Visit the Pine Valley Families & Homes Pages

The photos below are of Joseph Benware/Benoit dit Vaillancourt (1813-1902) and his wife Scholastique/Celestia/Calista Robert (pronunciation, Robare) dite Fasche (1819-1899), parents of (among others) Josephine (Benware) Barton and John Benware. It was my understanding that Joseph and Celestia were also in Neillsville until circa 1887 when, shortly after the death of their son John, they left for Villisca, Iowa to care for an ailing daughter-in-law Mary Sage Benware (who then passed away in 1888), the wife of another son Hemmon/Emmen Benware. John's widow, Mary (Owens) Benware, who was a seamstress, apparently could not afford to take care of her sons Leo and Ernest and they were put in an orphanage until she eventually married Anton Barton and he adopted her sons/his nephews.