Henry Stevenson DENNY

1854 - 1930

• Nickname	Harry
  Born	16 Feb 1854
  Gender	Male
  Died	17 Jan 1930	Deland, Volusia Co., Florida
  Buried	Allegheny Cemetery, Lawrenceville, Allegheny Co., Pennsylvania
  Person ID	I966	Johnson Hindin Tree
  Last Modified	22 Dec 2018

  
  

  Family	Irene ASHCOM,   b. 27 Jul 1864, Ligonier, Westmoreland Co., Pennsylvania ,   d. 22 Jul 1922, Ligonier, Westmoreland Co., Pennsylvania
  Married	1 Oct 1883	Ligonier, Pennsylvania
  Family ID	F326	Group Sheet

  
  

• Notes

  The following biography was taken from History of Westmoreland County, Volume III, Pennsylvania, by John N Boucher. New York, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906, p. 1-3.) (as transcribed on: http://www.pa-roots.org/data/read.php?837,435545): CAPTAIN HARRY STEVENSON DENNY, of Ligonier, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, was born in Pittsburg, February 16, 1854, and is a descendant of pioneer settlers of western Pennsylvania, who have left a noble record of service to their state and nation. Major Ebenezer Denny, the great-grandfather of Captain Denny, was born in Carlisle, Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, March 11, 1761, and was the eldest son of William and Agnes (Parker) Denny. The Denny family are descendants of an early emigrant from the north of Ireland who located in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, in the first quarter of the eighteenth century, but soon after became a pioneer in the settlement farther west. William and Walter Denny, brothers, removed to the Cumberland valley in 1745, and located near Carlisle. Walter became a large landowner there. He raised a company for the revolutionary struggle, entered the service and was at the battle of Crooker Billet, in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. William Denny lived in Carlisle. He was the first coroner west of the Susquehanna, and was a commissary during the revolutionary war. His wife, Agnes Parker, was a daughter of John Parker, and granddaughter of Richard Parker, who settled on the Cannadaguinnet, three miles west of Carlisle in 1730. Three of the brothers of Mrs. Denny, Alexander, Richard and Andrew Parker, rendered distinguished service in the war for independence. At the close the former settled in western Virginia at the present site of Parkersburg, and the two latter in Kentucky. At the age of thirteen years Ebenezer Denny obtained the position of dispatch bearer between the Cumberland county posts and Fort Pitt, crossing the Allegheny mountains alone and travelling through a wilderness infested with savages, and won the confidence of the officers with whom he became later associated by the intrepid and intelligent manner in which he performed his duties. He later returned to Carlisle and was employed for a short time in his father’s mercantile establishment but after his stirring experience on the frontier, life behind the counter proved little to his taste, and he repaired to Philadelphia and shipped on board a privateer as a volunteer. The piratical nature of the enterprise proved repulsive to him, and he again returned home but was soon after (August, 1780) commissioned an ensign in the Seventh Pennsylvania Regiment, and joined the army at York, Pennsylvania. He followed Mad Anthony Wayne through the Virginia campaign which terminated at Yorktown with the surrender of Cornwallis. His regiment next participated in the South Carolina campaign until the close of the war, when Colonel Isaiah Harmer, being named as commander of a regiment for garrisoning the western posts chose Ensign Denny as one of his officers and aide-de-camp. He served in this capacity until 1793, holding a commission as captain, but filling the position of adjutant and aide-de-camp to Colonel Harmer (late a brigadier-general) and was entrusted with many important missions to the Indians. and was with General Arthur St. Clair when he met with his disastrous defeat November 4, 1791. He resigned his commission May 1, 1792, and settling in Pittsburg, engaged in the mercantile business, largely that of a contractor to furnish supplies to the different armyposts. On March 1, 1794, he was commissioned captain of a company to be raised in Allegheny and especially appointed to the command of Presque Isle, now Erie, where he remained until May 3, 1795. Returning to Pittsburg he resided on a farm six miles from Pittsburg, during 1795 and 1796, and then removed to Pittsburg, becoming one of the most prominent men of the town of which he was its first mayor on its