Dennis Family Files
Transcribed by Judi Bentley –
August 1998Converted to html
by Patricia Wilson Spradley – August 1998
I have no motive in writing this of my people and parents only to inform my sons of their ancestors. I dont think there is one untrue word or sentence written in this manuscript. It is my aim to write the truth about all things. I have learned from the coat of arms and what I have heard my folks say and what I have saw and learned myself of my people
convinces me that I am writing only facts. I pass this to others hoping it will be treated respectfull. I wish I was able to rewrite this and place it in finer condition but perhaps this will be sufficient.
May 18, 1940
Rufus A. Dennis
Calvin Dennis came to America or to Plymouth Rock in 1620. Whether he married in England or after he came in the *Mayflower to this country I don’t know. His wife was Lou Cardwill. They reared a large family and one of his boys lived in Boston and his name was Henry Dennis. He married Julia Newman.They reared a family and one of the boys located in Maryland. His name was Samuel Dennis. Samuel married Sara Lamar. They had nine children one name Henry Dennis. Grandson of Henry and great grandson of Calvin Dennis and Lou Cardwill. He was born May 17, 1771. He left Maryland and came across the mountains of western North Carolina about 1795. His neighboars friend John Hollandsworth came with him from Virginia. They located on what is known as the Oba Rich farm near Mount Moriah Baptist Church.
*It has never been proven that Calvin Dennis came on the Mayflower. I am certain that he must have been on another ship that came from England in that time period.
This Henry Dennis married *Lafatia Parker. I am informed by my father that the Parkers came here when Henry Dennis came. The Wilcher family, the Crabtree family, Reeves family, the Tittle family and some others drifted here about the same date. Henry Dennis did not live on Pea Ridge but a short while. This Henry Dennis is my grandfather. He located on Canal Creek on what is now known as the G.G. Melton farm. He owned 700 acres of land on the creek near Gassaway. He built a first class house for that day and reared a family of 10 children. Their names were William, Matthew, Samuel, Henry and James. The girls were Polly, Patsy, Charlotte, Eliza, and Emmaline. To tell who they married and where they drifted to is no small job but I will try. I will make some errors no doubt, however, I will do the best I know how.
*Lafatia Parker went by Patience.
THE DENNIS FAMILY
There is not anything more delightful or more interesting or intertaining than to hear people talk of people of long ago. I always have delighted on hearing people talk of their far off ancestors. When a small lad I used to sit by the huge fire place and listen to Father and Mother speak of many different families or generations of old ancestors. People are more ignorant of and about their ancestors than any one thing on this earth. I am writing this sketch or what I term a poor effort for the benefit or to perpetuate the history of the Dennis family. My sons can refer to this and learn much of their far off kins folk. Of course, I will miss and fail to record many important facts. However I will indevor to do the best I can. I am up in years and have no eloquent pen, therefore I will be brief as possible and risk the future for results.
Rufus A. Dennis
My grandfather Henry Dennis was of low stature and a strangely man. He was friendly annd accomadating. He loved his morning drink, and is said to get a little tipsy at times. He managed his affairs well and was a good provider and kept plenty about himself to live on. He was an active helper in the settling of Cannon County in 1835. Why his name is not mentioned in the History of Cannon County I am not prepared to say.
Grandfather was very reserved and proud. He went to Nashville in a two wheeled cart to purchase his coffee, sugar, salt, and other such things that he needed. He formed acquaintance with a Mr. Sewell who was a preacher. Grandfather engaged Sewell to visit Smith County and preach for the folks. Sewell came and held services under a large elm tree in the yard and large crowds of people attended the meeting. Several united themselves together and set up a church. Grandfather was the leader.
William Dennis was the oldest son of Henry and Lafatia Dennis. He was born in the year 1809, He was married to Peggie Higgins in his eighteenth year. They had six boys and three girls. There names were Henry (Spunk), Samuel, Matthew, John, Johnson, and Dock. The girls were Cola, Tinney, and Mary. Spunk married Nancy Tittle. One son, John D. have daughter Sarah married George Ledbetter. Babe married a Mr. McElhaney. I cant tell more of them only Spunk and Nancy are dead. Matt as we call him married Susie Marcum. I dont know but littel about his family. Alice married Mr. Boatright. Willie the boy was not grown when I was at their home in Arkansas. John Dennis wife was Ponie Grizzle daughter of B.L. Grizzle. They had only one son Dock. I forget who his wife was. John and Ponie are dead.
