From Story County Watchman May 25, 1888
Mrs. Benniman died Sunday evening aged 116 years. The remains were laid to rest the Cemetery at Bloomington in the family lot. She was one of the old residents here, and leaves a daughter, Mrs. Black.
From the Story County Watchman February 6, 1885
Grandma Brenneman is one hundred and seventeen years old next month, March. She lives with her daughter, Mrs. Black, and is a native of Maryland. She remembers to have seen General Washington, and her recollections of events one hundred years ago is better than of those of more recent occurance. A son 80 years old paid her a visit last fall. She sent a quilt, pieced by herself, to the New Orleans exposition.
From Story County Watchman April 23, 1886
The Oldest Person Living.
The Review and Herald of Battle Creek, Michigan, has the following which is of considerable interest to Story county readers, because of the age of the person referred to, but also because it is in reference to one who has made our county her home for about a score of years, having lived at Ames about that length of time. It was written by Elder Wm Covert:
I visited a very aged lady on the 26th day of March, 1886. I will give a sketch of her history, and would then inquire if you know of another person who is so aged. I received the following from her son Peter Coulter, with whom she is now living near New London, Howard county, Ind:
Mary Perry, daughter of William Perry,* was born April 27, 1769, in Chester county, Delaware. She lived in Single life until thirty-five years old, when she was united marriage to Wm. Coulter. She lived with Mr. Coulter till he was fifty-two years of age, when he died. Several years later in life she married a man named Bennaman,* whose name she now bears. She has been living in widowhood many years since his death. Her oldest child was born on the thirty-sixth birthday, April 27, 1805. She is the mother of eight children. The youngest is a married lady about sixty years of age. I think that most of her children are living, the oldest being about eighty-one years of age, while his mother will be one hundred and 17 April 27, 1886, if she reaches that date. She says that George Washington was at her father's home when she was fifteen years of age.
According to these dates, she was six years old when the Revolution began, seven at the Declaration of Independence, eight when the first Congress assembled, fourteen when independence was acknowledged. She was eleven years old when the sun was darkened in 1780, and sixty-four when the stars fell in November, 1833. She is seven years older than the United States of America, and has lived under the administration of every president of this country. She has lived to see an addition of about sixty millions of people to the population of her own country.
I saw her sitting in her chair, and piecing quilts; saw her thread her own needle, and arrange the pieces with her own fingers. She plays with little folks and is a great admirer of children. I inquired into the habits of her life, and learned that she had always been even-tempered and industrious. In her younger years she often worked in the harvest field. She pulled flax, broke and spun it, wove it into cloth and made it into garments to clothe her children. She still continues to read her Bible by the evening lamp.
She has always been guarded in her diet, both as to quantity and quality. In younger days she drank but little coffee or tea, and drinks neither now; but she uses chocolate with her meals. She eats but little meat, and takes very little medicine of any kind. When she has felt the need of a remedy, she has used some simple teas of home prescription. She never was guilty of tobacco using in any form, and has enjoyed health almost without interruption during the entire period of her life. She was afflicted with a severe cold during the latter part of this past winter, but she has rallied from it and gone to work again. She still thinks it is her duty to labor to support herself, which she does by selling blocks fro quilts, pieced by her own hands, to those who desire them as a memorial of work performed by the oldest hands of industry now plying a needle.
As I beheld this lady, now almost six-score years of age, still desiring to do her part in life lest she should become a burden to some one, I felt that I would profit by the lesson. One hundred and seventeen; yet not willing to eat the bread of idleness! One hundred years since she became a full grown woman, she is till laboring six days a week! Where is there another living person of so great an age who is so able to help and support themselves?
*SUBMITTERS NOTE: According to family sources, she was the daughter of Capt. Christopher R. Perry and her second husband was John Benerman. Others say Mary could not have been a child of Christopher Raymond Perry and Sarah Wallace Alexander as Sarah was from Ireland and they met after the Revolutionary War in 1784 and lived in Kingston, Rhode Island.
From Ames Daily Tribune April 21, 1965
Mary Benneman, 120-year-old Ames pioneer still a mystery
By Mrs. J. E. Sass
She was very deaf, and although her eye-sight was good enough to thread a needle until after she was century old, it was next to impossible to talk to Mary Benneman, the "Old Lady" of Ames whose hometown of Russiaville, Ind., was recently obliterated in tornado.
She could read her Bible and Sunday School lesson book but could not read script writing.
"Her recall of early memories of events was vivid," Mrs. Rowena Stevens, wife of Judge Stevens, wrote: "She described a shipwreck off the Delaware coast, picturing the last struggle of a ship on a stormy sea and how at last a big wave engulfed it and it was seen no more. She also remembered the British forces stampeding their cattle by pounding on empty hogsheads."
