Background
Dent was born in Charles County, Maryland, in 1817. His father was an Episcopal priest who served in a Maryland regiment during the Revolutionary War.
Dent was born in Charles County, Maryland, in 1817. His father was an Episcopal priest who served in a Maryland regiment during the Revolutionary War.
He became an attorney in the 1840s and set up a practice in Saint Louis, Missouri. In the following decade, a cholera epidemic broke out in Saint Louis, and Dent became a prominent relief worker and organizer. He remained in Saint Louis until 1861, when the Civil War began, at which time he moved to Washington, District of Columbia Dent never argued law in the District of Columbia courts, but had a thriving wartime practice as the custodian of absentee properties: because his strong sympathies for the Democratic Party were well known, Washington and District residents who joined the Confederacy would leave their property in his care to maintain and protect from government confiscation.
The institute was an alternative educational institution for young men who could not otherwise afford college.
lieutenant became host over its existence to hundreds of male students, making Dent"s reputation as a deeply committed educator. In July 1878, President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed Dent as the Democratic commissioner on that board.
Dent became president of the board in the following year, after the resignation of Seth Ledyard Phelps, serving until July 1882. During his term as board president, Dent was noted for improving the relations between the capital city and the United States. Treasury.
He was buried in Washington"s Oak Hill Cemetery.
Dent was, in 1874, a member of the Congressionally mandated committee that recommended the disposal of the territorial government and the formulation of a three-member board of commissioners (one Democrat, one Republican, and one nonaffiliated planning engineer) for the District of Columbia.
