George Benninghoff

biography

Benninghoff, George, retired farmer and oil producer, Meadville, was born in Clearfield County, Penn., April 3, 1825, and is a son of John and Elizabeth (Heist) Benninghoff, who were of German ancestry. His father was first a hatter by trade, was in later life a farmer, and succeeded at one time in accumulating a fortune of $300,000. He was a resident of Venango County, Penn., fourteen years, and before his death lived in Greenville, Penn., where he died in 1882. He had twelve children, who were all at their father’s funeral but one, who was sick at the time. The father and all his sons were Republican in politics. George Benninghoff, the eldest of the family, received a common school education in Venango County, Penn., was reared on the farm, and for several years pursued agriculture with success, commencing on fifty acres of unimproved land in Venango County, which he cleared up. In 1861 he purchased a farm in Mead Township, and removed to Meadville in 1880.

From 1860 to 1883 he was engaged as an oil producer, since when he has been retired. He was married in 1848 to Julia A., daughter of John Baney, a prominent farmer of Venango County, Penn. They have five children: Almena Helen, wife of E. L. Affantranger, farmer; Lewis Nelson, farmer in Sugar Grove, Mercer County, and who was also in the oil business for sixteen years; Livingston, a farmer; George E., a practicing physician of Bradford, Penn.; Julia M., wife of C. E. Morgan, of Cleveland, Ohio. Mrs. Benninghoff is a member of the Presbyterian Church. Politically our subject is a Republican.

History of Crawford County, Pennsylvania: containing a history of the county, its townships, towns, villages, schools, churches, industries, etc., portraits of early settlers and prominent men, biographies, history of Pennsylvania, statistical and miscellaneous matter, Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co., 1885, page 714.