Under the Barn
According to Allen's History of Story County she told how her father could toss her to the ceiling of their Delaware home before he went to war. After his return he said she was too heavy. She told how when the British shelled the town of Lewes she took the family cat and crawled under the barn floor while the people went in the woods until dark only to return to find great damage to their homes.
Mary Benneman was born in Sussex County Lewes, Del. perhaps on March 15, 1769. Several stories about the Ames pioneer say she was the daughter of Christopher R. Perry, an officer in the Revolutionary War. Another story by Mrs. Stevens, however, said her father was William Gill, but evidence seems to prove she was Mary Perry before she consented to marry William Colter or Coulter in Chester County, Del. before 1805.
The couple's first child, Peter, was born March 15, 1805 in Delaware, another son, Albert, was born in 1807. Soon her husband answered the call of the open frontier country to the west, and Mary, with her two infant sons, lefter for Ohio. Some 50 miles from Circleville in Pickaway County, O. their horse died, leaving them stranded on the prairie. Putting as much on a wheelbarrow as they could they arrived on foot in Circleville where they built a log cabin. With Mary's help, a fine field-stone chimney marked the second house built in that town.
Some accounts say the couple had five sons, others add two daughters. But it is known that her husband died and she married John Benneman some years later. From her second marriage, a daughter, Elizabeth, was born. Her second husband died within a year after he married Mary.
Elizabeth married shortly before the Civil War to William (or Wesley) Black. The Ames Census of 1870 and 1885 lists Elizabeth Black, two sons, Alick and William and her mother, Mary Benneman, the first references to when they came to Ames.
Both Mary and her daughter were seamstresses and live south of Lincoln Way and West of Duff Ave. Their house is now gone.
Was a Seamstress
Accounts written of her life quoted her as saying, "I was real old before I married and people thought I would never marry, and used to say they did not see how they would get along without me to do their sewing." Mary moved from house to house to do her sewing as was the custom, and she continued this custom until near the end of her life.
A quilt she pieced together after she was 100 was sent to the New Orleans exposition in 1885 by a group of women in Ames. It apparently is still in the possession of one of her relatives.
One account tills of her run-in with the town photographer: "Not withstanding her advanced age, she is possessed of considerable 'snap' and shows her temper sometimes. Last summer the village photographer went to the house to take her picture. He placed her in position and got ready when he discovered that he had forgotten the (photographic) plates. In her excitement, she dropped her glasses and broke them and this added to her ire... She then told him he'd better 'learn his business' before he tried another job."
Probably the biggest day of her life, however, was when the town of Russiaville, Inc. celebrated her birthday and that of her son, Peter. Accounts of the celebration, featuring brass bands and all the trimmings, describe Mary Coulter-Benneman as surrounded by pillows in the two-seated surrey. Sh was wearing her famous lace cap, with the usual bouquet of colorful neckerchiefs around her neck.
Mary was listed in the Iowa census of 1870 as 102 and in the census of 1885 as 112. He son, Peter Coulter, was more than 80 when Mary wnet back to Russiaville, Ind. for her birthday celebration by train. Peter was too old to care for her, and she came back to Ames. At that time James and and Charles lived at Booneville, Mo. Peter was in Russiaville and Elizabeth here in Ames. Of her eight children, only four were living in 1886.
Liked Old Way
Of that train ride to Russiaville and back Mary said, "I was so scared. I saw so many sparks flying past the window I thought the cars would catch fire. I like the old way."
A line in the Ames Intelligencer said, "The sometimes loses her reckoning of time and has to be reminded when Sunday comes, or she would go on with her work. She eats heartily of what she wants, has never had any sickness of consequence and is strongly opposed to taking medicines. She has never been a drinker of tea or coffee, but enjoys a cup of chocolate, which she takes at every meal."
As late of 1959 there were still four of the 'Old Lady's' relatives living near Russiaville. Another, Delbert Black, lived north of Chicago. His father, as well as many other of Mary Benneman's relatives, is buried in the Nevada cemetery.
Historians are in dispute about where and when the "Old Lady" died. Howard County, Ind. Historian C.V. Hawthorn said she died in or near Russiaville about 1889. The Ames Intelligencer, however, said May 31, 1888 that she had died here May 20, 1888 and was buried May 22 in the Bloomington Cemetery.
Historians also speculate about her final resting place. The Intelligencer account said she was buried in Bloomington Cemetery, but other evidence might show she was later take to the Nevada Cemetery after Elizabeth Black, her daughter, died in 1912 at age 80.
In any event, the sewing together of her life's history, much like the quilt she sent to the New Orleans Exposition in 1885, continues to be an eluding job. Some day, the Sundial Chapter of the Daughter of the American Revolution hopes to prove that Mary Coulter-Benneman was the daughter of a Revolutionary soldier and erect a monument to her honor.
