I recently had the privilege of showing my paternal uncle the graves of his great grandparents, Willis Dennis and Susan Hearne. He was so surprised to find out that they were buried in an area he knew so well. Wait until I tell him his 2nd great grandmother, Priscilla Morgan Hearne, the mother of Susan, is also buried in the same cemetery!
Both Willis Dennis and his wife, Susan Hearne, daughter of Stephen Hearne and Priscilla Morgan, are buried at the Henderson Family Cemetery in Eldorado, North Carolina. The pictures shown below are from Find-A-Grave.
Willis Dennis (1841-1913) is the youngest child of James Dennis (1798-1869) and Mary Morgan (1798-1870).
Susannah ‘Susan’ Hearne (1840-1895) is the fifth child of Stephen Hearne (1807-1885) and Priscilla Morgan (1812-1874).
Willis Dennis and Susan Hearne are related through their mother’s, Mary Morgan Dennis and Priscilla Morgan Hearne. These ladies are first cousins once removed and both descend from Charles Morgan (1733-1787) of Chatham County, North Carolina. This Morgan family came to Montgomery County, North Carolina about 1805 and settled in what is today the Eldorado, Uwharrie, and Ophir communities.
Prior to her marriage with Willis, Susannah, called Susan, at the age of 17, had a child out of wedlock in 1857. Refusing to name the father, Susan and her father, Stephen Hearne, took responsibility for the child. That child was Gaston Haywood Dennis born in 1857, died 1942 in Stanly County.
Gaston was married twice, first to Julia Ann Morris, daughter of George and Elizabeth Dennis Morris, in 1879, whom he had 6 children with and second to Sarah Caroline Parnell, daughter of Henry and Ann Eliza Hurley Parnell, in 1907, whom he had 5 children with.
Y-DNA testing a direct male descendant of Gaston might uncover who Gaston’s biological father was.
In 1861, Susan Hearne married Willis Dennis, promptly changing 4-year-old Gaston’s surname from Hearne to Dennis. The family made their home in the Uwharrie and Eldorado areas of Montgomery County, North Carolina.
Willis and Susan’s first biological child together, Mary Ann Dennis, probably named for Willis’s mother, Mary, and born, according to her gravestone, 20 Jun 1862, about 8 months after the marriage of her parents. Mary Ann Dennis married Willis Griffin Morgan, a distant double cousin who descends from the same Morgan line as Willis’s mother, Mary Morgan Dennis and Susan’s mother Priscilla Morgan Hearne. Willis Griffin Morgan is the son of Alexander and Eliza Cranford Morgan. Mary Ann and Willis had 15 children before she died in 1919 in Rowan County, North Carolina.
Willis Dennis was drafted as a Private in the Civil War on 20 Aug 1862 in Montgomery County, North Carolina for the duration of the war and less than a year after he and Susan married. He was 25 years old. Another card in his military file shows his enlistment date was 5 Sep 1862.
Willis’ 1901pension file shows that he was wounded in the right hand in the battle at Chancellorsville, a major battle in the American Civil War that took place from 30 Apr to 6 May 1863 in Spotsylvania County, Virginia and considered Gen. Robert E. Lee’s greatest military victory.
Willis was captured in Strasburg, Virginia on 19 Oct 1864 and arrived at Harpers Ferry on 25 Oct 1864. He remained a prisoner of war until his exchange on 28 Mar 1865.
The second child of Willis and Susan was James Mendenhall Dennis, born 6 May 1864, at the same time Willis, his father, was fighting in the battle at Chancellorsville. James Mendenhall Dennis was most likely named for Willis’s father, James Dennis.
Never fear, Willis’s military file shows he was furloughed from hospital from Petersburg, Virginia for 30 days from 4 Jul 1863. James Mendenhall Dennis was conceived in Jul or Aug 1863 and born some 9 ½ months later in May 1864.
