Hoffman Cemetery
1 MILE EAST OF HOFFMAN, OKLAHOMA
Surveyed in 1974
Surveyed in 2007 by John & Cassandra Martin
Additions & Corrections by Shelley Lynch April 19, 2008
PAGE CREATED & MAINTAINED BY SHELLEY LYNCH leeshlynch@gmail.com
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This Cemetery
Survey was done in Loving Memory of Susan Emma
Bennefield-Jenkins-Schatt Cassandra is the great granddaugter of Suan Emma Bennefield-Jenkins-Schatt
John and Cassandra Martin during the Fall of 2007 Surveyed Hoffman Cemetery. It took many hours of hard labor. First cleaning the cemetery digging out the graves by hand or weed eating just to find the graves. It took many more hours to process the list of names and to organize the photos of the headstones. Both of them deserve thanks for all of their hard work. But it was a labor of love for them.
Susan Emma Bennefield
was born 17 July 1872 and she died 29 July
1964. She spent 92 years on this earth, born in
Georgia but a living transplant to Indian Territory, Oklahoma
before it was a state. She married Jesse Robert E.
Jenkins in 1895 in McIntosh Co. They had 23 years
together before Papa Jess died of Tuberculosis. He was
also placed in Hoffman Cemetery. They had had 5 children
together and now it fell to Emma to raise her four daughters
and one son. Emma faced each day, come what
may. She led a tough pioneer life in Oklahoma, and she
was a well known midwife in several counties. She later
married Otto Schatt, also a widow. Otto treated her children
well, being a kind man. He too, lived with Emma for 23
years before he died. Susan Emma Bennefield Jenkins
Schatt was a powerful influence on her family, neighbors and
friends because she was a good and honest woman. A
pioneer woman; an Oklahoman woman, no matter where she was
born. Susan Emma Bennefield
was the daughter of Dock S. Bennefield and Mary Matilda
Adeline Bedingfield, all of Carroll Co., GA. Dock
was married before Mary and had three daughters: Fanny, Mary
and Minnie Molly, also originating out of Georgia. When
his first wife died, Dock married Mary Matilda and they
started their family. Their first three daughters were
born in Georgia. That would be Susan Emma, always called
Emma, Sida Loucindy, called Siddie, and Sarah Bennefield who
tragically died in a house fire when she was still a young
girl. One of our family
stories is about Emma, and how she saved the farm for the
family. You see, she overhead Dock telling Mary that
they just might lose the farm because they were a little short
of money for the taxes. In those days so many people did
lose their property because they were cash poor but lived well
on their land. It just so happened
that Emma had been making extra money skinning ‘cats’ for $.10
a hide. Now I hope they were talking about small cats,
but with Emma you couldn’t be sure! She had begun saving money
because she wanted a calf of her own to raise. She had
tucked away her earnings in a little tin, hidden from everyone
in the household. Emma offered her
savings to her dad, Dock, and she made him promise that he
would give her a calf from the stock and never sell it, no
matter what. Dock agreed because he thought he could
keep his promise. We have the picture of Emma and her
calf that you can see for yourself. There’s no doubt
that the girl loved her calf, she’s dressed in her best
clothes for the picture! Time passed, but also
got worse on the farm, and Dock sold Emma’s calf to raise
money for the family. Emma cried for 3 days and swore
she would hate her dad for the rest of her life. Of
course, once she grew up she understood what sacrifices people
make for life and limb. This little story illustrates
just what kind of woman Emma was
destined to become. The family picked up
and moved west in order to find a better situation for
themselves. They lived in Winston Co., AL where the last
three of their six daughters were born to Dock and Mary
Matilda. They were: Nancy, Mary Adeline and Zonia
Ozania, called Zona for short. They stayed in Alabama
until more of Dock’s family, the Bennefield’s, began to talk
about Oklahoma and the fact that it wasn’t a state yet.
It is historically
accurate to say that the Bennefield’s, aka Bedingfield’s in
Georgia, were moon shiners of darn good whiskey. They
never lacked for customers, but two of the sons did get
caught. After the trial the men were put in jail.
You’ve heard the story of getting a file in your food?
This actually happened for one of the men. The other
escaped alone and ran straightaway for Oklahoma. The
Bennefield’s, it was wise to change the name slightly, settled
in both McIntosh and Okmulgee Counties. Dock’s family
stayed mostly in McIntosh and his brother James Hardy
Bennefield’s family was in Okmulgee. Others soon came
and you find the Bennefield name, spelled in many variations,
all over Oklahoma. Dock was a Bennefield,
and Mary’s people were Bedingfield’s, so no matter whose
people were on the shady side, Oklahoma was a good
choice. We are talking about the post-Civil War era for
this move west because money was hard to be made. At
least in Oklahoma there was a hope of building a future, and
not having trouble with the law over past indiscretions.
