Living

Living married Living [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

The Striffler-Benkelman Broadcast, Volume 10, September 1, 1947, noted that Alvin C. Benkelman, Jr graduated from Alexandria High School and joined the U.S. Army, serving with the Medical Corp in Korea. As of Volume 11, it was noted that he was discharged from the Army of Occupation, Korea, and was to enter the University of Virginia in the fall.

The following was written by Al in August 2000, a self titled memoir of his misspent youth

FRANK AND BENK

A hundred years ago when we were both young and full of it, we were double dating with a neighbor's two girls ( for the first time). We wanted to impress them so we took them to a Hungarian restaurant/night club in Washington, D.C., and did it up right - steaks, sparkling burgandy - the whole nine yards. Due to a slight misunderstanding, Frank thought I had money, and I thought he had it. We had to borrow money from our dates to pay the bill. And you know those ungrateful girls would not go out with us again. They didn't know the chance they missed.

Now for the raccoon story. We were camping in the Adirondacks with Frank and our children and dog several years ago. Our camp site was in a rocky hill area that was over run with raccoons. In those days, we knew how to camp - two tents and a screen enclosure/mess tent and dining area. The site was a little cramped for all these tents so Frank elected to sleep in the mess tent. Oh, yes, we had had champagne with our evening meal. We sat around the campfire after the children were down for the night, with Frank smoking and us reminiscing, ringed by eyes of 'coons glowing in the dark. Occasionally a brave one would come close to beg for food. At about l0:00 p.m. we secured the food in cars or tied them up high bedded down for the night. I awoke about l:00 a.m. to a great clatter of pans. From the position of our tent, I could shine a light down in the mess tent and was treated to the sight of Frank in his shorts with the champagne bottle raised on high chasing a very large 'coon around the picnic table. After I stopped laughing, I went down and unzipped the door of the mess tent, and the 'coon ran out. Frank has never seen the humor in this incident. His comment you never looked up at a large raccoon looking down at you.

Of all the rivers Frank and I have canoed, I think Frank will agree that the Cacapon in West Virginia was our favorite. We went down it several times with a dozen stories for each trip; those were the days. There was the time we came up to the community of Capon Bridge and learned that the little stream behind the store had just been stocked with trout. I was fishing with great success (Frank's not a fisherman). I would catch them, take them to Frank who was cleaning them, and putting them in the cooler. I had lost track of the number I had caught, and asked Frank how many there were, and was told nine. The limit was six. We packed up and shoved off! We grilled them for supper, eating eight between us. I think Frank will agree that was the best trout we ever ate.

There is a waterfalls on the bank of the Cacapon feeding into the main stream about l0 feet across called the Bridal Veil Falls, a large rock covered with moss, and the water streaming off of it in a hundred little rivulets - a magnificent sight in its own right. We landed and climbed a porous limestone bank rising 50 feet up from the river to fill our canteens in one of the many springs that fed the falls. In one of these pools surrounded by bright green moss a Scarlet Tanager was taking a bath. This was one of the most brilliant sights either of us had ever seen in nature. We filled our canteens with cold clear water [not the bird bath] and returned, inspired, to the canoe and continued our trip.

One more and I will quit. Then there was the time we ran out of beer. A common occurrence on a 3 or 4 -day trip because of weight constraints. At evening camp Frank was building a fire place and I was fishing from the bank. Now we were miles from anywhere. I snagged my favorite lure out in the river and waded out to retrieve it. you guessed it, it was snagged on a unopened 6-pack of beer. It may have been a little flat but we thanked our good fortune and drank with gusto.

Frank and I have put a lot of water under our keel in more ways than one. We have argued, rejoiced and enjoyed one another's company. In short, best friends. BENK

Alvin married Carol Macomber on 3 Mar 1951 in Alexandria, Fairfax County, Virginia. Carol was born on 31 Mar 1930 in Evanston, Cook County, Illinois; died on 29 Oct 2011 in Warrenton, Fauquier County, Virginia; was buried on 5 Nov 2011 in St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Catlett, Faquier County, Virginia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Cass City Chronicle
Cass City, Mich., April 11, 1919
Page Four
Around Our Town
Alvin Benkelman, son of Mr. and Mrs. John A. Benkelman and a U. of M. student, is enjoying his vacation here at the home of his parents.

His daughter, Anne Scott Benkelman Pritchard wrote, on Veteran's Day 2011, "My dad, Alvin Carlton Benkelman, was born in 1895 and served in WWI; he liked to say "where the bullets were the thickest" - loading munitions on ships in New Jersey.

