My Genealogy Hound

Edward E. Benton, editor and proprietor of the Gibson County Herald, was born in Dyer County, Tenn., February 1, 1857, son of Dr. Abner and Mary A. (Wardlaw) Benton. The father was a successful medical practitioner of Dyer County, and died there of small pox in 1864. Edward E. was reared and educated in his native county, and there learned the printer’s trade. He left home at the age of fifteen, and worked at his trade in West Tennessee until 1875, when he took charge of the Bellville Enterprise, in Crockett County, which he conducted three years. He then followed agricultural pursuits two years, and in 1880 began the publication of the Christian at Work, a religious paper, published at Bells Depot, Crockett County, conducting the same one and a half years, when it was purchased by the Gospel Advocate, of Nashville. During this time Mr. Benton had started the Bellville Progress, a weekly paper. In 1883 he had removed to Humboldt, and published the Southern Fruit and Farm Reporter (an agricultural paper) for seven months. After a sojourn of ten months in Arkansas, Mr. Benton came to Trenton, and in February, 1885, he established the Gibson County Herald, which he has conducted ably and successfully to the present time. May 13, 1877, he married Miss Mittie White, of Louisiana. They have one child, a daughter—Willie. Mr. Benton is a Democrat, and he and wife are members of the Christian Church.