Petree, Benjamin (1834-1897)

Date of Death: 16 Apr 1897
Subject: Benjamin Petree
Source: Savannah Reporter, 23 Apr 1897

Died, At his resident on Clay township, Friday morning, April 16, 1897, at 8:30, Judge Benjamin Petree, aged 63 years, 2 months and 12 days. Buried at Antioch at 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 17.

Benjamin Petree was a man of sterling, upright principles, and in an active and eventful life maintained a character for honor, probity and sound judgement [sic] second to no man in the county. Thrown early on his own resources, he acquired the habit of self-reliance, industry and careful and impartial discrimination in practical and public matters in the highest degree. He was born in Franklin county, Indiana, and came to Andrew county with his parents and family in 1843. In 1849 he went with his father to California, and remained there in the gold mines until 1857, when he returned to Savannah, purchased a farm east of the city, and in 1860 married Miss Lucy Earls, daughter of Jonathan Earls, the first Treasurer o Andrew county. He served in the Eighteenth Missouri regiment in the last war, taking part in General Sherman’s great march through Georgia and the Carolinas, returning home in July, 1865, and labored diligently on his farm until 1876, when he traded for the larger farm in Clay township, where he continued to live up to the time of his departure for the great beyond. In 1880 he was elected a County Judge, serving two years. Five sons, two daughters and his faithful wife survive him. In the last few years his health has been so poor he was able to do very little work, and during the winter it became evident he had but a few short months to live. An honorable and pure man, a faithful husband, a dutiful and loving father, and an unswerving friend to truth and right, his loss is deplored by all good people, and his life is an example for those who would leave an honored name among the people where they have lived a long and useful life.