Benjamin L. Stine

BENJAMIN L. STINE, live stock inspector in the Bureau of Animal Industry, is a pioneer of Rosedale and has played an active and valuable part in the development of the growing community. Previous to his assumption to his present office he engaged in the real estate business, and as a member of the Kansas Legislature of 1881-85, he won many friends and much laudation for his good statesmanship and his loyalty to the interests of his constituents. In addition to his other claims to distinction he is a veteran of the Civil war, his patriotism having bade him don the blue of the Union when very young in years.

Mr. Stine was born in Juniata county, Pennsylvania, on the 29th day of February, 1848. His birthplace was on the banks of the Juniata river, near the town of Mifflin. His father, B. H. Stine, was born in 1766, in Berks county, Pennsylvania, and he lived to within two years of the century mark, his demise occurring in Mifflin in 1864, at the age of ninety-eight years. He witnessed many of the crucial events of our national history, including all the great wars. Only two days before he passed on to the Undiscovered Country he walked to the post office to get word from his two sons who were in the army. He was a Lutheran in religious conviction and was widely known in the section in which his long life was passed. The subject's mother's name was Elizabeth Hite previous to her marriage, and she was reared in Pennsylvania. Five children were born to them, as follows: John M., who died at the age of twenty-four years; Mrs. Elizabeth Kirk, of Pasadena, California; Robert L., who died in 1879; David, who is connected with the Pennsylvania Central Railroad; and Benjamin L.

The Hon. Mr. Stine was reared in Juniata county, Pennsylvania, and passed a boyhood in which the habits of industry were firmly implanted. He had time for only three months of school each year, but this period was well improved. On the farm the task to which he fell heir was leading the horses while tramping out the grain. Meantime the long lowering Civil war cloud broke in all its fury and the high spirited boy ran away from home and went to Harrisburg, where he enlisted in Company F, of the Sixteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, Second Brigade, Second Division of Cavalry Corps, under General Sheridan. His service was of two years' duration and included the famous battle of Mine Run, as well as participation in several minor engagements.

Mr. Stine moved to Kansas in 1872, in what were pioneer days in Wyandotte county, and his abilities are such that he has been identified with public affairs and served well in many public trusts since that time. He became a member of the Kansas State Assembly in 1881 and served until 1885, and other public capacities in which he has proved both faithful and efficient have been those of police judge, justice of the peace and councilman of Rosedale. Under Harrison's first administration he was appointed live stock inspector in the Bureau of Animal Industry, and he has now served for sixteen years in the Kansas City Stock Yards. He holds a high place in popular confidence and esteem and has been distinctively one of the builders of Rosedale.