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BENJAMIN F. RAMEY
Vol. 3, p. 1323

Another of the sterling pioneer who has contributed his quota to the
civic and industrial development of Oklahoma is Benjamin Franklin
Ramey, who came to Oklahoma Territory in the year that it was opened
for settlement and prior to its formal organization. He had
previously had wide experience in the cattle business on the great
ranges of the West and he stands representative of that sturdy type
of pioneers who have pushed forward the march of civilization in the
great western sections of our national domain, who have wrought
unobtrusively, have lived plain and upright lives and have proved
themselves worthy as productive workers and loyal citizens. He is now
one of the prosperous agriculturists and stock-growers of Pawnee
County, where his well improved homestead place is situated near the
Village of Jennings, which is his post-office address.

Mr. Ramey was born in Iroquois County, Illinois, on the 11th of
October, 1849, but was reared to adult age in Jasper county, Indiana,
where his parents established their residence within a short period
after his birth. He is a son of Thomas and Polly Ann (PARK) Ramey,
the former of whom was born in Virginia and the latter in Maryland,
the respective families having been founded in America in the
colonial era of our national history. Thomas Ramey went to the State
of Indiana when a young man of about twenty-two years, in 1836, and
there his marriage was solemnized, his wife having been a child when
she accompanied her parents on their removal to the pioneer wilds of
the Hoosier State. After their marriage Thomas Ramey and his wife
resided for a time in Illinois and upon their return to Indiana he
engaged in farming in Jay County, where he continued his operations
until 1863, when removal was made to Champaign County, Illinois.
There he continued to be identified with the same line of industrial
enterprise until 1865, when he drove through to Kansas and became one
of the pioneers of Linn County, the Civil war having come to a close
while he and his family were en route across the plains to the new
home in the Sunflower State. He entered claim to a tract of
Government land and reclaimed a productive farm in Linn County, where
both he and his wife passed the residue of their lives, upright
persons of unassuming worth and well entitled to the esteem in which
they were uniformly held. Mrs. Ramey died in February, 1884, when
about seventy-three years of age, and her husband followed her to the
life eternal in the autumn of the same year, he having attained to
the age of seventy-eight years. The names of both merit enduring
place on the roll of the honored pioneers of Kansas. Mr. Ramey
enlisted for service as a soldier in the Mexican war, but his command
was not called to the stage of conflict. He was a democrat in his
political proclivities and both he and his wife held membership in
the Baptist Church. Concerning their children the following brief
data are available: Mrs. Eliza BASS died at the age of thirty-five
years; Mrs. Susan HAW resides at Pleasanton, Kansas, as does also
Mrs. Sarah PARKS; William Nelson resides in Barry County, Missouri;
Mrs. Emily DUNN maintains her home in Douglas County, Illinois;
Martha died in childhood, as did also Asa; Benjamin F., of this
review, was the next in order of birth; Mrs. Mary Jane BELL is
deceased; and James is a resident of the City of Chicago

Benjamin F. Ramey gained his early education in the common schools
of Indiana and Illinois, accompanied his parents on their immigration
to Kansas, and there continued to be associated with the work and
management of the home farm until 1869, when, at the age of about
twenty years, he took unto himself a wife and established himself
independently as a farmer and stock raiser in Linn County, Kansas. In
the same year he made the overland trip to Texas with a band of
cattle, and his identification with the cattle industry led to his
spending much time in the saddle during a period of about forty
years, though he gave the overland drover's trail in the winter of
1874.

Mr. Ramey continued his residence in Linn County, Kansas, until
1889, when, slightly anticipatory to the formal organization of
Oklahoma Territory, the western part of the present state was thrown
open to settlement and he became one of those who "made the run" into
the new domain. He entered claim to a tract of land six miles east
and one-half mile south of Guthrie which place became the territorial
capital. On this homestead claim, situated on Bear Creek, he remained
seventeen years, within which he developed the same into a productive
farm. Prior to disposing of this property he had purchased his
present homestead, near Jennings, Pawnee County, and after here
providing a suitable home for his family he went to the eastern part
of the state as now constituted and established a stock ranch in
Cherokee County. There he continued successful operations four years,
at the expiration of which he returned to the home place, where he
has since given his attention to diversified farming the raising of
livestock on a minor scale. His home place, comprising eighty acres,
is situated one mile east of Jennings, and further to the south, on
the river, he owns an additional tract of 160 acres, both places
having received substantial improvements and the larger farm being
used principally for livestock. He and his sons own a total of 440
acres of valuable land in Pawnee County, and all are known for their
progressiveness and productive industry.

In the year 1869 Mr. Ramey wedded Miss Polly Ann PARKS, who was born
in Tazewell County, Illinois, in 1850, and who thus was about
seventeen years old when she accompanied her parents on their removal
to Kansas, in 1867, her father, Elbert Parks, having become a pioneer
agriculturist and stock raiser in the Sunflower State. Mr. and Mrs.
Ramey have two children: Norton Elbert, who is engaged in the real
estate, insurance and loan business at Jennings; and William Taylor,
who resides on the larger of the two farms owned by his father.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Lee Ann Collins, October 16, 1998.