Mrs. Benniman died Sunday evening aged 116 years. The remains were laid to rest the Cemetery at Bloomington in the family lot. She was one of the old residents here, and leaves a daughter, Mrs. Black.
From the Story County Watchman February 6, 1885
Grandma Brenneman is one hundred and seventeen years old next month, March. She lives with her daughter, Mrs. Black, and is a native of Maryland. She remembers to have seen General Washington, and her recollections of events one hundred years ago is better than of those of more recent occurance. A son 80 years old paid her a visit last fall. She sent a quilt, pieced by herself, to the New Orleans exposition.
From Story County Watchman April 23, 1886
The Oldest Person Living.
The Review and Herald of Battle Creek, Michigan, has the following which is of considerable interest to Story county readers, because of the age of the person referred to, but also because it is in reference to one who has made our county her home for about a score of years, having lived at Ames about that length of time. It was written by Elder Wm Covert:
I visited a very aged lady on the 26th day of March, 1886. I will give a sketch of her history, and would then inquire if you know of another person who is so aged. I received the following from her son Peter Coulter, with whom she is now living near New London, Howard county, Ind:
Mary Perry, daughter of William Perry,* was born April 27, 1769, in Chester county, Delaware. She lived in Single life until thirty-five years old, when she was united marriage to Wm. Coulter. She lived with Mr. Coulter till he was fifty-two years of age, when he died. Several years later in life she married a man named Bennaman,* whose name she now bears. She has been living in widowhood many years since his death. Her oldest child was born on the thirty-sixth birthday, April 27, 1805. She is the mother of eight children. The youngest is a married lady about sixty years of age. I think that most of her children are living, the oldest being about eighty-one years of age, while his mother will be one hundred and 17 April 27, 1886, if she reaches that date. She says that George Washington was at her father's home when she was fifteen years of age.
According to these dates, she was six years old when the Revolution began, seven at the Declaration of Independence, eight when the first Congress assembled, fourteen when independence was acknowledged. She was eleven years old when the sun was darkened in 1780, and sixty-four when the stars fell in November, 1833. She is seven years older than the United States of America, and has lived under the administration of every president of this country. She has lived to see an addition of about sixty millions of people to the population of her own country.
I saw her sitting in her chair, and piecing quilts; saw her thread her own needle, and arrange the pieces with her own fingers. She plays with little folks and is a great admirer of children. I inquired into the habits of her life, and learned that she had always been even-tempered and industrious. In her younger years she often worked in the harvest field. She pulled flax, broke and spun it, wove it into cloth and made it into garments to clothe her children. She still continues to read her Bible by the evening lamp.
She has always been guarded in her diet, both as to quantity and quality. In younger days she drank but little coffee or tea, and drinks neither now; but she uses chocolate with her meals. She eats but little meat, and takes very little medicine of any kind. When she has felt the need of a remedy, she has used some simple teas of home prescription. She never was guilty of tobacco using in any form, and has enjoyed health almost without interruption during the entire period of her life. She was afflicted with a severe cold during the latter part of this past winter, but she has rallied from it and gone to work again. She still thinks it is her duty to labor to support herself, which she does by selling blocks fro quilts, pieced by her own hands, to those who desire them as a memorial of work performed by the oldest hands of industry now plying a needle.
As I beheld this lady, now almost six-score years of age, still desiring to do her part in life lest she should become a burden to some one, I felt that I would profit by the lesson. One hundred and seventeen; yet not willing to eat the bread of idleness! One hundred years since she became a full grown woman, she is till laboring six days a week! Where is there another living person of so great an age who is so able to help and support themselves?
*SUBMITTERS NOTE: According to family sources, she was the daughter of Capt. Christopher R. Perry and her second husband was John Benerman. Others say Mary could not have been a child of Christopher Raymond Perry and Sarah Wallace Alexander as Sarah was from Ireland and they met after the Revolutionary War in 1784 and lived in Kingston, Rhode Island.
From Ames Daily Tribune April 21, 1965
Mary Benneman, 120-year-old Ames pioneer still a mystery
By Mrs. J. E. Sass
She was very deaf, and although her eye-sight was good enough to thread a needle until after she was century old, it was next to impossible to talk to Mary Benneman, the "Old Lady" of Ames whose hometown of Russiaville, Ind., was recently obliterated in tornado.
She could read her Bible and Sunday School lesson book but could not read script writing.
"Her recall of early memories of events was vivid," Mrs. Rowena Stevens, wife of Judge Stevens, wrote: "She described a shipwreck off the Delaware coast, picturing the last struggle of a ship on a stormy sea and how at last a big wave engulfed it and it was seen no more. She also remembered the British forces stampeding their cattle by pounding on empty hogsheads."
