Gaston, Joseph. "The Centennial History of Oregon, 1811-1912." Vol. 2. Chicago, Clarke Publishing Co., 1912. p. 651. BENJAMIN F. HARTMAN The name of Benjamin F. Hartman should well find a place upon the pages of Oregon's history, for he has been a resident of the state since 1859 and in 1873 erected the first brick building in McMinnville. In different ways he has been closely associated with the business development and progress of this part of the state and at all times has shown himself worthy of the high regard entertained for him. He was born in Livingston county, New York, May 9, 1837, and is a son of Henry and Elizabeth (Zerfass) Hartman. The father was a native of Pennsylvania and when a young man removed to New York. The mother had become a resident of Livingston county in her girlhood days, accompanying her parents to that locality. After the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Hartman they settled on a farm which was then in a primitive condition, but he cleared the land, developed the fields and continued in its cultivation throughout his remaining days. He reached the very venerable age of ninety-one years, having long survived his wife, who passed away in 1844. Both were members of the Dutch Reformed church and throughout their lives were loyal to its teachings. Benjamin F. Hartman was a public-school student during the period which he spent under the parental roof but just prior to his eighteenth year he left home and began to provide for his own support. Going to Dansville, New York, he there apprenticed himself to the carpenter's trade, receiving as compensation for his services during the first year the sum of forty dollars, for the second year sixty dollars and for the third year one hundred dollars. After the completion of his term of indenture he worked during the following year for his previous master, who at the expiration of that period desired Mr. Hartman to become a partner in the business. This Mr. Hartman declined to do however, for he had heard the call of the west and it was his desire to seek a home on the Pacific coast. With others he made his way to California, embarking at New York on the steamer Star of the West, which was the first vessel that was fired on by the Confederate forces. Mr. Hartman continued the journey across the Isthmus of Panama and on to California but remained in that state for only two months, after which he came to Oregon, arriving in June, 1859. He first worked here as a farm hand for his brother John J. Hartman, who had preceded him to the western coast about four years and was located in Washington county. After the harvest they worked that fall at cutting cord wood and Benjamin F. Hartman spent the winter on the road and engaged in grading. In 1860 both he and his brother went to California, where Benjamin F. Hartman remained for a year, working as a farm hand. His brother then returned to Oregon, renting a farm near McMinnville, and in the fall of 1861 Mr. Hartman took up the work of making rails, while in the spring he was employed by a man six miles south of Portland, who was engaged in supplying wood to the steamboats. Mr. Hartman received as compensation for his services fifty dollars per month and, saving his earnings, was at length enabled to engage in farming on his own account, renting land in Washington county, where he lived for five years. Everything necessary for the cultivation and development of the fields was furnished him and he was to give half the crop as rent. Later the lease was changed, Mr. Hartman purchasing the horses and farm implements and paying a cash rental for the remaining four years he continued upon that place. He also assumed an indebtedness of seventeen hundred dollars but sold enough wheat that fall, to discharge, all of his financial obligations. Prosperity continued to attend him, so that on the expiration of his lease he purchased a farm of four hundred and sixty-four acres adjoining Hillsboro, upon which he resided for five or six years, carefully, systematically and successfully cultivating his fields. He then disposed of his property and came to Yamhill county to superintend a twenty-six-hundred-acre farm for Ladd and Reed, of Portland. He also had the superintendency of all their farms, fourteen or fifteen in number. He remained with them, however, for only a year, after which he came to McMinnville and engaged in merchandising, erecting here the first brick building of the town. This was in 1873. It was two years before that Mr. Hartman had come to this city. His brother John J. joined him in his mercantile enterprise and they continued in the business until 1883, when the widespread financial panic swamped them. Since that time Benjamin F. Hartman has been engaged in farming and carpentering and is still actively in business in the latter field although he has now passed the seventy-fifth milestone on life's journey. In 1864 Mr. Hartman was united in marriage to Miss Millie A. Arthur, a native of Oregon and a daughter of Richard Arthur, who came to this state about 1842 or 1843, settling in Washington county. Mr. Hartman is a prohibitionist in politics, for he regards the liquor traffic as one of the paramount evils of the country and believes that many of the sociological and economic questions would be settled if it were abolished. He has served as councilman of McMinnville and yet has never been a politician in the sense of office seeking. He became one of the charter members of the Ancient Order of United Workmen in this place and he and his wife are members of the Christian church here. During more than a half century Mr. Hartman has witnessed the changes which have been wrought in Oregon, developing it from a frontier region with all the attendant hardships and privations of pioneer life to one of the prosperous states in the great galaxy of the Union, leading all others in some lines of production and export. Mr. Hartman's life has, indeed, been a busy and useful one, for indolence and idleness are utterly foreign to, his nature. He has worked persistently and energetically along the various lines in which he has directed his efforts and his labors have usually been of a character that has contributed to general progress and improvement as well as to individual advancement. While misfortune at one time overtook him in a financial way, his name has ever remained unsullied, and respect and esteem are uniformly accorded him by all with whom he has come in contact. ******************* Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in August 2008 by Diana Smith. Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.