Benton Abstract and Title Company, a sovereign title plant, was incorporated as a Texas corporation in the year 1916 by W. C. Benton, the Schleicher County Clerk. Elizabeth “Ibby” Ballew held the position of plant manager for 56 years, from 1928 until 1984 when she tendered her resignation. W. F. “Rocky” Meador was elected by the Board of Directors to serve as President of the Corporation in a meeting held January 16, 1934. Mr. Meador held that position until he died in 1979. Thereafter, Ray W. Willoughby, Jr. was elected by the Board of Directors to serve as President at the 1980 meeting, and he served as President until 1984 when Ray Lewis Ballew served as President from 1984 to 1995. At the annual meeting of the Board of Directors in 1995, Raymond C. Loomis, Jr. was elected President of the corporation and Gina Loomis was elected Vice-President. In the year 2001 the Loomises embarked on a 5 year project to bring the company into the 21st Century, and converted all the company’s title data from books and an estimated 400,000 index cards into computerized, digital format, making the plant data available to clients over the Internet. All records from sovereignty to the present are now in digital form to facilitate use by landmen and attorneys. In March 2009, Benton Abstract and Title Company was sold to Benton Abstract, LLC. John Martin is the managing partner of the limited liability company, and he is also the owner and President of Lone Star Title Company of El Paso, Inc. To read more about Lone Star Title of El Paso, click here.