Under the Barn
According to Allen's History of Story County she told how her father could toss her to the ceiling of their Delaware home before he went to war. After his return he said she was too heavy. She told how when the British shelled the town of Lewes she took the family cat and crawled under the barn floor while the people went in the woods until dark only to return to find great damage to their homes.
Mary Benneman was born in Sussex County Lewes, Del. perhaps on March 15, 1769. Several stories about the Ames pioneer say she was the daughter of Christopher R. Perry, an officer in the Revolutionary War. Another story by Mrs. Stevens, however, said her father was William Gill, but evidence seems to prove she was Mary Perry before she consented to marry William Colter or Coulter in Chester County, Del. before 1805.
The couple's first child, Peter, was born March 15, 1805 in Delaware, another son, Albert, was born in 1807. Soon her husband answered the call of the open frontier country to the west, and Mary, with her two infant sons, lefter for Ohio. Some 50 miles from Circleville in Pickaway County, O. their horse died, leaving them stranded on the prairie. Putting as much on a wheelbarrow as they could they arrived on foot in Circleville where they built a log cabin. With Mary's help, a fine field-stone chimney marked the second house built in that town.
Some accounts say the couple had five sons, others add two daughters. But it is known that her husband died and she married John Benneman some years later. From her second marriage, a daughter, Elizabeth, was born. Her second husband died within a year after he married Mary.
Elizabeth married shortly before the Civil War to William (or Wesley) Black. The Ames Census of 1870 and 1885 lists Elizabeth Black, two sons, Alick and William and her mother, Mary Benneman, the first references to when they came to Ames.
Both Mary and her daughter were seamstresses and live south of Lincoln Way and West of Duff Ave. Their house is now gone.
Was a Seamstress
Accounts written of her life quoted her as saying, "I was real old before I married and people thought I would never marry, and used to say they did not see how they would get along without me to do their sewing." Mary moved from house to house to do her sewing as was the custom, and she continued this custom until near the end of her life.
A quilt she pieced together after she was 100 was sent to the New Orleans exposition in 1885 by a group of women in Ames. It apparently is still in the possession of one of her relatives.
One account tills of her run-in with the town photographer: "Not withstanding her advanced age, she is possessed of considerable 'snap' and shows her temper sometimes. Last summer the village photographer went to the house to take her picture. He placed her in position and got ready when he discovered that he had forgotten the (photographic) plates. In her excitement, she dropped her glasses and broke them and this added to her ire... She then told him he'd better 'learn his business' before he tried another job."
Probably the biggest day of her life, however, was when the town of Russiaville, Inc. celebrated her birthday and that of her son, Peter. Accounts of the celebration, featuring brass bands and all the trimmings, describe Mary Coulter-Benneman as surrounded by pillows in the two-seated surrey. Sh was wearing her famous lace cap, with the usual bouquet of colorful neckerchiefs around her neck.
Mary was listed in the Iowa census of 1870 as 102 and in the census of 1885 as 112. He son, Peter Coulter, was more than 80 when Mary wnet back to Russiaville, Ind. for her birthday celebration by train. Peter was too old to care for her, and she came back to Ames. At that time James and and Charles lived at Booneville, Mo. Peter was in Russiaville and Elizabeth here in Ames. Of her eight children, only four were living in 1886.
Liked Old Way
Of that train ride to Russiaville and back Mary said, "I was so scared. I saw so many sparks flying past the window I thought the cars would catch fire. I like the old way."
A line in the Ames Intelligencer said, "The sometimes loses her reckoning of time and has to be reminded when Sunday comes, or she would go on with her work. She eats heartily of what she wants, has never had any sickness of consequence and is strongly opposed to taking medicines. She has never been a drinker of tea or coffee, but enjoys a cup of chocolate, which she takes at every meal."
As late of 1959 there were still four of the 'Old Lady's' relatives living near Russiaville. Another, Delbert Black, lived north of Chicago. His father, as well as many other of Mary Benneman's relatives, is buried in the Nevada cemetery.
Historians are in dispute about where and when the "Old Lady" died. Howard County, Ind. Historian C.V. Hawthorn said she died in or near Russiaville about 1889. The Ames Intelligencer, however, said May 31, 1888 that she had died here May 20, 1888 and was buried May 22 in the Bloomington Cemetery.
Historians also speculate about her final resting place. The Intelligencer account said she was buried in Bloomington Cemetery, but other evidence might show she was later take to the Nevada Cemetery after Elizabeth Black, her daughter, died in 1912 at age 80.
In any event, the sewing together of her life's history, much like the quilt she sent to the New Orleans Exposition in 1885, continues to be an eluding job. Some day, the Sundial Chapter of the Daughter of the American Revolution hopes to prove that Mary Coulter-Benneman was the daughter of a Revolutionary soldier and erect a monument to her honor.
