Daniel Pennington
Daniel Pennington (1846-1872) was a Scott County man who was murdered at his home in the Station Camp community near the Big South Fork River on July 10, 1872. He was the second person buried at Chimney Rocks Cemetery.
Biography
Born July 9, 1846, Daniel Pennington was the son of George W. Pennington (1824-1887) and Lakey Chambers (1828-1901). His mother’s grandfathers were Revolutionary War veterans William Chambers, one of the earliest settlers of Buffalo, and Randolph Lawson, one of the first settlers on New River.
Daniel was the second-oldest of 14 children. His siblings included Malinda (born 1844), George (born 1848), David (1850-1926), William (1850-1931), Sally (1850-1866), Isham Martin (1855-1915), Elizabeth (born 1857), Parzida (born 1861), James (1863-1870), Catherine (1865-1946), Mary (1869-1925), Pearl (1870-1890), and Sarah (1872-1940).
Daniel married Susanna Jane “Susan” Slaven (1852-1935). She was the daughter of Absalom Slaven (1810-1877) and Elizabeth “Betty” Wood (1814-1903). Her paternal grandfather was Richard Harve Slaven (1775-1840), the first settler of No Business Creek in what is now the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area.
Daniel had two children: William (1871-1944) and Almeda West (1871-1926). They were apparently with his first wife, Peggy, who died at a young age.
Death
On July 9, 1872 — Pennington’s 26th birthday — he was shot at by Elias Meshack “Shack” Slaven, his wife’s brother. Slaven missed, and Pennington returned fire, striking Slaven in the shoulder.
Pennington then hid in the forest near his home. Some time later, he was shot multiple times in the back. He died the next day, but remained conscious long enough to tell his wife that another of her brothers, Stuard Slaven, had shot him. Years later, the Scott County Call wrote that Stuard had confessed to acquaintances before fleeing Scott County, saying, “Don’t blame Shack. I killed him.”
Aftermath
A grand jury indicted Stuard Slaven for murder. However, he never stood trial, having fled Scott County. In 1873, Anderson Lewallen — the son of Scott County’s first sheriff, John Lewallen — was arrested when he returned home to Scott County from Texas to visit his brother-in-law, Elihu McDonald. At trial, Susan Slaven Pennington told jurors that Stuard Slaven had been the person who shot her husband, and Lewallen was acquitted. The Scott County Call wrote, “The prosecution must be satisfied, after hearing the evidence, that Lewallen was wrongfully accused.”
Lewallen went back to Texas and never returned to Scott County. Stuard Slaven died in Fresno, California, in 1911. Meshack Slaven left for Arkansas with his wife, Celia, and died there in 1922.
Susan Slaven Pennington married William Owens, who ran a grist mill on Station Camp Creek. They had many children together, most of which died of smallpox at young ages and were buried at Owens Cemetery on Station Camp Creek. She later moved to Mt. Pisgah, Kentucky, where she died in 1935.
See Also: A Family Feud – Murders in the Heartland