Ernest Frank Reynolds

Ernest Frank Reynolds died peacefully in his sleep on November 28, 2009, in Roanoke, Va. He was born on December 8, 1916, at Twin Branch, a coal camp on the Tug River in McDowell County, W.Va. He was the eldest son of William Stanger Reynolds and Helen May Mounts Reynolds. In 1920 during the midst of severe labor strife among the miners, his entire family was evacuated by boxcar to the somewhat safer environs of Matoaka, Mercer County, W.Va. Ernie, as he was most widely known, was only the second later Reynolds in 11 American generations of his line not born in the Old Dominion. Ernie's first female American forebear was Cecily Reynolds. She landed from the ship Swan as an 11 year-old girl at Jamestown in August 1610. Ernie was a ninth generation direct descendant of Christopher Reynolds, who emigrated from County Kent, England to what is now Smithfield, Va. Ernie's first male American forebear landed from the ship John and Francis as an 11 year-old boy on Burwell Bay at the James River mouth in February 1622. Christopher Reynolds survived the Great Massacre of English settlers three weeks later.
Ernest married on July 19, 1940, the former Susan W. Wall, a native of Madison, Rockingham County, N.C. In their 50th year of marriage they discovered she was also a descendant of Christopher Reynolds collaterally.
Ernest and Susan had met when both were students at National Business College when it was located in Roanoke, Va. They had two sons, both born in Richmond, Va., Ern Reynolds, born on July 3, 1941, and Grattan Wesley Reynolds, born on May 26, 1947. Both sons survive, as do four grandsons, and one great-grandson. Mrs. Reynolds, a retired United States Deputy Marshal, died on December 22, 1997.
Ernie's elementary and high school routine was accommodated to the paying work of logging, carpentry, operating pool rooms, and running a skating rink. By age 11 he owned an up-and-running sawmill. These adult jobs done in childhood contributed to his graduation from Matoaka High School in May 1935 in the bottom third of his class.

Within one hour after graduation he was on the train to Roanoke. There he completed a two-year workload at National Business College in 13 months, amassing an overall average of 99% in the School of Business Administration.
He spent one night in the ranks of the unemployed, fighting a hotel fire in Montcalm, W.Va. On July 2, 1936, he was hired as an auditor with the Carter Coal Company in Coalwood W.Va. His $90 per month salary could be spent anywhere as long as he never left the company store.
Exactly one year later he had a rather unique job interview. It was preceded by a one night reconnaissance within the mines at Merna, Harlan County, Ky. Unlike several men in front of him who sought to be inoffensive, he revealed to the Mine Superintendent everything he had seen of the man's own sloppy mining methods. The man was Silas J. Dickinson, President of the Harlan County Coal Operators Association, and Chairman of that County's Democratic Party.
Dickinson responded to the scathing review of his vocational skills by shoving a desk at him, saying "This will be your desk. Take these other gentlemen up front and pay them for coming."
That stint turned out to be three years in a round-the-clock job for $100 per month. Such hard duty included the most severe period of the Coal Mine Wars in "Bloody Harlan" County, Ky. Days he prepared Realization and Cost Statements. Nights he patrolled on foot from several lonely outposts to over-exposed installations, under the constant threat of more union violence. He served as armed bodyguard to Dickinson whenever the event was official, social, or political. Since Dickinson colluded with his son-in-law the Republican County Chairman (such as settling on the final elections figures the night before any mere ballots were trustingly cast) Ernie's early vantage point on business, politics, and life conduct was rather revealing.
From the time he was a very young boy Ernie typed warrants and prepared other court papers for his father. William Stanger Reynolds was a Mercer County, W.Va., deputy sheriff, justice of the peace, and distillery raider for the West Virginia Liquor Commission. From this early association, Bill's son, Ernie, became personally acquainted with the most notorious operatives of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency. They made it a point to cultivate legitimate law enforcement personnel. The economic and social history Ernie wrote extensively about later in life came from considerable personal experience.

After marrying in July 1940 he worked in Richmond, Va., for one year at the Hungerford Coal Company. Beginning for a year in July 1941 he worked as a "cellophane wrapper" at the DuPont Company manufacturing plant. After America's entry into World War II, Mr. Reynolds gained critical occupation status as an auditor-investigator for the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Mines, enforcing the McGuffey Coal Act. That phase began in July 1942, and lasted two years doing counter-strike work at government-seized coal mines. That was pistol-packing work among small coal operators in Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia. They were quite hostile to having their sale prices scrutinized for war profiteering. In that capacity Ernie set the Appalachian record for 21 successful price violation prosecutions in U.S. District Courts of the region without a loss. Many more similar cases of his settled -no contest -with substantial fines paid. Because of his notoriety as an investigative witness, Reynolds became a professional acquaintance of future Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas, then Solicitor of the Interior.
Whenever another government representative was intimidated by striking miners in Appalachia, Reynolds was sent in. He was the only field agent who could phone Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes at his home.

Despite his being draft-exempt for occupational, age, and fatherhood reasons, Ernie paid for his own nasal surgery to correct a deviated septum -a step required for him to pass the military fitness examination. Thereupon he enlisted in the Marine Corps in June 1944. He went through infantry, demolition, and Sea School training. He then put in a stint as a Sea School plowback "change sheet instructor" in San Diego. His pupils included the future Senator Joseph McCarthy, among others. He finally got to sea, trying to get enough nontraining time to qualify for Officer Candidate School. Forty of 41 such recommendations he composed were approved except his own. Harold Ickes' on-the-record boostership was also ignored. Ernie's vibrant record at a proprietary business training academy did not then count as college work. At the rank of corporal he worked as the Marine Detachment Shipboard Clerk and paralegal to the ship's sole legal officer. He was a "plank owner" aboard the USS Portsmouth (Light Cruiser 102) in the Atlantic Theater. His ship was sailing for the Panama Canal to engage in the Pacific Campaign when Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought the war to its unexpected end. He was honorably discharged in June 1946.
Mr. Reynolds with his family returned to Kentucky and coal selling after the war. They lived successively in Harlan, London, and Louisville, Ky. He traveled all the industrialized Northeastern U.S. and Canada for eight years. He signed up for college under the G.I. Bill, but constant sales trips prevented his maintaining classwork begun at the University of Louisville. Eventually he was able to complete several courses over the years at Virginia Western Community College in the 1960s and 1970s.
By June 1954 the Reynolds family had returned permanently to Roanoke, Va. In Roanoke Mr. Reynolds engaged in the residential construction busines