On July 2, Aberdeen celebrated Founders Day, honoring the pioneers who built Aberdeen. In honor of Sam Benn’s 190th birthday, here is a history of his journey from Ireland to Aberdeen, the city he founded. This was originally printed in the the special Golden Jubilee issue of the Aberdeen Daily World, July 31, 1963, celebrating Aberdeen’s 75th Anniversary.

Sam Benn, doughty trailblazer, finally found his elbow-room

Sam Benn, Aberdeen’s founder, was something more than a city builder. He was a trail-blazer, cattleman, farmer, miner, carpenter, sage, philanthropist, family man and eventually better than a centenarian. He lived to be 103 years old.

Samuel Benn was born July 2, 1832, at Emo, Queens county, Ireland, the fourth child in a family of eight. The family emigrated to New York City when he was a small child, there to seek their fortune in a new land.

When he was three years of age, his father died and the task of bringing up the large family was left to Mrs. Benn and his older brothers. Despite hardships, Mr. Benn was able to get a good common school education.

At the age of 15 he quit his schoolwork and became a carpenter’s apprentice and a few years later graduated into a full-fledged artisan. He was made a member of the New York volunteer fire department. Although he had won modest success at his trade, the lure of great wealth in the newly discovered California gold fields decided him to move westward.

His start was delayed until March 5, 1856, however, near the close of the great ’49 rush. He sailed on the steamer Northern Light, arrived at Colon, and crossing on the newly built Isthmus railroad, boarded the famous old paddle-wheel ship Sonora to reach San Francisco March 26.

Remaining only a few days in San Francisco, he went to the mines near Columbia in Tuolumme county. For three years he toiled at prospecting, mining and flume construction. But in each venture he failed to “strike it rich.”

It was while more or less disgusted with this California venture that he encountered his cousin, George Hubbard, who also had gone to California for only meager rewards. The pair, both in the prime of their young manhood, decided “working for wages” wasn’t enough.

They had talked with a prospector who had been “up north.” He told them of a great empire to be wrestled from the wilderness, of fine valleys, beautiful Puget Sound and vast forests.

So again Samuel Benn decided to follow the star of adventure and pioneering, northward. With his cousin he sailed early in May, 1859, from San Francisco, landing at Victoria, B.C.

With a portion of their remaining capital, they purchased a 30-foot flat-bottomed sailboat and on this craft proceeded to explore Puget Sound. The Sound was sparsely settled in those early days and the two adventurers met only one boat in their trip of more than three weeks.

Early in June they sailed into Olympia harbor. Olympia was only a small pioneer town, but the valleys and bottom land adjacent to it were fairly well settled. They wanted more room.

From settlers they heard stories of the timber and fine bottom land along the lower Chehalis, then virtually unsettled. Because horses were rented at a rate of $5 a day, the pair decided to hike to the Chehalis country. After a two-day trek, they arrived at the present site of Montesano.

The country looked good to them and there were only five families along the valley. Hubbard took a claim on the north side of the river, Mr. Benn on the south directly across from him, on the present site of Melbourne.

Returning to Olympia, they had built a special wagon to transport their boat to Black River, a tributary of the Chehalis. Loading their boat to the limit, they hauled it to Black River, floated down to the Chehalis to “Blockhouse” Smith’s place near the present site of Oakville and getting a small amount of lumber there pushed on down stream to their homesites. They arrived June 15, 1859.

The pair felled trees for the framework and siding of their new homes, utilizing their small amount of lumber for floors and doors. Chinks in the cabin walls were filled with mud and moss.

Because they had settled on the bottom land, clearing was not an immediate problem. The soil was rich and although they planted late, they raised 50-pound cabbages, giant rutabagas and many other vegetables of enormous size. Mr. Benn afterward declared “it was a wonderful country.”

In the three years that had elapsed since he left New York, Mr. Benn had paid scant attention to romance. He had been too busy and moving too fast. But with the advent of becoming a rancher with a home of his own, things changed.

