Benjamin Moore Clement

• Residence: Civil District 8, Lauderdale, Tennessee, United States - 1900
• Residence: Double Bridges, Lauderdale, Tennessee, United States - 1910
• Residence: Civil District 12, Lauderdale, Tennessee, United States - 1920
• Residence: Elk Township, Jackson, Illinois, United States - 1930
  • Reference: FamilySearch Genealogy - SmartCopy: Jan 26 2023, 17:38:26 UTC

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Ben was the only surviving child of Edwin Ruthin Clement and his wife Mary Ann Thackford McCulloch.
An infant brother Caleb was listed on the 1860 TN census, but not thereafter. Ben was born on August 20, 1860 in Gibson County, TN. Ben’s father was lost in the Civil War sometime in 1862.
At age 15 he became the ward of his cousin William Gabriel Clement probably so he could attend school in Gibson County. There he formed a friendship with his cousin, Andrew Edwin Clement.
Between 1882 and 1884 Ben went to school in Newbern, Dyer County, TN as a boarding student. During school recesses he ran the ferry at Lane, on the Obion River. By March 1882 Ben had met and was courting his future bride, Coquilla Cry “Cora” Applewhite. And on January 7, 1884 they were married at her father’s house in Dyer County. She was the daughter of Richard Henry Applewhite and Elizabeth Ann Lanier, born 6 June 1864 in Dyer County, near Newbern.
Ben was a man of many talents. Soon after his marriage he wrote his cousin, Andrew, that he had an interest in a large wagon and smith shop at Lane. He taught school intermittently. He started a school for Negro children, found a Negro teacher for it and kept an eye on the school’s progress. It wasn’t the most popular thing he ever did. He operated a steam powered gristmill and cotton gin on Mill Creek near Key corner and the Porter place. According to the 1900 federal census for Lauderdale County, TN Ben was an “f. Engineer Sta.” And owned a farm free of mortgage.
Ben and Cora had a large family. Twelve children were born to the couple, but only 9 survived to adulthood. The first and last children were daughters who died the same day they were born. The ninth child,named Johnnie, died as an infant at four months. Annie Myrtle, the oldest, married Jesse Gooch, and lived for a time as a widow with her brother, Albert, in McAlester, OK. Elizabeth married Ed Henderson and lived near Grinnell, KS about 1920. Robert Knox served in the US Navy and worked in shipyards as a cable splicer. LaVera married Tollie Gooch, Jesse’s first cousin. Flora married Joe Dunaway and stayed near Double Bridges. Willie married Ada Lee Bradford and stayed in western Tennessee. Richard Edwin married Allie Olds, lived on a small farm near Double Bridges and raised the best blackberries you ever ate. Porter married Lola Fox and moved to Washington State. He worked on the Hanford nuclear reservation. Albert Bittick married Mary Agnes Hamilton in McAlester, OK on 15 Aug 1926.
About 1900 Ben and his family moved in with Ben Porter and Ben’s mother to help nurse Porter and run his farm. After Porter died and the estate was settled, Ben Clement moved his mother and his brood to another farm in the area. Grandma Porter had strict rules when it came to rearing children. Girls couldn’t whistle. She would smack them in the mouth without warning, “A crowing hen and a whistling girl come to no good end.” Children couldn’t stick out their tongue, spit on each other, call each other “nigger” or cuss. She must have run a taut ship!
About 1906 there was a terrible typhoid or scarlet fever epidemic which laid Ben’s family low for about six months. At one time nine of the twelve family members were sick at the same time. The doctor came out every day. When all were well Ben paid the doctor for this services with a comely colt belonging to Knox. That didn’t sit too well with Knox and he struck out on his own not too long after that.

Ben and family attended the Bethesda Methodist Church west of Halls on Route 88. Ben interpreted Scripture to suit himself. He believed the faster the dead body returned to dust and the spirit to its maker, the better. He didn’t see any use in erecting tombstones, which he considered a form of idol worship. Therefore, Ben Porter, Jr., his stepfather; his wife, Cora; and his mother Mary Clement Porter, lay in unmarked graves. The women’s graves are in the Rutherford Cemetery. Ben Porter was buried at the foot of a large cedar tree, which can be seen in winter from Richard Clement's house. Although the grand and great-grandchildren of Ben and Cora erected a monument in the Rutherford cemetery in 1984, Ben’s pauper’s grave in the Halls cemetery remains unmarked. He is remembered on the stone in the little country cemetery where his wife, infant children and mother are buried. 

After Cora died in February 1907 the family began separating. Children were farmed out to neighbors. In October 1915 Ben married again. His wife, Ada Kruckenburg brought her children to live with Ben and some of his children. The marriage didn’t work out. Ada stayed only three or four years. But they never got divorced. Ben’s death certificate in 1935 lists her as his wife.
Ben was an unhappy man the last few years of his life. He didn’t have a stable home life, living with first one child then another. He died in the old folks’ home in Ripley, TN.

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Jan 26 2023, 17:42:59 UTC

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• Reference: FamilySearch Genealogy - SmartCopy: Jan 26 2023, 17:48:24 UTC