John B. Denton

Before Texas, Denton was an apprentice, a flatboat hand and a husband at eighteen. Denton County's own account says he was born in Tennessee in 1806, was apprenticed to a blacksmith who was also a Methodist minister, and was credited with learning to read and write from his wife, Mary Greenlee Stewart. He preached in Arkansas, rode the Sulphur Fork Circuit into Texas in 1837 and studied law in Clarksville. On May 24, 1841, militia scouts under General Tarrant attacked villages on Village Creek that the account calls Keechi, and Denton was shot there.

What the plaque says

John B. Denton Born in Tennessee July 26, 1806, came to Texas in January, 1836. As a Methodist circuit rider killed in the Village Creek Indian fight May 24, 1841 in what is now Tarrant County. Named for Gen. Edward H. Tarrant who commanded the volunteers. Denton city and county were named for the pioneer lawyer, preacher, soldier of that name.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Denton County Courthouse-on-the-Square — steps away
  An 1896 courthouse by W. C. Dodson in Denton limestone, pink granite and two sandstones, restored in 2004, now a free county museum on a lawn holding the grave of John B. Denton.
• Wise County Courthouse — 26 mi
  J. Riely Gordon's granite Romanesque courthouse of 1895-96 in Decatur, built after fire destroyed the Second Empire courthouse and set off a fight over the county seat.

More markers nearby

• The City of Denton — steps away
• Edna Westbrook Trigg in Denton County — steps away
• Denton County — steps away
• Texas Normal College — steps away