Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Shaffner, Benjamin 1825 - 
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Author: Portrait & Bio Album, 1890

BENJAMIN SHAFFNER. A career of plodding industry followed through many years 
has placed Mr. Shaffner in a position of independence financially, and he is 
now living retired from active business amid the comforts of a pleasant home 
in the city of Joliet. He was born in Cumberland County, Pa., November 19, 
1825, and is a son of John Shaffner, also a native of the Keystone State. The 
mother bore the maiden name of Susanna Bowers, and after marriage the parents 
settled on a farm in their native State. Sojourning in Pennsylvania until 
1826, the parents of our subject then took up their line of march for Ohio, 
locating in what was then Stark but now Summit Country, where they sojourned 
for a period of twenty years. Thence they removed to New Lennox Township, Will 
County, where the father constructed another home and there spent the closing 
years of his life, dying at the advanced age of eighty-one. The mother 
survived her husband five years. The parental family consisted of seven 
children. Mr. Shaffner remained a member of his father's household until 
twenty-one years old and then took unto himself a wife and helpmate, being 
wedded January 20, 1852, to Miss Caroline Larkin. This lady was born in 
Cranbrook, Kent, England, May 18, 1832, and came to America with her parents, 
Jesse and Sophia Larkin, when about seventeen years old. Mr. and Mrs. Shaffner 
after their marriage, settled on a farm in Jackson Township, where they 
sojourned until 1862. Removing then to Joliet Mr. Shaffner engaged in carriage 
and wagon-making and also in carpentering. Later he embarked in the grocery 
and coal trade and gave his attention to the coal business for fourteen years, 
abandoning the grocery department soon after engaging in it. In the meantime 
he had associated with him his son and they operated together five years under 
the firm name of B. Shaffner & Son. Mr. Shaffner retired from the coal trade 
in May, 1884. By a course of uprightness and honesty, together with courteous 
treatment of his customers, Mr. Shaffner built up an extensive patronage and 
accumulated a competence. He has a fine home at the intersection of Mound and 
Sherman Streets, and also owns a share in the Shaffner Block, on Washington 
Street, also a half interest in the coal business of E. L. Shaffner, his son, 
who is represented elsewhere in this work. The coal-yard is amply equipped 
with sheds, a large ice-house and a good sized office, and lies between the 
Chicago & Alton and the Santa Fe Railroad tracks, on Washington Street. Mr. 
Shaffner, politically, votes with the Republican party. Besides the two 
children born to him and his estimable wife, they have an adopted daughter, 
Miss Carrie, a maiden of twenty years. Eph L. is one of the promising business 
men of the city of Joliet; Eldon P., a moulder by trade, has held the same 
position with the Rolling Mill for the long period of fifteen years—which is a 
sufficient indication of his worth and ability. Jesse Larkin, the father of 
Mrs. Shaffner, only lived three months after coming to Joliet, surviving his 
wife only three days, and they left a family of seven children among strangers 
in a strange land. A short time prior to this they had emigrated to America 
from Cranbrook, Kent County, England. The reader will recognize in the 
portrait of Mr. Shaffner, which appears on another page, one of the most 
prominent and influential citizens of Joliet.

Additional Comments:
Portrait and Biographical Album of Will County, Illinois, Containing Full Page 
Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens 
of the County; Chicago: Chapman Bros., 1890 

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