09/08/2026
Below is a newspaper story about Gottlieb Benning's headstone who was a member of the 74th Illinois and our own Mary Rose and her trip to clean his head stone
By
Elian Trevino
GENEVA – For Carolyn Hofmeister Varland, researching her family history has become about much more than finding names and dates. It has become a journey to understand the people who came before her, the communities they helped build and the responsibility she believes each generation has to carry those stories forward.
Varland grew up about 3.5 miles from the St. Peter UCC Cemetery near Geneva, where her great-great-grandfather, Gottlieb Benning, is buried. Her father, William Hofmeister, and his parents lived on the family farm where Varland also grew up.
Her grandmother, Marie Pauline Benning Hofmeister, known as Pauline, died when Varland was 7 years old. Because she was so young when her grandmother died and her father was often busy, Varland never had the opportunity to ask many questions about her family history.
“I was really close to my grandma,” Varland said. “I always wanted to know.”
About 15 years ago, a conversation at a family wedding reception gave Varland the first major piece of the story she had been looking for.
Varland asked Dolores Benning if she knew anything about Pauline. Benning did not have information about Pauline herself, but she knew about Pauline’s grandfather, Gottlieb.
“She said, ‘Did you know he fought in the Civil War?’ I said, ‘I have no idea,’” Varland recalled.
That conversation began a family history investigation that has continued for years and recently brought Varland, her husband Ken, and their son Brian together with Civil War historians.
Gottlieb Benning was born Feb. 22, 1831, in Lippe, Detmold, North Rhine-Westphalia, in what is now Germany. He immigrated to the United States and settled in Illinois. Although he was a noncitizen farmer who did not speak English, Benning enlisted in the 74th Illinois Infantry Regiment on Aug. 9, 1862.
He served in the Army of the Cumberland through the remainder of the Civil War, fighting to preserve the Union.
On Sept. 24, 1863, Benning suffered a serious wound to his right upper thigh from an enemy bullet during a reconnaissance mission in the days following the Battle of Chickamauga, the second-bloodiest battle of the Civil War.
His pension records also confirmed family stories about permanent damage to his ear caused by sleeping outside in freezing conditions.
After recovering, Benning returned to the fighting, serving under Generals Ulysses S. Grant and George H. Thomas at the Battle of Missionary Ridge. He later fought in Georgia at Kennesaw Mountain and Atlanta and in Tennessee at Franklin and Nashville before being mustered out June 10, 1865, in Nashville.
After the war, Benning married Emma Sophia “Amalia” Meinberg, another German immigrant, in March 1866. The couple eventually moved to Grant Township in Franklin County in 1875, where Gottlieb purchased and farmed 52 acres.
The farm remains in the Benning family today.
Varland’s son, Brian, who studied history and political science and is now an attorney, became deeply interested in the story. His research eventually connected the family with Mary Rose, a Civil War historian and researcher at the Veterans Memorial Hall in Rockford, Illinois.
Rose and fellow historian Tresa Schultz traveled from Rockford, IL to Iowa on Wednesday, Aug. 26, to meet the Varlands. They visited the St. Peter UCC Cemetery intending to clean Gottlieb’s gravestone, only to discover someone had already done so.
Instead, they searched the cemetery for other stones needing attention before traveling to Hampton to clean the gravestones of three other Civil War veterans who served in the same 74th Illinois Infantry Regiment as Gottlieb.
The group also visited the GAR Memorial Hall and the Franklin County Historical Museum. Rose was able to gather additional information about another 74th Illinois soldier who later settled in Franklin County.
Rose’s research has also helped uncover Gottlieb’s 80-page pension file from the National Archives in Washington, D.C., providing valuable information about his military service, early life and marriage to Amalia.
For Varland, every discovery is another piece of a much larger puzzle.
“It has been like a puzzle in which every piece found is a reward toward completing a bigger picture,” she said.
She hopes to continue searching for photographs, newspaper accounts and other records and eventually create a book for her children and grandchildren.
Varland said the experience has given her a greater appreciation for the generations who came before her, including her grandfather’s work with rural electrification and his role in building the wood church that preceded the current brick church.
She wants her children and grandchildren to understand where they came from and recognize that previous generations worked hard, served their communities and answered the call when needed.
“Knowing family history honors the lives of those who came before us,” Varland said.
For Varland, the search is ultimately about understanding her place in that history.
“Where did they come from? Whose shoulders do I stand on?” she said.
Now, she hopes to make sure the stories she has uncovered are not lost again, but instead passed from one generation to the next.
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