Legislator Details
Vital Records Information:
Marital Information:
married Anna Ralston; children: 6, George R., John R., Nellie H., Walter S, William H. and Mary E.; married Ann Eliza Webb Young, 5/19/1883, divorced around 1892
Number of Children: 6
Background
Education:
Biographical Sketch:
Denning was raised on a farm in the lumbering district of Maine. After leaving school, he went to Pennsylvania and worked at lumbering along the Susquehanna River until the outbreak of the Civil War. He helped raise the famous Bucktail Regiment and the 84th and 110th Pennsylvania Regiments. In 1863, he went to the western territories and engaged in farming and mining. Arriving in Manistee in 1866 from Iowa, he engaged in lumbering, driving logs downriver, and dealt in pine, farming, and coal in Michigan, Florida, and Arkansas. In 1879, he took the contract from the Manistee Boom Company, for driving the Manistee River for 5 years. He was a director of the Manistee National Bank. He served as a member of the local school board and alderman. He did not sit in the extra session in 1892. Moved to West Virginia after divorcing.
Notable Facts:
1891 Manual says he was born in 1848; other sources say 1828. 1828 is more likely.
Married 19 May 1883 Mrs. Ann Eliza Young, a former wife of Mormon founder, Brigham Young, at age 53.
http://historytogo.utah.gov/salt_lake_tribune/in_another_time/081395.html
Attempted suicide 7/11/1910; died in hospital on the 25th.