The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1903-01-15
A FAMILY OF MYSTERY
affairs Hidden for 40 Years Come
10 Light In Court at Gordon
This Neck.

50 SOuA 0b SOEUOu
This Hsek.
Inc name Dsnnison seems to spell
mystery. Tires times lately has 1t
been CONNECTED With family affairs of .
most remarkable nature.
woman living honorably and hap.
PLY with q man for 81 years, only to
discover after his ueath shat he wa,
never her husband because q former
undlvorced wife is living; man, after
reaching an age to become a husband
and father, hearing for the first time
that his supposed father and mother
Eare parents only by adoption;-such
are the striking things that have come
ITO pass in home as respectable. as
pleasant, as commonplace, as free ap-
parently, from the dramatic, and the
romantic, as are 80 out of 100 homes
which come under daily notice.
The parties to these remarkable cir.
'cumstances are the late j. S. Dennison
OF Lneville, Wayne county, formerly
of Ringgold county; his supposed wild.
'ow, Mrs. Harriet j. Dennison. now of
MT. Ayr; their adopted son, Otto Den.
nlson of Lineville, who recently de.
camped with $500 belonging to his
foster-father's estate; and Mrs. Nancy
Dennison, the undivorced first wife,
living as Viola, Ill.
The facts have been known for over a
year to few interested friends. and
have been gradually leaking out The
general public disclosure WAS made this
week in Judge Parriah's cours at Corv.
don, in grand jury investigation of
|Otto Dennison and in the settlements ef
the J. S. Dennison estate.
Otto Dennison's final report as ad-
mlnlstrator was to have been approved
upon payment of the money due his
foster-mother. His flight upset this
arrangement. The attorney for his
bondsmen succeeded in interesting the
Illinois relatives in claiming share,
and in that way brought Mrs. H,J.
Dennison's attorneys, Miles & Steele. to
settlement by which the bondsmen
were advantaged, but by which Mrs.
Dennison's share in the small estate
was brought down to less than $500.
When J. S. Dennison died. in June,
1901, his foster-son Otto, then % years
old, and who had been adopted during
the time the Dennisons lived in Ring.
gold county, was informed at Mrs.
Dennison's request that he was only
foster-child. He was appointed ad.
minister of the estate. All newspaper
readers here know that on November
% young Dennison, taking nearly $500
in cash which he should have delivered
to Mrs. Fl. j. Dennison at Mt. Ayr, dis.
appeared, leaving behind him his wife
and two little children, besides property
worth more than the cash he took. His
lndlctnent:for embezzlement is expect.
ed at the hands of the Wayne county
grand jury this week.
The more startling disclosure was
slower In appearing. Shortly after J. S.
Dennison's death, letters came to him
which were soon found to have been
written by a previously unknown
daughter, Mrs. NJ E. Britton of Viola.
ILL.,, who continued to write because she
had not learned of her fathers death,
She was written to and replied that she
had discovered her fathers where
abouts in 1880, had been corresponding
regularly with him for over 20 years,
and had received occasional visits from
him during that time. Her mother,
however, had not seen Mr.. Dennison,
though she lives today in the same
house from which Mr.. Dennison left
her almost 3S years ago.
It has been ascertained that Mr.. Den.
nison was married to his first wife in
1859. To this union two daughters
were born, one dying about 1880. Mr..
Dennison served in the Union army for
three or four years, returning home in
the spring Of 1865. In September of
that year he left his wife and never re-
turned to her. His second marriage
was made within SO miles Of where his
Wife resided.
Mrs. Ii. j. Dennison came to this
county almost 30 years ago, and has a
host Of Ringgold county relatives. She
is the daughter Of the late John Lesan,
a pioneer Of the county, who was the
father Of George W. Leason, D. VI,
Lesan, Miss Clara Lesan, and the late
John A. Lesan. Before her marriage to
Mr.. Dennison, she was twice married.
Her second husband Minor Smith, was
killed in 1865 near Mt. Ayr by ligh,n-
ling stroke. She met MIR. Dennison at
her sisters home in starke county, Ill.,,
and was married TO him in 1867. They
cama to Ringgold county in 1868, lived
in Poe township until 1875, and in