JOHN
RENO: Born 13 April 1715
and
died 14 June 1806.
John
Reno was born on the Patent of 1710 obtained by Lewis Reno from
Clermont Chevalle, at the confluence of theOccoquain River with
Broad Run in Prince William Co., VA. He was living there in 1749
when Faquier Co. was formed out of Prince William Co. There are
records of him living in Frederick Co. in 1758 and 1760. On Mar.
5, 1764, he and wife Susannah "of Frederick County" sold
land in Prince William Co. to William French, except 1/2 acre
for the graveyard described as land left him by his father Lewis
Reno (Prince William Co. Deed Book Q, pp. 147, 165). The witnesses
to this land sale were Lewis, Francis, Elizabeth, and Laurence
Reno. (Nothing is known about this Laurence or Lauroner Reno
[writing difficult to read]). Also in 1764, John and Susannah
purchased 293 acres on Patterson Creek from Christian and Elizabeth
Long. In 1764, John Reno also transferred 600 acres on Patterson
Creek, Hampshire Co., VA (formerly part of Frederick Co.) with
other transfers listed in 1769, 1770, and 1771. John Reno and
his wife appear in land records of Hampshire County in 1761,
1762, 1764, 1765, 1769, 1770, and 1771. About 1772 after the
death of Susannah he apparently moved with all of his children
except George and Thomas, who remained in Hampshire County, to
Chartier's Creek valley in Washington County, PA (later became
Allegheny County). Between 1784 and 1787, John Reno and nine
of his children (all except Benjamin, who died about 1782, and
Francis who remained in PA) moved to Washington Co., North Carolina,
which later became Carter Co., TN, and where he died about 1808.
John
and his family were among the first settlers of Sinking Creek
in Carter Co., TN. Prior to 1776, due to strained relations between
the Americans and the British, the British provided the Indians
with arms, ammunition and merchandise and in return the Indians
harassed the frontier settlements. The Indians were constantly
burning, pillaging, and massacring pioneers near the Watauga
Settlement where the Renos first lived. During the State of Franklin
controversy in Tennessee between Colonel John Tipton and Colonel
John Sevier, we find the following: "I hereby give Publick
Notice, that there will be an election held the third Friday
in August next, at John Rennoe's, near the Sickamore Sholes where
Charles Robertson formerly lived, to choose members to represent
Washington county in the General Assembly of North Carolina,
agreeable to an Act of Assembly, in that case made and provided,
where due attendance will given per me." Colonel Tipton
was, by his oath as representative of the North Carolina law
in the Washington District of North Carolina, opposed to the
treasonable act of establishing the State of Franklin which was
being organized under Colonel John Sevier. As John Reno had both
Sevier and Tipton daughter-in-laws and this conflict had broken
out into an armed one, John's situation must have been acute.
However, as we see by the advertisement dated July 19, 1786,
quoted above from Ramsey's "Annals of Tennessee", page
338, John Reno must have sided with Colonel John Tipton, whose
sister (or niece) was married to Reno's son Charles.
"Sicamore
Scholes"
was on the Watauga River, near the site where the first cabin built
by white men in Tennessee Country was erected in 1768. From 1787,
John and Charles Reno are found in the tax lists for Washington County,
Tennessee (North Carolina). (East Tennessee Genealogical Magazine,
Vols. 34, p. 126, and 35, p. 108, et seq.)
On
14 June 1806, John Reno made his will: "In the name of God
amen - I, John Reno, being weake in body but of perfect mind
and memory Blessed God, and Calling to Mind the Mortality of
the body and knowing that it is appointed for all men once to
die - doe Make Constitute and ordain this to be My Last Will
and testament - in Maner and form following - that is to say
after all just debts being paid at the discretion of my Executors
- I first will and bequeath unto my beloved son William Reno
twenty five cents - to my Beloved Benjamin Reno I also Will and
Bequeath twenty five cents - to my beloved daughter Sarah Rodgers
I also will and bequeath twenty five cents - to my son John Reno
I will and bequeath twenty five cents - to my beloved daughter
Mary Calvin twenty five cents - to my beloved son George Reno
twenty five cents – to my beloved son Lewis Reno twenty
five cents - to my beloved son Francis Reno twenty five cents
- to my beloved daughter Margaret Vance twenty five cents - and
to my beloved son Charles Reno I will and bequeath all and everything
belonging to me of every kind, or spacious of property whatsoever
of any kind belonging to me. I and doe make constitute and appoint
the aforesaid Charles Reno sole Executor to the same, in witness
whereof I have this fourteenth day of June in the year one thousand
eight hundred and six and in the presence of these witnesses
acknowledge this to be My Last Will and testament Together with
my Hand and Seal annexed to the same." Witnesses were John
Dunlap, William Lacey, and Samuel Tipton (Original Wills, File
No. 2, p. 679, Office of County Court Clerk, Elizabethton, Carter
County, Tennessee; Virginia Magazine of History, vol. 9, p. 12;
Tyler's Quarterly, vol. 4.)
