Dr. Benjamin S. Binford, well-known dentist, of Greenfield, this county, is a native son of Hancock County, having been born on a farm here, October 20, 1874, son of Rev. Joseph O. and Huldah (Moore) Binford, for years prominent and influential residents of this county, the former of whom also was a native of Hancock County and the latter of North Carolina

The Rev. Joseph O. Binford, who for years was one of the best-known minister of the Friends Church in the central states, died at his home in Knightstown, this state, Agusut 18, 1910, at the age of sixty-seven, he having been born on January 21, 1843. He was reared to the life of the farm in this county and upon completing the course in the common schools here entered Earlham College at Richmond, where he was prepared for the ministry of the Friends meeting, in which he continued an active force for a good many years thereafter. He owned a good farm in this county, which he operated quite profitably and where he maintained his established home until his retirement from the same in 1891. During his long ministry, Mr. Binford traveled extensively over the United States in connection with his work in the church until the state of his health in his later years precluded his traveling. He ten was stationed at Knightstown, pastor of the Friends at that place, and while there was appointed superintendent of the Indiana yearly meeting of the Friends, which appointment he maintained until about four years before his death in 1910. His widow, who was born in North Carolina on March 10, 1840, is still living at Knightstown. She came with her parents to Indiana in 1860, the family settling in Hancock County, where she married Mr. Binford. To this union seven children were born, namely: Horace L., a well-known farmer of Center township, this county; Elmer J., an attorney, of Tampa, Florida; Mary, wife of Joseph Jay, a merchant of Greensboro, Henry County, this state; Anna J., who lives at Knightstown; Benjamin S., the subject of this biographical sketch; Arthur O., a wholesale merchant at Louisville, Kentucky, and Ada, who married Nevil Phelps and is now living at Montrose, Colorado.

Benjamin S. Binford was reared on the home farm in Blue River township, receiving his elementary education in the district school in that neighborhood, later entering the high school at Knightstown, from which he was graduated in 1896. In the fall of that year he entered the Indiana Dental College at Indianapolis and was graduated from that institution in 1899, with the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery. Thus equipped for the practice of his profession, Doctor Binford located at Greenfield, where he opened a dental office in the Dudding-Moore block and continued in practice there for ten years, at the end of which time he moved his office to the New building, where he is still located and where he enjoys an extensive practice. Doctor Binford occupies a high position in the regard of his associates in the practice of dentistry throughout this section of the state and is ex-president of the Eastern Indiana Dental Association, a member of the Indian State Dental Society, the Indianapolis Dental Society, and the National Dental Association, in the deliberations of all of which several associations he takes an active interest. The doctor has given active oversight to his mother's farm in this county and is the owner of a valuable fruit farm in the state of Washington.

On June 6, 1900, Dr. Benjamin S. Binford was united in marriage to Anna May Walker, who was born at Greenfield on September 2, 1882, elder of the two children born to Sidney L. and Emma (Hughes) Walker, well-known resident of Greenfield, where the former is a piano salesman, she having a brother, Hughes Walker, and to this union three children have been born, Marjorie Bovier, Catherine Irene and Rosemary Helen. Doctor and Mrs. Binford are members of the Presbyterian church, the doctor being an elder in that communion, and take a proper part in all good works hereabout, being held in high esteem by their many friends. Doctor Binford is a Republican and gives a good citizen's attention to local political affairs, but is not included in the office-seeking class. He is a Mason and is past eminent commander of the Greenfield commandery of the Knights Templar, having for years taken a warm interest in Masonic affairs.

Transcribed from History of Hancock County, Indiana, Its People, Industries and Institutions by George J. Richman, B. L., Federal Publishing Co., Indianapolis, Indiana, 1916. Pages 913-915.

Submitted by Sylvia (Rose) Duda, Laingsburg, MI September 12, 2001.

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