Biography of Andrew Reynolds

He was the son of Nathan Reynolds, a native of Orange County, New York. At the age of seven his family moved to Elmira, and here our classmate passed his school days, prepared for college, and passed his examination for entrance to our Class at the opening of Junior year, in 1861, and was graduated with us at the close of the course. He was a member of the Chi Psi fraternity. For the Class Day exercises Reynolds was elected orator to the faculty.

After graduation Reynolds studied law in the office of Smith, Robinson and Fassett, Elmira. In 7867 he was admitted to the bar, and in 1875 formed a partnership with Frederick Collin, with the firm name of Reynolds and Collin. In 1886, his firm was changed, by the admission of J. B. Stanchfield, to "Reynolds, Stanchfield and Collin," and so continued to the time of Reynolds's death, December 2, 1900. Reynolds was an excellent lawyer and held a prominent and commanding position in his section of New York State.  In his early years he was a very successful pleader before juries, and held his own even with such competitors as David B. Hill, Jeremiah McGuire, Robert Stephens and Jacob Schwartz.  Later his attention was turned to business cases, and in this way Reynolds became identified with many commercial enterprises, such as companies for the utilizing natural gas and for the development of oil wells. He prospered and accumulated a large property. Our classmate was a stanch Democrat and had a wide political field open before him, but he kept clear of politics for the most part, and confined himself closely to his profession and to his commercial enterprises.

As we remember him in his brief stay with us in college, so Reynolds continued to be in his busy and successful career - a quiet, unassuming man, kindly in manner, temperate in speech; a lawyer of strict probity and unquestioned talents; a business man of progressive spirit and credible achievement.

In June, 1876, Reynolds married Miss Rathbone, only daughter of the late Henry W. Rathbone. Mrs. Reynolds survives her husband, and is living in the family mansion on Main Street, in Elmira. There are three children, one daughter, Frances, and two sons, Henry and James R. Reynolds.

The family has a summer home in Watch Hill, Rhode Island, and it was here that Reynolds received the first intimation, July, 1899, by a paralytic stroke, of the illness, Bright's disease, that proved fatal the following year.