John Wrenn
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John Henry Wrenn (1841 - 1911)

John Henry Wrenn
Born in Middletown, Ohiomap
Ancestors ancestors
[sibling(s) unknown]
Husband of — married 12 Jul 1866 in Chicago, Illinoismap
Descendants descendants
Died at age 69 in Los Angeles, Californiamap
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Profile last modified | Created 27 Jan 2015
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Biography

John Henry Wrenn was born on September 11, 1841, in Middletown, Ohio to George Lawson Wrenn and Mary Jane Duffield Wrenn. He was baptized on December 23, 1851 at the age of ten by the Baptists. His siblings who were also all born in Middletown, Ohio were: [1]

  1. Infant Girl Wrenn (1835-1835)
  2. Rev George Lawson Wrenn Jr (1836-1908)
  3. Charles Duffield Wrenn (1839-1919)
  4. Edward Jones Wrenn (1843-1844)
  5. Eleanor Wrenn Halsey (1845-1896)
  6. William Brent Wrenn (1849-1909)
  7. Edwin Tyler Wrenn (1852-1874)
  8. Howard Amos Wrenn (1856-1932)

When he was 19 years old in 1860, he was employed as a bookkeeper at his family's paper mill. In 1863, he was invited to come to Chicago by his uncle James Edwin Tyler and began a career as a member of the banking and brokerage firm of Tyler, Belden & Co. Next he became a member of Tyler, Ullman & Co. Brokers, Tyler, Wrenn & Co., and Wrenn & Brewster. [2]

He married Julia Ann Griggs on July 12, 1866, in Chicago, Illinois. They had three children:

  1. Alice Wrenn Norcross (1870-1914)
  2. Ethel Pansy Wrenn (1872-1924)
  3. Harold Brent Wrenn (1878-1938) [3]

In 1867, John Henry Wrenn along with nine others, purchased Highland Park, Illinois and organized the Highland Park Building Company. The land was platted for homes, churches, and a hotel. This was one of the first attempts to offer living in the suburbs of Chicago. The suburb concept definitely caught on. Today Highland Park is a very wealthy and prestigious suburban neighborhood in Lake County, Illinois. John Henry was also one of the principal stockholders of the company. [4]

The Chicago Fire was in 1871. John Henry lived at 335 Wabash. His house was the last house that burned, the next being blown up to stop the fire. His partner, Mr Belden, was burned while making his way through the street to his office. Belden could be recognized only by his watch and cuff button. After the Fire, John Henry moved further south of the Chicago River to various addresses. He lived the longest at 2917 Prairie Avenue. His wife, Julia Griggs Wrenn, died there in 1902. [5]

John Henry Wrenn was a pioneering member of the Chicago Board of Trade and other exchanges. Extremely successful both as a banker and a broker, he eventually founded John H. Wrenn and Company in 1876. [6]

John H Wrenn

Besides being a very successful banker and broker, he was also a well known collector of rare books and etchings. The Wrenn Library was purchased by the University of Texas at Austin after John Henry's death in 1918, and is an amazing building filled with almost 6,000 1st editions of early English literature, the 17th century and the Romantic poets in particular. He purchased many books from the English bibliographer and collector Thomas J. Wise, later identified as a master forger. John did not know they were forgeries, and surprisingly they are worth more than the originals today! [7] His son, Harold Wrenn, spent many years preparing a detailed catalogue of all of the books that was published in 5 volumes in 1920. [8]

John Henry Wrenn's Personal Bookplate

He had an extraordinary collection of etchings by Whistler, Rembrandt, and others. [9] He also had a beautiful collection of Japanese woodblock prints from the Edo Period (1603-1868). [10] One of his proudest possessions was his etching of Rembrandt's, The Three Trees, that he showed on his bookplate.

