Part of the Indiana Biographies Project
John Dennis
John Dennis, was born in Wayne County, Ind., March 3, 1821, the eldest son of Benjamin and Clarkey (Pool) Dennis. Benjamin Dennis was born near the Allegheny Mountains, in Pennsylvania, in 1795, and at an early age removed with his parents to Ohio, and resided several years near Cincinnati. He then lived with his parents in Warren County, Ohio, till he was eighteen years old, when he went to Cincinnati, and enlisted in the war of 1812, serving one year. In 1815 he came to Milton, Wayne Co., Ind., and worked on a farm till 1819. He was married in 1819 to Clarkey Pool, who was born in 1801, and the eldest daughter of John Pool, who came from North Carolina in an early day. They were the parents of eleven children — John; Gulielma, wife of John Reese, of Hancock County, Ind.; Priscilla, wife of William Butler, of Henry County, Ind.; Elizabeth and Emmie, deceased; William; Jethro, of Henry County, Ind.; Sarah A. and Benjamin S., deceased; Thomas P., died while in the war near Vicksburg, Miss., Feb. 5, 1864, aged twenty-two years; and Albert, of Clinton County, Ind. Benjamin Dennis removed to Henry County, Ind., when our subject was a year old, where he opened a farm and followed agricultural pursuits till his death in 1844. He was a member of the Society of Friends. His wife is a member of the same society, and still resides in Henry County.
Our subject grew to maturity on his father's farm in Henry County, where he was educated in the log cabin schools. May 5, 1845, he was married to Mary Ratliff, born in 1827, in Henry County, Ind., and daughter of Jonathan and Sarah (Bogue) Ratliff. They have had eight children — Sarah A., wife of Theodore Webb, engineer in oil-mill near Richmond; William H., a painter in Richmond; Elizabeth E., wife of James Akin, of Richmond; Thomas P., farming in Wayne County; Ida M., wife of Eliza Williams, of Wayne County; Harry S.; Albert, deceased, and John F.
In 1847 Mr. Dennis engaged in the mercantile business in Dublin, Wayne Co., Ind., which he followed successfully till 1855. He then engaged in painting in Richmond till 1861, and in August of that year he enlisted in Company F., Thirty-Sixth Indiana Infantry for three years. In 1862 he became unfitted for duty, owing to his age and exposure of camp life. He was furloughed home where he remained nearly a year, when he reported to his command at Murfreesboro, Tenn., where he was discharged in April, 1863. He then carried on the mercantile business in Richmond till 1876, when he purchased and removed to the farm, where he is still engaged in farming and horticulture. He and wife and five youngest children belong to the Society of Friends.
Mrs. Dennis's father died in Henry County, Ind., in 1855. Her mother is living in Henry County, aged seventy-seven years. They were the parents of thirteen children — Mary (wife of our subject), Samuel (deceased), Sarah, Marian, Jonathan, Henry (a soldier in the late war, died of measles, at Memphis, Tenn., in 1864), Hannah and Nancy (deceased), Huldah, Margaret, Asa, Cornelius and Amos.
Source:
History of Wayne County, Indiana Chicago: Inter-State Publishing Co. 1884. Volume 2