Benjamin Pitcher, 1836-1920

PITCHER, HALL, BARNARD, WALDO, WALKER, CLAYPOLE

Posted By: Clay County IAGenWeb Coordinator (email)
Date: 1/14/2011 at 20:21:16

Among the residents of Spencer who at one time were closely associated with the agricultural interests of the county and are now enjoying the fruits of their former toil, is numbered Benjamin Pitcher. He is in his seventy-third year, his birth having occurred in Cambridgeshire, England, August 29, 1836. The family is an old one in that country and the grandfather, John Pitcher, spent his entire life there, meeting his death through the kick of a horse. He always followed farming as a source of livelihood. One of his children was Benjamin Pitcher, who was reared in his native land and became a butcher, following the trade in early manhood. Subsequently he turned his attention to farming. He was married in England to Miss Ann Hall, a native of that country and a daughter of Thomas and Ann Hall, who also remained residents of England, passing their lives on farms in that country. The death of Mr. Hall occurred when he had reached the venerable age of eighty-two years. Following their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin began their domestic life in England, remaining residents of Cambridgeshire until September, 1846, when the father with his family sailed to the new world and took up his abode in Rensselaer, New York. There Mr. Pitcher again engaged in farming until 1863, when he removed westward to Illinois, locating in Winnebago county, about eight miles from Rockford. His remaining days were given to general agricultural pursuits in that locality, where he died in 1881 at the age of seventy-nine years. He had long survived his wife, who died in England in 1844. They were both members of the established church of England in 1844. They were both members of the established Church of England. Of their family of three sons and two daughters only three are now living: Frances Ellen, the widow of George Warren, of Seattle, Washington; Benjamin, of this review; and William, of Port Townsend, Washington.

Benjamin Pitcher spent the first ten years of his life in the land of his birth and then came with his father to the United States, living in New York until 1855. In that year he became a resident of Winnebago county, Illinois, where he lived for several years and later removed to Green county, Wisconsin, in which locality he followed farming. A few years later he returned to Winnebago county and on the 7th of August, 1862, offered his services to the government in defense of the Union army, becoming a member of Company H, Seventy-fourth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, with which he did active duty until mustered out on June 10, 1865. He was wounded in the leg at the battle of Missionary Ridge and had a part of his heel shot away at Kenesaw Mountain, while at Dallas he was slightly wounded in the hand. He participated in eighteen hard-fought battles including the engagements at Perryville, Stone River, Tallahassee, Dalton, Dallas, Kenesaw Mountain, Peach Tree Creek, Atlanta, Jonesboro, Spring Hill, Franklin and Nashville. He was first a private but was mustered out with the rank of sergeant. After the war he returned to Winnebago county, Illinois, where he had engaged in farming and teaming. He dates his residence in Iowa from the 5th of September, 1872, on which day he arrived in Spencer and soon afterward took up a homestead of eighty acres in Dickinson county, while later he secured eighty acres in Clay county. He still owns the original tract together with eighty acres in Meadow township, Clay county, where he lived until 1893, and during that period transformed his land into a rich and productive farm, supplied with modern equipment and accessories. The place in all of its appointments is neat and well ordered, and Mr. Pitcher continued his personal supervision and practical work upon the place until 1893, when he removed to Spencer where he has since made his home.

On the 29th of November, 1857, Mr. Pitcher was married to Miss Mary W. Barnard, who was born in North Beckett, Massachusetts. Her father, John Barnard, wedded a Miss McClure, and their family included Mrs. Pitcher, who by her marriage, has become the mother of six children. John L., the eldest, a resident of Milford, Iowa, wedded Elizabeth James [Jones] and has five children, Anna, John, Olive, Mary and Walter B [and William D, born 1910]. Mary A. is a bookkeeper and stenographer in Spencer. Homer E. conducts an agricultural implement business in Spencer, and married Tirza Waldo, who has become the mother of two children. Dolly is the wife of George Walker, of Spencer, and has three children, Lou, Leslie and Francell. Agnes is the wife of C. A. Claypole, of Fort Dodge, Iowa, and has two children, Agnes and Keith. Benjamin completes the family.

Mr. and Mrs. Pitcher attend the Congregational church, of which she is a member. Mr. Pitcher’s membership relations are with Evening Shade Lodge No. 312, A. F. & A. M., and Walter Post, G. A. R., of Milford. In politics he is a republican and has always voted for the men and measures of the party. There is no more royal American citizen in Clay county than this adopted son who, though born across the water, has spent almost his entire life in the United States and has deep attachment for the institutions of this free land. He certainly proved his loyalty by his service in the Civil war and in days of peace he has been as faithful to his country as when he followed the stars and stripes on the battlefields of the south.

Corrections and additional information provided by Don Pitcher, grandson of John L. Pitcher and son of William D. Pitcher.

Contributed by: Susan Gregory. Source: History of Clay County Iowa – Steele – 1909, page 296.

Interment in Riverside cemetery
 

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