Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)

Elijah S. Reynolds (b. circa 1819 - d. circa ?)
MSA SC 5496-002920
Accomplice to slave flight, District 3, Queen Anne's County, Maryland, 1850

Biography:

Elijah S. Reynolds was born in Delaware around 1819 or 1820. In 1850, he was working in Queen Anne's County as a coach trimmer, and also owned farmland near Centreville. He harvested wheat, rye, and corn that year. His neigbhor, Dr. James K. Harper, seeded twenty bushels of Reynolds' wheat crop, while Reynolds seeded the rest. That year, Reynolds helped the slave Pere to flee from James F. Jarrell.1 [Jarrell owned seven slaves in 1840] The 1850 census recorded Reynolds among the occupants of the Queen Anne's County jail.2 He sold his farm—including his crops, farm implements, livestock, and houshold items—to James S. Dillon and Albert Jump that year.4

Reynolds was tried at the Queen Anne's County Circuit Court. Although he denied his guilt, Reynolds was sentenced to five years in the Maryland Penitentiary in Baltimore City. The Penitentiary's Prisoner Records described the crime as "obtaining certain Negroes from J.F. Jarrell under false pretences."3

He completed his sentence in 1855, and had moved to Illinois by 1857. He worked as a harnessmaker in Springfield, where he lived with his wife, Kentucky-born Rebecca G. Anderson, and their children, McCoy A. (b. 1857), Mary Elizabeth (b. 1864), and William (b. 1867).5
 

1.     QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTY COURT (Minutes, Rough) [MSA C1472-55]. State vs. Elijah S. Reynolds, 1850.

2.     U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Elijah S. Reynolds, 1850, Queen Anne's County, District 3, Page 1, Line 38 [MSA SM61-144, SCM 1500-1].

3.     MARYLAND PENITENTIARY (Prisoner Record) [MSA SE65-5]. Elijah S. Reynolds, Prisoner Number 4356.

4.     QUEEN ANNE'S COUNTY COURT (Land Records) 1849-1851, Liber JT 6, Folio 278 [MSA CE 143-42]. Elijah S. Reynolds to James E. Dillon and Robert Jump, March 7, 1850.

5.     1870 Census Record, IL, for Elijah S. Reynolds, Sangamon District, City of Springfield, Page 229, Line 19, Ancestry.com.
3.     1880 U.S. Census Record, IL, for E.S. Reynolds, Sangamon County, City of Springfield, District 220, Page 24, Line 33. Ancestry.com.
3.     Illinois Marriage Record for Elijah S. Reynolds and Rebecca G. Anderson, Green County, August 29, 1860, Ancestry.com.
3.     Julius Babeuf, Babeuf's Directory of Springfield, Illinois and Patrons' Business Mirror (Springfield, IL: Illinois Journal Company, 1875) 125.
3.     David B. Gould, Gould's Springfield Directory 1880-81 (Springfield, IL: Journal Co., 1880) 168.
3.     Springfield City Directory Company, Directory of The City of Springfield and Business Guide 1879 (Springfield, IL: Illinois Journal Company, 1879) 139.
 

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