Brewer, Benjamin R. (1834-1921)

BREWER, BONEBRIGHT, FRAKES, CARMICHAEL, HOUSE, STONE, BELL, OROURKE

Posted By: Debbie Greenfield (email)
Date: 9/20/2016 at 10:49:13

Daily Freeman Journal, Webster City, Iowa, Monday, April 18, 1921

'ROLL' BREWER DROPS DEAD

Aged Pioneer Settler of Webster City Falls Dead in Home of Apoplexy

CAME HERE IN 1850

Had Lived in This Community Longer Than any Other Man

B.R. Brewer, known in Webster City for a good many years as "Roll" Brewer, dropped dead in his home Saturday afternoon at 4 o'clock of apoplexy. He had been in poor health for some time, but had been up and about all the time and his passing came unexpectedly and as a shock to relatives and friends.

The funeral was held this afternoon from the home at 1131 James street, conducted by Rev. Manson E. Miller. Mr. Brewer was past 86 years of age, having been born Oct. 20, 1834, in the state of Indiana.

Benjamin R. Brewer came to Hamilton county with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Wilson Brewer, in 1850 and the family located near the present site of Stratford, later called Hook's Point. They came from Indiana with an ox team and covered wagon and never crossed a railroad in the entire trip. After living near Hook's Point for a year the family removed to what was for many years known as the Eyer farm, just southeast of what is now Webster City, and what was later a part of Webster City. A year or two later the family removed to a claim a little nearer to the present site of Webster City and built a cabin on the north bank of Brewer creek, near the bridge on Superior street.

At the time of his death Mr. Brewer had lived longer in Webster City and vicinity than any other man, having come here with his parents in 1851 and having lived here and in this section of country for seventy years. His sister, Mrs. Thomas Bonebright, who survives him, alone equals his record of long residence and still lives in this city on a part of the homestead her father entered along in 1852.

Mr. Brewer witnessed the building of Webster City from the time the first house was erected to the present. When the family located on what was later known as the Eyer farm there was not another family in this vicinity. There was not a fence, a road or any kind of improvement, the landscape being exactly as it had been for ages.

A span of seventy years is a long time in the history of Webster City. In fact it has witnessed every improvement made here. The hardy pioneers who came to this part of Iowa in the fifties endured all the hardships incident to the opening up of a new country and they laid the broad foundations for the present civilization and prosperity. The present generation knows nothing of what they encountered and overcame, the trials that beset them and the fortitude with which they met and conquered all obstacles.

The deceased lived here continuously except during his service in the Civil war. Shortly before his departure for the front he was married to Jane Frakes, daughter of Patrick Frakes, a neighbor pioneer. Before his return from the war his wife died, leaving an infant daughter, now Mrs. Jennie Carmichael, of Clarion. Later he married Betsey Frakes, who also died leaving a daughter six weeks old, now Mrs. Margaret House, of Harlingen, Texas. His third wife, Judith Stone-Brewer, bore him three children, Charles of Kansas City, Fred, deceased, and Annetta Bell, of this city, who was but two weeks' old at her mother's death. To his last married with Ellen O'Rourke, now deceased, one son was born, Frank, who resided with his father at his death.

Roll Brewer served in the 16th Iowa regiment under Captain Williams. The time covered only about a year but was strenuous and picturesque as he was engaged at Nashville and accompanied Sherman on his march to the Sea and less destructive raids. At the close of hostilities he received his discharge, and for several years has drawn a pension.

His passing leaves but one of the original voters who elected our first county officers after the division of Hamilton and Webster counties. All now are gone except J.D. Sketchley.

During the early years of his residence here, "Roll" hunted and trapped over almost every foot of what is Hamilton county and as the herds of big game diminished in size he covered Boone, Wright, Webster and Humboldt counties. He was an expert marksman and has killed dozens of deer on the site of our present city; a favorite haunt of deer being the ravine which flanks his home and the bottom lands along the river. The numbers of wolves, wildcats, rattlesnakes and other dangerous varmints killed by him easily ran into the hundreds.

He was a student of nature instead of books. He knew the habits and haunts of wild beasts and their trails and tracks. He knew the feeding places of wild fowl and the nesting places of wood songsters. He knew the bird's love twitter, the note of content or the scream of fear. He loved the forest trees and ferns and native flowers. He could take a B-line through the woods to a storehouse of wild honey, and the root and herb fields were familiar to him. As he studied animals he studied men and found them much the same. The instinct of animals and the intuition of men is for protection, he declared, and if not gained by open conflict then by craft and cruelty. He guessed the intent of a man as accurately as he predicted the spring of the panther and he gauged his conduct accordingly. He was unacquainted with the inside walls of schools, but he was not unfamiliar with the ordinary processes of the human mind. He did not give snap judgment, but given a premise and his conclusions were generally unerring - they reached the mark as his bullets hit the target.

On his initial trip to Homer, Roll Brewer, then a youth, lost his bearings for the first and last time. Thereafter he made such a thorough study of the surrounding topography that he became an accurate and valued guide for travelers and newcomers wishing to locate land. He knew the natural fords, the location of springs and the well-stocked fish ponds, and piloted the pioneers on raft, flatboat or in canoe as well as through woods across swamps or over prairies.

Roll Brewer had the outlook and understanding of the pathfinder, and admitted in confidence that he should have followed the frontier instead of yielding to the inertia of nature and the cramping, dwarfing confines of civilization. He, however, registered no complaints and held no resentment. He passed tranquilly through, the startling changes of his more than four-score years. He kept his feet firmly planted on the ground and retained his mental faculties until the moment of his death. His advice was dependable and his friendship enduring. He was quiet, unobtrusive, unafraid. When the death of a father full of years calls from the lips of a grief-stricken son the cry - "He was a good father to me," the long life of struggle has not been in vain. Success is achieved.