Cass City Chronicle
Friday, August 27, 1954
Vol 49, Number 18
Page 1

Invention Lauded by Experts
New Benkelman Beam Measures Deflection

Alvin C. Benkelman, brother of Dorus Benkelman of Cass City, has been lauded by road engineers in the United States for developing an instrument called the "Benkelman Beam" for the measuring of elastic pavement deflections. Deflection of a pavement is the amount the pavement gives under road pressure. Although many devices have been invented to measure deflection, the "Benkelman Beam" is the first really simple device for the highway work, according to engineer Benkelman.

In the past, the best method was an electronic method which required a great deal of expensive equipment and a considerable amount of time and effort for each installation. Only a limited number of installations were possible in any one area. Another disadvantage of this method was that the road surface had to be disturbed to install the equipment. While on duty as a consultant engineer with the Bureau of Public Roads on the WASHO test road in Idaho in 1953, Mr. Benkelman developed the deflection measuring device which bears his name. Because of the speed with which Mr. Benkelman's device is operated, the WASHO test personnel was able to make approximately 40,00ft individual deflection readings. An example of the increased speed of the "Benkelman Beam" is reported by the California Highway Department. They used the beam to study pavement which had received severe "longitudinal and transverse" cracking. The beam was used to determine its operational characteristics and to supply experience on the best methods of using it. The results were outstanding. A complete survey of the road was completed in one day, excluding traveling time. Over 40 different sections were tested along the road. The California road commission estimates that the same work done by the electronic method would have taken 10 days. Mr. Benkelman and his wife and daughter, Ann Scott, are visiting Mr. and Mrs. Dorus Benkelman. They stopped in Cass City on their way home to Alexandria, Val, from Idaho.

The STRIFFLER-BENKELMAN BROADCAST, Vol 22 dated September 7, 1959, reported that Mr. and Mrs. Alvin Benkelman of Ottowa, Illinois and daughter Ann Scott attended the Blaufuss family reunion in Davenport, Iowa.

Volume 27 of the STRIFFLER-BENKELMAN BROADCAST, published September 4, 1967 reported that Alvin, a 1917 engineering graduate of the University of Michigan, was honored with the University's Sesquicentennial Award at the annual Asphalt Institute meeting at the University on August 9, 1967.

Memorial Service for A. C. Benkelman Sep. 13, 1987

There was a man, born in 1774, who journeyed westward planting or selling seedlings from Pennsylvania to Ohio and beyond. He was a natural man, cheerful, generous in nature, and had an affinity for the wilderness. He supplied frontiersman with apple orchard stock throughout the Midwest. His name, John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed. There was another man who retired in the Elk Creek community in 1967 with a strange sounding name. He was born in Michigan in 1895, and was a graduate of the University of Michigan with a degree in Chemical Engineering. From 1919 to 1928 he worked for the Illinois Highway Department where he was soil engineer on the Bates Road Test. From 1928 to 1934 he worked for the Michigan Highway Department as research engineer on soils, fast actions, and pavement. From 1934 to 1954 he worked for the U. S. Bureau of Public Roads in charge of structural design of flexible pavement. In 1956 he was on the staff of Highway Research Board. He is well known throughout the highway construction trade for his invention of a economical portable device to measure deflections of pavement under heavy loads which to this day carries his name. His name, Alvin C. Benkelman, better known as "Benk". The device that he invented is called the Benkelman Beam. I compare Benk with Johnny Appleseed because they both left their mark. Benk, too, was outgoing, was young at heart, loved people and the out-of-doors. He established a flourishing pine tree farm, and was a member of the American Tree Farmers Association. He couldn't do enough for others. Most think that Benk was lured to the area by his wife, Olive, a native of Elk Creek, but there must have been a yearning or spark that had been smoldering since the days of his youth when, as a young man in a glee club, he learned "In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia", which became one of his favorite pieces. His first trip to this area was at the time of the First World War when he accompanied the body of a dead soldier to Galax, Virginia. He liked it then and vowed to return. Benk had two children, a son and daughter. It is rare when a son gets to choose his step-mother, but Alvin Jr., whose mother had died, introduced his vivacious teacher, Miss Scott, to his widowed father. Matrimony ensued and it was a joyous occasion when "Scotty" was born. Benk and Olive had been making plans for their retirement for many years. They had already negotiated the purchase of the property that is referred to as "The Falls" which at the time was a dump. Where others may have seen trash, Benk saw jewels. One of his first projects was to clean up that unsightly piece of property, build a cabin, and landscape the grounds to show off the falls. It was since become a show place and a haven for many a guest. He attacked the homeplace, "Flag Pond" with the same vigor and vitality, restoring an already existing house and out buildings, into their permanent dwelling. I remember my first visit to their home and how cordial they were and willing to show off their home. Benk was especially proud of the spring that had been walled up and flowed through the end of their entrance way. I was impressed by how low the ceilings seemed, but for someone five feet two, they were high enough. Because I was taller was my fault, not his. The lawns were always neatly mowed and trimmed, Benk doing the work or supervising. One of the log houses in the rear was converted into a wood working showroom which became his hobby. It was not unusual to find him working in his shop in the dead of winter by the warmth of a wood stove. Because of his love of trees, it was only natural that he developed his hobby for working with wood. Every kind of wood was a new challenge. Some he liked better than others, but I've never seen anyone able to make a piece of wood shine without any finish as Benk could. There is hardly a kitchen in the community that doesn't have the little recipe holder that he fashioned with a clothes pin. He made letter holders, lamps, music boxes, jewelry boxes, key boards, cribbage boards cut out in the shape of a state, boot jacks, and even a grandfather clock, to list but a few, and do you know, he gave these away freely to his friends, often accompanied by an original verse by his wife. You could never come away from his house empty handed. If it wasn't something that he had made, it was something that he had grown out of his bountiful garden. He flourished on generosity.

