JAMES SPURLOCK DENNARD

 The following bio was taken from page 177 of the book entitled “Rusk County History” compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

Transcribed by Shirley Koym

Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Rusk County TX Coordinator

James Spurlock Dennard, his wife Lavenia Wealthy, and their ten children moved to Rusk County about 1883.  He was born in 1835 in Georgia, as issue of marriage in 1817 in Marion Twiggs County, Georgia, of Kennedy Dennard, born 1790-1792 in Washington County, Georgia, and Sarah Spurlock, born 1800-02.  Sarah was the daughter of James and Mourning Spurlock of Clarke County, Georgia.  Lavenia Wealthy Lewis was born in 1837 in Stewart County, Georgia, the child of William Lewis and Asenath L. Stephenson, and married James Spurlock Dennard in 1854 in Stewart County, Georgia.

 James Spurlock Dennard and Lavenia Wealthy moved to Bastrop, Morehouse Parish, Louisiana prior to the Civil War.  He served in the CSA Army.  In 1868 they moved to McDonald County, Missouri, the most southwesterly county.  He died in 1900 and she, in 1903, and both are buried in the Ross Cemetery two miles west of Mt. Enterprise, Texas

 Four of the Dennard children became permanent residents of Rusk County, having purchased farms in the Mt. Enterprise-Concord area.  Gus E. Dennard married Essie Beatrice Sears, who lived to be 101 years of age.  Beulah Ellen Dennard married Joseph Nolen Boles; Pauline Dennard married John Thomas Lee; and Charles Lewis Dennard married Dottie Velma Dillon.

 The other six children moved soon after arriving in Rusk County.  Helen E. Dennard married Charles K. Dennard and they moved to Nacogdoches.  Thomas David Dennard married Margaret M. Russel and they moved to Grayson County, Texas.  Ida C. Dennard married Henry J. Jennings and they moved to Cherokee County near Summerfield, Texas, and after his death she and their children moved to Houston. 

Will M. Dennard moved to Goldthwaite, Texas, where he married Jenie.  Samuel Porter Dennard married Tennie Buchanan and they moved to Houston.  Robert Emmett Dennard moved to Whitesboro, Texas, where he married Daisy Ann Hightower. 

 After James Spurlock Dennard moved to Rusk County, he heard that his oldest brother, Jasper Newton Dennard, had moved to Panola County, Texas.  The brother soon had a reunion for the first time since leaving Georgia.

 The earliest record of a Dennard in America found to date is that Thomas Dennard was a witness to a deed in 1747 recorded in Granville County, North Carolina.  Militia records of South Carolina show John, William, John Jr. and Jacob Dennard served during the Revolutionary War.  Kennedy Dennard is believed to be a son of Jacob Dennard.  Kennedy served in the War of 1812.

 Submitted by Norris Dennard