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Submitted: 2/28/12 • Approved: 6/17/23 • Last Updated: 6/20/23 • R657199-G657199-S3
Catherine
1844 - 1936*
*Obituary (as written)
Arkansas Countryman
Thursday, August 7, 1930
BENBROOK, Mrs. H.M. - (from Harris) Mrs. H.M. Benbrook has been in quite poor health for a week. She is our oldest citizen and will be 86 years old in September. Mrs. Benbrook is the wife of H.M. Benbrook of this place and the mother of Herbert Benbrook of the Fayetteville Water Company. We will try to secure the photos of Mr. and Mrs. Benbrook for the Countryman in the near future.
Hosea
Tuck Smiths Company
Civil War Confederate
October 8, 1846 - October 10, 1943
*Obituary
Northwest Arkansas Times
Monday, October 11, 1943
Hosea M. Benbrook, Civil War Veteran, Dies Here Sunday - Hosea Maguire Benbrook, 96, died Sunday night at 11:30 at the home of his son and daughter-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. H.H. Benbrook, on Mount Sequoyah. Mr. Benbrook was one of Fayetteville's oldest residents, and its last United Confederate veteran, as far as is known. He attended the last Civil War veterans reunion for both Confederate and Federal veterans held at Gettysburg in 1937, when he received the Confederate Distinguished Service cross. He also held the Confederate Cross of Honor awarded previously by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
Survivors include two sons, H.H. Benbrook of Fayetteville and Pete Benbrook of Little Rock; two sisters, Mrs. Nan Wood of Fayetteville and Mrs. Levada Benbrook Williams; five grandchildren; and eight great grandchildren. Funeral services will be held Sunday afternoon at 2 o'clock at the Nelson-Savage funeral home.
*Obituary
Northwest Arkansas Times
Saturday, October 16, 1943
Funeral Services For Hosea Benbrook Sunday at 2 P.M. - Funeral services will be held Sunday afternoon at 2 o'clock at the Nelson-Savage funeral home for the late Hosea Maguire Benbrook, retired trader, stockman and pioneer citizen.
A life-long friend, the Rev. P.W. Mason will officiate, assisted by the Rev. John McConnell. Burial will be at Strain cemetery with a brief service at the grave for benefit of friends in the vicinity unable to attend the Fayetteville services. Pallbearers will be Roy Williams, Henry George, Walter Smith, John Morrison, Roy Cole, Witt Carter, Wallace Shoffner and Edd Fincher.
Mr. Benbrook died last Sunday following a brief illness. He was nearly 97 years old and believed to be Fayetteville's oldest resident. He was also its last Confederate veteran. He is survived by two sons, H.H. Benbrook of Mount Sequoyah and Pete Benbrook of Little Rock; two sisters, Mrs. Nan Benbrook Wood of 216 Sutton street, 95; and Mrs. Lavada Williams of Teague, Texas who also is elderly and who will be unable to be present; five grandchildren and eight great grandchildren. His wife, with whom he celebrated his 66th wedding anniversary, was the late Cathryn Irvin, daughter of the pioneer citizen, John Irvin. Mr. Benbrook's hobby was history and he was considered an authority on local historical events.
*Obituary
Northwest Arkansas Times
Monday, October 18, 1943
(PHOTO) Hosea Maguire Benbrook, Last UCV Member in Fayetteville, Is Buried Sunday in County's Early Cemetery - Hosea Maguire Benbrook, 97, who was laid to rest at Strain cemetery Sunday afternoon, was one of Washington County's last pioneer citizens and its last Confederate veteran.
The eldest of 11 children, he was a son of earlier pioneers, Ewing and Kathryn Fincher Benbrook. He was born October 8, 1846 near Maguire Town, famous early trading post near Elkins and frequented more than a century ago by notables such as Albert Pike and Archibald Yell and others. He was a member of the same Masonic lodge attended there by these famous Masons and was a kinsman of the late Dr. H.D. Wood who attended school in the vicinity. He was married to Kathryn Fincher in a ceremony performed by Rev. Luther Bell on January 1, 1870. Of the 21 persons who attended the wedding, only one, Mr. Benbrook's sister, Mrs. Nan Wood is living. She recently observed her 95th birthday. He and his wife lived together for 66 years and celebrated that wedding anniversary as their last.
Mr. Benbrook was a lover of early Arkansas history and possessed a remarkable memory. One of his greatest pleasures in recent years was relating events of early Arkansas on which he was considered an authority.
In early days he engaged in cattle and mule buying and made many trips to Louisiana and other States with Arkansas animals taken overland to the nearest railroad before the Frisco lines were built through Fayetteville. Once he ran for sheriff.
He has related to friends his many experiences while driving a team and wagon loaded with Arkansas apples to Texas, the fruit in those days bringing $140 a load, or a average of $4 a bushel.
Once he related he sold a horse in Texas for $160 and was paid in cash, "all silver half-dollars," which he was forced to bring back to Arkansas. These he sometimes put in a crate of oranges he was bringing home, but the night the oranges were stolen while he slept by the roadside, he had placed the money in his saddle bags upon which he slept, and so the money was saved.
While too young to engage in actual combat in the Confederate Army, he joined this, serving as a scout with Capt. Tuck Smith's Cavalry at Huntsville in 1863. He was in several minor skirmishes and once was held prisoner by the federals, that he might not give information to the Confederacy concerning the troops who had suddenly come upon him.
Once he was assigned to deliver Cavalry horses, hiding them in a cane break in Louisiana to keep the federals from taking them.
His memory was remarkable concerning Civil War events and he liked nothing better than to end a long recital of them with the declaration, "Without doubt, Robert E. Lee was the greatest general who ever lived."
Captain Tuck Smith's grandson, Rev. Jeff Smith of Boston, Mass., and son of Walter Smith of 119 North East Street, while at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, wrote his graduation thesis on, "The Life and Achievements of Hosea M. Benbrook," and was given an A rating.
Tributes to his memory were paid both at the funeral services held in Fayetteville and at the Strain cemetery. Services were, as previously announced at the cemetery and at the Nelson-Savage funeral home in Fayetteville, filled to capacity.
*Source: Sons of Confederate Veterans, Washington County, Arkansas 2009
Compiled by William W Degge
Contributed on 2/28/12
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Record #: 657199