SUSANNAH
THORN: Born 11 Nov 1719
and died 29 August 1773
Susannah's
mother's maiden name was probably Mary Peck, daughter of Robert
Peck. She married first John Orear, and then William Thorn. Donna
Sarchet (sarchet@texasonline.net) found a 1733 deed in King George
Co., VA where William Thorn and his wife Mary,
"relict of John Orea of Prince William County, VA", and Margaret
Glasscock (daughter of John Orea and Mary Orea Thorn) and her husband John
Glasscock, sell land to Cornelius McCarty. This land is stated in the deed
to have been owned by John Orea before his death. In 1708, Robert Peck and
his wife Margaret granted a lifetime lease on this same piece of and to John
and Mary Orea "of Stafford Co., VA" on behalf of John and Mary's
daughter Margaret, who later married John Glasscock. Robert Peck says that
this transaction is for "the love, goodwill, and affection which I have
and bare towards my loving friend, Margaret Oriar, daughter to John and Mary
Oriar". One source says that Susannah Thorn was born in New England, but
there is no evidence for this, and all of the records for William Thorn and
his wife Mary in the early 1700s have them in or near Stafford or Prince William
County, VA. According to Boddie's Historic Southern Families, Susanna died
at Patterson's Creek, VA and may have been killed by Indians. Her name last
appears in land records for Hampshire Co., VA in 1772, and it is thought that
her husband moved to Pennsylvania about 1772-1773 after her death.
JOHN
DAVID RENEAU: Born 16 April 1746
and died in 1827.
On
December 31, 1777, John Reneau renounced his allegiance to George
II and swore allegiance to the Commonwealth of Virginia as an
independent state. The 1790 census for Burke City, North Carolina
has John Reno, married with 2 boys under 16 and 5 females in
the family. In 1792, John was Justice of the Peace in Jefferson
County, TN and was living near Dandridge in 1798. According to
Sherman Reno, "John, his sons Aaron, Francis and Lewis,
with the Lacey brothers moved down the Tennessee River to Alabama.
Francis went on south to central Alabama while Aaron and Lewis,
with the father John, settled at Somerville, Morgan Co., Alabama".
A tax list for Madison Co., Alabama in 1811 lists John, Frank,
and William Reno.
Numerous
spelling variations of the Reynaud name have appeared in records
during the past 300 years in America, such as Reno, Reneau, Reynaud,
Rheno, Rennoe, Renoe, Rhyno, and others. Many of the records,
such as census records, were spelled phonetically and the records
themselves cannot be relied upon. However, various documents
signed by Renos appear with various spellings over the years,
and the variations Reno and Reneau are common to this day. The
Huguenot immigrants, having fled France for a British Colony,
adopted the anglicized version of Reynaud, and especially during
the French and Indian War when the French were the enemies of
the British in the colonies it was desirable to dissociate themselves
from the French. Lewis Reno wrote his name Reno when he signed
a deed in 1711, and deeds from the Northern Neck Grant books
and early Prince William County records have original signatures
by Lewis Reno, Jr., Thomas Reno, Zeley Reno, and others with
the spelling Reno. The majority of Reno/Reneaus today can be
traced to John Reno and Susannah Thorn. In his 1806 will, John
spelled his last name, and the names of his sons, as Reno, and
most of the land records also spell his name Reno. Their son
Thomas changed the spelling of his name to Reneau when he moved
to the French Broad River country of Tennessee. In July 1900,
Isaac Tipton Alexander Reneau of Nebraska wrote a letter to his
cousin Clara Eola Reneau Beutrell, stating that he has located
John and Susanna's family bible, and in his own writing he listed
John and Susannah's children and birth years. In this letter,
he spelled their name as John and Susannah Reneau, but the evidence
indicates that John Reno spelled his name Reno.
Famous
Reneau/Renos
Perhaps
the most famous member of the Reno family was Jesse Lee Reno,
who was a general in the Union Army during the Civil War. The
city of Reno, Nevada; Reno County, Kansas; and several streets
and small towns are named for him. His son, Jesse Wilford Reno,
was an accomplished engineer who invented the escalator. In 1896,
according to the Guinness Book of World Records, the "inclined
elevator" invented by Jesse Reno was ridden on by more than
75,000 people when it debuted for two weeks at Coney Island in
New York.
Another
famous Reno was Marcus A. Reno, a Brigadier General in the Civil
War who later served as Major in the 7th Calvary under the command
of George Custer. Custer's widow tried to brand General Terry,
Captain Benteen, and Major Reno as having done less than their
duty in order to explain Custer's defeat. A Court of Inquiry
into his actions during the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June
25, 1876 exonerated him of any blame, but he was dismissed from
the Army in 1880 on a general charge of misconduct related to
advances he made on another officer's wife. In 1967, his court
martial was reopened and the original verdict of guilty was reversed,
and he was restored to his full rank and honors. His body was
reinterred in the Little Big Horn National Cemetery.
The
Reno name was also made famous by the Reno Gang, a notorious
band of train and bank robbers in ndiana just after the Civil
War who may have descended from Revolutionary War veteran Zeley
Reno. The Reno Gang committed the world's first train robbery
as well as a series of robberies and other crimes, and three
of the brothers were eventually hung by vigilantes, causing a
serious strain in relations between the United States and Great
Britain because Frank Reno had been extradited from Canada to
be tried.
(Taken
from "Genealogy of the Reno Family in America, 1600 -1900 Second
Edition 1999", by Steven
G. Fancy)
