Appalachian History

In the tragedy of the Galveston hurricane of 1900 -- the most fatal natural disaster in U. S. history -- more than 6,000 souls perished. Yet that number would have nearly doubled had it not been for the efforts of Dr. Isaac Monroe Cline. Cline, born in 1861 near Madisonville, TN, was the weather-forecasting pioneer who went on to become the world's foremost authority on hurricanes, or tropical cyclones, as they were called.


"Father and mother often told me that I was a problem and hard to handle even before I could walk. My inclination for research evidently developed at an early age; they said I investigated everything that came within my ken. …

"Stormy weather was of frequent occurrence in this locality (Madisonville, TN). Forked flashes of lighting and rolling thunder, vibrating through the hills, fascinated me. Father would refer to the thunder as Jupiter Pluvius announcing the approach of the corn wagon, because at the season on the year when thunder storms were frequent rain was generally needed for the corn crop.

"One Saturday night a tornado, with its funnel-shaped cloud and destructive swirling winds, moved down the Fork Creek Valley. Many residences were destroyed and several people were killed. The destruction was so great that messengers were sent out over the surrounding country for help. Father went early Sunday morning to render what assistance he could and took me with him.

"The brick residence of one of father's friends had been demolished and some of the family killed. A child was asleep in a bed on the second floor of the building. The tornado picked up the bed with the child and deposited them, with the bed intact and the child unhurt, in an orchard about one hundred yards from the house. …

"Hiwassee College, a school with a national reputation for its thorough teaching of English as well as Greek and Latin, and other subjects which constitute the foundation of learning, was about five miles from where I lived. It was a school where Methodist preachers were educated, but its curriculum enabled young men of limited means to prepare a foundation of learning on which they could build through the future.

"I entered Hiwassee College when I was sixteen years old, and took the liberal arts course leading to the Bachelor of Arts. In part payment for my tuition, I served as Librarian and assistant janitor, in which latter office I chopped wood for the fireplaces, and performed other chores. With another boy I rented a small two-room building on the campus in which we studied, slept, cooked, and ate our meals. There were several of these hutments we would call them today, which the college rented to poor boys who were striving to get an education.

"Mathematics, physics, chemistry, Latin and Greek had a special charm for me, and I studied them thoroughly as I went along so that I was well grounded in these studies.

"At the suggestions of friends I gave some consideration to preparing for the ministry, and so paid particular attention to Latin and Greek.

"However, my association with men who were preparing to become preachers convinced me that I could not follow the ministry and accomplish my objective in life. I must say that the mental training and discipline of the mind which the study of Greek and Latin gave have been worth more to me than any other of my studies except mathematics, and I have appreciated this fact more and more with the passing years.

"Among the students at Hiwassee were some young men from Louisiana and Mississippi, who were preparing to become lawyers. One of them was the late Robert Broussard, who served Louisiana in the United States Senate with distinction for many years up to the time of his death. I joined these students and studied Blackstone for a while more to broaden my field of knowledge than to make law my profession. I have been invited often to give talks before social clubs and business organizations.

"Frequently, I have told the following story: 'I first studied to be a preacher, but decided that I was too prone to tell big stories to be a preacher. Then I studied Blackstone for a while, and soon learned that I was not adept enough at prevarication to make a successful lawyer. I then made up my mind that I would seek some field where I could tell big stories and tell the truth; later the weather furnished that field.' "


source: "Storms, floods and sunshine," by Isaac Monroe Cline, Pelican Publishing, New Orleans, 1945

John Denton fought for the Confederate Army, but deserted it. Then he joined the Union Army, but deserted it even faster. And that was just the beginning of his troubles.

Denton volunteered for Company B (Monroe County, TN), 3rd Tennessee Regiment of Confederate Volunteers in Knoxville, TN on May 23, 1861 and fought at Manassas. We know he was still present for duty as of February 1862, but on May 7, 1863 he switched sides and enlisted for three years at Lebanon, KY in Company D, 11th Tennessee Cavalry, Union Army Volunteers.

That didn’t last long. By July Denton was listed as a deserter from Camp Nelson, KY. The following month’s muster rolls reported Private John Denton absent from recruiting duty.

"While on leave (from Union Army) in Monroe County he was captured by a band of Confederate guerillas or bushwackers from the area,” begins a letter found in Cocke County, Tennessee’s Stokely Memorial Library.

“They stripped Uncle John, tied a rope around his neck, threw it over a tree limb and pulled him off the ground until he about choked. They'd let him down and then repeat the process. While this amusement was going on word came that a Union patrol was in the area.

“Two men were assigned to take Uncle John deeper into the woods and shoot him. When they arrived at a rail fence Uncle John managed to push one of his guards over the fence and knock the other one down and run away.

“Instead of hiding in the deep woods he managed to get to a lightly wooded section and cover himself with leaves while the search for him went on in the more heavily forested area. Subsequently he managed to get to the cabin of a couple of Union women whose husbands were gone away to serve in the Union Army. They dressed him in women's clothes, put a bonnet on his head and managed to smuggle him through the lines.

“Some time after the war, knowing some of his captors, they being from the same area, he killed a couple of them and was sent to prison for a few years until pardoned."

On April 10, 1864, Denton, his brother Charles, their cousin William Click, and another associated family member, Pink Gentry, murdered Patrick T. Trotter. The men hung Trotter by the thumbs and severely beat him, before shooting him in the presence of his elderly mother.

Several months later, on the 4th of July, brothers William Riley and David Burton Curtis had headed home on leave from the Confederate Army. They arrived just in time to discover one of the women in their family being raped by bushwackers. The attackers had the element of surprise in their favor, and they shot and killed the two brothers before they even got past the front porch.

Family members "dressed in women's clothing" waited across the river for the escaping offenders. Jackson Denton, Grief Ragsdale, and William Hartsell were later charged with this murder, but historians think John Denton also may have been involved.

John & Charles Denton were arrested by Union troops on October 3 in Roane County, but by February 1865 they’d been released at Knoxville. In May 1866 the two brothers, William Click and Pink Gentry were indicted for their role in Trotter’s murder; that September the sheriff was directed to arrest them and bring them to court. The ensuing trial was moved to Blount County, where the two were convicted of 2nd degree murder and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

However, they filed an appeal with the Supreme Court over the change of venue, the conviction was overturned on a technicality, and the case was sent back to Monroe County for further disposition in 1869.

After numerous delays and postponements, Charles and John Denton were brought to trial in 1872 in Monroe County and found guilty of 1st degree murder. They again filed an appeal, but it never transpired. John Denton went to prison from 1873 till 1880. His brother fled to Missouri and apparently was never apprehended.

John Denton filed for a government pension in late summer of 1890, but was rejected in 1891 because he’d served less than the required 90 days of service, and because he did not have an honorable discharge.

He died on Aug 12, 1912.


Sources: Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Tennessee, by Thomas Harvey Coldwell, Tennessee Supreme Court, publ. S.C. Mercer, 1870
www.flickr.com/photos/21734563@N04/2198268918
http://members.aol.com/atsissie1/page/index.htm
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/DENTON/1997-08/0871781476
www.gentryjournal.org/archives/jgg0307.htm



Monroe+County+TN John+Denton civil+war+veteran appalachia appalachian+history appalachian+mountains+history