Nancy L. Benedict 1830-1923

MARTIN, HUMMELL, BENEDICT, DEMPSTER

Posted By: Jim Resch (email)
Date: 4/15/2004 at 08:03:56

A Pioneer Lady Passes
Nancy L. Martin was born in Illyria, lorrain County, Ohio, Jan. 18, 1830, and died at Arlington, Iowa, June 15, 1923; aged 93 years, four months and 27 days.

In May 1835 she moved with her parents to Ypsilanti, Michigan. The next October they moved to Fulton County, Illinois where she was married to Samuel Hummell on Dec. 23, 1845. They moved to Mount Carrol, Carrol County, Illinois in March 1846 and then back to Fulton County in August 1847; from there they moved to Waterloo, Iowa in April 1854 where they lived until September, 1856 when they moved to Algona, Kossuth County, Iowa. This was during the Indian troubles so they moved back to Fayette County in the spring of 1857. They bought a home and settled in Clayton County in 1865 where she lived at the time of the death of her husband, Samuel Hummell, which occurred on August 22, 1872. She was married to W. H. Benedict in 1874 and with him moved to Arlington, Fayette County in 1886 where she was again widowed on June 23, 1911.

The children born to the first union were Eliza, wife of John Dempster, Tyndall, S. Dak; Martin, Arlington, Iowa (now deceased); Martha, wife of the late W.W. Burns, Arlington, Iowa, with whom she resided during her declining years; Mary E. deceased, wife of Wm. Bird of Washington County, Kansas; J.A. Hummell, deceased; George W., living in Columet, Iowa; two infant boys, deceased; E.B. Hummell, Alberta, Canada. There were no children by the second union.

Nancy united with the Freewill Baptist church when fourteen years of age and joined the Close Communion Baptist church while living in Waterloo, Iowa. When she first lived in Arlington she was a member of the Brethern church but joined the Methodist church in 1899 where she remained faithful until the last.
Michigan became a state the year she lived at Ypsillanti and the Indians came to Ypsillanti to get their last payment for the land which they sold to the whites. They camped three weeks in the edge of town near the home of her father. Her mother was very kind to the Indians. One incident of her kindness was when they sent bread, milk, and mince pie by an Indian to his sick squaw. This kindness was more than repaid when they were moving across country to Illinois, their road ran though the towns where the Indians lived and as they were going through the same Indian recognized and stopped them directing them to take a road which would be two miles out of their way because he said that some bad white men lived on the main road and the Indians intended to burn them out that same night and it would be dangerous to pass that way. That night the Indians did burn all the hay and grain in the vicinity of the above mentioned white men.

The country near Fairview, Fulton County, Illinois where Nancy and her parents lived was quite wild when they landed there. They could look out on the prairie any afternoon and see large packs of wolves, here her father settled on a trac of land and built a small cabin in which they lived until he could improve the land and build a larger house. It was here that she was married to Samuel Hummell who was a native of Jackson County, Ohio. Nothing of general interest happened until they moved to Algona, Kossuth County, Iowa. They lived forty miles from Spirit Lake, there being but one cabin between them and Spirit Lake when the great Indian Massacre occurred, at which all the people of that town were massacred except two women which the Indians took away with them. One became tired and unable to go farther and while she was crossing a creek on a log they shot her and let the body float down stream. The other lady was later bought from the Indians by the whites through the agency of some friendly Sioux Indians who brought her back to Spirit Lake. The Indians sent word by some trappers to the people of Lagoon that they were going to serve them the same way, and after this warning the people of the neighborhood went to Algona with what they could carry of their belongings and built a fort, but the state troops from Fort Dodge arrived before the Indians could get to Algona, giving them a fruitless chase for two days. It was these troops that hired a friendly Sioux to buy the white women captive. This occurred during the winter of the deepest snow that Iowa has ever known.

In April 1857, Nancy with her six children started for Fayette County with wagon and oxen in company with fourteen horse teams. Twice they had to swim creeks and once had to swim Boone River; the water in Prairie Creek was 20 feet deep at the place where they crossed. She drove the oxen herself, also during the crossing of the river, which was very difficult; she stood with one foot on the wagon tongue and held to the wagon bow while driving across the river. There was a sick woman in the party and they placed her and Nancy's children all in a wagon box on top of another wagon box whenever they had to swim streams and Nancy took them on her wagon. They were Fourteen days on the road from Algona until they reached her father's place in Fayette County. All the teams and people besides Nancy and the children had quit the party by time they arrived except one family by the name of Cory. Her husband stayed in Algona to help keep the Indians back, coming on July 12th after settling up for their land and what was left of their belongings.

They had a large log house on their eighty acres of land there, the cabin they first lived in was a thatch cabin 10 x 12. During the time they lived in it there came a big timber and prairie fire and she was alone with the children. There were seven loads of shingles and ox yokes which had been hauled from Waterloo piled around the cabin and she saved these with the cabin, but the hay, tools, stables, and everything else was burned. She saved the children by putting them on a patch of burned prairie. When they moved to Waterloo it consisted of but one frame house and ten dugouts or cabins.

We should always remember her as... Kind and good and true, and we should live to follow her when our journeys are through. Her life has been a struggle, her battles have been won, and we can only repeat, "Thy Masters will be done". - J.W.

Mrs. Nancy Benedict was an invalid, blind and helpless, for fourteen years. Her friends and acquaintances marveled at her patience and cheerful disposition despite all the affliction of this noble aged lady.

Those that are left to mourn her loss are Eliza, Martha, George and Elijah, and a large number of grand, great-grand, and great-great-grand children.
Funeral services were held Sunday from the home in charge of Rev. H. A. Crumb of the M. E. church, and the remains were tenderly laid to rest in Taylorsville cemetery in the family lot.
- Newspaper Obituary