John Dent (1755-1840)
Introduction
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Images
Home of John Dent, ca. 1939
Backstory and Context
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John Dent was born in 1755 in Leesburg, Virginia. At the age of twenty-one, he crossed the Appalachian Mountains and settled in the area that would become Monongalia County. When the county was officially formed in 1776, Dent was named the first sheriff. Dent enlisted to fight in the American Revolution after residing in the Virginia frontier for less than a year. He had a hand in building several forts on the upper Ohio River designed to ward off attacks from Native Americans. Dent reached the rank of captain by the end of the war and continued to serve until 1780. Dent married Margaret Evans and returned to Monongalia County to reestablish his homestead after retiring from military service. His plantation in the Granville area was one of the largest in the area and produced corn, wheat, tobacco, and wool. A nearby creek was named Dent’s Run after John Dent. Dent died in Monongalia County in 1840. Though records indicate that Dent was buried near the Evans plots in Oak Grove Cemetery, the grave itself is either too worn to read or no longer extant.
Sources
Dent, Rick and Don Norman. Descendants of John Dent, Hackers Creek. Accessed September 24th 2020. https://hackerscreek.com/norman/DENT.htm.
Ridderbusch, Michael. You Want a Coat? Give Me Apple Butter!: A Bartering Tailor in Early Morgantown, West Virginia University Libraries. October 3rd 2016. Accessed September 24th 2020. https://news.lib.wvu.edu/2016/10/03/you-want-a-coat-give-me-apple-butter-a-bartering-tailor-in-early-morgantown/.
West Virginia & Regional History Center. Accessed September 24, 2020. https://wvhistoryonview.org/catalog/040468.