Charles Dengate
Charles and Alice Dengate
BIOGRAPHY PREVIEW:
A
Sketch on the The Strange Life of Charles Dengate of Arizona
by Charles Dengate's great grandson Patrick Dengate
Written September 2005
Charles Dengate was born on 19 July 1890, in London, Ontario, Canada. His
parents were Alfred Dengate who emigrated from Northiam, East Sussex, England as
a young man, and Sarah Walmsley who was born in London, Ontario. He had one
younger sister, named Clareva. Alfred, called Fred, was a baker in London, like
his family back in Northiam, but ran into trouble with creditors and moved to
Michigan around the year 1900. They settled in Ionia, where Fred worked as a
cook at the local state prison.
Alfred, Sarah, Charles and Clareva Dengate
Charles had, it seems, an unremarkable childhood. In 1910 he surprised everyone by unexpectedly joining the United States Navy, and trained as an electrician. He served on the U.S.S. Dixie, and was discharged in 1914. In 1915 he married Alice Greenhoe, whom he had probably first known as a child; both their parents knew each other and their mothers were both members of the Ladies Aid Society.
Charles Dengate, c.1914
Charles and Alice Dengate's house, Ionia, Michigan, c.1915 and below 2005
Charles and Alice had their first child, Robert, in 1916. Their second son, Maurice, was born in 1917. Around this time they purchased a small, wood frame house in Ionia. Charles was fired from his job in Ionia for, as he put it in a letter to his son Maurice dated 9 December 1938, “neglect.” After finding temporary work in various places in the area, he and Alice sold the house in Ionia and moved to Detroit, where he found work as an electrician at the Packard Motor Car Company and they bought a house on Trumbull Street. At some point around this time Charles’ parents, Fred and Sarah, also moved to Detroit, and lived on Euclid Avenue. Fred worked as a cook/steward at one of the car companies...
This is a preview - to read the full story see the June eJournal 2007
© Copyright N. Goodwin MMII