| Sources |
- [S24] The Newport Plain Talk, (http://www.newportplaintalk.com), 13 Mar 2015.
From Bogard to Newport to Oklahoma’s Indian Territory
James Clarence Denton
‘As It Was Give To Me’ Duay O’Neil
Fellow genealogists and I often marvel at the serendipity involved in the research of our family history.
We can toil away for years, diligently sifting through every court record, old family letter, and obscure diary in search of something new to add to our compilation and never find one scrap of new information.
Yet, when we least expect it, something totally unexpected jumps out at us and “makes our day.”
This past week, while trawling the Internet in search of data about a distance Vinson-Sisk cousin, I found myself suddenly staring at an entry in Chronicles of Oklahoma with the words “Newport, Cocke County, Tennessee” prominently displayed.
I had stumbled upon a biographical sketch about James Clarence Denton, who was born March 18, 1882 in Newport, and who died June 4, 1942 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The full sketch follows:
James Clarence Denton, born March 18, 1882, at Newport, Cocke County, Tennessee, and died at Tulsa, Oklahoma, June 4, 1942, interment at Nowata, Oklahoma, was a son of James Jefferson and Elizabeth (Loyd) Denton, all natives of said county. The father, a farmer and merchant, who died in 1913 at the age of 62 years, survived his wife, who passed away in 1908 at the age of 55. Their family consisted also of two other sons and a daughter: George L., now of Knoxville, Tennessee, Mrs. Dixie Doak, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida; and Loyd C., of Nowata, Oklahoma.
After attending the local schools, he (James Clarence) completed the sub-freshman course at Emory & Henry College, Emory, Virginia (1897-98), and on September 30, 1889 matriculated at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and received the degrees of Bachelor of Science on June 16, 1903 and of LL.B on June 23, 1904. He won the freshman scholarship the first year and the next year was president of the Sophomore class. He became a member of Phi Kappa Phi honor society, which was open only to students who were seniors and who stood in the upper ten per cent of their class, and also of Theta Lambda Phi fraternity, and of the Y.M.C.A., the Tennessee Varsity Club, and of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity (Tenn. Pi.).
In the fall of 1904 he settled at Nowata, Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory, and engaged in the practice of the law in conjunction with a former school mate, W. J. Campbell, Esq., who, after the erection of the State of Oklahoma, became a District Judge. Subsequently he formed a law partnership continued until 1909. Thereafter a law partnership under the name of Denton and Cochran continued until 1912.
In 1908, without his seeking, he was elected Mayor of Nowata, whereupon he took a local census without pay and as a result Nowata became a city of the first class. During his administration a bond issue of $60,000 for a water and light plant and $30,000 for sewers was approved and issued, and Nowata became one of Oklahoma’s most progressive cities.
In 1909 he became assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, and removed to Muskogee. However, the law office of Denton and Cochran was continued at Nowata until 1910, when it was removed to Muskogee, continuing there for some time. After he retired from the United States Attorney’s office, a partnership with the late Frank Lee was formed at Muskogee, which continued until 1921, when Mr. Lee was appointed United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Oklahoma.
In his early beginning of the practice of the law at Nowata he became an outstanding member of the Bar, and increasingly so after his removal to Muskogee, where he became a prominent and leading participant in the important and complex litigation which followed Oklahoma’s admission to the Union of states. He was a leading practitioner not only in the state and federal trial courts but also in the state and federal appellate courts.
In 1921 he removed to Tulsa and became assistant to Judge Ralph E. Campbell, then head of the legal department of Cosden and Company, and formerly Judge of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern Division of Oklahoma. Upon Judge Campbell’s death, he was succeeded by Mr. Denton as general counsel of the Company. After the change of the corporate name of Cosden and Company to Mid-Continent Petroleum Corporation in 1925 he was continued in the same capacity and in 1926 became its vice-president as well as general counsel, and in 1930 became a member of the Board of Directors and vice-president which positions he held at the time of his death.
