Lewis Reynolds

Lewis Reynolds, Cattleman and Cowboy Dies

Lewis Reynolds, 82, Martin, S. D. a former resident of Lusk died May 10 at Rapid City, S.D. Funeral services were held at St. Katharine's Episcopal Church at Martin.

He was born December 4, 1888. With a letter to the Herald from Mrs. Naomi Martin, sister of Mr. Reynolds, she enclosed an obituary entitled "Cattleman's Obituary."

Excerpts from it read:
Lewis was the third son born to Wm. and Estella Lizzie Reynolds on lower Rawhide Creek, some 35 miles south and east of Lusk. When he was three years old his parents sold the Rawhide ranch and moved to the community of Lusk. They purchased the ranch two miles south, then called Newton Meadows and now known as the Hoblit Ranch. He attended grade school in Lusk, went to the Episcopal Military Academy at Kearney, Neb., where he finished high school, and then completed his education at the Omaha Commercial College.

He married Miss Jessie Ripley of Rippon, Wis. in 1911, but that marriage was dissolved within the year. In 1917, June 30, he married Mary Ione Vlandy.

Lewis's father gradually built up one of the finest show herds of registered cattle in the United States and was well known among breeders of the country. When Lewis finished school he offered Lewis a partnership, but Lewis proclaimed he was going to continue the life of a cowboy on the open range and wanted no part in becoming a "feed box" cowboy.

He left home to work for neighboring ranchers, Charlie McGinnis, Lee Moore, Tom Bell, Jake Mill, Crilly and Jones, and the Johnson brothers. He was an unusually good bronc rider and a fine hand with cattle. He became a successful rodeo contestant, and won his first bronc riding award at a Fourth of July celebration in Lusk in 1902.

In 1910 southeastern Wyoming suffered a terrific drought, and along with other ranchers his father, Billy Reynolds, was compelled to move his stock to grass and water. He trailed 3,000 head of range cattle to Bennett, Co., S.D. and took sons Lewis and George along to take care of them. In 1916 he closed out the Blue Ribbon Hereford Ranch and closed out the range herd in South Dakota. Lewis bought the remnants and established a ranch for himself and bride near Mavis, S.D. There the couple stayed, worked and saved and developed a half section of land surrounded by open range into an empire of 12,000 acres of deeded land fenced and cross fenced with a fine herd of cattle.

Last October they bought a home in Martin in which to retire.

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