BIOGRAPHY: John H. BENFORD, Cambria County, PA 

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From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 323-4
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JOHN H. BENFORD is the son of David and Rebecca (Wagner) Benford, and was born 
July 18, 1832, at Mt. Pleasant, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania. His father 
was born in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, and when a young man moved to Mt. 
Pleasant. Later, when the subject of this sketch was four or five years of age, 
his parents removed to Allegheny City, where they resided for about ten years, 
when they removed to Stoyestown, Somerset county, where the father lived until 
his death in 1891, at the age of eight-five years. He was a tanner by trade, and 
continued in this business until the close of his life. He was an honored member 
of the Lutheran church.
     Grandfather John Benford was a native of Pennsylvania, and died at Goshen, 
Elkhart county, Michigan, at the extreme age of one hundred years, lacking but 
three days. He was the father of twenty-two children by one wife, seventeen of 
whom grew to manhood and womanhood. By occupation he was a farmer. The Benfords 
are of Scotch-Irish descent. The name was originally Barnfield, and was so 
spelled in Scotland.
     Mother Rebecca Wagner Benford was born at Pottstown, Montgomery county, 
Pennsylvania, September 7, 1806. She resides at Stoyestown, Somerset county. At 
the advanced age of ninety, she reads without the aid of glasses.
     Grandfather Jacob Wagner was a native of Germany. He embarked with his 
father on a sailing vessel bound for this country. His father died during the 
voyage and was buried at sea. He (grandfather Wagner) died at Schellsburg, 
Bedford county, Pennsylvania, aged ninety years, and his wife died at about the 
same age.
     John H. Benford was reared principally in Allegheny City, and was educated 
in the public schools. He learned the carpenter trade in Mt. Pleasant, 
Pennsylvania. At twenty years of age he engaged in contracting on his own 
account, and has continued in that business ever since. In 1861 he removed to 
Huntingdon county, where he resided until 1874, when he came to this city. He 
makes a specialty of heavy contract work, such as tipples, trestles, coal-bins, 
etc.; also house-work, and is one of the largest contractors in the city.
     Mr. Benford was married March 12, 1852, to Miss Isabella C., daughter of 
Frederick Garey, of Somerset county, Pennsylvania. Five sons and three 
daughters, born of this union, are living, as follows: Charles W., Mary F., 
married to O.V. Houtz, of Mifflin county, Pennsylvania; Carrie B., married to 
Frank Fitzsimmons, of Carleton, Thayer county, Nebraska; Harry C., assistant 
auditor for the Cambria Iron company; John G., carpenter; Jesse W., assistant in 
a rubber factory in San Francisco; Edna Pearl, at home. Three children are dead: 
William, died in infancy at the age of four months; Howard at five years; and 
Albert A., died at age of thirty-seven.
     Mr. and Mrs. Benford are members of the Methodist Episcopal church; the 
latter for fifty-one years. Mrs. Benford is president of the Children's Aid 
society, and active in church and benevolent work. Mr. Benford is also an 
influential member of several orders among them Mount Moriah Lodge, No. 300, F. 
and A. M., Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, of which he has been a member since 1862; 
Standing Stone Chapter, No. 201, R.A.M., of Huntingdon. In 1868 he was elected a 
life member of Mount Moriah Lodge; in 1887 an honorary member of the chapter. In 
1890 he became a member of Oriental Commandery, Knights Templar, of this city, 
and in 1891 of the Mystic Shrine at Pittsburg. He has also been a member of the 
Royal Arcanum for fourteen years, and at one time was a prominent member of the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, but withdrew from it. Mr. Benford has held 
some local offices, and was the first three-year councilman from the Seventh 
ward.