War of 1812 Veteran in Minnesota Gets a Gravestone

From the Sept. 19, 2012, Preston (Minnesota) Republican Leader by Debra Richardson.

Near the end of 1875, Peter G. Benway died at the county poor farm in Canton Township at nearly 87 years of age, no family, without a home and without financial resources. No obituary was published at the time, but the following summer, the Preston Republican ran an update detailing the removal of the remains from from the poor garm burial grounds to the nearby Lenora Cemetery referring to him only as "a man named Benway."

Members of Benway's Masonic Lodge saw that a plain, tiny white slab of stone was placed on his grave to mark it.

As research was made for June's bicentennial commemoration, Benway's military service records were ordered from the National Archives and Research Administration in Washington, DC.

These records were shared with the Fillmore County Veterans Services Office and Jason Marquardt submitted the claim for a government-issued grave marker. The Lewistown Monument Company then offered to set the stone for free. It reads: "Peter G. Benway, Pvt. Capt. McNath's Co., NY Militia, War of 1812, Jan. 1789 Dec. 17, 1875."

About Time. --Brock-Perry