From Story County Watchman May 25, 1888
Mrs. Benniman died Sunday evening aged 116 years. The remains were laid to rest the Cemetery at Bloomington in the family lot. She was one of the old residents here, and leaves a daughter, Mrs. Black.
From the Story County Watchman February 6, 1885
Grandma Brenneman is one hundred and seventeen years old next month, March. She lives with her daughter, Mrs. Black, and is a native of Maryland. She remembers to have seen General Washington, and her recollections of events one hundred years ago is better than of those of more recent occurance. A son 80 years old paid her a visit last fall. She sent a quilt, pieced by herself, to the New Orleans exposition.
From Story County Watchman April 23, 1886
The Oldest Person Living.
The Review and Herald of Battle Creek, Michigan, has the following which is of considerable interest to Story county readers, because of the age of the person referred to, but also because it is in reference to one who has made our county her home for about a score of years, having lived at Ames about that length of time. It was written by Elder Wm Covert:
I visited a very aged lady on the 26th day of March, 1886. I will give a sketch of her history, and would then inquire if you know of another person who is so aged. I received the following from her son Peter Coulter, with whom she is now living near New London, Howard county, Ind:
Mary Perry, daughter of William Perry,* was born April 27, 1769, in Chester county, Delaware. She lived in Single life until thirty-five years old, when she was united marriage to Wm. Coulter. She lived with Mr. Coulter till he was fifty-two years of age, when he died. Several years later in life she married a man named Bennaman,* whose name she now bears. She has been living in widowhood many years since his death. Her oldest child was born on the thirty-sixth birthday, April 27, 1805. She is the mother of eight children. The youngest is a married lady about sixty years of age. I think that most of her children are living, the oldest being about eighty-one years of age, while his mother will be one hundred and 17 April 27, 1886, if she reaches that date. She says that George Washington was at her father's home when she was fifteen years of age.
According to these dates, she was six years old when the Revolution began, seven at the Declaration of Independence, eight when the first Congress assembled, fourteen when independence was acknowledged. She was eleven years old when the sun was darkened in 1780, and sixty-four when the stars fell in November, 1833. She is seven years older than the United States of America, and has lived under the administration of every president of this country. She has lived to see an addition of about sixty millions of people to the population of her own country.
I saw her sitting in her chair, and piecing quilts; saw her thread her own needle, and arrange the pieces with her own fingers. She plays with little folks and is a great admirer of children. I inquired into the habits of her life, and learned that she had always been even-tempered and industrious. In her younger years she often worked in the harvest field. She pulled flax, broke and spun it, wove it into cloth and made it into garments to clothe her children. She still continues to read her Bible by the evening lamp.
She has always been guarded in her diet, both as to quantity and quality. In younger days she drank but little coffee or tea, and drinks neither now; but she uses chocolate with her meals. She eats but little meat, and takes very little medicine of any kind. When she has felt the need of a remedy, she has used some simple teas of home prescription. She never was guilty of tobacco using in any form, and has enjoyed health almost without interruption during the entire period of her life. She was afflicted with a severe cold during the latter part of this past winter, but she has rallied from it and gone to work again. She still thinks it is her duty to labor to support herself, which she does by selling blocks fro quilts, pieced by her own hands, to those who desire them as a memorial of work performed by the oldest hands of industry now plying a needle.
As I beheld this lady, now almost six-score years of age, still desiring to do her part in life lest she should become a burden to some one, I felt that I would profit by the lesson. One hundred and seventeen; yet not willing to eat the bread of idleness! One hundred years since she became a full grown woman, she is till laboring six days a week! Where is there another living person of so great an age who is so able to help and support themselves?
*SUBMITTERS NOTE: According to family sources, she was the daughter of Capt. Christopher R. Perry and her second husband was John Benerman. Others say Mary could not have been a child of Christopher Raymond Perry and Sarah Wallace Alexander as Sarah was from Ireland and they met after the Revolutionary War in 1784 and lived in Kingston, Rhode Island.
From Ames Daily Tribune April 21, 1965
Mary Benneman, 120-year-old Ames pioneer still a mystery
By Mrs. J. E. Sass
She was very deaf, and although her eye-sight was good enough to thread a needle until after she was century old, it was next to impossible to talk to Mary Benneman, the "Old Lady" of Ames whose hometown of Russiaville, Ind., was recently obliterated in tornado.
She could read her Bible and Sunday School lesson book but could not read script writing.
"Her recall of early memories of events was vivid," Mrs. Rowena Stevens, wife of Judge Stevens, wrote: "She described a shipwreck off the Delaware coast, picturing the last struggle of a ship on a stormy sea and how at last a big wave engulfed it and it was seen no more. She also remembered the British forces stampeding their cattle by pounding on empty hogsheads."
Under the Barn
According to Allen's History of Story County she told how her father could toss her to the ceiling of their Delaware home before he went to war. After his return he said she was too heavy. She told how when the British shelled the town of Lewes she took the family cat and crawled under the barn floor while the people went in the woods until dark only to return to find great damage to their homes.
