The Dendys and The Fatal Accident

   ©  Kathy Duncan, 2024

This newspaper clipping, reprinted in The Troy Messenger of Troy, Alabama, on 9 March 1876, recounts a horrific accident that happened in Wood County, Texas. The six-year-old daughter of the Dendy family was crushed to death in a hack accident while the family was returning home from church. My Dendy great-great grandparents moved from near Troy, Alabama to Wood County, Texas, and lived there in the 1870s, but was this my family? My great-great-grandfather, James Hogan Dendy, had a brother who also moved from near Troy, Alabama to Wood County, Texas. I finally decided it was time to investigate.

Since this article mentions J.R. Wright and the Alvis family as the other parties involved, I revisited the available records with these individuals in mind. On the 1870 census, J. H. Dendy and his family were living in precinct four of Wood County. Also, in precinct four was J.R. Wright. In 1870, James H Dendy's brother Lawson Dendy was still in Goshen Hill, Pike County, Alabama. 

The 1876 Wood County tax list places J. H. Dendy and Jno R. Write in precinct four. Lawson Dendy was not present on the 1876 list. By 1877, Lawson Dendy was in Wood County along with his brother James H. Dendy, but the Wood County records no longer divided tax records up by precinct, so it is impossible to know which precinct Lawson was in. In November of 1877, James Hogan Dendy and wife Lydia Ann Pugh sold their property in the Antonio Flores survey and moved to Bowie County, Texas. From Bowie County, it would have been impossible to visit very easily with family back in Wood County. That's surprising given that the 1880 census reveals that Lawson Dendy brought their mother Nancy (Williams) Dendy with him to Wood County and that Lydia's sister Hannah (Pugh) Hooks had moved to Wood County. Why did James and Lydia leave Wood County just as other family members were arriving - family they had not lived near in at least six years? 

On the 1880 Wood County, Texas census, J. R. Wright was still living in precinct four, there was an Alvis family in precinct four, and Lydia's sister Hannah Hooks was living in precinct four. Lawson Dendy and family with mother Ann Dendy were in precinct one. 

In comparing family group sheets for James Hogan Dendy and for Lawson Dendy, neither one had a daughter born around 1870 who died or disappeared abruptly. There is a gap in both families for a daughter who could have been born after the last months of 1870 but never appeared on the census.

The current road from Black Oak, Texas to Winnsboro, Texas seems to go near if not through the Antonio Flores survey, where the James H. Dendy family lived. The total distance between Black Oak and Winnsboro is ten miles.

In pondering this problem, I suddenly remembered the mystery photograph from my Dendy great-grandparents' album. 

This is an 1890s copy of three earlier tintypes. These pictures seem to have been taken on the same day since they seem to be sitting in the same chair. One of my cousins found a metal mourning button featuring this identical picture of the man in an old trunk that belonged to my great-grandparents. The question has been which set of great-great-grandparents this photograph portrayed - Dendy or Davis. The man does not resemble my great-great-grandfather, Davis, so he is ruled out. However, my great-great-grandmother Davis had a previous husband who died in the Civil War, and they had a daughter together. However, he died before their daughter reached this age. They could not have all posed in the same chair since he was deceased on the day these portraits were made. 

That puts the spotlight on the Dendys. James Hogan Dendy died in 1892, so a mourning pin made from his picture makes sense. The inclusion of the little girl has always been a question. The Dendys had a daughter born in December 1871. Why wouldn't this photograph have been passed along to her or her family if it was a picture of her? Why make a copy with just one child? Why not include the other children who surely had their pictures made, too? My great-grandfather was born before 1870. There were also other children living at the time these photos were made, why aren't they included in this copy? I now believe that Lydia Ann had this copy made, grouping her deceased husband, herself, and their deceased daughter together in one photo memorial. Or one of the Dendy children had it made for her as a gift. 

There is a picture of a youthful Lydia Ann (Pugh) Dendy that is much clearer than this one. In it, she is wearing a black bead necklace. The photograph of the woman in this group picture is of such a poor quality that it is difficult to positively identify her - although they both had dark hair, worn close to the head.

I'm confident that this is a photograph of the Dendys and their daughter as they appeared in 1874 to 1875. Unless a family Bible is found, the little girl will probably remain nameless. She would have been buried in Wood County, and so far I have not found a tombstone for her online. 

The combination of the newspaper clipping and the photograph shed some light on the mystery of why the Dendys sold out and left Wood County in 1877. Since the clipping recounts that they had been to a "preaching" that fateful day, they would have had to pass the spot in the road where their daughter died every time they went to church. If the church they attended was in the direction of Winnsboro, they would have passed that spot every time they went for supplies. Plus, it would have been the talk of the community for months. I think it must have become unbearable, so they sold out and left their families behind. 

No oral story of this event was passed down in my family. I think it was probably too painful for anyone to speak of. My great-grandfather would have been seven or eight when his little sister was killed, and he would have had a clear memory of this event. If it had happened to a cousin rather than a sister, I think the story would have been recounted.