JOHN
BENNINGHOFF, deceased, was born in Lehigh County, Penn., December 25,
1801, and when quite young removed with his parents to Union County
where he grew to manhood. He was there married in 1824, to Miss
Elizabeth Heise, a native of Union County. Her father, Solomon Heise,
was one of the pioneers of that section of Pennsylvania, where he died
at the remarkable age of over one hundred and seven years. He was a
native of the Keystone State, but his parents were natives of Germany,
who immigrated to Penn’s Colony soon after it was founded. About 1831
John Benninghoff, wife and family removed from Clearfield County to
Venango County, where he rented farm land for several years. He finally
purchased land at different times until he owned a farm of 235 acres,
which subsequently proved to be the most productive oil farm in the oil
country discovered up to the present. This fortunate stroke of luck
made him rich. His interest in the oil product of his farm extended
from 1861 to April, 1868, when he sold his lands and removed to
Greenville. During that period he had a large royalty coming in from
the wells on his land, and his bank deposits in Franklin were
correspondingly heavy. The bank failed and he lost a large amount of
money. Losing confidence in such institutions, he concluded to be his
own banker, and purchasing a safe kept his money in his house. On the
evening of January 16, 1868, his safe was robbed of $250,000, not a
cent of which was ever recovered, though the family spent $50,000 in
attempts to capture the robbers. Notwithstanding this very heavy loss
he died worth about $400,000. Mr. Benninghoff and wife reared a family
of eight sons and four daughters, viz.: George, Charles, Martin,
Amelia, Elizabeth, John E., Catharine, Frederick W., Mary J., Jeremiah,
Joseph and Milton, all of whom are living except John E., Amelia and
Catharine. The mother died in the Presbyterian faith, July 26, 1872,
her husband surviving her nearly ten years, and dying March 20, 1882,
in the eighty-first year of his age. He was a Lutheran in religions
belief, and politically a Republican. At the time of his death he had
sixty-one grandchildren and twenty one great-grandchildren. John
Benninghoff was a plain, practical, upright man, whose word was ever
sacred. Though his struggles with poverty in early life made him frugal
and economical, when wealth came to him, almost as if by magic, he
seldom refused to help worthy objects. He also gave a liberal donation
to the Lutheran Church, and a similar gift to Thiel College, which
alone attest his generous nature.
Source: History of Mercer County, 1888, page 776-777
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