My Genealogy Hound

CAPT. A. D. RENO, post office Putnam, captain and pilot on the Ohio, is of French origin, his ancestors having left their native land and settled in Virginia about the year 1710. Three brothers were the pioneers of this family in America, and from one of these, Louis Reno, the subject of this sketch is descended. Louis Reno had a son named John, who had a son named Benjamin. Benjamin came to Allegheny county about the year 1765, and settled on the right bank of Chartiers creek, opposite to what is now called Bower hill, where he took up some four hundred acres of land, on which he lived until his death, which occurred about the year 1803. There were born to Benjamin and his wife Jane (nee Bell) six sons and one daughter, viz.: William, Robert, Zachariah, Benjamin, Charles, Louis and Susannah, who married Benjamin Jackson. The third son, Zachariah, was born on the farm, on the banks of Chartiers creek, in the year 1776, and became a coal-dealer, having had some land underlaid with rich coal-veins. Born to Zachariah and his wife, Martha, were seven sons — Louis, Benjamin, John, Francis, Samuel, Henry and Alfred, and two daughters — Amanda (married to Christopher L. Magee, who for many years was engaged in the hat and fur trade, and during the war was sutler in the army) and Minerva (married to Samuel Clarke, who was a pilot on the Ohio river). Louis, the oldest son of Zachariah and father of the subject of this memoir, was also born near the banks of Chartiers creek, in the year 1798.

He married Anna E. Frisbee, daughter of Ephraim Frisbee, who started, in 1808, the first boatyard at what is called the Point, in Pittsburgh. Louis, like his father Zachariah, was also engaged in the coal business, they being the first parties engaged in running coal in boats to Cincinnati and Louisville. There were born to Louis and Anna E. eleven children, six of whom are living, viz.: Amanda J. (wife of Capt. R. M. Boles), Cornelia B. (wife of Col. W. L. Foulk, of the United States army), Capt. John L., Louis A., Alfred D. and William S. Alfred D., the fifth son of Louis, was born in Allegheny City, and is now living in Chartiers borough, near Mansfield, Allegheny county, Pa.; was educated under the tutorship of John Kelley, of Allegheny City, and at Duff’s College, Pittsburgh, Pa. From early life he has been steamboating, having been a pilot for twenty-one years. He married, in 1869, Alice Wilson, daughter of James P. Wilson, of Pittsburgh, and they have a family of four children: Alice, Charles, Stella and James. Capt. Reno is a member of the R. A., of the A. O. U. W., and of the Presbyterian Church. He is a republican.