Forward to 10C4 – Andrew Russell Denton (1839-1863) – Forward to Dentons in the Fens Index
Back to US Denton Ground Zero – Back to Denton Family Bible
John was born in Tennessee and orphaned at eight; his foster family moved him away to Arkansas.
He ran away and worked as a deckhand on Arkansas flatboats and then became an itinerant Methodist minister in Arkansas and Missouri.
He crossed into Texas with a fellow preacher in 1836/7 where he studied law and established a partnership in Clarksville. He served in the Texas Militia as captain and in 1841 his unit engaged in the Battle of Village Creek against the Kichai Indians, six miles east of Fort Worth. He was leading an attack when shot and killed. His body was taken on horseback and buried in an unmarked grave next to the confluence of Oliver Creek and what became Denton Creek. His body was later disinterred by a local cattleman, placed in a wooden box and buried at his home.
In 1901 it was dug up again and buried with appropriate ceremonies in the southeast corner of the Denton County Courthouse lawn. The city of Denton in Texas and its broader area Denton County were named after the preacher/lawyer/militia captain.
Denton Texas is probably most notable as the home of two Miss Americas in 1971 and 1975.
So much more to be done here, have acquired a file of some 5,000 American Dentons and need to work through it – some time soon!
| Note on shorthand acronyms being used in the DFB: – GGF1 / GGM1 – means first great-grandfather /mother; – GU11 / GA11 – means eleventh great-uncle / great-aunt; – 1C3 – means first cousin three times removed |
Forward to 10C4 – Andrew Russell Denton (1839-1863) – Forward to Dentons in the Fens Index
Back to US Denton Ground Zero – Back to Denton Family Bible
