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Joseph Asbury Denbo

The Medal
 

Joseph Asbury Denbo

Civil War Badge

Union Army

By:  Lou Ann (Parrish) Sandel

August 26, 1991

I found the badge of J. A. Denbo in a plowed field about 5 miles west of New Waverly, Texas in Walker County.  It was on the site of what was once the Moore’s Grove School.  My parents, Mr. & Mrs. Wyte Parrish, had purchased the property in 1937.  I do not recall the exact day or year, but in thinking back to the time, have decided that I was eight to ten years old; therefore, it would have been in the summer of 1942, 1943 or 1944.
 
I was excited about the “find”, but since the name on it was unfamiliar, no thought was ever given to trying to locate the owner.  My dad soldered a safety pin on the back so I could wear it, but I don’t recall ever doing so.
 
When I married in January 1954, I took the badge with me and kept it in my jewelry box.  My husband made a drawing of it that year and we intended to mail it to someone to see if we could learn anything about the owner, but for lack of a name or address the drawing was placed with the badge and put back in the jewelry box.  The only ones who saw it after that until the summer of 1990 were our three daughters: Lynette, Diane and Rae Ann.
 
The badge and drawing remained in the jewelry box until the summer of 1990 when two of our granddaughters, Lamanda and Melody Vogt, ages 11 and 9, came for a visit.  In an attempt to entertain them, I remembered the badge and knew that they liked going to the library so I suggested that we go and see if we could find out which war the badge had been worn in.  We had no luck with badge identification so we went to the Genealogy Room to see if anyone there could help us.  It was suggested that I look in the Census Records for the state of Indiana for the name “Denbo”.
 
Not knowing which war the badge had been worn in, I decided to look in the 1860 records, just in case it was the Civil War.  Two counties, Cass and Harrison, had Denbos whose first names began with the Letter “J”.  When I looked up these counties on a map, I discovered a New Waverly in Cass County and thinking that might be the common link, I wrote the City Library in Logansport - the largest town in the county.  I enclosed a copy of the drawing of the badge and told them we were trying to locate a living descendant of Mr. Denbo and asked if they had a Genealogy Society that might be able to help.  I received a form letter from them in October, 1990 stating that they could not, but giving me three names and addresses of people who might be able to.  They also returned my letter and copy of the drawing.  By that time, the granddaughters were in school, I was working and the badge, drawing and letters were set aside.
 
This summer when I knew the granddaughters would be coming back for a visit, I got the letters and drawing out and randomly chose a name from the three that the library had recommended.  On July 1, 1991 I wrote to Mrs. Barbara Wolfe in Logansport, Indiana and much to my surprise she replied shortly with the information that J. A. Denbo was Joseph A. Denbo, who had enlisted on August 29, 1862 at Newton-Stewart which is in Orange County, Indiana.  He was mustered out June 3, 1865 as a corporal.  This information was in the Terrell Report (Adj. General), Civil War, Volume 6, page 60.  Mrs. Wolfe was the Military Historian of Cass County.  She suggested that I contact the Orange County Historical Society of Paoli, Indiana.
 
As Mrs. Wolfe had suggested, I wrote the Orange County Historical Society on July 16 and by the end of July, I had received information from the president of the society who was a distant relative of Mr. Denbo.  She was Marjorie Lapping.  The information she sent included a picture of Mr. Denbo as well as copies of pages from the “History of Orange County” with information about Mr. Denbo and the 66th Regiment, Company E, genealogical charts of his descendants in Oklahoma, “The Denbo Family History”, and an article about one of his daughters.
 
The information indicated that Mr. Denbo was buried at Catoosa, Oklahoma and that a young man from Oklahoma was furnishing this information...so I called directory assistance for Tulsa, Oklahoma and asked for the phone numbers of the last two young men on the genealogy chart, William McCright and Steven Ross Barton.  I called both and they had answering machines so I left a message on Mr. McCright’s giving him my name and phone number and indicating that I had information on J. A. Denbo.  I then got the number for Betty (Mrs. Clarence) Barton and called her.  She was in and I told her of the badge and my plans to give it to the nearest living descendant.  She suggested John Olen Denbo of Claremore, Oklahoma, a grandchild, and gave me his phone number.
 
That afternoon Mr. McCright returned my call and was interested in having the badge.  He said he had been involved in the production of a documentary on the Civil War just recently and it was to air on PBS this fall.  He was working on the Denbo family history, but was not the young man who had compiled the other information.  (According to Mrs. Barton, it was Stan Hodges, a distant relative.)
 
On August 12, I called Mr. John Denbo and talked with his wife.  Mrs. Barton had told them of my call and Mrs. Denbo said that her husband would like very much to have the badge.  I told her that we were planning to bring the granddaughters with us when we traveled to Oklahoma and that we would have to wait until they had a day out of school.
 
On August 21, I received another letter from Mrs. Lapping in Indiana with the information that she had talked with a great-grandson, Charles H. Denbo, of Orleans, Indiana and that he too would like to have the badge.
 
So far, no date has been decided on to restore the badge to a member of Mr. Denbo’s family.  
 

 

 
Joseph Asbury Denbo sitting on the left, the original 
owner of the medal. Click here to read
about his military service. 

Update:

Due to circumstances which prevented us from ever taking the badge to Oklahoma, I mailed it to Mr. John Denbo in Claremore, Oklahoma in September 1994. Since he was a relative of Will Rogers, and on the board at the Will Rogers Museum, he placed the badge there on display.

Each year after I had first contacted Betty Barton, she and I had exchanged Christmas Cards keeping each other up-to-date. I kept telling her that I would really like to meet her and that hopefully someday that would happen.

In October 2003, we decided on the spur of the moment to take a trip to Oklahoma and Arkansas to see the fall foliage. I told my husband that if we were going to be in the vicinity of Tulsa that I would like to see if we could visit the Barton's. So, we planned to spend one night at Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. After we arrived and found a place to stay, I called Betty to see if they would be available for a brief visit.

She told me they had plans for that morning, but if we could come that afternoon they would be home.

So, after nearly 12 years of exchanging cards at Christmas, I finally had the joy of meeting Betty, her husband Bart, her sister Margaret and her husband Bill. We enjoyed the visit so much because all of them were so warm and sincere and it will be something that I will never forget. All of this because somehow their great grandfather’s badge had gotten to Texas from Indiana and a young girl found it. The next day we went to Claremore and met John and Bernice Denbo. They were as warm and sincere as the others, making that a trip truly to remember.

The only mystery remaining now is how the badge got to Texas. No Civil War battles were fought there and as far as we know no relatives ever lived there.

My husband’s great grandfather was in the Confederate Army and fought in some of the same battles in which Mr. Denbo fought (for the Union Army), so he concludes that Mr. Denbo lost the badge in one of those. His great grandfather found it, brought it home and one of his children took it to school and lost it.

Lou Ann Parrish Sandel holding Joseph's medal, which she found when she was a little girl. This picture was taken on September 15, 1994, just before she mailed it to John Denbo.

Copyright 2003-2009 by BJM