Representative Simeon Reynolds View All Years
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Simeon Reynolds
Marion County
A native of Dutchess County, New York, where he was born on March 16, 1786. He married Miss Honor Nowlen February 15, 1805 in New York. After a residence of several years in Ohio, he came to Marion County in the fall of 1845, and in 1847 was elected a member of the lower house of the State Legislature. He was the first clerk of Union Township after it was organized and held the office at the time of his death on April 21, 1852. Upon arriving in Marion County, in November, 1845, he moved into a little cabin that had been erected by one of the Butchers, to whom the Government had granted the privilege of settling there as early as 1843 in consideration of services he had rendered in making and repairing roads. The claim was at the time of Mr. Reynolds' arrival occupied by Hiram Steel and Duncan Neil, of whom he bought it, but not long afterward was surprised to learn that a man named Vanderbilt had entered the land and secured a title therefor. This Vanderbilt then took a fortified position on the north side of the Des Moines River with a view to holding possession, but was finally persuaded to deed the land to Reynolds, who paid him the entrance money. Soon after his arrival, and the adjustment of the title to his land, Mr. Reynolds built a hewed log house, 18 by 24 feet, which served as a house of entertainment for immigrants going up the Des Moines Valley.
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