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Jasper County, Iowa
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Benjamin Sanderson Mr.
Sanderson was born in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, June 10, 1832, the son of
Abner and Sally (Sanderson) Sanderson, both natives of Massachusetts, but not
related. The paternal grandfather,
also named Abner Sanderson, was a well-known Puritan and a prominent man in his
town. The maternal grandfather, Nathan Sanderson, was also influential in his
community, and a blacksmith by trade. The
father of the subject of this sketch devoted his life to farming near Waltham,
Massachusetts. His family consisted
of nine children, all now deceased. The
parents are also deceased. They
were excellent people. Benjamin
Sanderson was educated in the common schools of his native community and reared
on the home farm, where he worked during the summer time when a boy.
At the age of twenty years, in 1852, he moved to Ohio, but returned to
Massachusetts, then a year later he went to Kansas, and in 1856 moved to
Minnesota, located at Minneapolis and spent eight years in all in that country.
It was during his residence in the Gopher state, that the great Civil War
came on, and on October 8, 1862, he enlisted in Company B, Third Minnesota
Volunteer Infantry, in which he served with much credit until discharged for
disability as the result of wounds received on the expedition of Generals Banks
and Steele, having been twice wounded, once so severely that he was left on the
field for dead. According to his
comrades he was a brave and efficient soldier.
Returning to Minnesota, he lived in that state until 1868, and there he
was married in 1866. He came
to Jasper County, Iowa, and located on eighty acres where he lived until his
death, having worked hard, managed well and consequently, at time of his death,
he was very comfortably established, owning two hundred and eighty acres of
rich, desirable land in Richland Township.
On this he had placed modern and extensive improvements of all kinds and
carried on general farming and stock raising on an extensive scale, but for a
number of years he had been practically retired, merely overseeing his farm.
Politically, he was a Republican, and he had been Township trustee. On
March 15, 1866, Mr. Sanderson was united in marriage with Catherine McKay, a
native of Waterloo County, Ontario, and the daughter of Alexander and Catherine
(Calder) McKay, the father a native of New York and the mother of Scotland.
They were married in Canada about 1835 and in 1855 moved to Minnesota and
there spent the balance of their lives.
Mr. McKay devoted his life to farming. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Sanderson, namely: Sarah Jeannette, who married D. A. Brooke, lives next to the old homestead; Benjamin died when six months old. On September 14, 1911, at the old homestead, surrounded by family and friends, Mr. Sanderson passed to the great beyond, loved, honored and respected by all who knew him. Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa, Gen. James B. Weaver, Editor-In-Chief, B.F. Bowden & Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1912, p. 884. |
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