On July 1, 1912, he was married to Miss Clara M. Murchison, Tahlequah, Oklahoma, a daughter of Kenneth S. Murchison. The first child born of this marriage died in infancy and was buried in the family lot in the cemetery at Nowata. Another son came to that marriage, to-wit, James Clarence, Jr., born August 8, 1915, who graduated from Culver Military Academy in the class of 1932 and from the University of Oklahoma in 1936 with an A.B. degree, and from Yale University in 1939 with a LL.B. degree. After passing the required examination in December of that year, James Clarence, Jr. was admitted on January 9, 1940 to practice law in Oklahoma, and in April thereafter accepted a position with the law firm of Vinson, Elkins, Weems, & Francis, at Houston, Texas.
On July 1, 1940, James C., Jr., married Elaine Davis, of Holdenville, Oklahoma, a former classmate at the University of Oklahoma. Before attaining his majority he was commissioned as a second lieutenant and later became first lieutenant in the Reserve Officers Training Corps, and since the outbreak of the present World War he was called to Washington, D.C., where he served in the Provost Marshal’s Office, and was later elevated to the rank of captain and appointed instructor in Government at West Point Academy, which position he now holds, thus following in the footsteps on both sides of the Denton family. On the Denton side Thomas H. Denton, Co. K, 8th (U.S.) Tenn., Volunteer Cavalry, and on the maternal side Greenville W. Loyd, Co. K, (U.S.) 8th Tenn., Volunteer.
Mrs. Denton, Sr., is an active and influential member of various local clubs and also the Presbyterian Church, and takes great interest in the cultivation of flowers.
James Clarence Denton, Sr.’s other activities were of a wide scope and of much value to his adopted city and state. He was an active member of the Oklahoma State Bar Association, and of the American Bar Association, having served as Vice-president for Oklahoma, as a member of the General Council, as chairman of the Mineral Law Section and on various committees of the latter.
For many years he was an active factor in the politics of the Republican party. In 1916 he was a presidential elector, and in 1928 a delegate at large to the Republican National Convention in Kansas City, and a member of the Notification Committee which on August 11, 1928, at Stanford University Stadium, formally notified Mr. Herbert Hoover of his nomination as the candidate of the Republican party for President.
At the time of his death he was a member of the Oklahoma Advisory Board of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, a member of the Methodist Church, a thirty-second degree Mason, and a life member of the Oklahoma Historical Society.
He had served as a director of more than one bank, and at the time of his death was a director of the National Bank of Tulsa and of the Atlas Life Insurance Company. Since June 1, 1931, he had been a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Tulsa, and had aided greatly in contributing much to its growth and development. As a member and director thereof, he did much to promote the purposes of the Chamber of Commerce of Tulsa, and was recognized as a civic-minded citizen, doing everything reasonably in his power for the up-building and advancement of the best interests of the city and state. He belonged to the Tulsa Club and Southern Hill Country Club. He was also a past captain of the Third Regiment of the Oklahoma National Guard, and evinced a keen interest in the development of the military organization of the state. In his leisure hours he turned to fishing and hunting.
In business circles he was recognized as a most capable executive. He filled the presidency of the Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association in 1928 and 1929 and served on many committees and boards of like character.
During the two decades that he was general counsel of the Mid-Continent Petroleum Company and its affiliates, these companies were necessarily involved in practically every conceivable type of litigation, including Indian land titles, Indian heirship, oil and gas questions, patents, trademarks, copyrights, foreclosures, receiverships, accountings, personal injury actions, state and federal taxation, and labor relations, extending in course from the inferior nisi prius courts to the Supreme Court of the states and United States, and much of which involved vast sums of money. Since said companies have carried on business activities in 15 or more states, their litigation has not been confined to Oklahoma. This litigation was all under his supervision and direction and practically all of it was handled by his legal staff, and to an unusual extent successfully.
Mr. Denton was a man of strong convictions, unusually aggressive, fearless and of great ability, and the many matters handled by him, including complex and bitter labor controversies, were handled accordingly. He left a deep impress upon all with whom he came in contact.
