Limestone County AlArchives Biographies.....Sanders, Benton 1829 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 September 4, 2011, 7:48 pm

Source: See below
Author: Smith & De Land, publishers

    BENTON SANDERS, Merchant, Athens, Ala., was born in this county, November
10, 1829. His parents, William and Sarah (Fox) Sanders, natives, respectively,
of the States of Georgia and Virginia, were married in Madison County, this
State, and came to Limestone in 1844.

    The senior Mr. Sanders was a soldier in the War of 1812, and along in the
thirties, represented Limestone County several sessions in the Legislature. In
1834—5, he was in the banking business at Decatur. He died at his home, twelve
miles east of Athens, in 1840, at the age of 47 years. His widow survived him
several years, and died at the age of 67. They reared three sons, the eldest.
Dr. W. T. Sanders, eminent in his profession, died in 1865, and Oliver Perry, an
extensive planter, died at Grenada, Miss., in 1868.

    Benton Sanders was educated at La Grange College, studied law with Fred
Tate, at Athens; was admitted to the bar in 1850; served the county three years
as sheriff, and was in mercantile business afterward, until the beginning of the
war. Soon after the close of Hostilities, he was appointed register in chancery,
a position he filled until 1874, when he was elected Judge of Probate, for the
term of six years.

    Much to the regret of the people of Limestone County, Judge Sanders, at the
end of his term, declined a second nomination for the probate judgeship, and the
sentiment of the public may be inferred from the following quotation from a
newspaper editorial of that date:

    "Judge Sanders retires to private life without a blur or blot on his
administration. No one has ever filled that highly responsible office with more
satisfaction to our people, and in vacating the office he carries with him the
best wishes of the people of Limestone County."

    In 1880, he resumed mercantile business, at the head of the firm of Sanders
& Richardson, and has since devoted his time to it.

    Mr. Sanders is president of the Athens Male College, and a member of the
Board of Trustees of the Athens Female Institute.

    In casting about over the State for a suitable person to investigate, as an
expert, the various public offices. Governor O'Neal at once settled upon Denton
Sanders, of Athens, and in an urgent letter, under date of March 24, 1883,
tendered him the appointment as follows:

    "The Legislature ordered me to have the offices of auditor, treasurer,
secretary of State, superintendent of education, and warden of penitentiary
examined by a competent person at least twice each year, and to this end
appropriated a sufficient sum out of which to pay the expense. You have been
recommended to me by Chief Justice Brickell and others as the man to do this
important work, and I hereby tender you the place."

    Though recognizing this as a compliment of a very high order, Mr. Sanders'
private business was such as compelled him to decline the duty.

    [Afterward, Colonel Lapsley received the appointment, and discharged the
duties with marked ability.—ED.]

    Mr. Sanders was married at Athens. January 27, 1853, to Miss Eliza Thach,
daughter of Thomas H. Thach, planter and merchant, of Mooresville, and of the
five children born to him we make the following notice: His only son, W. T., is
a student at Vanderbilt University; one of his daughters is the wife of Thomas
J. Turrentine, another is the wife of J. W. Woodruff. Jr., a planter of
Mooresville, and he has two daughters at home.

    Mr. Sanders' family belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Northern Alabama: Historical and Biographical
Birmingham, Ala.: Smith and De Land
1888

PART III.
HISTORICAL RESUME OF THE VARIOUS COUNTIES IN THE STATE.
CEREAL BELT.


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/limestone/bios/sanders838gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/

File size: 4.3 Kb