HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHT

Story by Joshua Mann, Ohio National Guard Historian

Big Ben. Old Man. Colonel. General. Judge. All were titles bestowed upon Benson W. Hough, a man who served his community, state and nation in a variety of military and civilian roles, epitomizing the Citizen-Soldier.

Hough was born in rural Delaware County on March 3, 1875, and moved to the town of Delaware, the county seat, as a young boy. At 17, he joined Delaware’s Company K, 14th Infantry Regiment as a private, starting an illustrious military career that spanned four decades. He left the National Guard in 1897 as a corporal, while studying law at Ohio Wesleyan and Ohio State University. At both schools he was a football, baseball and tennis star and graduated in 1899 with a law degree.

After establishing a law practice in Delaware, Hough returned to the Ohio National Guard in 1902 with a commission as a first lieutenant in Company K. He commanded the unit from 1902 to 1905 and then served as a major and lieutenant colonel. In 1915, Gov. Frank B. Willis appointed Hough as adjutant general, and he was promoted to brigadier general.

In the spring of 1916, Hough led the state through the largest mobilization since the War with Spain, when the Ohio National Guard was federalized for Mexican Border Service. When the mobilization neared completion, Hough resigned his post and generalship and reenlisted in Company K as a private, so that he might serve with his old regiment along the southern border. A few days later he was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel in the 4th Infantry Regiment and held that assignment during the mobilization.

After returning to Ohio in March 1917, Hough was promoted to colonel and placed in command of the 4th. In August, the regiment was assigned to the 42nd “Rainbow” Division and was redesignated as the 166th Infantry. Hough led the doughboys in France for the duration of World War I. He returned to Ohio in 1919 with the French Croix de Guerre with silver star, French Legion de Honour and American Distinguished Service Medal pinned to his uniform.

“I never knew a regimental or higher commander in my 42 years of service who commanded the respect, confidence in combat and genuine devotion of his officers and men as did ‘Big Ben,’” wrote Maj. Gen. Robert S. Beightler, World War II commander of the 37th Infantry Division, who served as Hough’s adjutant in the 166th Infantry. “He was truly a superior leader. Attestation of the high esteem in which he was held in the entire Rainbow Division was manifested when the first president of the 42nd Division Ass’n (Association) was elected in Germany in 1919. There were just two nominees, (Douglas) MacArthur and Hough. Hough simply swamped MacArthur.”

Another officer described Hough as having natural-born aptitude for leadership, “not the kind of leadership that drives men or controls them by reason of some vested power, but the type of leadership that comes out of ability to inspire.”

The men of the 166th Infantry called him the “Old Man.” He called the Soldiers “his boys” and they were always first in his thoughts. By his own confession, Hough, who was 42 years of age in 1917, at first was not appreciative of the title “Old Man.” He soon learned that the men used it as a mark of affection, a term that marked him as a real father to be loved and respected.

On the morning the regiment was mustered out at Camp Sherman in Chillicothe, Hough stood in the door of his headquarters and watched the men march past to be sent home. As the last company marched past, he was heard to have whispered, “The greatest fighting unit in the world is now but a memory.”

Following the war, Hough was involved in the reorganization of the Ohio National Guard, and with him in command, his old regiment was the first to be reorganized in the state. In 1920 he was promoted to brigadier general in command of the 74th Brigade. When the 37th Division was fully organized in 1923, Hough was appointed by Gov. Alvin Donahey to command the Buckeye Division, with a promotion to major general.

In civilian life, Hough was a respected attorney. In 1920, he was elected to the Supreme Court of Ohio for a two-year term. In 1923, President Warren Harding appointed Hough as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio. President Calvin Coolidge nominated him to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District in 1925. An eminent Ohio lawyer once stated that Hough’s most dominating and useful quality as a judge was his great common sense. “In chambers or in the courtroom, in any judicial crisis, such a judge meets all difficulties and settles them in at least a practical way. Common sense always stood at Judge Hough’s side. It was his great aide.”

Hough died suddenly on Nov. 19, 1935, at the age of 60 while returning from Steubenville following a court case. He was still serving as 37th Division commander and district court judge. He is buried in a small cemetery in Delaware County, within distance of where he was raised. When the theater was completed at Camp Perry in Port Clinton, it was memorialized as the Hough Auditorium.

At Hough’s funeral, Dr. Harry Cotton, pastor of the Broad Street Presbyterian Church in Columbus, told the crowded church, “the major story of his achievement in the service of his community, the state and the nation, on the field of battle and in the courts of justice is a record written in the hearts of men and women whom he influenced, and written in the mind of the eternal record that stands today.”