Captain John B. Denton, preacher, lawyer and soldier

<S

CAPTAIN
JOHN B. DENTON

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CAPTAIN
JOHN B. DENTON

PREACHER, LAWYER,
AND SOLDIER

HIS LIFE AND TIMES

IN

TENNESSEE, ARKANSAS, AND TEXAS

BY

WM. ALLEN

1905

R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY
CHICAGO

TO OLD COMRADE PIONEERS OF DENTON COUNTY

WHO FEEL NEAREST;

AND TO ALL PIONEER SETTLERS OF TEXAS,

THESE FOND MEMORIES

ARE MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED

?£=U=!S75-£

HOUSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY

KOI 0SQ5 7flb0

Cable of Contents!

PAGE

A Word to the Public - 9

The Task of the Biographer - - ' "' - 1 2

Search for the Lost Remains of

Captain John B. Denton - 17

Testimony of Robert G. Johnson- - 31

Testimony of Robert H. Hopkins - -33

Report of Hon. William Allen - - 36

Report of Record and Chronicle - 45

Rev. Allen's Speech - - 49
Other Remarks, Music, and Third

Burial of Captain Denton - - 63

Boyhood of Denton - - 67

Leaving his Cradle - - 73

From Tennessee to Arkansas- - 77

Leaving the W'ells Family - 80

The Years of Silence - 85
Conversion, Marriage, Ministerial

Labors, and Oratory - - 87

As a Preacher - 108

As a Lawyer - - in

As a Sacrifice for his Country - - 118

Appendix - - - -129

The Battle of San Jacinto - - 157

7

a auorti to t^e public

The life of Captain John B. Denton as herein
contained is a true picture of the man and his
times. All fiction has been carefully avoided.
It was a temptation, and it would have been
both pleasing and easy to the author to have
interwoven fascinating pictures of fiction, but
this would not have been just and true to the
pioneer settlers, who desire nothing but the
truth. They want the simple truth told of an
old companion who spent his life on the out-
skirts of civilization. But even the truth spoken
in its simple strain is sometimes stranger than
fiction.

Captain Denton is only one man in the list
of many pioneers in Texas who wrought well
for mankind. And while people are brought
under obligations to such men, they must not
suppose that these actors bore their tasks
grievously. Very far from it ! It was their choice
and pleasure. God had made them so, and
tempered them with endurance and courage to
meet frontier and dangerous conditions bravely.

io Captain ^otyn 95. SDenton

Touching the life and character of Denton,
it must be stated that he was a wonderful man.
No one, perhaps, has had better opportunity of
conceiving him in his true character and value
to humanity than his biographer. Seldom has
a man acted before the public in whom so many
good points met, or one of such varied qualifica-
tion. Called by the conditions of the times to
act different parts in the drama of his life, he
failed in none, was equally strong in all.

Although almost three-quarters of a century
have passed since his death, he still stands
before the Texas public as an unwithered tree,
and still bears the fruits of his life. The
biographer, though having to wade through
some difficulties in order to a faithful and true
delineation, humbly hopes that this fresh resusci-
tation of fond memories will prove a blessing to
mankind as well as helpful to Texas history.

€^e €a06 of t^e TBtograp^er

The task of writing the biography of John
B. Denton was undertaken cheerfully notwith-
standing the many difficulties embarrassing
the happy pursuit. There is such a lack of
freshness in the knowledge of things appertain-
ing to the life and character of this notable man
that, at this late day, he suggests himself to the
mind more as a subject of romance than as an
ideal character who was once a preacher, an
attorney, and a soldier among the people.
Now almost three-quarters of a century have
gone since he was on the stage of action.

When it is considered that in the age and in
the country in which he lived, men were chiefly
valuable as actors and for the services they
rendered, there was little thought of preserving
their biographies on written pages. Indeed, all
those days were days of excitement and action,
and there were no ready scribes. Hence there
remains only a modicum of written data upon
which to construct true biography; yet, on the
other hand, quite an amount of recollections

ii

12 %xft an& €ime0 of

held traditionally. Even in this the worthiness
of the man is shown ; for it may be truthfully
spoken that when a man, in the absence of
written history, lives long and fondly in the
memory of the people, he wrote himself, by his
deeds, deeply in the thought and heart of his
cotemporaries. In this way Captain Denton's
name became a household word. Even little
children, climbing on the father's knee, listen
in silence to the tales of the father when he tells
to them the story of some unwritten hero.

Thus it may be spoken of John B. Denton;
for there are immortalities among men. They
will long live in the memory of the people
despite the negligence of scribes. Yet there is
danger in a too long neglected written history;
for time gathers its fables and is disposed to
weave them in the web of true history. How-
ever much the seasons and conditions of country
may force a period of written neglect of the
immortalities among men, yet they will not
fade from human memory. They are the
usefully talented who adapt themselves to the
conditions of their day and country, and meet
all emergencies heroically, without looking too
freely upon their own personal safety and profit.

Captain ^ofjn g&« 2Denton 13

They seem born unto a purpose, and that pur-
pose is manifested in their lives of self-sacrifice,
self-forgetfulness, and their labors of common
defense and general welfare.

A child of destiny is not like other people.
He has marks of his own, like one tossed in his
own tuitions and perceptions. Scarcely ever is
he seen like one mathematically studying and
weighing the points of advantage and disad-
vantage in the common problem of a human
life. He is more like one patiently waiting
opportunity, his opportunity. If he never meets
with his opportunity he passes out of life as any
other common man, unsung and soon forgotten.
If the times are propitious and his opportunity
arrives, he sees it, embraces it, is overwhelmed
with it, and pursues it until he has subjected it
unto the common good.

In looking over the career of Denton's life,
brief as it was, the idea of destiny is hard to
escape. In the very beginning the lots all
seemed to be unfavorable. The common ob-
server of the times, had he been allowed to
exercise judgment on the boy while growing up
and forming his character under the hardest con-
ditions, would have said that nothing good can

14 itife anti €ime£ of

ever come from beneath those tangled locks.
But the human judgment is no more perfect to-
day than it was in the day that David was chosen
King over Israel. Were it not for imperfection in
human judgment, the unexpected would not so
often happen. Beneath the tangled locks of
Denton, in his boyhood, there was hidden an in-
tellectual grandeur and probity of soul that qual-
ified him for a high plain of action and useful-
ness. Not restless, but contented, he waited
patiently through the years of his youth for the
days of his opportunity.

All beautiful flowers have not been seen of
men. And how often has no human hand dug
away the weeds where struggling beauty was
hidden. Monumental beauty lies hidden in
the stone quarries of the mountain, and other
things lovely in the entangled forest, just as
often there lie things of beauty and utility be-
neath the entangled locks of the struggling,
climbing boy. All these need help, and when
the helping hand is given, the things of beauty
are awakened into life, and man beholds in ad-
miration. Even without help, here and there
things of beauty sometimes appear.

The world's history has never in half part

Captain %!ofyn 95. 2Denton 15

been written, nor will the world ever know that
which might have been. It will never know the
beauty of many a flower that perished unblown
for want of a helping hand. Much of the world's
history that has been written had as well have
been unsaid, when measured by the good that
has come of it. There has been many a worthy
biography, containing much that is good and
worthy of remembrance, that has been crowded
out to give room for things less valuable to God
and country.

The history of the worthy man who now
stands out before us was threatened to suffer a
similar fate. This would have been loss and
unfortunate not only locally to Denton County,
but to Arkansas and Texas. He is closelv asso-
ciated with both these states in the days of their
trials and struggles, but especially with Texas.
He is a part of Texas history. It is easily per-
ceived that the time might come when a stranger
would ask why have you so much of the Denton
name in Texas — Denton County, Denton Creek,
Denton City, and Denton College — and an intel-
ligent historical answer could not be given.
Hence the importance of personal history, that
the reading descendants of the acting sires may

1 6 Captain S^ljn 25- 2Denton

be able to give intelligent answers to the in-
quiries of the traveling stranger. Hence, now,
while it is not too late, the pioneers have resolved
that something shall be written to perpetuate
the memory of one of their chiefest and noblest
compatriots, and at the same time preserve in
history the life and times of that period. It is
but just to humanity and the state of Texas.

Captain John B. Denton and his compatriots
lived in a day of action, and under circumstances
when history was not written ; it is well illustrated
by the Israelites in the day when they were
acting and not writing their history :

"And Joshua said, take you up every man of
you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the
number of the tribes of Israel : that this may be
a sign among you, that when your children ask
your fathers in time to come, saying, what mean
you by these stones, then ye shall answer
them that the waters of Jordan were cut off be-
fore the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, when
it passed over Jordan; the waters of Jordan
were cut off; and these stones shall be for a me-
morial unto the children of Israel forever."

^>eat^ for tlje Hojst IRemafng
of Captain 9Io^n 13. Benton

While the pioneer settlers of Denton County
were assembled in their annual association in
the month of August, A. D. 1900, their thought
providentially turned to their county and
county - seat, both bearing the same name,
Denton. It bore their thoughts along the
scenes of former pioneer days to things written
in history; and also to things held in memory,
but which by the condition of the times had never
been written. They believed that inasmuch as
Texas had made a great history, her history
should be preserved for the happiness, comfort,
and instruction of the coming generations.

Feeling the pride natural with all men when
their county and town are fair to look upon, and
a good heritage to themselves, it was but natural
that their thoughts should turn to the source of
the name. Of course, they were all acquainted
with the name of Captain John B. Denton,
though none of them had ever seen him. The

17

1 8 %itt anD €ime£ of

deeds of his life had made his name a house-
hold word with them, and with the people vari-
ously over Texas, and with many beyond.
While there was not much written data he was,
nevertheless, held in abundant memory through
the teachings of the fathers to their children.
Among the things that provoked deep interest
in the pioneer session was the strong traditional
evidence that the remains of Captain Denton
lay buried somewhere in Denton County, and
that there were living witnesses who could give
testimony.

It is not necessary here to further state the
deliberations of the pioneers at this session,
further than to say that they were unanimous
in the opinion that something should be done;
that certain neglected honors were due to Cap-
tain Denton, and that they were without excuse
for further neglecting these honors, unless some-
thing should appear that would make it impos-
sible. That under the circumstances, it was
both honorable and right that they should go
forward and find all that was possible to know.

Hence William Allen, a member of the pioneer
association, was appointed to gather all the data
possible touching the place of Denton's burial,

Captain ^Poljn 95. 2>enton 19

together with all facts yet possible to be known
of his character and the deeds of his life, and to
report all discoveries to a future session of the
pioneer settlers of Denton County.

The resolution making this appointment
was not on the ground that Captain Denton was
or ever had been a citizen of Denton County,
because that was impossible, for Denton County
was not constituted until some years after he
had been killed in battle with the Indians ; nor
was it because Denton lay buried somewhere
in the territory of Denton County; but because
he was a lover of humanity, a patriot in the
broad meaning of that word, intelligent, coura-
geous, and a man of great probity; because he
was so regarded in the wisdom of the state,
which did him the honor of giving his name to
a division of its territory; because in the days of
trials, hardships, and sacrifice he had endured
much, and done much in laying the foundation
of this great state.

Mr. Allen had quite a great but pleasant
task imposed upon him by the resolution of the
pioneer settlers, but he seemed to appreciate
the obligations and importance of the whole
matter, and turned to the task in full conscious-

20 %iit and €ime£ of

ness of a great duty. Yet it was like looking
down into the hidden buds awaiting the weather
of spring, and whispering down into their
sleeping-places and telling them to awake and
adorn the earth with their beauty and loveli-
ness. So it was the task of awakening to life
again hidden things of virtue and probity, that
were illustrated in the life and character of
Captain Denton.

Without delay, notice was given through the
newspapers of the will, desire, and action of the
pioneers of Denton County; and through per-
sonal correspondence with many, calling upon
all to give such information as they could of the
burial-place, life, and character of Captain
Denton; and among other things to find and re-
port whether there was a likeness of him in
existence, or whether he ever sat to have his
picture taken.

The call provoked various interest over the
state and elsewhere. It indicated, even at this
late day, that while but little had ever been writ-
ten, Captain Denton was largely known, and
that his name and the deeds of his life were be-
ing handed down by the fathers unto their
children.

Captain ^o$n 25* 2Denton 21

In the way of personal correspondence and
newspaper reports, quite an amount of matter
soon accumulated in the hands of Mr. Allen,
touching on the life and character of Captain
Denton, descriptive of his physical contour,
complexion, color of hair and eyes, height, and
indeed so much bearing on his physical form
and mien, that in the absence of a portrait, one
could be made largely representative of the
man. Much was gathered relating to his art
as an orator, to his ministerial gift, to his ability
as a lawyer, to his courage, and to his utility as
a citizen in the days when men's hearts were
tried, and as a soldier against the Indians.

But the general public seemed to be struck
deeper with a sense of Captain Denton's lost
remains than with anything else. It is human
nature to be more or less shocked with the
thought of lost remains. However much we
may be educated to believe that the material
body is not the real man, nevertheless we will
remember that it is the part that has been seen
by us, that has been talked through, smiled
through, loved through, and acted through;
and with such acquaintance we are loath to
hide it away, and are troubled when it is lost.

22 Hife and €ime£ of

On this account, whether for reason or against
reason, we mourn the loss of the body of any
dear one, and must have it in order to be satis-
fied. Though we may not be able to preserve
it and keep it in sight, yet we are not content
unless we know the spot where it is put away; a
spot where may be planted a rose, an evergreen,
or something showing respectful memory; a
spot to which we can go in dedication service and
spread the flowers of our love.

It was this holy human nature that wrought
up such anxiety that the body of Captain Denton
should be produced, if possible. In human
sense there is a disposition for less hesitation
when the body is present. There is a coldness
in paying the obsequies due when the body is
absent or cannot be found. It becomes a part
of us. Though cold and motionless, we want
its presence in our action, even as it was present
in action when living. Without it, inspiration
is, in part, lost. Hence, in the first instance, the
people wanted to know where Captain Denton's
body was. Could his grave be found? Could
his remains be produced ?

Hence, in this biographical record we deem it a
duty in the first instance to satisfy the public sense

Captain ^ofjn 25* SDcnton 23

by placing Captain Denton as largely before
the eyes as possible, by giving the evidence
showing that the body or lost remains have been
found, and that, after so long a time, he has re-
ceived the honorable, civilized, and Christian
burial that has been justly due him for all these
years, but which has been forbidden by the
times and the condition of the country. His
remains now lie sleeping in a corner of the
court-house yard in the city of Denton.

But in looking over the evidence, we have
been put to the necessity of studiously extracting
the truth out of the half-way chaotic bundle of
matter that came under the eye of the writer of
this biography. Those who, as it seems, had
an opportunity to be agreed were not, some con-
tending that Captain Denton was first buried in
the territory of what is now Tarrant County;
others that he was buried in the territory of
what is now Denton County. These differing
reports came from the two or three who yet sur-
vive of the Kechi battle, in which Denton was
killed, and from others with whom the old
pioneers had talked. These not being in har-
mony, it became necessary to identify Captain
Denton's body on another line of evidence.

24 3tife anti €ime£ of

It was agreed that at some former time one
of his arms had been broken, that he had cer-
tain teeth with gold fillings, and that, in his first
burial, there was a certain arrangement of stones
about his grave, and certain other significations
which, when put together, form an incontes-
table proof. Now, it matters not where the re-
mains should be found, whether in Denton
County or Tarrant County or elsewhere, the
evidence would show that the body is Denton's.

So far as is known there are but two men
living now who were in the battle in which Cap-
tain Denton was killed. One of these is Rev.
Andrew Davis, of Waxahachie, who was a
frontier boy at the time, and a soldier of
about thirteen years of age. The other is
Colonel Sam Sims, of Rich Hill, Missouri.
Mr. Davis seemed very positive that he could
find the lonesome spot where Denton was
buried. Mr. Davis, being old, never went in
search of the grave. In this connection it is
proper to state that Captain Henry Stout in
his lifetime, was equally sure, but, after search-
ing in company with others, was unable to
find it.

It must be allowed that time works changes

Captain Stoljn 25* 2Denton 25

'in human memory which a witness cannot rec-
ognize, and that advancing civilization itself
puts such changes on the face of a country that
all things appear new and strange. Experience
teaches that, under the changes wrought by
time and human art, instead of finding the lost
things sought for, we rather lose ourselves in the
midst of the confusion.

Dr. J. N. Denton, in company with Colonel
James Bourland, who was in the Kechi battle
and helped to bury Denton, went in search of
his father's grave in 1859. Bourland, like
others, thought he could find it. This was only
eighteen years after the Kechi battle and burial
of Denton. Considering that Bourland was the
expert frontiersman that he was, it did seem
that his chance to find the grave was the best of
all men, and especially so when it was only eigh-
teen years after Denton's burial. Yet Dr. J.
N. Denton in a published letter says: "Suffice
to say the search was a failure, and Colonel
Bourland, after two days' labor, in the endeavor
to find the grave, confessed, to his chagrin and
disappointment, his inability to find it."

It may not be improper here to state that, in
discovering the place of Denton's first inter-

26 atife anti €tme£ of

ment, it was more accidental than otherwise.
Rev. John L. Lovejoy, who was with Denton
when he was killed, who saw him laid to rest
the day after the battle, who sold goods in Alton,
the first county-seat of Denton County, and who
afterwards lived in the town of Denton until the
day of his death, though all this time not more
than twenty miles away from the place where
Denton's body rested, did not know the spot.
It all looks strange. From it we all should be
impressed, and learn the lesson taught in the
fable of Irving's Rip Van Winkle. Men may
not sleep, as Van Winkle is reported to have
done, yet absenting themselves for twenty years
or more, and then returning again, they see all
things have changed, and show up in new de-
sign and with new face. They are simply lost
in the things of memory.

Here we introduce the evidence showing the
spots, and settling the question of Captain
Denton's first, second, and third burials, and
the evidence that led to the identity of his body.
But it must also be stated that the accidental or
providential is related to the discovery of his
first grave. John S. Chisum was the first large
cattleman of Denton County. He was raised

Captain 3fof)n 9& Denton 27

in Clarksville, the home of his father and Cap-
tain Denton. His father, Clabe Chisum, was
with Denton in the Kechi battle. He saw
Denton buried, and being his fellow-townsman
and good friend, he was as close observer as any.
He felt the responsibility of reporting to the un-
fortunate widow the circumstances of her hus-
band's burial and the manner in which he was
put away; and, as is natural, prepared himself
as a friend to accurately answer her many ques-
tions. The death and lonesome burial of Den-
ton was the town talk. The chief citizen was
gone. Clarksville was his home, the circle of
his intimate and dearest friends. John S.
Chisum grew to manhood in the knowledge of
all these things.