Johnsons wife was Mr. Spurlocks daughter. I suppose they are yet living. Their only child was very small when I was out in Arkansas. I never saw Dock. Cant tell anything about him.
Cola married Kahal Hollandsworth. They had one son only, Adam. Cola and Kahal are dead.
Mary husband Alfred Marcum. Ball and Archaniac was their children. This is about all I can say of uncle Bills children.
Uncle Matthew came next. His wife was Selena Reeves. They reared a large family. George the oldest son was married twice. I only knew one of his children. His name was James Henry wife was a Miss Robinson. Sams wife was Lee Boon. One daughters husband was a Mr. Rodger, one and probably two married Green Scott and the other married Green brother Tite Scott.
On writing of uncle William Dennis boys I missed his fourth son Samuel. I regret doing so. Sam was sure a fine high toned cultured gentlemen. He possessed a fine farm and was a prosperous farmer. His wife was Nan Lucas. I dont remember all of his children. I think there were five of them. They were small children when I was at his home. Dave was the oldest sons name. I lost trace of Sam years ago. I dont hnow where he drifted too. I have a faint idea he went to Oklahoma. I regret it of course that Sam is not listed with his brothers and sisters who are Spunk, Matt, John, Johnson, and Dock and Cola and Tinnie his sister Mary.
There are so many Sams it will be difficult to keep them separated while reading this sketch. Samuel Sr. was grandfther Henry’s third son. He was a fine type of humanity. He was a natural born leader of men. A Lt. in Jim Allisons Auburn Company. Inclined to horse racing and shooting matches. Always sober, level-headed, and generously kind to one and all. He never married. He made lots of money. He finally settled in Oklahoma near Afton. He raised a foster child his name was Brink Hutchins. Brink married Jim Ledbetters daughter, a sister to Johnson Dennis’ wife. James Dennis died when a small boy. I dont know which was older my father or his brother James.
I now come to the last son of my grandfather. My fathers name was Henry. He was borned Oct 17, 1838. He died May 15, 1915. He was boarned on Canal Creek one mile south of Gassaway. His father was Henry Dennis and his mother Lafatia Parker. Father became of mature age at the commencement of the War Between the States. He inlisted in Capt. Phillips Company and served throughtout the war. At the close of the war, he married Palona Frances Reynolds in 1865. There were 7 children born to them. Elizabeth, Rufus, William, Fanny, Laurel, Hiram and Pleas. Elizabeth married W.B. Adamson. Rufus first wife was Delia King, second wife Alice Ashford. Four children were borned to the first union, Jake, Sam, Bertie and an infant not named. Children Rosa, Nolia, Jim B., Willie, Ethel, Walter and Freland.
Brother William died in Washington.
Hiram married Mildred Reedy. Pleas is yet single. Fanny died a young babe. Laurel married Tilford Hollandsworth. Their children Bonnie, Maynette, Burton, Mallie, George, Samuel. My father died one mile north of Readyville and mother died at the same house also.
This checks up the history of the boys of course many newsy things of course are omitted and of course I’ve done the best I could. I am the oldest Dennis in all the family here so far as I know. I am 72 years of age, and I feel that my time is short here and that is why I write this sketch. I will write of the sisters of my father next. There were five of them. They all married very young and lived to be up in years. They all were good aunts to me. That is the ones I knew. I never saw aunt Patsy. I used to visit the other four, Polly, Emmaline, Eliza and Charlotte.
