HUGH BENNEHOFF, the subject of this sketch, was born Feb. 5, 1831, in Union County, Pa. He is the son of Daniel Bennehoff, who was born in the same county in 1797, and lived at home until he grew to manhood. He served an apprenticeship at the trade of masonry, and became one of the most skillful workmen in that calling. He came to this county in the spring of 1847, and bought the farm where the subject of this sketch now lives. After disposing of his farm in the East, he bought ninety-two acres, on which was a log cabin, which he occupied with his family until 1848, when he built an addi-tional log house which he occupied until his death in 1869. At the time of his death he was seventy-two years of age. The mother of our subject was Elizabeth Dauberman, of Pennsylvania. Her family and relatives were natives of Pennsylvania and were all farmers. She died in the fifty-sixth year of her age, having been born in 1790. They had five children, three boys and two girls, all of whom are living in this vicinity, except one who is absent in Iowa. The subject of this sketch was the youngest of the family, and he remained at home with his parents until he was twenty years of age, when he served an apprenticeship of one year at harness-making, which he followed for twelve years in Rock Grove Township and Green County, Wis. He then bought the father’s estate from the other heirs, and this, with eighty-eight acres he had previously bought, gave him a farm of 180 acres, of which he afterward sold eighteen acres. After managing a leased farm at Shannon, Ill., for two years, he moved to the home place in 1864. In 1886 he erected the commodious house in which he now resides.

Mr. Bennehoff has held the offices of School Director, Commissioner of Highways, Tax Collector, Assessor, and has served as Supervisor three terms. He is Republican in politics, and evidently inherited his political convictions from his father, who was an old-line Whig until the organization of the Republican party in 1856.

The subject of this sketch was married to Jane E. Kramer, on the 2d of October, 1856. She was the daughter of John, and he the son of Frederick Kramer. The maiden name of her mother was Mary Ann Pieffer. The father and mother were both natives of Pennsylvania. Mrs. Bennehoff was but three years of age when her parents moved to Ohio, where they remained eleven years, and then removed to Stephenson County. Mrs. Bennehoff was born Feb. 12, 1838, and was married in her eighteenth year. They have had seven children, the two youngest being twins, one of whom died in infancy; the other died at the age of fourteen years. The five surviving are Mary E., Mrs. John Wallace, aged thirty, who lives with her parents; Ida J., Mrs. William Wells, aged twenty-eight, who resides in this neighborhood; John W., aged twenty-five; Effie S., aged twenty-three, and Charles F., aged twenty-one, all of whom reside at home with their parents. As were their parents before them, Mr. and Mrs. Bennehoff are members of the Lutheran Church.

Contributed by Carol Parrish - Portrait and Biographical Album of Stephenson County, Ill. (1888), p. 253