An Albemarle Inn Manager discovers her family connection to the Inn
Because of my Reynolds’ ancestry, when I joined the managerial staff of the Albemarle Inn I became curious about a possible relation to Dr. Carl Reynolds, who built this magnificent home at the turn of the 20th century. I found that we are both descendents of Abraham and Mary Leazer Reynolds. They are my great(x5)grand-parents and Carl’s great-grandparents. Whereas, he descends from their 1st born John, I descend from their 7th child, Joseph Page. An interesting side note is that Reynolds Mountain and its prestigious residential development in North Asheville is named after John and Mary’s 9th born, Daniel Reynolds. I believe Daniel’s son was Senator Robert Rice Reynolds, a U.S. Senator.
Dr. Carl Vernon Reynolds’ great-grandparents were Abraham Reynolds (b. 03-20-1768) and Mary Leazer Reynolds. They were married in 1796 in Rowan County, N.C. and later moved to this part of North Carolina. Beginning in 1800, Abraham Reynolds received seven land grants from the state of North Carolina, totaling 1,525 acres, on Bent Creek in Buncombe County. It is likely that he owned some land prior to this when Buncombe County was Burke or Rutherford County.
In 1900 George Vanderbilt, wanting to make a hunting park like those he had seen in England, bought land from Abraham’s heirs as well as from other homesteads in the Bent Creek area. The Vanderbilt deed was signed by many of Abraham’s heirs (92 names). Later, Mrs. Vanderbilt sold the Bent Creek land to the National Park. Abraham Reynolds and Mary Leazer Reynolds are buried in a little church cemetery near their farm at Bent Creek.
John Reynolds (b. June 4, 1797), Carl’s grandfather, was the first born of Abraham and Mary’s 12 children. John was ordained a Methodist minister and it is believed that he was a circuit-riding preacher in Western North Carolina, Eastern Tennessee and possibly in North Alabama and North Georgia until 1826. On December 6, 1825 he married Anna Pou O’Hara (b. 11-29-1796) a widow of Edgefield, South Carolina. The 1850 Census of Buncombe County indicates John Reynolds as a Methodist Minister and hotel operator of the Carolina House. The Carolina House was built prior to the Civil War on Broadway Street. John was the first minister of the Central Methodist Church on Church Street and was buried in the old church cemetery, which is under the present church building. In 1856, John built a large brick house on Westwood in West Asheville. The house is still standing, but two large rooms in the back have been removed.
Dr. John Daniel Reynolds (b. April 15,1832), Carl’s father, was the 3rd born son of John Reynolds. He married Theresa Elmire Shepard of Yancy County, N.C. Dr. John Reynolds, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, was a well known general practitioner of medicine in Buncombe County for many years. Carl followed in his father’s footsteps.
Dr. Carl Vernon Reynolds and his twin sister Carrie Kennedy Reynolds were born on June 13, 1872. In 1896, Carl married Nellie Alyne Cocke, a descendant of the pioneer William Cocke, the first U.S. Senator from Tennessee. They had one daughter Alyne Johnston Reynolds (b. 1897). Dr. Carl V. Reynolds graduated from New York University Medical School and completed his post-graduate training at the Brompton Hospital in England. He began practicing medicine in Asheville around 1895 and continued for approximately 40 years before becoming the State Health Officer of the North Carolina State Board of Health at Raleigh, N.C. He was foremost in advocating and promoting advanced sanitation and scientific measures as they related to the health and welfare of the entire community. Dr. Reynold’s instituted many sanitation measures, including the country’s first campaign against the housefly and an aggressive campaign against venereal disease. He also initiated the vaccination of school children, a milk ordinance and required the wrapping of bread.
After Carl’s first wife died in 1902, he married Edith Holland Randolph, and it was in 1907 that they purchased some of the Pack family’s vast land holdings and organized the Proximity Park Company, a real estate corporation. They then began building the house that is now the Albemarle Inn. Soon thereafter, Reynolds sold most of his holdings, excluding the residence, to Edwin Wiley Grove, who was to become a real estate giant of twentieth century Asheville and who built the Grove Park Inn and Country Club. Carl and Edith lived in this house until 1920, when they built the first house in the new town of Biltmore Forest.
~I compiled this information from family genealogy books. Terri Wells, Manager |
