Asa

Asa Lee "Ace" Denison was born February 15, 1895. In 1911, he married Orless Clara Vandeventer. He fathered Pauline, Everett Roy, Roscoe Nolan, Rose Ellan, and Betty Lou.

In 1920, Ace and Key moved their families from Denton County to a place 8 miles south of Quanah. They made a deal with the landowner to farm the land "on the halves." They furnished the labor, and the landowner provided tools, equipment, stock, and seed. The owner would get half the profits, and Ace and Key would split the other half between them. This was virgin land; until the year before, it had been solid in Mesquite trees. Between the lack of rain, rattlesnakes, and tree stumps damaging the plows, they had to give it up three years later. Both families went back to Denton County on the train except for Ace, Key, and Everett, who spent 5 days traveling to John and Martha's farm near Slidell, in a covered wagon pulled by mules.

Up until 1933, Asa had been a farmer, mostly near Hebron. Around the time he moved his family to Lewisville, he went to work for Denton County, operating big machinery doing road construction. In the mid 1930s, he was hired as Deputy to Sheriff Dallas Curtsinger. As the Jailor, he moved his family into the Jailor's living quarters. Betty recalled that her mother was in charge of cooking for the prisoners, but that "living in the jail was a ball for a kid" until Asa was promoted to full time deputy, and they moved into a house. He was later a Dallas jailer, then manager of Carrollton Water Works, where he worked until he retired. Asa passed in 1960.

Orless and Asa