Fenn, Ira I.

Born: 1799-08-22 Kent, Connecticut

Died: 1873-01-03 Lacon, Illinois

In 1818, Fenn moved with his brother Norman to Dayton, Ohio, where he practiced as an attorney. In 1835, Fenn and his two brothers, William Fenn and Norman Fenn, settled in Columbia, Illinois, which two years later changed its name to Lacon. Located along the Illinois River, Lacon was at that time part of Putnam County, but with the formation of Marshall County in 1839, Lacon became the county seat. A pioneer of the Lacon area, Fenn was one of eight men who gave bonds for the town to become the county seat. He was an organizer and founding member of the local Presbyterian church and one of its first elders. He continued practicing law in Lacon until the mid-1850s, when he focused on promoting railroads. He was married to Eunice Pomeroy, who died the year after they arrived in Lacon. He married Fannie E. Dudley in 1840. He and his two brothers died within eight months of each other.

Spencer Ellsworth, Records of the Olden Time; or, Fifty Years on the Prairies (Lacon, IL: Home Journal Steam Printing, 1880), 309, 320, 334, 345-46, 694; Lacon Home Journal (IL), 8 January 1873, 2:3; Gravestone, Lacon Cemetery, Lacon, IL.