- 20190521HAv- http://www.paintedhills.org/POTTER/beersUlysses.htm
Biographies from Ulysses Township, Potter Co., PA, Submitted by Barb Hyde
HENRY HATCH DENT (deceased)
was a native of Charles county, Md., born February 11, 1815, a son of Dr. William Hatch Dent (who died when his son was two years of age) and Katherine (Brawner) Dent, a daughter of Henry Brawner.
The parents of Dr. William Hatch Dent were Rev. Hatch Dent (who fought during the Revolutionary war, and afterward became a clergy man of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and first principal of the Maryland State School, at Charlotte Hall, St. Mary' s county, Md.) and Judith (Posten) Dent, all natives of lower Maryland, of Charles and St. Mary's counties.
Henry Hatch Dent, the subject proper of this commemorative record, received a thorough education, and graduated from Yale College in 1836 or 1837, after which he studied law in Washington, D.C., under Francis S. Keys, author of "The Star Spangled Banner." As a young man, he practiced law in the office of Felix Grundy, at that time attorney-general of the United States;
then practiced in Washington until the death of his wife in 1849, during which time he was offered the judgeship of the criminal court there, which he declined. In
1850 Mr. Dent removed to St. Louis, Mo., and while claiming residence there, he spent a year in Philadelphia, attending to the partition suit between the heirs of William Bingham and John Adlum, which decided the title to much of the land in Potter and adjoining counties.
In order that he might give personal attention to that part of the Adlum lands that had belonged to Mrs. Dent (who was a daughter of John Adlum),
and to large tracts bought with his own funds, Mr. Dent came to Coudersport in 1853.
Ten years afterward, in 1863, we find our subject residing in Brookland, Potter Co., Penn., where he remained until 1871, in December of which year he went to Baltimore for medical treatment, where he died November 19, 1872.
Mr. Dent was married in September, 1841, to Ann Maria, daughter of John and Margaret Adlum (latter a native of Frederick, Md.), the ceremony being performed by his college and life-long friend, Rev. R.H. Wilmer, then a young priest in his first parish, now bishop of Alabama.
John Adlum, father of Mrs. Dent, was born at York, Penn., and his commission as major, written on parchment, and signed by President John Quincy Adams, is still in the possession of his grandson, William Dent, of Brookland. Mr. L. Bird, now of Penfield, Clearfield Co., Penn., writes of Mr. Dent as follows:
"As a young surveyor, and at that time about the only one, I did work for Mr. Dent, and, from January, 1854, to March, 1888, I was in the position of a trusted business agent for Mr. Dent, and, therefore, well qualified to speak of his business character. His most excellent Christian mother was with him several years, assisting to care for his four young children. They are now
- Miss M.K. Dent,
- Mr. William Dent and
- Mrs. Thomas G. Hull, of Brookland, Penn., and
- Mrs. Rev. J. McBride Sterrett, of Faribault, Minn.
"Mr. Dent was the 'soul of integrity' in his business transactions, careful to give and receive the exact amounts. The property consisted of over 250 contracts for land in Tioga and Potter counties, and considerable unseated land in these counties, also some land a few miles from Bradford, in McKean county, besides a farm near Georgetown, D.C. No man who was trying to pay was ever pushed by him on these contracts. The contracts, as had been the custom of the 'Bingham Estate,' were very strict. Nearly all the money received from those contracts and from sale of land was expended in buying and improving property, and for living expenses in Potter county. Many a man still remembers his prompt payment of liberal wages.
"The private charities of himself and his mother need not be detailed, but I may mention a gift of a 'town clock' for the new court-house, costing him about $300. I well remember his pained expression when some men suggested that the present was made to gain popularity. Few men are found that have less of selfishness than he had.
"Mr. Dent was a Democrat, but his personal friends were in both parties, and, while fixed in his political opinions, he was friendly toward opponents, unless they assailed his personal integrity. His sympathies were with the South in the Civil war.
"Jefferson Davis and many of the Southern leaders were personal friends and associates. He regarded slavery (if an evil) as a necessary evil, and the duty of the white man to take good care of his slaves; and thought it better to let the States go than have the war. I was a radical Republican, but our personal and business relations were not disturbed. The immense 'war taxes' were a severe drain, for Mr. Dent owned considerable unseated land, and the interest-bearing contracts had been reduced and put into other land. Therefore, while owning considerable property, Mr. Dent did not have any income tax to pay. Some men now living remember that this fact was a sore spot with some who gave attention to the matter. Mr. Dent paid every dollar of taxes that the law required, and that without outside grumbling.
"His instructions to me were to pay all that were legally assessed, at same time adding, 'bitter as it is to pay to support a war that I do not think is for the good of the country.'
"Mr. Dent was a polite, Christian gentleman, and while he had some few personal enemies, I could see that nearly all arose from the fact that, owing to the difference in early training and habits, he and some of the Coudersport people did not understand, each other, and I was glad to know from them and from him, in later years, that both recognized this fact, and gave each other credit for honest intentions."
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