Ancestors

Benjamin G. Dann Sr.

Benjamin George Dann was born on 13 April 1894 at WaKeeney, in Trego County, Kansas. His father, William Henry Dann, was an Englishman who had clerked in the U.S. Land Office at WaKeeney and served as clerk of the county. His mother, Christina Addison Hanna, was the daughter of Capt. Benjamin J. F. Hanna, the Register of that land office. He was probably named for that grandfather. He was the youngest son, born ten years after the next youngest child.

Within a few years the family left Kansas for Elkins, in Randolph County, West Virginia. His father kept a hardware store there and was elected City Recorder in 1897. A history of Randolph County published in 1898 lists "Benjamin George" among William Henry Dann's children. The 1900 census found him at Elkins, aged six, with his parents and his baby sister Christine, who was born there the year before.

By 1910 the Danns had moved again, to Prince George's County, Maryland. They lived at Beltsville, a suburb of Washington. Ben registered there for the World War I draft. The Veterans Administration master index gives him a service date of 26 November 1918 at St. Louis, Missouri, and a residence in New York City. His unit has not been identified.

In 1920 he married Dorothy Colville of Carbondale, Pennsylvania. She had graduated from Wellesley College the year before and was still living with her parents at the census of January 1920. Where they married is not recorded; Carbondale is likely. Her grandfather, Eli E. Hendrick, had founded the Hendrick Manufacturing Company at Carbondale, and her father had been its treasurer.

Their first three children were born at Carbondale: Dorothy in 1921, Benjamin Jr. in 1924 and David in 1925. By 1929 they had moved to Maplewood, in Essex County, New Jersey, where Christina was born that July. Maplewood stayed their home. The 1930 census found them there. So did the draft registration of 1942 for older men, often called the "old man's draft," which enrolled men born between 1877 and 1897 who were not liable for service. In the 1950 census Ben gave his occupation as sales representative.

Dorothy, called Dee, graduated from Wellesley in 1942 and married James M. Collins, later a U.S. Representative from Texas. Benjamin Jr. went to MIT and flew in World War II as a B-24 and B-29 navigator. In 1948 he joined Hendrick Manufacturing as plant engineer, and he ran it as president and chief executive from 1968 to 1987. David died in 2006. Christina, called Tina, graduated from Wellesley in 1951, married William St. Clair at Maplewood in 1954, and lived at Cheyenne, Wyoming, from 1958 to 2011.

Ben Dann died on 18 February 1966. The Social Security index gives his last residence as Essex County, New Jersey. He was buried at Willow View Cemetery in Clifford Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, where his wife's Colville and Hendrick families also lie. His parents are buried at Beltsville, Maryland. His flat stone reads "BENJAMIN GEORGE DANN / APRIL 13, 1894 / FEBRUARY 18, 1966," near a granite DANN family stone. Dorothy was buried there in 1986.

If Benjamin G. Dann Sr. is in your family, start your own tree.

Cite: Heirology, "Benjamin G. Dann Sr. (1894-1966)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/benjamin-g-dann-sr-1894-1966-555d12.