Ella Reynolds

Ella Poteet was born March 1, 1849 to William and Frances Poteet.  In 1850, they were living in Grand Gulf along with her sisters Julia and Emma. Sister Kate was born three years later.  Ella’s father died, and her mother married William Clark Winters on November 19, 1855.  Frances and her daughters Julia and Emma were living with Winters at Rodney in 1860.  For reasons unknown, Ella does not appear on the census with them.   Also living in Rodney at the time was Joseph Bernard Reynolds, an eighteen year old clerk.  Surely J.B. knew the Winters and met Ella through them. 

After his time serving in the Confederate army, J. B. Reynolds returned home and married Ella Poteet on December 19, 1865.  He was seven years her senior, and she was 16 when they married.  By 1870, the young family had relocated to Vicksburg, where J.B. was working as a druggist, and Ella was keeping house and caring for their two children, Ella Josephine, age 4, named for her parents, and William Bernard, newly born.  Ella’s mother was still living at Rodney; she and Winters had had two daughters, Daisy and Fannie.  Also present in the household was Frances’ daughter Emma and her two children, one of whom she had named Ella in a gesture of sisterly love. 

Tragedy would soon strike the family.  On October 2, 1870, Ella died in Vicksburg.  She was only 21 years old.  Just one month later, baby William was taken.  Daughter Josephine would survive, marry, and thrive.  J.B. would go on to marry again, living in Vicksburg as a grocer.  Ella and her baby lie side by side in the wooded cemetery overlooking what remains of a now almost silent Rodney.