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| Highest Rank | Private |
| Unit | Co. I, 81st New York Infantry |
| Date | between 1890 and 1915 |
| Born | June 22, 1843 |
| Place Born | Rome, NY |
| Died | June 11, 1919 |
| Place Died | Seattle, WA |
| Buried | Mount Pleasant (Seattle) |
| Service Record | Enlisted, age 19, on 1/13/1862 at Rome, NY as a Private; on 2/21/1862 he mustered into "I" Co. NY 81st Infantry; re-enlisted on 2/24/1864; discharged on 6/20/1865 at Fort Monroe, VA |
| Obit/Notes | --Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Thursday, June 12, 1919, page 18, column C Death Overtakes Pioneer Wrecker of Puget Sound Capt. A. O. Benjamin, Ship Operator and Salvage Specialist, Dies of Paralysis Capt. A. O. Benjamin, pioneer steamboat and sailing ship operator, wrecker and ship chandler, and one of the most familiar figures on Seattle's water front since 1878, died at the family home, 1918 Fourth avenue west, yesterday from paralysis. Probably no member of Seattle's expansive maritime fraternity had had a more interesting or varied career than the lately deceased shipping man. Capt. Benjamin was a native of Oneida county, New York. He was born on June 22, 1843. During his boyhood days on the Hudson river he displayed a liking for steamboating, and was diverted temporarily from this pursuit by the outbreak of the civil war, in which he participated as a member of a New York regiment. After a few years of steamboating on the Hudson river, following the war, Capt. Benjamin removed to the Pacific coast, arriving in Seattle in the spring of 1878, and resided her continuously until the time of his death. He is survived by his widow, Mrs. Anne W. Benjamin, and six children, all residents of Seattle. The latter are: Capt. William B. Benjamin, C. A. Benjamin and Paul Benjamin, sons, and Mrs. Bertha Van Dyke, Mrs. Gertrude Jay Bush and Mrs. Emelyn Cook. Obsequies will take place at the mortuary chapel of the Washington Cremation Society this afternoon, cremation following. During his long career on Puget sound, and up to the time of his retirement in 1905, the deceased had at various times owned and operated the following Puget sound and deep sea vessels: Steamers Evangel, Bee, Tressy May, S. L. Mastick, Maggie II, Yarno, Portland, Maude, Colby, Nymph, Union, Biz, and the schooners Grace, Emmett Felitz and La Niria. Many old-timers of this vicinity will remember some of the wrecking feats performed by Capt. Benjamin in the early days of railroading and steamboating in the Northwest. He was the pioneer at deep-sea diving as well as wrecking in these waters. In 1880, shortly after the Northern Pacific railroad reached Tacoma, one of the then few locomotives of the line, together with its tender, plunged off a trestle into the Puyallup river, sinking in twenty feet of water and almost an equal distance into quicksand below. Several attempts to salvage the big engine proved futile, and one day Capt. Benjamin was told of the situation. He understood the task and recovered the engine as well as the tender, and shortly afterwards he performed a similar feat in the waters of Elliott bay. |
He was born in Rome Oneida Co New York. Following the war he worked as a deep sea salvager in Seattle.
Residence was not listed; 19 years old.
Enlisted on 1/13/1862 at Rome, NY as a Private.
On 2/21/1862 he mustered into "I" Co. NY 81st Infantry
He Re-enlisted on 2/24/1864.
He was discharged on 6/20/1865 at Fort Monroe, VA.
--Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Thursday, June 12, 1919, page 18, column C
Death Overtakes Pioneer Wrecker of Puget Sound
Capt. A. O. Benjamin, Ship Operator and Salvage Specialist, Dies of Paralysis
Capt. A. O. Benjamin, pioneer steamboat and sailing ship operator, wrecker and ship chandler, and one of the most familiar figures on Seattle's water front since 1878, died at the family home, 1918 Fourth avenue west, yesterday from paralysis.
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