Polly was the oldest girl and she married James Higgins. There was two children borned to them, Alochie. She married Sam Tittle. Asa never wore the name Higgins. James Higgins and aunt Polly separated seven months before Asa was borned and he grew up in grandfather’s home. He went by the name Dennis all his life. Asa married Adaline Vandygriff. They had five boys and three girls, John, Lee, Luster, Arthur and Willie. The girls Letha, Ada, and Daisy. Sam Tittle and Alochie had two girls, Sadie and Ada. Sadie married N.G. Mullennex. Ada married M.B. Davenport. After Polly and Higgins parted she married Jerry (Jeremiah) O’Conner. Four children graced their home. Henry, John, Josie, and Babe. Henry wife was Rachel Adamson. John wife Sarah Dirting. Babe married P.L. Adamson.
Charlotte married in her fourteenth year to John Hollandsworth. They had eight boys and 2 girls. James Monroe was the oldest. He married Lucetta Hancock in 1864. She died two years later. Jim remained single twenty one years. His second wife was Melissa Smith. They had two sons, Alonzo and Julius. Melissa died and Jim amd Polina Mason, Bill Stone’s widow married. They had one son, Robert. Jim and Palina separated and he married Livie Smith sister to his second wife. They had to girls. Walter Melton’s wife Ethel and Albert Alexander’s wife Nola. John and Charlotte’s second son married Nancy Jane Melton. To this union were born several children, four sons and two daughters are living. Tilford, Huey, Edd, and George are the boys. Martha (Mattie) and Effie the girls. Tilford married Laurel Dennis. Huey married Frances Moore. Edd’s first wife James Melton’s daughter, Lovie. His second wife was Bob Shank’s daughter, Mae. Martha married ? Eldridge. Effie married Edward Snooks.
Hiram third son of John Hollandsworth and Charlotte Dennis his wife. Hiram (Bud) Hollandsworth’s wife was Nan Neeley. They brought up a large family. Martha their oldest daughter married Bill Manus. Hattie’s husband was a Mr. Anderson. Marie Anderson Taylor lived in Texas. A son of Bud was Frank Hollandsworth. Sam the fourth son went to Arkansas as a young man and never returned. He married and raised a family in Arkansas. Will the fifth son died in 1874 in his eighteenth year. Allen’s wife was Melissa Jetto. Sam and Joshua are the sons and Daisy, Elizabeth. Gertrude, Mary and Ehlah are Allen and Melissa’s children. Henry’s wife was Jennie ?. Lloyd Cloud and Shealy Couger (there is more here that I cant make out). Henry is buried in Cannon Co. Riverside on France H. lot. Johnny married Delia Nokes. The had I dont know how many children. Allatha (?) Pearl was the oldest child. Kandace died and there was one or two more girls. Earnest was the only son.
Emmaline Dennis married David Hutchins. John R., Leander, and Melissie was all the children they had when they went west. Patsy married Richard Talley. They had no children. Eliza Dennis married Dock Murphy. They brought up seven children. Jake and lee was the boys and Martha, Mary, Lucenia, and Mecie the girls. John’s wife was Susie Arnette. Lee’s wife was a Miss Miller. Martha married Bill Ledbetter. Marry married Tom Powell. Lucenia married William Parker. Mecie married a Mr. Gribble. I suppose Lee and Mecie are living. The rest are dead. This closes the direct family list so far as I know. I know there are legions of things interesting to write if I knew of it. My environments are and have been such that I am deprived of recording what I wish too.
Calvin Dennis who came to this country in the year 1620, was Judge John Dennis’ father. Judge John Dennis the Coat of Arms say had several sons. One of them came over the mountains into NC when very young. His offspring has been traced here. Joe and Kye Dennis, George Dennis of near Porterfield are Judge Dennis’ people. Down in Carroll Co. in west Tennessee lives a large family of the Dennis folks and Abe King told me that one of the old Dennis men told him that his father and his father’s brother Henry separated near Liberty in 1819 and had never heard of his uncle Henry. No doubt the Henry spoken of by the old man to Uncle Abe is grandfather Henry Dennis.
