Benton Brown Beavers (1843–1886)

Benton Brown Beavers was a Confederate veteran who later served as a state senator, two-term secretary of state, and newspaper publisher.

Born in Memphis, Tennessee, on October 3, 1843, Benton Brown Beavers was the second of ten children of William E. Beavers and Marguerite Esther Brown Beavers. By 1842, the family was farming in Saline County’s Saline district.

When the Civil War began, Beavers enlisted in Company E of the First Arkansas Infantry Regiment (CS) on April 16, 1861, along with older brother Henry and younger brother William. The First Arkansas was sent to Virginia, where it was present but not involved in the First Battle of Manassas. Henry Beavers was sent to Arkansas to raise more troops for the First Arkansas, and the three companies raised were instead designated the Second Arkansas Infantry Battalion (CS). Henry Beavers was captain of one company, and Benton Beavers transferred to the unit on September 23, 1861, serving as a sergeant.

The Second Arkansas was heavily involved in the Seven Days Battles in the summer of 1862, and Benton Beavers was seriously wounded in the Battle of Seven Pines and discharged on June 9, 1862. After recovering at home, he enlisted in Colonel William Ayers Crawford’s First (Crawford’s) Arkansas Cavalry Regiment (CS), fighting with the unit in the February 1864 Skirmish near Gaines’ Landing and at Prairie D’Ane, Poison Spring, and Marks’ Mills during Frederick Steele’s Camden Expedition.

He was captured in Saline County on May 4, 1864, at the conclusion of the Camden Expedition and, after first being held at the Arkansas State Penitentiary, was imprisoned at the Federal prisoner of war camp at Rock Island, Illinois. He was exchanged at Red River Landing, Louisiana, on March 4, 1865, and apparently saw no further service.

Beavers became a student at the University of Louisville medical school in Louisville, Kentucky, after the war, graduating in 1868 and establishing a practice in Benton (Saline County). He married France Ann (Fannie) Moore on September 28, 1869; they would have eight children.

He was nominated as a Democratic candidate for state senator in 1870 but did not win the general election. Nominated again two years later, Beavers was elected in 1872 and served one term in the minority party of the Republican-dominated Arkansas General Assembly.

As the “Redeemer” Democrats gained power after the Brooks-Baxter War and the end of Reconstruction in Arkansas, Beavers was nominated to serve as secretary of state—an office he won handily in the fall of 1874—on a ticket that included Augustus Hill Garland for governor, William R. Miller for auditor, Thomas J. Churchill for treasurer, Simon P. Hughes for attorney general, and J. N. Smithee for commissioner of immigration and state lands. He served two terms —from November 12, 1874, to January 17, 1879. He was defeated in his bid to be nominated for a third term by Jacob Frolich, who would win the general election.

Beavers then turned to newspaper publishing, purchasing the Saline County Digest in November 1882 and renaming it the Saline County Review. He sold it to Samuel Whitthorne a year later, and its name was changed to the Saline Courier.

Beavers contracted tuberculosis and died from it on February 1, 1886. The Arkansas Gazette eulogized him: “He was a truly loving husband and father, and possessed all the attributes of an honest gentleman, sincere friend, and faithful public servant.” He is buried in Section 3 of Benton’s Old Rosemont Cemetery.

For additional information:
“Death of Ex-Secretary of State Beavers.” Arkansas Gazette, February 6, 1886, p. 6.

Krueger, Marlo B. “Benton Brown Beavers: Senator and Secretary of State.” The Saline 40 (Fall 2025): 27–36.

Mark K. Christ
Little Rock, Arkansas