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On the 20th of September, 1868, work was commenced on a hotel, by F. H. Whitney, on the site of the present Reynolds House. This was finished by the first of November, and occupied by John Bennett and Son. In December, 1869, the building was purchased by John R. Reynolds, who was then running a lumber yard here, and who, in the spring following, took the place in which he has figured ever since, that of host of the hotel, then known as the Atlantic House. In the summer of 1870, the name was changed to Reynolds House, which it bears at the present moment. The pioneer hotel was a frame structure, and but small, and as the town grew, large additions were made as occasion required. In 1882, Mr. Reynolds commenced the erection of the fine brick hotel, that has taken the place of the old one. This edifice consists of a main building 33x65 feet on the ground and three stories high, an L, 33x62 feet in size, also three stories high, and a frame addition, part of the old house, 32x22 in ground area, two stories high. The building cost $17,000, and contains fifty-five large, airy sleeping rooms, a dining room, one of the finest in this section of the Slate, thirty-three feet square, an oflSce sixty-three feet long and for thirty feet, eighteen feet wide, and the balance of the distance thirty-three feet wide, and a kitchen 24x26 feet, with a cellar under all. The house is newly furnished, fitted up with all tha modern conveniences, contains a full system of electrio bells and fire alarm, and is run in the interests of the traveling puhlic. The cuisine is excellent, and Mr. Reynolds and his son,Charles M., who is clerk, endeavor to make their guests at home and comfortable in every way.

Among the prominent business men of Atlantic, perhaps there is none that has had a wider range of experience or a larger circle of friends, than John R. Reynolds, the genial landlord of the Reynolds House. A son of Elisha P. and Betsy (Stewart) Reynolds, he was born in Washington county, Vermont, on the 28th day of December, 1825. His parents were natives of New York State, but who had removed to the "Green Mountain State." They had a family of twelve children, six of whom were boys. Mr. Reynolds, the elder, was an officer in the American army during the war of 1812-15, and commanded a company at the battle of Plattsburgh, and was of the prominent men of his day, and a staunch Jefferson and Jackson Democrat. He was elected to the office of sheriff of his county, and to other local offices. He died in December, 1837, and his wife in 1843. John R. Reynolds was reared upon a farm, receiving his education at the district schools of his native county, and three years spent at the seminary, at Montpelier. When he had attained the age of twenty-one, he removed to Hopkinton, Massachusetts, where he remained six years, engaged in the boot and shoe business. But being of a roving turn of mind, this was too tame for him, so in 1852, he started for California, going by way of Central America and up San Juan river. In the Golden State he remained some three years, engaged in mining for the auriferous metal. He then returned to the State by way of New Orleans, and thence up the river to Alton, Springfield and Rock Island, locating in the latter town, where he lived for fourteen years. While this was his home, however, the old roving spirit would come over him and he made another trip to California and Oregon, traveling over a large amount of country in the latter Territory. He came home and has had a large share in the construction of railroads throughout this section of the country. At the time of the construction of the bridge at Davenport, and the building of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad from the Mississippi to DesMoines, he furnished a large amount of material. He was also a contractor on the Racine and Mississippi railroad, and a large contractor on the Union Pacific, building a hundred miles, of that road from Omaha out, and employing as high as 2,000 men. In 1862, he made another trip to the West, and led a train through from Omaha to Oregon. He took the train through unexplored country more than 480 miles of which was unknown ground, being the first white man to traverse the wild region. In 1867, he again was contracting, in company with his brother, Elisha P. Reynolds. In 1869 he came to Atlantic, and entered into the lumber business, in which he remained one year, when he entered upon his present business. He built the Griswold branch of the C. R. I. and P. railroad. He has largely instrumental in building up the town of Atlantic and has been a member of the city council and of the school board of the Independent district. He was married in Rock Island on the 20th of September, 1853, to Caroline E. Bennett, a daughter of Hazard E. Bennett, one of the first settlers of Rock Island, but now a resident of Atlantic. By this union there has been four children, two boys and two girls. Mr. Reynolds is a member of Trio Masonic lodge, Rock Island.

