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History of Reynoldston
Introduction Reynoldston, New York, is still a place on a map, but little remains from the period during which this community thrived on local forest resources – a short fifty years, 1880-1930 (see Timeline). While the story of the community is not unique to so many single resources town, what is unique is that…
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The Reynoldston Village – Reconstructed – 1900-1930
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The Bordeaux Hall
The Bordeaux Dance Hall Around 1906, Ted and Miner Bordeaux, tried to make money by setting up their own business. At this point in its history Reynoldston had not started to lose population; furthermore, in Skerry to the East and in the Bangor to the north family farms provided a decent living for their…
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Religious Beliefs
Religion The people we interviewed for the history of Reynoldston uniformly thought that the majority of the community’s residents were Catholic. The Reynoldses and Trims, however, were Protestant, and there were those who practiced no religion at all. As no church was ever built in Reynoldston, religious instruction rested primarily with the family. Devout Catholics…
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Home Life
Home Life Many of the houses of Reynoldston provided little more than four walls, a floor, and a ceiling. Most families lived in a small company built houses, while the Reynolds family built two large, richly decorated homes, and the poor lived in cabins or log houses. The one and a half story…
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The Company Store/ Mill Office
Company Store/Mill Office Throughout most of the history of Reynoldston, the Reynolds Company Store was a focus of the community. Essential in such an isolated place, the company store was a general store that sold nearly everthing that residents needed including groceries, dry goods, clothing, hardware and all kinds of…
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Making Potash
Earliest Economic Activity Among the very first industries in what was to become Reynoldston was the making ofpotash, a potassium-rich fertilizer made with wood ashes from which the fertilizing ingredients were leached. The process may have been similar to the domestic production of lye soap, which required leaching lye from wood ashes with water. Hiram…
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Community Timeline
Reynoldston Timeline 1828 Town of Brandon formed from Bangor 1830 Hiram Eddy cuts a trail to make Potash – “Black Salts” in Brandon 1864 Orson Reynolds enlists in Union Army 1866-73 Flanders Mill Operates 1870’s Webster Mill Operates 1870 Orson Reynolds Justice of the Peace in Bombay c. 1869 Allen Bordeaux moves to Reynoldston c. 1872 Orson Reynolds…