Dennis L and Mary Lightfoot
It was through the efforts of men like Dennis Lightfoot in the African American community in Newport that pressed the Board of Education to go beyond the requirements of Kentucky's education laws and make specific provision for black education. He was among several who helped start the Southgate School in 1873.
Dennis L Lightfoot was born 5 July 1847 in Maysville Kentucky, the son of Dennis Lightfoot and Caroline Ballinger. On 10 Nov 1865 he enlisted in the Colored Voluntary Army in Greensburg, Kentucky. By 1870 he was in Feesburg, Lewis Township, Brown Co Oh with his first wife Mary, working as a farm laborer. His calling came soon after and he moved to Newport and became a Baptist minister, a calling he held until he died.
Dennis and Mary Lightfoot lived at 57 Robert Street, and from 1880 through 1892 resided at 70 Columbia Street where his occupation was listed as "whitewasher". Mary apparently died by 1884 and on 28 May 1884, he married Eva Taylor, in Newport. At that time, he was the pastor of Corinthian Baptist Church, corner of Columbia and Jefferson (now 6th) Streets and was living at 111 East Eleventh Street.
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Cincinnati Enquirer, 16 April 1889, page 4
A MINISTER'S WOE
The Rev Mr. Lightfoot of Newport, who preached the funeral of Thomas Cole, the horse trainer, is in trouble. Ever since the sermon the colored people of Newport have been very indignant and Mr. Lightfoot has made himself scarce. Last Sunday he failed to put in an appearance to fill his pulpit at the First Baptist Church in that city and it had to be supplied from some other source.
The brothers of the deceased Mr. Cole have also been on the watch out for the irate preacher, and they threaten to make things warm for him if they catch him. A large meeting of colored people was held last night at the residence of Mr. Neblett, on Southgate street, Newport, and resolutions were adopted calling on the colored people not to recognize him in a ministerial capacity in the future. They claim in the resolutions that the sermon was a falsehood, and a shameful slander practiced in the pulpit at the funeral of Thomas Cole, and that his words were mortifying to his relatives who were sitting alongside of the coffin paying the last sad tribute due the dead.
Lightfoot was arrested a few years ago on the charge of bastardy and was dismissed. In his sermon he denounced Tom Cole as a gambler and said that all horse trainers were gamblers, and that people who employed them were no better. It was not Rev Mr. Vinegar who preached the sermon as some supposed.
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He continued his other occupation as whitewasher until 1892. His second wife Eva died sometime before 1899 in Eagle Point, Ohio. He married his third wife, Mary Ellen Williams, on 19 Mar 1899 in Brown Co. She was born 1867 in Bernant, Brown Co Oh, the daughter of John Garrison and Emily Ellis. She died 6 May 1901 in Brown Co.
Child of Dennis Lightfoot and Eva Taylor
1. Lizzie Overture Lightfoot b-11 June 1896 at
Five Points, Eagle Township, Brown Co Oh; d-25 Mar 1991 in Wilmington Oh; m-John
T Curtis 26 Nov 1914 in Brown Co.
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Child of Dennis Lightfoot and Mary Ellen
Williams
2. Emma Bethune Lightfoot b-Oct 1899 in Five Points, Oh; m-George Hudson 11 Nov
1919 in Brown Co. d-7 July 1921 in Brown Co Oh.
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Dennis then married his fourth wife, Susan Roberts, daughter of Casey Roberts and Susan Reed. She died 19 Feb 1925 in Chillicothe Oh. He married his fifth wife, Emma Brown, in Brown Co. She was born 22 Nov 1868 in Ross Co Oh, the daughter of Alphius Brandon & Caroline Valentine. Dennis died 5 Oct 1937 in Chillicothe Oh.
Children of Lizzie Overture Lightfoot and John T Curtis
1. Orvel L Curtis b-19 Oct 1919 in Brown Co Oh;
d-26 Aug 1993; br-Hightop Cemetery in Highland Co Oh
2. Marjene Curtis b-1921 in Brown Co Oh
3. Warren G Curtis b-22 Feb 1922 in Sardinia, Oh; d-2 Feb 1984 in Cincinnati; br-Hillsboro
Cemetery in Hillsboro Oh
4. John J Curtis b-1925 in Sardinia Oh
5. Lola L Curtis b-1926 in Sardinia Oh
6. Charles Lafayette Curtis b-11 Sep 1928 in Sardinia Oh; d-12 Sep 1997 in
Wilmington Oh
7. Earl Hayes Curtis b-22 July 1929 in Fincastle Brown Co Oh; d-16 Feb 2014; br-Hillsboro
Cemetery
8. Ethel M Curtis b-1932 in Fincastle
9. Vera J Curtis b-1935 in Fincastle
10. Eddie G Curtis b-4 Jan 1936 in Fincastle; d-11 Feb 2012 in Ohio
11. Frances J Curtis b-1938 in Fincastle
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Child of Emma Bethune Lightfoot and George Hudson
1. Harold M Hudson b-1918 in Hillsboro Oh