The Capt. Elijah Denbo Buried In Indiana Deception

In the 1930’s, the name and military service of Captain Elijah Dinsmore of Lee and Conway, New Hampshire, was used to perpetuate a deception. The perpetrator of the deception, Francis Jesse D'Enbeau (born Jesse Denbo, later changing his name and apparently going by “Frank”). As to Frank’s reason for creating the deception, I’m not sure, but he seemed to have been interested in pomp and prestige, as he chose a “fancy” spelling of Denbo in “D’Enbeau” (which seems to have occurred sometime around 1920) and his claimed ancestry was used for at least two of his sons to use that for membership in Sons of the American Revolution applications. A note left on Find A Grave by one of Frank’s children hints at this reason for changing the spelling:

Francis J. D'Enbeau was almost always called "Doc" by the people he knew in Terre Haute… "Doc" himself was an illegitimate child whose parents both died young, and who was raised by his grandparents as a putative youngest child in a large family. Haunted by his illegitimacy, he became something of an obsessed amateur genealogist and probably falsified his own birth records in the late 1940s in southern Indiana. (“Dr Francis Jesse D'Enbeau.” Find A Grave Memorial# 5884435, https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=5884435)

A timeline of Frank’s letters to and from the Veterans Administration offices in Washington DC show that he knew, without doubt, that Elijah Dinsmore died in New Hampshire. It is also easy to see that he tried to connect Joseph Denbo as Elijah’s son by claiming he had bounty land documents from Joseph which were subsequently “lost” in 1928.

Additionally, Frank ordered a headstone for Joseph on which it is engraved that Joseph is the “only son of Capt. Elijah Denbo, Lee, N.H.” The real Capt. Elijah Dinsmore of Lee, New Hampshire had no son named Joseph and was buried in New Hampshire. Additionally, all of the known children used the name Densmore/Dinsmore, not Denbo.

Concerning the SAR application for at least Francis Marion Denbo, I believe there is some information regarding Elijah and his ancestors which seems mostly correct as well Elijah's military service. However, use with caution and verify, verify, verify.

Contained within this document are sources indicating the fraudulent nature of the Joseph Denbo connection and Frank D'enbeau's role in it.

I have included transcripts and digital copies of primary sources.

Items bolded below are written by me.

~ Scott Carles, February 2017

December 1935

Frank D’Enbeau appears to locate information to somehow link himself to a Revolutionary War Dinsmore family. He specifically asks about a Captain Elijah Densmore/Denbo and four others: Elijah (this is actually Jr.), Solomon, Stephen, and Robert. It’s as if he is fishing for information that will be easiest to connect himself to the Captain’s family.

January 16, 1936

Frank strikes out with being able to use Solomon, Stephen or Robert:

January 16, 1936

But it appears that choosing an Elijah could work:

The headstone application clearly states that the “application is for the UNMARKED grave of a veteran.” At this point in time, January 16, 1936, Frank knows that both Captain Elijah Dinsmore died in Conway, New Hampshire in 1823 and his wife died there in 1826.

March 8, 1936

Frank tries to make a case for connecting his Joseph Denbo to Captain Elijah Denbo. Note that Frank knows

Elijah died in NH. Also, several reasons are presented for why Frank has no documentation: the land bounty

documents (which never existed) were “lost or stolen” and the originals in DC were burned.

March 8, 1936 enclosure

Frank uses the documentation he has received from the Veterans Administration to make his request seem

valid—that there is indeed a Captain Elijah Dinsmore, and acknowledges that he died in New Hampshire:

June 17, 1936

Two of Francis’ sons apply for membership in Sons of the American Revolution, and were accepted (only

Francis Marion Denbo’s application is included here):

The incorrect information are the connections between persons 1 and 2 (there doesn’t seem to be such a

person as Samuel Joseph Denbo born to Francis Marion Denbo, nor an Althea Von Schaeffer) and the

connection between person 4 (Joseph is not a son of Elijah of Lee, NH) and person 5 (Elijah).

Elijah’s service record seems to be correct, although the Bunker Hill evidence comes from Elijah’s

granddaughters but other evidence seems to suggest he headed to Bunker Hill, but got there at the end of

the fighting.