Mary Benneman was born in Sussex County Lewes, Del. perhaps on March 15, 1769. Several stories about the Ames pioneer say she was the daughter of Christopher R. Perry, an officer in the Revolutionary War. Another story by Mrs. Stevens, however, said her father was William Gill, but evidence seems to prove she was Mary Perry before she consented to marry William Colter or Coulter in Chester County, Del. before 1805.
The couple's first child, Peter, was born March 15, 1805 in Delaware, another son, Albert, was born in 1807. Soon her husband answered the call of the open frontier country to the west, and Mary, with her two infant sons, lefter for Ohio. Some 50 miles from Circleville in Pickaway County, O. their horse died, leaving them stranded on the prairie. Putting as much on a wheelbarrow as they could they arrived on foot in Circleville where they built a log cabin. With Mary's help, a fine field-stone chimney marked the second house built in that town.
Some accounts say the couple had five sons, others add two daughters. But it is known that her husband died and she married John Benneman some years later. From her second marriage, a daughter, Elizabeth, was born. Her second husband died within a year after he married Mary.
Elizabeth married shortly before the Civil War to William (or Wesley) Black. The Ames Census of 1870 and 1885 lists Elizabeth Black, two sons, Alick and William and her mother, Mary Benneman, the first references to when they came to Ames.
Both Mary and her daughter were seamstresses and live south of Lincoln Way and West of Duff Ave. Their house is now gone.
Was a Seamstress
Accounts written of her life quoted her as saying, "I was real old before I married and people thought I would never marry, and used to say they did not see how they would get along without me to do their sewing." Mary moved from house to house to do her sewing as was the custom, and she continued this custom until near the end of her life.
A quilt she pieced together after she was 100 was sent to the New Orleans exposition in 1885 by a group of women in Ames. It apparently is still in the possession of one of her relatives.
One account tills of her run-in with the town photographer: "Not withstanding her advanced age, she is possessed of considerable 'snap' and shows her temper sometimes. Last summer the village photographer went to the house to take her picture. He placed her in position and got ready when he discovered that he had forgotten the (photographic) plates. In her excitement, she dropped her glasses and broke them and this added to her ire... She then told him he'd better 'learn his business' before he tried another job."
Probably the biggest day of her life, however, was when the town of Russiaville, Inc. celebrated her birthday and that of her son, Peter. Accounts of the celebration, featuring brass bands and all the trimmings, describe Mary Coulter-Benneman as surrounded by pillows in the two-seated surrey. Sh was wearing her famous lace cap, with the usual bouquet of colorful neckerchiefs around her neck.
Mary was listed in the Iowa census of 1870 as 102 and in the census of 1885 as 112. He son, Peter Coulter, was more than 80 when Mary wnet back to Russiaville, Ind. for her birthday celebration by train. Peter was too old to care for her, and she came back to Ames. At that time James and and Charles lived at Booneville, Mo. Peter was in Russiaville and Elizabeth here in Ames. Of her eight children, only four were living in 1886.
Liked Old Way
Of that train ride to Russiaville and back Mary said, "I was so scared. I saw so many sparks flying past the window I thought the cars would catch fire. I like the old way."
A line in the Ames Intelligencer said, "The sometimes loses her reckoning of time and has to be reminded when Sunday comes, or she would go on with her work. She eats heartily of what she wants, has never had any sickness of consequence and is strongly opposed to taking medicines. She has never been a drinker of tea or coffee, but enjoys a cup of chocolate, which she takes at every meal."
As late of 1959 there were still four of the 'Old Lady's' relatives living near Russiaville. Another, Delbert Black, lived north of Chicago. His father, as well as many other of Mary Benneman's relatives, is buried in the Nevada cemetery.
Historians are in dispute about where and when the "Old Lady" died. Howard County, Ind. Historian C.V. Hawthorn said she died in or near Russiaville about 1889. The Ames Intelligencer, however, said May 31, 1888 that she had died here May 20, 1888 and was buried May 22 in the Bloomington Cemetery.
Historians also speculate about her final resting place. The Intelligencer account said she was buried in Bloomington Cemetery, but other evidence might show she was later take to the Nevada Cemetery after Elizabeth Black, her daughter, died in 1912 at age 80.
In any event, the sewing together of her life's history, much like the quilt she sent to the New Orleans Exposition in 1885, continues to be an eluding job. Some day, the Sundial Chapter of the Daughter of the American Revolution hopes to prove that Mary Coulter-Benneman was the daughter of a Revolutionary soldier and erect a monument to her honor.
Mrs. Benniman died Sunday evening aged 116 years. The remains were laid to rest the Cemetery at Bloomington in the family lot. She was one of the old residents here, and leaves a daughter, Mrs. Black.
