Families settled in Rock County and the region, including the M. Benson brothers on 600 acres at Clinton, and Caleb Snashall, who came to Wisconsin and entered the hardware business in Evansville.

The evidence

• “M. Benson started out for himself about 1837, as a cabin-boy on a steamboat on the rivers in Arkansas, then came home and worked with his father till time of Mexican war; went in the revenue cutter Bibb to Mexico ; was wrecked off the coast of Texas, Aransas Bay, but was saved by means of a life-boat ; lived on wormy " hard-tack " and stale pork for awhile, but finally went to work in the Government yards repairing steamers ; after the war, went steamboating on the Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri and Red Rivers, then went to Colorado and went into business, drugs, groceries, etc.; sold, out and came to Clinton and settled, together with his brother, on 600 acres of land ; this was in 1864 ; in 1867, engaged in sugar-planting in Louisiana ; his brother James and his brother-in-law who went South to look after this interest both died with the yellow-fever ; Mr.”

  1879-history-of-rock-county/19-bios-newark.md, PDF p. 771

  Butterfield, C. W., et al. The History of Rock County, Wisconsin: its early settlement, growth, development, resources, etc. Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1879. Cornell University Library via the Internet Archive, archive.org/details/cu31924028871585.

  Grade A: Found on a page of one of our sources