My Benton Kindred Saved Masonic Library

The nephew of Senator Thomas Hart Benton, whose daughter was, Jessie Benton, saved Albert Pike’s Masonic Library. Benton’s grandson, of the same name, was the cousin of my late brother-in-law, Garth Benton, who married my late sister, Christine Rosamond Benton.

I want to thank Amy Sargent Oles for coming to my aide. Her father, James Dickenson Sargent, was a 33rd. Degree Mason in the Detroit area.

Jon Presco

ALBERT PIKE’S MASONIC LIBRARYA Civil War Incident
By Bro. JOSEPH FORT NEWTON, Litt. D.The Master Mason – May 1925
http://www.mastermason.com/lodge850/Reading/civilwar.htm

IN AN ADDRESS entitled “Albert Pike, the Mason,” delivered beforeIowa Consistory, No. 2, celebrating the centennial of his birth, inDecember, 1909, I made the following statement, in reference to anincident during the Civil War: “When the Union Army attacked LittleRock, the commanding general, Thomas H. Benton, Grand Master of Masons in Iowa, posted a guard to protect the home of Pike and…