from Some of the Descendants of Rev. Richard Denton by Edythe Johns Rucker Whitley
These fragments of records along with family tradition give us the only word picture of Isaac Denton and wife Rebecca (Etheridge) that it seems possible to document, since there are no records left from the devastating fires which have destroyed so much history in the sections in which our subject lived from time to time.
George N. Denton, the son of Rev. Isaac Denton, Sr., and wife Rebecca Ethridge, is known to have been born about 1809 in Clinton County, Kentucky, and married Patsy Robinson, who was born 1806 and died September 16, 1887. Patsy was the sister of Isaac Robinson and was born at Robinson Cross Roads, Tennessee...
Of the other children of Rev. Isaac Denton, Sr., was
Rev. Isaac Denton, Jr., who was born December 23, 1806, presumably in Stockton’s Valley, Kentucky. He migrated to White County, Tennessee, and was an Old Baptist Minister in White and Warren Counties...
Tabitha, daughter of Rev. Isaac Denton, Sr., married William Proctor Welch. J. S. D. also lists
Elijah,
Jeremiah and
Noah as children of Rev. Isaac Denton, Sr., and his wife Rebecca Ethridge...
There were Ethridges in Sumner County, Tennessee, very early in its settlement. They disappear from the records of this county, evidently because they were in that section first cut off in Smith County in 1799 and later Jackson County. There are no wills in Sumner for members of the Ethridge family, nor do I find the name spelled Eskridge or Eldridge as some have thought was possible. One Stephen Ethridge married Betsy Itsom (Epsom or Simpson) in Sumner County on September 7, 1819 and Gerrard Ethridge married Polly Newman on December 25, 1805. It is very difficult to obtain records of that section of country which was once a part of Sumner and later Jackson. Two factors are involved here, first the Jackson County, records are almost entirely gone for the first fifty years of that county growth; secondly, those Kentucky counties which join Tennessee have also lost almost all of their early records. There is evidence that the Ethridge family lived in Jackson County, possibly on or near the Kentucky line, in the same general neighborhood as did the Dentons and related families. Although a careful search has been made, only fragments of information have been uncovered. The Dentons were people who pushed forward into new country as the wilderness was cleared for settlement. We find that other members of the Denton clan followed into these same sections of Tennessee and Kentucky.
