Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1916-08-24

Wherever Duty called they went. their steps were
with Aim Mater on their lips. and Benny Ravens
Benny Ravens, Ohl' is the epic of West Point.
IT is a story in song, the story of West Pointers
and their sacrifices for duty, honor, West Point
and country.
This old academy of West Point, laid out on a
rugged shelf overlooking the majestic sweep Of the
Hudson, has many priced traditions, unsullied, in
alienable, but none more sacred to her sons IMAM
that of Benny Ravens. Go to Cullum Memorial
hall at West Point and read in imperishable let
tiers of bronze the story of her sons. She has seen
them march out of her s~allyports singing Benny
Ravens, OhT and seen them brought back while
minute guns were echoing among the granite nils
that surround her. The history of West Point is
closely interviewer with that of our country; West
Pointers have written bright pages in the annals
of the land.
Their blood has watered Western plains and Northern
Has stained sierra's highest peaks, where piercing
Has dyed deep red the Everglades. and deeper stin.
The sacred Montezuma shades and walls of Mexico.
Wherever duty has mmone them West Point
ers have carried Benny Ravens, OH"
The story of Benny Ravens is almost as old as
that of the academy itself. Many, many years ago,
in 1924 to be precise, Benny Ravens took up his
residence on the southern border of what then
constituted the post of West Point. Almost i'm
mediately he and the cadets became friends.
He was q genial soul, generous, and Of good com
many and an inimitable spinner Of yarns, and he
invariably piled his visitors with buckwheat cakes
and maple strip. Soon his refreshments acquired
such fame that cadets often slipped away from
their duties and made their way to Benny's retreat,
where they found oblivion for their disciplinary
woes. Almost every night after taps saw half a
dozen daring cadets, who should have been In bed,
gathered around Benny's bountiful table.
Only FOR n short time did Benny'S fare cOnfne
itself to ~buckwheat cakes and maple strip. Grog
and wine were added to the menu, an addihon
whereby Benny's popularity increased tenlolu'
About this time the West Point authorities, VINO
had previously shut their eyes to Bennys iiberal-
ties, decided that the time had come to deciare a
blockade on Benny in so far MS cadets were con-
cerned, and consequently Benny's haven OF delight
became "of limits for the future generals ana
punishment was melted out by those caught rum
ming the blockade. Jefferson Davis, afterward
president of the Confederate st~tes, had the dis
i~tinction of being among the first batch OF cadets
court-martialed for midnight revels at Benny
lHavenS. 9.r
Benny was warned that his generosity to cadets
was demoralizing to discipline and that unless he
called q halt summary proceedings would result.
He was unable to refuse those few cadets VINO
iran 1t out" to his home and finally he was expelled
from the post shortly after 1929, taking up his abode
Mt the base Of a high cliff near the rivers edge
about n mile below West Point. Here he lived In
n small frame house until his death In 1877 at the
age of. ninety. He was buried in Union cemetery,
about midway between Highland Falls and Fort
Montgomery on the West Point road.
Many men who rose to fame after leaving West
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