The Three Trees by Rembrandt

The Three Trees is a 1643 etching with drypoint and engraving. It is Rembrandt's largest and most striking etched landscape. Here he masterfully combined techniques (drypoint, engraving, varied depths of etched lines, and a speckled tone) to create a sense of nature in flux. He animated the landscape with many details: an artist sketching on the hill at right, a fisher couple at lower left, and an amorous couple hidden in the darkened foreground bushes. Some of the unnatural cloud formations left of center indicate that Rembrandt may have etched The Three Trees on a plate that contained an abandoned sketch for The Death of the Virgin, a composition he continued on a larger plate in 1639. [11]

In 1903, he moved to the newly fashionable Gold Coast Neighborhood to 1500 Astor. One of the reasons he moved there was because of the magnificent library it had for his book collection. [12] His daughter Ethel, son Harold, and married daughter Alice Wrenn Norcross along with her husband, Frederick, and children, Phoebe and Catherine Norcross all shared this huge mansion with him. [13] Today the house is known as the Patterson McCormick Mansion. John Henry lived there until his death, and his family lived there until after the Wrenn Library was moved to Texas. [14]

1500 Astor, the Patterson McCormick Mansion

The Patterson McCormick Mansion has an interesting history. Joseph Medill, founder of the Chicago Tribune and former mayor of Chicago, had the largest house on Astor Street built as a present for his daughter, Elinor "Nellie" and her husband, Robert Wilson Patterson, Jr. Constructed in 1893, it occupies the northwest corner of Astor and Burton. The house was later owned by John Wrenn, and then was purchased in 1914 by Cyrus Hall McCormick, Jr. Cyrus ran the International Harvester Company started by his father who invented the reaper. However, in 1978 the home was divided into condominiums. [15]

Phoebe Norcross 1500 Astor St. Chicago

Even though it is said that Cyrus H McCormick bought the mansion in 1914, census records of 1920 show that he lived at 50 E Huron St in 1920 [16] and the Norcross family along with Ethel Wrenn lived at 1500 Astor. [17] I'm guessing the Norcrosses possibly rented the house from McCormick until they moved to 1301 Astor around 1921 or 1922. [18] When Cyrus McCormick remodeled the mansion in 1927, he removed all of the bookcases and replaced all of the paneling of the library. That was the last of the great Astor Street library. [19]

It was announced that the firm of John H Wrenn & Co would be dissolved December 31, 1910, due to the ill health of Mr Wrenn who was planning to go to California. [20]

He died of a stroke on May 13, 1911, in Los Angeles, California [21] at his son Harold's home, at the age of 69 [22], and was buried in Chicago, Illinois at Graceland Cemetery. [23]

References

  1. Family Genealogical Records
  2. The Book of Chicagoans: A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Living Men of ..., edited by Albert Nelson Marquis, https://books.google.com/books?id=riITAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA739&lpg=PA739&dq=john+h+wrenn+and+co,+chicago&source=bl&ots=XujqIi7scm&sig=o2gTwpyf6IOL0C-DNNQcSIj9ikc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi5pL3qg83OAhXC2yYKHUSMCFwQ6AEIOTAH#v=onepage&q=john%20h%20wrenn%20and%20co%2C%20chicago&f=false, John H Wrenn & Co, Google Books
  3. Family Genealogical Records
  4. Highland Park: Settlement to the 1920s By Julia Johnas, https://books.google.com/books?id=1sDUY_ED4n0C&pg=PT7&lpg=PT7&dq=john+henry+wrenn,+chicago&source=bl&ots=TE_k5qG9_v&sig=hba08rQDAyL7-2lyQY_ed3IUGpw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwisv5nv18rOAhXFYCYKHajQDtM4HhDoAQgbMAA#v=onepage&q=john%20henry%20wrenn%2C%20chicago&f=false, Google Books
  5. Family Genealogical Records
  6. The Book of Chicagoans: A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Living Men of ..., edited by Albert Nelson Marquis, https://books.google.com/books?id=riITAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA739&lpg=PA739&dq=john+h+wrenn+and+co,+chicago&source=bl&ots=XujqIi7scm&sig=o2gTwpyf6IOL0C-DNNQcSIj9ikc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi5pL3qg83OAhXC2yYKHUSMCFwQ6AEIOTAH#v=onepage&q=john%20h%20wrenn%20and%20co%2C%20chicago&f=false, John H Wrenn & Co, Google Books
  7. The University of Texas at Austin, http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/collections/books/holdings/wrenn/, John Henry Wrenn Library
  8. A Catalogue of the Library of the Late John Henry Wrenn..., https://books.google.com/books?id=XWQLAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false, Google Books
  9. University of Glasgow, James McNeill Whistler: the Etchings, John Henry Wrenn, http://etchings.arts.gla.ac.uk/catalogue/biog/?nid=WrenJH
  10. Family Genealogical Records
  11. The Met Museum, http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/354633, The Three Trees
  12. Family Genealogical Records
  13. "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MKZ8-HZY : 29 October 2015), John H Wrenn, Chicago Ward 21, Cook, Illinois, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 1653, sheet 5B, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,374,276.
  14. Family Genealogical Records
  15. Gold Coast Neighbors Association, History, http://www.goldcoastneighbors.org/Neighborhood/GCNA-History.html
  16. "United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MJQC-6VZ : 14 December 2015), Cyrus H Mccormick, Chicago Ward 21, Cook (Chicago), Illinois, United States; citing sheet 11A, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,820,332. 50 Huron
  17. "United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MJQH-FKD : 14 December 2015), Ethel Niemm in household of Frank Noreson, Chicago Ward 21, Cook (Chicago), Illinois, United States; citing sheet 1A, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,820,331. 1500 Astor
  18. "United States Passport Applications, 1795-1925," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV5Y-T7JL : 4 September 2015), Ethel Pansy Wrenn, 1922; citing Passport Application, Illinois, United States, source certificate #188784, Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 - March 31, 1925, 2019, NARA microfilm publications M1490 and M1372 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,705,607. 1301 Astor
  19. Family Genealogical Records
  20. Newspapers.com, The Inter Ocean, 24 Dec 1910, Sat, Page 8, J H Wrenn & Co To Dissolve Dec 31, 1910 24 Dec 1910, Sat, https://www.newspapers.com/image/?spot=6254647
  21. "California Death Index, 1905-1939," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKSM-KC8C : 5 June 2015), John H Wrenn, 13 May 1911; citing 13296, Department of Health Services, Vital Statistics Department, Sacramento.
  22. Obituary from the New York Times Published May 14, 1911
  23. Web: Illinois, Find A Grave Index, 1809-2012, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSvcid=103179&GRid=40146978&

