USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. I > Part 38
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Belt, William Madison, physician and surgeon, was born May 10, 1810, in Fleming County. Kentucky, son of William and De- boral (Waters) Belt. llis ancestors were Marylanders of pure English descent and gen- tle birth. His grandfather, William Madison Belt, moved from Maryland to Kentucky, and was among the pioneer settlers in that State. Dr. Belt and his sister, who became Mrs. Eliza Hughes Morehead, were left orphans at an early age, and were adopted by their uncle, Jo- seph Belt, of Flemingsburg, Fleming County, Kentucky. Dr. Belt obtained his academic education at that place, and afterward received his medical degree from Transylvania Uni- versity, at Lexington, Kentucky. On the 29th of July, 1828, he married the beautiful Jane Mildred Johnston, near Greensburg, in Green County, Kentucky. She was born in Freder- icksburg, Virginia, November 27, 1812, and went with her parents to Kentucky when she was five years of age. She was the youngest child of William Waller and Anne ( Buckner) Johnston, and was a lineal descendant of Sir William Waller, the English baron. Through both her paternal and maternal grandmothers she was connected with the families of Presi- dents Madison and Monroe. Through her father she was twice eligible to the society of Colonial Dames of America, and through her mother she was a representative of a distin- guished English and American Army and Navy line. After his marriage Dr. Belt prac- ticed his profession in Greensburg until 1842. when he removed to Richmond, Missouri. Two years later he removed to Independence, Jackson County, and for many years there- after practiced his profession at that place. An old-line Whig in politics, he was an ardent ad- mirer of Henry Clay, and from time to time
took an active part in public affairs. In 186; he was appointed assistant post surgeon in the United States Army and assigned to duty at Fort Craig, New Mexico, at which General Brooke was then commanding officer. Ile died September 3, 1862, in Peralta, New Mex- ico, when in his fifty-second year. Dr. and Mrs. Belt were devout members of the Meth- odist Church, and in their home the itinerant Methodist preacher always found welcome and rest. Bishops Andrew, Bascom and Mar- vin shared their hospitality. and equally wel- come with them was the humble circuit rider. Dr. Belt and his wife were among those pio- neer settlers in Independence who helped to lay the foundations of moral, social and reli- gious conditions, and they contributed much to the betterment of the community. A chris- tian gentleman and a man of the strictest in- tegrity, Dr. Belt was an honor to his profession and to the community in which he lived. Mrs. Belt survived her husband thirty-five years, and during this long widowhood made her home with her son-in-law, Mr. George Adair Morris, of Mexico, Missouri, where she en- joyed every comlort of life and received the tenderest attention that affection could sug- gest and ample means could bestow. On the 20th of January, 1897, she passed away, sur- rounded by her children and grandchildren to the fourth generation. She was then in her eighty-fifth year, and with her demise a long and useful christian life drew to a close. Twelve children were born to Dr. and Mrs. Belt, six of whom died in infancy. Six grew up and married, and five were living in 1900. Anne Maria Belt married Dr. Thomas C. Ready. Marcus Lindsay first married Mary Burton Foree, of Kentucky, and after her death he married her sister, Jane Burton Fo- ree. Mary Eliza Belt married George Adair Morris. Alice Virginia Belt married Charles V. Erskine. Frances married John Bingle Morris.
Belton .- A city in Cass County, on the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Memphis, and the Kansas City, Osceola & Southern Railways, twenty miles northwest of Harrisonville, the county seat. It has a graded school, a Chris- tian Church, a Baptist Church, a Cumberland Presbyterian Church, a Methodist Church and a Southern Methodist Church ; lodges of Ma- sons and United Workmen; a Democratic newspaper, the "Herald": a bank, a feedmill
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and numerous business houses. In 1899 the population was 1,200. It was platted in 1871 by W. H. Colburn and G. W. Scott, and incor- porated as a city of the fourth class in April, 1880.