In 1871, the Park House building was built, or part of it, for a hotel, but before it was finished it was deemed inexpedient to open it as such, and the building stood idle for awhile, when, it was rented by the county, at a rental of $1,200 per annum and used by them as a court house, the old building on the opposite corner proving inadequate to the needs of the county. It was used as such until 1882, when the court house having been completed it stood idle for awhile, when it passed into the hands of the Keyes estate, who made large additions and improvements, and it was rented by David A. Williams, the present proprietor. The edifice, a fine imposing one of Milwaukee brick, is 75x115 feet in ground area, and three stories high, and contains forty sleeping apartments.

The Atlantic House was erected in the summer of 1870 by L. Anderson, who was the proprietor of the same for eight years. The Occidental House, of Atlantic, was erected in 1878. It is a three story frame structure, 70x70 in ground area, and cost $7,765. E. O. Hoyt erected the building and conducted the same until the spring of 1881, when he disposed of the property to R. M. Pearson, who sold the same to Charles Treede in November, 1884.

Richard M. Pearson was born in Pennsylvania, August 1, 1833, and is the son of Richard and Mary (March) Pearson, natives of Maryland. His father was a pioneer of Iowa, being among the first to enter land in all the great Hawkeye State, having settled in Clayton county in 1837, in which county he was judge of the probate court for eight years. He died December 23, 1883. Mr. Pearson's mother died in December, 1881, at the advanced age of eighty-eight. The subject of this sketch came to Clayton county, Iowa, with his parents when six years of age, which at that time was an unbroken wilderness, inhabited by the red man. He remained here until May, 1874, growing to manhood and witnessing the settlement and development of that country, when he came to Atlantic, where he has since resided. He was married in 1852 to Eliza Bockover, to whom two children were born--Ella and Ida. His wife died December 25, 1858. He was again married to Annetta Bockover, a sister of his first wife, by whom there has been four children born--Cora, Duey, and Tinney and Minnie, twins. Mr. Pearson was alderman of Atlantic for four years and in politics is a "dyed in the wool" Democrat.

The Pacific House was built by a farmer named Everett, just after the Atlantic House was completed. W. A. Woodworth operated this hotel for some time. It afterward passed into the hands of Henry Moeller, the present proprietor, who changed the name to Commercial House.

The City Hotel was removed from Grove City to Atlantic in 1869, by James Tumbleson. It has had a large number of landlords, and at present is conducted by Eli Spry. At an early day it was classed among the best hotels of Atlantic. A write-up of this building occurs in the history of Grove City.

George Weber, landlord and proprietor of the Farmer's Hotel, in Atlantic, purchased his house of Hensen and Dierkson, in December, 1882. The building was erected by a man named Goodale, for a grocery store, and was first opened as a hotel by Hensen and Dierkson, in March, 1875. The main building is of brick, and its dimensions are twenty-two by forty feet. It has a frame addition on the west, forty by sixteen feet, and another upon the north, forty by fourteen feet. The house contains accommodations for lodging about forty guests. He has almost the entire patronage of the farmers in this vicinity, and averages daily about sixty guests for dinner, frequently feeding as many as two hundred at that meal. Mr. Weber was born and reared in Stephenson county, Illinois. His parents were natives of Germany. His father, Jacob Weber, died in Illinois. His mother is still living in Stephenson county, at the advanced age of seventy-seven years. George Weber came to Atlantic in 1874, and purchased a farm in Union township, which he still owns, and on which he resided until he engaged in his present business. He was married to Lydia Ann Lang, a native of Stephenson county, Illinois. They have five daughters.

Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass, March, 2022 from: "History of Cass County, Together with Sketches of Its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens", published in 1884, Springfield, Ill: Continental Historical Co., pp. 881-884.