Benjamin Arbogast was born on November 13, 1825 in Pocahontas, Virginia the youngest of the nine children of farmers Benjamin and Francis Ann Mullins Arbogast. He had early schooling locally but then worked his family's land and served as a local constable. For whatever reason, he determined later to resume his education and after some preparation entered the class of 1854 at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in September 1850 at the age of twenty-five.