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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BLUE
Vol. 3, p. 1010-1011

In every community the farming class furnishes some of the most
progressive and representative citizens. Always industrious and hard
working, the farmer of today needs also to be intelligent and to some
extent educated, as the science of agriculture has made large strides
during the last half century and, while reducing the amount of manual
labor necessary, has made greater demands upon the mental powers. A
typical representative of this enterprising class may be found in the
subject of this memoir, Benjamin Franklin BLUE, now living retired in
the Town of Ingersoll.

Mr. Blue was born in a log house in Marion County, Indiana, October
14, 1850, a son of Benjamin and Hannah (HOAGLAND) Blue. The paternal
grandfather was William Blue, whose father was a native of Virginia.
William Blue and his wife Rachel had a family of eleven children-
seven sons and four daughters, all of whom are now deceased. They
were respectively: Uriah, Joseph, Elizabeth, Benjamin, Gerard, Peter,
Louisa, Margaret, William, Rachel and George W.

Benjamin Blue, father of Benjamin F., was born in Ohio County,
Indiana, October 31, 1813. He spent his life in farming in his native
state and died September 25, 1882, near Indianapolis, Indiana. On
January 31, 1837, he married Hannah Hoagland. She was born September
6, 1818, and died March 12, 1892. Her father, Thomas Hoagland, born
December 27, 1795, made the first brick and erected the first brick
house in Indianapolis. He died in 1849. His wife, born June 15, 1798,
died in 1840. Their family numbered ten children, six sons and four
daughters, all now deceased, namely: Elizabeth, Hannah, Turalah,
Henry, Sarah, Gerard, Thomas, Mary, Arthur and John. Mr. And Mrs.
Benjamin Blue had seven children, five sons and two daughters of whom
the following is a brief record: Uriah, born March 24, 1837, died in
1915 at Zionsville, Indiana. Amanda Ellen, born September 25, 1840,
is the wife of Houston MCILVAIN, of Indianapolis, Indiana. George
William, born April 8, 1842, is engaged in fruit growing at
Indianapolis. Mary Elizabeth, born April 30, 1844, died June 20,
1908. Peter F., born September 28, 1845, died September 29, 1870.
Benjamin Franklin, born October 14, 1850, is the subject of this
sketch. Perry Beard, born November 8, 1854, died November 19, 1881.

Benjamin Franklin Blue was reared on the farm and educated in the
public schools. At the age of twenty-two years he found employment in
an abstract office at Indianapolis and remained there three years. In
1878 he removed to Cowley County, Kansas, where he pre-empted land
and was engaged in farming there until 1884. He then removed to
Harper County in the same state and engaged in the dairy business,
being thus occupied until 1887, at which time he was elected register
of deeds for the county. After this he carried on a business in
agricultural implements in Harper until 1893. The Cherokee Strip
being opened up to white settlement in September of that year, he
took part in the rush for land and secured a Government tract located
one mile from the Town of Ingersoll. This he developed into a good
farm, of which he is still the owner. It consists of 240 acres and is
now valued at $100 per acre.

Mr. Blue continued farming until 1911, at which time he retired and
took up his residence in Ingersoll. Here he is now serving as town
clerk and is secretary and part owner of the Union Telephone Company,
a local mutual concern. Mr. Blue is a thirty-second degree Mason and
for eleven years has been secretary of Tuscan Lodge, No. 193, Ancient
Free and Accepted Masons. On June 5, 1878, he was married to Miss
Sarah C. WHITE, who was born February 9, 1856, a daughter of
Alexander and Harriet B. (SHANK) White, of Indianapolis, Indiana.
They have been the parents of seven children, three sons and four
daughters, namely: Myrtle, born March 5, 1879, who died February 25,
1880; Ezra Meech, born October 10, 1880; Eva H., born December 23,
1882; Mary Ellen, born May 27, 1885; Wilfred W., born April 24, 1887;
Hannah, born November 9, 1889; and John W., born March 23, 1892. Mr.
Blue and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
They are well known and respected, being closely identified with the
social life of Ingersoll and the vicinity.

Typed for OKGenWeb by: Dorothy Marie Tenaza, January 9, 1999.