The world knows that a boy of amiable size
is the best listener to the tales of the fathers.
Such was John S. Chisum. His father having
been with Denton in battle and a participator
in the lonely burial, the telling it to the family
was, to the listening boy, like one of those en-
chanting tales of which all boys are so fond.
When tales of this kind are once told, it is a
heart lesson, grounded and rooted in the mem-
ory of the boy, never to be forgotten. And that

28 Htife and €imeg of

which makes it doubly impressive on the boy is
that his father was a companion in it all. The
lad loved the man his father loved, and when
he became a man he was, perhaps, most inter-
ested over the lost remains of his father's faith-
ful friend.

Such is the witness we here introduce. His
herdsmen (cowboys) told him that they had
found a grave, and described the plat of ground
and the signs about it. The description was so
representative of what he had heard his father
relate, that he at once believed it to be the grave
of his father's friend, the long-lost John B.
Denton.

In answer to inquiries of John W. Gober
of Denton, who was an old pioneer of Denton
County, John S. Chisum, from Roswell, New
Mexico, wrote him a letter, containing the fol-
lowing. The letter was dated July 4, 1880:

"The remains of John B. Denton are buried
at the Waide place, in a small box, six or eight
feet from the house I lived in, rather at the
southwest corner. From the description James
Bourland, W. C. Young, and Henry Stout had
given me of the place where he was buried, I
knew that was his grave. And being a friend

Captain ^ofjn g& SDenton 29

of Denton's, I took up his remains and carried
them home. From many circunistances I can
say that I am positive that I am not mistaken
of their being the remains of Captain Denton,
but I know they are his, and no mistake."

additional Ceistimon^

We now append additional testimony, as
published in the Dallas News, together with the
report of William Allen, who was appointed by
the Pioneer Association of Denton County, to
look up the history of Captain Denton and the
place of his burial.

Cegtimonp of Robert <&. goijwscn

[Special to the News]

Denton, Tex., Oct. 30.
Robert G. Johnson of Bolivar, probably the
only person now living who was with the late
John S. Chisum when he disinterred the bones
supposed to be those of Colonel John B. Denton,
has prepared a statement of the facts of the dis-
interment and the circumstances connected
therewith. It is believed that his statement will
be conclusive evidence, when brought before
the committee of the Old Settlers' Association,
which will take steps thereupon for exhuming
the remains near Bolivar. The statement fol-
lows :

31

32 Hife anti €ime£ of

"I was working for John S. Chisum in i860.
About August of that year (i860) Mr. Chisum,
who knew the location of a grave on the north
bank of Oliver Creek, some distance from the
water, but still in the creek bottom, took with him
James R. Bourland, who was at that time selling
goods at Bourland's Bend, on Red River, and
Felix McKittrick, and they identified the grave
as that of John B. Denton, to the satisfaction of
Mr. Chisum. Soon after this we were hunting
cattle in the neighborhood of the grave, and at
Mr. Chisum's order took up the bones. Our
party at the time consisted of John S. Chisum,
Christopher Fitzgerald, an old man whose pick
was used while we raked the dirt away with our
hands, Reese Hanna, Newt Anderson, Patrick
O'Ferrell, and myself, and also two negroes,
Phil and Jiles Chisum. We found the imprint
of the blanket in which Denton was buried still
showing in the soil below the remains. We
found all the bones except the last bone of one
finger. We found one tooth which was plugged
with gold, which we thought further confirmed
the identity of the remains. We also noticed
that one of the bones of the arm had been broken
and healed. So far as I know, no one of the

Captain S^h 2& 2Denton 33

party named ever had a reasonable doubt about
the bones being those of John B. Denton. The
bones were afterward reburied in a sperm-
candle box in the yard at Mr. Chisum's home
near where the town of Bolivar now stands.
(Signed) "R. G. Johnson."

The James R. Bourland mentioned by Mr.
Johnson was one of the soldiers present when
Colonel Denton was killed, and as the time of
the killing was a time of recent date, it would
seem that if any one could find the grave it
would certainly be he. He identified both the
grave and the remains as that of Denton, whom
he had well known, and the opinion here seems
to be that there is no doubt that the remains
interred in the yard of the Waide place, near
Bolivar, are those of Denton.

Cesthncmp of
<£aptain Mofcert %W. Jfcopfcnui, £>x.

[Special to the News]

Denton, Tex., Sept. 20.
The controversy over the burial-place of
Colonel John B. Denton, for whom this county
was named, is attracting a good deal of attention

34 3lxfe and €ime£ of

not only here, but in other portions of the state,
and a number of letters have been received anent
the matter. Captain Robert H. Hopkins, Sr.,
of this city, gave his version of the affair, which
he had from several survivors of the company of
which Denton was captain, as follows, to the
News correspondent to-day.

"All accounts agree that Colonel Denton was
killed on Village Creek, in Tarrant County, east
of where is now Ft. Worth. Uncle Johnny
Lovejoy, who was with Denton at the time he
was killed, and who lived in this county up to
his death, often has told me the entire story.
Clabe Chisum, the father of John S. Chisum,
was also with Denton when he was killed, and
to his son John told, as near as he could, the
exact location of the grave, which he thought
was somewhere on Denton Creek, also named
for Denton. John Chisum came to Denton
County in 1854, not 1855, as Colonel John Peter
Smith of Ft. Worth states, and after he had
roamed all over Denton County with his herds,
at last came upon the place which, from the
description given him by his father, he believed
to be the burial-place. An elm-tree near by
had been marked, according to his father's

€aptain 3fof)n 2&, 2Denton 35

statement, and such marks as described on an
elm-tree he found on Oliver Creek, near its
mouth on Denton Creek. John Lovejoy told
him that if he found the body, he would find
that certain teeth had been filled, and when he
had dug open the grave the body was found just
as his father had stated. The filled teeth were
also found, as described by Uncle Johnny Love-
joy, and to make the identification more com-
plete, a blanket exactly like that in which he had
been interred was discovered wrapped around
the bones. A tin cup, trinkets, and other
articles known to have been buried with him
were also found in the grave, making the iden-
tification certain. Chisum took up the remains
and carried them in a box to his home, near
Bolivar, on Clear Creek, northwest of this city.
He kept them in this box for several years, and
they were still there when he sold the place to
Mr. Waide. The bones began to get musty
and damp and in the way, however, and Waide
took them out and buried them, still in the old
box, in one corner of the yard. The Waides
have lived on the old place ever since; Jim
Waide, a son, is still there; and if the body has
ever been disinterred and buried elsewhere,

36 Hife anb €imt$ of

none of them has ever known of it. In my
mind there is no doubt that the remains are
still where Waide buried them."

Report of Won. Militant ^llen

[Special to the News]

Denton, Tex., Oct. 19.

Anent the life and history of Colonel John B.
Denton, about which there has been so much
controversy lately, the following report of the
Old Settlers' Committee, Rev. William Allen, ap-
pointed to investigate the matter, will be of inter-
est. At a considerable trouble, Rev. Mr. Allen
has been able to secure a fairly complete history
of Colonel Denton's life. The report follows:

To the Executive Committee of Denton
County Pioneers: When I, as your committee,
advertised to know 1. The spot where John B.
Denton lies buried; 2. Whether there is any-
where a portrait of him; 3. His nativity, when
born, color of hair and eyes, complexion, etc.; 4.
Every scrap of history that can be gathered of
his life and character — I soon saw that the ad-
vertisement provoked not only large personal
correspondence, but also much newspaper com-
ment. Since so much has been published, it

Captain ^ofyn 96. 2Denton 37

may seem to some that it is hardly necessary
that your committee should make a report. But
since the public statements are not in full har-
mony, it seems best to us to make a report in
order to digest and systematize, as much as pos-
sible, the whole matter, and to add to it such
discoveries as we have made and which are yet
unpublished.

The press reports, and the most of that which
has been published, appertain to the place of in-
terment and the remains of the noted pioneer,
whom we all propose to honor and keep in per-
petual memory. But I, as your committee,
considered it as much my duty to look after the
life, history, character, citizenship, and impor-
tance of John B. Denton to society, as to go in
search of his grave and remains. Every aspect
of the case seemed a duty to us, and whatever
may be regarded as a failure on our part, we
at least feel that we have been diligent in the
search. Therefore, we shall endeavor to make
a report as orderly as possible, and as follows:

John B. Denton was born in Tennessee, in
1807. Both his parents died when he was
quite young. His mother died when he was an
infant. He came to Arkansas at eight years of

38 %ift anti €ime£ of

age, as is probable, with a family named Wells.
Because the family who had charge of him
made his life unpleasant, he revolted at twelve
years of age, left them, and set up for himself.
Beginning life independently and in penury at
this early age, it may be easily discerned that
his chief facilities for education consisted in
observation and experience. Especially may
this be perceived when we note that seventeen
years afterward Arkansas was admitted as a
state into the Union with only seventy thousand
population. Hence, in the wild territory of
Arkansas, under disadvantages of unfavor-
able environments, Denton grew to man-
hood with little or no knowledge of books, but
with the keenest wit that comes of observa-
tion, privation, and experience. He was hap-
pily married when not more than twenty
years of age. Soon afterward he made a pro-
fession of religion, and joined the Methodist
Episcopal Church. He awoke then as from a
deep sleep. He bent his great energy in the di-
rection of knowledge. His wife gave him some
of his first lessons in books. His deep genius ex-
erted itself, and he rose up as if by magic to be
fairly educated. In a very few years he be-

Captain ^tfyn 2B>, 2Denton 39

came perhaps the most noted orator of Arkansas
and southern Missouri. He became a preacher
not long after his conversion, and it was in this
field of action that he first exhibited his genius
and displayed his oratory.

He came to Texas in 1837, and not long after-
ward he was, professionally, a lawyer. Yet he
continued to preach. He preached in the Dugan
residence, in Grayson County, in 1839. He
lived in Clarksville. He chose the law as a busi-
ness measure to maintain his growing family,
because in the wild western country ministers
very seldom received a sufficiency for family
support. Denton was successful as a lawyer.
He stood in the front rank as a lawyer and among
men, and as an orator was in demand on all
occasions. His name was favorably mentioned
for high office, and, had he lived, would doubt-
less have been called to high duties in the re-
public.

John B. Denton was five feet ten inches high,
very erect; had black, slightly curly hair, a
broad, high forehead; weighed one hundred
and sixty pounds, of impressive mien, and bore
himself in a way that denoted great energy.
There is no portrait of him in existence. He

40 Utife anb €imeg of

was an actor, not a caterer, and would, there-
fore, have been hard to catch by an artist. It
was also nearly as late as his death that Da-
guerre discovered the first cheap mode of taking
pictures, and the art, up to that time, had not
been introduced in the West. Since no por-
trait can be found, it precludes both the en-
graved image or statue form on a monument.
Yet it is no bar against building a monument to
his memory.

Denton was thirty-four years old when he was
killed. He was killed in the pursuit of Indians
just after their defeat at Kechi village, in Tar-
rant County. He was shot in the breast. He
fell on the twenty-second day of May, 1841.
Colonel E. H. Tarrant was a military officer of
the republic of Texas at that time, and was
assigned to duty on the northern border. He
was in the battle in which Denton was killed,
and was, therefore, first in command; that is, he
was the general in command of the battle. Yet
Denton was in command of men. Just how,
or what relation, is hard at this late day to
know. He was the Marshal Ney of the occasion.

Denton's body was carried northward into
Denton County and buried. We say buried in

Captain 2P0&tt 2& 2Denton 41

Denton County — by this we mean he was buried
in territory that was afterward named Denton
County. There was no Denton County until
1846, and no Tarrant County until 1849. No
settlement was made in either of these counties
until twelve or more years after the Kechi fight
and death of Denton. The territory of both
these counties was a vast wilderness and un-
traversed except in pursuit of Indians. Denton's
grave was, therefore, lost.

The question now rises: Has the lost grave
ever been found? We are inclined to believe
that if it has never been found, that it never will
be. It is not your committee's office to declare
anything but evidence. It is claimed that the
lost grave has been found, and that the mortal
remains of John B. Denton now lie buried on
the old John Chisum ranch in Denton County.
The evidence in support of this claim is that
Clabe Chisum, John's father, was one of the
party that buried Denton, and had often de-
scribed the character of the grave to his son
John and others. The testimony is that the
grave was found, as described,- together with
certain things that were buried with the body.
Since it was stated that the remains showed that

42 Itife anfc €ime£ of

an arm had been broken, I thought it right, as
your committee to find out if John B. Denton
ever had such an accident. Rev. J. F. Denton,
the eldest son, and who was twelve years old at
the time of his father's death, says that his
father once had an arm broken by a fall from
a horse. This seemed to me to be good corrob-
orating evidence. That same son writes me
that from all he has heard and from all the evi-
dence gathered, he believes that the remains
buried on the Chisum ranch are those of his
father.

I leave this matter to the judgment of the
executive committee, and to all pioneers. There
is other evidence supporting this identity of
Denton's body. For this I refer the executive
committee and others to John W. Gober, Judge
I. D. Ferguson, and James Chisum, and others,
and to all that has been published in support of
this identity. It should all be duly considered.

John B. Denton was the father of six chil-
dren, four sons and two daughters. Only three
sons are now living. These are: Rev. J. F.
Denton of Weatherford, who was twelve years
old at the time of his father's death; Dr. A. N.
Denton of Austin, who was four years old; and

Captain ^oljn 95. 2Denton 43

Rev. John B. Denton, Jr., who was an infant
at the time of his father's death. Quite a
number of his descendants have been, or are,
teachers of standing and influence.

J. W. Wilbarger, in his book Indian Depre-
dations in Texas, after speaking of Denton's
coming to Texas, settlement in Clarksville, his
sermon at the Dugan home, his law practice,
his oratory, and his tragic death, says: "So per-
ished one of Texas' brainiest and best pioneers.
A fine orator, far above the average in intelli-
gence, and, had he lived, would have proved a
blessing to his country, and assisted materially
in its advancement."

Thrall's history of Texas, being a compen-
dium rather than a general history, merely
mentions Denton's name and death in connec-
tion with the naming of Denton County. He
also mentions his name in a brief sketch of Col.
E. H. Tarrant, stating that he was in the battle
in which Denton was killed.

Dr. Thrall, in his history of Texas Methodism,
speaks most commendably of Denton in every
sense.

In conclusion, I will say that the more I have
looked into the life and character of this great

44 3tife anti €ime£ of

and good pioneer, the more I am impressed with
the importance of his life, and therefore hold
that it is both reasonable and right that a monu-
ment should be constructed to his memory.

There are two men living who were with
Denton when he was killed, Rev. Andrew
Davis of Waxahachie, and Colonel Sam Sims,
now eighty-three years of age. Colonel Sims is
living with his daughter, Mrs. W. H. Allen, at
Rich Hill, Mo. My information concerning
Colonel Sims is obtained by correspondence with
Mrs. S. J. Wilson of Clarksville, Texas. She
knew Denton in his Texas life. She was also a
student in school with John Chisum in 1840,
the school taught by Bernard Hill, who became
a son-in-law of Denton's. Colonel Sims is
Mrs. Wilson's uncle.

I have made this report as brief as possible.
It is a mere compendium of facts, all of which
can be easily established by the testimony I
have in hand. Very respectfully submitted,

Wm. Allen,

Your Committee.

Much could be added to this testimony sup-
porting the truth that the grave of Captain

Captain ^ofjn 25. 2Denton 45

Denton was found, and that his remains were
taken up and preserved. Surely enough has
been stated to remove all doubt, should any
exist anywhere. The pioneer settlers are all
convinced, agreed, and satisfied. They con-
stituted the jury that sat in the case, and unani-
mously have rendered their verdict that the
remains buried on the Chisum ranch are all that
is left to us, in a material way, of the noted
pioneer, Captain John B. Denton.

It only remained now that the remains be ex-
humed, brought to Denton, and prepared for
burial in the court-house yard. Unto this end
the Pioneer Association appointed the following
named members to do this work, viz., John W.
Gober, R. H. Hopkins, C. C. Dougherty, and
R. H. Bates.

The committee did its work well. All that
follows now, relating to the funeral and burial
services, is taken from the published account in
the Record and Chronicle of Denton.

Meflort of Mecorti anti (ftijrom'cle

The movement, begun more than a year ago
by the Old Settlers' Association of Denton
County, to locate the remains of Captain John

46 %ih ant) €ime£ of

B. Denton, pioneer and border hero, for whom
this county and city were named, and, if found,
to give them a public burial, culminated last
Thursday afternoon, when his bones were given
their last interment, publicly, and with befit-
ting ceremonies. Captain Denton surrendered
his life in a public cause, the defense of the border
from the ravages of the Indians. And it was
singularly appropriate that his new grave
is in public soil, the southeast corner of the
court-house yard. Another appropriate feature
of the final ceremonies was the presence of the
faculty and students of the John B. Denton
College, an institution named in his memory,
and an enduring monument to his bravery,
courage, and high-mindedness.

The lower floor and galleries of the district
court-room were crowded when Rev. William
Allen, the chairman, arose at i .-30 and announced
in a few words the purpose for which they had
gathered. Rev. Allen, himself a pioneer and
an early minister of the Gospel when the days
of Texas were young, occupied the chair, and
on his left side sat Rev. J. W. Chalk, another
old-time minister who vividly recalled the
memories of another dav. In state in front of

Captain S^ftn 2k SDenton 47

the judge's bench lay in a handsome coffin the
remaining bones of the man in whose honor
the services were being held. In front of the
bier sat three living descendants — two sons,
Rev. J. F. Denton of Weather ford, and Rev.
John B. Denton, Jr., of Clay County, and a
grandson, Professor William Baker of Ellis
County.

After a few prefatory remarks by Rev. Allen,
"America" was sung, led by President Thurman
of the John B. Denton College. A prayer by
Dr. Walter C. Lattimore of the First Baptist
Church followed, and a quartette gave a rendi-
tion of " It is Well, My Soul."

