MY GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GRANDFATHER
SAMUEL MCREYNOLDS

We now come to Samuel, the eldest son of Joseph and Henrietta
McReynolds. He was  born in North Carolina, January 6th,1784. Although
he had little schooling, he was a studious minded fellow, and was always
considered one of the best informed men in the comunity. On October
9th, 1804 he married Milbrey Dement. The first time she saw Samuel he
was sitting on a bench in a large crowd at a camp meeting. He was 
exorting the people to repentance. He was a deeply religious man and
a strong Presbyterian. Although there was no church of his choice
near him, after locating in Indiana, he always worked heartily with
the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He donated the grounds for the 
campground, and then for the church, where Mt. Pleasant Church and
Cemetary still stand.
A short time after their marriage Samuel and Milbrey moved across the 
state line into Kentucky. They lived in Sumner Co. Tennessee at the time 
of their marriage.[ At least Sam did. Milbrey lived in Alabama, not far 
from Huntsville.] The Kentucky farm they first lived on was in the river
valley and the land was very fertile. But it was unhealthy there. Their
first two children were born there, Lucinda and James, and both died
in infancy. Samuel had a most severe case of rheumatism. He lay helpless
for many months. He had no idea he would ever get well again, but he
finally began to improve. He still found he was a cripple for life. His
legs were all drawn out of shape, and his knees would not bend. He was
never able to dress himself again, and he could not walk without crutches.
He owned two or three slaves and he returned to Sumner Co. Tennessee.
He again tried to farm with slave labor, but it was entirely 
unsatisfactory as the slaves would not work when sent out alone, and he 
did not farm extensively enough to hire an overseer.
In Tennessee four more children came. Matilda was born February 14, 1810,
William October 6th, 1812, Samuel Davis April 10th,1814, and Joseph
September 20th, 1816. Slave labor was so unsatifactory to him he often
thought of moving to the free states north of the Ohio River. He had
heard glowing accounts of the fertility of the lands in that region.
After the battle of Tippecanoe, and the power of the Indians in that
region was broken, the country was made perfectly safe for white settlers,
so he decided to try his luck in that land. He sold his slaves and his 
other holdings in Tennessee and went on a prospecting tour of Indiana.
He rode in a two-wheel cart or gig as he called it and had an attendant
with him of course. The first land he looked at in Indiana was where
Evansville now stands. Although it was covered with fine timber the area
was too hilly to suit him. Then he came out into what is now Smith 
Township, Posey Co. and selected a tract of land about a half of a mile 
east of where Mt. Pleasant Church now stands. This land was all heavily
timbered and it seemed a man as crippled as he was would have to have
a strong heart to attemt to carve out a farm in that wilderness. But
he went to Vincennes, paid the government a dollar and twenty-five cents
per acre for the land and then returned for his family in Tennessee.
He hired a young man who had recently married to go to Indiana and work 
for him. This man's name was Moses Dorset. All these people arrived in 
Indiana in the early autumn, and Dorset imediately began to cut poles
with which to build a small cabin. This cabin was very small. The cracks
were all chinked and daubed with mud. The roof was of split clapboards
held on with weight poles. One end was a large fireplace with a chimney
built of sticks heavily daubed with mud to keep from catching fire. The
floor was of puncheon split out of the timber and smoothed with an adz.
In this crude building made entirely of the forrest these two families
lived through the winter.
Dorset then began to clear a small field in  which to raise a crop the
following spring. He grubbed out the small brush and cut the small trees
in the tract. He deadened the larger timber and in the spring he took
his steel pointed wooden plow and tore up the fertile soil sufficiently
to be able to plant it in corn. The corn came up nicely, but a great
flock of blackbirds came out of the woods and pulled it all up. Dorset
was very much discouraged. Samuel and his oldest son, now about six
years old, drove to New Harmony, where a company of German Socialists
from Pennsylnania had recently settled. They bought a shotgun and plenty
of Shot. Then as soon as the corn began to peep through the soil,
Samuel and his small son went to the field. The boy carried the gun and 
helped him load it, and together they killed a great number of birds
and crippled many more. The cries of the other birds seem to scare them
more than the gun. The birds left the field and the corn was this time
permitted to grow. Of course no big crop was raised that year in such a
field, but they did raise enough corn to feed themselves and all their
stock, until they could raise enough of some other crop. In another
year this field had been more perfectly cleared, and some other land
also cleared. Meat was plentiful, for all Dorset had to do was go out
in the woods with his rifle and in a short time he had all the meat 
he wanted. Deer was plentiful, wild turkeys, Pheasants, and squirrels
were found in abundance.
Dorset continued to work for Samuel for many years, and from the savings
from his salary he was able to buy a farm adjoining the land then owned
by Samuel. The two families were the best of friends.
Samuel, in a short time, had built a comfortable log house near the cabin
and lived there. He continued to buy other tracts of land until he owned
about seven hundred acres. Much of this land was cleared and put into 
cultivation, all of course by hired labor until his sons were old enough
to work the clearings. The neighbors soon found out that Samuel was
well learned for that day in that region, and as they needed a school,
Samuel was one of the first teachers in what is now Smith Township.
A few years later he was elected associate judge of Posey Co. He served
in that capacity for a number of years. There are old court dockets
or records signed by Samuel McReynolds in the year 1832.
The following children were born to Samuel and Milbrey after they came
to Posey Co. Indiana: Nelson born Februaray 7th, 1819, Alexander A. born
June 17th, 1821, Robert orn April 7th, 1825, and Nancy born March 31st,
1828. Samuel, as well as his father before him was a democrat in politics
and a strong Presbyterian. Samuel did not see fit to change his membership
as there was no church of his denomination near. But the Cumberland
Presbyterian organized a church at a very early date in the neighborhood,
and Samuel always had his camp at the campgrounds.

.
Our Scotish Ancestors McReynolds

.
Joseph McReynolds

  

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