Benton's middle name may not have been Thomas, historical sources also list a middle initial of "F."
Benton was born in Attica Center, NY to Thomas and Rachel (Hubbard) Cooley. He was the youngest of thirteen children born to Rachel, and also had two half-siblings from his father's first marriage. Sometime after Benton's birth, the family moved to Darien, NY, where his father pased away several years later.
The family migrated west after the death of Thomas, and settled in the area of Faribault, MN. In 1863 Benton married Lydia Lovell, the daughter of Lyman Lovell, who was a prominent citizen of Pickerel Lake, MN. The couple remained in Minnesota until about 1880, when they moved their family west to the Dakota Territory.
Benton and his family lived first near Lennox, in Lincoln County, and then moved to Rapid City. The family remained in the Dakotas for about ten years, before returning to Minnesota. They settled in Jackson County, MN, near the Minnesota-Iowa border.
Benton passed away just before Christmas in 1897, at the home of his son, Fay Cooley, in Estherville, IA.
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