Benevolent Association of the Christian Church. - This association of women of the Christian denomination was organized in the spring of 1886, and obtained its charter in February of 1887. It is a na- tional association, originating in St. Louis and thus far having its headquarters in that city. Its object is to provide for the physical, moral, intellectual and spiritual wants of those who may seek and need its aid. Mrs. M. H. Younkin, of St. Louis, was the originator of the movement. She presided over the first called meeting, and was the first and only field secretary or solicitor for the first ten years, working in that capacity until her health failed, and retaining still her active in- terest. The original officers were as follows : President, Mrs. E. D. Hodgen, widow of the eminent surgeon : vice president, Mrs. B. W. Johnson; recording secretary, Mrs. O. C. Shedd; corresponding secretary, Mrs. J. K. Hansbrough; treasurer. Mrs. C. Wiggan. Mrs. Shedd and Mrs. Hansbrough have con- tinued in the office from the beginning. Mrs. Hodgen has been succeeded in the presidency by Mrs. J. H. Garrison, wife of the editor of the "Christian Evangelist," and Mrs. II. M. Meier. The executive board of the associa- tion is composed of the officers, together with the president and secretary of each branch of the work, and five resident members and five members from the church at large. all of whom are elected annually from the member . ship of the association at the annual meeting of the association. All women who are meni- bers of the Christian denomination are eligible for membership, upon the payment of one dollar per annum, or twenty-five dollars for a life membership, and each member is enti- tled to a vote at the annual elections. The president of the association may appoint a vice president in each congregation through- out the country, whose duty it will be to supervise the work of the association in such congregation, and these appointments are be- ing made as rapidly as opportunity affords. For the first two years after organization the association confined its efforts to helping the poor of St. Louis; meanwhile it was making
ready for the establishment of the Christian Orphans' Home of St. Louis, which was opened in 1889, and for which a handsome and commodious building was erected and opened for occupancy in 1894.
Ben-Hur, Tribe of .- A fraternal and beneficial order, organized at Crawfordsville, Indiana, January 16, 1894, and the first court of which was regularly instituted in that city March Ist following. Its name is derived from the famous novel entitled "Ben-Hur," written by General Lew Wallace, of Craw- fordsville, and the lessons drawn from that wonderful book are set forth in the ritualistic work of the order. The order grew rapidly, and in 1898its total membership in the United States approximated twenty thousand. St. Louis Court. No. 4. the first instituted in St. Louis, was organized December 18, 1897, and at the beginning of the year 1898 had seventy- five members.
Benjamin, John F., lawyer, soldier and member of Congress, was born at Cicero, New York, January 23, 1817, and died at Washing- ton. D. C., March 8. 1877. After receiving a good education and studying law he came to Missouri. In 1850, he was elected to the State Legislature, and in 1856 was a presidential elector. He entered the Civil War as a private in the Union Army, and rose by successive promotions to brigadier general, and served for a time as provost marshal for the Eighth District of Missouri. In 1864 he was a dele- gate to the Baltimore Convention, and the same year was elected to the Thirty-ninth Con- gress from the Eighth Missouri District, and re-elected to the Fortieth and Forty-first as a Radical Republican.
Benoist, Louis A., pioneer banker and financier, was born August 13, 1803. in St. Louis, then a French village under Spanish domination and about to become a possession of the United States. He was the son of Francois Marie Benoist, and his mother was a daughter of Charles Sanguinet, both num- bered among the men who laid the foundations of the present metropolis of the Southwest. Both of these ancestors came of noted families.
Francois Marie Benoist was the only son of Jacques Lonis Benoist, the eldest son of An- toine Gabriel Francois Benoist, Chevalier of
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the Royal and Military Order of St. Louis, which honor he received from Louis XV of France in recognition of his distinguished services in the French armies in Canada from 1735 to 1760. The Benoists were an old and illustrious French family, descending directly from Guillaume Benoist, chamberlain of Charles VII of France. Francois Marie, the father of the subject of the present notice, was born in Montreal, Canada ; and on his mater- nal side was the great-grandson of Lemoyne de Sainte Ilelene, the second of the famous sons of the renowned Charles Lemoyne and brother of De Bienville, the founder of New Orleans, and of D'Iberville, the first to enter the mouth of the Mississippi River, and one of the greatest captains of his day. Francois Marie received his education at Laval University in Quebec, and, while yet a young man, came to St. Louis.
Like many of his contemporaries, he be- came a fur trader, prospered in that business, and was able to give his family all the social and educational advantages which our country afforded at that time.
