The Bird Lady

Hine is Phil's Mother Donna's family name. Her father was Hoyt Hine




Biography of Thomas Clark Benson, pages 353 / 354. History of Northeast
Indiana; LaGrange, Steuben, Noble, and DeKalb Counties, Vol. II, under the
editorial supervision of Ira Ford, Orville Stevens, William H. McEwen and
William H. McIntosh. The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago and New York,
1920.

Thomas Clark Benson. One of the beautiful homes of DeKalb County is
Birdlawn Farm, situated in Richland Township, the property of Thomas Clark
Benson. It is the old family homestead of the Hine family, and its name,
together with that of the adjoining farm, Meadow Lark, which also is a
part of the Hine family estate, serves to perpetuate the beautiful memory
of a gifted woman, the late Mrs. Jane L. Hine, mother of Mrs. Benson,
known in Indiana history as the “Bird Woman.”
Thomas Clark Benson was born in Warren County, Indiana. His parents,
Jonathan and Eliza (Jones) Benson, died when he was very young, and he was
reared in the Ankrum family in Vermilion County, Illinois. He had one
brother and four sisters, namely: Asbury, Mary Jane, Elizabeth, Matilda
and Lydia. The only survivor is Mrs. Matilda Nichols, whose name is at
Weatherford, Oklahoma. Mr. Benson was afforded educational opportunities
and for a number of years taught school very acceptably, then began study
for the ministry, pursuing theological courses at Union Christian College,
Merom, Indiana, and Oberlin Theological Seminary at Oberlin, Ohio. It was
at Oberlin that he met Miss Nellie Cynthia Hine, to whom he was united in
marriage on March 26, 1884, at Birdlawn, the present family house.
When Mrs. Benson’s grandfather, Sheldon Horatio Hine, first invested in
this half section of Richland Township wild land he traded thirty milch
cows for it, at the time living in the Western Reserve across the Indiana-
Ohio state line, buying his property as an investment. When he sent his
son, Horatio Sheldon Hine, to pay the taxes the young man, then nineteen
years old, did not regard it as worth the money, but his father said,
“Young man, some day you will be glad to have it.” Since 1863 Birdlawn
has been a part of the estate now owned by Mr. Benson. When Horatio S.
Hine pay the taxes he found conditions that would have justified almost
any business man entering a protest. He found a swamp instead of a farm
and the sink hole in it was so deep that for many years the New York
Central Railroad passing through Waterloo, Sedan and Corunna, had to make
a detour in order to avoid it. A road bed through the sink hole was
finally made by hauling timber from three states, Indiana, Michigan and
Ohio, laying tier on tier on the ice, subsequent draining making it
possible to make a solid permanent roadway. The above is interesting as
local as well as family history.
While a brother of Horation Sheldon Hine, Lemon Hine, first came to
this DeKalb County farmstead and remained long enough to build the house
which still stands there, it was Horatio S. Hine who developed the farm,
and it is his grandson, Martin Lee Benson, who at present maintains its
standing in agricultural pre-eminence. Horatio S. Hine was twice married,
his first union being with Cynthia Brooks, who was the mother of three
sons: Sheldon H., Charles L. and Frank B. After her death Mr. Hine
married her sister, Jane Brooks, who became the mother of three children,
namely: Mrs. Nellie Cynthia Benson, Brooks L. and Lemon. The mother of
Mrs. Benson was born April 2, 1831, and died February 11, 1916, the
centennial year in Indiana history. With a natural love of nature, Mrs.
Hine beautified the hill slope in front of the farmhouse by setting out
wild flowers and it has been Mrs. Benson’s pleasant duty to protect and
preserve them. It was not, however, until she had faithfully discharged
her duties a wife and mother that Mrs. Hine began her special studies of
bird life, and some of her finest essays were written after she had passed
three score and ten. She was frequently invited to address audiences on
bird lore, wrote voluminously on the subject for different publications
and many of her manuscripts are preserved and consulted as being
scientifically authentic. She was a member of the National Ornithological
Society, and a booklet has been issued as a memorial.
For several years after their marriage Mr. Benson continued in the
ministry, serving Christian churches in Kansas, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
In 1896, coming to Birdlawn with Mrs. Benson to visit her parents and
finding them in need of a daughter’s ministrations, he decided to remain,
and this had been the Benson home ever since. Mr. and Mrs. Benson have
the following children: Paul Hine, Martin Lee, Rhoda Bernice, Kathryn
Eunice and Frank Earl. As a student in Angola College Paul H. Benson
specialized in literature and chemistry. As a soldier in the state
military organization sent to the Mexican border, he soon became an
interpreter of languages, and his knowledge of chemistry had been very
useful to him in a business way at Saginaw, Michigan, since he returned
from military service. Martin Lee Benson made a special study of
agriculture and is the farmer at Birdlawn. Rhoda B. is the wife of J.H.
Miser and they live on their fruit ranch in California. They have two
sons, Harold and Glenn. Kathryn E. Benson, a graduate of the Auburn High
School, had training in the Oklahoma College of Agriculture, and for
several years taught school in Wyoming. Frank Earl Benson , who was one
of the earliest enlisted men to go overseas with the American Expeditionary
Forces in World war, served as orderly to Dr. Richard Derby, son-in-law of
the late beloved Theodore Roosevelt, and at Chateau Thierry and other
points was between the lines in the hardest of the fighting and ever
exhibited the valor that has won laurels for the America soldier. This
family in all its branches illustrates the sterling qualities, high ideals
and solid worth that make the real American type.

Submitted by:
Arlene Goodwin
Auburn, Indiana
Agoodwin@ctlnet.com