Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 902 - 903

JOHN BENSON. Among the prominent agriculturists and business men of Attica Township and of Sedgwick County, is the gentleman whose name heads this sketch, who is a member of the firm of Benson Bros., owners of the Home Nursery. He is a native of Southern Sweden, born Dec. 31, 1840, and is the son of Bent and Sarah (Pearson) Swanson. His father was a tailor by trade, but John was reared upon a farm, and, like most of the youth of his native land, received the elements of a good education in his boyhood days. Having always been studiously inclined, and having an inclination for reading, he has added materially, through the course of a busy life, a large amount of useful information to his stock of knowledge.

            When he was about twenty-seven years of age, feeling the impossibility of raising himself above the condition in which he was born, in his native land, our subject, in company with his younger brother, emigrated to America, and landed in Quebec about the 1st of June, 1867. The brothers at once went to Chicago, Ill., where, after looking about them two days, and finding nothing suited to their views, they started for Kansas, and located at the city of Lawrence. There John Benson accepted a position with W. E. Barnes, who was engaged in the fruit tree and nursery business, with whom he remained eleven years, the longest time that any man had remained with that gentleman. While a resident of that place our subject was united in marriage, March 14, 1878, with Miss Sophia Jansen, a daughter of Andreas and Christine Jansen. Mr. Benson removed to Wichita in 1879, but shortly afterward purchased his present farm of 160 acres, paying therefor the sum of $1,400. His experience in the employ of Mr. Barnes had given him a thorough knowledge of the business, and a taste for the work, and he concluded to enter into that line of trade. In partnership with his brother, he accordingly purchased a stock, and opened up a nursery of their own.

            It is now eight years since the "Swede Boys," as the Benson brothers are familiarly known, initiated the Home Nursery, and from a small beginning it has become one of the leading industries of Sedgwick County. The great benefit that it has been to the people of this community is now fully appreciated, and the honesty and uprightness with which they transact business are making them hosts of friends and patrons in Southern Kansas. They have no less than thirty acres of land devoted exclusively to nursery purposes, and the people of the State are beginning to realize that trees and shrubbery that are accustomed to the climate are the most profitable ones for them to purchase and set out. None have done more toward the development and prosperity of Sedgwick County than the Benson Bros., and they are highly respected and warmly esteemed by their legion of friends.

            In February, 1879, John Benson's wife was taken from him by death, and July 16, 1880, he again entered into a matrimonial alliance, this time with Miss Emma Jansen, the daughter of John and Parmelia (Swenson) Jansen, born in Sweden, Oct. 29, 1838. Her parents are still living in Sweden, she having come to this country in 1869. Mr. Benson was the father of one child by his first marriage, but in the fall of 1879 it followed its mother to the home beyond the grave.

            Mr. Benson was formerly a follower of the Republican party, but of late years has voted with the Democrats, as he is no believer in the Prohibition movement, although he is strictly a temperance man. Both he and his estimable wife were reared in the Lutheran Church, and are firm believers in the doctrines of that denomination, and he gives liberally from his means toward its support.

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