Benjamin Pile, Sr.

GEDCOM Note

Benjamin Pile was a member of the Virginia Continental Line during the Revolutionary War and was discharged at Yorktown, VA in 1785.

He followed his older brother, William Pile, to Washington County in late 1792. William Pile had arrived in Kentucky in 1783 from Virginia, with the Clifton family. Another brother, Richard Pile, also came to Washington County in 1792, and possibly a third, Thomas Pile. Richard and Thomas Pile moved to moved to Clark County, Indiana, and helped found Jeffersonville.

Benjamin Pile was a captain in the 5Oth Regiment of the Cornstalk Militia from April 1804 to July 1804. Benjamin Pile settled on Rode Run.

Source: Washington County, Kentucky Bicentennial History, 1792-1992, Created and designed by David A. Hurst, Publishing Consultant, C1991 Washington County History Book Committee, submitted by Steve Thrasher.

By 1793, "Benjamin Pile, an accomplished blacksmith, plied his trade with vigor and success, at his little establishment near the courthouse. Pile made everything from nails to wagons, including buckets, pails, knives, forks, spoons, pewter bowls and plates, handcuffs, and divers (sic) other articles too numerous to mention." From Pioneer History of Washington County, Kentucky, p 6.

Benjamin Pile of Washington Co., Ky, Submitted by Forrest Pottinger, of Hyattsville, Maryland, to the Springfield Sun, ca 1936. Reproduced in Pioneer History of Washington Co., Kentucky, page 27.

Benjamin Pile, Sr., was born December 3 1766 and died May 9, 1824. He married Ruth, who was born March 4, 1767, and died July 28, 1827. Their graves are on a farm owned in 1919 by a Mr. Shelby. The tombstones may be seen on the north side of the Springfield-Mooresville road, on the slope of the hill a short distance from the highway.

The Pile Family by O.W. Baylor, The Springfield Sun, January 16, 1936. Reproduced in Pioneer History of Washington Co., Kentucky, page 207

Benjamin Pile, brother of William Pile, was settled in Kentucky before the formation of Washington County. When Washington was created in 1792 he became a resident thereof to continue as such to the day of his death in 1824. The home of Benjamin Pile was only a few miles north of Springfield and bordering on what was known as Frankfort Road but what is now known as Springfield-Bloomfield Road or State Highway No 55. Today, as one travels along this highway he discovers the two stone slabs that stand on a knoll a few yards eastward from the right-of-way marking the graves of Benjamin Pile and his wife, Ruth Pile.

By occupation, Benjamin Pile was a farmer and by "profession [sic] a blacksmith. He was one of those characters whose lives and works the poet Longfellow was later to immortalize. The labor on his plantation was performed by numerous slaves. To his blacksmith shop he gave his personal attention. He was not just an ordinary blacksmith but rather a craftsman in that line of endeavor. Besides himself there were numerous aides in the shop in the person of boys who were bound to him by the Washington County Court from time to time "to learn the art and mystery of a blacksmith." I have noted two orders of the Court in which Benjamin Pile figured. One William Jones was bound to him June 4, 1795, and James Howard on September 7, 1796.

There is a record in the archieves [sic] of Washington County that attests to the workmanship of Benjamin Pile and his aides in the blacksmith shop. It is in the form of an order to the sheriff to pay said Pile the sum of 9 shillings for making a pair of handcuffs. Date Feb, 1795.

Like his brother William, Benjamin Pile engaged for a time in the business of tavern keeping. A license was granted him to keep a tavern "at his house in the county" January 7, 1796. Posted in a conspicuous place in his house he kept the following tavern rates, fixed by the Court, where they might be seen by all who made this tavern a stopping-place for food, drink or lodging for man or beast: Good Whiskey per gal. 0.6.0 Good Whiskey per qt. 0.1.6 Good Whiskey per pt. 0.0.9 Good Whiskey per ½ pt. 0.0.6 Good Whiskey per gill 0.0.4 Good Rum per gal. 0.1.0 Good Rum per qt. 0.5.0 Good Rum per pt. 0.2.6 Good Rum per ½ pt. 0.1.6 Good Rum per gill 0.1.0 Good Peach Brandy per gal. 0.9.1 Good Peach Brandy per qt. 0.2.3 Good Peach Brandy per pt. 0.1.3 Good Peach Brandy per ½ pt. 0.0.9 Good Peach Brandy per gill 0.0.6 Hot Breakfast 0.1.0 Cold Breakfast 0.0.9 Hot Dinner 0.3.0 Cold Dinner 0.1.0 Hot Supper 0.1.0 Cold Supper 0.0.9 Pasturage 12 hours 0.0.4 Stableage to hay or fodder 12 hours 0.0.9 Oats or Corn per gal. 0.0.6 Lodging for 1 night 0.0.6 Note: The prices listed were according to the English monetary unit of pounds, shillings and pence, still in use in Kentucky in that day.

In addition to his blacksmithing Benjamin Pile seems to have "dabbled" a bit on the business of burying the dead. The records show that on several occasions he was employed by the County Court to "take care of and bury" certain poor persons. See record of Feb. 7, 1797. Then too, he was overseer of the road from the Courthouse to the Beech Fork "at John Bullock’s." May 2, 1797. Benjamin Pile, according to the inscription on his gravestone, was born in 1766. He died in May or June of the year 1824. Ruth Pile, his wife, was born in 1767 and died in 1827. The value of the personal estate of Benjamin Pile, including Negroes of whom there were 14, was approximately $4,000 ($82,326 in 2012 dollars). (See appraisal 1824). His son, William, was made administrator and his settlement papers show that he paid Wm. E. Head, of Springfield, $24 to make his father’s coffin.

Benjamin Pile and Ruth, his wife, were the parents of 9 children who lived to survive them. They were: William, m. Polly Janes, July 20, 1801; Samuel, m. Minney Ellison, Sept. 4, 1820; Richard, m. Margaret Barlow, Oct. 25, 1819; Benjamin, Jr., m. Rhody Weathers, Feb. 28, 1825; Elizabeth, m. John H. Parrott, for sometime a deputy of the Washington County Court, July 28, 1817; Rebecca, m. Jacob Barlow, Sept. 6, 1809; Nancy, a minor was made the ward of her brother-in-law, John H. Parrott, and m. Isaac Weathers Feb. 28, 1823; Susannah and John (Joseph?) were underage in 1824 and made the wards of their brother, William Pile.