The family settled in
and Emma fell in love with the young and handsome, Jesse
Robert E. Jenkins, born in Town Creek, AL but now living in
Oklahoma. At the same time, her half sister Minnie Molly
fell in love with Lee B. Davis. They shared a double
wedding at Dock’s house on 02 Feb 1895. But their daddy
wasn’t there. This is the newspaper
article that describes what happened to Emma’s daddy,
Dock. “Instantly Killed” led the story about Dock’s
death. “At a dance at Mr. J.H (James Hardy) Benefield’s,
about ten miles northwest of Eufala, Monday night, Mr. D.S.
(Dock) Benefield, a brother of the host, was instantly killed
by John Sheppard, who came there drunk and made himself very
obnoxious by his unruly conduct. As near as we can get
them, the particulars are about as follows: When the crowd
began to gather, Mr. Benefield extended a cordial greeting to
all inviting them in and telling them that they were perfectly
welcome to dance all night if they so chose, his only request
being that they keep sober and behave themselves.
Everything moved along very nicely for a while, until Sheppard
began to flourish his pistol around the house and had to be
carried out. They took him outside of the gate and
started him home. Instead of going he began shooting,
the first ball striking Mr. (Dock) Benefield, who was standing
at the gate talking to his brother, right above the nipple,
coming out under his arm. The wounded man gave two
shrieks and dropped to the ground dead. …” This
excerpt is taken from an unidentified Eufala, OK
newspaper. But it shows that violence was a regular part
of life in early Oklahoma. The sad thing is that the
party was on Christmas Eve 1894, so Dock was not alive to walk
his daughter’s down the aisle. We know, because of
census records, that most of Dock and Mary’s children lived in
both McIntosh and Okmulgee Counties. Dock and Mary are
buried in one of the two counties. Their daughter, Emma
and husband Jessie had 5 girls and 1 boy. She delivered
her twins, Della Mae and Stella Faye by herself because the
doctor Jesse went to get didn’t get there in time. They
found one twin each cradled on each of mama Emma’s arms,
comfortable on pillows, peacefully sleeping. Had Emma
not been schooled in midwifery she might not have survived the
birth of her daughters on 07 Jul 1909. This took place
in Morris, OK. Her other children were: Lillie Viola,
Ernest Elmer, Zellie (Zillie) Iona, and Allie Faire
Jenkins. Sadly, little twin Stella Faye Jenkins died of
pneumonia before she was 2 years old and is buried with her
father in Hoffman Cemetery, Okmulgee Co. The stronger
twin, Della, thrived. After Jesse’s death of
tuberculosis in 1918, Emma had little luck in the husband
department until she married a widow from Germany named Otto
Schatt. He was a kind man, and our beloved Emma deserved
someone to help shoulder the responsibility of raising her
children. Otto and his first family are all buried at
Lackey-Hitchita cemetery. Now, Emma’s daughter,
Della took after her mother, Emma, more than some of the
others. She was always a petite woman, unlike Emma, but
she could work circles around her children and grandchildren
just as her mother had always done. Della passed this
little story about Emma down to us grandchildren. It’s
short and proves how strong willpower can be in our
lives. Emma had always loved
to grow her garden. It was the one real pleasure she had
as she aged. She was approaching her 90s when Della
asked her if she didn’t think it was time to put the hoe
down. Emma was diabetic, you see, so Della was
worried. Her mother turned to her and said, ‘the day I
don’t get up to work in my garden is the day I will
die.’ Technically it was a day and a half; but her
self prophesy was true enough to make a good story all these
years later. I hear her laughing in heaven! Emma
Bennefield Jenkins Schatt is buried in Hoffman Cemetery,
too. So our roots run deep, here in
Oklahoma. We have so many other
family stories because we have so many interesting
characters. They grew up during hard times, and they
made a living for the next generation. Emma’s last sister is
still alive at 100 years old in 2007. As you can imagine
it was a great party! All of these pioneering
mothers taught their children good strong values that have
been passed along. Of course, one or two of us have the
‘gift’ as we call it in our family. And all I’ll tell
you at this time is that it most definitely comes from the
matriarchal line. Some say it comes from a long lost
Cherokee Grandmother. It is true that some of our
relatives are from a line that split in Georgia, and they were
part Cherokee. Emma’s family doesn’t seem to tie into
that line. But, if we do have a great-great-great-great
grandmother whose Cherokee, and she is watching out for us, it
sure would explain a lot of the interesting abilities attached
to the family gift. I hope you’ve enjoyed getting
acquainted with some of my relatives. I’m working on the
genealogy now and I’ve got lots of stories to tell.
Today, though, is the retelling of a few of the stories of our
relative Emma Bedingfield Bennefield Jenkins
Schatt. Thank you for your time. Cassandra
Martin, granddaughter of Della Jenkins Van Horn,
great-granddaughter of Emma Bedingfield Bennefield Jenkins
Schatt, and great-great granddaughter of Mary Matilda Adeline
Bedingfield Bennefield. |