Bel), alien'* ^>peec^

Delivered before a large crowd in the district
court-room. Rev. Allen's speech, in full, was as
follows :

We congratulate you, comrade pioneers and
fellow - countrymen, for that which you have
accomplished in seeking out the remains of Cap-
tain John B. Denton, and giving him this day,
after the lapse of sixty years, the pioneer and
Christian burial which has been so long deserved.
This tribute of our praise, these honors which
we this day confer, and this public burial service
of a noted Christian minister, lawyer, orator, and
pioneer soldier who was a martyr to the civiliza-
tion of Texas, had almost been forgotten and
omitted for all time. But the name of your
county and city bore the thought back on the
tide of memory, and it freshly and impressively
recurred to you that the name of your county and
city perpetuates the name of an honorable man,
who looked forward with great interest and
sacrifice to the civilization of your state, and
even yielded his life that you and your children

49

50 %tft an& €ime£ of

might have a peaceful legacy. It is well that
you have met in this delightful but solemn
service to-day. It is well that you have dili-
gently and industriously pursued the work of
investigation and discovery that has culminated
into this hour. It is not only a proof of your
appreciation of the martyr to Texas civilization,
but that you have it in your hearts to perpetuate
that civilization through your generation and
see that it is clothed as in an evergreen chaplet
and adorned with white roses and the lily of the
valley. This your children will do in fond
imitation of honored sires as long as the sacred
spot of interment is known and a monument
to Captain Denton stands out on their vision.

Captain Denton was born in the state of
Tennessee on the twenty-eighth day of July,
1806. His mother died while he was an infant,
and his father not long afterward. He was thus
left an orphan and in penury. At twelve years
of age he went with a family by the name of
Wells from Tennessee to the wild territory of
Arkansas. Tennessee, at the time he left it,
had a population, all told, of less than three
hundred thousand, and the territory of Arkansas
of less than ten thousand. When he came to

Captain *$ofyn 25. {Denton 51

Texas, in 1837, there were only thirty thousand
white people, or about one to every nine
square miles of territory. These figures show
that Denton, all his life, was a frontiers-
man. He is therefore to be regarded as an
actor always hewing the way and opening
the paths for civilization, with no time or op-
portunity for that book-knowledge that has
given so many people in youthful days great
advantages. Orphanage, penury, and the wilds
of Arkansas were all against the literary educa-
tion of this youth. Hence he grew to eighteen
years of age, so far as history shows, with-
out ever having entered a school - room as a
student; nor is it known that he ever did so
afterward.

But it must not be inferred that Denton was
altogether an uneducated boy. Of course, he
was not educated in the accepted literary sense.
But it is not proper to always estimate a man by
his literary attainment, as valuable and profitable
as such knowledge is. If we were only to pro-
claim that Denton was a scholar, and could
show with it little that was valuable and profit-
able in his life, the services of this day would be
a farce and an imposition upon general credulity,

52 Hife anD €ime£ of

and had better been left undone. But there is a
proper way of estimating a man, and a proper
way of looking into the features and intricacy
of that education which adapts him to the cir-
cumstances and conditions of the life he is
called to live, and which gives him the highest
tone of utility to both society and his country.
Sentiment is not always correct. It is half-way
formed from habit and a way of fashionable
thinking, and is, therefore, oftentimes indisposed
to admit claims where merit and utility have
planted a standard that should be recognized.

We affirm that Denton in his youth was
educated, and that in the vicissitudes of his boy
life the foundation was laid for his future
eminence. The ruggedness of his early life
taught him self-reliance; his orphanage taught
him patience, forbearance, and perseverance;
his penury and self-denial taught him sympathy
and compassion; his experience taught him hu-
man nature and gave him large knowledge of
his race; his hardships and exposure in a wild
country taught him courage. Had he been
college-bred and lacked these qualities he
would have been unfitted for the territories in
which he passed his life. These alone, in view

Captain ^oftn 2&* SDenton 53

of what the frontiersman in that day was called
to face and meet, were a good passport. No
booklore, with all its acknowledged benefits
and advantages, could have been substituted
for these qualities to the man who was opening
the paths for civilization.

Denton seems to have been born to be a
leader, an actor, and not a scribe or secretary.
Speaking suggestively, had he lived in the days
of chivalry he would have won a silver spur;
had he been an ancient Greek he would have
won the laurel at Olympia; had he been a
Frenchman in the days of Napoleon he would
have been a field-marshal. The manner and
conditions of his early life and his school of
experience and hardship molded his character
and thought in such a way that he needed only
the polishing touches of literature to make him
intellectually equal to what he was by natural
endowment and experience — the peer of any
man in all the West.

Denton entered upon public life almost in
his youth. At eighteen years of age he ap-
peared before the public as a young man of great
natural talent, a destined genius in any chosen
profession. Being schooled under a method

54 3tife anti Cinieg of

of hardship and privation, he was self-reliant,
and of large experience. United with these he
had a keen knowledge of human nature, and a
courage that would meet any emergency, and
rise above all obstacles. These are necessary
elements in the education and character of the
public man.

At this early age two events in his life should
not be passed by unnoticed. He entered upon
the marital relation, and assumed the responsi-
bility of husband. Fortunately the lady to
whom he was married was of fair literary at-
tainment. In this way he was daily brought
in contact with books, their utility, and the
importance of literary culture. The faculties
of his mind were in a high state of activity,
and under the tutelege of the good woman of
his choice, he took a grasp on books that quick-
ly carried beyond the rudimentary and elemen-
tary principles of education. Although he
was a student for the remainder of his brief
life, and although he never had the advantage
of school-room instruction and culture, yet
it may be truthfully stated that he was fairly
educated by the time he reached his majority.
This shows some of the habit, nature, diligence,

Captain ^o&u 25* 2Denton 55

and courage of the man whom we hold in
memory to-day, and in honor of whom these
services were appointed.

The other event deserving notice at this
early age of Denton, is that he sought help
which comes to man as a blessing from above.
He sought at the mercy seat and obtained
from God that grace of heart and spirit by
which his energies could be better used for
the spiritual welfare and uplifting of humanity.
From that hour he felt consecrated to all good
purposes. Through his youthful life of trial
and hardship, his great heart pulsated with
sympathy and compassion for his fellow-man.
The feeling now became greatly enlarged and
intensified. He felt that it was his duty to do
all in his power to raise the moral condition
of man to a higher plane, and save his soul.
He saw as Washington did when he wrote:
"Let us with caution indulge the supposition
that morality can be maintained without
religion. Whatever may be conceded to the
influence of refined education on minds of
peculiar structure, reason and experience
both forbid us to expect that national morality
can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."

56 %ih and €ime£ of

Denton desired to be truly a moral man,
and like Washington, he knew no better way
than to found his moral integrity on the teach-
ings of Jesus Christ.

Soon after these two events in the history of
Denton, and before he had reached his major-
ity he became a minister of the gospel in the
Methodist Episcopal Church. Having had
an experience that awoke his deepest sympathy,
he was perhaps among the happiest of men for
the privilege and opportunity of publicly bear-
ing the good news to his fellow-man. Viewed
as a man just about to enter the manhood
stage of life, of fair education for that day, of
fine natural endowment, and of large experi-
ence for one so young, he had a large vision
of things upon which he could draw in illustra-
tion of his theme. When there is added to
this his symmetrical form, broad forehead,
steady blue eyes, and large compass of his
oratorical voice, he stood before his audience
the picture of a commander.

Dr. Homer S. Thrall, who wrote a history
on Methodism, among many things eulogistic
says: "When Denton addressed the multi-
tudes that flocked to hear him preach upon

Captain ^oljn 2&, 2Denton 57

the sublime themes of the Gospel, his appeals
were ail but irresistible." This is the kind
of preacher he was in Arkansas, in southern
Missouri, and in Texas.

But mankind is too much disposed to place
their hero on the plane of an art and hide him
away in a bouquet of their own blandishment.
But it is not our will to so treat the brave front-
iersman whom we have met this day to honor.

That Captain Denton was well skilled in
the art of oratory is a truth that has passed
into history. That he was scarcely less gifted
than Patrick Henry is hardly to be doubted.
But if Patrick Henry lives in history more for
his patriotism, foresight, and ripe judgment
than for skill as an orator, it would be base in
us to confine him to the level of a public de-
claimer. Admitting, then, that while oratory
is excellence itself, we are far indisposed to
confine the excellence of our hero to the plane
of an orator. We prefer that this art shall
appear in its own degree as a part of the man,
and that along with it he possessed other and
various excellences that shone in his life with
even brighter effulgence.

We should view him in all his parts, as

58 %xft anti €imeg of

patriot, opening up the paths for the march
of civilization, as an humble Christian gentle-
man, as an impressive minister of the gospel,
as an honorable lawyer, as an orator, as a man
of courage, fighting the battles of his country,
as a martyr to civilization.

These are all excellences of Denton's life
and character; nor can his name be presented
to us without these elements of his being.
Dwelling in him they brought him into public
notice, and have perpetuated his name. Their
existence in his life and character renders his
name memorable, and they are the voices
which so audibly speak to us from his otherwise
silent clay at this hour.

It was the memory of these excellences in
Captain Denton's life and character that pro-
duced your diligence in restoring an almost
forgotten history, and in gathering up his fast
crumbling remains and giving them the place
of first honor among those who sleep in Denton
County's soil.

Denton set his foot on Texas soil to be a
citizen January 2, 1837. This was scarcely
eight months after the battle of San Jacinto.
Texas at that time was an independent nation-

Captain ^otm 2k 2Denton 59

ality, and Sam Houston was her president. With
a small white population of about thirty thousand,
Denton came to add his name to the heroic
number. He came in Christian spirit and as
a minister of the Gospel of Christ. He came
in large experience for one so young and in
the grace of eloquence; he came as a schooled
frontiersman and with the courage of a war-
rior; he came in love with Texas for the struggle
she had made for independence; he came to
preach peace, and when necessary, to beat
back the foes of civilization; he came to be a
Texan in the broad and technical meaning of
that name in that day, when every man was
expected to be a man of nerve, courage, and
combat.

It was no task for such a man to be a Texan.
He had been schooled in hardship unto that
end; was in young manhood, intellectual, elo-
quent, courageous, and of undoubted moral
integrity. He was of the right type as citizen
and leader to do his part well in laying the
foundations of that Christian civilization which
is to-day a boast of our Lone Star State. Such
a man at that time was a fine acquisition to
the new nationality that had been purchased

6o Jtife and €mie£ of

by the blood of Goliad and the Alamo, and
with the victory of San Jacinto.

There are a few people living yet who knew
Denton well, and they all speak of him in the
highest praise. They give proof by their
words that he was a Christian gentleman, a
recognized leader of men, a public declaimer
of the first order, and a captain of judgment
and courage. History gives only a few ex-
amples of such high recognition when bloom
of youth had scarcely faded into strong man-
hood.

He became a lawyer after he came to Texas,
but did not, however, quit the gospel ministry.
Having settled in Clarksville, Red River
County, he, as a lawyer, occasionally visited
Old Warren to attend court. It is well authenti-
cated that on these visits he preached at the
residence of the Dugan family, with whom he
had acquaintance in the wilds of Arkansas.
He chose the law very much on the ground of
necessity, for he had around him a wife and
children, and was, therefore, put to the neces-
sity of looking after his finances.

In that day of frontier life and hardship,
every man of sound limb was expected to care

<£aptam ^ofjn 25* Denton 61

for his own house, and in choosing the law it
was only an act accepting the conditions of the
country, and removed him and his family from
dependence on the people. He realized that
a man should "provide things honest in the
sight of all men"; that he who would not pro-
vide for his own house "is worse than an
infidel"; and that the law, honorably pursued,
is not incompatible with the Christian ministry.
As a lawyer, because of his gentlemanly spirit,
integrity, and skill, he was in great demand,
and in that scarce day maintained his family
well.

But we have met here to give pioneer and
Christian burial to this noble man. Around
us to-day cluster many fond memories, together
with that tragic scene when he so ruthlessly
and bravely fell for frontier protection, and in
the interest of Texas. He will sleep in an
honored grave as do Fannin, Travis, Crockett
and Bowie, and all that slumbering and molder-
ing host who yielded their lives, shedding
generously their patriotic blood for Texas.
This is his third interment, and yet it is the
first in which we have had the opportunity
and pleasure to pay to him the honors that have

62 %itt anti Cimeg of

been so long deserving. How different these
surroundings in the presence of this stately
court-house at the center of this beautiful city,
from that burial he received sixty years ago.

That was the day after the battle of Village
Creek, where he received his mortal wound
by the hand of the savage Indian.

There was no court-house and city there,
no churches with steeples pointing with the
finger of hope to the skies, and no bells to
sound the funeral dirge. It was a wild waste,
where wolves and panthers dwelt, and where
the savage roamed and battled against ad-
vancing civilization. There were present then
only a few comrade soldiers to dig his grave
while yet standing guard, wrap him in his
blanket and let him down into his lonely grave.
There they did their duty as best they could,
left around marks and signs of memory, and
then in solemn silence took up the line of march
to the borders of the settlements. The territory
of Denton County has held his remains since
that day. His blood is in her soil and his
crumbling body is a part of her dust.

This day we do an honorable deed and hold
services that have long been due. From this

Captain ^ofjn 25, 2Denton 63

day the character of the old pioneers will be
better reflected on coming generations. When
a suitable monument shall be erected at this
place of interment, and as is to be hoped, the
statue of a brave frontiersman erected upon
it, it will provoke the coming people to consider
the cost of the civilization to which they will
be heirs; and if they prove themselves worthy
of the legacy, they will still advance until
Texas shall not only be noted for the vastness
of its territory, but shall lead this union of
states by the intelligence and the virtue of its
people.

Rev. Chalk was introduced and made an
impromptu talk on Captain Denton. Him-
self a pioneer, he interestingly discoursed on
early days in Texas. "You are giving his
remains the interment they deserve," he said.
"Denton, had he lived, would have taken his
place with Houston, Rusk, Hemphill, Bayler,
and those others whose names have been
handed down in Texas history. He was the
equal, the peer, of any man living." After
paying more tribute to Captain Denton's
memory, Mr. Chalk continued: "In this day

64 3tife anti €ime£ of

and time, people have but hazy ideas of what
living was in the early days. Some people
the other day didn't know what "jerked"
beef was. All you old timers know, don't
you? [To which there was a chorus of "yes"
from the old settlers.] That and corn bread,
ground in steel .hand mills were what we had
to eat." He went over the hardships and paid
a warm tribute to the pioneer women as well
as the men, without whom the men would
have been poor indeed.

Rev. Allen then introduced in turn the two
sons and the grandson of Captain Denton,
each of whom made a short but feeling talk of
thanks and gratitude for the honor bestowed
through their ancestor on them.

The quartette was again called on and
rendered "Some Sweet Dav, " and then
"Rock of Ages," during the singing of which
the pall-bearers — Messrs. E. B. Orr, L. Willis,
J. M. Swisher, John W. Gober, J. H. Hawkins,
and W. C. Wright — lifted the coffin and bore
it to the grave in the court-house yard, followed
first by the relatives present, and then the
spectators.

The grave for the last restingLplace of the

Captain SPofjn g&« 2Denton 65

remains had been dug the day before, and
herein the coffin was slowly dropped. Two
songs were sung at the grave and a prayer
rendered, and the body of John B. Denton,
preacher, lawyer, Indian-fighter, pioneer, and
hero, was in its last resting-place, the third
time since his death, in 1841 — the first on the
banks of Oliver Creek, the second when his
friend John Chisum exhumed the remains
from there and gave them burial at the Chisum
ranch near Bolivar.

Prior to the interment many saw the crum-
bling bones in the coffin. Very few were intact;
all showed the evidences of the disintegrations
of time, were browned and discolored from
their long rest beneath the soil. But about
them in the mind's eye was a halo, a spirit of
heroic fortitude, of unselfish courage, and loyal
patriotism to the new country, for whose up-
building and for whose later civilization he
gladly gave up his life.

%X)t litt of 9!o^n T& ©eutou

The young mother looking down into the
face of her baby boy always looks in the fondest
hope. He is the darling offspring of her own
body, and there is no other object on the earth
half so lovely and interesting to her awaiting
soul. He is her young bud that is to be a love-
ly fragrant flower, her young scion that is to be
a mighty oak. He is her dear baby boy,
cooing in his cradle, with nothing but a beauti-
ful outlook beaming in the mother's eye.

Although man is the slowest growth of all
earthly animal beings, and the days of his
nursing by far the longest, it seems almost
unfair, in view of a mother's delight and joy,
that it should be as short as it is. A happy
mother, having now grown old, and looking
backward over her years, once said, "The
happiest time of my life was when I had my
little boys around my knees." It is, with all
its cares, toils, and watchings, the blissful
period in a mother's life.

67

68 Htfe anti €ime£ of

Yet this happy season must have an end.
There is hope held in expectation. There is
always a whisper in the mother's heart as she
counts the chances in the human life that,
while something may befall, something may
overtake, something may go wrong, something
of evil may embrace, it will always be with
some other mother's boy and not her own.

In the wilds of Tennessee, on the morning
of the 28th of July, 1806, a note rang out on
the morning air, that the population of Ten-
nessee had increased. That a child was born.
It was John B. Denton. Being born amidst
the tangled forests where the hand of the white
man was just applied, and civilization was
only beginning to dawn, it was not then known
that the child's destiny was to stand all his
days in the dawn of the coming light, and with
willing self-sacrifices prepare the way for the
comfort and happiness of those who should
follow.

The first calamity that fell upon Denton
was the loss of his mother. She did not long
look upon his smiling face until she was taken
away. With scarcely anything else to leave,
she left to Tennessee, Arkansas, and Texas

Captain ^oJjn *&. Wmton 69

the legacy of her son, John B., with her prayer
m his behalf and her blessing upon his head.

Some leave to the world the legacy of millions.
They may be misdirected, wasted, and squan-
dered. Jay Gould left to the world the legacy
of a daughter who has proven herself more
valuable to the world than all his millions.
Some bequeath to the world the legacy of a
child whose virtuous, self-sacrificing spirit and
impressive character will be a great blessing to
humanity. There is much mistaken notion
about who leaves a good legacy to the world.
People are too much trained to think of money,
that builds only in a material way. Hence
many great legacies have skipped the human
thought.

But here is left a legacy to the world, a mother-
less baby boy in the tangled woods of a new
country. He is without a mother's kiss and
soothing voice. Perhaps no eye turned on
him in hopeful look. As he lay helpless in his
cradle some one may have said that it would
have been better if he had never been born.
But he was the infant gift of a loving mother
to the world. It was all she had to give. She,
like the poor woman that cast the two mites

jo Hife anti €ime£ of

into the treasury, gave all she had with her
blessing on the infant's head.

But we called the loss of the mother a calamity.
Did we speak that word in the wisdom of
knowledge, or did we not speak it after the
ordinary mode of reasoning and thinking ?
There is such mysteriousness about that which
is best, and such application of unseen wisdom
and force, that the data which would construct
geometrical science is not like the data working
in the problem of a human life that possesses
both will and intelligence.

