Thomas Hart Benton was born March 14, 1782, near Hillsborough, North Carolina. He was the son of Colonel Jesse Benton and Ann Gooch Benton. The family moved to Tennessee after the death of Col. Benton and settled an area of wilderness twenty-five miles from Nashville. Thomas attended the University of North Carolina but did not complete his studies before the family moved westward. Later, Thomas studied law under St. George Tucker, joined the U.S. Army in 1810, and became closely associated with Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Andrew Jackson. He was admitted to the Tennessee Bar in 1811. Benton was elected to the Tennessee legislature, but when the War of 1812 was declared he was appointed aide-de-camp to General Andrew Jackson. A dispute between Jackson and Benton's brother Jesse and William Carroll eventually involved Thomas and the resulting disagreements resulted in several years of estrangement between Benton and Jackson. In 1815, Benton moved to St. Louis and started the Missouri Inquirer but also continued to practice law. In large part because of his avid support of Missouri statehood, Benton was elected as one of the first two senators from Missouri in 1820 and served in that office for the next thirty years (1821-1851). Benton was a strong Democrat and staunch supporter of President Andrew Jackson. He chose to retire from the U.S. Senate in 1850, but was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1852. Benton ran for governor of Missouri in 1856, but was defeated in a three-way race. He retired from politics and dedicated the remainder of his life to writing about his career in politics. Benton died April 10, 1858, in Washington, D.C. He is buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis. Elizabeth McDowell Benton, whom Thomas married in 1821, died in 1854. Jesse Benton was the second son of Colonel Jesse and Ann Gooch Benton. He was born in 1783 in North Carolina. Jesse married Mary Childress of Tennessee in 1808. He died in Tennessee in September 1843. Samuel Benton, the third son of Colonel Jesse and Ann Gooch Benton, was born in 1785. He married Mary Hunter and resided in Nachitoches, Louisiana. Jesse Benton Fremont was the daughter of Thomas Hart Benton and the wife of John C. Fremont. She was born May 31, 1824, at Cherry Grove, the Benton's estate in Rockbridge County, Virginia. Jesse married John C. Fremont in 1841. She died December 27, 1902, in Los Angeles, California.