Louis A. Benoist obtained his early educa- tion under private tutorship and was at one time a pupil of Judge Tompkins, later one of the judges of the Territorial Court of Missouri. Afterward he was sent to an educational in- stitution in Kentucky, which was known as St Thomas' College, and was under the charge of Dominican priests. After remaining there three years, he returned to St. Louis and be- gan the study of medicine under the preceptor- ship of Dr. Trudeau, one of the pioneer phy- sicians of the city. He devoted two years to the study of medicine, rather for the purpose of acquiring a knowledge of the science than with the intention of becoming a medical prac- titioner. At the end of this two years, he took up the study of law in the office of Horatio Cozzens, and in the course of time was duly licensed to practice that profession. He then formed a partnership with Pierre Provenchere, a well known lawyer and conveyancer of that period, which lasted until he was called upon by his father to make a trip to France. for the purpose of settling up his grandfather's estate. His trip abroad was made in a sailing vessel and the voyage required six weeks. Six months thereafter were devoted to the bus- iness which he had been sent to France to take charge of, and at the end of that time he set sail for America, to meet with a thrilling and
perilous experience on the way. While in that arm of the Atlantic Ocean which is west of France and north of Spain, the Bay of Biscay, noted for its storms, the vessel upon which he had taken passage was wrecked, and he had a narrow escape from death as a result of that catastrophe. It was months before he could get passage on another vessel bound for America, but he finally reached this country and in due time his home in St. Louis. The bent of his mind was toward the conduct of financial affairs rather than the practice of law, and after his return to St. Louis he abandoned his profession and engaged in the brokerage and real estate business. He be- came the representative of numerous non- resident capitalists and money-lenders, and soon built up an extensive money-loaning business. In 1832 he engaged regularly in the banking business, and in 1838 his finan- cial operations had developed to such an ex- tent that he established a branch banking house in New Orleans, which was conducted, first under the name of Benoist & Hackney, and later under the name of Benoist, Shaw & Co. Both the parent house and the New Orleans branch became known as leading financial institutions of the Southwest, and did a large business until 1842, when the St. Louis house was compelled temporarily to suspend, as a result of the financial panic which had swept over the country in the years immedi- ately preceding that date. Very soon, how- ever, Mr. Benoist's financial genius enabled him to triumph over his embarrassments and he opened the doors of his bank, paid all de- positors what was due them, with ten per cent interest on the same for the time during which their funds had been tied up, and resumed his banking operations with a stronger hold than ever upon public confidence and esteem. It may truly be said of him that he was not only one of the great Western financiers of his day and generation but was a remarkably pro- gressive man in every respect. During the financial panic of 1857, when banking houses were failing all over the United States, his bank weathered the storm, its resources un- questioned, his honor and fidelity to the trust reposed in him being regarded by the public as a guarantee of the stability of the institut- tion of which he was the head. He died in 1867, while temporarily sojourning in Cuba, leaving an estate valued at more than five millions of dollars. He was a man of numer-
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ous and varied accomplishments, well read in law, medicine, and general literature, and as a banker and financier he had few equals in St. Louis or in any part of the Southwest.
Bent, Silas, lawyer and jurist, was born in 1768, in Massachusetts, and was educated in New England. In 1788 he removed to Chio, and afterward to Virginia, where he married Martha Kerr. In 1804, after holding various offices, he was appointed chief deputy surveyor for Upper Louisiana, by Albert Gallatin. This brought him to St. Louis and in 1807 he was made first judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the District of St. Louis. The next year he became auditor of public accounts. In 1800 he was made presiding judge of the St. Louis Court, and signed the first town charter. In 18H he was again public auditor, and in 1813 became a Supreme judge of Missouri Territory. This office he held until it was abolished by the admission of Missouri into the Union. After that he was appointed clerk of the St. Louis County Court. and held that office until his death in 1827. His children were John Bent, a lawyer of prominence, who died in 1845 : Charles Bent, first Governor of New Mexico under the gov- ernment of the United States ; Julia Bent, who became the wife of Governor Lilburn W. Boggs ; Lucy Bent, Dorcas Bent, William W. Bent. Mary Bent, George Bent, Robert Bent, Edward Bent, and Silas Bent.
