Spoken at Wyndholme Christian Church, Aug 7, 2014
I’d like to read an email from Bruce Benjamin, also a cousin-once removed, who is presently en route to Winnipeg for work.
I have always been so very grateful of Allen’s massive undertaking regarding our family tree and his publishing and sharing of the book and 'tree' booklet with the coat of arms. Countless times I've been able to proudly state a long lineage in Nova Scotia, and in fact back to 1598 in Kent, England. I've not actually met many people that can do a similar ancestral reflection. When I recite the trip of John and Abigail Benjamin, their ages, the date, the name of the ship, etc., [that brough them to North America in 1632] jaws typically drop a little and their eyes do a wee gloss-over with amazement. Allen supplied me with copies of the booklet to give to my sons who also take pride in their roots and a gratification to have such a fine resource at their fingertips. I hope it's a great gathering, my thoughts will be there.
With Bruce’s message in hand, I am confident, that I am speaking on behalf of all the Benjamin family when I say how lucky we are to know the story of how we came to be Nova Scotians of the 21st century. I am always sad to hear of people who cannot find their stories. Stories of people finding their long-lost relatives make for some of the more uplifting shows on television these days. I can’t think of a more intimate and enjoyable way to learn history than to know how you fit into it - for good or ill - and that is the gift that Allen bequeathed to our entire family. As I talk, I shall quote generously from Allen’s booklet Obadiah Benjamin of Nova Scotia.
Allen began his project to trace the Nova Scotia Benjamins because of a promise to his bachelor Uncle Frank, who spent many years collecting and making notes in an effort to trace his own grandfather, James Harvey Benjamin of Gay’s River. When Frank died in 1967, Allen received the notes but couldn’t begin the job until he retired from his career as professional photographer in 1972. Looking back to the work of Uncle Frank and Allen in the age before the internet, I stand in awe.
To Frank’s notes, Allen added the power of the Public Archives, the telephone and the car. His son, Jamie, collected all the Nova Scotia phone books and listed all the Benjamin phone numbers he could find. Then came conversations and cups of tea enjoyed around the province with people pleased to share their wealth of information and stories. Every now and then I have found myself in a conversation with people like Gloria Fisher (nee Benjamin), long-time proprietor of Fisher’s Stationery Store on Portland Street who remembers Allen in the days when he was “on the trail.”
The Benjamins were not the first tribe to enjoy this pleasant land. As is so often the case in history, the first Benjamins came as part of a wave of immigration that displaced others - in our case, the Acadians, expelled by the British in 1755, after over a hundred years of settlement upon land previously inhabited by the first nation peoples. It seems the British had not considered that expelling the people who supplied your food might be not be the wisest way to colonize. “Thus, an announcement of free lands in Nova Scotia was published in the Boston Gazette in April 1759. Meetings were held and an agent sent to Nova Scotia to inspect ... He reported that the land was of excellent quality with fruit trees and upland fields of flax and corn and dyke lands growing five tons of hay per acre. “ And that was how Allen’s 4th great grand-father, Obadiah Benjamin, and his first wife, Mary Hurd, arrived from Preston, Connecticut at Horton’s Landing on June 4th 1760 with 22 boat loads of other settlers known to history as the New Englander Planters. You can visit the modest memorial cairn by taking a right turn onto Horton Crossing road, a little before the Just us Coffee Shop in Grand Pre, then right again onto Railway Street onto Wharf Road which ends at a farm. Then, you will have to walk into the middle of a farmer’s field. I am sure you will be walking in Allen’s footsteps. I know I am walking in them as I wander through the old graveyards in Noel Shore, Wolfville and Scott’s Bay. I followed them further onto the internet in the 80's when access to the huge Mormon data base was free. Although I learned many facts, I do envy Allen those cups of tea and the stories shared in country parlours and kitchens with living people.
One of the amusing facts I came upon, which I am sure that Allen would enjoy, was that we - like 20% of North Americans - have our Mayflower Ancestor - one John "Billington, Allen’s 8th great-grandfather, my 9th. Billington was an ancestor Obadiah’s wife, Mary Hurd. He was not of the puritan faith, but one of a number of other travellers on the Mayflower, and known both aboard the vessel and in the Plymouth colony as a “troublemaker”. In September 1630 he was tried by a jury and hanged for the murder of John Newcomen, whom he saw as an enemy. This was the first such execution in the new colony, confirming the opinion of another New Englander, Ralph Waldo Emerson, that “Man is physically, as well as metaphysically, a thing of shreds and patches, borrowed unequally from good and bad ancestors, and a misfit from the start.”
The stories collected and recorded by Allen prove the astuteness of Emerson’s observation, and demonstrate the great variety of lives lived by the many descendants of one of Nova Scotia’s English-speaking pioneers, as they moved on from the difficulties of pioneer life to the challenges of our own interesting times. The Benjamins have transformed from being a close-knit tribe in the Valley to a family enriched with new members from around the world.
As we join here today to remember our family historian, Allen, you will, no doubt, be recalling your own stories of his time among us, and I hope we’ll be hearing a lot of them. To quote the wisdom of Doctor Who ... we’re all stories in the end.
Elinor Benjamin
The link to the Chronicle Herald Obituary is no longer active. Here is the text of the Obituary published on July 31st ?
R. Allen Benjamin
Robert Allen Benjamin passed on peacefully in The Cloisters Retirement Community in Deland, Fla., on July 25, 2014, at the age of 93. Allen was born on November 3, 1920, in Brookfield, to Stairs Benjamin and Frances Helen (Titus) Benjamin. In his youth after his family moved to Dartmouth, Allen was active in Scouting; he and his brother John were the first in Dartmouth to become King's Scouts. Later he was active in the Kiwanis and the Maritime Professional Photographers Association. Allen was an entrepreneur and local pioneer in photography, a passion of his from an early age. His father having died young, Allen started early making a living. Being disqualified from the Military for health reasons he took several newspaper routes, hiring friends to assist as needed. At the age of 17, with a staff of 12, he opened the first photo-finishing laboratory in. Dartmouth. He also had exciting times in press photograahy; being on the VE Day riots and the Bedford Magazine explosion. After studying photography in New York City, he opened the first photographic business in Dartmouth, with studios and shops in several locations over the years. He also owned several apartment buildings around. Dartmouth.
Upon his retirement he devoted his time to researching the history of the Nova Scotia branch of the family, from its arrival in America in 1632 and its roots prior to that. He published his findings in the booklet, "Obediah Benjamin of Nova Scotia". He relocated to Florida and remarried, spending his time in travel and enjoying retirement. He was predeceased by his daughter, Wanda; brother, John and wife Shirley (Roberts) Benjamin. He is survived by sons, Roderick (Judy), Scott, James and his first wife, Elizabeth (Jones); grandchildren, Jacqueline, Michael and Susan and great-grandchildren: Chase, Oliver and Nygel. He is also survived by sisters-in-law, Audrey Hemmin, and Pauline Benjamin; brother-in-law, Bob Benjamin; stepdaughter, Sharon (Hebert); step grandsons, Tyler and Noah and special friend in Deland, Fla., Mary Lou Bauer and many nieces and nephews. Special thanks to the staff of The Cloisters Of Deland and to Vitas Hospice Care for the care and attention they afforded Allen while he was there, and particularly during his illness. A memorial service will be held in Windholm Christian Church, Windholm Avenue, Dartmouth, on Thursday, August 7 at 2 p.m. His ashes will be interred in the family plot in East Side Cemetery at Brookfield, in a private ceremony at a later date. Memorial donations may be made to the [Wyndholme] Christian Church or to the charity of your choice.
