and did not reach them. About 5,000 acres were burned over in that single fire and there were many more in other parts of the woods. There were three families at that camp who lost everything they had, including cows, horses and chickens. Reynolds is nearly 67 years old and has been guiding since his 13th year. He knows the Adirondack country from Saranac Lake to North Creek as few know it. Reuben and Ransom Reynolds, both famous guides in their day and owners of about the first frame dwellings in Saranac Lake, right where the principal business blocks stand now, were his brothers. He thinks the deer are gradually dying off in the Adirondacks for lack of the shelter they formerly had. There are more of the animals in the Raquette River and Cold River sections, he says, than in any other parts of the Adirondack forest, as the country they inhabit there is hard to reach. Reynolds is quite a weather prophet. He says: "When there is to be deep snow during the winter, the hornets' nests are built high in the trees, but this year it was different. They were near the ground which may be considered as a sign that there would not be much snow this year."
Footnotes
1. Malone Farmer, February 10, 1921, p. 3
2. "Saranac Lake Premier Resort," 1907. Cited by Peter Tomaino, Guide to Discovering Local History in the Northern Adirondacks, June 17, 1998, p. 67
