Hello All, Thanks so much to cousin Connie for sharing this and to cousins Donna, Pat and LaCresha for their contributions to this Denton line. I received this story of the life of Cora Lee Denton Smith as told to her daughter Edna Smith Poovey from cousin Connie and would like to share it in hopes of finding the connections for this Denton line. I know it is long but please read it through as it contains a wealth of names and locations. "Cora Lee Denton Smith told of her childhood days at age 89, 1978-age 90-1980 written by her daughter Edna Smith Poovey. The first place I can remember living was Morganton, NC, Enola section of Burke Co of the South Mountains. Walter Lee Denton and Cora Lee Denton, twins, and Minnie Denton and Lester Denton were all born there. This was a one room house with two beds and a kitchen. It was on my grandparents farm- Joseph Emanuel Denton and Sarah Eliza Ross Denton. I think my dad John Nelson Denton ((son of Emanuel and Sarah Eliza)) which she called Pap was born on Burkemont Mountain, Morganton, NC. My mother which she called Mam was born in the Vale, NC area of Lincoln Co. Her name was Amanda "Mandy" Emeline Reep Denton. I can remember my grandma Eliza Ross Denton at age 3 or 4 years old for she was sick in bed and Mam waited on her. We lived across the branch from them. I know we had to walk up a hill to her house. Grandma Eliza was a small lady with brown hair and blue eyes. I was 4 years old when she died in 1894 in Burke Co,NC. I don't know where she's buried unless she is buried beside Finley her son who lived with her. He never married. ((Sarah Eliza Ross Denton is buried in Gilboa methodist cemetery in Morganton)). I don't remember seeing my grandpa Joseph Emanuel Denton for he was in the Civil War came back for a while and then left the family when they were all small. Pap ((John Nelson Denton)) had a brother, Robert "Bob" A. Denton that left as a young boy but kept in touch with Pap. When he was grown he sent word to Lester to come and see him for he was in the hospital in Seattle Washington, but Lester couldn't go. That was the year 1936 or 1937, and he died there and we don't know where he's buried there. We later moved to Rutherford, NC but didn't stay there long. Pap had two brothers that taught school, Alanzo and Philo Denton ((Reubin Alonzo Denton and unsure if Philo is the same person as J. Finley Denton or not)). They taught school in the Enola section of Burke Co. We then moved to Mam's mother's house in Lincoln Co. on the Old Plonk Place. Mam's mother was Mary Ann Johnson Reep Barns. After her husband David Reep died, she married John M. Barns. Mary Ann Reep Barns is buried near Pap and Mam with no marker in a plot that belonged to Oliver Barns her son. This is on the other side of Pap and Mam. Clarence Denton was born there where my grandparents lived on Old Plonk Place, Lincoln Co. Minnie was small at the time and Lester was about 2 years old. We moved from grandparents' house to Dan Wise farm in Lincoln Co..west of Lincolnton close to John Beam's Lumber Co. We moved all the time in a wagon. Alvin was born at the Dan Wise place. It was a one room with two beds. Pap built another room to it and a porch to hang tobacco on. This was the first place we lived that had a well nearby on the Sain place. We carried our water from there. The other places we lived had springs and spring house where we kept butter and things cold. The house was built out of logs. It had a rock chimney. Down at the bottom of the chimney was a crack you could see outside. Cora, Lee, Lester, and Minnie would sit around the fireplace at night and watch the crickets go in and out. Mam dipped snuff and she would run out of snuff and get tobacco and beat it in a rag and dip it. Pap made him a pipe out of a corn cob and smoked his tobacco that he raised. He quit smoking when his kids were small. It was on Dan Wise' place that Pap made liqour with some Sain man. Mam left me, Cora, at the house to tend to Alvin, bout 1 year old, while they worked in the fields all day. They would take food to the fields with them. I took Alvin down to the place where they made liquor and gave him a drink from the backings that came off the liquor. I didn't know it would do anything. Alvin passed out in my arms as limber as a dish rag. I took him in the house and washed his face after I laid him on the bed and worked with him. I walked him around and finally late that evening he came to before Pap and Mam came from the field. I never did tell them about what happened for it's hard to tell what Pap would have done to me. I can remember while Pap was making liquor the Federal men arrested him, Sain man, and Arthur Goodman which married Vina or Viny, Mam's sister. All were put in Lincoln Co jail for 4 months. All took typhoid fever while in jail and the Sain man died. This was the time Pap was saved for he thought he was going to die. He said he asked the Lord to forgive him for being such a fool and if he could call back the old Sain man, he would tell him what a nut he had been. Pap always took a song book around with him for he liked to sing. The Dan Wise place was the only place we had a wood stove to cook on. Other places Mam cooked by the fireplace. We had wooden tubs and a scrub board. We washed die-dees which were