My Genealogy Hound

BENJAMIN PITMAN. One of the substantial farmers and respected citizens of Everett township and a veteran of the Civil war is Benjamin Pitman, who claims Pennsylvania as the state of his nativity, his birth having occurred there, in Fulton County, January 23, 1830. He is the fourth in a family of eight children whose parents were Benjamin and Margaret (Ross) Pitman, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania. The father was a carpenter by trade and in 1849 removed to Illinois, settling in Whiteside County, where he followed his chosen vocation and also engaged in farming until his death, which occurred in 1875, when he was seventy-seven years of age. His wife died long previously, passing away in 1840.

The subject of this review was only ten years of age at the time of his mother’s death, and soon afterward he began to earn his own livelihood He was employed as a farm hand until nineteen years of age when he learned the carpenter’s trade, devoting his energies to that work until 1865 when he enlisted in company D, Ninety-second Illinois infantry, in which he served for four months and fifteen days. He participated in the battle of Atkins, South Carolina, and was wounded in the forefinger and the side by a gunshot. He was then discharged on account of disability and returned home, and for two years he was under the physician’s care before being able to resume work.

In the spring of 1876 Mr. Pitman came to Kansas, locating in Dickinson County, purchasing one hundred and sixty acres of farm land and five town lots in Abilene. He improved his property and made his home in that county until 1884, when he sold out and came to Woodson County, Here he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of raw prairie land on Cherry creek, where he now has a fine farm, the wild tract having been transformed into richly productive fields. The place is improved with a large residence, substantial barn and all the necessary outbuildings for the care of grain and stock and the farm is now valuable and attractive. There is good bottom land and timber tracts and the place is well watered. Industry has been the keynote of Mr. Pitman’s success. His life has been a busy one, in which idleness has had no part and his untiring labor has brought him a handsome competence.