My Genealogy Hound

Benjamin Franklin McConnell (deceased) was born in Lexington, Ky., October 10, 1841, and died in this county December 16, 1887. He was a son of Francis McConnell, of Irish descent, who was the father of three sons and one daughter. The latter died in infancy and the two sons now reside in Lexington, Ky. The father departed this life in 1880, in his sixty-fourth year, at the home of his son James, in Arkansas. Benjamin F. was first married after reaching manhood to Mrs. Mary A. (Montgomery) Jones, who died in 1875, leaving one son, Lewis F., now living with his step-mother. After her death Mr. McConnell was united in matrimony to Ella G. (Goff) Rives, who was born in Memphis in September, 1850, a daughter of James D. and Phoraty W. (McCoy) Goff. Mr. Goff was a Virginian by birth, and was killed in this county in 1866 by a man named Lake. Along in the fifties he was the largest merchant in the city of Memphis and at one time was worth about $500, 000, besides having made and lost several other fortunes. He was an extensive planter in this county at the time of his death. Mrs. Goff died in Memphis in 1852. She was the mother of three sons and two daughters, of whom there are still living: George B. and Ella G. Ella G., the youngest child, was brought up and attended school in Memphis up to her sixteenth year, when she went to an educational institution at Nazareth, Ky., and remained for two years. She was first married May 18, 1870, to John G. Rives, whose birth occurred in Nashville, Tenn.; he died July 31, 1875. They were the parents of two children both now dead. He had two children by his first wife, and of these, one is still living, Florence H. (wife of James C. Hubert). Mrs. McConnell has four children by her second husband, viz.: Brodnax F., Ella G., John G. and Bennie. Mrs. McConnell resides on the farm left her by her husband which he purchased in 1882, containing 820 acres with about 200 under cultivation; this is located twelve miles south of Memphis on the Mississippi River. She rents her land for cash and it usually yields from 125 to 150 bales of cotton.