Ancestors

Caroline Hammond Benepe

Caroline Hammond Benepe was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on 15 July 1805. The day and the city come from her Find a Grave memorial (no. 46946859), on information furnished by a descendant. Maryland as her birthplace is confirmed by an Ohio record of 1910: the death record of her daughter Anne Eliza Cosper names the mother as "Caroline Benepe," born in Maryland.

Her father was Dr. Jacob Benepe, a physician born in Switzerland. Her mother was Harriet Amelia Warfield, of an old Anne Arundel County family of tobacco planters, who married the doctor in 1802 by her memorial. Caroline was the second of their children. Her middle name is her mother's side. Harriet's mother was Ruth Welsh, and through Ruth the family ran back to the Hammonds of Anne Arundel. Her sisters were named in the same way: Ruthenett for her grandmother Ruth, Harriet Warfield for her mother. Her youngest brother was Seth, for her grandfather Seth Warfield.

The family left Maryland while she was a child. Her father was in Coshocton County, Ohio, by 1814 and in Jefferson County, on the Ohio River, between 1816 and 1822. He settled at New Philadelphia, the seat of Tuscarawas County.

In 1823, at seventeen or eighteen, she married Michael Ignatius Bennett in Tuscarawas County. He was an Irish Catholic immigrant, born in 1800, and he farmed in Dover and Rush Townships. Their son John Francis was born in Dover Township in 1826.

Her father died on 6 February 1826, by his memorial, owing more than his goods would cover. To sell his land the administrator had to name every heir, and in July 1828 he named seven. The second is "Carolin Hummin wife of Michael I Bennett." The clerk's Hummin is probably his hearing of Hammond. Her mother, by then remarried to Samuel Thomas, held a widow's dower in the land, and the lots could not be sold for half their value. Her brother John J. bought out the family in 1837. Two of her sisters also married into the county's Bennetts. Amelia married Edward Bennett, and Harriet Warfield married Seth Dorsey.

She and Michael raised a large family. Her memorial lists Anne Eliza, born 25 April 1832 in Tuscarawas County, who became Mrs. Cosper and died at Fredericksburg, Wayne County, in 1910. After her came Michael Ignatius Jr. in 1837, Caroline Amelia in 1838, Albert Gallatin in 1840, Seth Edward and Bernard in 1842, and Sarah Louise in 1848. Caroline Amelia and Seth Edward carried her mother's family into a third generation. Albert Gallatin Bennett later went west to Norton County, Kansas, where her son John Francis also settled and died.

Michael died in Rush Township on 6 November 1870. She lived ten years more and died on 2 September 1880 in Tuscarawas County, at seventy-five. She was buried beside him in St Joseph's Catholic Cemetery at Dover. A modern granite marker stands over the plot between two older stones. It reads "BENNETT / MICHAEL I. 1800-1870 / CAROLINE BENEPE 1805-1880." Beside it is a weathered older stone whose inscription can no longer be read.

If Caroline Hammond Benepe is in your family, start your own tree.

Cite: Heirology, "Caroline Hammond Benepe (1805-1880)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/caroline-hammond-benepe-1805-1880-22102a.