My Genealogy Hound

WRENSHALL FAMILY. John Wrenshall, son of Thomas and Margaret Wrenshall, was born in Preston, England, Dec. 27, 1761. He was married Oct. 6, 1783, to Mary, daughter of Mathew and Sarah Bennington, of Halifax, Yorkshire, England. July 22, 1794, he, in company with his wife and three daughters, Margaret Sarah, Mary Bennington and Julia, embarked from Liverpool, England and Oct. 15, 1794, landed in Philadelphia. There were born to Mr. and Mrs. Wrenshall, in America, the following-named children: Fannie Emily, Sarah and John Fletcher. The last named was born in Pittsburgh, Feb. 13, 1833. John Wrenshall, the pioneer of this family in America, settled at an early day in Pittsburgh. He was an extensive merchant, and for some years was engaged in business in Philadelphia. He died in Pittsburgh, Sept. 25, 1821. At Woodville, Pa., Sept. 19, 1832, John Fletcher Wrenshall married Mary Ann, a daughter of Christopher and Eliza M. (Kirkpatrick) Cowan. There were born to Mr. and Mrs. J. F. Wrenshall eight children, as follows: John Cowan (now of Baltimore, Md.), Eliza M. (deceased), Charles Christopher (a resident of Alabama), Edward (of Washington), Mary Bennington (at home), Bessie (Mrs. A. G. Barrnett, a resident of Woodville), Richard Cowan (of Sewickley, Allegheny county, Pa.), William Ebbs (at home).

John F. Wrenshall was for many years prominently identified with the manufacturing business of Pittsburgh. In 1832 he removed with his family to Woodville farm, his wife’s estate, a farm of two hundred acres, which was part of a one-thousand acre tract owned by his father-in-law, Christopher Cowan, who got the land from his uncle, Gen. Neville. On Woodville farm still stands the old mansion erected by Gen. Neville, now occupied by the Wrenshall family. This mansion is still in a good state of preservation; it was erected before the whisky insurrection, and in many of the windows the glass bears the names of members of the Neville family, which dates as far back as 1811. The Wrenshall family are among the most prominent of the county. They are members of the M. E. Church.