My Genealogy Hound

Benjamin F. Russell, editor of the Crawford County Mirror, was born in Greenwood, Maine, October 26, 1844, and after attending the common schools, entered Gould’s Academy, Bethel, Maine. In 1861 he enlisted in Company G, Tenth Maine Infantry, United States army, and served two years, taking part in the battles of Winchester, Falling Waters, Front Royal, Cedar Mountain (at which place he received a severe wound) and the campaigns of the Shenandoah Valley. Upon the expiration of his term of enlistment he returned home and attended one term longer at the Gould’s Academy. In October, 1862, he entered the Third Massachusetts Cavalry, and, as a reward for meritorious conduct in the Red River expedition, was promoted to first lieutenant; he was under the command of Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley, serving until the close of the war. In 1871 he immigrated to Texas County, Mo., and after farming for a time turned his attention to journalism, publishing the Western Success at Salem. He was subsequently local editor of the Texas County Pioneer, and, having purchased the Crawford County Mirror, he moved it to Steelville. The Mirror was born to live, and has witnessed the funeral rites of seven county papers, and, with one exception, has the largest circulation of any paper ever published in the congressional district. Mr. Russell is an active and out-spoken Republican in politics. His father, Benjamin, traces his origin to the House of Russell, of England, the head of which, Hugh Du Rozel, settled in England with William the Conqueror. Our subject married Bessie L. Millsaps. Mr. Russell is a man of literary taste, and was twice chosen poet of the Missouri Press Association. That he is possessed of some poetic genius the following selection from his poems testifies:
UNDISCOVERED GEMS.
A weary traveler on the desert wide,
Foot-sore and hungry set him down to rest;
And toying with the pebbles by his side,
Unthinking, placed one in his girded vest.

He bore it as an odd but worthless stone,
Until one day a lapidist he met,
Who looked upon it and declared that none
A richer diamond had discovered yet.

‘Twas cut and polished, and a brighter gem
No eye had seen. The ransom of a king
It well might be, or glitter in a diadem;
And he had thought it but a worthless thing.

And there are souls hid ‘neath a rugged form,
‘Oft passed unnoticed by the careless eye,
‘Till sorrow’s touch, or life’s tempestuous storm,
Disclose their beauty to the passer-by.

And though the pilgrims in these lower lands
May never know the value of these gems;
In God’s good time and in His tender hands,
They'll shine and deck immortal diadems.