These sources confirm Elijah’s service:

June 23, 1936

Several days after the SAR application, Frank receives this letter from the Veterans Administration which

clearly states there is no relationship between Elijah and Joseph and that neither one of them received

bounty lands:

July 10, 1936

Although he was clearly aware that Elijah died in NH, below is “Francis J. D’Enbeau’s” application for the headstone to be erected in English, Crawford, Indiana. The headstone application clearly states that the “application is for the UNMARKED grave of a veteran.”

Regarding the headstone in Indiana, here is information and a note found on Find A Grave. Some information is incorrect and I have requested the person in charge of the page correct it. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=21866609

The correct Find A Grave information can be found here: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=145882112

Birth: Mar. 3, 1743 Durham Strafford County New Hampshire, USA

Death: Jan. 5, 1823 English Crawford County Indiana, USA

“This is a memorial military marker ordered for a Revolutionary War soldier who never set foot on Indiana soil. He died in 1823 in Durham, New Hampshire without issue. The marker was placed on the grave of Elizabeth Tucker Denbo, wife of Lieut. Joseph Denbo of the War of 1812, Battle of Tippecanoe, Indiana Territory.”

July 1836

Application for the Joseph Denbo Headstone:

The smaller headstone was ordered at the same time as the one for Elijah, and then was placed in front of

the original headstone. Note that the newer headstone says that Joseph is the “only son of Capt. Elijah

Denbo, Lee, NH.” The information attached to Find A Grave states that Joseph is son of John Denbo and

Nancy Woodfield and husband of Elizabeth Tucker Denbo. I have not tried to verify that information. The

Find A Grave website contains a picture of the incorrect headstone (https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-

bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GScid=84829&GRid=9129742&):

The following is a transcript of what was claimed to be a will for the Elijah Denbo of Crawford County, Indiana, who is claimed to be the Revolutionary War Captain and the father of a Joseph Denbo, also of Indiana. The will is fake, believed to have been created by Frank D'enbeau to "prove" a link between Frank's family and Capt. Elijah Denbo/Dinsmore. It is unknown when the “will” was included, and when it was discovered to be fake.

A couple of things to note:

1) The "will" appears to be written in the same hand, although the clerk's signature tries to mimic the signature of the clerk that appears on the same page.

2) The "will" is very short. Most of the wills are more than a page in length. It seems that the forger found a page that had a portion of the page blank, and used that to write the will.

3) The "will" does not contain the typical language of the day, such as a section about his condition, nor a part about those who appeared before the court to witness to the document, etc.

The Last Will and Testament of Elijah Denbo late of Crawford County Indiana

I hereby give will and bequeath all of my property both personal and real to my son Joseph Denbo

Elijah Denbo

Signed sealed and delivered this 5th day of May 1820

Witness: Thos. W. Aub[r]ey

Robert E. Yates

Wm Samuels Clerk

A digital copy of the will is on the following page.

What follows are discussions surrounding the above information that I have gleaned from the internet.

From The Denbow Diaspora - square brackets in the following are from the original, not mine. Notes in squiggly braces are mine.

Regarding the Elijah Denbo conflicts, and an SAR application paper {Francis Marion Denbo} found later to be false (and a 1970s DAR application that was later negated based on this falsification), I can offer the following: The fraudulent SAR Application was made by the self-styled Dr. Francis Jesse D’enBeau (once simply Frank Denbo). He is the person who erected the stone for Elijah Denbo that is in the cemetery in Indiana; that stone cites Revolutionary service, and of course, we know that anyone can put anything they want on a tombstone--the original stone had no such information. "Dr., D‘enBeau" was a grandson of the Joseph Denbo who married as his second wife, Jane Lowry Martin. Later, DAR applications were based on his SAR membership and court records of Elijah’s "estate" in Indiana. These were later to be considered "altered" at the courthouse. There seems to have really been an Elijah in Indiana, but no one has any idea where he came from, or whether he is really the father of Joseph.

I corresponded for some time with a Dinsmore/Densmore researcher, Mrs. Marianne S. Dinsmore. She affirmed that the "real" Elijah Denbow of the Revolutionary records, after the Revolution moved to Conway, NH and changed his name to Densmore. She said there were NH state papers referring to him under both surnames. His sons were said to have used the name Denmore/Densmore, with grandsons and subsequent generations using Dinsmore. I quote from her here:

"Elijah [of the Rev.] is buried in the Dinsmore Family Cem., Intervale, Town of Conway, Carroll Co., NH. . . [SAR application papers regarding him] are wrong. My husband made a long and careful record of all the early Denbow records in NH. Besides what he gleaned, there is a manuscript written in the early 1930s at NEHGS containing a great deal of information. The author made a few errors, but mostly she is correct in her research and facts.

