JOHN HENRY DENTON

The subject of this sketch is a younger brother of Joseph Denton. a biographical sketch of whom appears in these pages, and was the third in the order of birth of the children of John and Mary A. (Pickwell) Denton, who were named as follows: Joseph; Rebecca, who is dead; John H.; Anna, the wife of Thomas Toyne, of Carroll, Iowa; Charles; Mary and Betsey, both of whom are dead, and William, who remains in England. His parents both died in their native land, his father in 1897, aged eighty-eight years. Much information of interest concerning the early history of the Denton family will be found in the notice of George Denton, which has a place in this work.

John Denton grew up in the country, learning how to perform the labor of a shepherd and farmer. The circumstances of the family compelled him to engage early as a wage earner in the work to which he had been reared. He received fifty shillings for his first year's work and rose gradually in worth to his employer until he received seventeen pounds for his last year's service as a wage earner. He remained in England until his twenty-seventh year and spent fourteen years of the time as a hired man. He sailed on the City of Brooklyn for New York, 1870. He went from the eastern metropolis to Chicago and was employed in that city in Lill's brewery until the great Chicago fire of the following year destroyed that institution. He then went to Morrow county, Ohio, and lived there until 1875, cutting wood, digging ditches, farming and performing the functions of a man of all work. He came to Doniphan county in the year last mentioned and rented land for a time and engaged in farming. When he finally purchased a home it was the one upon which he resides, not the largest, but one of the most attractive about Denton.

Mr. Denton's beginning in Doniphan county was on a small scale. He did not grasp for the large matters and consequently overreach himself, but was content to accumulate slowly but surely. He has devoted himself chiefly to the growing of grain and whatever he is and has gained resulted from his well-directed personal effort and he is regarded as one of the safe men of his community, against whom no adverse criticism can be made. He has gone about his own affairs with the greatest steadiness and regularity and has no interest in politics other than to see the best men chosen to public office. In national matters he allies himself with the Republican party, believing that the greatest good to our country has come under the administration of that party's policy. Mr. Denton was married at Bardney, Lincolnshire, England, in 1870, to Eliza, a daughter of Jonathan Denton. Their children are: Betsey, the wife of Benjamin Thayer; Maria, the wife of Charles Campian, of Willis; Lillie, dead; Herbert, Arthur, Albert and Nellie.