Bent, Silas, Jr., was born October 10, 1820, in St. Louis, and died in that city, August 6. 1887. He was a son of Judge Silas Bent. and was educated under the preceptorship of Honorable Elihu HI. Shepard and at Ste. Genevieve, Columbia and St. Charles, Mis- souri. In 1836 he received an appointment to the United States Navy, and reported to Commodore Dallas for service in the West Indian Squadron. With occasional leaves of absence, he was in the naval service until a short time before the Civil War, taking part in the Seminole and Mexican Wars, and attain- ing, through successive promotions, a cap- tainey. This captainey he resigned on the eve of the Civil War, and returned to St. Louis, which was his place of residence until his death. Ile served one term as a police commissioner of that city, was a member of the board of trustees of the State Institution for the Education of the Blind, and was iden- tified with numerous important business en-
terprises. Hle married a Miss Tyler, of Louisville, Kentucky, who survived him.
Bente, Frederick G., educator, was born in Winner. Hanover, Germany. Jan- uary 22, 1859, the sixth of seven children of F. J. Bente and his wife, Maria Anne. The family emigrated to America in 1866, and after a voyage of ten weeks arrived in this country and settled at Cleveland, Ohio. Frederick G. received his early training in the common school at Winner, and from his eighth to his fourteenth year in the parochial school of Rev. Wyneken's congregation at Cleveland. The sermons and catechisations of that venerable patriarch left deep and lasting impressions in the boy's mind, who, after his confirmation, entered Concordia College of Ft. Wayne, In- diana, in 1872, and graduated from that in- stitution in 1878. From September of that year to June, 1882, he studied theology at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, putting in an extra year of study after completing the reg- ular triennium, and, having successfully passed his examinations for the candidacy on June 15, 1881, he was ordained to the ministry by the Rev. Hochstetter in St. John's Lu- theran congregation at Humberstone, Ontario, on May 7, 1882. In 1885 he was elected vice president, and from 1886 to 1893 he was the president of the Canada District of the Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and other States. In 1893 he was elected professor of theology in Concordia Seminary, and entered upon the discharge of the duties of that office in November of said year. As a member of the faculty he is also associate editor of a num- ber of periodicals published by the synod. and for years he has been in charge of an English Lutheran mission in one of the suburbs of St. Louis. On June 28. 1886, he was married to Josephine JIaserot. of Cleveland, Ohio.
Benton .- A suburban district in the west- ern part of St. Louis, which had its origin in a subdivision of lands, in the early 50's, by Ringrose D. Watson, who named the place "The Glades." When the Missouri Pacific Railroad was built a station was established there, which was named "Benton," in honor of Thomas II. Benton. This gave to the sur- rounding settlement the name which it has since borne.
Benton .- An incorporated town, the seat of justice of Scott County, located in More-
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land Township, on Houck's Missouri & Ar- kansas Railway. It was laid out in 1822 on land originally located upon by Colonel Wil- liam Meyers, and purchased by the commis- sioners designated to locate a permanent seat of justice. Among the first residents of the town were Edward Rogers, who ran a tavern, John Hout who started a tanyard, and Mich- ael McLaughlin who conducted a small store. The first frame house was built by Joseph Hunter and used as a storehouse. The first physicians to locate in the town were John Gouldin and Samuel Chapman, who con- menced practice in 1842. Chapman later lo- cated at Bloomfield and was stabbed to death there by Dr. Daniel Sanford. In 1864 the seat of justice was changed by the Legisla- ture to Commerce, and Benton received much of a set-back. It was again made the county seat in 1878 by popular vote. The first paper of the town was the "Record," established in IS79. and now conducted by Herbert E. Smith. Another paper published there is the "Scott County Newsboy," by Philip \. Haf- ner. It has a good publie school, two churches, a hotel, brickyard, flouring mill, tele- phone exchange and a limited number of gen- eral stores and small shops. Population 1899 (estimated), 400.
