The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 1023 WILLIAM R. BENHAM. William R. Benham is living retired in Yakima but is still the owner of an excellent ranch property near the city, which he rents. He was born in Syracuse, New York, September 24, 1863, a son of James V. and Isabel (Hamilton) Benham. The father was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church and engaged in preaching all over the state of New York. William R. Benham spent the days of his boyhood and early youth in the east and in 1880, when a lad of seventeen years, made his way westward to Fort Collins, Colorado, where he entered the cattle business, remaining in that state for a decade. He afterward went to Idaho, where he was similarly employed, and in 1903 he arrived in Yakima, after which he purchased a stock ranch near the city. This he stocked with fine Holstein cattle and high grade hogs and his stock raising interests have been an important source of revenue to him since that time. At present he is renting his ranch property and living in Yakima, enjoying a rest which he has truly earned and richly merits. On the 1st of October, 1888, Mr. Benham was married to Miss Emily Guest, of Fort Collins, a daughter of James and Annie (Morris) Guest, both of whom were natives of London, England. On crossing the Atlantic to the new world they settled first in New York and afterward removed to Colorado, where the father conducted business, being a jeweler by trade. Mr. and Mrs. Benham have one child, Veva Grace, who is now a teacher in the high school of Yakima. Mr. Benham belongs to the Woodmen of the World and his political endorsement is given to the republican party. In his business career he has steadily advanced and it has been by reason of his close application, keen sagacity and unfaltering enterprise that he has gained a place among the men of affluence in Yakima, with interests sufficient to supply him with all of the comforts and some of the luxuries of life without recourse to further labor. ******************************** Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in January 2008 by Jeffrey L. Elmer. Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.