52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks (Week 3) – Lucenda Gentry

This is Week 3 of Amy Crow’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks blogging challenge to write about one ancestor a week for 2014. Amy highlights each weeks’ posts on her blog No Story Too Small every Wednesday.

This week I am writing about my third great-grandmother, Lucenda “Cindie” Gentry. The GENTRY surname is an interesting one to write about. Why? Because it seems like everyone has at least one or two Gentrys in their family. And chances are, they will tell you that their Gentrys all descend from the same immigrant ancestor - Nicholas Gentry.

I have no idea if my third great-grandmother, Lucenda Gentry descends from Nicholas Gentry or not. I’m not even sure what her father’s real name was! Was it William or was it Berry? Well, I’ll come back to that. First, let’s meet Lucenda.

Lucenda Gentry was born April 12th, 1868 in Tennessee [1] and died February 19th, 1905 in Garrett’s Bluff, Lamar Co., Texas [2]. She was the second oldest child born to Manerva Jane O’Neal and William T. Gentry. Well I'm pretty sure it was William T. Gentry. There is some confusion, though, because on the 1880 Scott Co., AR census report, the head of the house hold is listed as "Berry A. Gentry." Berry was actually the name of their first born son. This is the only time I've seen "Berry" mentioned as Manerva's husband or Lucenda's father. I think probably Manerva and William might have been separated at this time and someone in the house just used the oldest son Berry's name as a placeholder for the man of the house.

Manerva and William were married in Roane County, Tennessee on January 5th, 1865 [3]. Manerva was from Blount County and William was from neighboring Knox County. William had just returned home from the war. I am not sure why they went to Roane County to marry; unless it was to evade detection by Manerva’s mother who might have disapproved of the marriage because Manerva was only 14 years old (William was 25). Manerva’s mother had married young as well and was widowed by the time she was 25 years old.

William and Manerva did return to Blount County; however, things might not have gone as well as they had hoped as they were living with Manerva’s mother Lucinda O’Neal and her younger siblings only 5 years into their marriage [4]. By that time, my third great-grandmother Lucinda had been born along with her older brother Allen Berry.

But things got even worse for Lucenda’s family. By the mid 1880’s, Lucenda’s parents had gotten a divorce. Her mother Manerva moved with her brother Allen Berry and her youngest sister Mary Jane to Arkansas. Lucenda and her brothers William and James moved to Paris (Lamar County), Texas with their father who remarried to a woman named Nannie in 1886. Lucenda’s mother remarried as well to a man named George Wagoner in 1889 [5].

While in Texas, Lucenda met and married a farmer named Reuben Dennis in 1886. She was 18 years old. They had four children together: Wallace, Eva, Luther, and Willie. They lived in the small town of Garrett’s Bluff outside of Paris, Texas. According to the 1900 census reports, the children did not go to school, even though there was a school nearby; they were probably too busy tending the farm and working. Lucenda and Reuben were educated though, so they probably gave the children their lessons at home.

Lucenda was a member of the Chicota Baptist Church. Chicota was a small community about 15 miles east of Garrett’s Bluff. The family probably attended church service there every Sunday. Lucenda’s daughter Eva was my 2nd great-grandmother. Since Eva was the only other girl in the house, the two of them were very close. Eva spoke often of how her mother taught her how to cook, iron, and clean the house.

Unfortunately, Eva was left motherless at a young age. Her mother Lucenda died from pneumonia at the age of 36. Eva was 14 years old when her mother died. Her father, devastated, left the farm and moved the children to the “big city” of Paris to be near his brother Liberty. Reuben became a tax collector. Eva married to my 2nd great-grandfather, Barney Benson, who had lived next door to her family prior to their move to Paris.

I chose to write about Lucenda Gentry because very little was known about her. In the course of this writing, I was able to learn some more about her family and to fill in some of the gaps I had in my family tree. I realized that I do have a lot more research to conduct and I’m very much looking forward to it. I also made a connection with a new cousin I found on ancestry.com, but who also happened to be connected to another one of my cousins on Facebook. She is the one who has shared the photo of the Dennis family with me. If you have Gentry ancestors, please contact me so we can share information. I am very interested in learning more about my Gentry ancestors.

Photo of Cindy Gentry, Reuben Dennis and their children: 

Eva Mae Dennis, Wallace, Willie "L. C.," & Luther

Shared by my cousin Allison Hurst

Sources:

[1]  Jim Tipton, Find A Grave, Online database, (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 21 January 2014), User Input Bio and Headstone, Luecindie "Cindie" Gentry Dennis, Memorial No. 120766810, created by John and Ruth Clackler, 24 November 2013, citing Garrett's Bluff Cemetery, Garrett's Bluff, Lamar County, Texas, USA: Headstone reads: "Luecindie wife of Rubin Dennis, born 12 Apr 1868, died 19 Feb 1905." Biography includes place of birth as Tennessee and place of death as Garratt’s Bluff, Lamar Co., TX.

[2]  Ibid.

