Cyril Benjamin Erskine

ERSKINE THOMAS FRISBIE WALTERS

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 8/26/2010 at 21:27:47

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Cyril Benjamin Erskine
By Bonnie J Heetland

Benjamin was born September 27, 1869, at Grant Township, Monona County, Iowa. He was the son of Levi Dermont and Leanora Lavonche Thomas Erskine and the brother of Charles, Arthur, Edwin and Quincey. All were born in Monona County, but lived at one time in Sioux City.

Benjamin attended the Erskine School in Grant Township, Monona County; Professor J S Shoup’s private and normal school at Smithland, Iowa; Mapleton High School; and graduated from the Iowa Business College of Des Moines, Iowa.

He came to Sioux City in 1890 and painted houses for himself and worked for Dincen Brothers paint ship and also at the Vinegar and Pickling Works as shipping clerk. He took a teachers exam and under the Superintendent of Woodbury County Schools and taught school in Adams Districk, east of Smithland in 1891. He worked for A Heller & Sons meat packers, from there went to the American & Wells Fargo Express Company as a money driver, jewelry and C.O.D.’s deliverer. After compelting a Civl Service exam, he went to work in 1895 as mail weigher for Clipper Trains, on the Illinois Central Railraod between Sioux City and Fort Dodge, Iowa. On the twenty-third of November 1895, he was appointed to the St Paul office as Clerk on Chicago, St Paul & Omaha line. He resigned November 29, 1908, because of ill health due to Cerebro Spinal Meningitis.

He married Minnie Alice Frisbie in Sioux City, Iowa, on May 20, 1893. She was the daughter of Jessie and Alice Walters Frisbie of Eldora, Iowa. She was born in Owasa, Iowa, September 19, 1876. They had six children, Cecil, Anne, Edith, Jesse, Walter and Marian. All but one was born in Sioux City. She was a member of the O.K. Bridge Club and active in the Grace Methodist Church and church groups.

Benjamin was a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, belonging to Blue Lodge downtown Sioux City and a Shriner. He was a member of the Christian Church, Tyrian Lodge 508, AF & AM, Sioux City Consistory 5, and Abu-Bekr Shriner Temple. He spent a great deal of his time and energy doing family history. (An excellent genealogist.)

His aim in life was ‘Not to annoy anyone, but would like to help my relatives and friends and all who are struggling toward the light, trying to make the world a better and happier place in which to live and leave our loved ones. And not to have lived in vain.’

Benjamin died May 19, 1948; his wife, Minnie, died Janaury 4, 1954. Both died in Sioux City and are buried in Graceland Cemetery in Sioux City. All but four of his children, grandchildren, great grand-children and great great grandchildren were born in Sioux City.