This set of Dentons were a tiny bit related to my father. James Calrence’s Denton grandparents were Jefferson and Charity (Huff) Denton, who lived at the base of English Mountain in our Bogard community alongside today’s Yellow Springs Road.
One of Aunt Charity’s sisters, Lucinda, married James ‘Bunt’ McMahan, and they were my father’s great-grandparents.
Uncle Jefferson Denton was a very prominent man in his lifetime. In addition to owning large tracts of land, he also served as a Justice of the Peace, and his book of cases from the pre-Civil War era is fascinating.
It was during the Civil War that Uncle Jeff served as Captain of the Home Guard, a group of older men from the Bogard-English Creek-Middle Creek area who, considered too old for active duty in the Union Army, pledged themselves to maintain law and order in the community. As such, Uncle Jeff was a prime target for the Confederate Army and was eventually captured and imprisoned in Nashville. More than one family story tells of Confederate soldiers arriving in the area with the intention of capturing him.
Uncle Jeff and Aunt Charity had several children, including James Jefferson, known as “J.J.”, who moved to Newport and built a large home that stood on the site of today’s Memorial Building. I think the home actually remained there until its demolition in the late 1920s in preparation for the construction of the Memorial Building.
If I’m not mistaken, the closest descendant of this branch of Dentons still living in Newport would be Tommy Denton, a great-grandson of the above-mentioned Thomas H. Denton of Civil War service.
This next week I’ll keep trawling the Internet. Who knows what other fascinating bits of Cocke County history will pop up on the screen?
- [S112] Census, 1900.
Name: James Denton
Event Type: Census
Event Year: 1900
Event Place: Civil District 6 Newport town, Cocke, Tennessee, United States
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Marital Status: Single
Race: White
Race (Original): W
Relationship to Head of Household: Son
Relationship to Head of Household (Original): Son
Birth Date: Mar 1882
Birthplace: Tennessee
Father's Birthplace: Tennessee
Mother's Birthplace: Tennessee
Household Role Gender Age Birthplace
James Denton Head M 49 Tennessee
Lizzie Denton Wife F 47 Tennessee
George L Denton Son M 20 Tennessee
James Denton Son M 18 Tennessee
Dixie Denton Daughter F 15 Tennessee
Loyd Denton Son M 13 Tennessee
- [S112] Census, 1910.
Name: James C Denton
Event Type: Census
Event Year: 1910
Event Place: Nowata Ward 3, Nowata, Oklahoma, United States
Gender: Male
Age: 28
Marital Status: Single
Race: White
Race (Original): White
Relationship to Head of Household: Head
Relationship to Head of Household (Original): Head
Birth Year (Estimated): 1882
Birthplace: Tennessee
Father's Birthplace: Tennessee
Mother's Birthplace: Tennessee
Household Role Gender Age Birthplace
James C Denton Head M 28 Tennessee
John J Denton Father M 59 Tennessee
Loyd C Denton Brother M 22 Tennessee
- [S121] Draft Registration.
Name: James Clarence Denton
Event Type: Draft Registration
Event Date: 1917-1918
Event Place: Muskogee City no 2, Oklahoma, United States
Gender: Male
Nationality: United States
Birth Date: 18 Mar 1882
Birthplace: , , United States
"United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1942-25083-21538-87?cc=1968530 : accessed 16 March 2015), Oklahoma > Muskogee City no 2; C-Z > image 390 of 3493; citing NARA microfilm publication M1509 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
- [S147] Find a Grave, (Memorial: 21430047).
- [S58] Marriage Certificate.
Name: James J Denton
Event Type: Marriage
Event Date: 14 Dec 1876
Event Place: Hamblen, Tennessee, United States
Spouse's Name: Lizzie Loyd
"Tennessee, County Marriages, 1790-1950," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1-159364-918594-54?cc=1619127 : accessed 16 March 2015), 004486661 > image 610 of 2521; county courthouses, Tennessee.
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