Since becoming more interested in our name and wishing to know more about any one bearig our name that had the character shown in relation to the lost purse I wrote Mr. John T. DeHart, an attorney of Bristol Va,. And asked him to tell me anything he could about the man or the incident.

On May 26, 1934, Mr. DeHart wrote me the following: The Colonel DeHart you wrote me of was my uncle, Do. Dick DeHart of LaFayette Indiana, a brigadier General under Sherman during the Civil War when he was 21 years of age. As a boy he studied law under Dan Vourhees, the noted criminal lawyer, and also was tutored by Lew Wallace, of LaFayette the author of Ben Hur. Uncle Dick Dick was a noted criminal orator and handled many noted criminal cases in the west. When he died much was of him in the press. I have the press account of his life which will endeavor to find and send you later. I have a history my immediate family going back to John Hart signer of the Declaration of Independence from New Jersey. When he was compelled to leave France he dropped the ‘d’ prefix before his name because of dislike of France, but his descendents went back to went back to the original name DeHart. Americanizing it by changing the small “d” to a capital. In the press account of the kidnaping the Lindberg baby it was reported that in sight of the Lindburg home was a rock cabin where John Hart refugeed from British soldiers in the Revolutionary War.

The Dr. William DeHart to whom you refer was my father and was educated for a lawyer but on account of the bursting of a shell in the Civil war one ear became defective he became a dentist. He also lived at Logansport, and later LaFayett, Indiana, and was doubtless on a visit at the time of the incident y refer to. I have much data which will be interesting, etc.

“Hope to be with you sometime. During reconstruction my father was in charge of this territory in Virginia under the Lincoln administration and met my mother, a Southern girl. So I am half Northern and half Southern.”

Contributed by John R. DeHart
Document Prepared by Gloria Lambert

Mail to: Amber Dalakas

DeHart History Page

DeHart Main Page

Please support RootsWeb

You are our 1174 visitor -- thanks for stopping by!

Last updated: Tuesday, 07-Oct-2008 15:46:51 MDT