"The dates in the [SAR] Denbow application are not correct; the names of wives are not correct. He says Elijah m. Sarah Emerson Willey. Well I suppose Emerson was a 'safe' name for him to use...but she was the widow Sarah (Glazier) Willey when she married Elijah...they moved to Conway, ca. 1780 with their 5 sons and 1 daughter and at least one of her children by Willey...he was not only in the Rev. But also the French and Indian Wars, where he was captured and carried off to Canada and finally got back, barely escaping with his life. his eldest son, Elijah II, went at 15 as a fifer with his father to the Revolution. He was also in the War of 1812, as were his brothers Col. Stephen, Capt. Thomas, etc. In the DAR library in Washington DC is a copy of an old family Bible listing first the Willey children and then the children of Elijah and Sarah. The line of demarcation is rather vague--faded between the two groups of children but it is there. There is no Joseph or Robert mentioned. Any Pennsylvania Denbo(w)s do not come from our NH Elijah...earlier generations of [NH] Denbows are rather merky (sic). Elijah is the fourth generation counting from Salathial, Richard, Salathial, Elijah."

Denbow, Florence Waters. The Denbow Diaspora, 1996, Vol. 3 No. 3. p. 8. http://denbow.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Diaspora-Vol.-3-No.-3-1996.pdf

The following is a note that addresses the fake headstone and information surrounding Elijah Denbo in English, Indiana. It was in regards to Lieut. Joseph Clarence Denbo and found at http://www.denbo.com/ctree/not00009.html All spelling and capitalization has been retained from the original.

OTHER NOTE (received from Robert Thomas Denbo):

Here's an amazing story in the search on the Denbo side. I've found differing accounts on the children of one ancestor, Elijah Denbo. Some accounts show one son (Joseph) and other accounts have many children.

I got copies of some of the letters from my cousin that my Aunt Katheryn Denbo Batte had from the 1950's when she did her DAR research. From these I learned of a Dr. Francis J. D'Enbeau of Terra Haute, IN. He published a Denbo genealogy in the late 1930's, a copy of which is in the Indiana State University Library. His research provided an SAR membership.

I also read letters from a Mack Tucker, who was researching the Tucker line. His letters told of a disagreement between Tucker and D'Enbeau. Tucker's evidence showed that this same Joseph Denbo married Elizabeth Tucker but D'Enbeau disagreed.

In 1992, when I talked to the Goger Glietz editor of the "Denbo Cousins" newsletter (done in 1978-79), I got the following story:

Just before Mack Tucker died about 10 years ago, he asked the editor to his nursing home to make a tape record of the story because Tucker didn't want it to be lost.

Tucker was puzzled by D'Enbeau's differing claims and investigated further. He found that D'Enbeau had faked a will linking Joseph to Elijah as his only son. Tucker researched the wills from Crawford County IN, he noticed that the wills before and after Joseph Clarence Denbo were all in the same handwritting. Joseph's will was in a different hand writting!

Elijah was descendant from a Revolutionary War veteran. He also had a fake tombstone made and placed in the Denbo Cemetery in English, IN. If that wasn't enough, he turned out to be the illegitimate son of a Denbo female. He had also confused the records to appear that his father was the Denbo and changed his name to a french spelling. Truth is definitely stranger than fiction!

I noticed that Aunt Katheryn had not used Elijah on her DAR application. She traced her line through Joseph's son's wife. I suspect that she was smart enough to avoid the Dr. D'Enbeau problem. This sort of thing is a genealogists nightmare!

1. Occupation. Probate Judge, Crawford County, IN

Joseph married Elizabeth Tucker, daughter of Jacob Tucker and Unknown, on 15 Feb 1801 in Hardin County, KY. (Elizabeth Tucker was born about 1779 in Pittsburg, PA and died on 3 Jan 1821.)

END QUOTE.

Birth Note

Some records show parents were John Denbo and Nancy Woodfield.