J.K. Benninger
J. K. BENNINGER, farmer, fruit grower and oil producer, owning ten acres of land on the Allegheny river in Brady�s Bend township, was born at Millers Eddy, in Perry township, Armstrong Co., Pa., April 14, 1848, son of Peter Benninger and a grandson of Peter Benninger.
Peter Benninger, the grandfather, came from Lehigh county, Pa., to Clarion county, where he located at Catfish, and there reared his family. He died in Clarion county, and is buried there. He had seven sons and one daughter, his son Peter being the fourth child in order of birth.
Peter Benninger, father of J. K. Benninger, was born at Catfish, Clarion Co., Pa., and grew to manhood there. After marriage he removed to Perry township, Armstrong county, where he was for some time a pilot on river boats, but later became a merchant at Millers Eddy. He died in 1865, at the age of sixty-seven years, and is buried in Perry township. He was a pioneer in Perry township, as the country was practically a wilderness when he settled there and many Indians yet remained in the neighborhood. In politics he was a Democrat. At Millers Eddy he was married to Phoebe Truby, of Perry county, Pa., and they had five children, two daughters and one son still surviving; one son was killed while in the army. The mother died in 1850 and was buried in Perry township. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
J. K. Benninger attended school in Perry township, leaving at the age of fourteen years. He remained on the farm until he was seventeen years old, learned boatbuilding at Millers Eddy, and afterward was associated with his father in transporting oil by boat from Oil Creek to Pittsburgh. For some time he worked in a rolling mill, later engaged in mining coal, and then entered the oil fields in Butler county as a driller, continuing thus for fourteen years. Mr. Benninger then bought his present place, on which he has a producing oil well, and devotes his land to growing small fruits, principally strawberries. He has lived there since 1864, has erected the residence, and made other improvements. In politics he is a Republican.
In 1866 Mr. Benninger was married to Rachel Seybert, daughter of Henry Seybert, an early settler in this township. She was the mother of four children: Peter, Curtis, Mary and Lou Emma. Mrs. Benninger died at the age of fifty years, and is buried in Brady�s Bend township. In 1899 Mr. Benninger married (second) Tillie Seybert, daughter of Barney Seybert, and they have four children: Arthur Raymond, James Wesley, Alice and Stella Myrtle.
Source: Pages 930-931, Armstrong County, Pa., Her People, Past and Present, J.H. Beers & Co., 1914
Transcribed November 1998 by Jeffrey Bish for the Armstrong County Beers Project
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