Whether Denton's loss of his mother was in
truth a calamity upon him, so far as it concerned
all the years that he lived, is too mysterious a
question for human weakness to decide with
satisfactory precision. A mother's importance
and usefulness in a family, as a rule, no one
would hardly deny. That the loss of a mother
to many a child would work a calamity upon
that child is very probable. The world has
witnessed that things are continually both get-
ting in the way and out of the way without
cause so far as the human mind can trace.
Of course, much of it is not human liking.
Yet how often does history show that things

Captain ^Polm 25, 2Denton 71

which were not according to the human liking,
proved themselves in the end for the best.
Therefore, when we reach out exploring into the
problem of a human life we become involved,
if not entangled, with forces, both seen and
unseen, which have something to do with human
life and with human destiny. The problem of
the world involves the idea of the progressive
whole on the way to perfection. Associated
with this is the complex idea of the units that
constitute the whole, their uses, their places,
and their education; not so much that educa-
tion which comes of the school-room, but that
which is provisional through the operation of
unseen forces seasoned with observation and
experience.

Deprivation, certain things called hardships,
or something that tries even a boy, will show in
his character when he is grown up and takes
his station among men. It is true that in this
school all boys are not affected alike. It is
true again that the old Spartan methods are
avoided as much as possible. It would, per-
haps, be better that most children should not
be subjected to great privation. Yet it is
maintained that privation and certain hardships

72 Hife anti €ime$ of

in youth have been useful factors in molding
the character of many an illustrious life. It
creates endurance, forbearance, compassion,
courage, and contentment under conditions
that would otherwise produce unrest and press
hard against a man's courage. When Denton
lost his mother he was subjected, by this depriva-
tion, to a life of greater struggle and hardships
than would have otherwise been his lot. But
who is wise enough to know that it was not for
the best? There are some things so deep and
far-reaching that the intellectual man is but a
child when he looks into them. The data of
Denton's life is all that is left. It is satisfactory
to Texas and to the world. To have changed
the conditions of his childhood and youth might
have led to changes in his character, and there
might have been produced for the world a man
of less utility.

In view of human intellectual weakness; in
view of the closed door that shuts out much of
the light that would otherwise shine on the
problem of a human life; in view of the fact
that Denton became the man he was, and that
he was useful and satisfactory to humanity ; and
in view of the fact that we must forever remain

Captain ^o&n 2S>, 2Denton 73

ignorant of the changes that might have been
wrought had his mother lived — we can never
know, considering the way events have turned,
whether Denton's loss of his mother in child-
hood was a calamity or not.

Ueabmfi f)te (tfratile

But the day came when the baby boy un-
wrapped his swaddling-clothes and crawled out
of his cradle to meet the morning sun amid the
primeval forests, to hear the twittering of the
birds that sang from the tall oaks, and the
sound of the woodman's axe, as stroke on
stroke he opens up the way to civilization, com-
fort, and happiness; to see the sun and the blue
sky, and to look out upon the open world upon
which fortune had cast his lot; and in his child-
ish thought think upon the thousand things,
all of which were new and strange to his child-
hood gaze.

He and his father were in poverty. While
his father was stricken with a sense of the loss
he had sustained, his little boy, John B., knew
nothing of his mother, knew nothing of her
beaming face and smiles, of her caresses, love,
and hope. He simply had met a condition of

74 3tife ant> €ime£ of

things and knew not that there was anything
better in all the world. Such was John B.
Denton when the world began to introduce
itself to him.

He was now to make his start, first from a
child in the cradle to the rambling boy, wonder-
ing at the many things he saw, for a new world
had opened on his vision. Then he must grow
to a boy of larger size, able to do the smaller
things, and to be of some service. He must
begin to realize that life meant more than mere
existence, that he had hands which should be
employed and a mind which should think.

The conditions were unfavorable, but he
knew it not. And not knowing the world, and
therefore being unable to hold things in con-
trast, he was perhaps as contented and as
happy as any boy who had the advantages of
school and churches and all things concomitant
with an improved civilization. The birds en-
tertained him with their music, the forests and
running brooks were his company, and nature
was his study. Daily he saw things that gave
him new inspiration.

It is said that "man is the architect of his
own fortune." But let it be remarked that

Captain ^oJjn §&♦ 2)enton 75

things are sometimes so beautifully said they
pass for more than the truth they contain.
This remark may well apply to the elegantly
dressed saying just quoted. All men obtain
their fortune or misfortune, but it cannot be
truthfully maintained that any one, of himself,
builds his life and character.

Mankind are so seriously and intricately knit
together that there is an interwoven web con-
necting all, whether it is apprehended or not.
There are, through these conditions, circum-
stances of influence ab extra, that work through
the meshes of life's woven web as though they
were themselves living forces. Hence "no man
lives to himself and no man dies to himself."
Nor can it be positively maintained that a man
is the architect of his own fortune. There are
conditions, influences, and forces involved that
largely help to make the man.

Again, it is often remarked that "all men have
an equal chance." This is most frequently
applied to people getting sustenance or wealth;
and is used as an apology or excuse for not
lending a hand in feeding the hungry, clothing
the naked, and doing many needful things.
But this old saying, if any difference, is more

76 3tife ant) €ime$ of

untrue than the other. All men do not have
an equal chance. And again, the human
judgment is very much in fault as to what are
the best chances for making a man of utility to
the world. It must ever remain thus until
selfishness has yielded to thoughts and purposes
for the common good. Fathers sometimes, and
perhaps often, use processes to make men of
their sons, and yet in a way unknown to them-
selves, they countermand the conditions that
are for the best interests of their sons as men of
utility to the world.

It need hardly be remarked that too much
labor bestowed to make the life of youth free
from struggle, privation, and battle, may be
pleasant enough for the youth, but will prove
a curse to the man yet to be. Hence, how often
do we see, where youth is in privation, in strug-
gle, and battle, such men as John B. Denton
developed. A class of men, while yet boys,
inured to changing temperatures, schooled in
the midst of difficulties that try the heart and
produce courage, they finally come to the front,
not as yielding spirits, but as men harnessed for
battle.

No, men do not all have an equal chance.

Captain ^oJm 25, 2Denton 77

But the world is largely ignorant of the methods
that constitute the best chances. It is likely
to remain so for a long time. The world has to
be made to look into deeper recesses than culture
in science and literature, even into those condi-
tions which work their own processes on human
nature and write largely in human character.

Men have no more an equal chance than that
they are born equal or have equal physical
strength. There are conditions that will im-
prove the strength of the body, and there are
conditions that lead to knowledge, and there
are other conditions that bear upon human
nature and mold the character, but these
cannot produce equally in physical strength,
knowledge, and character. Inequality must
remain, and likewise the unequal chances of
men. Yet happy is he who meets with the con-
ditions that make him the best thing of utility
that is possible.

,-fFrom ^Tennessee to Hrfcamsag

The boy had now grown to eight years of age.
We lose sight of his father. He had also died.
Hence John B. was left at early age without
father or mother. His father, so far as is

7% flifc anti Cimeg of

known, was a clever, good-hearted man, but
always struggling in poverty. The active, well-
formed, blue-eyed frontier boy is now with a
family named ' Wells. Whether the Wells
family were relations of the Dentons is unknown,
but the evidence indicates that they were not.

Mr. Wells turned his eyes upon the young
territory of Arkansas, having a population at
the time of only ten thousand. It was a woody,
wild country, where bear and other game were
abundant. A country well suited to try a man
or a boy in self-denial, in self-possession, in
courage, and in self-reliance. It was a country
where schools and churches were almost un-
known. The settlers were too scattering as yet
to build school-houses, churches, and meet in
congregations.- It was a wild condition of
primeval forests, v/ith the sound of the wood-
man's axe ringing out daily upon the air. Yet
it was a territory whither many good and brave
men and women had gone, and had carried
with them the respectability of moral character,
and many of a pious, Christian life.

It was to this territory that the Wells family
and young Denton emigrated. Tennessee in
that day, and especially the part they left, was

Captain ^ofyn 2$, SDenton 79

very much unchanged from nature's arrange-
ment, but now young Denton looked into the
deeper entanglements and saw how nature had
applied her hand, and what the whole earth
would be without man upon it. The whole
scene, to the eyes of the boy, was beautiful to
look upon, and brought to his young mind a
vast field for contemplation.

In this natural scenery, these creatures of the
forest, this silence that thrills the soul, o'er-
spread by the silent blue sky, and at night with
the stars that speak their voices to the tenting
sleeper, can any doubt but that the boy with
the Wells family was a companion with nature,
holding that communion which was preparing
him for the issues lying out before him but
hidden as yet from his view?

But, adapting himself to these conditions, he
applied his young hands in helping the Wells
family build their first cabins in the forest, open
a garden spot and a field, and with his rifle
furnished their table with turkey and deer.

80 ftife anti €ime£ of

Ueabing tt)e WLtlte dFamity

Life grew monotonous, probably too much
so for a boy of young Denton's temperament
and inclination. There was likely to be revolu-
tion in the Wells family under justifiable cause,
but not otherwise. There is sometimes in a
boy something that parents themselves do not
understand. Yet it is so grounded in the boy
and so manifest to himself that to treat him
contrariwise is but to sow the seed of revolu-
tion. It may be further stated that a boy of
destiny sometimes acts a part for which he is
denounced as disobedient and refractory. This
may be because he has glimpses of himself not
at all understood by other people. Yet all the
while he says little or nothing about such things.
He is simply waiting for his hour to come; and
should such conditions ever arise, he is fitted to
fill his place, and will then show to humanity
what kind of man he is, and will meet every
emergency.

But the evidence seems to be that young
Denton was not treated well in the Wells family.
They looked upon him as a sort of alien, and
that as an alien he was not worthy of certain

Captain ^ofyn 3k 2Denton 81

rights and privileges in common with the other
members of the family. He was given greater
and harder tasks; was spoken to complainingly;
his name was called too often on lines of busi-
ness. These and a multitude of corresponding
things provoked in the boy a spirit of revolution.
If they could not be amended the case was made
out; that is, he would resort to the extreme
alternative, which is the common right of the
oppressed.

This kind of reproach has been saddled on
the world long enough. It is high time mankind
were getting rid of every vestige of it. If all
men sprang of one blood, of which there is the
highest proof, then humanity is a brotherhood.
This truth will stand, regardless of the errors
and practical ways of humanity. Apologies in
the way of pseudo-beliefs, licensing wrongs,
should be condemned in every quarter. Had
the genealogical tables of the world all been
kept, all could see the "kith and kin" relation-
ship that circulates in the blood of all. Then
all might be brought to see the common rights
of all, and sing the song with Robert Burns,
"A man is a man for a' that and a' that."

But this relation with the Wells family was

82 jttife attti €ime£ of

not without its use. The school of experience
is where judgment is rendered of right and
wrong, where the heart is touched and made
tender. It is the school that turns the heart
in sympathy toward all who are wronged and
are made to suffer. The Divine One himself,
through a material experience as a man, learned,
if possible, more sympathy and compassion for
man. In that experience he not only saw, but
felt. He endured the trials, buffetings, hatred,
scorn, and death of a man, and with this experi-
ence connected with His divine essence He will
be forever the highest advocate of man's cause.
Interceding, forgiving, teaching, helping, and
forever with his body thrust between, marked
with the scars of human existence, he will
appeal to the highest source that man may be
helped out of all his distresses.

Jorui B. Denton, at the early age of twelve
years, had an experience impressive and which
he could never forget. Having been treated
as an alien in the family, he ever afterward
took interest in oppressed and suffering hu-
manity as his special brothers. Being hated,
he learned to love; being overtasked, he learned
to lift burdens; being robbed of common rights

Captain ^otyn 25- 3Denton 83

and privileges, he sought the common rights of
all; being reduced to servile labor, he resolved
that, in so far as he was able, all should be free.
His young heart was rilled with compassion for
all who were wronged.

Though it was in the wild woodlands of
Arkansas, where nightly the lonesome howling
of the wolf was heard, and every echo of the
woodman's axe was answered by the shriek of
the panther or the growl of some other wild
beast that stood opposing in the pathway of
civilization, it made no difference with young
Denton at that serious hour. His mind was
made up. His purpose could not be shaken.
His young heart had been changed through a
rough school of experience. He felt its bap-
tismal fires burning, and while he was not in-
flamed, he was, nevertheless, resolved.

Not able to be free as a boy should be free,
he bade the Wells family farewell, and stepped
out of their cabin door. In frontier dress not of
the best, with bullet pouch, powder-horn, and
flint-lock rifle on his shoulder, he walked away to
make or to meet his fortune, whatever it might
be. Anyway, he was free of the Wells family
and could breathe the free air. Having been a

84 atife anti €imc£ of

pupil in a hard school he went to do battle for
himself, resigned to any difficulties that might
attend his pathway. Once gone forward, he
had no thought of retracing.

The common outcry of humanity would be,
There goes a boy in whom there is no hope.
And, indeed, to any one who could not read the
thought of that- boy's heart such judgment
would be largely correct. But this boy had
been in a hard school. His departure was more
the action of a revolutionary spirit against
intolerable evils than of self-will. He was
affected because what he regarded as his com-
mon rights had been taken away. He felt that
he had come to the court of last resort, where
the parting of the ways was his only alternative.
He was resolved to be better than those who
had given him his tasks. He was resolved to
be a friend to all boys and to sympathize with
them and help them in the day their common
rights might be taken away. Thus, growing
to manhood, he sympathized with all people in
their distresses.

Captain Sfo()» 25* Denton 85
<Ktyz Years of £tlenrc

From this period there are a few years of com-
parative silence. There is but little said or
known of Denton for about six years. There
is evidence, however, that he maintained a
sturdy character and was of stout heart. But
with whom he lived and how he fared is not
known with sufficient precision for narration.

One thing is well known, that he passed these
six years without education, even as he had
passed his preceding years. The embarrass-
ments shutting out education can only be sur-
mised. It is probable there were no schools in
the country where he dwelt. And it is equally
probable that no one gave him encouragement
to get an education. The open book of nature
was all he had to feast his mind. When this is
well looked upon it is wonderfully improving.
From it many books are copied. Hence young
Denton's culture consisted of large and varied
experience and the things he learned through
nature's voice. Fortunately for all, nature is
an open book, and to a boy that opens his heart
to receive instruction she pours in a flood of
light and knowledge.

86 atife anti €ime£ of

Young Denton in a thousand ways could see
nature's ways and hear her vocie. Hence in
after life, when he became a public man, he had
this great source continually before him, on
which he could draw to make his illustrations
and speak his parables. When, as a boy,
climbing the hills amidst the forests, he saw
the struggling vines oppressed by larger growth
that took no thought, his mind was brought to
think of himself, of his own captivity and
oppression. When he heard the voice of thun-
der he was reminded of the unseen forces that
can shake the universe. When he saw the
lightning flash and the stateliest oak riven into
shreds in a twinkling of time, he thought how
foolish it is for man to boast and exalt himself,
seeing how quickly he may be laid low.

The youthful Denton had been reading na-
ture in a thousand ways and was intelligent.
He had been walking in these fields of experi-
ence from whence school-room text-books are
made, until he could dictate chapters for the
enjoyment and culture of other youth. But in
the midst of all this he was without the art of
reading.

It can hardly be said that it was his choice to

Captain ^Qfyn 2&, 2Denton 87

neglect books, nor of those with whom he lived.
For Arkansas Territory, even at this date, had
less than thirty thousand inhabitants. With
this scattering population, and with the anxiety
and rustle to get materially comfortable, even
the old log-cabin school-house was put to great
disadvantage, if not entirely omitted.

(£ embers to n — jftlarriage — IPupil of i)is
Mtfe— jftftmfetenal Uafcots anb €ka=
torj)

We have now approached the period when
John B. Denton was to be no longer regarded
as a boy, but was to take his place in the list of
men. Yet he was only eighteen years of age.
But counting his large experience, and that in
frontier life he had for some time largely borne
the responsibilities of a man, and though not
fully bearded, the school of his life had built in
him such sobriety of thought and manly deport-
ment, he was easily recognized as a man among
his fellows.

But there is connected with his life at this
period an event of vast importance, to himself in
particular, and to others in general. It was
the event that laid the foundation of his future

88 Hife and €ime£ of

career and usefulness. The pioneer preachers
of Methodism had now begun to spread the
tidings of salvation all over the sparsely settled
territory of Arkansas. Among these were a
number of strong men. But they all preached
the Gospel after the apostolic mode, in the glow
and fervency of the intensest earnestness.

The territory was now passing over the con-
ditions that had forced neglect. The oppor-
tunity was now given the fathers and mothers,
who under forced circumstances had fallen
from grace, to renew themselves again in Chris-
tian experience, Gospel truth, and knowledge.
It likewise gave the great opportunity to their
sons and daughters.

This Gospel proclamation was the beginning
of a better day; for it is the handmaid of all
true civilization in all Christian countries. It
imparts new thought, turning a man inward in
thoughts upon himself, and outward in thoughts
upon his neighbors and his country. It gives
a new inspiration for schools, an improved
intelligence, and an advanced civilization. It
produces dissatisfaction with the old regime of
society, and begins a new catalogue of manners.
It brings a man to a halt in many ways, impresses

Captain 3foftn 2k SDenton Sg

him over and over again that he is an immor-
tality, and that, therefore, he should be a man
approved both in the eyes of other men and of
heaven.

This was largely like something new to Den-
ton. He woke up as from a dream. He placed
himself at the mercy seat and sought the peace
of his soul by becoming reconciled to God.
He obtained his new birth and felt the thrill of
it in his own spirit. Not the mere assent of
the mind to a truth and confession, but the deep
conviction that " God's love was shed abroad in
his heart." Though he was unacquainted with
the technical phrases of theology, he had a new
experience that had burned away his sins, and
had left the warmth of the fire still burning in
his spirit. He realized what John the Baptist
said: "He that cometh after me shall baptize
you with the Holy Ghost and fire."

Considering the kind of young man Denton
had been made by former experiences and
observation of nature, he had now received in
his heart a qualification for largely more ex-
tended usefulness. Without something of this
kind of experience a man's life is less positive,
and in his negative nature he is proportionally

go %iic anti €tmc£ of

less impressive on society. A man living and
acting among his fellows needs something
within him that glows, until the very heat of it
shall fall upon his neighbors.

Conjointly with Denton's conversion there
was born in him a great desire for usefulness
and helpfulness towards his fellow-men. While
he would have no boy galled with much of his
former experience, he felt great anxiety that all
young men should be qualified with an experi-
ence of soul similar to his own.