( The above are excerpts from Dr. Palmer Fant's memorial address, courtesy of Alvin C. Benkelman, Jr.)

His obituary was published in the October 7, 1987 Cass City Chronicle.

Alvin Benkelman

Funeral services were held last month for former Cass City resident, Alvin C. Benkelman, who died Sept. 9 in Elk Creek, VA. Born May 8, 1895 in Cass City, Benkelman was a well known civil engineer in the design of flexible pavement. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1919 with a B.S. Degree in Chemical Engineering and began his professional careert as a pavement and soils engineer with the Illinois Division of Highways, serving on the Bates Road Test. He then became associated with the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads and did research at Purdue University and on the Virginia Demonstration Road in 1926-28. Benkelman continued to work in research and design of flexible pavement with the Michigan State Highway Department in 1928. Returning to the bureau in 1934, Benkelman was in charge of research for the Hybla Valley Test Track and on the WASHO Road Test in Idaho. His work as Research Engineer on the AASHO Road Test in Illinois brought him in contact with engineers from all over the world who gathered to learn of road construction and durability. Benkelman is well known for his invention of the "Benkelman Beam: which is widely used in highway construction to measure pavement deflections. After retirement from the Bureau of Public Roads, he traveled extensively as a consultant for the Asphalt Institute. Benkelman was awarded the Highway Research Board's Roy W. Crum Distinguished Service award in recognition of his work in the field of highway research. In 1967 he retired to the Elk Creek Valley where he became a member of the American Tree Farmer's Association. For the past 20 years, he has enjoyed living in the Blue Ridge Mountains with his wife, Olive S. BENKELMAN; one son, A.C. Benkelman, Jr. of Warrenton, VA; one daughter, Mrs. Ann Scott (Benkelman) PRICHARD Jr. of Sacramento, Ca.; one sister, Marie BROWN of Saginaw; 7 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren.

(Transcribed by Melinda McLemore Strong)



(Research):He was one the family members BonnieMargaret Jacobs personally interviewed when preparing her history of the Benkelman family.

Alvin married Katherine Lynn Ayres on 5 Nov 1927 in Sudley, Prince William County, Virginia. Katherine was born on 14 Jan 1901 in Sudley, Prince William County, Virginia; died on 27 Oct 1940 in Alexandria, Fairfax County, Virginia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Cass City Chronicle
Friday, November 1, 1940
Page Six
Local Happenings

Mrs. Alvin Benkelman, who has been in poor health for several months, passed away at Arlington, Virginia, Sunday night. She leaves her husband, a son, Alvin, Jr., her parents, two sisters and two brothers. Mr. Benkelman is the son of John A. Benkelman of Cass City and is well known here.

Notes:

Married:
Cass City Chronicle
Cass City, Michigan, October 28, 1927
Page Four
Local News

Invitations have been received to the wedding of Miss Katherine Lynn, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Hawks Ayres, of Manasses, Virginia, and Alvin Carlton Benkelman, son of Mr. and Mrs. John A. Benkelman of Cass City. The ceremony will take place in the Sudley M.E. Church, South, at Manasses on Saturday, Nov. 5. The newleyweds will be at home to their friends after Nov. 20 at the Strathmore, 2501 18th St., N.W., Washington, D.C.

(Transcribed by Melinda McLemore Strong, Spring 2007)