Chariton County, Missouri Biographical Sketch - LOUIS BENECKE
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Attorney-at-law at Brunswick, Mo., and a gentleman well and favorably 
known throughout North Missouri, was born in Germany in 1843, and 
emigrated to the United States in 1856, settling at the above named 
town.  At the breaking out of the late unpleasantness, Mr. Benecke 
entered the service as a private in Company H. 18 Mo.  Volunteers, 
and was promoted to Sergeant and Lieutenant, and from which company 
he was honorably discharged; re-entered service as Captain of Company 
I, 49th Missouri volunteers and was honorably mustered out August 2, 
1865.  During the last year of the war, Captain Benecke was for four 
months in command of the Military Int. District of Chariton and 
Randolph counties.  At the close of the war he returned to Brunswick 
and in the following year was elected mayor of his city, also a 
director of the public school the first in the county being re-elected 
to the latter position each term until 1870, when he resigned on account 
of his election to the state senate.  While a member of the Legislature,  
Mr. Benecke was the author of the Chariton county local bill, which met 
with such favor that the legislature some years afterwards, incorporated 
the main provision verbatim into the general law.  This measure saved the 
taxpayers large sums of money in reducing fees and limiting salaries of 
county officers.  Since 1875, Mr. Benecke has been re-elected to various 
county offices, among others that of mayor, president and member of the 
school board.  He has been active in the advancement of all local 
enterprises, and is one of the original incorporators of the First 
National Bank of Brunswick, Mo., and of which he is a director; also, 
of the Brunswick Brick and Tile Company; the Elliott Grove Cemetery, 
the first in the county; is President of the Brunswick Library 
Association and a member of several other business and social 
associations. For four years, Mr. Benecke held the highest office 
in the state of the Knights of Honor and during, the years 1895-96 
was Department Commander of the Grand Army Republic. Captain Benecke 
was never defeated for any elective office, having been honored by 
his neighbors and friends to various offices over thirty times, however 
he now asserts that hereafter he would decline to accept any office 
that may be tendered him, except to devote his entire time to his 
profession, the practice of law.  Mr. Benecke's family consists of 
his wife and five children, two daughters and three sons. Personally, 
Captain Benecke is a gentleman with a host of friends but, not unlike 
others, he also has some enemies, of whom he is as fond of the one as 
of the other, believing that a man who has no enemies, is not worth 
having as a friend.  To him no charitable appeal has ever been made 
in vain, responding to all without ostentation.  He is a member of 
the Evangelist Protestant Church, and a staunch republican politically.