Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 77, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 March 1913 — GREAT MAN GONE; BUT WORKS REMAIN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GREAT MAN GONE; BUT WORKS REMAIN

Benjamin J. Gifford Passed Away in Rensselaer Sunday—Reclaimed Much Land. Benjamin J. Gifford, best known in Jasper county for his work in reclaiming thousands of acres of swamp lands and for having buil> a railroad from McCoyshurg to Kersey and further north, died' at the Rensselaer hospital Sunday morning at 6:30 o’clock after an illness extending over almost three

months. On the morning of January 11th, while at his apartments at the Makeever hotel, he suffered a slight apopieptie stroke and since that time his decline has been rapid. His faithful and devoted wife died five days after he suffered -tbe-stroke, heart failure evidently having been superinduced by her worry and devoted attention to her husband. Some time later, when the physicians and the friends of the stricken man realized that there was no chance for improvement he was removed to the hospital, where he gradually failed until the end Sunday morning. The appended obituary tells somewhat of the life and the accomplishments of Benjamin J. Gifford, but his active career and his remarkable personality would justify the publication of a book. Mr. Gifford made his first investment in Jasper county about 22 years ago and he bought land as low as $3.50 per acre. His holding at one time amounted to 36,000 acres. He started the first important dredging system in the county and brought vast swamps into a state of fertile and ran a railroad through the center of the tract he owned and thus afforded a close market for the products of most of the land. ,He doubtless done more toward the regeneration of the swamp lands than any man who ever lived in the county antLjthose who were associated with him during long years of struggling know how much he planned and worked to the completion of his road and know how grand an old man he was. That he failed because of theinflrmaties of age to carry out his plan of railroad building does not in the least lessen the value of his work in Jasper county and in years to come prosperous farmers will plant and harvest vast crops of corn and other grain because of the fact that B. J. Gifford bought the swamps that other men had regarded as almost entirely worthless. Jasper county owes much to the labors of this man and his name will always be associated with progress and reclamation. The body of the deceased was taken to the Wright undertaking parlors Sunday and this. evening at 7 o’clock a short service will be held at the Makeever house, conducted by Rev. J. C. Parrett. The body will be taken to Kankakee, 111,, Tuesday morning s and the funeral will be conducted at the M. E. church of that city at 1 o’clock that afternoon. The pallbearers will be Thomas Callahan, Ed Oliver, Frank E. Lewis, C. J. Hobbs, W G. Halsey and Chas. G. Spitler. ' The following obituary was pre pared by Miss May Gifford, sister of the deceased: Benjamin Gifford was born near CPlano, 111., April 5, 1840. His parents, Freeman Gifford and Cornelia Fielder, were natives of New Jersey, moving from Monmouth county to Illinois in 1838. His birthplace was a farmer’s home in a thinly settled section where there were large tracts of prairie land which

farmery thought to be of little value. As a boy, he received all the experience that comes in the making of a home in a new country. His early estimate of the value of prairie lands was shown, when at eleven years of age, he negotiated for the purchase of an eighty acre tract, which was not consummated because his father objected, giving as a reason that it was a mile and a half from timber. In his twelfth year, and the first in his experience with the plow, he detected the difference in the height of ... corn planted at the same time on low lands. He traced the cause to the quality of the sdil, which fact, then not generally recognized, made him later a leader and benefactor in reclaiming vast bodies of worthless swamps in Illinois and Indiana. Bv a system of thirty miles of ditches he by 1884 had satisfactorily drained 7,500 acres in Champaign county, 111. ■ Selling this land at a profit, he next drained the Vermillion swamps in Ford , county, 111., with equally profitable results. These reclaimed tracts are now the most productive lands in Illinois. In 1891 he began purchasing syyamp lands in Indiana, continuing h's purchases until his holdings embraced upwards of 33,000 acres in Jasper and Lake counties. With 75 miles of broad dredge ditches, this county has bgen changed from a feeding ground for wild fowl to one of the choicest agricultural sections in Indiana. These lands are divided up into farms, having comfortable houses, good barns and rock weds, which today have largely become the property of thrifty parties who realize what he has done to help the man of little means. -Mh Gifford early gave evidence of a bright intellect and every effort was made by him to procure the training his mind craved. He attended the rural schools the neighborhood then afforded and later found meahs to attend a seminary at Mt. Morris. The work he did here was ever referred to with just pride. Later he continued his studies at Clark Seminary, Aurora, 111. He began his professional work by teaching the Yorkville school. In 1861 he answered Lincoln’s call for volunteers by joining Company E, 13th Illinois Volunteer Infantry. He served under Grant and was twice wounded in the siege of Vicksburg and later promoted to a lieutenancy for bravery. After the expiration of his three years’ enlistment, he returned to Illinois, raised a company and again went to the front, remaining until the war was over. , » . . On his return he married Etta L. Martindale, Nov. 16th, 1865. One child, Otto Gifford, was born to ■ this union, and died in infancy. This estimable and devoted wife suddenly died of heart failure during his recent illness, Jan. 16, 1913. In -the spring of 1868 he moved from Plano, 111., to his farm in Champaign county., In the fall of that year he moved into Rantoul and began the practice of law, which he pursued for ten years. , Moved by hardships occasioned by discriminations in freight rates by the I. C. R. R. Co., in 1873, MrGifford organized the Havana, Rantoul & Eastern R. R. Co., building 75 miles from Leßoy, 111., to West Lebanon, Ind. In 1880 he sold this road to Jay Gould. Later he joined w’ith a New York syndicate in purchasing the Cleveland & Marietta R. R. in Ohio, of which he was made president. This road was sold in 1882 to Commodore Garrison. In 1900, feeling the growing demand for a railroad to market the products of the vast farming districts developing in the redeemed swamp lands of Indiana, he organized The Chicago & Wabash Valley Ry. Co., he furnishing all the money and controlling the management of the road which is now operating about forty miles of line.

A man of untiring energy, he set all opposition to his demands with a wisdom and fortitude which knew no defeat. Generous to all worthy projects, tender In his regard of every living broad In hi l , conception of the relationship of man to God, forgiving, a true friend, he passed without a fear Into the Realm of Rest.

B. J. Gifford, well known as a pioneer in the drainage of swamp lands, as a builder of railroads, as a soldier and an able lawyer, died at the hospital in Rensselaer, March 30, 1913.