BENTON L. BROCKETT.
Successful business man, upright citizen and Christian worker, are characterizations which aptly describe Benton L. Brockett, who has been established in the lumber business in Atchison for over thirty years. He began as a poor man with little capital, and has built up a splendid retail concern at 1019 Main street. Mr. Brockett first established a small lumber yard at East Atchison in 1885, and six years later moved to Atchison. His buildings and warerooms occupy space 175×150 feet, and he employs six men and four teams to handle his extensive business. The concern supplies Atchison and vicinity with lumber, lime, cement, and builder’s material, including cement blocks, and practically all materials used in building. The yard work includes the only cement working plant in the city which turns out cement blocks for foundation work and porches.
Benton L. Brockett was born in Ashtabula, Ohio, September 5, 1864. His parents were Lewis B. and Lucy S. (Fisk) Brockett, natives of New York and Ohio, respectively. The Brockett family is of English origin, and the founder of the family in America first settled near New London, Conn. His descendants afterward located in the state of New York. Lewis B. was the son of Ambrose Brockett, who moved to Ashtabula county, and was one of the first settlers of the Western Reserve. Here Lewis was reared, and married Lucy S. Fisk, a daughter of an early settler of the Western Reserve. He became a merchant at Saybrook, and served as postmaster under President Cleveland’s administration. He died at the advanced age of eighty-six years. The mother of Benton L. is still living and is now over eighty-three years of age. To them were born three sons and three daughters, namely: James D., of Lincoln, Neb.; Haddie, the wife of Charles C. Parker, a resident of Portland. Ore.; Ellen F., residing in Ashtabula; and Amy, the wife of Charles Simon, of Ashtabula, Ohio; and two died in infancy.
Benton L. was educated in the Ashtabula schools, and came west in 1884, where he engaged in business, as stated in a preceding paragraph. Success has attended his efforts, and he is universally recognized as one of the substantial men of the city. The account of the growth of Mr. Brockett’s business is simply a narrative of his life work on the material side. His prosperity is well deserved, and has been acquired by close application to his affairs and square and honorable dealings with his fellow men. Mr. Brockett was married on October 10, 1888, to Daisy Denton, a daughter of Henry Denton, an attorney of Atchison; she died July 15, 1898, leaving two sons, namely: Louis D., born August 14, 1889, who is associated in the real estate and loan business with C. D. Walker, and married Isabella, a daughter of Mr. Walker. The second son is Wallace James Brockett, born February 14, 1895, and is a student at Baker University, at Baldwin, Kan. On July 23, 1903, Mr. Brockett married Margaret Schriver, a daughter of Peter P. Schriver, of Cedar Point, Kan. To this union one child has been born, Helen Louise, born November 12, 1907.
Mr. Brockett has always espoused the principles of the Republican party, although his father was a Democrat. He has served his home city as a member of the city council, and has been generally active in all undertakings tending to advance the best interests of Atchison and make the city a better and more attractive place in which to live. He is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. It is in church work, however, that Mr. Brockett is most active, aside from his business affairs. Ever since coming to the West he has been identified with church and Sunday school work, and is a prominent and active member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He supplemented his work in behalf of making better men and women of the growing boys and girls of this locality in East Atchison, where he has conducted a mission school for the past four years. He is a trustee of his church, and has taken part in the work of the Sunday school for several years. The highest tribute that can be paid to him is that he is universally known as an earnest Christian, who has reared his family to be valuable members of the community.