At its heart, the story of the Renicks of Greenbrier is the story of America, and of a quintessentially American family. The Renick family of Greenbrier is a family which both shaped their times and were a product of their times. Like any family, some members were noteworthy in their community. There are a few heroes and some innovators.
They fought in the French and Indian Wars, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and later, members of the family served in World War I, World War II, and some served in Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq.
Most are like most of us; our marks on life appear to be no more than what you might find on a tombstone, a single entry of birth, a dash, and a death date, with little mention of the life lived in the dash between birth and death. But, if you have the intelligence and imagination to look at the spaces between the dates and the places, you will see the story of a family who came to America before the Revolutionary War as a direct result of religious persecution.
Instead of settling into one of the many thriving colonial cities, they chose to live on the frontier. And, as the frontier pushed westward, so did they. The family grew, adding names like Handley, Beard, Armentrouts, Sweets, House, Peterson, and Sheppard. They spread until, like this nation, they too were from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific, and everywhere in between.