Walter Brewster Benjamin (1929)
BENJAMIN, BREWSTER, MORSE, HAMILTON, MCCORKLE
Posted By: Treva Patterson (email)
Date: 6/22/2007 at 09:05:30
Winterset Madisonian, Winterset, Iowa
Thursday, March 28, 1929, page 1Death of Walter Benjamin
Walter Benjamin, a former resident of Winterset and Madison county, died Friday March 22 at the home of his daughter, Mrs. George McCorkle of Earlham. E. R. Zeller, an old friend of the family wrote the following account of his life that was read at the funeral services held at the Winterset Methodist church, Sunday, March 24th.
Walter Benjamin was born July 8, 1846 at Newhall, New York, near Lake George. His father's name was Joseph Benjamin. His mother's maiden name was Luella Brewster, a descendant of the Brewsters who early came from England and figured extensively as preachers and politicians in early Colonial times. His father was a sea captain and his early ancestors were engaged in shipbuilding and sea faring. One of them served as a privateer during the Revolutionary War. The Benjamin family moved from New York to Clinton county Iowa in 1859 where Walter grew to manhood working on a farm which his father had homesteaded. He also attended Cornell college and taught school between times.
He was married to Ida Morse in 1876, when he located on a farm near by the homestead. He removed to Indianola in 1897 to educate his children at Simpson college. In 1900 he (illegible) in the east part of Jackson townshp where he resided till about ten years ago, when he removed to Winterset where he lived till the death of his wife, which occurred in 1925 and since then he made his home with his daughter, Mrs. George McCorkle, of Dallas county, where he died last Friday morning, March 22nd.
In early manhood, Mr. Benjamin united with the Methodist church of which he was an official member most of his lifetime. During his residence in Jackson townshp, being near the West Star church, he gave much of his time and means to the maintenance of that enterprise and it may be truthfully said he was a pillar of that important rural church. He was well versed in the Holy Scriptures. It cannot be said he had committed the entire Bible to memory but it can be truthfully said by any who was his Sunday school teachers that whenever a question arose about the correctness of any scriptural quotation, he could correctly state it and tell where it could be found.
There were five children born in the family; Orin, who died in Dakota in 1920; David of Winterset; Mary, Mrs. Hamilton, who died in 1919; Edith, at whose home he died; and May, who died in infancy. The funeral was held at the Methodist church Sunday afternoon, conducted by the Rev. B. W. McEldowney, assisted by Rev. A. P. Keast. Burial was made in the Winterset cemetery.
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