The George Clinton Benge Family

By Miss Bessie Moore

George Clinton Benge, son of Obadiah Martin Benge, a Revolutionary War soldier, was born in Tennessee, February 21, 1802. When he was sixteen, he went with his father to Walker County, Georgia, within the limits of the Cherokee Nation.

One day George C. saw a young Indian being brutally beaten by a big Indian. He went to the aid of the boy and the big Indian turned on him. Within a short time the fight was over and George came out the loser with his left nostril being bitten off. This plainly shows in his picture.

About 1823, George married Miss Nancy Myers in Tennessee, where he lived until after the birth of their first child. They moved to DeKalb County, Alabama, where the other children were born, and where Amanda, the youngest, died at the age of four months. The family moved to Texas in 1850 and arrived in Cherokee County, where they were shown in the census of that year as "Bange" instead of Benge. En route to Texas, Catherine, called Katie, fell into the Mississippi River, but was rescued by some of her brothers.

The children were Matilda, who married James Cartney Earle, April 4, 1851, and had ten children; Obadiah Martin Benge, who married Ellen Durrett, August 13, 1857, and had ten children; John M. Benge, who married Jane Lankford, 1849, in Alabama, and had five children; William M. Benge married Catherine Reese, September 2, 1858, and had ten children; Catherine (Katie) Benge first married Charles James, August 31, 1855 (date of license) and had one daughter, and her second marriage was to William H. Hammett, October 16, 1862, and they had five children; Samuel T. Benge, who married Loretha C. Phelps, October 8, 1868; Hugh Lawrence (Laurie) Benge, who married Clarissa Hammett, September 11, 1861, and had seven children; Robert Frank Benge, who married Harriett Alexander, September 12, 1861, and had three children; and Amanda, who died at four months.

Obadiah M., William M., Hugh Lawrence and Robert F. Benge were Civil War veterans. George Clinton Benge was, according to census records, a blacksmith in 1850, a wood corder in 1860 and a farmer in 1870. He was at one time constable of old Jacksonville, and carried the title "Esquire Benge."

His son, John M. Benge, who died in 1860, was at one time in partnership with the father of Thomas M. Campbell, in a woodwork shop and blacksmith shop in old Jacksonville. An old spinning wheel in the Jacksonville Public Library was made by George C. Benge for his daughter, Matilda. A spinning wheel made for his daughter, Catherine, was stolen in the 1930s.

When George Clinton Benge's wife, Nancy, died about 1861 or 1862, he set aside a corner of his land for a cemetery and here she was buried. This plot became known as "The Benge Cemetery," and nearly all those buried there are of Benge lineage.

After the death of his wife, he married Mrs. Henrietta Kirby Taylor, August 3, 1862, and they had three children: Josephine Benge, who married Jasper Z. Reynolds, January 25, 1885, and had five children; Flavious Josephus Benge, who married Nancy Jane Odom, June 9, 1887, and had thirteen children; Salome Benge, who married H. Trib Crawford, March 10, 1887, and had five children.

George Clinton Benge died three days after a fall from a horse. Snow was on the ground and his horse shied, running under a tree with a limb dragging him off to the ground, where he hit a stump. He was on a call to a sick neighbor when the accident occurred. This was 1883, and he was buried in Benge Cemetery, near the Antioch Methodist Church.