Benton, Alonzo Wellington, physi- cian, was born in Mason City, Iowa, May 26, 1855, son of Wellington and Nancy ( Hawkins) Benton. His father, who was an architect by profession, was born near Steubenville, Ohio, son of Asa Benton, who was born in Oneida County, New York, and traced his lineage on the paternal side to the village of Ben Town, in Wales. AAsa Benton married Elizabeth Wood, daughter of Wellington and Elizabeth Wood, the last named of whom was a daughter of Lord Loudoun. Wellington Wood was the second son of his generation, in the house of Wood, of the North of Scotland. The Lord Loudoun above referred to was the first Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and married a relative of the Duke of Wellington. Dr. Ben- ton's mother, who was born near New Albany, Indiana, was a daughter of Count John Henry Hahnkins, for many years professor of lan- guages in the University of Heidelberg, Ger- many. His father was of the house of Wilhelm Thie. Mrs. Benton's mother was Margaret Clark, who came of an old and honored Vir- ginia family. Dr. Benton was educated in the
public schools of Mason City, Iowa, and Neo- sho, Missouri, completing his studies in the higher branches under private tutorship. His medical studies were carried on in Bellevue Hospital Medical College, of New York City, from which institution he wasgraduated in the class of 1882. Immediately after receiving his diploma, he entered upon the practice of his profession in Neosho, which had been his home since he was fifteen years of age. For several years he filled the position of chief surgeon for the Kansas City, Pittsburg & Gulf Railroad, and he was also for a long period surgeon to St. Anthony's Hospital, and he has achieved well merited distinction in this branch of professional work. In politics, he is a Republican and he affiliates with fraternal or- ganizations as a member of the order of Knights of Pythias. April 5. 1883. he married Miss Lizzie Ainsworth Laycock, of Racine, Wisconsin, who died September 19. 1892. Their only child is a son, Wellesby Ainsworth Benton.
Benton, Maecenas E., lawyer, United States District Attorney, and member of Con- gress, was born in Obion County, Tennessee, January 29, 1849, and raised in Dyer County, Tennessee. He attended two academies in his native state, and St. Louis University, and then gradutated at the law school of Cumber- land University, Tennessee. In 1870 he came to Missouri and located at Neosho. Ile is very popular with his party in southwest Mis- souri, and has been repeatedly sent as delegate to the Democratic State Convention, and on three occasions served as its president. In 1878 he was elected prosecuting attorney of Newton County, and re-elected in 1880, and he was United States District Attorney from March, 1885, to July, 1889, when he was re- moved for what President Cleveland desig- nated "pernicious activity" in politics. He has served on the Democratic State Central Committee for the State at large, and was delegate to the National Democratic Conven- tion at Chicago, in 1896. In that year he was elected to Congress, and in 1808 was re- elected by a vote of 20,400 to 16,949 for F. E. Williams, Republican.
Benton, Thomas Hart, the most dis- tinguished statesman accredited to Missouri, was born March 14, 1782, near Hillsborough, North Carolina, and died in Washington,
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D. C., April 10, 1858. His father was Col- onel Jesse Benton, a lawyer, of North Caro- lina, and his mother was Ann (Gooch) Benton, and came of the Gooch family of Virginia. Half-orphaned by the death of his father when he was eight years of age, Thomas H. Benton grew up under the care of his mother, and in his early youth had few opportunities for study. The extent of his academic training appears to have been attendance for a time at the grammar school and a short course of study at the University of North Carolina. Ile left the last named institution to remove with his mother's family to Tennessee, where they occupied a large tract of land, which had been acquired by his father, and founded what became known as "The Widow Benton's Set- tlement." Later this place took the name of Bentontown, and is so called at the present time. Benton studied law with St. George Tucker, and in 1811 was admitted to the bar under the patronage of Andrew Jackson, at that time a judge of the Supreme Court and his warm friend. Elected to the Legislature of Tennessee, he obtained the passage of a law for the reform of the judicial system of the State, and another by which the right of trial by jury was given to slaves. In the War of 1812 he was for a time Jackson's aid-de- camp, and also raised a regiment of volun- teers. Later, owing to a quarrel, in which his brother, Tesse, and William Carroll. after- ward General Carroll, became involved, he and his former friend, General Jackson, be- came bitter enemies. On the 4th of Septem- ber. 1813, the Benton brothers and General Jackson had an encounter in Nashville, in which knives and pistols were freely used, and Jackson received a ball in his left shoulder, while Jesse Benton received severe dirk wounds. In 1813 Benton was appointed a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army, and set ont to serve in Canada, but peace be- ing declared soon afterward, he returned and resigned his commission. In 1815 he came to St. Louis, and began the practice of law there. About the same time he established a newspaper. "The Missouri Inquirer." and through this journal he vigorously advocated the admission of Missouri as a State. A tragic incident of the early years of his residence in St. Louis was his duel with Charles Lucas, fought on Bloody Island, in 1817, which re- stilted in the death of Lucas. Notwithstand- ing this unfortunate affair, and the extent to
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