James Mendenhall Dennis married Nancy Ann Tucker, daughter of Nathaniel and Margaret Ward Tucker in 1886. They were the parents of 7 children. James died in 1932 in Alamance County, North Carolina. He had spent his life working in the Cotton Mills.
Willis returned home to Montgomery County after 28 Mar 1865, the date he was exchanged as a prisoner of war. His and Susan’s third child, George Thomas Dennis, was born 3 Jun 1866, conceived about Aug 1865, 5 months after Willis came home from the Civil War. George married Lydia Lowder, daughter of David and Ellen Austin Lowder, in 1885. The couple settled in Stanly County where they had 17 children and George worked as a farmer. George died in 1936.
That makes 50 grandchildren so far for Willis and Susan Dennis, if you are keeping count.
William Harrison Dennis, the fourth child of Willis and Susan, was born 5 Sep 1868. He married Josephine Lowder, the daughter of David and Ellen Austin Lowder, in 1886, a year after his brother had married his wife’s sister. William and Josephine became the parents of 5 children. Both William and Josephine died between 1896 and 1900, and their children raised by Josephine’s father, David Lowder.
Feb court term of 1869, Willis Dennis was ordered by the court to help Alex Dennis, his brother, oversee the road from the Scott Old Field to the Mouth of Uwharrie River until Feb 1870. Another brother, George, worked alongside them.
Addie Louise Dennis, the 5th child of Willis and Susan Dennis, was born in 1872. She married John Eller in 1896. They moved to Rowan County and became the parents of 8 children. Addie died in 1955 in Rowan County.
The 6th child born to Willis and Susan Dennis was Eben Dennis, in 1872. He married Frances Layton in 1890, my first cousin 3 times removed (1C3R), Grandison Fields (G. F.) Morris Jr. a witness to the wedding. Eben and Frances are the parents of 7 children. Eben Dennis died in 1942 in Stanly County after spending his life working as a farmer as well as at Wiscassett Mills, a textile mill in Albemarle, North Carolina that produced yarn for clothing and home furnishings. The mill was founded in 1898 by James W. Cannon and was part of the Cannon textile empire.
The seventh child of Willis and Susan Dennis was Daniel Dennis, born 1873. He married first Mattie Freeman, daughter of William and Annie Barfield Freeman, in 1899, and they had one child together. Mattie died in 1900 about 10 days after her son, Mattie Dewey Dennis was born. Daniel married again to Sarah Williams, daughter of Jones and Martha Matheson Williams, in 1901, and they had 6 children together. Daniel Dennis died in 1936 in Stanly County.
Child number eight, born to Willis and Susan Dennis was named Francis Dennis, born in 1877. He married Nealie Mauldin, daughter of Franklin and Ella Huckabee Mauldin, in 1902 and they had 11 children together. Francis Dennis died in 1951 in Stanly County.
Martha 'Lizzie' Dennis was the ninth child born to Willis and Susan Dennis in 1879. She married William Jones, son of Martin and Caroline Repult Jones, in 1899. Martha and William made their home in Rowan County and had no children. Martha died in 1967 in Rowan County.
Dellie Dennis was the tenth child born to Willis and Susan Dennis in 1882. She never married nor had children that I am aware of. Dellie died in 1921 at the age of 39 years and is buried in the Henderson Cemetery in Montgomery County near her parents.
The eleventh and last child of Willis and Susan Dennis is Flora Dennis, my great grandmother. Flora was born 1886 and was only 9 years old when her mother, Susan, died. Flora married John Coon Morris, son of Thomas and Mary Williams Morris in 1901. Flora and John had 11 children together. Flora died in 1965 in Montgomery County.
Susan Hearne Dennis, the wife of Willis Dennis, died in 1895 and was buried at the Henderson Cemetery in Montgomery County. Willis Dennis lived until 1913 and was buried beside his wife, Susan. They had 11 children and 99 grandchildren!
That means my Grandpa, who was one of the Ninety and nine grandchildren, had 88 maternal first cousins!
Love - Love - Love this!! (Ang)
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