organization as a city in 1816. He was commissioner of the county of Allegheny in 1797, and its treasurer in 1803 and 1808. He was a director of the Pittsburg branch of the Bank of Pennsylvania, and of its successor, the Bank of the United States, and filled many positions of trust and honor. He died July 21, 1822, in his sixty-first year. He had married in July, 1793, Nancy Wilkins, daughter of John Wilkins, who was a captain in the revolutionary war, and brother of General John Wilkins, quartermaster general of Pennsylvania. John Wilkins, Sr., father of Mrs. Denny, was a delegate from Bedford to the Constitutional Convention of 1777, but later removed to Pittsburg. The children of Major Ebenezer and Nancy (Wilkins) Denny were Harmar, William, St. Clair and two daughters. Hon. Harmar Denny, eldest son of Major Denny, received a collegiate education and had a distinguished record. He married a daughter of General James O’Hara, one of the pioneer business men of Pittsburg. who had first crossed the Alleghenies with pack horses to sell goods for a Philadelphia trading house. He, in connection with Isaac Craig, established the first glass works in Pittsburg. James O’Hara Denny, son of Hon. Harmar and Elizabeth (O’Hara) Denny, was born in Pittsburg, and graduated at Dickinson Law school at Carlisle, and was admitted to the bar at Pittsburg, but at an early age took charge of the O’Hara glass works, the pioneer plant of that industry west of the Alleghenys, and was connected with the business and financial interests of Pittsburg. He served in the Mexican war as a captain of an independent company from Pittsburg, known as the “Blues.� He married, November 10, 1852, Margaret Darragh Stevenson, daughter of Dr. Harry and Elizabeth (Darragh) Stevenson, of Pittsburg, and their children were: Harry Stevenson; James O’Hara, born September 15, 1855, and Francis Herren, born November 28, 1857. James O’Hara Denny, the father, died February 4, 1859. George Stevenson, the great-grandfather of Mrs. Denny, belonged to a distinguished family in Ireland and was educated for the ministry at Trinity College, Dublin, but not taking kindly to an ecclesiastical life selected for him by his parents, he ran away from home and came to America, locating in York, Pennsylvania. He married a sister of General Thompson, the widow of a celebrated lawyer by the name of Clarkson, by whom he had one son, Dr. George Stevenson, who married Mary Holmes, and a daughter, Catharine, who married General John Wilkes, the brother of Mrs. Ebenezer Denny. Dr. Harry Stevenson. the father of Mrs. Denny, was a son of Dr. George and Mary (Holmes) Stevenson. He married Betsy Darragh. daughter of John Darragh, who was the second mayor of Pittsburg, succeeding Major Ebenezer Denny. Mrs. Elizabeth (Darragh) Stevenson, mother of Mrs. Denny, died February, 1883, in her eighty-fourth year, and Mrs. Harmar Denny, the mother of James O’Hara Denny, died January 19, 1878, in her eighty-second year. The Holmes family to which Mary (Holmes) Stevenson belonged were a distinguished family of Baltimore. Maryland. Captain Harry Stevenson Denny, born in Pittsburg, February 16, 1854, was educated at Newell Academy and the Western University of Pennsylvania at Pittsburg, taking a special course at the latter institution, just prior to his death his father had planned a residence where Captain Denny now lives, on the property once owned by General Arthur St. Clair, and occupied by his family for many years. It was conveyed to Captain O’Hara Denny by Robert St. Clair. On arriving at manhood Captain Harry S. Denny decided to follow out the plans of his father, and has erected the dwelling and improvements; making it his home ever since. Captain Denny was a member of the National Guard of Pennsylvania, being elected captain in the Eighteenth Regiment, in 1875, and served for five years. In politics he is a staunch Republican, and stands high in the councils of his party. He was a delegate to the National Convention at St. Louis in 1896 and to Chicago in 1900, and has represented his district in a number of state conventions. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, being affiliated with Duquesne Lodge No. 546, of Pittsburg. Captain Denny is warmly attached to Ligonier valley, and has devoted himself to the advancement of the community in every manner possible. In connection with Mr. J. H. Frank he organized the National Bank of Ligonier in 1903, and was elected vice-president of that institution. He married, October 1, 1883, Irene Ashcom, daughter of Dr. John Ashcom.