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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Izard County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1889.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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Elbert Benbrook is one of the most successful farmers and stockmen of Izard County, and deserves much credit for the success which has attended his efforts, for when he began life for himself he only owned one horse and rented land, whereas he is now the owner of 500 acres of as good land as there is in the county, and is one of the most successful stockmen of this region. He was born in Izard County, in 1838, and is a son of Henry and Catherine (Langston) Benbrook, who came from the State of Illinois in 1832, and settled on the farm on which our subject is now residing. The father was a miller as well as a farmer, and in 1848 erected one of the first mills in the county, and was also the proprietor of one of the first cotton-gins. Upon settling in this region their neighbors, with the exception of the families who came with them, were twenty miles distant, and Indians and wild game of all kinds were very abundant. Flouring-mills were very few and far between in the region at that time, and their corn and wheat were ground by machinery of their own manufacture and were of a very crude description. The first mill built in the county was said to have been erected by Langsten Close, near Melbourne, in 1816, its capacity being one bucket of meal per day, but this was sufficient to keep all the families in meal within a radius of fifty miles. Wild honey was very abundant, and as a means of carrying it in considerable quantities they would sew up a deer skin in the form of a sack, put the honey in at the neck, throw the same across their horse as a sack, and thus convey it home. A few elk were found in the region by the earliest settlers, but there was no buffalo, although the country showed evidence of their having been here, as the woods were entirely free from underbrush, the canebrake being only along the streams. At the age of twenty-three years Elbert Benbrook began managing a steam saw-mill, the first one of the kind in the county, it being erected by A. H. Matthews and Ben Bufford in 1858, but owing to the breaking out of the war he was compelled to give up the work. In 1862 he enlisted in the Confederate service, but at the end of six weeks he was discharged on account of disability and returned home, where he engaged in teaching school for a short time. He then operated his father’s carding machine until after the close of the war, when he again embarked in saw-milling, and also managed the carding machine and followed farming up to 1873. From 1873 to 1881 he operated a grist mill, but since that time he has given his attention to farming and carpentering. He is a Democrat politically, and has held the office of justice of the peace and deputy sheriff, and is the present incumbent of the latter office, to which he was appointed in 1888, and had previously filled it from 1874 to 1878. Margaret M. Berry became his wife in 1861, but her death occurred seven years later, she having borne a family of three children: Susan A. (wife of W. J. Hudson), Robert H., and Martha C. (wife of W. C. Rodman). Mr. Benbrook wedded his second wife, Miss Sarah A. Mathes, in 1868, but after bearing three children, Margie A., Dora and Allan H., her death occurred in 1878, she having been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In the latter part of 1878 Mr. Benbrook wedded his present wife, Mrs. Elizabeth (Slyre) Rodman, and both are worthy members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he is a Royal Arch Mason. He is one of the men who has helped to build up the county and has always been noted for his Christianity, benevolence, and high sense of honor.

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This family biography is one of 98 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Izard County, Arkansas published in 1889.  View the complete description here: Izard County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

View additional Izard County, Arkansas family biographies here: Izard County, Arkansas Biographies

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