Memorial Record of Western Kentucky, Lewis Publishing Company, 1904,
pp 481-483 [Hopkins]

     DR. BENJAMIN F. EAGER, a prominent physician of Hopkinsville,
Kentucky, belongs to an old and respected American family.  According
to tradition, two brothers, of English-Scotch origin, coming from
Ireland, were the progenitors of the family in America.  The
grandfather of the subject of this sketch, Benjamin Eager, was a
merchant in Swanton, Vermont.  His grandmother was a Miss Smith, of
Albany, New York.  Fourteen children were born to this couple.
     The father of Dr. Eager was Rev. E. C. Eager, a Baptist minister
of Mississippi.  He was born at Swanton, Vermont, and was educated at
Madison University, Rochester, New York, graduating in both the
literary and theological departments.  He married Harriet Ide, a
daughter of Jacob Ide, of Passumpsic, Vermont, and Philadelphia.  She
was a cousin of the well known Baptist minister of Philadelphia, Dr.
George B. Ide.
     Shortly after their marriage, Rev. E. C. Eager and wife moved to
Mississippi, where nine children were born to them, viz.: Ann J., the
wife of John E. Moseley, died in 1883; William C., who died in
Petersburg, Virginia, in 1864, a member of the Sixteenth Mississippi
Infantry Regiment; Rev. George B. Eager, who, after pastorates in
Knoxville, Tennessee, Mobile, Anniston and Montgomery, Alabama, now
occupies the chair of Biblical Introduction and Pastoral Duties in the
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, at Louisville, Kentucky; Rev.
John H. Eager, a Baptist minister, for seventeen years a missionary in
Italy, who now reside in Baltimore, Maryland, and is specially employed
in the endowment work of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, of
Louisville, Kentucky; Patrick Henry Eager, president at one time of
Brownsville (Tennessee) Female College, and Baylor Female College, at
Belton, Texas, and professor of English in the University of
Mississippi, at Oxford, and who now lives at Clinton, Mississippi, and
is professor of English in Mississippi College; Harriet Ide Eager, who
died in Clinton, Mississippi, at four years of age; Susan Eager, the
wife of Rev. I. P. Trotter, pastor of the Baptist church at
Hattiesburg, Mississippi; and Mary Manassa Eager, the wife of Rev. J.
M. Joiner, pastor of the Baptist church at Elkton, Kentucky, formerly a
missionary in North China, until broken health compelled his return to
this county.
     Dr. Benjamin F. Eager was the forth child, and was born in
Jefferson county, Mississippi, July 18, 1848.  His life to early
manhood was spent in Jefferson and Hinds counties.  His education was
obtained at Oakland College, near Rodney, and at Mississippi College,
at Clinton, Mississippi.  He graduated in Cincinnati, Ohio, at the Ohio
College of Dental Surgery, in 1872, as the valedictorian of his class. 
He graduated in medicine, in 1877, from the Louisville Medical College,
at Louisville, Kentucky.
     Immediately after graduating he located near Newstead, seven miles
southwest of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, for the practice of medicine,
where he remained about four years.
     He moved to Hopkinsville in 1881, and three months afterward was
appointed second assistant physician of the Western Kentucky Asylum for
the Insane, under the superintendency of the late Dr. James Rodman. 
Upon the retirement of Dr. Rodman, April 20, 1889, Dr. B. W. Stone was
promoted to the superintendency, and Dr. Eager was promoted to first
assistant physician, in which capacity he served until April 9, 1896,
when he resigned, and re-entered general practice, in Hopkinsville, in
partnership with Dr. T. W. Blakey.
     Dr. Eager was married June 21, 1888, to Miss Carrie Downer,
daughter of Mr. Benjamin Downer, of an old and highly respected family
of Todd county, Kentucky.  They have three children: Benjamin F., Jr.,
Louise Downer and Henry Ide.  Dr. Eager is a member of the Christian
County Medical Society, the Kentucky State Medical Association and the
American Medical Association.  He is an active member of the Baptist
church, and has served for years as chairman of its board of deacons.

Eager Smith Ide Moseley Trotter Joiner Rodman Stone Blakey Downer
=
Ireland VT NY VA TN AL Italy MD TX Jefferson-MS OH Todd-KY

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/hopkins/eager.bf.txt