Person:Benjamin McLuen (3)

William Benjamin McLuen was born in Guthrie Center, Iowa on January 7th, 1914. His parents Rex McLuen (1888-1968) and Ruth Sellman McLuen (1891-1923) moved from Guthrie Center to Atlantic in 1916. They were Methodists but later joined and were very active in the Christian Church. Rex as a longtime automobile mechanic starting out in the old White Pole garage there and later worked many years as mechanic for Jess Beck who sold Essex and Hudson cars. Prior to that time he had been farming in Guthrie County. They had two children: Lake Lucile and Ben. Ben recalls crawling under a car where his Dad was working and wanting to help, and his Dad said "If there is one thing you are not going to be when you grow up it is an automobile mechanic so you get out from under the car!" Also, he remembers running down to the garage when he was about 7 years old at noon so he could sit on his Dad's lap and drive the Model T Ford home--try as he would he could never get that one pedal in neutral to put on the brake and as a result he would go right on into low gear instead of stopping, and Dad would have to take over. Upon the death of Ruth at age 32, Lucile and Ben lived for a short time with an aunt in Des Moines and later they lived in Guthrie Center with their maternal grandparents William Henry Sellman (1860-1936) and Henrietta Marguerietta Pennysla DeBro DeMonday Biggs Sellman (would you believe that name?) They returned to live with their father in Atlantic and finished high school. Lucille graduated in 1929, and a little later married Lloyd Petersen of Walnut and they farmed south of Walnut the rest of their lives. They had four children: Lloyd Rex, Bruce, Janice, and Max. Ben graduated from high school in 1930 and started working for the Iowa Highway Commission in the office of the resident engineer in Atlantic during the time all the paving was being done in Cass County to bring Iowa out of the "mud". He was laid off for a period until he started working in 1932 as bookkeeper and janitor for the Iowa Banking Department under N. J. Greteman, who was liquidator of the closed Farmers Savings Bank of Atlantic and also the closed banks at Lewis and Griswold. In 1935 he had an opportunity to move to the "live" side of banking and became an assistant bank examiner. Moved to Red Oak, Iowa where he worked with bank examiner C. D. Emmert examining banks in southwest Iowa. He was married to Bette Elaine Lathen in 1938. Later he was appointed senior examiner and moved to Atlantic in 1942. June 1st, 1943 They moved to Anita where Ben became Cashier of the Anita State Bank and advanced to Executive Vice President and later to President of the bank upon the retirement of Harry C. Faulkner. Ben sold out his interest in the bank June 1st, 1972 and is retired although still a director of the bank. During the 25 years he was in the bank he saw many fine changes in Anita: A few of these was the school reorganization with construction of a new Grade School and about 20 years later construction of a fine new High School, development and construction of Lake Anita State Park, a new 9-hold gold course built with local help, a municipal airport, donation of the Christian Science church to the city for a beautiful library built of native stones, a new City Hall, and the town still has its own electric light plant as standby emergency with cheaper rates than most towns. Bette was born November 28th, 1917 on a farm near Elliott, Iowa, daughter of Guy Martin Lathen (1890-1944) and Grace Hobson Lathen (1893-1964). She graduated from Elliott High school and from beauty school in Des Moines and was a beautician in Red Oak until she married. Ben and Bette had three children: William Douglas, who has a radio station in Monticello, Indiana, is married and has one daughter, Kari. Thomas Mark who is a teacher in Spokane Junior College and is married and has two children, Aaron and Emily. Nancy, who died August 17th, 1977, was teaching at the time of her death. She was married to Neil Gustafson of Adair and they had three children, Ann, Jennifer, and Nicholas (3 months old at the time of her death). Neil, a former teacher but now Managing Editor of a Commercial Tabloid, is living in Honolulu Hawaii and has the children with him. Douglas and Tom both married teachers, so that at one time there were five teachers in the family. Ben and Bette belong to the United Methodist Church of Anita and their children all grew up in the church. A little history on the paternal side of Ben's ancestors. His great-great grandfather James McLuen was born in the Highlands of Scotland (1802-1879), and migrated to Roscommon County, Ireland where he met and married an Irish lass Bedelia Nary. When they sailed to the United States they settled in Noble County, Ohio. It is reported that great grandfather George Washington McLuen (1835-1906) was born on the boat on the way over but it was in United States territorial waters and therefore he was a citizen of the U.S. The family later moved to Iowa where George learned the miller's and carpenter's trades and in 1855 he came to Guthrie County where he built a mill below Monteith, which was one of the first in this section of the country--he also purchased 80 acres of land and remained on that farm until he died. In 1860 he married Hanna Louisa Reed--of their four children one was grandfather, Benjamin Franklin McLuen (1865-1913) who became a farmer. He married Anna Eliza Lemon (1868-1934) and they had six children one of which was Ben's father Rex McLuen who was a twin. [Information came from Bette Lathen McLuen's family]