This brings the thought to that wonderful
doctrine, a call to the Christian ministry. It
appertains to the life of John B. Denton and
it would be next to criminal to pass it without
notice. He could never have been a legal min-
ister of the Gospel in the Methodist Episcopal
Church without confessing to a divine call to
be a preacher. It is the judgment and belief
of this church that her ministers are called of
God; peculiarly called to that high office.
They do not base this judgment and belief on
human reason alone, but on the teachings of
the holy word. And when is added to that
word an impression on the soul that will not
forego or be repressed, it is a sign to that man

Captain 3fol)n 2&. Qoenton 91

that he has a divine call to preach the tidings of
salvation unto men.

Denton, now acting the part of a man, al-
though he had not reached his majority, con-
fessed a call to the Christian ministry. He
was uneducated, so far as related to book-lore,
and the art of using books. He certainly must
have been largely ignorant of Bible readings
and Bible doctrine. But he was a converted
sinner and walked and communed with God in
the kingdom of heaven. He therefore had a
message for his fellow-man.

Though he was unable to speak on general
points of doctrine with the wisdom of the
schooled theologian, yet he could speak upon
the points of greatest concern to all men, that
men should believe the Gospel, repent, and be
saved. To this he could add his own personal
experience of salvation.

But the thought is called to another very im-
portant event at this period. Denton got mar-
ried. The girl of his choice was named Mary
Greenlee Stewart. As is reported she was of
the state of Louisiana. She was of amiable
disposition, and what made her exceedingly
important, she was fairly well educated.

92 Itife anti 3Ttme£ of

It is impossible for imagination to picture
the joys and happiness of that young twain
made one flesh, as they dwelt in the humble log
cabin on the outskirts of the settlements in
Arkansas. The scene seems to be better suited
for the brush of the artist rather than the pen of
the biographer.

On the one side was young Denton, eighteen
or perhaps nineteen years of age, almost six feet
in stature, very erect, chivalrous, with black and
slightly curling hair, blue eyed, of large experi-
ence and observation for one so young, and a
heart but recently made pure through the work
of regeneration wrought upon his soul. On the
other side the young wife, nigh to his own age,
of most agreeable temper, fairly well educated,
industrious, satisfied, Christian, resigned, and
willing to endure with her young husband all
that life should be made to meet.

Now that other scene, on which angels look
with joy when the evening hour has come. In
those days family altars burned with spiritual
life more than now. In the hush of birds and
repose of nature, the pine-knot fire was kindled
to fresh glow. The young wife reads a lesson
that came down from the skies; they kneel in

Captain ^oJjn 25, SDenton qs

recognition of the God of nature, and their God;
and young Denton leads in prayer and suppli-
cation. Happy scene, O holy hour! Let him
who says there is no God, now assent that the
forces in which he believes, should make them-
selves a God that hears the suppliant voice.

The Pupil of his Wife. Young Denton
was now determined to be a minister of the
Gospel, but was not yet, so far as any record
shows, authorized by the church to exercise
himself in this high office. Called of God, he
was like a man elected to office, but awaiting
the day of qualification. Like a wise man under
high calling he was thinking of the worldly
wisdom that should be united with heavenly
enduement to make him efficient in leading
souls to Christ. He fully realized that a divine
call to the ministry included the adjunct call to
get ready. Hence he, in his ignorance of books,
became the pupil of his wife.

It was a school of twro in the log cabin, a
teacher and one pupil, the young wife and her
young husband. The wife was not superior to
the husband when taken altogether, but she
had the advantage of art. She knew some
things he did not know, while he knew many

94 ftife and Cime$ of

things she did not know. The things which
he did not know and which his wife could teach
him were very important and absolutely neces-
sary in the ministerial office. Denton was a dili-
gent pupil, and the young wife was a faithful,
loving teacher.

The world shall never know all that was in
that school taught on the frontier settlements
of Arkansas in the year 1826. The imagination
might picture an unseemly lonesomeness. But
the contrary is the true picture. These children
of the frontier were so accustomed to this way
and that way of getting along, that they saw
nothing unusual or strange about their school
in the log cabin. And again there was too much
love, hope, and ambition in front of the daubed,
stick-built chimney for lonesomeness or any
other evil spirit to ever creep in at their door.

Along with this school must be associated the
struggle for sustenance. The garden and the
field were to be prepared and tilled, old clothing
renovated, and new stocks provided as purse
would allow. Not an hour was to be lost.
When not engaged in useful outdoor employ-
ment, Denton was at his books, learning to read
those elementary principles upon which a mind

Captain ^otjn 25. 2Denton 95

already active could build a knowledge of gen-
eral science and literature.

Scarcely a year had gone when the young
wife began to think that her husband was ready
for a higher school. Having a suggestive and
originating mind, he began to read between the
lines and to apprehend that which was about
to be said if the author was a legitimate reasoner.
The school naturally broke itself up into social
converse and reading. Of nights, they still
burned the pine-knots, but Denton both read
the divine word and offered the evening prayer.
He never went to school elsewhere.

To say that in after life John B. Denton never
became scholarly in fair degree is to say that
which is largely untrue. Yet many a man,
under such conditions, would never have escaped
his ignorance. It shows what is in the range
of possibility, and should awake dormant thou-
sands to new ideas of courage and perseverance.
Denton, as a subject, is an object lesson to the
world. His wife is a beautiful illustration of the
place woman can fill when around the hearth-
stone; the delightfulness of her helpful ways
when toned down in the prudence of woman's
love.

96 %ift ant) €imcg of

It is a great blessing to humanity that under
hard circumstances at least a few men appear
whom neither time nor conditions can suppress.
In this list may be placed those whose minds
have been stirred and put in a high state of
activity. This is the foundation that produces
thirst for knowledge. Hence the prime office
of instructors, in the first place, is to see that
the minds of their pupils are put in good working
order. It is probable that many a boy has fin-
ished his college course whose mind has never
been properly awakened and trained. Hence
many, apparently brilliant, are soon lost sight
of, and others go on and reach higher attain-
ments than was public expectation. This is
likely to remain thus until special care is taken
to wake the faculties.

John B. Denton a Minister of the Gospel.
When skepticism and indifferent thinking is
put out of the mind, men are forced to acknowl-
edge that the Christian ministry, called of God,
is the most exalted height of man on earth.
Concede the first part of this statement and the
second holds true. Men, of course, have their
opinions, and many are those who are indifferent
whether the Christian ministry is degraded or

Captain ^PoJjn 25. SDenton 97

upheld. There is one thing no one can escape;
that whosoever is called of God to preach the
Gospel has a high office before men.

John B. Denton found himself on this pin-
nacle in 1826, when he was just nineteen years
of age. This was the work, not of human hands,
but the work and call of God. Human minds
can indorse and human hands can confirm the
call from on high that is spoken into the human
understanding, but it is God who calls and
pours the anointing oil.

To affirm that God does not call men to the
ministry of his word is to affirm too largely
his absence from his church, for which he gave
the blood of his Son. It is to place God's
church on a parity with the ethical philosophy
of the world as established among men. It is
like leaving a man, unassisted by grace, to lead
the people to Christ. Indeed, it is to be skep-
tical of things of God, of the divine presence in
his word and in his church. There is no half-
way ground between faith and skepticism.
God is over all and in all, or else he is of no
value to man, a mere myth of superstition, and
no more to be regarded than the gods of the
heathen.

98 3tife anti €ime£ of

Hence, when we find Denton exalted to the
Christian ministry, we must look upon him in a
Bible sense, called of God to minister as a man
in the spiritual affairs of this world. Not that
he was made thereby into the impossible, as
many of the foolish of this world vainly imagine
and falsely reason; for he was still a man of the
earth, a brother to all, subject to disease, old
age, and death; and having the weakness and
passions of a man, was subject to mistaken
judgment and shortcomings. He was called
of God in the weakness, infirmity, and imper-
fection of a man, to preach the Gospel and min-
ister to those that are likewise weak.

From 1826 to 1836 John B. Denton was a
faithful minister of the gospel in Arkansas and
southern Missouri. The story of his preaching
is largely without written record. It was no
doubt fairly written, so far as relates to con-
ference records and notices of his eloquence
and power as a pulpit orator as published in
the few journals in the territory of his ministerial
operation. But it was in a day and in a field
where the conditions were not favorable for
preserving the records. Nearly all have been
lost, both of church records and press notices.

Captain ^otyn 2& 2Denton 99

The tide of immigration that flowed in so im-
pressed the people with an ever-changing con-
dition and so occupied them with pressing en-
gagements that they took little thought of
recording or preserving history, either of them-
selves generally, or of any one man in particular.

This is the condition into which the biographer
is called to look when attempting to give the
story of Denton's ministerial career in Arkansas
and southern Missouri. Much might be said in
refrain touching on the legendary tales of his
life; but inasmuch as the task is to write true
biography, and not a tale of mixed truth and
fiction, these must be omitted. More than
three-quarters of a century have passed since
Denton began his ministry in Arkansas, and
almost three-quarters since he left that state
and immigrated to Texas.

There remain only a few living witnesses, and,
of course, they were very young. They are now
old men and women. Wherever they are found
the name of Denton is fondly cherished. They
love his name, and their faces light up and their
eyes sparkle as they turn to the old memories
of what they saw and the things their fathers told
them of Denton's pulpit power, grace, and

ioo itife anti €ime£ of

eloquence. There is to be found nowhere a
dissenting voice, but the utmost agreement that
Denton was a power in his day, even in his
youthful ministry.

With that which is known, the matter cannot
be meditated upon or looked into, without feeling
a creeping sense of the loss humanity has sus-
tained for lack of fuller records of this notable
man. He was certainly one of those ideal and
teaching characters now and then furnished the
world as a subject of study. They are of great
service to mankind. Held in memory they are
enlightening mileposts in life's journey. They
are guide-boards telling the way. They are
open books of instruction, creating courage,
hope, and giving new inspiration to life's weary
traveler. They are pictures upon which the
tired man can look with pleasure and encourage-
ment when he sits down to rest. They are indis-
pensable to youth; for they awake in them new
aspiration to be something of utility to the world.

Enough remains to give a good lesson of
instruction. The youth of the land, in the
critical period of forming their characters,
should find time to turn their eyes on such a
character as John B. Denton. They should

Captain 3^n 25* Denton 101

consider the possibilities that lie out before the
honest, industrious boy who labors through
difficulties; that it is possible to reach the goal,
though it be through bramble or over a moun-
tain. With the object lesson continually before
them, they should see that their duty is to march
unceasingly, and not lose time by sitting down
and counting the costs. If embarrassments
arise and hardships overtake, that it is none the
worse in the fulfillment of life; that life is a
school, and that it does not always prove for the
best when it goes easy with the lad.

§n STexas

The new immigrant into Texas at this period
was the joy of all the people. It was now fall
of the year, but the same year in which the
battle of San Jacinto had been fought and won.
With the overthrow of Mexican authority and
the capture of Santa Anna, the Mexican presi-
dent, the liberty of Texas was regarded as
secured. Texas had previously declared her
independence of Mexico, but now through un-
exampled chivalry, victory had proven her title
to that which she had previously declared before
the eyes of all people.

102 atife an& €tmc0 of

Texas was now breathing the air and taking
the action of an unfettered and independent
national individuality. She was a new star in
the galaxy of nations, and was beginning to be
so recognized. She needed immigrants and fam-
ilies to add to her meager population. A vast
territory, and with as yet scarcely more than
thirty thousand, she had broken the yoke of her
oppressor and thrown off the burden of authority
that could never lead her as a state into the en-
joyments and liberty of an advanced civilization.

In view of her vast and rich territory, granted
in parcels free to all, only upon their coming and
asking; in view that population is necessary to
make a great country, it would have been next
to criminal not to have invited immigration and
offered inducements. Had the world seen then,
as the world sees now, the population of Texas
would have been largely more than it is, and
thousands who were in want would have had
better opportunities. It was lack of knowledge
and heroic undertaking in those days that con-
tinued many in poverty and held in restraint the
progress of Texas.

Denton crossed Red River in the fall of the
year 1836, in company with Lyttleton Fowler,

Captain ^ofm {©♦ SDenton 103

who was a Methodist preacher of fine character
and power. Denton came a young man in the
harness of a Gospel minister to do missionary
work among the scattering settlements of Texas.
He was about thirty years of age. Physically
strong, of adaptable temper, and inured to
privation, he came to stay. He was a Texan
from the hour he crossed Red River in company
with Lyttleton Fowler. He was in love with
Texas before he came. The struggle Texas had
made and was still making was of such kinship
to his own nature, that he was anxious to be a
participant in her struggles, growth, and civiliza-
tion. He loved to assist her struggling souls
into salvation, and the same sympathetic chord
of love made him anxious to help Texas unto
her new birth of freedom, civilization, and happi-
ness. He needed no culture in the ways of
Texas people. He had to put little restraint on
himself, for he already had a similar experience
to Texans on the frontier settlements of Arkan-
sas.

He was a Texan in love with Texas, and the
people received him as a brother. He came to
be a Texan, to live and labor with the Texas
people, and when he finished his labors and liv-

104 Jtife anti €ime£ of

ing, to finally rest in a Texas grave. And surely
if a man ever went in quest of a Texas grave,
he found it in all the grace of one who spends
his life in his country's cause to make a better
day for those who should follow.

But when Denton came to Texas his magic
life checkmated much evil that afflicts a new
country that settles up slowly. The human
nature is too prone, under monotonous condi-
tions, to grow into indifference about things
that could be made better. These things creep
insidiously upon a man, until in manners and
some of the decencies of life, he grows negligent,
and almost forgets the manner of man he once
was. And even the good wife may lose cir-
cumspection. They both alike decline into
indifference until the order of home gets to be
what it should not be. This always gives a
culture that digressively affects their children.
Thus, sometimes, more is lost than they have
gained in their herds of cattle.

Though John B. Denton was himself always
a frontiersman, yet such a life of decency and
respectability as his infused itself into the man-
ners of the people and into the order of their
families. This helped them to keep up the

Captain ^ntyn 2k 2Denton 105

olden culture and to preserve incorrupt the
better taste of society. The very Gospel he
preached contained all that is herein said. It
cultivated his own life and manners, and through
him the life and manners of many others. To
have such a man to dwell with the people on a
frontier settlement, and especially one that slowly
settled, is always of incalculable benefit.

Denton was of service in maintaining the
decency and respectability of society not only
in the sense of one who mingles, but he was also
a means of assembling the people, for he gave
to them a preaching day. Not as an election
day or political gathering, but a day for the
assembling of both the sexes, a test day for best
appearance in dress and manners to hear the
Gospel preached. This was a saving salt among
the people of the frontier settlements, even as
it is in all places. Of course, what is herein
stated is like speaking in an unknown tongue
to people who never hear the Gospel preached,
and who take no thought of the good that
flows out of it.

While Denton was a brave man and fought
back the foes of civilization in carnal warfare,
he should not be forgotten in other respects,

to6 %ite and €ime£ of

nor misjudged of his utility in other fields of
his labor. There are many foes to fight on
frontier settlements besides Indians. Unless
they are fought from the settlements and from
the very hearthstones the so-called civilization
will not prove worth the cost. It would be
wicked for the white man to supplant the
Indian to place another with only finer art.
He must place in the Indian's stead the white
race with the white man's respectability.
Cruelty is never justifiable unless something
good grows out of it.

The utility of Denton on the frontier settle-
ments is reflected in the lives of a few old people
who knew him and who yet survive. Under
his ministry their eyes were opened and their
hearts were touched until they became ashamed
of the thing they were, and sought at the mercy
seat that renovating birth that sets a man on
new ways of thinking and conduct.

In this way Denton was of great service to
the people upon the frontier settlements. It
was often remarked by the people who came to
stay in those days, and by many who came and
went back, that Texas society was far in advance
of all they had expected to find. The gentility,

Captain ^Pofjtt 25* 2Denton 107

۩urtesy, and honor of the people was in strange
contrast with the primeval face of all things
else. Even the people of Texas to-day esteem
and hold in fond memory the forces that kept
and preserved the good of society in the early
days. It was this at the foundation that, more
than anything else, has made Texas great to-day.

After one way of looking it seems almost
criminal that a man of Denton's talents and
force of character should waste his life on the
outskirts of civilization. When a man lives for
himself alone this is true, but it by no means
shows up the ideal man that the world needs.
The selfish man is hurt by the things and con-
ditions that turn against him personally, the
man of generosity by the things that affect
society. Denton belonged to this latter class
of men, and was, therefore, a sacrifice on the
altar of his country and society.

Now that his course on earth has long been
finished, there is remaining something beautiful
in the introspection of his day and the manner
of life he lived. The rose is more beautiful and
fragrant upon the desert wild, where few come
and go and taste, than in the city full, where
often bearfty and fragrance waste. Beautiful

108 llife and €imeg of

is the flower that dwells and blooms on the
desert range, where all passersby make note of
its charming presence. Happy the thought that
planted it there, tokening beforehand the coming
beauty that would spread the desert o'er.

lEs a ^reacfjer

Having seen the deep impression Denton
made upon the society of the early settlers, his
helpful ways in saving them from decline in
manners and conduct, it would be ungrateful
not to speak of him directly and particularly in
his ministerial character and ability. The im-
portance of a minister of the gospel to society
makes this demand. It is the high office that
continually calls upon men to be honorable and
upright in all their business and intercourse
with their fellows, and as a keynote in human
relations, exhorting them to observe the Christ-
rule to man: "All things whatsoever ye would
that men should do to you, do ye even so to
them." And even further, it is the office that
calls for faith, repentance, and the soul's prepara-
tion for the judgment day; that while man's
body is mortal, his soul or spirit will live in con-
sciousness in the hereafter; and that his tran-

Captain ^ofjtt 25. 2Denton 109

scendental life will be morally affected by his
conduct in material existence.

With such themes before him, being strong
in faith and flushed with deep sympathy for
human weakness and all the oppressed, Denton
always appeared at his best. Spiritually minded,
in close discernment of the eternal realities, of
manly form, bewitching eyes, musical voice,
and his soul burning with the substance of his
subject, he was in the pulpit the unsymbolized
orator of his day.

This man, therefore, presented the Gospel not
only in the profundity of its truth, but also in
the attractiveness of an orator and the rich
splendor of language; melting the people into
tears, and compelling men and women into
repentance through the operation of the Holy
Spirit. If converts were limited it was largely
because congregations on the frontiers of Texas
were likewise limited. Does any one say that
this ornateness should not be in the Gospel of
Christ ? Then let it be said that God has made
us all, and has given even to his ministers a
feather as various in plumage as the birds of the
air. It all works together for the best in the
salvation of men. Paul and Barnabas accom-

no 3life anti €ime$ of

plished each what the other was unable to do;
and one was called Jupiter and the other Mer-
curius.

