DENTON FAMILY REUNION

Published in Bismarck Gazette on Sept. 4, 1952.

    Last Sunday a special service was held at the Bismarck Methodist Church in honor of George Denton's 90th birthday.  Also for those who were 80 years of age or over.  Mrs. C.C. Kerlagon and Mrs. Ada Garrett were those in this group who were present.

    Mr. George Denton was born August 29, 1862. He was one of 14 children born to Stephen and Charlotte Denton, who came over from England in 1842 and settled in the Hickory Grove community, three miles west of Bismarck.  Stephen Denton died in 1915 and his wife in 1913.

    Stephen Denton, the son of William Denton and Rose Coulson of Moorby, England, came to America in 1842.  His Sister, Mrs. Day, and Edward Smith and family, Evans, and Hornbsey's all came together on the same sail boat.  They went to Stephen and told him they were coming to America. He was working away from home.  He left the next morning and never went home to tell his folks he was coming.

    They were six weeks on the water.  They landed at Ste. Genevieve, Mo., in October 1842 and came to Potosi, Missouri at lead miner rush.  Then went to California in 1848 in the gold rush.  Stephen went with Felix Barron,  John Hobbs, and Joe Sherlock.  They were gone between two and three years.  He came back with $2,000.00 in gold and then married Charlotte Smith, in 1853, the daughter of Edward and Mary Day Smith.

    He lived on a farm close to Potosi for 3 years and then bought a farm in Concord town between Irondale and Bismarck.  In 1856, the Iron Mountain R.R. came through his place which is the Mo. Pacific Road now.  He lived on this farm for over 60 years or until his death in 1915.

    Stephen Denton had no education but what he learned in Sunday School.  He helped build the Methodist Church at Irondale and went there to Sunday School and Church until the church was organized at Hickory Grove on October 22, 1884.

    There were 14 children born in the family.

    Mary Elizabeth, 11-25-1853 to 11-3-1932; Eliza Ann, 7-25-1855 to 8-12-1916; Martha Ellen, 9-15-1856 to 2-21-1937; William Edward, 3-27-1858 to 1-8-1939; Lucy Jane, 7-29-1859 to 3-11-1917; John Wesley, 4-3-1861 to 6-23-1919; George Henry, 8-29-1862; Baby, 2-10-1864; Alfred Thomas, 4-12-1865 to 12-15-1915; Charles Fredric, 2-1-1867 to 10-9-1946; Stephen Proctor, 7-11-1868 to 2-1-1935; Baby 1-29-1870; Jesse Marvin, 7-15-1872 to 7-4-1946; Robert Morris, 4-19-1877.

    George and Robert Denton are the two living children of the family of fourteen.  On George Denton's birthday celebration all his living children were present with grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  At the close of the morning service a large crowd of relatives and friends gathered in the basement of the church for a dinner and an hour of reviving old memories.

    George Denton's children who are living are: Mrs. Willie Wallen, Mrs. Maud Shaner, Henry Denton of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. There are eleven grandchildren.