From the Story County Watchman February 6, 1885
Grandma Brenneman is one hundred and seventeen years old next month, March. She lives with her daughter, Mrs. Black, and is a native of Maryland. She remembers to have seen General Washington, and her recollections of events one hundred years ago is better than of those of more recent occurance. A son 80 years old paid her a visit last fall. She sent a quilt, pieced by herself, to the New Orleans exposition.
From Story County Watchman April 23, 1886
The Oldest Person Living.
The Review and Herald of Battle Creek, Michigan, has the following which is of considerable interest to Story county readers, because of the age of the person referred to, but also because it is in reference to one who has made our county her home for about a score of years, having lived at Ames about that length of time. It was written by Elder Wm Covert:
I visited a very aged lady on the 26th day of March, 1886. I will give a sketch of her history, and would then inquire if you know of another person who is so aged. I received the following from her son Peter Coulter, with whom she is now living near New London, Howard county, Ind:
Mary Perry, daughter of William Perry,* was born April 27, 1769, in Chester county, Delaware. She lived in Single life until thirty-five years old, when she was united marriage to Wm. Coulter. She lived with Mr. Coulter till he was fifty-two years of age, when he died. Several years later in life she married a man named Bennaman,* whose name she now bears. She has been living in widowhood many years since his death. Her oldest child was born on the thirty-sixth birthday, April 27, 1805. She is the mother of eight children. The youngest is a married lady about sixty years of age. I think that most of her children are living, the oldest being about eighty-one years of age, while his mother will be one hundred and 17 April 27, 1886, if she reaches that date. She says that George Washington was at her father's home when she was fifteen years of age.
According to these dates, she was six years old when the Revolution began, seven at the Declaration of Independence, eight when the first Congress assembled, fourteen when independence was acknowledged. She was eleven years old when the sun was darkened in 1780, and sixty-four when the stars fell in November, 1833. She is seven years older than the United States of America, and has lived under the administration of every president of this country. She has lived to see an addition of about sixty millions of people to the population of her own country.
I saw her sitting in her chair, and piecing quilts; saw her thread her own needle, and arrange the pieces with her own fingers. She plays with little folks and is a great admirer of children. I inquired into the habits of her life, and learned that she had always been even-tempered and industrious. In her younger years she often worked in the harvest field. She pulled flax, broke and spun it, wove it into cloth and made it into garments to clothe her children. She still continues to read her Bible by the evening lamp.
She has always been guarded in her diet, both as to quantity and quality. In younger days she drank but little coffee or tea, and drinks neither now; but she uses chocolate with her meals. She eats but little meat, and takes very little medicine of any kind. When she has felt the need of a remedy, she has used some simple teas of home prescription. She never was guilty of tobacco using in any form, and has enjoyed health almost without interruption during the entire period of her life. She was afflicted with a severe cold during the latter part of this past winter, but she has rallied from it and gone to work again. She still thinks it is her duty to labor to support herself, which she does by selling blocks fro quilts, pieced by her own hands, to those who desire them as a memorial of work performed by the oldest hands of industry now plying a needle.
As I beheld this lady, now almost six-score years of age, still desiring to do her part in life lest she should become a burden to some one, I felt that I would profit by the lesson. One hundred and seventeen; yet not willing to eat the bread of idleness! One hundred years since she became a full grown woman, she is till laboring six days a week! Where is there another living person of so great an age who is so able to help and support themselves?
*SUBMITTERS NOTE: According to family sources, she was the daughter of Capt. Christopher R. Perry and her second husband was John Benerman. Others say Mary could not have been a child of Christopher Raymond Perry and Sarah Wallace Alexander as Sarah was from Ireland and they met after the Revolutionary War in 1784 and lived in Kingston, Rhode Island.
From Ames Daily Tribune April 21, 1965
Mary Benneman, 120-year-old Ames pioneer still a mystery
By Mrs. J. E. Sass
She was very deaf, and although her eye-sight was good enough to thread a needle until after she was century old, it was next to impossible to talk to Mary Benneman, the "Old Lady" of Ames whose hometown of Russiaville, Ind., was recently obliterated in tornado.
She could read her Bible and Sunday School lesson book but could not read script writing.
"Her recall of early memories of events was vivid," Mrs. Rowena Stevens, wife of Judge Stevens, wrote: "She described a shipwreck off the Delaware coast, picturing the last struggle of a ship on a stormy sea and how at last a big wave engulfed it and it was seen no more. She also remembered the British forces stampeding their cattle by pounding on empty hogsheads."
Under the Barn
According to Allen's History of Story County she told how her father could toss her to the ceiling of their Delaware home before he went to war. After his return he said she was too heavy. She told how when the British shelled the town of Lewes she took the family cat and crawled under the barn floor while the people went in the woods until dark only to return to find great damage to their homes.
