Debbie Smartt

Summary of information written by Hattie Louise Denton Walker on 23 Aug 1961 "Jack" Denton came to Kentucky when they opened up the Transylvania Land Grant to settlers. We do not know the exact date but it would have to be prior to 1830 he met his wife in Henderson County and all his children were born there. He was Welsh decent, Democrat, Methodist farmer and came from Granville County, North Carolina. The Dentons were very industrious and strict disiplinarians. He bought about 1000 acres of land for .50 cents an acre. It was mostly level land and a great deal of it was covered with standing water, He called it Slovers Flat. It was covered with virgin timber - oaks, hickory, ash, poplars, elms, walnuts and pecans. The settlers combined their labor and began cutting down trees, hewing them out for log houses. barns and stables. They cleared and drained the land for cultivation. His son, Benjamin Franklin Denton, told of men and slaves standing in water nearly half way to boot top to get out firewood for winter for families and slaves. This area now called Hickory Grove. "Jack" was killed at 58 trying to pry a big tree off a large stump. It had lodged on the stump when it fell. He had a hickory hand stick prying under it when it rolled over on him, crushing him to death. "Jack" married a girl of Scottish decent, Frances Whitledge on June 8, 1830. Frances was born on 14 Feb 1813 and died 1 Nov 1874 in Henderson County, Kentucky. Her father was Thomas Whitledge who had married Nancy Thornberry (her Mother) on 11 Dec 1806 in Bullett County. Nancy was from Virginia. "Jack" and Frances Denton reared a big family of boys and girls. David Denton, son of "Jack" volunteered in the Confederate Army. He came home with a wound in his shoulder, caused by being shot with a minnie ball. It got infected and never healed. Later he developed cancer there, from which he died. When "Jack's" sons married, he gave them 100 acres of land for a home. He also deeded one square acre to the Dentons and their heirs for a cemetary with a portion set aside for the slaves and their families. This cemetary is on the farm owned by David Klaffer and Cordie Denton Klaffer. (Cordie is Great Granddaughter of "Jack") Benjamin Franklin Denton, a son of "Jack" was born on 12 Sept 1836 in Henderson County Kentucky and on 6 Dec 1855 married Mary Elizabeth Sheffer. Mary was born 21 July 1840 in Wisconsin and her family had settled on the adjacent Greene Farm. Her father, William Sheffer came from Wisconsin where he had worked in the lead mines. The Grand kids called him "Grandpa Billy" and his wife Rebecca Jones Sheffer, "Grandma Becky". The Sheffers had come with a group of settlers by wagon train when Mary was only 9 years old (1849). The wagon train had been made up in Springfield, Illinois. Ben died in 21 Mar 1915, while Mary died 12 Apr 1920 and both are buried in the Denton Cemetary. William Sheffer (2 Mar 1805 - 11 May 1892) and his wife Rebecca Jones Sheffer (9 Nov 1815 - 4 Feb 1865) are also buried in the Denton Cemetery. John Frederick Jack DENTON 1805 - 1863 John Frederick "Jack" Denton (1805 - 1863) Contributed by Debbie Smartt