The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-03
DESCENDANTS OF BUNxAN.
One Was . Missionary Among Ala
 bama Mountaineers.


 Chicago dispatch. ,
 There are two men in Chicago who can go back two hundred years and say Our ancestor was not a mere nameless churl, nor yet a robber chief nor viking. He was John Bunyan. and beyond him we do not trouble to go. We are satisfied with that lineage" '-.,--
 John Bunyan was sort of miracle Some one has said that he was no more a common man than Niagara is a common waterfall. And it Is a sort of miracle-at any rate, a problem for the student of heredity to investigate-that. so little has been heard of his descendants. Of these there are 8 number living today, most of them in America. They are all descended from Sarah Bunyan, the fifth of John Bunyan's six children. She married a William Browne. at Bedford. England. in 1888. Eight descendants from this couple are now living in England and one in Toronto, Canada. The America branch of the family comes from the marriage of Sarah Brown with a stephen Ben- rock. Ezekei Benbrook the first Amert- can of the name. was an only child, born about twenty years before the breaking out of the American Revolu- ton. His birthplace was on an English ship in mtd-Atlantic, and both his par ents died before the ship reached Charles
 
 was reared by kind strangers. and at the beginning of the Revolution joined the patriot army. After the war he fol- lowed mercantile pursuits in South Caro- lina, and 1t Is in the South where nearly all the Benbrooks still reside.
 It is remarkable fact that, although The Pilgrim'S Progress' has been the must widelyAcircnlated of all books other than the Bible, many of the known de- Aa Rtu OP hor knfp terest in 1t or their relationship to tho author. The book has been translated into over eighty languages and dialects. One of the watchmen in a bower over looking an oriental vineyard said not long ago: Such a book was not made for you men who live in cities, but I. who live in this tree three months in the year. have need of such a book. l can understand it.'' Yet one of Bun vans own kinfolk admitted recently that. though he knew he was descended rom its author. he had not yet read the immortal dream." explaining the curi- ous literary fact by saying he was never much given to books.'' >. But the Chicago "Bunyans"-Samuel F. Benbrook, and his cousin, Monroe Ben brook. direct deScendants of Ezekiel have. read the book. both, however. without knowing at the time of heir re- lationship to Bunyan. The life of Sam uel more nearly resembles that of his famous ancestor than does his cousins. Strange to say, Samuel Benbrook, in his youth, served an apprenticeship with an uncle by marriage who was timer, but only worked at the bench a few months. Then he began to think of becoming a minister and worked his way through college. The first lecture he ever at- tempted to give after his graduation was upon the life and times Of John Bum van. And yet it was only few months ago that he became aware of the fact, through his cousin. that he was a de- scendant of Bunyan.
 Another coincidence Is that both cous- ms are strongly religious men. and both hold to that doctrine for which Bunyan fought and suffered-believers' immersion