Enumerated as John (a. 26, bp. VA, "Gold Hunter") living with his father Jacob McReynolds in the 1850 Census for LaFayette County in Missouri.

A member of the 1853 Cockrill-Hagans Wagon Train. Several other families who participated in the 1853 immigration, are connected through this McReynolds line. He is possibly the one who hired William Henry Zilhart to take care of the livestock on the trip. There appears that there might have been a long connection between the Zilhart family and the McReynolds family. Susan (Zilhart) Wells' son (John William Wells), married John's niece (Ellen McReynolds). Lived in Sonoma County from at least 1853 to 1860's.

From Sonoma County Deed Index (compiled by Susan Zeni):

Extracted from notes about John McReynolds by Jeanne Miller:

A widower on the 1853 wagon train with four children, whose names are uncertain. He probably died in either Washington or Oregon. He went to Oregon about 1860 to the John Day area of gold strikes. His son, Henry, by Olivina Cockrill, followed him in 1864 to Pilot Rock, OR where Jeanne Miller interviewed Henry's granddaughter.

Moved back to his parents with his three children after his first wife died.
A second wife with the name of Lucinda (m. 13 Sep 1848) while Olivia Cockrill is listed as a third wife in some earlier research obtained from Glenva Conklin, Jacob McReynolds' great granddaughter, by Jeanne Miller.

In McReynolds Family Westward Bound, Olivia is erroneously listed as Olivia Lucinda Cockrill by Glenva Conklin. Also, from page 16 of this document (copied for me by Susan Zeni):

He left the children with his parents and took off for the gold fields of California (records show he paid his father (Jacob) $210 for the care, support and clothing for the 2 years he was gone. He is listed in 1850 census as a gold hunter. John returned April 18, 1852, to Lafayette County, Missouri, and with his brothers helped his father and mother make the trip across the plains to California. He then returned in the Fall of 1852 (probably by way of Panama) to Missouri and early in 1853 brought his children to California (diary of wagon train of 1853). He then married Olivia Cockrill who came out to California in the same wagon train. Olivia died in childbirth leaving a son. She is buried in the Cockrill plot in Bloomfield Cemetery. His 3rd marriage was more successful. They had six more children. By 1880 they had moved up to Mendocino County, California and later on to Pilot Rock, Oregon.