The exact details of Benjamin's birth and parentage are unknown. He may have been the son of a William and Frances Attkisson of Goochland County, Virginia, who married in 1806 and presumably moved to Tennessee soon afterward. According to census records Benjamin was born in Tennessee, as were his two known siblings, James (ID 26946825) and Elizabeth (ID 39505098). According to the memory of James's last surviving grandchild, Ruth Atkinson Rowe, these Atkisson siblings were orphaned at a young age and "bound" to another family, almost certainly that of John and Margaret Mendenall, with whom James and Elizabeth intermarried and moved to Illinois around 1839.
Benjamin, however, was older than James and Elizabeth and seems to have struck out on his own as soon as he was able. He first appeared on the 1830 census in Hawkins County, Tennessee and again in 1840. In May 1837, the county court ordered Benjamin and four other men to "view and lay out a 3rd class road beginning north of William Trent's plantation thence northwardly down the yellow branch by the widow Berry's thence across Clinch River to the Panther Creek road and report to court." The widow Berry whose property this road passed was likely Benjamin's mother-in-law Hannah Berry. Benjamin married her daughter Sarah "Sally" Josephine Berry before 1828, and Sally died sometime before the 1846 birth of Lafayette Atkisson to Benjamin and his second wife, Mary Catherine Kirk. By then Benjamin and his three known children by Sally (David, Minerva Jane, and Alfred Mark) had moved to Greene County, in southwestern Missouri, where he gave his profession as blacksmith in the 1850 census. He was appointed county assessor in April 1855 and served as a justice of the peace. Not long thereafter he moved his family to nearby Barry County, where he listed himself as a farmer in 1860 and served as the postmaster for Clay Hill.
According to a 1905 biographical sketch of one of Benjamin's grandsons, Benjamin "died during the Civil War."(1) This is corroborated by Barry County Circuit Court records from August 1866, in which the plaintiffs, Benjamin's daughter Martha and her husband William J. Robbins, stated "that on the 28th day of December 1861, Benjamin Atkisson departed this life..." Whether he died of natural causes or as the result of military service is unclear. While he would have been about 53 in 1861, a bit old to enlist as a soldier, an 1888 history of Newton, Lawrence, Barry, and McDonald counties includes "Benjamin Atkesson" on a list of Union soldiers from Barry County.(2) The surrounding area was the scene of some of the Civil War's earliest battles, including Wilson's Creek about 30 miles northeast of Clay Hill, on August 10, 1861. If Benjamin did serve, he probably enlisted in one of the local "Home Guard" militias raised by Union loyalists. His burial location remains unknown, though it is most likely a now-unmarked grave in the Clay Hill Cemetery in Madry, where many of his children and grandchildren are buried.
Benjamin and Mary had seven children of record: Lafayette, Martha, Josephine, Lydia, Polly, Paralee, and Benjamin.
(1) Guinn, James Miller. "History of the State of California and Biographical Record of the San Joaquin Valley, California: An Historical Story of the State's Marvelous Growth from Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time." United States, Chapman Publishing Company, 1905.
(2) "History of Newton, Lawrence, Barry and McDonald Counties, Missouri." Chicago: The Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1888, page 646.
Benjamin, however, was older than James and Elizabeth and seems to have struck out on his own as soon as he was able. He first appeared on the 1830 census in Hawkins County, Tennessee and again in 1840. In May 1837, the county court ordered Benjamin and four other men to "view and lay out a 3rd class road beginning north of William Trent's plantation thence northwardly down the yellow branch by the widow Berry's thence across Clinch River to the Panther Creek road and report to court." The widow Berry whose property this road passed was likely Benjamin's mother-in-law Hannah Berry. Benjamin married her daughter Sarah "Sally" Josephine Berry before 1828, and Sally died sometime before the 1846 birth of Lafayette Atkisson to Benjamin and his second wife, Mary Catherine Kirk. By then Benjamin and his three known children by Sally (David, Minerva Jane, and Alfred Mark) had moved to Greene County, in southwestern Missouri, where he gave his profession as blacksmith in the 1850 census. He was appointed county assessor in April 1855 and served as a justice of the peace. Not long thereafter he moved his family to nearby Barry County, where he listed himself as a farmer in 1860 and served as the postmaster for Clay Hill.
According to a 1905 biographical sketch of one of Benjamin's grandsons, Benjamin "died during the Civil War."(1) This is corroborated by Barry County Circuit Court records from August 1866, in which the plaintiffs, Benjamin's daughter Martha and her husband William J. Robbins, stated "that on the 28th day of December 1861, Benjamin Atkisson departed this life..." Whether he died of natural causes or as the result of military service is unclear. While he would have been about 53 in 1861, a bit old to enlist as a soldier, an 1888 history of Newton, Lawrence, Barry, and McDonald counties includes "Benjamin Atkesson" on a list of Union soldiers from Barry County.(2) The surrounding area was the scene of some of the Civil War's earliest battles, including Wilson's Creek about 30 miles northeast of Clay Hill, on August 10, 1861. If Benjamin did serve, he probably enlisted in one of the local "Home Guard" militias raised by Union loyalists. His burial location remains unknown, though it is most likely a now-unmarked grave in the Clay Hill Cemetery in Madry, where many of his children and grandchildren are buried.
Benjamin and Mary had seven children of record: Lafayette, Martha, Josephine, Lydia, Polly, Paralee, and Benjamin.
(1) Guinn, James Miller. "History of the State of California and Biographical Record of the San Joaquin Valley, California: An Historical Story of the State's Marvelous Growth from Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time." United States, Chapman Publishing Company, 1905.
(2) "History of Newton, Lawrence, Barry and McDonald Counties, Missouri." Chicago: The Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1888, page 646.