I cannot write anything of the Parker family that would be interesting. My father said his father Henry and his mother Lafatia Parker married near Temperance Hall in 1807 or 1808. The Nickojack Indian Trail came up Smith Fork Creek and up Clear Fork up the Adamson Branch on out Pea Ridge by where grandfather first lived. The Nockojack trail went clear to North Carolina. If the Parker family came here when grandfather came which my father says they did they followed the Indian trail down on Smith Fork and located there. I used to visit grandmothers folks down at Temperance Hall also. John, Richard, Matthew and Jasper Parker were my grandmother’s brothers. It is natural that grandfather would follow the Indian trail to see the Parker family who came here with him. Hence his marriage.
Uncle Sam Dennis was a Lt. in Jim Allison’s Company. My father served as a private in Capt. Phillips Company. Asa Dennis, Spunk (Henry), and Matt Dennis and Jim Hollandsworth, nephews to father and uncle Sam Dennis were in Capt. Phillips Company. John Dennis and France Hollandsworth served on the Union side in the State Militia the latter part of 1864 and 1865. Many interesting things taken place or happened back in those days. That is from 1820-1866. I used to hear old men talk of the rough times they had back in those days. House raisings and log rollings, rail maullings and various other social things were in vogue. Neighborhood parties or socials, fiddling, dancing. Whiskey drinking was the first fitting order of the day at that time. It seems as though they then were not exactly sane somehow. I will have more to say shortly.
The dates and time of those who left or moved off to other states I dont know. All I know is they went away . Father’s brother Matthew Dennis went To Madison County, Arkansas about 1849. John Hollandsworth went with Matt and he came back the next year. My father went out there in the fall of 1868, stayed one year and returned. Bill and Sam Dennis went to Arkansas in 1870. They never returned. John Dennis, my cousin and Uncle Bill’s son went 1875 and he never came back. Matt, Jr. Bill’s son and Spunk went and died in Arkansas. Kahal Hollandsworth and Alfred Marcum, Bill’s son-in-law went and died in Arkansas. David Hutchins, Aunt Emmaline’s husband and Richard Talley, Patsy’s husband went to Indian Territory in 1783. They died out there. Dock Murphy, Aunt Eliza Dennis’ husband settled down at Dibrell in Warren County, Tennessee and died there.
Henry Dennis was of Scotch, Irish, and Welch descent. Calvin Dennis was his great grandfather who came over here in the Mayflower from England. *Again there is no proof of this His birth was in Scotland. Lou Cardwill his wife was from near London. Calvin’s son, Henry who located in Maryland and married Miss Julia Newman was the father and mother of Samuel Dennis. Julia Newman was of Dutch descent so says the Coat of Arms. Samuel Dennis, son of Henry Dennis married a Miss Sarah Lamar, a full-blooded Irishwoman. Samuel was the father of Henry Dennis, my grandfather. This Henry married Lafatia Parker. She was full Irish. All the Parkers hailed from Ireland. How and when they came to this country, I dont know. I mean America. The came to what is now Tennessee when Henry Dennis came of course.
Palona Frances Reynolds, wife of Henry Dennis, Jr. was of English descent. All of her fore parents were of English extract. I dont know very much about my Mother’s people
.
The Reynolds, and Bakers, and Foutch and Crowley families are all closely related. Grandfather Reynolds wife was Melvina Baker. Elizabeth Adams, wife of Peter Adams was a sister to Melvina Reynolds. Elizabeth’s first husband was a Mr. Crowley, father of Judge Will Crowley of Smithville. If there was any brothers of Melvina and Elizabeth, I never heard of one. My mother’s brothers died years ago. Their names were Hiram and William Reynolds.
Jake Dennis is the oldest son of Rufus A. Dennis. He was born Oct 14, 1896. He is at the present time selling merchandise at Woodbury. He has a good business education. He served thorought the World War, serving in the Navy near five years. Jake has done lots of work and has done moderately well. He married in Illinois some few years ago and his wife sure is a fine type of humanity. She is polished in her manners and strives to make everyone feel welcome when in her company. Jake is near 44 years of age and is somewhat gray. Him and Kathlyn have no children. Jake is making the race for County Trustee. Jake is very industrious, full of energy and never idle. The public calls on him every day for assistance of some sort and he never turns no one away empty handed, if he can possibly do or help them anyway. Their home is a welcome place for all respectable people.