My Genealogy Hound

Benjamin F. Grimes, farmer and stock raiser, now residing on Section 6, and owning land on Sections 5, 6, 8 and 17, is a son of Lewis and Ruthy B. (Embry) Grimes, natives of Kentucky. Lewis was a son of James and Sallie Bryan (Boone) Grimes, natives of Virginia, Sallie Grimes being a sister of Daniel Boone, the Kentucky pioneer. The subject of our sketch was born in Fayette County, Ky., March 24, 1836, receiving his education partly in the private schools of his native State; he also attended the State Normal School, of Columbia, S. C., and finished his education at Bethany College, Virginia, in 1854, when he returned home, where he engaged in farming and stock-raising, finding a market for his horses and mules in South Carolina. In 1860 he purchased 122 acres of land in Bourbon and Nicholas Counties. June 5, 1861, he enlisted in Company I, Forty-eighth Regiment Volunteer Infantry, Confederate States Army, serving fourteen months as a private, when he received a commission from the secretary of war of the Confederate States of America, to raise a regiment, which was mustered into service in November, 1862, and was ordered to McMinnville, Tenn., under Gen. John H. Morgan, and finally entered the secret service. In the winter of 1863 Col. Grimes was captured, taken to Lexington, Ky., and thrown into what was known as Gen. John H. Morgan’s n****r prison; he was kept there ten days, when he was transferred to Kemper Barracks, Cincinnati, where he was kept in solitary confinement four months and twenty-three days, during which time he was court-martialed and sentenced to death on Johnson’s Island, in Lake Erie, but six hours before the time for the execution he made his escape by bribing the guards with money given him by a lady friend, and by sliding down a lightning-rod, hand over hand, thirty feet. He took the train for St. Louis, but, fearing danger, stopped off at Lawrence Station, Ill. During his long service, Col. Grimes participated in the battles of Piketon, Chancellorsville, South Mountain, Antietam, seven days’ fight before Richmond, Spottsylvania, Hartersville, Perryville, and many skirmishes, too numerous to mention. April 4, 1882, Col. Grimes married Mrs. Hebe (Grayson) Butler, daughter of Col. William P. B. Grayson, of Kentucky, who was a son of Robert Harrison Grayson. Col. Grimes is a member of the Christian Church, his wife being a member of the Episcopal, having been confirmed with her father, at his death-bed, in 1873, by Bishop Cummings.

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