BENJAMIN F. MCMAHAN, who is engaged in general farming in Roodhouse township and resides upon the old Benjamin Williams homestead, was born in Greene county, July 25, 1862, and is a son of Thomas and Emaline (Williams) McMahan. His mother died in 1871, and the father, long surviving her, passed away in 1892.
Benjamin F. McMahan was only nine years of age at the time of his mother's death and was reared by his maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Williams. His grandfather was one of the most prominent, influential and respected citizens of the county and for many years was successfully engaged in agricultural pursuits in Roodhouse township. At this death, which occurred in 1898, when he was seventy-six years of age, Mr. McMahan was made one of the heirs of his valuable estate and he now lives upon the Williams homestead. He was educated in the public schools, was trained to the duties of the farm in all its various departments and has always engaged in the tilling of the soil. He has a fine little farm of very arable and productive soil, and his wife also inherited forty acres of land from her father, so that from their united property, which he keeps in excellent condition, placing the fields under a high state of cultivation, they derive a very gratifying income. The land is very productive and is worth from one hundred to a hundred and thirty dollars per acre.
On the 6th of October, 1897, Mr. McMahan was married to Miss Laura Steelman, a daughter of Ashley L. and Martha J. (Ford) Steelman, who had a family of twelve children, all yet living, and the first death in the family was that of the mother, which occurred on the 16th of August, 1904, when she was seventy-nine years of age. The father, now eighty-one years of age, was born in North Carolina, April 19, 1824, and when seven years of age removed with his parents to Tennessee, where he lived until twenty years of age. In 1843 he came to Illinois, reaching Bridgeport, Scott county, with thirty-five cents in his pocket. He went to work upon a farm at ten dollars per month. Later he came to Greene county and after a year he enlisted in the Mexican war, in which he served for thirteen months, being discharged at Alton, Illinois. He was in the battle of San Juan and he now receives a pension of twelve dollars per month. On the 8th of July, 1849, he was married to Martha J. Ford and they came to Greene county, living for a time in Patterson, but they soon removed to his present farm, comprising eighty acres. He also followed the blacksmith's trade, which he had previously learned, and thus he worked year after year, taking his pay in trade, in such products as the farmers of the locality raised. Some patrons paid him in fresh pork, which sold for a dollar and a quarter per hundred weight. As he prospered he added to his land until he had seven hundred and sixty acres of land, much of which he bought at a low price but is now very valuable. He has given much of this to his children, retaining possession of only eighty acres, on which stand the house, barns and other farm buildings. He engaged in buying and selling stock and found that a very profitable source of income, for he is an excellent judge of stock and was therefore enabled to make judicious purchases and to sell to good advantage. At the age of eighty-one years he is still a jovial, whole souled man, with open, frank expression, and genial manner. He has never used tobacco, has never taken intoxicants to excess, in fact, has not been inside a saloon in thirty years, and because he has not abused nature's laws he has been granted a long lease of life. He lives with an unmarried son, and the other children all live within a radius of five miles, in what is known as the Steelman community.
The home of Mr. and Mrs. McMahan has been blessed with one child, Olive, born February 4, 1899. Mr. McMahan gives his political support to the Democratic party. He and his wife are held in high esteem and enjoy the warm regard of many friends throughout the county in which they have always resided.