Benjamin G. Humphreys (1865-1923) of
Greenville, Mississippi, known affectionately as "Our
Ben" to his constituents, was the member of a family
whose ancestors played active roles in U.S. history dating
back to the Revolutionary War. Humphrey’s father was Benjamin
Grubb Humphreys, a Brigadier General in the Confederate
Army who fought at Gettysburg and who served as Governor
of Mississippi after the war (1865-1868). Ralph Humphreys,
a paternal great-grandfather, was Colonel of a Virginia
regiment in the Revolutionary Army, and his wife Agnes
was a descendant of James Wilson, one of the signers of
the Declaration of Independence. When Ben Humphreys  married
Louise Yerger, daughter of Greenville’s mayor, Jefferson
Davis was among the guests.
Ben Humphreys was elected to the United
States House of Representatives in 1902 from the Third
District of Mississippi, and went to Washington determined
to make the nation conscious of flooding problems on
the lower Mississippi River. Humphrey’s efforts went
largely unrewarded until 1912, when severe flooding
struck the river and cries went up for federal relief
assistance; devastating floods also occurred in 1913
and 1916. In 1914, Humphreys published a paper "Floods
and Levees of the Mississippi River", with testimony
and historical narratives describing the ravages of
flooding and the destruction of lives and livelihoods.
The paper advanced the notion of the Mississippi as
the drainage canal of the nation, and made a case for
federal responsibility in its control. Humphreys’ brilliant
paper swayed public opinion and touched the nation’s
conscience.
Control of the nation’s rivers was the
responsibility of the House Rivers and Harbors Committee,
of which Humphreys was a member. After repeated attempts
to get his national flood control program out of a seemingly
indifferent committee, Humphreys and a caucus of other
interested colleagues waged a short and furious battle
in Congress and wrested authority of flood control away
from Rivers and Harbors. The new Flood Control Committee
toured the Mississippi River in 1916. Committee members
saw firsthand the vast stretches of water held back
by puny earthen dikes. They returned to Washington convinced
that "Ben was right, something has to be done and
done quickly."
On March 4, 1917, Congress passed the
Ransdell-Humphreys
Flood Control Act, "for controlling the floods
and for the general improvement of the Mississippi River."
The nation had assumed the task of lifting the great
burden of flooding from the people of the lower Mississippi
Valley.
Ben Humphreys died in October of
1923, and at his request, was buried in the Greenville
Cemetery. A 1950 Greenville Delta Democrat Times
newspaper article recalling his life and the bridge
that bears his name observed, "it seems appropriate
that the massive structure of steel and concrete which
links two sides on the great river he loved should be
dedicated to his memory. His life work had been the
conquest of that river beside which he now sleeps."
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