That Denton should be provided to labor
all his ministerial days among a frontier and
thinly scattered people is a problem to which
human thought has hardly advanced. It must
be allowed that if he had been sent from some
educational center he would have been wanting
in certain adaptability. With all his ornate-
ness, he was a brother frontiersman. His
school was theirs, and his privations. God has
not ceased to raise up men for His own purposes.
The history of Arkansas and Texas show that
Denton was needed; and as a spoke in the
wheel of God's moral evolution, he filled his
place well, and both these territories were made
better by his life.

At this late day it is impossible to realize the
importance of such a man to the people of his
day. Nor can be fully traced the lines of moral
effect beginning with him and still existing.
We can only know that which was made by his .
life, but can never know the conditions that
would have been had he never lived. There
are secret chambers in the archives of a human

Captain Stafpt 9& SDenton

1 1 1

life that cannot be entered, and knowledge there
that no man can learn. They belong to that
sphere of vision and knowledge that is called
supernal.

&g a liatoper

The change that came over Denton in turn-
ing to be a lawyer in the third year of this Texas
life is not the change that many would reason-
ably suspect. Ordinarily one would suppose
that he had quit the Christian ministry, as has
occurred in the history of some preachers.
But this is not true in Denton's case except in
an excusable part. He was called to a high
office from on high. His decision was to
occupy this office unto the end and to allow no
entanglements to give him trouble in that court.

Yet the whole human race are largely the
creatures of circumstances. When these stand
around a man in a menacing and threatening
manner there are often great moral battles to be
fought as well as duties to perform. But in the
midst of all a wise and honest man can discern
the proper course and will pursue it. No man
can know what he will be only as he is called to
meet the events. The conditions of to-day may

ii2 %ift anb €ime£ of

not be the conditions of to-morrow. But no con-
ditions should brook the man called of God
from preaching the Gospel.

To-day the sporting boy may be seen chasing
the butterfly. To-morrow butterflies may. be
gone and he must look around for other sports
which another day had furnished. But in the
midst of all the dutiful boy is always subject to
the call of his mother. A change of conditions
did not stop Denton from preaching. He lived
a preacher; and when he fell from his saddle
at the Keechi battle, he fell not only as a soldier
but as a Methodist preacher.

The circumstances under which he became a
lawyer are easily told. He was poor, and had
around him a growing family that must be cared
for, and deserved his fatherly protection. Not
that he loved the souls of men and his country
less, but because these had been given him as
a special charge. The time had been when he
could forego demands, for scarcely more than
himself would have been in the sacrifice. But
when an honorable man has a wife and a grow-
ing family of innocents around him, he feels
responsibility and looks upon them in a spirit
of graciousness more than upon his own body.

Captain ^oljn 95. SDenton 113

Under these conditions Denton only asked
for a location in the ministry of the Gospel
according to the law and usage of the church
to which he belonged. That is, he would not
withdraw from the ministry, but would with-
draw from the traveling connection. This is
the official relation he ever afterwards sustained
to the Methodist Episcopal Church until his
death.

The circumstances which led him to assume
this relation have already been told in part. It
was a question of salary or income that would
maintain the respectability of his family. To
have no other office but that of traveling and
preaching is among the most enjoyable things.
The young and unembarrassed preacher, in the
fervor and glow of his spirit, can do this and
enjoy it in the midst of conditions that would put
to the test the temper of another, and still go on,
for there would be no one financially to be cared
for except himself.

But when the day of burden and care comes,
when he is oppressed with his load until the
additional weight of the grasshopper is felt,
other thoughts creep over him, and the duties
he owes to his own household will not be over-

1 1 4 %ifc and €ime£ of

looked. This is right; indeed, it is a part of
that Gospel which the man preaches. Denton
beheld the conditions. He saw that he could
not maintain his family in exclusive ministry
among a people who were generally poor. He
therefore turned his attention to the law as his
best opportunity for support. Paul was both a
preacher and tent-maker.

Mr. John B. Craig, being somewhat old, did
the home office work. Denton was largely in
the saddle, often traveling long distances, and
did the work over the large field of their prac-
tice. We said Denton was in the saddle, be-
cause that was the usual way of traveling in
those days. It was the usual way except when
families were moved, and then it was in wagons
or other strong wheel conveyances. Appear-
ances of traveling were all very much the same.

Moreover, men traveling between towns went
armed, not knowing at what point or at what
hour they would meet with the savage foe.
Therefore they had no desire to be embarrassed
with vehicles. Again, every frontiersman had
to be a "minute-man." His safety and the
safety of the settlements depended on his readi-
ness for marching and battle. The preacher

Captain ^ofjn 25* 2Denton 115

the lawyer, as well as others, were likely to be
overtaken by a runner at any hour and informed
of an Indian raid and that he was needed.

These conditions are noted, showing the em-
barrassments that oft intruded upon the path-
way of both the preacher and the lawyer in
those days. Yet composure and resignation
were indwelling qualities of the early settlers.
They did not even think their lot was hard.
That was the thought of others. They were
accustomed to changes, alarms, and battles.
They were surprised at few things. Want of
valor in any was a thing most surprising of all.
When they started anywhere they were not
certain they would gain their destination without
some kind of check producing delay. For this
reason the Gospel was made irregular and
courts could not be held with precision of days.
While they calculated on the uncertainty of
things, they did not nervously bother about
them. They thought less about them and said
less about them than other people. They sim-
ply met the difficulties and made the most of
them, leaving their memory to other people
who loved to talk about them.

On these outskirts of civilization many a man,

1 16 %itt and €ime£ of

unconscious of being a hero, in the twilight of
the evening entered his cabin door and smoked
his pipe of peace. With his gun and pouch in
readiness he lay down upon his couch and slept
in the sound slumbers of a child. He was
listless to all the world except certain signs of
his foes with which all frontiersmen were well
acquainted. The restlessness and unusual
neighing of a horse, the peculiar barking of a
dog, or the hooting of an owl always awoke him,
however sound his slumbers. These and
similar signs were the alarm clocks of the
pioneers. There might be other sounds greater,
but they never disturbed their slumbers; but
these always crept into their ears, and to them
they were never listless.

The reputation of Denton as a preacher had
always gone ahead of him in his law practice.
He was frequently called on for a sermon, and
his Sundays were occupied in this way. In
illustration of his preaching along with his
law practice we give the following quotation :

"The next step taken by the pioneers of
Grayson County towards civilization was to
have preaching whenever they could find a
Gospel dispenser straying that way. The first

Captain 2M)n 95, SDenton 117

sermon they had, and the last for several years,
was delivered by a Methodist preacher by the
name of John B. Denton. He hailed from
Arkansas, where he was well known by the
Dugan family. After his arrival in Texas he
located in Clarksville, occasionally visiting
Warren to attend court.

"It was during one of these visits that Mother
Dugan heard of his presence and sent him a
request to preach while there. He cheerfully
complied, and made an appointment for the
following Sunday at the school-house at Warren.
An event of such importance must have filled
the little log school-house to overflowing. What
an attractive congregation he must have had,
as they listened to the word of God for the first
time in the wilderness, and awoke the echoes of
the silent forest with their songs of Zion. Would
it were my pleasant task to record a long life
of usefulness for this good man. But such is
not to be. A sacrifice to Indian treachery, his
death fully serves as an illustration of their
appreciation of a peaceful policy." — Indian
Depredations in Texas, by Wilbarger.

This sermon at Warren was preached in 1838,
according to the best information received.

1 18 Hife and €ime£ of

There are many stories relating to Denton's
career as a preacher, a lawyer, and an orator
which must be omitted. The object in writing
this biography is a faithful and truthful por-
trayal of this noted and good man. Things
that are at all doubtful, or that test the credulity,
are not regarded as worthy. Future generations,
through this treatise, should know the man in
his true character, and they should not be left
to guess at what is true and what is fiction.

Enough of truth remains testifying to Den-
ton's attractiveness of person, his manliness, his
art as an orator, his power and grace as a
preacher, his success as a lawyer, his self-
sacrifice as a Christian, his endurance and
courage as a frontiersman, and the deep im-
pression he made on society.

& Sacrifice foe ijts (tfountn,)

In building a new country and extending
civilization where foes are met, it is the history
of the world that sacrifices have been offered.
In this the innocent have been made to suffer.
The world seems not to have been made to
dwell and be content in barbarous savagery.
The very creation of the "man of reason" as

Captain ^oljn 9& Denton hq

the topmost stroke of the creative act, whatever
may have been his lapses and shortcomings,
meant no less than that the earth should be
made the best within the range of possibility.
If there is a law within him above any other, it
is the law of his own development. In the
earliest stage of his existence, that whisper in
his ear flowing from the divine judgment,
telling him to have dominion and subdue the
earth, or else it confirmed him in the right to
subdue it. He has, therefore, this nature as
certainly as that breathing into his nostrils the
"breath of life, gave him a living, that is never
dying, immortal soul of responsibility."

Hence, it is the nature of man to always sub-
due the earth and bring everything into cap-
tivity and use. To be content with nothing short
of carrying the earth forward into the splendor
of its destination, to the day of beauty, peace,
plenty, and happiness; to the day when the do-
minion has culminated and the earth lies sub-
dued at the foot of man.

Then will be the beautiful age, when the
thought will turn upon the olden history of
struggle, battles, carnage, and sacrifice that lay
along the pathway, all of which was necessary

i2o ftife ant) €imeg of

to bring the earth into full subjection. In that
day the honored dead, who fell for the right,
will be named in the anthems of praise sung by
those who live in the fruition of halcyon days.

When one looks backward through the historic
windows of the present day and scans the his-
tory of America, from the landing of the May-
flower unto the present time, he sees, scattered
all along, the mounds built over the remains of
heroes who fell as sacrifices in the cause of civ-
ilization— noble men and women who gave
their lives in the cause of subduing the earth
and maintaining it on its way toward ultimate
peace and happiness.

And then, in more local view, when the eye
is turned backward through the historic win-
dows of Texas, from the first rude settlements
about old Nacogdoches and along the banks
of Sabine River unto the present time, there
are seen the names of many a human sac-
rifice who laid down their lives on the altar
of their country that Texas might maintain her-
self on the road to a higher civilization. All of
this seemed necessary, because the foes of pro-
gress would not easily give way.

Progress and achievement have always been

Captain 3fo|)n 2k SDenton 121

costly. But with a nature in man to advance,
there has always been, in his heart, the concom-
itant virtue of sacrifice and martyrdom to every
good cause. Every milestone of his progress
has received the baptism of human blood. In
the blood is the life, and the shedding of it is
revolting to the finer sense of man; yet, when is
taken into the account that which is accom-
plished by it, there is something beautiful in
contemplating the blood stains of the earth,
even as there is something beautiful in the lives
of those who freely shed their blood for human-
ity's sake.

Blood and sacrifice, as with the force of a
law, seem to be associated in all things apper-
taining to man's progress. Whether are con-
sidered the things of the earth, or, in higher
sense, the things of heaven as related to man,
everything of nobility has had its costs to pay
in blood. To raise man in moral stature and
spiritual development, it was necessary that he
should draw upon the blood of heaven. In look-
ing on that blood, man is taught a great lesson
of costs. In it he reads the lines of his moral
condition, and sees that he has no way of escap-
ing the wreck of his calamity except through

i22 Itife and €ime£ of

that blood. It was given for him to open the
way for higher achievement. In higher sense
than the blood of his fellows he should never
forget it. It belongs to man's history. It was
given for his progress and development. The
stained spot at Calvary is the most remarkable
on the line of human civilization.

It seems to be a law of the universe that with-
out the shedding of blood there can be not only
no remission, but also no uplifting of humanity
and no advantages gained. Man should never
be forgetful of the blood that has been shed for
his progress, whether of Heaven's Son or those
of his fellows. They all alike appeal to him
and appertain to his history. They all alike
were martyrs for his welfare.

Here become visible the two ways that have
marked the history and welfare of the human
race. They both lie at the foundation of human
development. Captain John B. Denton was a
traveler on both these ways. On one of these
he crucified himself on the cross of human love
that mankind might be made better, purer in
heart and motive. On this way he labored
and strove and shed tears, and did more than
shedding his blood for the uplifting of man and

Captain 3fo^n 2B>, 2Dcnton 123

making him a creature on the earth qualified
and worthy for exercising his dominion. On
the other hand, in carnal warfare, he gave him-
self a sacrifice to his country. As a traveler on
both these ways, he saw the stains of blood on
both. He saw that both these ways belong to
the history of man, and that the blood stains on
both appertain to man's higher civilization and
improvement.

There is warfare against man wherever he
undertakes to exercise his dominion over the
earth and subdue it. He finds that the work
of bringing the earth into full subjection is a
great task. Labor, sweat, blood, and sacri-
fice are involved in destroying the earth's face
of thorns and thistles and its outer ruggedness,
and of planting on its clean face the things of
utility and beauty. Even in this righteous
work of civilization, the milestones of progress
are bespattered with human sweat and blood.

But on the march of civilization the improved
man, now and then, meets with the wild chil-
dren of the desert and the tribes who are con-
tent to dwell among thorns and thistles. These
hedge the way of progress, and dispute the right
to subdue the earth that it may have the beau-

124 ttif* an& Cime$ of

tiful face of art, improvement, and utility. This
leaves but two ways of action for the improved
man. Either he must retreat before the diffi-
culties and relapse into barbarism, or else he
-nust go forward and subdue the imperfect
man, or make him give room for the beauty and
comeliness that art gives the earth. But it all
means more blood, if the civilized man goes
forward. The battle begins, and every mile of
advance shows the cost in its red stains.

When man had gone astray to a point, when,
if left alone, he would have forever been con-
tent with a cave and dens and the entangled
forest retreats, or with a forever disordered civil-
ization, the earth was purchased with blood.
It was blood through which all tribes and kin-
dreds might reap advantages. John B. Denton
understood this. The very thought of it was
contained in the Gospel he preached. This,
and things like it, bore him up on the tide of his
eloquence. It was the sign of blood in the
earth's redemption that subdued his own spirit
and that made him a calm listener to the words
that fell from the skies.

Seeing that Heaven's blood is joined with
human history and belongs to it; seeing that

Captain ^efpt 2& 2Denton 125

such royal blood as this flowed in behalf of man;
and feeling in his own human soul his heirship
unto a better day through the power of that
blood, Denton saw through it the value even of
human blood. Almost bewildered with the
thought, and drinking deeply the philosophy of
the skies, he saw that his blood was worth more
to other people than to himself. He saw what
has since been proven true, that if his blood
should stain the plains of Texas in the cause of
right, it would be gain to humanity and not loss.

Since blood is considered the most sacred and
valuable of all things, man needs the stained
spots of the earth to which he can refer, show-
ing to his eyes the costs along the pathway that
led to his liberty, high privileges, and enjoy-
ments. They instill their own sentiments of
patriotism, and make a man feel otherwise than
he would feel for his country.

Looking into the life, character, and death
of Denton, the human thought and heart natu-
rally turn to the channels of tragedy. The cross
is the central object in the Christian religion.
The cold, blood-stained body of Caesar, stretched
out in the Roman Forum while Anthony spoke
the funeral note, has never been forgotten;

126 itife an& €ime£ of

The pierced Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley
will live as three tragedies in American history.
The tragic fall of Captain Denton on the plains
of Texas, in battle for his country, is most talked
of and most remembered among the things of his
life. It was the culminating tragedy in his illus-
trious history with its blood stains. People did
not forget it, cannot forget it, because of the
blood.

They yet see him, as a youthful general, in his
saddle, in his erect, commanding form. They
see him when the bullet has struck. They see
the blood spot on his coat, and on the grass
where he fell and lay. They see the sacrifice
for humanity, as he lay cold in death on the
plains of Texas. They see him thus, stretched
out, with his gun by his side, wrapped in the
dress of a battling frontiersman. This was the
tragical end of this most noble man. It was in
the noon of the day, May 22, 1841.

How often man thinks of that which might
have been. He sees the peeping bud of a beau-
tiful flower. He thinks of that which will be.
But a bug of destruction or the frost of a night
destroys it forever. Then he thinks of that
which might have been. Denton was young,

Captain ^ofjn 25* 2Denton 127

thirty-four years old, seemingly not of age to be
fully blown in character and utility, yet he had
been a shining light in society for fourteen years.
Yet man will speculate on that which might
have been.

Not much advanced beyond thy youth

Thou art fallen. Noble man!

Art thou silent now? No. In truth

Thy blood stains speak again.

Texas will not forget, will still speak of thee;

For thou, her son, didst fall to make her free.

How thou didst love all Texas soil;

And made her people thine;
Thine in love, and thine for defense;
Always thine, in cloud or shine!
But thou didst meet her foes, nor didst thou wince.
Alas! thou wast struck hard, and hast gone hence.

It is enough; for Texas knows
Her sons, and what they did.
On scattered mounds her rose still blows
And lights where they are hid.
Quiescat pace. Ye were heroes all,
And in the evil dav were Lone Star's wall.

In writing this brief biography of a most noble
Texan, we have had to deal largely with legend-
ary stories and the memory of people. Many
things very sacred and important in the life of
Captain Denton were never written and pub-
lished, for causes already noticed in other chap-
ters. A much more abundant history could
have been written if the times of his life had been
more favorable for keeping the full records of
events. Human memory, through the lapse of
almost three-quarters of a century, will natu-
rally grow a little inconsistent in certain details.
In many things of recent date, the testimony of
eye-witnesses is oftentimes not in full accord.
But it must be stated that, touching the main
points of Denton's life, there is harmony among
all who have spoken.

In summing up the whole matter, overhauling
the many letters we have received, and address-
ing ourselves to the numerous newspaper clip-
pings we have in hand, we have endeavored to
delineate the true life of Captain Denton faith-

129

130 Hife anti €imeg of

fully, to place him and his times before the pub-
lic as they really were. Yet we have thought it
best to reserve certain matters for this appendix,
not that they are of less importance, but because
they better serve the arrangement.

