THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
Last week’s
column
introduced the Denton Family early settlers to Union County, dating
back as far
as 1834, when the first census revealed that seventeen by that name in
three
families were living in the county. The
heads of Denton households then were James, Elizabeth and Eliza Denton. In the 1840 listing, we found five households
headed by Levina, Samuel, Jonathan, Elijah and George M., with the
Union
population of Dentons then numbering twenty-three.
In 1850, the Dentons were in six families
numbering a total of thirty-one, headed by George, Samuel, Jonathan,
Samuel,
Jr., William, Elihu, and Elijah.
A
precursory examination of the 1860 and 1870 Union census records did
not reveal
a single household of Dentons in Union.
What had happened to most of these families of earlier decade
census
tabulations? Had a mass exodus of Denton
families occurred within the twenty year period between 1850 and 1870? Furthermore, an examination of the Union
County Cemetery records did not reveal marked Denton graves within the
parameters of Union.
Knowing
that Denton was a very prominent name in neighboring Towns County, it
was
rather easy to surmise what had occurred.
When Towns County was formed from portions of Union in 1856,
several of
the Denton families, without moving from the properties they had
occupied when
the 1850 census was taken, had been absorbed into the new principality
of
Towns.
Take,
for example, the family of George and Catherine Wood Denton, present in
Union
in 1840 and 1850. They were within the
parameters of the new Towns, and were quickly oriented to life there,
not
having moved at all. In fact, George
Denton helped the new county in its early years by being appointed (or
should
we say “elected”) the county’s very first Tax Collector—maybe not a
very popular
job but a necessary one, nonetheless, to the government of the new
county.
In addition to
being a
farmer in the Upper Hightower section of Towns County, George also was
a land
surveyor. He used this skill to map out
the county seat town of Hiawassee and to survey farms and holdings of
other
citizens. Last week’s column listed six children of George and
Catherine Wood
Denton. Altogether, George and his wife,
the daughter of William and Nancy Osborn Wood, had eleven children
whose names
and birth dates are as follows:
Elizabeth J. (1837), William J. (1839),
Elisha H. (1841), Nancy (1843), Samuel M. (1845), Jeremiah J.
(1847),
John M. (1851), Martha Ann (1853), Lucinda A. (1856), Margaret M.
(1856), Mary
C. (1860) and Georgia (?). George and
Catherine moved from the Upper Hightower section of Towns to White
County. When George was back for a visit
to one of
his children still residing there, he became ill and died, and was
buried in
the Upper Hightower Baptist Church Cemetery.
It is believed Catherine died and was buried in White County.
The
third child of George and Catherine, Elisha H. Denton (1841-1922)
joined the
Confederacy during the Civil War, enlisting on August 24, 1861 and
serving
through January, 1865, having reached the rank of Lieutenant during his
enlistment. Returning to Towns County,
he married his sweetheart, Cinthia Berrong, on January 18, 1865. She was a daughter of another well-known
pioneer family, Andrew Jackson and L. Osborn Berrong.
Elisha and Cinthia made their home in the
Swallows Creek Community of Towns County where ten children were born
to
them: Lillie A. (1867-1936) who married
Taylor Wood and Alex Parker; Robert M. (1868-1934) who married Maggie
Rogers;
Louisa Caroline (1870-1938) who married Elisha Eller; James L.
(1872-1941) who
married Esta Foster; Ollie M (1874-1892), never married; Phairella O.
(1876-1955) who married Joe Hooper; Erastus M. (1878-1936) who married
Nannie
McLucas; Demascus (1881-1961) who married Minnie Smith; Esco
(1884-1952) who
married Ora Foster; and Doll (a son, 1886-1964) who married Myrtle
Eller.
Of
the many descendants of George M. and Catherine Wood Denton, we can
identify
businessmen, bankers, educators, politicians, farmers,
developers—almost every
occupation
For example,
James Young
Denton (1899-1982), son of Robert M. and Maggie Rogers Denton, became a
noted
banker and financier, having been instrumental in the growth of the
Bank of
Hiawassee and in securing the charter for the Union County Bank in
Blairsville,
and getting it established. He married
Emma Belle Maney on May 20, 1920 when she was only fourteen years of
age. Young was then a teacher, and he
enrolled his
young bride in the Hiawassee Academy. J.
Y., as he was better known, and Emma Denton became quite a team. She, too, became a noted worker and director
of the Bank of Hiawassee, was a horticulturist with her daylilies known
far and
wide. They had six children,
five of whom reached adulthood and became
productive citizens. Their children were
J. C. Denton, Evelyn Denton (Groves), Elois Denton (Anderson), James
Lanier
Denton who died young from whooping cough, J. William Denton, and Emma
Jean
Denton (Anderson).
Another of the
children of Robert M. and Maggie
Rogers Denton was their daughter Isabel, born April 28, 1906, who
became a
noted elementary school teacher mainly in Towns County but also in
White and
Forsyth Counties in a career that spanned forty-three years. When my husband, the late Rev. Grover D.
Jones, was pastor of the McConnell Memorial Baptist Church in
Hiawassee, among
our loyal members were Mrs. Isabel Hall and her beloved husband, Mr.
Leonard
Hall. As a young ministerial couple, we
were “taken in,” encouraged and loved by this couple who often had us
in their
home as guests. Isabel Denton married
widower Leonard Hall, a veteran of World War I, on June 29, 1947. Mrs. Isabel Denton Hall was noted not only
for her work in the school system, but she served a total of
twenty-five years
as Hiawassee Baptist Association’s Church Training Director. When
Leonard and
Isabel passed on, we felt like we had lost some of our very dearest
friends.
Doll
Denton (1886-1964), tenth and last child of Elisha H. and Cinthia
Berrong
Denton, and grandson of George M. and Catherine Wood Denton, also lived
in
Towns County. Beset by Hodgkins disease,
one of Doll’s legs had to be amputated in 1960.
But he learned to walk with his prosthesis as he carried on a
near-normal work life on his farm and later assisted his son-in-law,
Ayscue
Hopper (married to Doll’s daughter Grace), near Tuckaseegee, NC with
the
operation of his farm. Doll Denton
married Myrtle Eller on September 10, 1905.
To them were born nine children, seven daughters and two sons: Mae Belle, Grace, Gladys, Dorsey, Edith,
Ethel, George, Opal and Earl. Remembered
for their strong work ethic and their stalwart Christian influence,
Doll and
Myrtle Denton stand out as productive citizens of the area. After Doll’s death in 1964 and his burial at
Lower Hightower Cemetery in Towns County, his widow Myrtle lived
alternately
with her daughters Edith Denton Chambers and Ethel Denton Everett in
Blairsville until Myrtle’s death on March 31, 1970.
Denton
is a place name deriving from the Old English word “denu” meaning
valley. Scots and English settlers
came to America
in the early migratory years and found similar valleys to their
European
homelands among the hills of Virginia, North and South Carolina, and
Georgia. We are grateful for these hardy
settlers who made a dinstinctive “Dent” in the way of life in these
mountain
communities.
[Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator,
freelance writer, poet, and historian. She may be reached at
e-mail edj0513@windstream.net;
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708 Cedarwood Road, Milledgeville, GA
31061-2411.]
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