My Genealogy Hound

JOHN M. BENWARD, farmer, section 25, post-office Carthage, was born in North Carolina, Dec. 11, 1840. There he spent his youth and early manhood. His education was acquired at the common schools. He also learned the trade of house carpenter. He served his country during the war of the Rebellion, enlisting June, 1862, in Company C, Thirty-first Regiment New Jersey Volunteers. He was attached to the Army of the Potomac, and engaged at the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorville. He was discharged in June, 1863. He then entered in the government employ in the artificers corps and worked for some time near Washington, D. C. He then went to Tennessee in charge of a party of workmen superintending construction in different parts of the state. He returned to his home in New Jersey in 1865; went to Illinois the same year and located in Detroit county, where he was married July 4, 1866, to Miss Elizabeth M. J. Stoops, a native of Ohio. Of this union there are five children: Nettie May, born April 15, 1865; Anna L., born May 12, 1869; Charles F., born March 29, 1872; Hester E., born Aug. 15, 1876; and Franklin D., born Sept. 29, 1882. He went to Texas in 1876 and engaged at mercantile business, also as wagon-maker, and finally construction foreman on the railroad. He became a resident of Jasper county, Mo., in 1882, and purchased 40 acres of land upon which he lives; he also farms 400 acres of leased land.