The following appeared in the Dallas News
of October 6, 1900. It is the account rendered
by Rev. Andrew Davis. He was only thirteen
years of age at the time, but was a member of
those in the Keechi battle.

i^torj) of tf)e dFifiijt anb SBenton's IBeatt)

[Special to the News]

Waxahachie, Tex., Oct. 6.
Rev. Andrew Davis, of this city, was a mem-
ber of the company commanded by General
Tarrant at the fight with the Indians in which
Captain John B. Denton was killed, and an
eye-witness of his death and burial. He was,
at the time, but thirteen years of age, and in all
probability is the only survivor of that heroic
band of pioneers. Since the discussion anent
the death and burial of Captain Denton, Mr.
Davis has received a great many letters urging
him to write a full history of the fight and the
circumstances connected with the killing and

Captain SWjn 25. 2Denton 131

burial of Captain Denton for publication, and in
compliance with those letters he to-day handed
the News correspondent the following article:

In the spring of 1841 the campaign was made
in which John B. Denton was killed. The com-
pany was made up by General Tarrant, a lawyer,
who, at that time, lived in Bowie County. He
finally moved to Ellis County, where he died.
There were many of the most prominent men of
north Texas in this company, some of whom were
Colonel Coffee, James Bourland, William Bour-
land, Mac Bourland, Colonel Porter, Henry
Stout, Dick Hopkins, John B. Denton, Clabe
Chisum, J. L. Lovejoy, Colonel Bill Young,
Captain Yeary. These are sufficient. Many
of their names have faded out of my memory.

It would not be proper for me to attempt a
history of the whole campaign, but to fix atten-
tion directly upon the occasion of the killing of
J. B. Denton and the circumstances connected
with it.

Denton was killed (as I might say) on our
return home. On the day before the taking of
the village, a lone Indian was discovered. Gen-
eral Tarrant divided the company, and ordered
them to cut him off from timber and to capture

132 %xk anti €imeg of

him. This was nicely and quickly done. The
capture of the Indian occurred on the high
prairie some ten miles west of the village, at a
point not far from where Ft. Worth is located.
Tarrant left the prairie and went into a secluded
place on the river. There we remained all
night. About sunset every preparation was
made to kill our prisoner. He was placed upon
an elevated spot a few paces from the company.
He was then placed with his back against an
elm-tree, his hands were drawn around the tree
and made secure, and his feet were then tied
together and secured to the tree. Then twelve
men, with their guns, were ordered to take their
position before the Indian. The scene was an
awful one in its solemnity, to me and to all. The
men were ordered to present arms. At this
moment the alarmed and terror-stricken Indian
became greatly excited, and in great agony of
spirit he cried aloud, "Oh, man! Oh, man!"
While he did not utter the above words with dis-
tinctness, yet it was more like these words than
any other. General Tarrant sent Captain
Yeary with an interpreter to the prisoner to see
if he would reveal anything, for prior to this he
had been sullen, and would not say a word. He

Captain ^ofjn 2£>, SDenton 133

was made to understand that if he would tell
where the village was, and how to find it, he
should not be hurt, and he made a full revela-
tion of the whole matter, and closed by saying,
"We be friends." He was untied, but kept
under guard all night. After dark Tarrant sent
ten men under Henry Stout, who was ordered
to go to the village, reconnoitre the same, and
select the point of attack, and report by four
o'clock in the morning. This was done, and
by daylight all were in motion, under the guid-
ance of our trusty pilot, for the village, which
was reached about nine o'clock in the morning.

General Catrant ?ieti tf)e attack anti ti)e
Jntitarrg toete 3ftoutet>

From our position we could see the Indians
passing about in every direction. We were
ordered to deposit our baggage and free our-
selves of every incumbrance, and be ready for
the charge in five minutes. When the time was
out, General Tarrant said, "Are you all ready?"
The response was in the affirmative. Then
Tarrant, in a low, yet a clear, distinct voice, said:
"Now, my brave men, we will never all meet on
earth again; there is great confusion and death

134 life anD €ime£ of

ahead. I shall expect every man to fill his
place and do his duty."

The command to charge was given. A level
prairie, about three hundred yards wide, lay
between the command and the first huts.
This distance was measured off in less than half
the time I am in telling it. In a moment the
sound of firearms, with a voice of thunder, rang
out over the alarmed and terror-stricken in-
habitants of that rude city of the wilderness.
Tarrant and James Bourland, with Denton, led
the charge, while every other man followed with
the best speed his horse could make. I was
riding a mule, furnished me by Aunt Gordon.
(God bless her memory!) She was my friend
in orphanage and helplessness — well, pardon
the digression. That mule was a mule, and,
just like its kind, it was slow, and made me
among the last to reach the enemy. As I
passed the first huts, I saw to my right a number
of Indians. I fired into the crowd with the
best aim my excited nerves would allow. In a
moment our men came upon them from a differ-
ent direction, and for a short time the work of
death was fearful. It was here that my mule
was shot from under me. I felt like I had lost

Captain S^ftn 2k 2Denton 135

my best friend. The air was full of bullets, and
I took a tree. In a moment, however, I saw
a number of our men on foot, some of them from
choice, and others, like myself, because they
could not help it. I left my tree and joined
them. In less than an hour the village was
cleared of Indians, and it seemed like the work
of death was done.

Covered with dust and dirt and wet with
sweat and almost famished, both for food and
water, Tarrant called the company together at
a little spring. On roll-call it was found that
not a man had been killed; a dozen, perhaps,
had been unhorsed. Quite a number were hat-
less. As many as eight or ten were slightly
wounded, but none in a painful manner. Many
had made narrow escapes from death, as their
rent clothes abundantly testified. Tarrant com-
mended the men for their good behavior, and
* said, "Thank God, we are all here. You
have had water, repair to the nearest huts and
get your hands full of dried buffalo meat, and in
fifteen minutes be ready for further advance."
My, my! how the buffalo meat was used up
by those hungry men! At the expiration of the
fifteen minutes, Tarrant called the men together

136 %ift anti €ime£ of

and ordered John B. Denton and Henry Stout
each to take a squad of twenty men and pursue
the retreating Indians, as a great number of
them had fled north into the Trinity bottom
by two paths leading out of the village.

It so happened that I fell into the squad of
men commanded by Captain Henry Stout, who
took the trail which led from the northeastern
portion of the village. John B. Denton, with
his men, took the trail which led from the north-
western part of the village. Within about sixty
yards of the river the trails came together.
When Captain Stout came to this point he
halted, and addressed his men: "Here the trail
from the west unites with ours; a great many
Indians have gone out on both trails. From the
large cottonwoods in view, we are near the
river. I think it is imprudent for a little squad
of men to enter into such a trap, for if the Indians
make a stand at all, it will be at the river."

Just at this time some one said, "I hear the
sound of horses' feet."

Captain Stout said, "That is Denton. We
will wait till he comes, and we will consult."

When Captain Denton came up he said,
"Captain, why have you stopped?"

Captain ^oftn 2& 2Denton 137

Stout repeated to Captain Denton what he
had just said to his men, but he added, "I am
willing to go as far as any other man."

Instantly, and without a word, Captain Den-
ton spurred his horse on in the path. Captain
Stout followed, and their men dropped into line,
and the little company, in death-like silence,
moved on toward the river. We found no pre-
pared ford, but merely a well-worn buffalo
trail, which led down into the river, and went
out some eighty yards below. The north bank
of the river was high, and covered with a closely
set undergrowth of brush. Here the Indians
had secreted themselves. When the company
reached the point opposite and under the
Indians, they opened a deadly fire upon us, it
being mainly directed on our men in the front.
Captain Denton was instantly killed, and Cap-
tain Stout had his arm broken. In this condi-
tion of affairs no word of command was given.
The scene of death and the moment of suspense
was awful to endure. Captain Yeary halloed
at the top of his voice, "Why in the h — 1 don't
you move your men out to where we can see
the enemy? We will all be killed here."

The men began at once a kind of irregular

138 %iit anti €ime£ of

retreat, and Captain Stout had so far recovered
from his shock as to be able to say: "Men, do
the best you can for yourselves. I am wounded
and powerless."

About this time some one exclaimed, "Cap-
tain Denton is killed." The shot was so
deadly that there was no death struggle. He
had balanced himself in his saddle, raised his
gun, and closed one eye, intending to deal death
upon the enemy, when the death shock struck
him. When his death was discovered, his
muscles were gradually relaxing, and his gun,
yet in his hand, was inclining to the ground.
The men nearest to him took him from his
horse and laid him on the ground, and then we
returned to the command at the village. We
feared that after we left the Indians would scalp
Captain Denton and otherwise mutilate his
body, but this was not done. A squad of men
were sent back to the river to bring Denton's
body, which was done. I am glad to this day
that I am one of the number to volunteer to go
back, and, if need be, to brave death to recover
the body of Captain Denton.

About 4 or 4:30 p. m., the body of Captain
Denton was securely tied upon a gentle horse,

Captain ^Poljn 25. SDenton 139

and the command moved out from the village,
with some eighty head of horses and fifteen or
twenty head of cattle taken from the village.
We moved up the river to a point not far from
Ft. Worth, and there spent the night. Early
next morning we crossed the river at a place
where the timber was narrow. After crossing
the river, we traveled in the direction of Bird's
Station, aiming for Bonham, as our objective
point. At about 1 1 a.m. we halted on a prairie
on the south side of a creek, with a high bank
on the north. On one of these elevations Cap-
tain Denton was buried. I have never, for a
moment, doubted but that I could find the
identical spot. The tools with which his grave
was dug were brought from the village, and they
were ample for the purpose. If, therefore, any
person has found a shallow grave, and is of the
impression that it is the grave of Captain Den-
ton, he is mistaken. His grave was dug a good
depth. A thin rock was cut so as to fit in the
bottom of the grave, similar rocks were placed
at the sides, and also at the head and foot.
Another rock was placed over the body, and the
grave filled up.

Thus was buried one of God's noble men.

140 Stife anti €ime£ of

We here give the following quotation, com-
paring which with well authenticated data in
hand, it must be inaccurate in several points:

"When the Indians again commenced their
depredations, Denton was among the foremost
to go wherever the call for help was heard, and
to assist in any movement for the benefit of the
settlers. A raid had been made and a number
of horses driven off by the Indians, and Denton,
with a party of men, started on their trail to
try and recover the stock. When near the cross-
ing of a creek, in what is now called Denton
County, he called a halt, and pointing to the
bushes and brush near the crossing ahead of
them, remarked that he did not think it safe to
ride through there, as the Indians might be
lying in ambush to surprise them, and advised
turning back a short distance and scouting
around. Some of the men in the party were of
the same opinion, and thought that the safest
plan; but one objected, didn't see any danger,
and intimated that Denton was afraid, and
wanted to turn back. Not fancying this un-
merited attack upon his bravery, Denton said
that he would go as far as any man, and started
on ahead, the others following.

Captain ^ofm gk 2Denton 141

"When they had approached the crossing,
and were all opposite the bushes, the Indians
raised from where they had been crouching,
and, watching every movement, fired upon
them, singling out Denton as their leader. The
whole party turned and retreated in great haste,
to find, when they halted at a safe distance,
that Denton's riderless horse was with them.
Unknown to his companions, he had been mor-
tally wounded, and had fallen off his horse in
the retreat. The man who told of the affair
afterwards said: 'When Denton wheeled his
horse around to retreat, he looked at me with a
smile on his face, and an expression which
seemed to say, What did I tell you? Hardly
realizing that he was shot, as he turned with
them, they returned to rescue him if it were pos-
sible that he had been thrown.

"They found his dead body where it had fallen
off in the brush by the side of the trail, and not
far from where he had been shot. Strange to
relate, the Indians had not disturbed him,
probably not knowing that they had killed any
one. His friends carried him to a secluded
spot away from the trail, wrapped him in a
blanket, and buried him. His grave they dug

142 Hife anfci €ime£ of

with their hatchets and knives, and lined with
slabs of slate rock; then they laid him tenderly
in, covering him with another slab, and filled
up the grave, carefully smoothing it level, and
scattering leaves over it, that the Indians might
not find and disturb his last resting-place.

"So perished one of Texas' bravest and best
pioneers. A fine orator, far above the average
in intelligence, and, had he lived, would have
proved a blessing to his country and assisted ma-
terially in its advancement."

"The pioneer was laid to rest,
The red man set him free,
Disturb him not, but let him sleep
Beneath the old oak-tree."
— Indian Depredations in Texas — J . W . Wilbarger.

Rev. J. F. Denton, the oldest son, now living
in Weatherford, Texas, among other things in
answer to the author's inquiries, says:

"If you will pardon what might look like
egotism, I will say that my father was a man of
immense, almost tireless, energy. While he
had no educational advantages in his early life,
he was considered by his friends as fairly well
educated. He had the finest library in the
town of Clarksville at the time of his death.
He was familiar with the English authors —

Captain ^ofm 96* 2Denton 143

Shakespeare, Milton, Byron, Pollock, and a
number of others. This is my information
from reliable sources.

"Rev. John B. Craig, his old law partner, told
me that when my father studied a case he usu-
ally exhausted it, so far as his side was con-
cerned, before it was taken before a jury.
Hon. Thos. J. Rusk said of him: 'That as a
natural orator of that day, John B. Denton was
fully the equal of any man he had ever heard.' "

Rev. John B. Denton, Jr., wrote the author
from Shannon, Texas, October 8, 1900, among
other things, the following:

"I know but little of my father's life and
history except what I have been told by older
brothers and sisters, and by the friends of my
father. Having had a desire to know something
of my father, with these I talked much in my
boyhood. I was told that he, with an older
brother, was bound to a man by the name of
Wells, who was a Methodist local preacher and
a blacksmith; that, owing to the unbearable
scolding of Wells's wife my father ran away, and
that he worked on a flatboat on the Arkansas
River. He was married and converted in his
eighteenth year, I think. He was licensed to

144 Stife and €ime£ of

preach, and admitted on trial in the Missouri
conference not many months afterward. My
mother taught him to read after they were mar-
ried. But he soon became distinguished as a
preacher of almost superhuman eloquence. I
have known a number of able and highly edu-
cated men who told me that they regarded him
as the greatest orator they had ever heard.

"He came to Texas in 1836, in the month of
December, and crossed Red River in company
with Lyttleton Fowler, who came, like himself,
as a missionary to the almost wilderness. He
traveled two years as a missionary, and then
felt compelled to locate, because of inadequate
support for his family. He began the study
of law, and in six months was licensed to prac-
tice. He entered into partnership with John
B. Craig, who was another Methodist preacher.
He soon took front rank as one of the most
eloquent lawyers in the Republic.

"He was commissioned by the government as
captain, and served under Colonel William
Young. I do not know the date of his commis-
sion. He was killed on Village Creek, in
what is known as Tarrant County, about
six miles east of Ft. Worth. I was then

Captain ^ofjn 2k 2Denton 145

just fourteen months and four days old. I am
the youngest son. I feel the deepest gratitude
to the Old Settlers of Denton County for
the interest they are taking and the efforts they
are making to honor my father's memory."

William C. Baker married the oldest daughter
of Captain John B. Denton. In answer to inqui-
ries he wrote the author the following from
Durant, I. T., in the year 1900:

His father moved to Clark County, Arkansas,
when John B. was quite a small boy. Soon
thereafter losing his wife, he bound his two sons,
William and John, to a Colonel Wells, who was
a blacksmith, to learn the trade. William, who
was several years the oldest, went to work and
learned the trade. John B., being too young
to put at the forge, was taken charge of by Mrs.
Wells, and put at all sorts of menial labor, such
as carding, spinning, milking the cows, and
doing housework generally.

At quite an early age he showed a strong
desire to learn his letters, which he learned at
odd spells, as he could catch time between his
jobs of housework. He was anxious to learn
to read, but was denied the use of a tallow
candle to study by. He resorted to pine knots

1 46 Hife anD €ime£ of

as a substitute to study by, of which there was
no scarcity.

At about twelve years of age he discovered his
miserable condition, and left his oppressor and
wrought for himself.

At the age of eighteen years he married a
Miss Mary Greenlee Stewart of Louisiana.
She was sixteen years of age. She taught him
to write his name. They became members of
the M. E. Church, and not long afterwards he
was licensed to preach. He became a traveling
preacher in the Little Rock Conference. In a
short time he distinguished himself as an orator
of the highest type.

The author received the following from Mrs.
S. J. Wilson, of Clarksville, Texas. The letter
was dated September 16, 1900:

I knew John B. Denton as an intelligent min-
ister, and I know of his death and burial through
two uncles of mine who were with him when he
was killed, Colonel Sam Sims, who now lives
with his daughter, Mrs. W. H. Allen, at Rich
Hill, Missouri, now eighty-three years old, and
Mr. John Griffin, now dead.

I will now relate to you the sad story, as I
well remember it being told by my uncles, his

Captain ^oftn 35. 2Denton 147

companions, when killed. About an hour after
the battle of Keechi Village, Captain Henry
Stout, John B. Denton, and John F. Griffin
mounted to explore a ravine near by. Captain
Stout, in the advance, was shot through the
arm; John B. Denton was shot through the
breast and instantly killed; and John Griffin
was shot through the right cheek.

They placed the body of Denton on a horse,
left the village, and came until they crossed
Denton Creek, and there they buried him, on
the east side. They cut his name on a tree at
the head of his grave. They placed two large
stones on the grave with the hope of concealing
it from the Indians.

Doctor Homer S. Thrall, in his Brief His-
tory of Methodism in Texas, on page twenty-
one, says:

"John B. Denton was a man of extraordinary
ability. Left an orphan in his childhood, he
had comparatively no advantages of early edu-
cation, nor did he exhibit his extraordinary
genius until after his conversion. His earliest
efforts at exhorting and preaching elicited the
wonder and admiration of his hearers, and vast
multitudes flocked to his appointments.

148 %ift and €tme£ of

"He entered the Missouri Conference in 1836,
but a meager support for his growing family
compelled him to resort to other means of ob-
taining a livelihood, and he studied law. Hav-
ing been prosperous and successful in this pro-
fession, he again entered the itinerancy, and
was sent to Texas. On his way to his new field
of labor, he fell in company with Rev. Lyttleton
Fowler, just appointed to the Texas Mission,
and the two crossed Red River together. Mr.
Fowler preached his first sermon in Texas at
the house of Rev. William Duke.

"Mr. Denton was killed by the Indians in
1839. Denton County perpetuates his name.
Two of his sons became itinerant preachers —
J. F. and John B. Denton, now of the West
Texas Conference. Another son, Dr. A. N.
Denton, was, in 1883, appointed superintend-
ent of the lunatic asylum, and now resides at
Austin."— Brief History of Methodism in Texas.

Mr. Thrall must be in error in a few points.
Mr. Denton was certainly a traveling preacher
before 1836. It appears from certain other evi-
dence that 1826 is nearer the time of fixing the
beginning of his itinerancy. In those early days
of frontier work records were not well kept, and

Captain ^Poljn 25* SDenton 149

much of that which was once written has been
lost. It is very evident that Mr. Thrall is mis-
taken when he says that Denton was killed in
1839. But we will let him correct himself. In
Methodism in Texas, on page seventy-four,
he says :

"In 1 84 1 a party of Texans, under General
Tarrant, destroyed an Indian village on Trinity
River, above where Dallas now stands. John
B. Denton, in command of one of his compa-
nies, was killed, and buried on a creek which
bears his name."

