Henry is the son of William Benson and Mary Stewart (Stuart) spelling varies, and the husband of Matilda Williamson.

BENSON, HENRY CLARKE (1816-1897), American minister, who became a charter member of the California Conference, was an able educator and leader of Western Methodism. He was born April 10, 1816, near Xenia, Ohio; educated at Indiana Asbury University, where he received an A.B. in 1842; A.M. in 1843, and D.D. in 1864. He later became a Doctor of Medicine at Willamette University in 1874.

He was received on trial in the Indiana Conference in 1842; and in his career served in educational work for four years, in administration ten, in editorial sixteen, and in the pastorate twenty. Feeling the call to the California mission field at the mid-century, he reached San Francisco on March 14, 1852, where he joined and helped organize the California Conference,in which he served four districts as presiding elder. During one quadrennium he was editor of the Pacific Christian Advocate and for twelve years was editor of the California Christian Advocate. He was a trustee of the University of the Pacific for twenty years, and served for several years as its president. He was elected and served as a delegate to the General Conference of the M. E. Church in 1864, 1868, 1876, and 1884.

He married Matilda M. Williamson in 1842, and to them were born eleven children. "Few men, if indeed any, had a larger influence upon the Church for more than half a century," commented C. V. Anthony. Benson died at Santa Clara, Calif., on Jan. 14, 1897.
Article from The Encyclopedia of World Methodism

Dr. Henry Clark Benson, wrote a autobiographical sketch on the Benson family origins and another book Life among the Choctaw Indians, and sketches of the South-west (1860).

This is a list of their children to the best of my knowledge,corrections welcome.

Mary C Benson
1848 – 1856

William Wilson Benson
1850 – 1936

John S Benson
1852 – 1856

Henry Lamdin Benson
1854 – 1921

Emma Elizabbeth Benson married John Goodell and lived in 1910 in Ocra, Alaska
1856 – ?

Frank Williamson Benson
1858 – 1911

Matilda Susan Benson
1860 –

Helen Abigail 'Abby' Benson
1865 – 1927

Fred T Benson
1868 –

Clare Anna Benson
1870 – 1958

Thank you for the transfer so much appreciated Charla Carter