The half-dozen years last past have brought unusual sorrow to Davenport in the loss of several of those strong, self-reliant, and sagacious business men who had been most conspicuous in the industrial life of the city, and who had been largely instrumental in developing its resources, in building up its public institutions, and giving it its present high character and standing among the cities of the West. William Renwick, who was widely known all over the West by reason of his extensive business connections, and still more widely known as a traveler and art collector, was one of those who passed away during this period. The old Scotch family of Renwick is one with a history dating back to the Crusades, when Sir Patrick Renwick was numbered among the valiant defenders of the Cross. During the reign of King James VII, James Renwick, one of the most zealous and intrepid of the Presbyterian preachers of that era, suffered martyrdom at the Cross of Edinburgh in 1688, and is known in history as the last Protestant martyr in Scotland.
The blood of the Drummond family mingled with that of the Renwicks in later generations, and from this illustrious ancestry descended Hon. James Renwick, a venerable gentleman still living in Davenport. James Renwick married Elizabeth Locherby, whose family connections, the Carruthers, and the Kirkpatricks of Closeburn, were not less distinguished than his own as representatives of the old border families of Scotland, notable for their deep seated convictions, profound piety and love of liberty. Of this parentage, William Renwick was born, in Liverpool, England, June 24, 1829. Inheriting from this ancestry, keen perceptive faculties, courage, self-reliance, thrift and sagacity, he received careful educational and industrial training in early youth, in the City of Liverpool, and in 1846, the year of Iowa's admission into the Union as a State, he came with his parents to this country. They settled in Davenport, and Mr. Renwick continued his studies in Iowa College, which was founded in Davenport about that time, and of which he was one of the first students. Here his father engaged in the grain and commission business, and four years later, when he attained his majority, he became a member of the firm of Renwick & Son. The warehouse belonging to this firm, on the levee, was the first agency of the American Express Company, and later, the first agency of the United States Express Company, in Davenport. This was during the period antedating the advent of railroads into Iowa, and in those days the Mississippi river was the great avenue of trade in this section. The business of the firm of Renwick & Son followed this and tributary water courses, and extended to St. Louis, New Orleans, Memphis, Vicksburg, Louisville, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and smaller cities, which received through their enterprise, as forwarders, vast quantities of the products of the Mississippi Valley. The training which he received during this early portion of his business career was one well calculated to fit him for the larger and more important enterprises of his later life. It not only gave him a business acquaintance extending over a wide area of country, but made him familiar with the resources as well as the needs of this vast region.
In 1852 the firm became engaged in the lumber trade, first as dealers, and then as manufacturers. In 1854 they built a comparatively small mill, at Davenport, with capacity for an annual output of something like a million feet, and began with others the development of that wonderful system of lumber production, which has supplied the material for building up hundreds of towns and cities, and countless thousands of homes now dotting the prairies of the West. To those unacquainted with the history of this great industry, a brief notice of the method of its development will be of interest. Early explorers of the upper Mississippi river made mention of the magnificent forests which lined the river on either side, but generations came and passed away before these vast forests began to play any important part in the advancement of civilization. Then mills were constructed here and there in the timber region, and the lumber product was distributed to settlements along the river. It was soon discovered, however, that a more expeditious and economical way of marketing the lumber product was to locate the mill in an established trade center, and to leave to the great river and the forces of nature the work of bringing to the mill its raw material. Then was inaugurated the system of felling trees in vast numbers, carrying them into the river by various devices, forming them into rafts, floating or towing, and later pushing by means of steamboats, which made this their principal business, these rafts down to the mills, whence the manufactured product was distributed to the interior or elsewhere, as the demands of trade required. In 1859 Mr. Renwick became sole proprietor of the mill which he had previously conducted in company with his father, and his genius for operating on a large scale soon became conspicuously apparent. He had a wonderful capacity for organizing large enterprises and a keen foresight, which seemed to amount to an intuitive perception of the trend of industrial development. Recognizing fully the importance of details in the conduct of business enterprises, he had no taste for attention to these details himself, but committed all such matters to subordinates. In the selection of these assistants, an exceptionally good judgment of men, and a happy faculty of correctly estimating their capacities, enabled him to place his minor interests always in safe hands, while he gave his whole time and attention to more important matters. From the time he assumed control and management of the business, it expanded with wonderful rapidity, his sagacious investments developed into a hand some fortune, and in 1875, he sought relaxation from his arduous and exacting labors through the organization of a partnership, under which the firm became Renwick, Shaw & Crossett. Increasing the capacity of the mill, this firm continued its operation until 1885, when the partner ship was dissolved, the partners giving their attention thereafter to the extensive interest which they had acquired in the pineries. When released from the cares of active business, in a measure, Mr. Renwick turned his attention to travel and to the gratification of an inherent love for the beautiful in art as well as nature. Married first, in 1855, to Miss Cynthia Seymour of Davenport, he traveled much with his family, both in this country and abroad, until 1877, when Mrs. Renwick died.
In 1879 he married Miss Pamela Helen Goodwin, a descendant on her mother's side from the distinguished Field family of Western Massachusetts, and from Captain Elisha Hollester, who was a member of the Committee of Correspondence during the Revolutionary War. For some years preceding her marriage Miss Goodwin was engaged in literary work, writing principally for Dr. J. H. Vincent (now bishop) in his noted Berean publications, among which her name appears as assistant editor. Their only surviving child, William Goodwin Renwick, was born in Berlin, January 10, 1886.
In the course of their travels, many of the art treasures of Europe were collected and transferred to their beautiful residence in Davenport, serving to make it one of the most notable homes in the State of Iowa, and the charming cordiality with which those entering this home were received was always one of its chief attractions. Courteous in manner, entertaining in conversation, and generous in his impulses, Mr. Renwick made warm and lasting friendships, and was particularly happy in his domestic life.
While his business operations extended over a vast territory, he was ever mindful of the best interests of Davenport, and thoroughly identified with its material upbuilding. He was one of the organizers of the Davenport Board of Trade, and served three years as its president. One of the incorporators of the company which built the first street railway in Davenport, he was a director of the corporation many years, and vice president a portion of that time. He was interested in the Davenport National Bank, and served director of that institution twenty years. The Davenport Woolen Mills and the Lindsay Land & Lumber Company were other enterprises with which he was identified, and he was at the time of his death an active member of the Davenport Business Men's Association. Immediately after his death, which occurred on the twelfth of January, 1889, the last-named association, thoroughly representative of the city, adopted resolutions setting forth that in the death of Mr. Renwick, Davenport had lost one of its builders, and that “to the life of the deceased, both public and private, the city owed a large degree of its growth and prosperity.” For many years he was a stockholder and director in the Central Union Telephone Company of Chicago, and the representatives of that corporation also paid a warm tribute to his moral worth and high character as a business man. He was a regular and liberal contributor to the famous Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences, and his church affiliations were with the First Presbyterian Church of Davenport, of which, from early manhood till the day of his death, he was an honored member. (The foregoing sketch is reprinted from the "National Magazine.")
Mr. Renwick was of fine personal appearance and was gifted with all those qualities of mind and heart that made him beloved in his home and a favorite in social circles, while his courtesy of manner and unselfish regard for others while traveling added continually to the circle of his acquaintance many lasting friends.
BIOGRAPHIES