Mary Benneman was born in Sussex County Lewes, Del. perhaps on March 15, 1769. Several stories about the Ames pioneer say she was the daughter of Christopher R. Perry, an officer in the Revolutionary War. Another story by Mrs. Stevens, however, said her father was William Gill, but evidence seems to prove she was Mary Perry before she consented to marry William Colter or Coulter in Chester County, Del. before 1805.
The couple's first child, Peter, was born March 15, 1805 in Delaware, another son, Albert, was born in 1807. Soon her husband answered the call of the open frontier country to the west, and Mary, with her two infant sons, lefter for Ohio. Some 50 miles from Circleville in Pickaway County, O. their horse died, leaving them stranded on the prairie. Putting as much on a wheelbarrow as they could they arrived on foot in Circleville where they built a log cabin. With Mary's help, a fine field-stone chimney marked the second house built in that town.
Some accounts say the couple had five sons, others add two daughters. But it is known that her husband died and she married John Benneman some years later. From her second marriage, a daughter, Elizabeth, was born. Her second husband died within a year after he married Mary.
Elizabeth married shortly before the Civil War to William (or Wesley) Black. The Ames Census of 1870 and 1885 lists Elizabeth Black, two sons, Alick and William and her mother, Mary Benneman, the first references to when they came to Ames.
Both Mary and her daughter were seamstresses and live south of Lincoln Way and West of Duff Ave. Their house is now gone.
Was a Seamstress
Accounts written of her life quoted her as saying, "I was real old before I married and people thought I would never marry, and used to say they did not see how they would get along without me to do their sewing." Mary moved from house to house to do her sewing as was the custom, and she continued this custom until near the end of her life.
A quilt she pieced together after she was 100 was sent to the New Orleans exposition in 1885 by a group of women in Ames. It apparently is still in the possession of one of her relatives.
One account tills of her run-in with the town photographer: "Not withstanding her advanced age, she is possessed of considerable 'snap' and shows her temper sometimes. Last summer the village photographer went to the house to take her picture. He placed her in position and got ready when he discovered that he had forgotten the (photographic) plates. In her excitement, she dropped her glasses and broke them and this added to her ire... She then told him he'd better 'learn his business' before he tried another job."
Probably the biggest day of her life, however, was when the town of Russiaville, Inc. celebrated her birthday and that of her son, Peter. Accounts of the celebration, featuring brass bands and all the trimmings, describe Mary Coulter-Benneman as surrounded by pillows in the two-seated surrey. Sh was wearing her famous lace cap, with the usual bouquet of colorful neckerchiefs around her neck.
Mary was listed in the Iowa census of 1870 as 102 and in the census of 1885 as 112. He son, Peter Coulter, was more than 80 when Mary wnet back to Russiaville, Ind. for her birthday celebration by train. Peter was too old to care for her, and she came back to Ames. At that time James and and Charles lived at Booneville, Mo. Peter was in Russiaville and Elizabeth here in Ames. Of her eight children, only four were living in 1886.
Liked Old Way
Of that train ride to Russiaville and back Mary said, "I was so scared. I saw so many sparks flying past the window I thought the cars would catch fire. I like the old way."
A line in the Ames Intelligencer said, "The sometimes loses her reckoning of time and has to be reminded when Sunday comes, or she would go on with her work. She eats heartily of what she wants, has never had any sickness of consequence and is strongly opposed to taking medicines. She has never been a drinker of tea or coffee, but enjoys a cup of chocolate, which she takes at every meal."
As late of 1959 there were still four of the 'Old Lady's' relatives living near Russiaville. Another, Delbert Black, lived north of Chicago. His father, as well as many other of Mary Benneman's relatives, is buried in the Nevada cemetery.
Historians are in dispute about where and when the "Old Lady" died. Howard County, Ind. Historian C.V. Hawthorn said she died in or near Russiaville about 1889. The Ames Intelligencer, however, said May 31, 1888 that she had died here May 20, 1888 and was buried May 22 in the Bloomington Cemetery.
Historians also speculate about her final resting place. The Intelligencer account said she was buried in Bloomington Cemetery, but other evidence might show she was later take to the Nevada Cemetery after Elizabeth Black, her daughter, died in 1912 at age 80.
In any event, the sewing together of her life's history, much like the quilt she sent to the New Orleans Exposition in 1885, continues to be an eluding job. Some day, the Sundial Chapter of the Daughter of the American Revolution hopes to prove that Mary Coulter-Benneman was the daughter of a Revolutionary soldier and erect a monument to her honor.
Gravesite Details
Mary Benneman's burial was not on any of the lists mentioned on the Bloomington Cemetery page. It is only mentioned in her obituary and, from the subsequent write-up, her body may well have been moved to the Nevada Cemetery.
Family Members
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