Arlington G. Reynolds was born on a farm in Mentor, Lake County, Ohio, educated in the local schools, the Collegiate Institute in Willoughby, and Oberlin College.

He read law with Judge G. N. Tuttle of Painesville, and in 1882 was admitted to the bar.

[1] In September 1882, Reynolds located to Des Moines, Iowa, where he was employed by a large farm implement manufacturer for two years.

He returned to Painesville where he practiced alone until 1889, when he began a partnership with Judge Perry Bosworth, who died in 1890.

In the summer of 1897, he was nominated at the Republican county convention for representative to the Ohio House.