John B. Denton: The Bigger-Than-Life Story of the Fighting Parson and Texas Ranger

by Mike Cochran

Overview

Denton County and the City of Denton are named for pioneer preacher, lawyer, and Indian fighter John B. Denton, but little has been known about him. In this extensive, in-depth look into the life and death of Denton, Mike Cochran has made use of new materials not available to previous biographers to help bring the story to life.  John B. Denton was an orphan in frontier Arkansas who became a circuit-riding Methodist preacher and an important member of a movement of early settlers bringing civilization to North Texas. He was a participant in the first missionary effort to bring Methodism to Texas, answering a call from William B. Travis to bring Methodists to the new republic. Denton then became a ranger on the frontier, ultimately being killed in the Tarrant Expedition, a Texas Ranger raid on a series of villages inhabited by various Caddoan and other tribes near Village Creek on May 24, 1841. He was leading a small raiding party that had separated from the larger group led by General Edward Tarrant when he was shot by native defenders. Denton’s true story has been lost or obscured by the persistent mythologizing by publicists for Texas, especially by pulp western writer, Alfred W. Arrington, and by the self-aggrandizing stories told by members of the Tarrant raiding party. His death came at a time when entrepreneurs were trying to attract Anglo settlers to the Republic of Texas and were especially apt to glorify the early settlers. Denton was further made a martyr of the church by Methodist historians. Cochran separates the truth from the myth in this meticulous biography, which also contains a detailed discussion of the controversy surrounding the burial of John B. Denton and offers some alternative scenarios for what happened to his body after his death on the frontier. This is the definitive, fact-based biography of John B. Denton.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781574418507
Publisher:	University of North Texas Press
Publication date:	11/15/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Mike Cochran, a former Denton city councilmember, served as chair of Denton’s Historic Landmark Commission and president of the Historical Society of Denton County, and continues to maintain the website dentonhistory.net. Cochran has written a catalog of O’Neil Ford’s Denton works. He resides in Denton, Texas.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments v

Introduction ix

1 The Obscure Early Life of John B. Denton 1

2 The Dentons Move to Arkansas 5

3 The Call to Preach 9

4 The State of the Church in Texas 17

5 Littleton Fowler, John B. Denton, and Texas Methodism 21

6 Settling in the Sulphur Forks 33

7 Clarksville: The Gateway to Texas 41

8 Conflict with Native Americans 49

9 The Texas Rangers: Defending the Frontier 53

10 The Cherokee War 59

11 John B. Denton: Lawyer and Family Man 63

12 The Regulator-Moderator War and the Election of 1840 67

13 Indian Conflicts in Northeast Texas 71

14 The Ripley Massacre and the Tarrant Expedition 75

15 The Battle of Village Creek 85

16 Aftermath of the Battle and the Creation of Denton County 97

17 John B. Denton's Will and Estate 103

18 Honoring John B. Denton 111

19 Rev. William H. Allen's Report on Denton's Bones 121

20 The Reburial of a Hero 125

21 The Martyrdom of John B. Denton 131

22 Who Is Buried in Denton's Tomb? 135

23 An Alternate Explanation for the Denton Bones 145

24 Art Imitating Life: Alfred W. Arrington-Pulp Westerner 149

25 Rev. Paul Denton and the "Apostrophe to Water" 155

26 John Denton and the Murder Trial of Mary Denton 163

27 John B. Denton's Legacy 171

Afterword 173

Appendix 1 Alfred W. Arrington: Preacher, Poet, Lawyer, Scoundrel 175

Appendix 2 Tarrant Expedition Muster Roll 181

Endnotes 185

Bibliography 219

Index 229

Editorial Reviews

The life of Methodist circuit rider and Texas Rangers leader John B. Denton has been professionally documented in Mike Cochran’s new biography. In it, he rights the wrongs by presenting full evidence on details ranging from slight (what was his real middle name?) to essential (where was Captain Denton really buried?). The full story of the namesake of my own Denton County, Texas, who gave his life during a battle against Native American forces in North Texas, will be treasured by many fans of early Texas history, the Texas Rangers, and Methodism.”—Stephen L. Moore, author of the four-volume series Savage Frontier: Rangers, Rifleman and Indian Wars in Texas (UNT Press)
 
“John B. Denton is full of fine research, flows well, and places some original thinking into the mix. It is a most readable and very useful look at a man who left little behind but family.”—Skipper Steely, author of War in the Redlands and editor of Red River Pioneers

“I know of few people in this world who care as much about their hometown as Mike Cochran.  It’s only fitting that he takes up the mantle of telling the life story of John B. Denton, his town’s namesake and a Methodist minister and lawyer who died protecting the frontier. Cochran separates fact from fiction in this biography.”—Larry Francell, author of How Indian Emily Saved Fort Davis: A Legend Revisited and former director of the Museum of the Big Bend

"This is an important biography of a Texas legend, one who is still remembered for giving his name to a Texas city and county."—Tombstone Epitaph

"He was a Methodist preacher, a missionary, a Texas Ranger, a lawyer and an often-overlooked figure in Texas history. Cochran does much to right that wrong, including a search for the burial spot of Denton's body, which has been lost to the dust of time. . .  Texas history enthusiasts would do themselves a favor to put this book on their must-read pile."—WWA Roundup

"An impressively well researched, organized and presented study, John B. Denton rescues from an undeserved obscurity the life story and achievements of an extraordinary man who lived in extraordinary times."—Midwest Book Review

"Denton was a good man who died avenging the deaths of a friend’s wife and children. And John B. Denton, who was loved by peers, gained legendary status after his death."—Denton Record-Chronicle

"Readers interested in the history of North Texas and Methodism in the Republic of Texas will find this book of interest. It also will be fascinating for scholars interested in the mythologizing of Texas frontiersmen."—Journal of Southern History

"Cochran’s volume is exceedingly well-researched and documented, and it culls its findings from numerous and diverse sources. In a way, an important aspect of his study is its careful clearing away of the lingering falsehoods and misapprehensions concerning the life of John B. Denton."—Review of Texas Books

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