"The five letters that follow were written to me by Cecil John Reynolds (CJR), who was born in the "Boston States", but who grew up in Small Point, near Broad Cove, Conception Bay North, where my father was born.  CJR was a 1927 Rhodes Scholar, and had a life-long interest in history and family origins.  These letters are offered here to those with similar interests.

Briefly, this correspondence occurred in the following way.  Some time in the late 1980s, Michael Harrington wrote one or more columns-I have only one of them-in the Evening Telegram, using information supplied by Mabel Jane ("Mame" King) Colbourne, my father's first cousin, and/or by CJR who, after completing his education, lived in Maine for more than 60 years.  One of those columns included a photograph of the students and teachers at the Salem School, Broad Cove, in the early 1900s, and was sent to me by my cousin George Gilbert King, who also was born in Broad Cove.  I knew that my father attended the Salem School at that time, so I expected him to be in the photograph.  And my daughter was, at the time of Harrington's column, living with her husband Bob Gerathy in Maine.  I asked Bob if he would try to get Cecil's address, so I could write him about the photograph.

Bob went one step further, and called CJR, who responded with a first letter to me.  Meanwhile, I had secured CJR's address some other way, and my first letter to CJR apparently crossed his in the mail.  At any rate, one letter led to another, as is wont to occur with CJR, who was a faithful and prolific correspondent.  These five letters span the years 1989-1993.  (I did not preserve others, nor do I have any record of my own letters to CJR.) He died in 1998, leaving behind the kind of legacy that only a kind and generous spirit and incisive mind can offer.

These letters are an entry to that legacy.  They have been edited minimally, and include occasional editorial notes in this form:  [Ed.:  . ]  Family names have been captilized for the convenience of historians interested in the families of CBN.

Finally, I wish to acknowledge the sterling contributions of Joan Reynolds Fogarty, who is editing CJR's autobiography, and who knows his handwriting far better than I do:  she co-edited these letters, and gave me the courage to offer them to others.

Bruce King