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Latest update: Friday, August 5, 2011
Find details, photos, and sources in the Family Tree Database.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WASHINGTON EDGAR (27 August 1835 - 30 May 1909)
(Family Tree Database)
BFW EDGAR was the tenth and last child and ninth son of
James S. EDGAR and Selah WITHERINGTON EDGAR. His
father was forty five (45) years old and his mother was forty
one (41) when she gave birth to BFW on Thursday, 27
August, 1835, in Maury County, TENNESSEE.
In his first US Census, 1840, he was counted as the only
"Free white males under five years of age" living with his
father and mother at the EDGAR Family Homestead in
Maury County, TENNESSEE. During the 1850 US Census,
he was recorded as a fifteen-year-old farmer, still living with
his parents in Maury County.
BFW was 18 years old in 1853, when his family relocated
from the family homestead in Maury County, TENNESSEE to their new home in DeWitt County, TEXAS.
During the US Civil War, BFW was given the rank of private in the Muster Roll of Captain J.J. Dix's Company, Texas Frontier
Regiment of Mounted Volunteers, 30th day of July 1862. BFW's foot stone in the Hillside Cemetery, Cuero, DeWitt County,
TEXAS records his military service as, "PVT Co. H Texas State Troops CSA." The History of DeWitt County, Texas by Patsy
Goebel states, "Benjamin Franklin W. Edgar was a member of Company H., Texas State Troops, during the Civil War." (Sons
The 1870 Census of DeWitt County, TEXAS records Benjamin as B. F. W., a thirty five (35) year old farmer, living in the Edgar
Family Homestead, with his widowed mother Selah, his older brother James D., and the three children of his deceased sister
In the 1880 Census of DeWitt County, BFW is recorded as B. Franklin and living on the EDGAR Family Homestead with his
older brother James D., James' wife Martha Jane HADLEY EDGAR, who he married in 1873, and their sons Joseph Smith
EDGAR, born in 1876, and Christopher "Kit" EDGAR, born 1879.
BFW was one of the nine EDGAR brothers at the family reunion on 27 August, 1898, BFW's sixty-third birthday. The Cuero
Record, 28 Aug 1898 reported BFW as Frank.
The 1900 Census of DeWitt County (posted in the Family Tree Database) records BFW as Benjamin F. W. and living on the
Edgar Family Homestead with his older brother James D., James' wife Martha Jane HADLEY EDGAR and their youngest child
and third son, twenty-one year old, school teacher Christopher "Kit" EDGAR.
Although BFW never married and there are no records of children, he did have a namesake. Christopher "Kit" EDGAR
honored his uncle by naming his first child and son Benjamin Franklin Washington EDGAR II. Born born 16 May 1901, BFW2
had just turned eight years old when his great uncle and eponym died.
BFW died at 73 years old, on Sunday, 30 May, 1909, and is buried in the Hillside Cemetery, Cuero, DeWitt County, TEXAS.
Photos of his headstone and foot stones are at the EDGARs in Hillside Cemetery website. When BFW2 died in 1959, he was
buried by his great uncle BFW1, where a casual visitor might think they were father and son.
BFW is mentioned in the following references:
* As B.F.W. in the biography of his eldest brother Joseph Smith EDGAR at the San Jacinto Museum: Veteran Biographies:
* Sons of DeWitt Colony Biographies
* The History of DeWitt County, Texas by Patsy Goebel