Fleming Gent was born March 1, 1843 in Ohio. He must have been orphaned early on in life because the first census record that I was able to find on him was when he was aged 8 and living on a farm with Reuben and Mary King in Massac, Illinois. On his death record his parents were listed as Sels Gent and his mother only had the last name of Shelton, so it’s likely that he had no memory of her.
By the 1860 census, Fleming had moved north and was living in Williamson Coounty near Sulphur Springs north of Creal Springs with another family named David and Mary Shields. He was aged 18 and working as a laborer.
In 1861, at the start of the Civil War, a small group of Marion residents went south to Paducah, across the Ohio River, and enlisted in the Confederate Army. Mustering at Union City, Tennessee, they became Company G of the 15th Tennessee Volunteer Regiment of Infantry.
Fleming walked to Paducah with the others to enlist in the Tennessee Company which was recruited by Captain Hibe Cunningham, himself a Marion man, and a brother of Mrs. John A. Logan, wife of the famous Union army general who about the same time was recruiting soldiers for the Union side.
The Regiment’s Confederate leader, Thorndike Brooks, also from Marion, was 33 years old when he led those 28 men away from Williamson County. He was elected Captain of the unit on the day that it was mustered into the Rebel Army.
Hibert A. “Hibe” Cunningham, the brother of Mary Cunningham Logan, wife of John A. Logan, believed that Logan would follow him south, but was quickly proven wrong. Popular with the Confederate enlisted men, he was elected second-in-command of Thorndike Brooks’ Company.
But Cunningham was openly discontented with his role, and did nothing to cover himself with glory in battle. His actual activities are somewhat of a mystery, but what is known is that in June of 1863 he requested a furlough and disappeared from the Confederate camps.
He showed up at the Union Army headquarters of his brother-in-law and requested a Federal commission. While still listed in the Confederate ranks as a deserter, Hibe Cunningham was sworn in as an aide-de-camp to his sister’s husband, Major General John A. Logan, and finished the war in Union blue.
In the battle of Shiloh, another Marion man in the regiment named William Mart Davis was wounded and was taken back from the front in a mule wagon driven by Flem Gent. The wounded soldiers were numerous in that battle and Mr. Gent drove over the battle field with other wagon drivers hauling the wounded back from the lines. Mr. Davis was picked up and placed on his wagon where many other wounded and dying were already being borne away from the field.
In 1864 Fleming married Sarah Jane Ford, daughter of Abel Ford and Nancy Westbrook. Sarah was born in Illinois on January 13, 1846.
In the 1870 census, Fleming was a 26 year old farmer with a farm valued at $200 living near Cedar Bluff in Johnson County, Illinois. His wife Sarah was 23 and at the time they had two children, Charles Gent 5, born in 1865, and Lucy Gent aged 2, born in 1868.
By the census of 1880, the couple had moved to Tunnel Hill and were “keeping hotel”. It could be that the hotel was their home since there were two boarders listed on the census. The couple is now in their thirties and have had another child since the last census, a girl born in 1873 named Mary Gent.
Fleming’s first wife, Sarah, died on Jan 27, 1891 at New Burnside, Illinois. Before the year was out, he had remarried to Parthena Elizabeth Hudspeth, daughter of James Hudspeth and Sarah Page, both from Tennessee. Parthena went by her middle name Elizabeth and was born in Illinois on December 18, 1843, the same year as Fleming’s birth.
Goodspeed’s history of Williamson County includes Fleming as among the current merchants in 1894, prior to the history’s publication in 1895. Gent was listed as a grocer doing business as Davis & Gent and also as a livery operator. Flem Gent, as he was called, served as a Marion Alderman in 1891 and 1892.
A fire reported in the local newspaper dated November 19, 1896 gives us a clue as to where one of their businesses was located. The fire was centered on the south side of the 900 block of the square next to E. College St. The fire managed to jump across E. College Street and set fire to a livery stable. The article is as follows, “Mrs. F. Gent owned the livery stable that was burned. It was insured for $200. The lot is probably more valuable without the barn than with it, yet it served the purpose of a livery stable very well. Mr. Gent had about $75 worth of feed in the barn which he lost without insurance.” This confirms that Gent Livery was located in the 100 block of East College St.
According to a recorded memory of W.T. Husdpeth who occupied a barber shop on N. Market Street for decades starting around 1904, Fleming Gent, at that same time, had a merry-go-round on the vacant lot where Kimmell’s auto supply used to stand on the corner of E. Union and N. Market.
In a 1907 Marion City directory, Fleming claims to be retired and living at 308 ½ N. Market St. but in the 1910 census he claims to be a self-employed real estate agent. In this census, the two are both 66 years old now. They have Elizabeth’s 67 year old widowed sister, Margaret Hudspeth living with them in a rental home at 305 N. Buchanan St. Elizabeth claims to have been married twice and had seven children of which three survive.
By 1920, Fleming and Elizabeth are 77 years old and renting a home at 202 E. Jefferson St. A 1922 directory reaffirms this location.
Fleming Gent died on January 16, 1924 at age 80. His wife, Elizabeth, continued living in the Jefferson St. home until her death at age 92 years and 10 months on November 13, 1936. She was buried on the 15th at Rose Hill next to Fleming.
Sam’s Note:
Lucy Gent was born in 1868 in Tunnel Hill, Johnson County. Her name was listed as Lucy in 1870 but Nancy in the 1880 census. Looked for marriage and death records, none found.
Charles Gent, (1865-1942), see his biography at Gent, Charles A.
Mary Etta Gent Ferguson, born December 13, 1871 at Tunnel Hill, Illinois. She married John Grant Ferguson on January 10, 1889 in Williamson County. They were listed as living in the City of Marion during the 1900 census. John worked as a telegraph operator. She claimed to have had five children with four living. By 1910 they moved to Texas and lived the majority of their lives out at Texarkana, Texas. They had nine children total. Mary died on April 11, 1949 in Paris,Texas.
(Data from Goodspeed’s History of Williamson County; Federal Census Records; Marion City Directories; Marion City Cemetery Records; Illinois Regional Archives Depository; compiled by Sam Lattuca on 05/01/2013)