Tower Stetson Benham

He was raised in New York until about 1857. By 1860 he had learned masonry with his brother in Constantine, MI. He enlisted, from Leonidas, in Company K, Seventh Michigan Infantry on 5 August 1861 at Burr Oak for 3 years, giving his age as 20 (he had just turned 18).

He was wounded in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862.

He was promoted to Sergeant in June 1863. He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant on 27 November 1863, Captain on 5 October 1864, and Major of the Regiment on 18 November 1864. He mustered out and was honorably discharged at Jeffersonville, IN on 5 July 1865.

He returned to Michigan and farmed there until 1882. He was then in Devil's Lake, Dakota Territory, where he ran Benham House, reportedly a fine hotel. In 1891 he was in Fremont, OH; in 1898 Minneapolis, MN; 1900 in Montrose, PA; 1911 in Buffalo, NY; 1912 in Boston, MA; and in 1920 in St. Paul, MN. For much of that time he was in publishing, producing and selling local histories, atlases and genealogies. He worked for himself and with the firms of J.H. Beers and the Lewis Publishing Company.

Service information from the State of Michigan1. Details from family genealogists and W.R. Cutter's Genealogical and Family History of Western New York (1912). His photo from one in the Archives of Michigan, found online through the Seeking Michigan2 portal.

08/17/1843; Naples, Ontario County, NY

11/17/1922; Portland, OR