Civil War:
Corpl
Company D
200th Regiment PA Infantry

Benjamin Andrew Hake was the third of eight children Andrew F. Hake (1808-1892) and Elizabeth "Eliza" Gross (1815-1899). Benjamin married Catherine E. "Kate" Smyser (1843-1923) on 14 Dec 1862 at Quickel's Church in Manchester, York, PA. They had 15 children: Emma Jane (died young), Charles Lincoln (Elizabeth Wood), Edward Martin (died young), Robert(probably died young), Elizabeth "Lizzie" (died young), Anna Rebecca (John Kirk), Katherine Susan (Edward James Piper), George Andrew (single), Flora Maud (died young), Jennie Alice, twins Estella and Luella (both died young), Herbert Howard (Ella Eleanor Meinen), Benjamin Harrison (Katherine E. Schreiber) and Edgar Everett (Ann).

Benjamin A. enlisted in the Union Army on Aug 23, 1864 and was entitled to $100.00 Government bounty. He listed his occupation as a teacher. He is described as fair, with blue eyes and brown hair, and 5 feet 6 inches tall. On Aug 31, 1864 he was appointed corporal. In Nov of 1864 he was listed as sick and in a hospital at Broadway Sanding, VA. In March of 1865 he was sick in a hospital in Washington. He was mustered out May 30, 1865 in Alexandria, VA.

Benjamin A. and his family and his next younger brother Levi G. and his family moved to Kansas sometime before 1880. There is a question as to whether or not the father and mother Andrew F. and Eliza, also went at that time. In any case they probably followed the youngest of the family, Augustus G. Hake, who went to Kansas in 1877, to work on the Southern Pacific Railway. The family groups traveled by train to Newton, Kansas, then by wagon-train to Harper County, KS. The first train, the Southern Kansas, came to Harper in July of 1880. In the Harper County Court House at Anthony, KS there are recorded several land transactions. The land in Harper Co. formerly belonged to the Osage and Cherokee Indians and was sold by the Government to actual settlers, 160 acres each for $1.25 per acre. Harper is the oldest city in the county, and was first settled by people from Iowa in 1877. It is located on the old Kiowa Trail.

Note: Bio info provided by Bob Speckman