ing recognized as one of the important and influential factors of community life in Nevada.
The family of which they are representatives is of German and Irish lineage. The father, Jedediah H. Benjamin, was born in New York and in early boyhood removed with his parents to Peoria county, Illinois, where his father engaged in agriculture. He remained on the farm until attaining man's estate, when he entered the mercantile business in Peoria, Illinois, but after a few years thus spent returned to farming, being thus identified until 189o, when he withdrew from active business, the substantial success which he had attained in agricultural and mercantile lines making it possible for him to live retired throughout his remaining years. He took up his residence in Winfield, Kansas, and there passed away in 1909 at the age of seventy-eight years. A democrat in politics, he held several minor offices, including that of township supervisor, and was a prominent citizen of the communities in which he made his home. His wife, who in her maidenhood was Julia Maria Tyrel, is also of German and Irish descent. Her birth occurred in the Empire state and when a young lady she accompanied her parents to Illinois and was married in Peoria. She still survives, at the age of seventy years and is a faithful and consistent member of the Presbyterian church. By her union with Mr. Benjamin she became the mother of four children, as follows: Oscar John and George Alonzo, who are mentioned below; Leitha, who was born near Princeville in 1880 and is now the wife of John D. Funk, a real-estate dealer of Winfield, Kansas; and Edna, deceased. By a former marriage Jedediah H. Benjamin had three daughters, Emma, who wedded J. K. Laycock and now makes her home on a farm in Story county; Hattie, deceased; and Ida, the wife of H. M. Blanchard, a resident of California.
Oscar John Benjamin, whose birth occurred on the 28th of July, 1869, at Peoria, Illinois, acquired his preliminary education in the district schools of Peoria county and later graduated from the Princeville high school. Later he was given the opportunity of studying in the Princeville Academy and after putting aside his text-books he entered the office of the Princeville Telephone to learn the printing business. After an apprenticeship of about two years he left that office and was employed by various daily newspapers in several cities in the middle west, where he gained comprehensive knowledge of his chosen line of work. Later he took up independent journalistic ventures, being associated with three different partners in the management of as many different papers. The year 1895 witnessed his arrival in Nevada and here, in connection with his brother, he founded the Nevada Journal. The wide and varied experience which he had previously acquired in the newspaper field made his efforts in the management of this last enterprise potent elements in what has become one of the successful and prominent papers of Nevada.
Mr. Benjamin laid the foundation for a happy home life of his own in his marriage, in December, 1900, to Miss Carrie Elliot, who was born in