Martha Redman, comely daughter of Rueben Redman, one of the earliest settlers of the Chehalis valley, fired the interest of the sturdy young farmer. For two years he courted her, and their marriage was solemnized late in September of 1861.

The young man’s desire for wealth had not departed from Mr. Benn, however. He saw possibilities in the cattle business, with new markets developing overnight and thousands of new settlers pouring into the nearby Sound communities. He wanted more room, more land.

His father-in-law had a lower river claim on the present site of Aberdeen. Six hundred acres of this he traded Samuel Benn for the latter’s now well-developed farm at Melbourne. Another 46 acres Mr. Benn bought from the state at $1.25 an acre.

The Benn family moved here in the spring of 1868. He built his new home just north of the present west approach of the Wishkah River bridge. Autumn saw the home completed and a fine garden crop harvested. Another settler, William A Cox, who followed Mr. Benn to the lower Chehalis, finally sold his 140 acres to Mr. Benn after deciding to prospect in the Wynoochie country for gold.

In the passage of time, a new dream came to Mr. Benn — that of a great city at the junction of the Wishkah and Chehalis rivers, and in 1883 decided to have the townsite surveyed. It was officially platted and recorded in 1884. The town was not recognized as such, however, for several years. In 1888 it was named Aberdeen and a board of three, headed by Mr. Benn, directed its affairs. It was incorporated in 1890.

In the early 1890s when the Northern Pacific railroad chose Ocosta as its terminus, Mr. Benn and his associates purchased rails and extended the track into Aberdeen themselves. He donated 160 town lots, 100 being given to men who worked 10 days grading the roadbed.

Although some settlers came in, the town was not growing as rapidly as he liked. To that end, Mr. Benn, who owned 800 acres in the city, gave two-thirds of it away to induce men to settle here.

Gradually the town grew, became larger than any of the towns Mr. Benn had found in the state on his arrival. The family moved to their new home at Fourth and G streets. The business blocks became settled, a fire swept over them in 1903. They were rebuilt better than ever.

Permanent structures gradually became more numerous. Streets were paved, public buildings were constructed. In all civic affairs Mr. Benn continued to play a leading role. He was a charter member of the Aberdeen Chamber of Commerce, formed in 1892. As far back as the 1860s he had served as sheriff. Up until his retirement from “active business” in his 95th year, he continued to play a leading role in the city’s community life. And even after his retirement, his sage advice and his broad vision repeatedly were of value to the city he fathered.

During the final three years, Mr. Benn was virtually bed-ridden. Because of dizziness when he walked, he seldom left his room. But he spent long hours in an easy chair, looking over his spacious yard at the city he loved.

And, remarkably, his physical weakness in no way dimmed his mentality. At his great age Samuel Benn was both wise and witty. His mind had a youthful vigor yet possessed the serenity of a contented old age. Not that he was not capable of disgust and at times a good old-fashioned rage at high taxes and some of “these new-fangled government experiments in government.”

Warm-hearted, generous, he remained lovable to the end. Physicians and nurses declared he was the “best-natured” patient they had ever attended. His grumbling was confined solely to political fields. Friends always were greeted warmly, even when the pioneer was not well.

Unlike many aged persons who prefer to dwell in the “good old days,” Mr. Benn’s interest was always in the present. He was an inveterate reader, having the contents of a half-dozen papers read to him daily. Without glasses, Mr. Benn was able to scan the headlines, but preferred to have the smaller print read to him. He could discuss pointedly any important problem of the day.

He liked to chat with visitors. Young people’s ideas interested him. He was frequently accused of “spoiling” some of the younger grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Invariably he took their part if they were scolded for making “too much noise around grandfather.”

Samuel Benn died September 16, 1935, at the age of 103.

Roy Vataja is the son of Finnish immigrants and will take part in Founder’s Day and hoist a glass of beer to the founder of our fair city.