diapers in a branch or creek. We pinned die-dees on three cornered. Boys wore dresses which we called aprons until 3 or 4 years old. They buttoned up the back. All men's shirts buttoned in the back. The women wore long dresses and also the girls. Boys wore long wool britches which we call pants and sometimes up to their knees with long socks and high top broggans which were shoes. Women wore high laced up boots. Women wore bloomers that came down to the knees. Mam made all clothes by hand or loom and knitted our socks by hand. She made civers quilts by hand. We moved from Dan Wise' place to Emanuel Lutz' place where Paul was born near Howard Creek Flour Mill-Vale NC area of Lincoln Co. Then moved to a place a mile and and half from Cat Square. The first school that Lee, Cora, and Minnie went to was Ridge Academy close to the crossroads at Cat Square NC west of Lincolnton,NC. We had to walk to school for we didn't know what a bus was. It was a two room school. Mr Westinger and Mrs. Rudisill were the teachers. We wrote our lessons on a slate with a slate pen. They used a cow bell to ring for classes. The school was plank. We went to the woods for restrooms. The boys went one way and the girls the other. We carried our lunches in metal boxes and it weren't sandwiches for we took whatever was cooked at home. We moved from Cat Square area to Kings Mountain, NC, Cleveland Co, on a farm where Mary was born. We didn't stay there long. We moved to Bill Boyle's place west of Lincolnton, NC off Hwy 27. While living there Lee, Cora, Minnie, and Lester went to Frank Barnes School about a mile and half up the road from North Brook school no. 2. A two story brick house is there where the school was. The school was one room. Matt Delane was the teacher. It was a plank building. We had a club to beat on the side of the schoolhouse for classes. Our restrooms were in the open woods for we didn't have out-house toilets back then. While living at the Bill Boyle's place, Essie was born. We later moved to Bessemer City, NC Gaston Co. to work in the cotton mill at age 14 or 15 years old. Making thirty cents a day for 12 hours work. I finished the fourth grade at Frank Barnes' school. It was here at Bessemer City that I saw for the first time electric lights. We always had a lamp or lanterns for lights at other places we lived. We had smoothing irons to iron clothes. It was shaped like an iron but it was solid iron. They were heated by the fireplace while several irons were heating. While living there my sister Essie was sick with the measels later took typhoid fever and pnuemonia. Mam also had measels and pnuemonia. She was breast feeding Essie at the time. Mam had high fever and Vina Reep Goodman, her sister and husband Arthur Goodman stayed with Mam while Pap took Essie which was about 2 years old and real sick in a covered wagon with Minnie holding her and Lester went along. It was Camp meeting at Shaps Ford in South Mountains near Hilderbran, NC, Burke Co. It was Shaps Ford Holiness Church. It had a brush arbor there when they had camp meeting. Pap thought if the preacher prayed for her she would get better but the Lord seen fit to take her. Mam was so bad off when they took her that she didn't know they took her. She was a pretty child. While at Shaps Ford, Essie died and they buried her there. They went back later and poured cement on her grave but no name. Mam didn't know about Essie dying until they came home without her. I remember it was at camp meeting another time before that I was 13 or 14 I was saved at camp meeting and also Paul was saved and we wre both baptized in a river there. Later we moved to John Dellinger's place near Cherryville,NC Gaston Co, where Willis was born. They had mid-wives to deliver babies in those days. It was a Willis lady that delivered him so I guess thats where he got his name Willis. The family moved later to Beam farm near Beam Lumber Co. This was where Ethel was bornin Lincoln Co, west of Lincolnton,NC. It was here that Lester enlisted in the Army in Lincoln Co. Later Alvin enlisted in Hickory,NC in the Army. After the war, Alvin was a barber at Gastonia, NC also Hickory,NC he had a barber shop. Alvin was wounded in the head and drew a pension. Clarence was drafted in the army while he lived in Gastonia,NC. Willis later enlisted in the Navy at Charlotte,NC Mecklenburg Co. This was WWI. We later moved back to Bessemer City,NC when I met Oscar. When we were courting which meant dating, we had to court when Pap was away. Oscar lived out from Bessemer City with his dad David Smith and his step mother Emma. I was 18 years old and Mam made my wedding dress when Pap was away for the day and then Oscar and me got married. We (Oscar and me-Cora)moved to Lincoln Co. near Howards Creek Flour Mill and Emanuel Lutz' place. Mam and Pap moved from Bessemer City to Hickory,NC. He bought 10 acre farm at Highland section w. of Hickory,NC Catawba Co. It was a three room house and Pap made a two story house out of it. This was where Everett was born. Later it was sold and moved to Spencer Mountain, NC Gaston Co. Mam got sick and Minnie,her daughter took her to her house in Gastonia, NC where she died with a liver condition. She was sick about 3 weeks and Lester had gotten out of the Army a while before that and was