Dr. Abner Benton House



Dr. Abner Benton followed his brother-in-law, Abraham Cooper, to Jefferson County from Trenton, New Jersey, in 1817 to settle on land purchased by Cooper in the town of Antwerp. This land would later form the hamlet of Oxbow, near the Oswegatchie River.

Benton immediately opened a medical practice in the hamlet, and in 1819, built a federal style brick farm house for himself and his family. Benton quickly became a civic leader in his community, and was the only medical doctor in northern Jefferson County for many years. After his death in 1843, Benton's son, Zebulon Howell Benton, lived in the house with his wife Caroline (daughter of Joseph Bonaparte) up until the 1890's.

Since the 1890's, the Benton House has been occupied by numerous private owners right up to the present day. All owners have kept much of the architectural integrity of the house intact, and the house was placed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.