Sources

  • "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MX3V-X34 : 9 November 2014), John H Waem in household of Geo S Waem, Middletown, Butler, Ohio, United States; citing family 1087, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
  • "United States Census, 1870," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M64L-T17 : 17 October 2014), James Wresn, Illinois, United States; citing p. 35, family 137, NARA microfilm publication M593 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 545,697.
  • "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MXNN-GYS : 14 July 2016), John Wrenn, Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States; citing enumeration district ED 24, sheet 118A, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 0186; FHL microfilm 1,254,186.
  • "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MSS2-BL5 : 6 March 2015), John Wrenn, Precinct 11 South Town Chicago city Ward 3, Cook, Illinois, United States; citing sheet 4A, family 63, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,240,247.
  • "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MKZ8-HZY : 29 October 2015), John H Wrenn, Chicago Ward 21, Cook, Illinois, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 1653, sheet 5B, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,374,276.
  • "United States Passport Applications, 1795-1925," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVJP-HVS2 : 4 September 2015), John N Wrenn, 1902; citing Passport Application, Illinois, United States, source certificate #52374, Passport Applications, 1795-1905., Roll 593, NARA microfilm publications M1490 and M1372 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,516,371.
  • "California Death Index, 1905-1939," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKSM-KC8C : 5 June 2015), John H Wrenn, 13 May 1911; citing 13296, Department of Health Services, Vital Statistics Department, Sacramento.
  • Obituary from the New York Times Published May 14, 1911
  • Family Genealogical Records
  • "United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MJQH-FKD : 14 December 2015), Ethel Niemm in household of Frank Noreson, Chicago Ward 21, Cook (Chicago), Illinois, United States; citing sheet 1A, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,820,331. 1500 Astor
  • "United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MJQC-6VZ : 14 December 2015), Cyrus H Mccormick, Chicago Ward 21, Cook (Chicago), Illinois, United States; citing sheet 11A, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,820,332. 50 Huron
  • "United States Passport Applications, 1795-1925," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV5Y-T7JL : 4 September 2015), Ethel Pansy Wrenn, 1922; citing Passport Application, Illinois, United States, source certificate #188784, Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 - March 31, 1925, 2019, NARA microfilm publications M1490 and M1372 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,705,607. 1301 Astor




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