at her bed side when she died. Vina her sister, Cora, and Minnie, were on the back porch when she died. Later Pap married again to a Mrs. Serber that had children of her own. They bought a farm in Clover, SC which he sold to Minnie and Grady Ferris. Barbara, Hal's daughter still lives on the farm. Hal Ferris was Minnie and Grady Ferris' son. Later Pap and Mrs. Serber lived on his son Clarence Franklin Denton, Sr.' farm at Spencer Mountain, NC. They would come see Cora his daughter that lived in Gastonia, NC and Mrs. Serber which Edna Smith Poovey called grandma for she didn't know her real grandma and she carried a song book and wanted Edna to sing with her. The song was "Oh Happy Day". She was a fine Christian lady. While they lived in Spencer Mountain, Mrs. Serber left him for he was so bossie and she couldn't do things to suit him. She was a good cook. After that she left him. Pap built him a casket and got in it to see if it would fit. Then he called all hsi children to come see him. He showed them the casket and some cried. I thought the casket was pretty said, Edna Smith Poovey, it looked like a bought one and later he sold it and went to live with Minnie. She fixed him a place in her back yard to live. Later he took pnuemonia and while in the hospital he had a blood clot in his toe and it got worse and they had to take his leg off. He didn't give up for Minnie and Grady had a grocery store that Grady ran and a barber shop next door to Minnie and he would slide on the ground to the store or barber shop. He was in his eighties then. Later he died with stroke at age 90 years old and buried at Hollywood Cemetery Gastonia, NC." I've added nothing to this letter except those very few things you see in double Parentheses (( )). I have changed no wording or spelling, etc. I am hoping to find some connections to this Denton line, and possibly between this Denton line and that of Anderson and Peter McKibbon Denton of Burke Co, NC???? Here is what we know of this line: Descendants of William Denton 1 William Denton 1801 - 1870 .. +Mary Ann Unknown 1814 - ........ 2 Emanual (aka John Henry Henderson) Denton 1838/9NC - 1917TN ............ +Sarah Eliza Ross 1833NC - 1894NC (Sarah Eliza was dtr of Reuben M. Ross and Deborah England of Burke Co, NC) ................... 3 Adeline L. Denton 1858 - ....................... +J. Pink Dale 1851 - ................... 3 Reubin Alonzo Denton 1860 - 1910 ....................... +Julia Ellen Brookshire 1864 - 1943 (Julia was dtr of Reuben Ross Brookshire/Brooksher and Agnes Pearline McCall) ................... 3 David Paul Denton 1865 - ....................... +Delia Denton Unknown who her parents were) ................... 3 Mary M. Denton 1866 - ....................... +John Chapman 1868 - ................... 3 John Nelson Denton 1869 - ....................... +Amanda Emeline Reep ................... 3 Robert A Denton 1871 - ................... 3 J. Finly Denton 1875 - ........ *2nd Wife of Emanual (aka John Henry Henderson) Denton: ............ +Nancy Caroline Johnson 1848 - 1895 ................... 3 Mary Anne Henderson 1874 - 1971 ....................... +Unknown Wagner ................... *2nd Husband of Mary Anne Henderson: ....................... +Aries Denny 1859 - 1944 ................... 3 Emanuel Henderson 1875 - ....................... +Rossa Coldiron 1885 - ................... 3 Ida Mae Frances Henderson 1880 - 1961 ....................... +Philip Marion Rouse ................... 3 Sarah Belle Henderson 1881 - 1973 ....................... +Ambrose Walter Coldiron ................... 3 Hester (Hallie) Henderson 1882 - 1969 ....................... +Unknown Dixon ................... *2nd Husband of Hester (Hallie) Henderson: ....................... +Unknown Clapp ................... 3 Braxton (Brack) McKee Henderson 1885 - 1952 ....................... +Margaret Lillie Denny 1890 - 1972 ................... 3 Charles William Henderson 1885 - 1991 ....................... +Leslie (Lessie) Hamm 1891 - 1929 ................... *2nd Wife of Charles William Henderson: ....................... +Estelle (Stella) Mae Griffin - 1975 ................... 3 Zeb Vance Henderson 1886 - 1976 ....................... +Theodora (Dora) Roberta Francis 1884 - ........ *3rd Wife of Emanual (aka John Henry Henderson) Denton: ............ +Saphronia (Frona) Victora Jenkins 1877 - 1939 ................... 3 Manda Pearl Henderson 1899 - ....................... +Ed Cornett ................... 3 Hallie Lee Henderson 1903 - ....................... +Roby Owens ................... 3 Daily Clayton Henderson 1907 - 1996 ....................... +Ora Gentry ................... 3 Mamie Henderson 1910 - ....................... +Sam McQueen ................... *2nd Husband of Mamie Henderson: ....................... +Harold Forbes ................... 3 William Oscar Henderson 1914 - ....................... +Ella Mae Owens ........ 2 Paul or Samuel Denton 1841 - ........ 2 Sarah Denton 1842 - ........ 2 David Denton 1844 - 1869 ........ 2 Nancy Catherine Denton 1846 - ............ +Unknown Sprague ........ 2 Mary A. Denton 1848 - ............ +Henry Matthew - 1880 ................... 3 Eliza Matthew 1869 - ................... 3 Bacharl Matthew 1878 - ........ 2 Euphronia Denton 1852 - ........ 2 Eliza C. Denton 1854 -