 1803 - 1844 (41 years)
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| Name |
Aquilla Wren [1, 2] |
| Birth |
1803 |
Fauquier Co., VA  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Death |
1844 |
| Person ID |
I57497 |
Cecilie Family |
| Last Modified |
20 Mar 2006 |
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| Notes |
In1829 the Wrens journeyed westward for a new start.and settled in Springfield, Illinois, where he opened a store. A year later Aquilla and Clarissa Wren moved seventy miles north to the small village of Peoria, where he opened another dry goods store, purchased land, and became one of the town's leading merchants.
On the 5th of March, 1832 Aqulla Wren was elected county commissioner, in place of Stephen French, resigned.
At the September term, 1836, Aquilla Wren, Samuel T. McKean and William J. Phelps took their seats as county commissioners, Mitchell as cleak and Bryant as sheriff.
(from "History of Peoria" by C. Ballance) | | |
| 1830 Census Peoria CO. Illinois | | Aquila Wren1 male 20-30, 1 female 20-30 |
In March 1835 Abram S. Buxton and Henry Wolford founded the first newspaper in Peoria, Illinois and called it the "Illinois Champion and Peoria Herald". From its pages the reader learned that... Aquilla Wren deisred his patrons to know that he had on sale Kanawha and Cenemaugh salt, fresh raisins, Cognac brandy, white Malage wine, Maderia and port wine, London Particular Teneriffe, claret wine, Muscat wine, brown sugar, burr millstones and other things. (From Peoria, city and county, Illinois - page 327)
| 1840 Census Peoria CO. Illinois | | Aquila Wren3 males 15 to 201 male 30 to 401 female 20 to 301 female 30 to 40(probably these are farm workers, except for Aquilla and Clarissa) |
I have checked your "Our Folk-Hart Family" on Ancestry and thought you might like to correct a couple of errors. |
Aquila Wren was born 1803 in Fauquier Co., VA, son of Thomas Wren and Nancy Turley (they married there 29 March 1798). I have examined the age of death in the Peoria records and found what was interpreted as age 47 when he died, actually was 41. The "1" had a long serif and could have been mistaken for a 7. You will find the DOB 1803 fits correctly with the age given in the census records.
In 1840, the extra people in the Wren household:
Two of the younger males were Aquila's brother, Thomas Wren (born 1826), and a young man who worked for him, Sylvester Armstrong. The census says two were engaged in Commerce, so the third man may have been Lowry, his partner. The other female was the hired-girl, Melinda McCarty, who worked for the Wrens and gave some rather dicey testimony as to Clarissa's activities. (I have a copy of the Bill for Divorce and have examined the files at the Peoria Court House. Clarissa, apparently, was "unfaithful" already when they lived in Sangamon Co.!)
It's likely that Wren and the other males tended to his farm. An inventory of his estate included 1 old horse, a variety of cattle of which there were 3 pair of working cattle, 1 jackass, 1 Jenny and 33 sheep and lambs. Aquila had served on the Committee on sheep at the Peoria County Agricultural Society fair in the fall of 1841.
The Peoria Will Books do not have Aquila's will -- but I found several pieces of paper in the Probate file which, when pieced together, were that document, dated 29 July 1844 and witnessed by N. H. Purple, Smith Frye and A. O. Garret. Since his wishes in the will were carried out, it appears to be his legal will, 'tho not recorded.
The young brother, Thomas Wren, fell prey to an unscrupulous lawyer who ended up with all the money. Thomas moved west, mined in California, worked for mining companies in Nevada, became a judge and in 1876 was elected to the Forty-fifth Congress. In 1881 he became the U. S. Senator representing Nevada.
(email from Jane Scottie - Mar 2006 |
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| For more information see the Our Folk - Hart family Web Site |
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| Sources |
- [S856] Daniel W. Stowell, In Tender Consideration, (http://www.press.uillinois.edu/epub/books/stowell/ch8.html University of Illinois Press).
- [S880] Peoria, city and county, Illinois, 327 (Reliability: 3).
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