Where Mr. Thrall here says "above where
Dallas now stands," should be "six miles east
of where Ft. Worth now stands." For that is
Village Creek, where the Indian village was, and
the natural scene of the'Keechi battle.

Conclusion

The author of this biographical tribute to
Captain John B. Denton has, himself, had no
small experience in frontier life. This more
than anything else qualified him for this service.
Through this experience he could better see how
to read between the lines and perceive the facts
where things had been, in some degree, for-
gotten. In his boyhood he had read of Goliad,
the Alamo, and San Jacinto; of Fannin, Travis,
and Houston; of numerous men, and some
women, who were famous in the early history
of Texas, and through whose labors and sacri-
fices the foundations of a great country had been
laid. He was in love with Texas for the honor
and heroism of her pioneer settlers, and for the
victory of her small but heroic army.

It was the fascinating charm that Texas
wrought in his youth that induced him to leave
the most pleasant surroundings of a Kentucky
home, and go West. It was Texas above every
other place. With boyish thought, he wanted
to be a Texan; he wanted to set his foot on the

i52 Hifc ant) €inic# of

land of heroism, and in whatever way he could,
be a participator in further civilization.

Hence, he became a Texan, and has been a
Texan for fifty years. He knows something of
frontier life, of Indian raids, of privation, of
that fortitude and courage necessary to remain
and battle as a frontiersman. Now that it is
past, and the face of all things have changed,
he is glad that he has so long been a Texan.
Yet it looks like the work of magic. Coming to
Texas when there was a population scarcely
exceeding two hundred thousand, and now be-
tween three and four millions ; when the vote for
governor was scarcely fifty thousand, and now
more than half a million; when there were no
railroads, and now more than eleven thousand
miles; when the head of water navigation was
Buffalo Bayou in southern Texas and Shreveport
on Red River, Louisiana, and now canalizing
Trinity River to Dallas.

It is a pleasant reflection now to have be-
come a Texan as early as nineteen years after
the battle of San Jacinto and fourteen years
after Captain Denton was killed, whose biog-
raphy is herein contained. Few things are
more delightful than for one who has been in

Captain S^ftn 2&* Benton 153

the midst of it to contemplate the material evo-
lution of Texas for the last fifty years. When
is added to this the battle that has been made
for education, morality, and religion, in all of
which Captain Denton, in earlier day, was
an earnest participator, things are seen in purer
light, and the contemplation grows more de-
lightful by the very loveliness of things.

There is something beautiful in the race for
material development, although those most ear-
nestly engaged in the task seem to take little time
to think of other things just as important to make
Texas truly great. Then comes in that other
beautiful thing. It is the thought and struggle
of keeping intelligence, morality, and spiritual
culture of the people on a parity, and, if possible,
in advance of material development. A manly
battle has been made in this way. In earlier
day Captain Denton and his associates in the
Christian ministry, and since their day others of
like calling, have kept their arms of love around
useful but forgetful men. This ointment has
unceasingly been poured on the race-course of
progression, and is a mighty factor in main-
taining the true greatness of Texas.

Honor is due to every man, in his proper place,

i54 ttife anti Cime£ of

who has from the earliest day till now labored
for the material and moral welfare and greatness
of Texas. But too much cannot be said in
praise of those pioneer men and women of the
earlier days. May such men as Captain John
B. Denton be multiplied in Texas and all the
earth. While we know not what would have
been had he not been killed in young manhood,
of one thing we are well assured, that both the
time he did live and his tragic death made a deep
impression on Texas society.

Who knows the best? Only one, that is God;
He knows best when to give, and when to take.

He knows it all.
He places all beneath His chastening rod,
He watches men, and marks the time and place,

Where'er they fall.

Who knows the best? Can others speak and say?
Knows any one a new or better way

That satisfies?
Then why speculate, or make search to find
Other thought or proof among all mankind

Than from the skies?

Denton fought, bled, and died while he was young.
Garlands of fame around him still have clung,

And still will cling..
He is an anthem on the lips and heart,
A song engraved, and which will never part

From souls that sing.

Captain S^&n 2k BDtnton 155

Names of some of the men who were with
Denton in the Keechi battle: E. J. Tarrant,
Sam Sims, Daniel Montague, James Bourland,
Andrew Davis, John L. Lovejoy, Clabe Chisum,
John Griffin, Henry Stout, Colonel Coffee,
William Bourland, Mac Bourland, Colonel
Porter, Dick Hopkins, Colonel William C.
Young, Captain Yeary.

Clje ^Battle of &an Jacinto

Since many besides Captain John B. Denton
have fallen in the cause of Texas, and since the
battle of San Jacinto was historically decisive,
that is, the turning event that ultimately se-
cured for Texas her national independence, it is
thought that it will be a fitting close to this little
volume to give a description of this battle, to-
gether with a narration of certain conditions of
Texas and her army at the time.

"The enemy are laughing you to scorn. You
must fight them. You must retreat no further.
The salvation of the country depends on your
doing so." General Houston received these
laconic orders from David G. Burnet, president
of Texas, only a few days before the battle.
They were issued from Harrisburg, which was
near by San Jacinto battle-field, and were borne
to General Houston by General Thomas J.
Rusk, secretary of war.

Things were done sharply in this extreme
hour of Texas, even as those curtly expressed
orders do suggest. They uncover a chapter of

137

158 %ifc anti €ime£ of

conditions, and give an insight of danger, show-
ing that something must be done, and be done
quickly. Whatever may have been the choice
of General Houston up to this hour, whatever
may have been his former hesitation, he now
resolved to give battle, whatever the conse-
quences. The orders were imperative.

To say that this was not a serious hour in
Texas is to speak the contrary of all truth in the
matter. But, with Houston's little army, it
was more a feeling of responsibility than of seri-
ousness. They were largely a class of cultured
men, of purest patriotism, and were, therefore,
capable of being deeply touched with feelings
of individual responsibility. They well knew
that they occupied the contesting battling
ground between Texas independence and Mexi-
can domination. They knew that all eyes were
turned toward them for safety and future happi-
ness. They knew that if they were successful
the seriousness and shadows would be removed
from the country. But if they failed, dark
shadows would cover the land, and that serious-
ness would be so intensified that the very foun-
dation of hope itself would be shaken. It was
fortunate, in this perilous hour, that the men

Captain ^ofjn 25. SDenton 159

composing the Texas army were so cultured
that they could individually feel the responsi-
bility which was due to Texas in such extreme
conditions.

It is proper to state here that Texas only a
month ago had declared her independence, and
only a month ago had elected her first president.
At that hour it was not known but that all was
going well at the Alamo, and that Colonel
Fannin and his men were in unembarrassed
safety. But even before the day of the Declara-
tion of Independence had gone, a courier brought
the sad news of the fall of the Alamo. Nothing
good came. It was one tale of disaster following
another which, it seemed, never would end;
and in the midst, which almost broke the hearts
of men and women, the news came of the battle
of Colita, the surrender of Colonel Fannin and
his men, and their massacre at Goliad. Texas
independence seemed to be making a bad start.
In almost every aspect it appeared as flimsy as
the sheet of parchment on which it was written.

The people, for some weeks, had been fleeing
before the victorious and treacherous Mexicans.
The country between San Antonio and the
vicinity of San Jacinto had been laid waste by

160 Hife anti Cime£ of

the Mexican army. Not only was the provender
of the country taken, but the towns were burned.
Even President Burnet, in the short month of
his presidency, had changed the seat of govern-
ment several times for safety. Even now, in
addition to the care of government, he was seek-
ing the safety of his own family.

There was much confusion, and anxiety
burned like a consuming fire in every soul.
The government itself, so to speak, was in the
saddle, and was threatened with absolute disso-
lution through fading hope. It was the crisis
hour, and in it was beginning the crucial pain
that precedes the death. Further retreat would
lead to uncontrollable demoralization. It would
be a shock worse than a lost battle. President
Burnet knew this when he wrote his orders for
battle and sent them to General Houston.
Houston himself must have known it. Texas
independence, as if suspended by a hair, was
hanging in the balance. Declared scarcely a
month ago, it was like a babe in the cradle
struggling to loose itself from its swaddling.

Perhaps few -such crises have occurred in the
world's history. Prepared or unprepared, to
fight a battle at this hour was necessary. It

Captain S^fjn 25. 2Denton 161

was to make battle only in hope with the odds
against. Calculating advantages and disad-
vantages could not enter in as a consideration.
To fight and lose the battle would not delay
Texas independence should such ever be the
march of events. To fight and get the victory
would send the Mexican army back to the Rio
Grande. Confidence would be restored. A
new spirit would seize the people. Santa Anna
would never be allowed to gain another such
advantage over Texas. President Burnet saw
all this. General Houston must have seen it.
All Texas seemed to perceive it.

It seems that it was necessary that Houston
should have been chided by the president and
urged to battle. He did not chafe under the
orders, but acted as though the orders were but
a statement of the very thing he was about to do.
However the matter of his own mind stood, he
was left without choice. Yet the die for battle
was cast not simply by the president's orders,
but also by one of those mysterious and inex-
plicable pulses of nature that pervades all and
molds all into one common thought and judg-
ment. Houston knew that Texas was about
exhausted of men who could bear arms, and

162 %itt anti €ime$ of

that he could not ever hope to have a more
efficient army. Pervaded with the idea of
immediate battle, he sought no excuse. He
had no desire to make excuse, to parley, or to
delay, but immediately began arrangements
and preparation to meet the enemy. The secre-
tary of war who bore to him the president's
orders remained in camp and was of service in
the field.

Yet in the midst of all these things the com-
mander of the Texas army was far from believ-
ing that he was leading a forlorn hope. There
were conditions that gave him encouragement.
He knew that through the over-confidence of
Santa Anna and his accordant carelessness he
had caught the Mexican army in detail, and
that the Mexican general was in nowise ex-
pecting a stubborn resistance in an open field.
He knew that Santa Anna was of opinion that
the revolution was already crushed except in a
few small details, and that he was thinking of
going home and leaving the work to be finished
by his generals. Houston also knew the spirit
of revenge that rankled in the hearts of his own
little army; that they remembered their friends
and kinsmen that had been murdered at Goliad;

Captain ^otjn 95. 2Denton 163

that they remembered the black flag of the
Alamo. He knew that his men would fight
like demons, and, under the conditions, had
rather die than lose the victory. He knew that
numbers do not count like the spirits of men in
battle, and that when the spirit of his army
should be revealed to the enemy it would pro-
duce demoralization in their ranks.

Santa Anna, on the other hand, had invaded
Texas with an army, or armies, equal to almost
one-fourth of the population. He held stren-
uously that Texas was a province of Mexico
and that his cause was just before God and in
the eyes of all the Roman Catholic world. He
was fresh from the Alamo and its slaughter,
fresh from the victory of Colita and the murder
of Colonel Fannin and his men at Goliad. He
was on his eastward march to Nacogdoches in
three divisions of his army, to put down every
vestige of revolution. He marched both as a
general and autocrat whose word was the only
authority. Having long been accustomed to
scenes of blood, he had grown cold and indiffer-
ent in his feeling. As anomalously as it may
be expressed, he was a man conscientious but
without a conscience. His ambition had driven

1 64 3tife anfci €ime£ of

a nail through his soul that paralyzed his better
nature.

The Mexican general was certainly in a fair
way to put down all traces of armed revolution.
Everything was going easy his way; so much so,
that his march from San Antonio to the vicinity
of San Jacinto, a road of two hundred miles,
was without resistance. It was not until he had
arrived in this vicinity that he discovered a show
of resistance against his authority. But he was
very confident; so much so, that about this time
he sent a negro messenger to General Houston,
saying: "I know where you are, and when I
clear the thieves from around Harrisburg I am
coming to smoke you out." The words
" thieves" and " smoke" symbolized his mode
of treating the revolution. It was to murder
and burn. President Burnet had just been
driven from Harrisburg, which was in the
vicinity of San Jacinto battle-field.

It is called the battle of San Jacinto. But
the ground selected for the battle, or rather that
on which the opposing armies met, was a plat
of ground near the head and bordering on San
Jacinto Bay, and on the right or westward
bank; a point near where San Jacinto River

Captain ^fJK 2& SDenton 165

and Buffalo Bayou join together to form the
bay. Lynchburg was near to it, but across the
bay. The plat of ground on which Houston
City has since been located and built is near
by and northwestward.

Here the two armies encamped facing each
other at least an evening and a morning. It
was an even country with only two or three mots
of trees intervening. Being thus only partially
screened, it was an easy matter to watch each
other's movements and to make estimate of
numbers. Thus they rested, waited, and
watched each other for an evening and a morn-
ing before the battle was joined. It was a delay
in which either was free to take the initiative.
Santa Anna showed no disposition to advance,
but b'egan to fortify his left wing. He was await-
ing reinforcements. By the day of the battle
he did receive five hundred under General Cos.

By three o'clock on the evening of the 21st
of April General Houston had made all his
arrangements for battle. The enemy num-
bered above fifteen hundred, his own army
seven hundred and eighty-three men. Colonel
Sidney Sherman was assigned to the left wing
and Colonel Ed Burleson to the center. The

1 66 Itife anli €ime£ of

two six-pounders, in charge of Colonel George
W. Hockley, were on the right wing, supported
by four companies of infantry commanded by
Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Millard. The sixty-
one cavalry, under Colonel Mirabeau B. Lamar,
were placed on the right wing.

It all looks small, very small; but small as it
was, an empire state hung in the balance.
Victory would bring joy and laughter to the
Texans, and mourning for those who should
fall would be swallowed up in thoughts of valor
and heroism. A Spartan spirit had seized the
men, women, and children of the land. Small
as everything seemed, it was a gathered tempest
that had hesitated an evening and a morning,
but was now making its first motions to swoop
down on Santa Anna and his army. The
revenge of the Alamo and Goliad was in it.
The spirits of Fannin, Travis, Crockett, and
Bowie gave it strength. But Santa Anna, as
president of Mexico, stands guard over his
empire of states and provinces. He is on the
ground, a general of no mean ability, and is
determined to withstand the approaching tem-
pest and save the integrity of his empire. He
is unwilling that seven hundred and eighty-

Captain 3^&n 25* SDenton 167

three men should snatch out of his empire such
a jewel as Texas. He speaks words of encour-
agement to his soldiers. He tells them to
defeat this handful of Texans and the revolution
will be ended.

But it is now too late for ceremony of any
kind, almost too late for giving and hearing
orders. The battle is on. Already Sherman
has struck the Mexican right wing, which was
projected furthest to the front. In quick suc-
cession Burleson is at the center. Hockley has
charged within two hundred yards of the left
wing and is pouring a stream of grape and can-
nister into the wavering lines of the enemy.
The whole line of the Texan army continually
advances, and above the din of battle the
Mexicans hear the wild battle cry of revenge
from every Texan throat: "Remember the
Alamo! Remember Goliad!" In less time
than it is told confusion reigned throughout
the Mexican army, and they fled, every man for
himself, throwing away their arms, in the panic
of broken organization never to be rallied again.

The pursuit continued to the end of physical
endurance. But on account of the speed of
battle physical endurance was more limited.*

1 68 %xft and €xme£ of

It was a day of revenge. Not much quarter
was shown until the Texans began to feel that
they had fully avenged the blood of their
brethren who fell at the Alamo and at Goliad.
They felt that they were entitled to the revenge
of an hour. Then the better spirit of civiliza-
tion took hold of them, and with sympathy and
tenderness they administered to their wounded
and suffering foes. The battle was a dreadful
charge into the Mexican line of battle in all its
parts. It came upon them so unexpectedly, in
such a demon outcry, and in such an avalanche
style, that, instead of fighting and contending
for the inches of ground in retreat, they fell down
and begged for mercy. The resounding cry of
the Texans, "Remember the Alamo and
Goliad" chilled their blood and paralyzed their
hands. They were ignorant and largely inno-
cent. The bloody deeds they had formerly
committed on the Texans was chargeable to
Santa Anna and his officers.

Even down to this day no pen has ever been
able to describe the battle of San Jacinto in its
accurate fullness. Those who were there have
ever been unequal to the task. They were all

Captain S^ljn 2&. 2Denton 169

actors, each one busy for himself, and therefore
they were all unqualified to give a description
except in a small part. General Houston him-
self made a report of the battle. It was satis-
factory as a report, but it was not a description.
Every man on the ground was an actor. The
time yet awaits some unborn Dante whose mind
had been trained to look into the romance of the
dreadful and terrible to tell what this battle was.
Such a one might weave a satisfying descriptive
web of the burning thought, the stubborn will,
the unconquerable determination, the revenge-
ful heart, and the love of Texas that pervaded
Houston's little army. And then he might add
descriptions of scenes that correspond in the
battle to conquer or die.

There is a vast difference between an army
of men who run to meet the enemy as a trained
soldiery, and that other class of army whose
hearts burn with revenge, and who run to meet
the foe to die or have the victory. This latter
class of army represents the charge that was
made at the battle of San Jacinto. Whoever
shall first gain a right conception of such an
army and such a charge as they made, may write

170 %itt anti €ime£ of

a satisfying description of the battle of San
Jacinto, but till then the world must remain
awaiting.

Very few of the Mexicans escaped. It almost
looks strange that so few got away. It can be
attributed largely to the dreadful fear that
seized them under the demon-like war-cry and
charge made by the Texan army. In their fear
and confusion the Mexicans sought hiding-
places more than means of escape. Hence for
two days after the battle they were brought into
Houston's camp out of their hiding-places. On
the day after the battle Santa Anna was found,
disguised as a common soldier, hidden in the
tall grass. A cavalryman took him up behind
him and brought him into camp not knowing
the royalty of his prisoner. All were astonished
when the Mexican prisoners cried out, "El
Presidente." It was Santa Anna.

In this battle the Texans lost in killed and
mortally wounded, 8; in wounded otherwise,
17. The enemy lost 630 killed; wounded,
208; prisoners, 730. As an evidence that the
Mexican officers tried to do their duty, there
were killed, one general officer, four colonels,

Captain ^&n 25* SDenton 171

two lieutenant colonels, five captains, and
twelve lieutenants, and about as many wounded.
Six hundred muskets, 300 sabers, and 200 pistols
were taken. Many were never found. Mules,
horses, and wagons were taken, and twelve
thousand dollars in specie.

PRINTED BY R. R. DONNELLEY
AND SONS COMPANY, AT THE
LAKESIDE PRESS, CHICAGO, ILL.

rqi oaoa 76^0