Christian
William Theodor Benedix has resided in this county since 1868. He was born
August 10, in the year 1839, in the city of Plau, Mecklenburg-Schwerin,
Germany. In 1852 he came with his parents to America via Hamburg, crossing the
Atlantic in the English sailing vessel Gibraltar, Captain Jordan. It was a slow
and tedious voyage, and came very near being a very hot one, the ship taking
fire twice. After a short stay in New York the family moved on to Scott County,
Iowa, and settled on a farm four miles from the town of Le Claire, fifteen
miles north of Davenport. They sold this in the fall of 1864 or 1865, and then
bought a highly-improved farm of eighty-two acres, very near Rock Island,
Illinois, paying $100 per acre. There is their present home. The grandparents
of the subject of this sketch, on both sides, were well advanced in years when
they died. His parents, Frederick John Christian Benedix, born October 9, 1812,
and Frederika (nee Ribke), born September 30, 1815, had three sons and
five daughters, of whom the subject of this sketch is the oldest. The next, a
brother, Henry, died at their German home, aged seven or eight years. The
third, Mary, at the age of seventeen years, married John Holst, at Le Claire,
Iowa, and died four years later, having had two daughters, of whom the younger
died a short time before her mother. The older daughter, Sadie H., is at
present living in western Iowa, near the town of Glidden. Her husband is Fred
Hebbel, and they have three children, all girls. The fourth is his brother
Frederick, who is now living near Pierson, Woodbury County, Iowa, where he is
the owner of a large farm. He is also the happy father of nine healthy
children, two sons and seven daughters. The fifth, Dora, married Henry Mumm, at
Moline, Illinois, where she now resides. They have six children, one son and five
daughters. The sixth and seventh sisters died quite young, while yet in Germany.
The eighth and youngest---also a sister---died at the age of about two years,
near Rockford, Illinois while on the journey from New York to Iowa. Mr.
Christian W. T. Benedix during his boyhood worked mostly on the Iowa farm of
his father. In the summers of 1859 and 1860 he engaged in the prairie-breaking
business, “breaking up” many an acre of wild prairie and brush land in the
counties of Scott, Cedar and Clinton; and at the same time “breaking in” many a
wild steer. He was the first to enlist in his township during the last war,
April 20, 1861, in Company G, First Regiment Iowa Infantry Volunteers. He was
mustered into United States service May 14, at Camp Kirkwood, near Keokuk, Iowa
and was honorably discharged from the service August 21, 1861, at the St. Louis
Arsenal, Missouri, by reason of expiration of term of service. He served under
Generals Lyon, Sweeny and Franz Sigel. He was with General Sweeny on that
tiresome march from Springfield, Missouri, across the Ozark Mountains, and at
the storming and capture of the city of Forsyth, near the Arkansas line. Mr.
Benedix was never reported on the “sick list,” and participated in all the
engagements and hardships of his command. Having enlisted against the wishes of
his parents, he had pledged himself to his mother that if he returned in safety
he would not re-enlist, and very much against his will, was held to that
obligation. In 1862-‘63, on his father’s farm in Iowa, he went into the
experiment of manufacturing sugar from sorghum, only to find it a losing
business. In the winter of 1863-‘64 he again went to St. Louis, Missouri, and
for some three months was in employment of the United States at Benton
Barracks, but his health perceptibly failing, he concluded to return to Iowa,
and thence go overland to the lands of the Pacific. In the spring of 1864 he
left the grain-fields of Iowa for the gold-fields of Idaho---Boise Basin mines.
Here he mined nearly two years, working not very successfully, but
successively, on Moore’s Creek, Buena Vista Bar, Willow Creek, Grimes Creek,
and in the celebrated Apple Jack Gulch. In the summer of 1866 he prospected for
gold in Oregon, without finding much. In the fall of 1866 he settled on a farm
near Rio Vista, Solano County, this State. In the spring of 1868 he sold his land, and soon afterward bought
the 160 acres which he now occupies in Franklin Township, eighteen miles south
of Sacramento. In San Francisco, October 15, 1870, Mr. Benedix married Miss Emily
Weismann, a native of Crailsheim, Wurtemberg, Germany. They are the parents of five sons: Fraderick
John, born September 15, 1871; Albert, born June 8, 1873; Christian William,
born July 8, 1875; Frank Weisman, born May 30, 1877; and Henry Charles, born
February 2, 1881. In the spring of 1888 Mr. and Mrs. Benedix, with their son
Henry C., made a visit to their aged parents in Illinois. At the residence of their
son-in-law and daughter Dora in Moline, the parents of Mr. Benedix, on the 18th
day of May, 1888 celebrated their golden wedding. Here at his California home
Mr. Benedix’s business is farming, raising mostly wheat and barley, but at
times he has also been raising some cattle, hogs and horses. About six acres of
his farm are planted to grapevines. However,
he makes but little wine, selling most of the grapes to commission houses in
San Francisco, or to the wineries of Sacramento. For fourteen years Mr. Benedix
has been a member of the Board of Trustees of Point Pleasant School District.
He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic; and also corresponding member
of the Davenport (Iowa) Academy of Natural Science.
Transcribed
by: Marla Fitzsimmons
An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California.
By Hon. Win. J. Davis. Lewis Publishing Company 1890. Page 309-311.
© 2004 Marla Fitzsimmons.