Benjamin Milam Teekell


Benjamin Milam Teekell, also known as B. M. Teekell, was a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from Red River Parish, Louisiana, from 1920 to 1928, with service during the administrations of Governors John M. Parker, Henry Fuqua, and Oramel H. Simpson.
Prior to his state House tenure, Teekell was a member of the Red River Parish School Board from then Ward 7.
A native of rural Melder in Rapides Parish in Central Louisiana, Teekell was the sixth of ten children of Nehemiah Teekell and the former Lenora E. Gill. He was first married to the former Nancy Elmira Coody, by whom he had four children. After Nancy's death he married the former Chloe Josephine McDonald, who was twenty-nine years his junior. In the 1930 United States Census, Teekell and his second wife and their two children, Milam Judson Teekell and Ollie Jo Teekell, later Ollie Manasco, were living in Many in Sabine Parish. After Teekell's death, Josephine, known as "Josie", married a man named "Hatfield" and lived in Shreveport. Teekell's youngest son, Milam, a retired United States Army captain, was killed in an automobile accident in Shreveport at the age of forty-six.
Teekell died in Red River Parish eight days after his 75th birthday. He is interred with other Teekell family members at the rural Hand Cemetery in Red River Parish.