| Other People | Frank J. Bradley | Olive Rambo Cook | Jerry Litton | | |||
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Past and Present of Livingston County Volume 2. Biographies by Major A. J. Roof. 1913 |
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Pages 152-156
Photo available
H. K. Benson is living retired in Mooresville after a period of close identification with agricultural interests of Livingston county, covering a period of almost thirty years. He was born near Knoxville, Illinois, November 11, 1842, and is a son of R. C. and Sallie J. (Bradford) Benson, the father formerly a pioneer farmer and cattle dealer of Knoxville, The family is of old Scotch origin and was founded in America by the great-grandfather of the subject of this review. The father continued to engage in agricultural pursuits for many years, making his influence felt in farming and business circles and attaining a high degree of prosperity and prominence. He died in 1900 and was survived by his wife for nine years. Both are buried in the cemetery at Knoxville, Illinois.
H. K. Benson acquired his education in the public schools of his native city, laying aside his books at the age of eighteen in order to fight in the Civil war as a member of Company A, Eighth Missouri Infantry. He took part in several hotly contested battles and at the close of hostilities returned to Knox county, Illinois, where for two years he assisted his father with the operation of the home farm. At the expiration of that time he came to Livingston county and purchased a farm of one hundred and twenty acres, eighty of which was improved, the remainder being timber land, which by well directed and practical labor he brought to a high state of cultivation. He built a fine residence upon it, erected barns and outbuildings and installed all the machinery and accessories necessary in the conduct of a model farm. Success came rapidly as a result of his progressive methods and untiring labor, Mr. Benson finally winning a competence, sufficient to enable him to retire from active life in 1896. He sold forty acres of his farm and rented the remaining eighty and purchased a house in Mooresville, in which he has since resided, enjoying in well earned rest the fruits of his former toil.
On the 5th of September, 1865, Mr. Benson married, in Percifer township, Knox county, Illinois, Miss Mandana Elliott, a daughter of Hiram and Mary Elliott, the former a prominent farmer and the owner of the Mooresville mill. Both have passed away and are buried in Arkansas. Mr. and Mrs. Benson became the parents of nine children: Robert, who died in 1906, at the age of thirty-two, and who is buried at Longmont, Colorado; Harvey, who is engaged in ranching near Longmont; Florence, who became the wife of John J. Gibeaut, a stone and cement contractor in Breckenridge, Missouri; Hiram, a rural mail carrier, residing in Mooresville; John T., a rock worker in Breckenridge; Charles, who makes his home in Mooresville; William G., serving as deputy postmaster of Mooresville; Sadie, who is connected with the Mooresville Telephone Company and who resides at home; and O. V., foreman of a sugar factory in Holly, Colorado.
Mr. Benson is a consistent republican in his political beliefs, but while keenly interested in the welfare and progress of Livingston county, has never been active as an office seeker. Having spent almost fifty years of his life in this part of Missouri, he is well and favorably known here and has gained the warm regard and esteem of all who have been associated with him.