The Reverend J.H. Reynolds

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Reverend J.H. Reynolds, right there in Grayson County. Now, some men settle into one place and put down roots.

And then there are men like John Humphreys Reynolds, who seemed to understand that the whole wide country was his congregation. Reynolds was a Kentucky native, which already tells you something about a man willing to go where the road leads. He started out as a Methodist circuit rider in Tennessee, riding from settlement to settlement, carrying the word to folks who might not otherwise hear it.

And somewhere along that Tennessee road, he married, started a family, built a life. But 1879 came around, and John Humphreys Reynolds pointed himself toward Texas. He came to work the north central part of the state, which is no small territory, and he threw himself into it.

In Sherman, he organized the Willow Street Methodist Church. That congregation would later be renamed Key Memorial, for Bishop J.S. Key.

Think about that for a moment. A man rides into town, builds something from nothing, and it outlasts his own name on the door. But the door was never really the point for Uncle Johnny.

That's what folks called him, affectionately, Uncle Johnny. He served as pastor to numerous area congregations, plural, not just one flock but many. And here is the part that ought to make you set down your coffee and pay attention.

The man preached well into his nineties. Well into his nineties. There is a stubbornness in that, a holy stubbornness, that no tall tale could improve upon.

Along the way, Reynolds was a supporter of temperance and education, and he carried the distinction of being a 32nd degree Mason. A Kentucky boy, a Tennessee circuit rider, a Texas organizer, a friend to learning and sobriety, a man they called Uncle Johnny with nothing but warmth in the saying of it. Some legacies get carved in stone.

Some get preached into the air of a hundred Sunday mornings, across a hundred north Texas miles, by a man who simply refused to stop.

What the marker says

Kentucky native John Humphreys Reynolds served as a Methodist circuit rider in Tennessee, where he married and began a family. In 1879, he moved his ministry to Texas, working to serve churches in the north central part of the state. In Sherman, he organized the Willow Street Methodist Church, later named Key Memorial for Bishop J.S. Key. Reynolds served as pastor to numerous area congregations and preached well into his nineties. Known affectionately as Uncle Johnny, he was a supporter of temperance and education, and was a 32nd degree Mason. Recorded - 2004