John Forbes BENJAMIN, Congress, MO (1817-1877)

BENJAMIN, John Forbes, a Representative from Missouri; born in Cicero, Onondaga County, N.Y., January 23, 1817; attended the public schools; moved to Texas in 1845 and to Missouri in 1848; studied law; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Shelbyville, Shelby County, Mo., in 1848; member of the State house of representatives 1850-1852; presidential elector on the Democratic ticket of in 1856; entered the Union Army as a private in 1861 and was subsequently promoted to the ranks of captain, major, lieutenant colonel, and brigadier general; provost marshal of the Eighth District of Missouri in 1863 and 1864; delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1864; elected as a Republican to the Thirty-ninth, Fortieth, and Forty-first Congresses (March 4, 1865-March 3, 1871); chairman, Committee on Invalid Expenditures (Forty-first Congress); was not a candidate for renomination in 1870; resumed the practice of law in Shelbyville; unsuccessful candidate for election in 1872 to the Forty-third Congress; moved to Washington, D.C., in 1874 and engaged in banking; died in Washington, D.C., March 8, 1877; interment in a private cemetery at Shelbina, Shelby County, Mo.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present