City: Nashville
WRENNE, Thomas William, lawyer and banker; born Rockbridge County, Va., December 1, 1851; Irish descent; son of John and Margaret (Cunningham) WRENNE; educated in Nashville, Tenn.; graduated from Nashville (Tenn.) High School, in 1870; early business occupation lawyer; married Clara Virginia HEBENSTREIT, October 7, 1875; member of Watauga Club, Heritage Club, Nashville Press Club and Nashville Art Club; Chairman of the Humane Society Board of Commissioners of Nashville and author of act establishing that body as a part of the municipal government of Nashville; Director for Nashville of the Carnegie Library, from the date of its establishment; Aide-de-Camp during both terms, with rank of Colonel on the Military Staff of Malcolm R. PATTERSON, Governor of Tennessee, 1907-11; in 1870 was appointed Clerk in the office of the Clerk and Master of the Chancery Court at Nashville, Tenn.; 1875 Superintendent and Secretary and Treasurer of the South Nashville Street Railway; in 1878-1882 practiced law, and Clerk and Master of said Chancery Court, 1882-88; was receiver of the Bank of Tennessee, the affairs of which he practically finally wound up and settled; 1888-89 President of the McGovock and Mt. Vernon Horse Railway Company, and under his management electric power in operating the street cars was introduced successfully, which at the time proved to be the first entirely successful practical use of electricity for this purpose upon a large railway system; while President of that railway, he consolidated the several street railway companies of Nashville into one system, and put into operation the transfer system, now in use by the street railway company and built the first transfer station for that purpose; while interested in the street railway he built the Wharf Avenue line from the public square to Mt. Olivet and Mt. Calvary cemeteries; former President of the Nashville Abstract Company; President of the Nashville Title Company and organized that company; in 1896 was Director of the Tennessee Centennial Expositon /sic/, and as Vice-Chairman of the Reception Committee, had charge of the opening exercises of the Exposition that year; first President of the Irish-American Association of Tennessee, and as such in charge of the exercises Irish-American day at the Tennessee Centennial Exposition; in 1894 helped to organize the banking house of Thomas Plater & Co., as a member of that firm, and thereafter organized the Plater & Wrenne Banking Company, which continued until 1889, when he helped to organize the banking house of Thomas W. Wrenne & Co., of which he is now and has been since its organization, President; in 1907 was Chairman of the Committee of Arrangements in charge of the reception of President Theodore Roosevelt to Nashville, and the Hermitage, in October of that year; he was also the executive officer in charge of the exercises under the auspices of the D. A. R. of Tennessee, in the dedication of the monument erected on the Court House grounds at the public square in the city of Nashville, in 1910, to the memory of soldiers of the American Revolution buried in Tennessee, whose names are perpetuated in bronze on this monument; was several years Chairman of the Hermitage Congressional District; three years a member of the City Council, and sixteen consecutive years a member of the Board of Education of Nashville; Vice-President of the Nashville Gas Company, and the financial representative of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company in its Loan Department in Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama; author “Ireland’s Sons in Tennessee,” published in 98th Anniversary Edition Nashville American, 1910; member of the Catholic Church.
Note: Dates are accurately transcribed, but there seems to be a contradiction in the dates of organizing the Thomas Plater & Co., the Plater & Wrenn Banking Company, and the Thomas W. Wrenne & Co.
Source: Who’s Who in Tennessee: A Biographical Reference Book of Notable Tennesseans of To-Day. Memphis: Paul & Douglas Co, 1911.
