Biographical Sketch of William M. RENNARD (1893); Chester County, PA Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by John Morris . *********************************************************************** USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: Printing this file within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ *********************************************************************** Source: "Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Chester County, Pennsyl- vania, comprising a historical sketch of the county," by Samuel T. Wiley and edited by Winfield Scott Garner, Gresham Publishing Company, Phila- delphia, PA, 1893, pp. 715-6. "WILLIAM M. RENNARD, a well-known farmer of Tredyffrin township, residing near Chester Valley postoffice, where he has lived since 1876, is the eldest son of Henry and Prudence (Miller) Rennard. He was born at Valley Forge, Schuylkill township, this county, on September 23, 1834, and lived for a time in Willistown township, and later resided in Charlestown town- ship. On October 16, 1863, he enlisted in Co. K, 175th Pennsylvania in- fantry, at Philadelphia, and served in the army until August, 1864, when he was honorably discharged in the same city. He participated in a number of skirmishes and minor engagements in southern North Carolina and else- where. In 1876 Mr. Rennard removed to Tredyffrin township, where he owns a fine farm of ninety acres of valuable land, eighty acres of which are improved and the other ten covered by timber. In political faith he has always been a republican, and gives his party a loyal support on all lead- ing questions, though taking little part in the exciting contests that so frequently convulse the body politic. On the 6th of March, 1878, he was united in marriage to Sallie Little, a daughter of Major Little, of Charlestown township. "The Rennards are of German extraction, and rank among the old families of this section. Jacob Rennard (paternal grandfather) was a native of Schuylkill township, this county, where he spent a long and active life. He owned one hundred acres of fine land, and was a successful farmer. Politically he was an old-line whig, as his ancestors had been, and he married Mary Walters, by whom he had a family of eight children: Joseph, Jacob, Adam, Mary, who married Joseph Gamble; Rachel, wedded Jonathan Major; Susan, who became the wife of Matthew Ross; Rebecca, who married Richard Joyce; and Henry. They are all now deceased except Rachel and Jacob. "Henry Rennard (father) was born in Schuylkill township in 1805, where he grew to manhood and was educated. He was proprietor of the Valley Forge hotel for three years, and then removed to Tredyffrin township, and later to Willistown township. In the latter he resided for a number of years, but returned to Tredyffrin township about 1858, and died there in 1882, at the advanced age of seventy-eight years. He was essentially a farmer, though he engaged in other enterprises occasionally, and was an ardent whig in politics. He served as school director for a number of years, and also for a time as township auditor, beside occupying other local offices. He was a prominent member of the Great Valley Presbyterian church, and married Prudence Miller, a daughter of James Miller, of West Vincent town- ship. They were the parents of eleven children, six sons and five daugh- ters: Mary, William M., Henry C., deceased; J. Harrison, served in the army for nine months in 1862, taking part in the battle of Antietam, and is now a resident of West Chester, where he is serving as county commis- sioner, being also school director of Tredyffrin township one term; Hilborn D., a farmer of that township; Winfield S., employed in the office of the Wabash Railroad Company at Chicago, Illinois; Amanda, the widow of Joseph Roberts, lives at West Chester, this county; Emma J.; Tamzine A., and Theresa, who wedded David Morgan, and resides at Ardmore, Montgomery county, this State. "Henry C. Rennard (brother), enlisted in the army at West Chester in Nov- ember, 1861, and after participating in a number of engagements in Vir- ginia and Florida, was severely wounded in the left thigh at Bermuda Hundred. He was a member of the 97th regiment, commanded by Colonel Guss."