Ota ("Otto") Benga

ID Number: T02638

Biographical Data

Basic Identification

Gender: male Ethnicity: Pygmy (African) Immigration: yes Attributed Race: black Free or Enslaved: free

Birth & Family

Birth Date: c.1885/00/00 Birthplace: Congo, Africa Mother: Father: 1st Spouse: unknown 2nd Spouse: unknown

Age Details

Age: about 30 Age Group: adult (20-59)

Life Details

Occupation(s): day laborer, tobacco factory laborer Last Church: unknown Military Service: none Last Residence: Lynchburg, Virginia Last Address: Virginia Seminary Campus

Death

Death Date: 1916/03/20 Death Note: none Place of Death: shed behind Josephine Anderson's store Cause of Death: suicide, pistol shot to left breast

Burial & Undertaking

Burial Date: 1916/03/23 Funeral Home: Diuguid; Peoples Undertaking Co. Indigent?: private interment

Gravesite and Grave Marker Data

Grave Marker or Marker Fragment: none Section: unknown Confirmation Source for Location: Grave Marker Erector(s): unknown Confirmation Source for Interment: official ledger

Obituary and Biographical Detials

Funeral at Diamond Hill BC

Mrs. Lillian “Peggy” Bondurant Davis recalled that she was told Ota Benga was buried in the Old City Cemetery, beside Prof. Ulysses S. Grant Patterson.

Chauncey Spencer clearly remembered Ota Benga being buried in White Rock Cemetery beside Gregory Willis Hayes.