Whiteaker Cemetery ~ Benjamin Franklin Whiteaker ~ part of the Polk County Pioneer Cemeteries of Oregon
Whiteaker, Benjamin Franklin
LAST: Whiteaker FIRST: Benjamin MID: Franklin
GENDER: M MAIDEN NAME:  TITLE: 
BORN: 25 May 1838 DIED: 24 Aug 1912 BURIED: 26 Aug 1912 (Whiteaker Cemetery)
OCCUPATION:  Farmer
BIRTH PLACE:  Illinois
DEATH PLACE: Polk Co., Oregon
NOTES: 
1st MARRIAGE - Narcissa Hamar
2nd MARRIAGE - Adelaide Fetzer
1900 OR CENSUS - Ben F. Whiteaker, age 62, occupation farmer, b. May 1838 in Virginia, is enumerated with his wife of 19 years, Ada, age 39, mother of 3, b. Apr 1861 in Oregon, along with Nellie, age 18, b. May 1882 in Oregon, Ben F., age 11, b. Oct 1888 in Oregon, and Glenon, age 8, b. Apr 1892 in Oregon.
1910 OR CENSUS - Benjamin F Whiteaker, age 71, occupation farmer, b. Illinois, is enumerated with his second wife (of 28 years) Adelaide, age 48, mother of 3 children, b. Oregon, along with Glendon, age 18, b. Oregon.
DISCREPANCY - DC and 1910 Census give birth place as Illinois, 1910 census as Virginia.
DISCREPANCY - Monmouth Herald obituary gives birth year of 1835, while death certificate and marker give 1838.
NOTE - His second wife, Adelaide, and two of his children, Glendon Whiteaker and Nellie (Whiteaker) Kantner, are buried at Salem Pioneer Cemetery in Salem, Oregon.  
SEE www.salempioneercemetery.com
OBITUARY: 
The HERALD made mention, last week, of the serious illness of B.F. Whiteaker, who was stricken with paralysis while transacting business at Independence. 
Mr. Whiteaker was taken home and under the care of a physician seemed to rally, but taking a relapse died on Saturday morning, August 24, 1912, and was buried on Monday. He was born in Illinois, May 25, 1835, and came with his parents to Oregon in 1848. They located in Polk county and the Whiteaker homestead marks their enterprise. He was twice married, his first wife being Narcissa Hamar, and to this union were born W. H. Whiteaker, of Portland; A. J. Whiteaker, of Raymond, Wash.; Mrs. W. O. Cook of Eugene, and Mrs. E. Roe of Enterprise. After the death of his first wife he married Miss Adelaide Fetzer, to whom were born Mrs. Etta [Nettie] Kantner of Seattle and Frank and Glenn Whiteaker of Cochrane, Ore. 
Deceased was a man of warm and generous impulses. His friends were numbered by his acquaintance, and he was a fine type of the pioneer. His home was alwayss open and his hand ready to help the suffering and needy. He gave liberally to worthy public enterprises and at the time of his death was engaged with others in drilling an oil well on his extensive farm.
Monmouth Herald, Friday, 30 Aug 1912, 1:5

Ben Whiteaker, who has been a resident of Polk county since his arrival in Oregon in 1848, died at his residence near Cochrane in this county, Sunday morning, August 24, at 5:30. Mr Whiteaker was born in Lee county, Ill, May 25, 1838, and was 74 years, 3 months and 20 days old at the time of his death. His father, with his family, came to Oregon in 1848, and settled in Polk county, taking up the property on which Mr Whiteaker died and where the family burial ground is located. Later, Ben F. Whiteaker took up his own DLC on what is now known as the Webster place. Mr Whiteaker had been in fair health until a few days ago when he had a paralytic stroke near the Lerona hotel and his death was probalby due to the shock received at that time. He was the last remaining of the six children making up the main stock of the Whiteaker family, all of whom have died in the last seven years. Mr Whiteaker was a men of character and prominence who had retained all of his faculties perfectly and who was a familiar figure on the streets of the city. The fuenral services wsere preached by Rev D.V. Poling, an old friend of the family; the burial wa sin the family burial round. All of his children were present at the last sad rites. They were Al and Will, of Portland, Etta Roe of McMinnville, Bertie Roe of Enterprise, and Lillie Cook of Eugene; Frank, and Glen, and Nellie Kantner.
Independence Monitor, Thursday, August 29, 1912, 6:2-3
INSCRIPTION: 
B. F. Whiteaker
1838 -1912
SOURCES: 
Branigar Survey
Saucy Survey & Photographs
OSBH DC (Polk County 1912) #2418
1900 OR CENSUS (Polk Co., Monmouth, ED 177, sheet 8B)
1910 OR CENSUS (Polk Co., N. Monmouth, ED 237, sheet 4B)
MH 30 Aug 1912, 1:5
IM 29 Aug 1912, 6:2-3
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