Wherefore art thou Benjamin?

Does anyone out there have any information from Ancestry or a similar site about Benjamin Land?

As this time of writing, I cannot put my hand on any primary documentation, but we know that CTR’s sister, Margaret married Benjamin F Land in the mid-1870s. Margaret was born in 1855, so would have been around 20 years old at the time of the marriage. Their first child, Ada, was reportedly born in 1876. Ada was followed by Alice (b.1878), Joseph (b.1880) and May F (Thelma) (b.1886).

Alice married Fred Williamson, and May (Thelma) married Carl Kendall. Both couples allegedly worked at Bethel at one point.

Benjamin Land was born in Penn. (as were his parents) around 1849, and was apparently a cabinet maker. He and his family later lived in Tampa, Florida.

The reason for the query is an interesting note in George Storrs’ Bible Examiner for June 1874, page 288. Storrs had just returned from a two week visit to Pittsburgh in early May where he first met Joseph Lytel Russell. (Storrs would subsequently publish letters from Joseph L and other Allegheny and Pittsburgh residents, like William Conley and George Clowes).

Hot on the heels of his return, Storrs obviously had requests for literature, and so on the aforementioned page 288, he published this note:

Parcels sent to May 25 – Wm H Conley (2 parcels), G D Clowes Sen., B F Land, J L Russell and Son (by Express). 

Conley, Clowes and Russell were all contacts from that recent visit. But there in the middle we see that a parcel was also sent to B F Land. Is it a stretch of the imagination that he also was an Allegheny or Pittsburgh resident at this time? And that he was to marry CTR’s sister? And that maybe their meeting was in connection with the One Faith meetings and activities of that era?

It’s just a footnote of potential human interest.