[3]  Ancestry.com, "Tennessee Marriages, 1851-1900," index, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 21 January 2014), M J O'Neill to W T Gentry; Roane County, Tennessee Marriages, 1851-1900. County court records located at Kingston, Tennessee or Family History Library microfilm #0560087-0560089: "M. J. O'Neal” married “W. T. Gentry," 5 Jan 1865 in Roane Co., TN.

[4]  1870 US Federal Census, Blount County, Tennessee, population schedule, District 4, Friendsville Post Office, Page 112A (stamped), Page 21 (penned), Dwelling 136, Family 137, Lucinda O'Neil; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : downloaded 20 January 2014); NARA Film M593, Roll 1515, FHL Film 553014.William and Minerva “Gerity” were enumerated in Lucinda O’Neill’s household.

[5]  Ancestry.com, "Arkansas County Marriages Index, 1837-1957," online database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 22 January 2014), Manerva Jane Gentry and G W Wagoner; Citing: "Arkansas County Marriages, 1838–1957." Index. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, from Arkansas Courts of Common Pleas and County Clerks.; FHL film no. 1027124: married 5 Mar 1889, Scott Co., AR.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks (Week 2) – John Brooks Binns

I just realized that I haven’t written anything about my BINNS family. And I have a LOT of information. I need to get writing! What am I waiting for? – I know! A challenge! I have pledged to join the “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks” Challenge for 2014 which was started by Amy Crow of the No Story Too Small blog. Each week Amy will showcase all of that week’s ancestor posts and I hope to be included. I missed Week 1, but here is a post for week 2.

JOHN BROOKS BINNS

B. 20 MARCH 1910, MONTICELLO, ARKANSAS

D. 10 DECEMBER 1989, FORT SMITH, ARKANSAS

John Brooks Binns was my great-grandfather

Photo of John B. Binns, Arkansas, 1950s

John Brooks Binns was born March 20^th, 1910 in Monticello (Drew County) Arkansas to John Milton Binns and Perthinia “Pert” Brooks. He was the 2^nd to youngest child of 8 born to this couple. His siblings were John Lavert Binns, Milton “Roy” Binns, James Howard Binns, Rubye Estelle Binns, Van Carl Binns, Lurah Marcelle Binns, and Byron Zach Binns.  His father, John Milton Binns, was a farmer from Georgia who became a salesman in Monticello and eventually became a meat cutter / butcher.

John followed in his father’s footsteps by working in a department store in Longview, Texas and in Kroger’s as a meat cutter; but he also went to college and earned his teaching degree. He and his wife, Blanche Hill taught school in Alma, Arkansas.

When John and Blanche met, John was studying and playing football at Monticello A&M College. He was there from 1930 – 1932. He was a member of the “Little Big Three” Press Association. Blanche was attending Magnolia A&M College from 1930 – 1931 and then transferred to Monticello A&M for the 1931 – 1932 school year to be with John. On August 19^th 1934 John and Blanche were married at the First Christian Church in Longview, Texas where John was working in advertising for a department store.

John and Blanche Binns had three blonde haired, blued eyed little girls, including my grandmother, born between 1936 and 1940 in Fort Smith, Arkansas. In 1943, they bought their house on 1401 N. 19^th street where they lived until they died. He also bought the house behind him and the grocery store next door to his house. He rented the store out to a lady named Alice Shields who ran the store. He eventually tore the store down and had a house built there. This is the house that my mom, dad, and I lived in when I was first born. John worked at Kroger’s on Grand Avenue in Fort Smith, Arkansas as a meat cutter for ten years and then later he owned and operated the Cash and Carry in Fort Smith on N. 2^nd street.

After the girls were old enough to go to high school, John and Blanche went back to school to get their teaching degrees. Blanche went to school the first two summers of 1952 and 1953 and John the next two in 1954 and 1955. They went to Russellville Tech in Northwest Arkansas. Their first teaching jobs were in Alma, Arkansas. Blanche taught the 2^nd grade and John taught 7^th grade Science. Then he switched to 5^th grade after realizing he couldn’t handle the junior high kids.

In 1963, Blanche had a stroke and had to stop teaching. John took care of her and continued teaching until he retired in 1975. John must have taken really good care of her because she survived him by 3 years. John died December 10^th, 1989 in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Blanche died December 27^th, 1992 in a nursing home in Fort Smith.

I was lucky to have grown up with 6 of my 8 great-grandparents, including John and Blanche. Blanche never really liked us kids much, but John, or “great-granddad” to me, loved us to death. He was a big hugger and he would squeeze you so tight you couldn’t breathe. And he was always around. He got sick pretty fast, so I didn’t really have to see him bad off in a nursing home like I saw Blanche. He got a bunch of fluid in his lungs probably due to the emphysema and that is eventually what stopped his breathing. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think of him.

Here are some photos to remind me of our time together: 

Ginger Smith and great-grandfather, John Brooks Binns, Fort Smith, Arkansas, 1977

Ginger Smith and great-grandfather, John Brooks Binns, Fort Smith, Arkansas, 1982

Ginger Smith and great-grandfather, John Brooks Binns, Fort Smith, Arkansas, 1984

All photos are from the private collection of Barbara Binns, Fort Smith, Arkansas and were scanned by Ginger Smith, 14 November 2008.