Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-11-22
THE DENNIS FAMILY.

for the pension department, whose
presence in Yorkville for the purpose
of establishing the relationship be-
tween Thomas and Summeral Dennis,
was mentioned in the last issue of The
Enquirer got quite lot of interesting
information; but not enough to estab-
lish the particular point on which he
is working.
The case arises out Of the application
of the widow of one, Summeral Dennis,
who lives in Dadeville, Ala, Tor
pension that she claims to be due her
on account of the alleged service of her
husband in the War of 1912.
The war department records show
jShat Thomas Dennis and Summeral
Dennis were both in the War of 1872;
that Summeral was a substitute for
Thomas, and that he died in the SER
vice February 81. 1915; but there is an
act of congress correcting" the record
to show that Summeral was discharged
from the service on the date named:
There is no question of the fact that
the husband of the Dadeville widow
was Summeral Dennis, or that he dled
in Dadeville in 1885, at the age OF 1O2
years; but because of various circum-
stances OIL WHICH II hiio"iSuoN, thS
department had doubts as to whether
this particular Summeral had ever
been in the war as he claimed to be,
and to determine the truth as to this Is
the object of the Investigations OF EX-
aminer Williams
Two things that throw especial
doubt on the claims of the widow are
first, the record of the death of Sum-
neral Dennis in 1915 and second, the
fact that in 1850. the Summeral Dennis
of Dadeville, made claim for bounty
lands, and when asked certain ques-
tions by the war department, dropped
the claims like hot potato and had
nothing more to say. Reasoning that
the failure of the claimant to push the
claims away back there when proof
would have been easy to obtain, sug-
gested something crooked, the pension
office Is now making especial effort to
establish the facts before deciding upon
the case of the widow
In his Investigations here, Mr.. Will
liams found a record of Capt. John
Dennis, who was born in Virginia in
1706 who served through the Revolu-
tionary war with Gen. Sumter, settled
in Yorkville shortly after that war,
and was buried in the old Yorkvllle
cemetery in 1850. This Capt John
Dennis married a daughter of Com
modore Dale and left five sons and four
daughters. A remarkable point in con-
nection with the children was that two
of the sons were named Summeral and
two of the daughters were named
Mary. One of the Marys, after her
marriage had two daughters and
named both of them Mary.
The investigation disclosed also that
when Capt. John Summeral Dennis
died, he left all of his property to his
son John, excluding the other eight
children. The will was contested, and
the testimony of the witness who
drew the will was to the effect that he
tried to get the old captain to remem-
ber the other children also. His reply
was: Il did not send for you to make
your will but to make my will. l have
nothing against the other children; but
l want John to have all of my prop
erty." The contest failed and John got
the property, valued at about $4,000.
BY comparison of signatures and
such bits of evidence as can be OBJ
tanned, taken in connection with the
war department records, Examiner
Williams is inclined to think that the
soldier Summeral was son of Capt.
John Dennis; that he died as the war
department says and that the Dade-
vile Summeral on account of whom
the pension is being claimed was a son
of Capt. John Dennis's brother Sum-
neral. He does not think that the
Dadeville Dennis was in the War Of
1912 at all.
/ Thomas Dennis, who was in the War
of 1912, was a son of Capt. John Den
mis-. He married Mary Hartness, sold
out his land holdings in York county
in 1921 and moved to Mississippi,
where he died in 1866, leaving ten chill
dren. AS yet there has been no official
inquiry among these children to see
whether or not they can give infor-
nation as to who the Summeral Den
mis-, who substituted for their father in
the War of 1912, really was.
Mr.. Williams got his first informa-
ton about the remarkable instance of
two children in the same family from
Mrs. Louisa Jackson of Yorkville. He
had never run across such thing be-
fore in all his long experience as pen
sion examiner and hardly knew what
to make of it. He was later very much
gratified to find this and a lot of other
information that Mrs. Jackson gave
him, corrOborated in the official rec
ords. Mrs. Jackson was Miss Evans,
and is a granddaughter of Reuben
Dennis, who was a grandson of Capt.
John Dennis, the Revolutionary SOL
dier.