MUSCATINE COUNTY IOWA REGISTER OF OLD SETTLERS BOOK ONE

Source: REGISTER OF OLD SETTLERS , BOOK One, page 93
submitted by Ronna Thuman, November 14, 2007

DIED,

—At his residence, on Muscatine Island, April 1st, 1880, at 8 o’clock p. m. of dropsy of the heart. BENJAMIN MIDDLETON, in the sixtieth year of his age.

Funeral form the residence on Sunday, April 4th, at an hour to be appointed.

We have not the material for more than a brief sketch of the life thus brought to a close. Deceased was born in 1820, at the paternal home in eastern Pennsylvania. In 1850 he came to Iowa, and with but slight interruptions has been a resident of this county for the last thirty years. Much of this period was spent in conducting a meat market in our city, but for several years past he has been known as one of our largest and most successful Island gardeners and shippers. It is scarcely two weeks since the TRIBUNE devoted a column to the examination of a recent and valuable invention of deceased, having for its object a great improvement in greenhouse and hot-bed cultivation. Standing in the TRIBUNE office at the time, he wore in his massive frame, six feet in height, his clear eye and manly voice, every appearance of robust health. But he complained on the chilly day, of a perspiration of the head, and in this reference to his condition said he had “not been right” for two years. On the 20th of March the attack came which prostrated him for the grave.

Deceased leaves a widow, (wife of a second marriage,) and eight children, issue of his first marriage, five sons and three daughters. One son and two daughters are residents of California; the others are living at or near their Island home. All are married but one.

We believe Mr. Middleton was a member of the Musserville M. D. Church. Few in this city had more of the respect and love of friends to honor their memory, than deceased.

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