Samuel Dent
Samuel Dent was born enslaved around 1835 in Tuscumbia, Alabama. A butler in home of Edmond Elliot, he escaped in April 1862 when the 19th Illinois Infantry advanced on Decatur and Tuscumbia. Dent approached the regiment, seeking freedom. He got a job with the Union Army assisting the 19th Illinois' surgeon, Dr. Roswell G. Bogue, washing dishes, cooking and tending horses.
He had such skill with horses that after the war he came north and found work in Chicago driving carriages. Amidst the losses of the Chicago Fire of 1871, Samuel Dent and his wife Eliza Jane decided to relocate to Lake Forest, which had a small African-American community and an African Methodist Episcopal church.
At first he earned a living chopping wood, but soon noticed a business opportunity – though Lake Forest’s hotels, Academy, and most homes were close to the train station, they weren’t so close that people were able to haul their own trunks and parcels. Samuel Dent borrowed $85 from a professor at the Academy to buy a horse and rig and started a livery service. He paid the long-term loan back in three months and eventually built a stable at 179 E. Deerpath, with eight horses and several fine carriages.
Caption: Lake Forest Stentor, October 1887
Samuel Dent became a well-known resident of Lake Forest and a leader in the AME church. His gregarious personality gained him a reputation as a tour guide and promoter of the community.
After Samuel Dent died in 1890, citizens of Lake Forest built a monument at his gravesite “in token of their esteem for an humble Christian, a respected citizen, a faithful friend.” Years later, in 1965, a local jazz band sought to capture his spirit through their music and named themselves in his honor the “Samuel Dent Memorial Jazz Band.”
In February 1890, Lake Forest University student William Danforth published an interview he conducted with Samuel Dent in the LFU newspaper, The Stentor. You can read the article in its entirety below.
[Note: the article includes the writer’s attempt to duplicate Samuel Dent’s dialect, in the style of early 20th century writers like Mark Twain. This style would be considered offensive today.]
