U.S. Veteran Gravesites, ca. 1775-2006
Name: Mervin Dennis
Service Info.: PVT US Army
Death Date: 3 Jan 1862
Service Start Date: 3 Jan 1862
Interment Date: 3 Jan 1862
Cemetery: Jefferson City National Cemetery
Cemetery Address: 1024 East McCarty Street 2900 Sheridan Road Jefferson City , MO 65101
Buried At: Section 2 Site 143

Jefferson City, Cole Co., Missouri
Jefferson City National Cemetery; Section 2; site 143
Additional headstone provided to family for placement in Joiner Cemetery, later removed to Elmwood Cemetery, Sycamore, Illinois.

Source Information:
National Cemetery Administration. U.S. Veterans Gravesites, ca.1775-2006 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Original data: National Cemetery Administration. Nationwide Gravesite Locator

From the Muster and Descriptive Rolls of Company 'B' 42 Infantry Regiment of Illinois Volunteers, Marvin Dennis was 5 feet 2" in height, with brown hair, blue eyes,light complexion, and 32 years of age. It also list is occupation as a farmer and single.

The Muster and Descriptive rolls of Company 'B', 42 Infantry Regiment of Illinois Volunteers list Marvin Dennis' cause of death as disease and that he died December 31, 1861 at Smithton, Missouri.

George Washington Dennis, father of Marvin Dennis, bought a headstone and put it in the Joiner cemetery when he could not get Marvin's body sent home after his death in Missouri during the Civil War. When the other Dennis family members were moved from the Joiner Cemetery in Mayfield to the Elmwood cemetery in Sycamore a military issue headstone was placed in the G.A.R. circle of the Elmwood cemetery for Marvin Dennis. Find A Grave Memorial 40132930.

Marvin was the fifth child of George W. and Phebe Dennis. He was about fourteen years of age when he came to Illinois with his family. He entered the Civil war when 18 years of age. He served in Co. B, 3rd Vol. of the 2nd Regiment but his war records say he was in the 42nd Regiment, Reg. Illinois Infantry at time of death. He was wounded January 16th at Smithton, Missouri and died 31st of January. He was 5 feet 2" in height, with brown hair, blue eyes and a light complexion. His war records state he was a single man. He was married to Emma Tudor but had no issue. We do not know whether there was a divorce but she is not mentioned in his will. ( I do not have a copy of his will).

The Muster and Descriptive Rolls of Co. 'B' 42nd Infantry list Marvin Dennis as single. So either Emma Tudor died or they divorced.

Marvin owned land at Mayfield, He was buried in the Joiner Cemetery but about 1938 he was moved to Service Men's section at Elmwood Cemetery at Sycamore, Ill. Two different records give January 31, 1862 and December 31, 1861 as his death date, died of a disease in a hospital at Smithton, Missouri.

Marvin's brother Gurdon Dennis paid him to serve in the Civil War for him. From the notes of Myrtle Dennis Lundberg.

In a letter written by Zinnie (Zilla) Dennis VanDivier she says: "Uncle Marvin was such a good boy and that he wasn't shot in the way stated or died from disease but that Uncle George said he got lice or vermin as they called it, then he had washed his clothes and put some sort of poison in the seams, then had to put his clothes on while still damp and this had caused the poison to go into his skin and he became delirious and died."

Source: "The Family of Robert Dennis and Sarah Howland" by Marie Ray Davis and Myrtle Lundberg.
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According to the notes of Jane Carr Baker of Thornburg, Iowa 1857- 1937; says "Marvin Dennis died in the army at Smithton, Missouri; his father bought a monument and put it in Joiner Cemetery as he could not get Marvin's body sent home.
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