Denver, Tennessee…..ever heard of it?

I wanted to provide some background information on the small community of Denver, Tennessee, where our grandfather, John Thomas Goodwin was born in the year 1895. It is a small community that is approximately 254 miles from Louisville, Illinois.

Denver is located in Humphrey’s County, which is on the western edge of Middle Tennessee, one of the states three “grand divisions”.  The county was formed in 1809 from lands of Stewart County. The County Seat is Waverly; other communities include Bakerville, Buffalo, Hurricane Mills, McEwen, New Johnsonville, and Hustburg.

As I mentioned, Denver is where Grandpa John was born, as well as several of his siblings.  His father, Felix Grundy Goodwin had relocated here from his birthplace of Kentucky and married John’s mother, Amanda Warren on June 21, 1884.  I actually have Tennessee State documents that record this marriage and I will share that with you in later posts (once I figure out how to scan documents).  

Felix would have been 18 years of age at the time of this marriage and Amanda was 17.  The birth of their first child, Bertha (Bertie) was in December of 1885.  Three more children would be born of this union, Harry W. (July 1888), Laura B. (March 1893) and our grandfather, John Thomas (1895).

I am still searching for Amanda Warren Goodwin's death certificate, but I show that she is gone in 1899, at which time I find records of Felix’s second marriage on May 28, 1899 to  Nora Evangeline Shaver.  Felix was 33 at the time and Nora was 21 years old.  Their first child, Felix Clinton was born September 7, 1900, and was quickly followed by two more siblings, Hester Louise and Lottie Mae, all born in Denver.

Dad tells me that he recalls visiting one of the sisters in Tennessee when he was a small boy, but couldn’t remember which one.  I mentioned this to Lottie Mae’s son, Tony, and he confirmed that his mother was aware of her older siblings and that they had remained in contact with a half-brother which I am going to assume was  Grandpa John.  

Tony told me that he would do what he could to confirm that information.  He also told me that he was going to go through all of his mother’s old photos with another cousin (who is 85 years old, but with a great memory) to see if they could find any with John in them!

I am including a photo I recently came across of the Denver, Tennessee post office. It's not much to speak of, but I love the picture. Someday I would like to take a weekend road trip to this little “bump in the road” and just check out the area. While this isn't actually where our family originates from (since great-grandpa Felix was actually in Kentucky) it is where our grandfather John was born and raised for the first fifteen years or so of his life.

Humphrey’s County is also where a lot of the Goodwin family ancestors are buried, so again, I am anxious to plan a road trip to the area to see what else I can find in regards to our family history.