The exact details of Benjamin's birth and parentage are unknown. He may have been the son of a William and Frances Attkisson of Goochland County, Virginia, who married in 1806 and presumably moved to Tennessee soon afterward. According to census records Benjamin was born in Tennessee, as were his two known siblings, James (ID 26946825) and Elizabeth (ID 39505098). According to the memory of James's last surviving grandchild, Ruth Atkinson Rowe, these Atkisson siblings were orphaned at a young age and "bound" to another family, almost certainly that of John and Margaret Mendenall, with whom James and Elizabeth intermarried and moved to Illinois around 1839.
Benjamin, however, was older than James and Elizabeth and seems to have struck out on his own as soon as he was able. He first appeared on the 1830 census in Hawkins County, Tennessee and again in 1840. In May 1837, the county court ordered Benjamin and four other men to "view and lay out a 3rd class road beginning north of William Trent's plantation thence northwardly down the yellow branch by the widow Berry's thence across Clinch River to the Panther Creek road and report to court." The widow Berry whose property this road passed was likely Benjamin's mother-in-law Hannah Berry. Benjamin married her daughter Sarah "Sally" Josephine Berry before 1828, and Sally died sometime before the 1846 birth of Lafayette Atkisson to Benjamin and his second wife, Mary Catherine Kirk. By then Benjamin and his three known children by Sally (David, Minerva Jane, and Alfred Mark) had moved to Greene County, in southwestern Missouri, where he gave his profession as blacksmith in the 1850 census. He was appointed county assessor in April 1855 and served as a justice of the peace. Not long thereafter he moved his family to nearby Barry County, where he listed himself as a farmer in 1860 and served as the postmaster for Clay Hill.
According to a 1905 biographical sketch of one of Benjamin's grandsons, Benjamin "died during the Civil War."(1) This is corroborated by Barry County Circuit Court records from August 1866, in which the plaintiffs, Benjamin's daughter Martha and her husband William J. Robbins, stated "that on the 28th day of December 1861, Benjamin Atkisson departed this life..." Whether he died of natural causes or as the result of military service is unclear. While he would have been about 53 in 1861, a bit old to enlist as a soldier, an 1888 history of Newton, Lawrence, Barry, and McDonald counties includes "Benjamin Atkesson" on a list of Union soldiers from Barry County.(2) The surrounding area was the scene of some of the Civil War's earliest battles, including Wilson's Creek about 30 miles northeast of Clay Hill, on August 10, 1861. If Benjamin did serve, he probably enlisted in one of the local "Home Guard" militias raised by Union loyalists. His burial location remains unknown, though it is most likely a now-unmarked grave in the Clay Hill Cemetery in Madry, where many of his children and grandchildren are buried.
Benjamin and Mary had seven children of record: Lafayette, Martha, Josephine, Lydia, Polly, Paralee, and Benjamin.
(1) Guinn, James Miller. "History of the State of California and Biographical Record of the San Joaquin Valley, California: An Historical Story of the State's Marvelous Growth from Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time." United States, Chapman Publishing Company, 1905.
(2) "History of Newton, Lawrence, Barry and McDonald Counties, Missouri." Chicago: The Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1888, page 646.
Benjamin, however, was older than James and Elizabeth and seems to have struck out on his own as soon as he was able. He first appeared on the 1830 census in Hawkins County, Tennessee and again in 1840. In May 1837, the county court ordered Benjamin and four other men to "view and lay out a 3rd class road beginning north of William Trent's plantation thence northwardly down the yellow branch by the widow Berry's thence across Clinch River to the Panther Creek road and report to court." The widow Berry whose property this road passed was likely Benjamin's mother-in-law Hannah Berry. Benjamin married her daughter Sarah "Sally" Josephine Berry before 1828, and Sally died sometime before the 1846 birth of Lafayette Atkisson to Benjamin and his second wife, Mary Catherine Kirk. By then Benjamin and his three known children by Sally (David, Minerva Jane, and Alfred Mark) had moved to Greene County, in southwestern Missouri, where he gave his profession as blacksmith in the 1850 census. He was appointed county assessor in April 1855 and served as a justice of the peace. Not long thereafter he moved his family to nearby Barry County, where he listed himself as a farmer in 1860 and served as the postmaster for Clay Hill.
According to a 1905 biographical sketch of one of Benjamin's grandsons, Benjamin "died during the Civil War."(1) This is corroborated by Barry County Circuit Court records from August 1866, in which the plaintiffs, Benjamin's daughter Martha and her husband William J. Robbins, stated "that on the 28th day of December 1861, Benjamin Atkisson departed this life..." Whether he died of natural causes or as the result of military service is unclear. While he would have been about 53 in 1861, a bit old to enlist as a soldier, an 1888 history of Newton, Lawrence, Barry, and McDonald counties includes "Benjamin Atkesson" on a list of Union soldiers from Barry County.(2) The surrounding area was the scene of some of the Civil War's earliest battles, including Wilson's Creek about 30 miles northeast of Clay Hill, on August 10, 1861. If Benjamin did serve, he probably enlisted in one of the local "Home Guard" militias raised by Union loyalists. His burial location remains unknown, though it is most likely a now-unmarked grave in the Clay Hill Cemetery in Madry, where many of his children and grandchildren are buried.
Benjamin and Mary had seven children of record: Lafayette, Martha, Josephine, Lydia, Polly, Paralee, and Benjamin.
(1) Guinn, James Miller. "History of the State of California and Biographical Record of the San Joaquin Valley, California: An Historical Story of the State's Marvelous Growth from Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time." United States, Chapman Publishing Company, 1905.
(2) "History of Newton, Lawrence, Barry and McDonald Counties, Missouri." Chicago: The Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1888, page 646.
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