Butler County Genealogy Trails Kansas William F. Benson Bio

BUTLER COUNTY'S EIGHTY YEARS BIOS

William F. Benson

(Transcribed by Lori DeWinkler)

William F. Benson, city commissioner, farmer and stockman, a former banker, state senator, state bank commissioner and city manager, for 35 years active in school, state, government and municipal affairs, was born August 12, 1859, in North Dorset, Vermont, a son of Joel and Elvira (Hulett) Benson, natives of Vermont.

Thoroughly qualified, earnest and patriotic in all his undertakings, Mr. Benson has a unique record. In addition to numerous public offices, which he has capably filled, he has for years operated the 1,360-acre ranch in Chelsea Township, which he and Mrs. Fred W. Benson and her family jointly own.

Mr. Benson was graduated from the Rome(New York) Academy in 1876. At 17, he took charge of the retail division of his father's wholesale hardware store. Two years later, the family came to Butler County, settling at Chelsea. Between 1880 and 1892, Mr. Benson engaged in farming, acted as school director and school clerk at Chelsea and helped organize Benson School District 162, which is named for him; he also was Chelsea Township clerk, treasurer and trustee. In 1892, he was elected county treasurer and served until 1894, when he returned to the farm until 1897 when he became assistant cashier of the Farmers & Merchants National bank. In January, 1898, Mr. Benson became the cashier, serving until 1906. Immediately following his resignation, he was elected active vice president of the Citizens State Bank, serving until 1913, when he was appointed state bank commissioner by Governor Hodges, serving the unexpired term of Charles M. Sawter, for three years. After retiring from the bank commission office, Mr. Benson was with the Union Stockyards National Bank, Wichita, until he was appointed by President Wilson as a member of the Second District exemption board, serving during the World War. He then was elected president of the Ranchman's Trust Company, and the Ranchman's State Bank, Wichita, serving until they sold out, in 1923. In March of 1923, he became receiver of the Butler County State Bank serving until 1925, when he became city manager of El Dorado, serving until May 1928.

Mr. Benson was state senator from 1896 until 1900, and from 1904 until 1908. On April 7, 1907, El Dorado citizens presented Mr. Benson a gold watch, in appreciation of his work in procuring the passage of a bill allowing Butler County commissioners to build a new courthouse in El Dorado. Mr. Benson was a member of the Kansas Commission to the Panama-Pacific expositions, San Franciso and San Diego, 1915; a delegate to the national convention in St. Louis in 1916, when Woodrow Wilson was nominated; was national committeeman for Kansas, 1914-15, and was a luncheon guest of President and Mrs. Wilson at the White House several times. He was a delegate to the National Congress, in behalf of America's entry into the League of Nations, and was a delegate to nearly every Democratic state convention during the past forty years. Mr. Benson has served as administrator of large estates and as guardian of minor children; was one of the originators of the Butler County Kafir Corn Carnival and of the Butler County Fair Association. He was one of ten men who built the first mile of long distance telephone line in this county and a charter member of the Butler County Telephone & Electric Company. He is a mason, Knight of Pythias and a Modern Woodman.

On July 28, 1880, William F. Benson and Margaret Farley were married in Rome, New York. Mrs. Benson's parents were James and Julia (McCarty) Farley, natives of New York, who died when she was a child. Her father, during his later years, operated a fleet of steamboats. Mrs. Benson spent her childhood and girlhood in a Catholic school of her native city. Mr. Benson is of English descent. The Benson line, as shown by a genealogical table compiled by the present New England branch of the family, traces back to Galloway Castle in the fourteenth century. Five children were born to Mrs. and Mrs. Benson--Frank Allen Benson, married Lillian Kilgore, died February 20, 1920, of accidental injuries; Judge George Benson, married Mabel Sinclair; Florence Benson, with the Home Owners' Loan Association, Topeka; Bernice, wife of Ralph Wiley, shoe merchant, and Hazel, who died in infancy.