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FREDERICK A. DENSON.
This prosperous and progressive agriculturist, stock dealer
and lumberman of Chesterfield township, Fulton county,
deserves more than a passing notice in the pages of this
volume, as there is no citizen more truly representative, or
more widely and actively awake to the interests of the
community at large.
Born in Steuben county, New York, July 31, 1844, he is
a son of Westley and Mary (Carl) Denson, and a
grandson of Thomas Denson, a New Englander by
birth, whose father came from Old England accompanied by two
brothers. Grandfather Thomas Denson, a
shoemaker by trade, was born in 1775, and when his son was a
child moved from New Jersey to New York State, where he died
at the age of eighty-seven years. The names of his
children are as follows: Sons - John, Joseph,
William, Theodore and for several years followed the
shoemaking trade in New York State, in 1855 moving to
Michigan, and locating in Lenawee county, from there coming
in 1862 to Chesterfield township, Fulton county, Ohio.
Here he bought forty acres of land, which, however, he sold,
then purchasing eighty acres, the farm he owned and was
living on at the time of his death in 1897. He and his
wife, whom he married in 1842, in New York State were the
parents of four children - three sons and one daughter - our
subject being the eldest; the others are: Alfred F.,
who married Libbie Sheffield, and has five children -
Carrie, Myrtie, Ernest, Olivia, and Ada J.;
Beriah, married to Burta Von Liew, by whom he has
three children: Mary L., wife of David Agnew,
by whom she has two children - Floyd and Mary.
Frederick A. Denson, the subject proper of this
review, received his education in New York State and
Michigan, and was reared to agricultural pursuits. On
January 4, 1864, prompted by a spirit of patriotism, he
enlisted in the Sixth Michigan Cavalry, Company G, served
some two and one-half years, and was discharged March 25,
1866, at Ft. Bridges, Utah Territory. He participated
in the battles of the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, Trevillian
Station, Hawe's Shop, Winchester, Cedar Creek, and Five
Forks; was taken prisoner at Sailor's Creek, three days
before Lee's surrender, and was with the Confederate army,
still a prisoner, when that general surrender to Grant.
After an honorable discharge, our subject returned to Fulton
county, and for about eighteen months worked by the month or
day, after his marriage settling in Section 11, Chesterfield
township, where he from time to time added to until he and
his children have among them five hundred and twenty-eight
acres, of as fine land as can be found in the county.
He is also interested in the live stock and lumber
industries, buying and selling both stock and lumber; he is
also extensively engaged in raising hogs.
In December, 1869, Frederick A. Denson was
united in marriage with Adeline Lee, who was born in
1842, in Fulton county, a daughter of David and Huldah
Lee, the former of whom died when Mrs. Denson was
eight years old. Mrs. Denson passed from earth
April 30, 1896, leaving two children: Verlina,
wife of Oliver Onweller, of Fulton county; and
Elmina, wife of Louis Ham, by whom she has one
child, Ivah, born June 19, 1898.
In his political predilections Mr. Denson is a
stanch Republican, and cast his first Presidential
vote for U. S. Grant, in 1868. Socially he is
affiliated with Col. Myron Baker Post No. 33, G. A.
R., of Morenci, Michigan, and of Chesterfield Grange No.
367. He enjoys the respect and esteem of a wide circle
of friends an acquaintances.
Source: Commemorative Biographical Records of
Northwestern Ohio, Published at Chicago, by J. H. Beers &
Co. 1899 - Page |
