Reuben Moore Benjamin (1833-1917)

            Reuben Moore Benjamin was born on June 29, 1833 in Chatham Center, Columbia County, New York (20 miles southeast of Albany). His grandfather, Ebeneezer Benjamin, had been a captain in the American Revolution, while his father, Darius Benjamin, was a private in the War of 1812. His mother was Martha Benjamin, and he had five brothers, including one who died in infancy.

            Reuben grew up on the family farm in Chatham and attended a local school until the age of fourteen, when he enrolled at Kinderhook Academy in Kinderhook, New York. He then moved on to become an honors graduate from Amherst University in 1853.  After graduation, he took a job as the principal of Hopkins Academy in Hadley, Massachusetts. A year later, in 1854, he left the academy to attend Harvard Law School until 1855. It is not known whether or not he graduated. He returned to Amherst University in the fall of 1855 and served as a tutor while obtaining his master’s degree.

            After his father’s death in 1850, Benjamin’s mother and four brothers moved to Bloomington, and their wonderful descriptions of the area led him to join them, arriving on April 24, 1856. Shortly after Benjamin settled in Bloomington, he served as a legal aide in the law office of Asahel Gridley and John Wickizer (Benjamin had not yet passed the Illinois Bar Examination.) On September 5, 1856, Benjamin passed his bar examination. This examination involved an oral interrogation by three men, one of whom was Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln and Benjamin remained in contact long after that, though it is not known how close their relationship truly was. According to the Benjamin family, Lincoln visited their Grove Street home frequently before becoming President, though when Benjamin himself spoke publicly about Lincoln, he never mentioned any kind of personal relationship.

            He purchased a beautiful home at 510 E. Grove Street. This house was first built for John L. Routt, who later became the governor of Colorado. It is not known how such a young lawyer (Benjamin was twenty-three years old at the time) could afford such a grand house. Benjamin continued to live in this home until his death 71 years later.

After passing the bar, Benjamin then traveled back to New York to find a wife. On September 15, 1856, he married Laura Woodin in Chatham, New York. They moved in to the home on Grove Street on October 10, 1856. Benjamin and Laura had no children, though by all accounts, they enjoyed a long and happy marriage.

Upon his return to Bloomington, he entered into a partnership with his former employers. This lasted for two years until Gridley retired, and the partnership became Wickizer and Benjamin. This partnership lasted until December 1862, when Wickizer accepted a position as colonel in the U.S. Army Quartermaster’s Corps during the U.S. Civil War.

            Keeping with his patriotic family background, Benjamin enlisted in the Union Army as well. An 1863 letter to his wife documented that he was probably involved with a supply train regiment bringing food and other necessities to Union troops in Memphis, Tennessee. There were frequent mentions of his law partner Wickizer, which suggests that his unit may have been under Wickizer’s command. However, Benjamin’s health was poor, so he probably only participated in the War for a few months.

             When Benjamin returned from the War in late 1863, he entered into a new law partnership with Thomas F. Tipton. In 1867, Captain J.H. Rowell also joined the firm. He stayed less than two years, though, before being elected as States Attorney for the 8^th Judicial Branch. The practice returned to just Tipton and Benjamin until 1869, when Lawrence Weldon joined the firm. This time, it was Tipton who was elected circuit court judge for the 8^th District and left, so that the partnership became known as Weldon and Benjamin. Weldon and Benjamin would remain partners until 1873, when Weldon left to become a judge in the U.S. Court of Claims.

            However, in 1869 the state government underwent some significant changes. The state decided to hold a constitutional convention in order to make changes to the 1848 constitution to account for issues brought up by the end of the Civil War: corruption in legislation and explosive population and economic growth. Chicago had tripled in size between 1860 and 1870 due to immigration. Benjamin, a Republican, was elected as one of the 85 total delegates in 1869. Although the conference leaders tried hard to avoid partisanship, there was a deep ideological divide between the needs of Chicago and the rest of the state. Out of the 85 delegates elected, 53 were lawyers, and, ironically, only 11 of them were native Illinoisans. Even more ironic was the fact that there was not a single German or Irish delegate, even though there were over 400,000 German and Irish people living in the state. The new Constitution ended up lowering age requirements for representatives and senators, removed salary restrictions and prohibited the collection of special fees by public officials. The delegates also voted to submit the question of women’s suffrage to the voters along with the Constitution, although in May 1870, they changed their minds and removed the question from the ballot.

            When the convention convened in spring 1870, Benjamin was appointed to the committee on the Bill of Rights, Municipal Corporations, State Institutions and Public Buildings, Accounts and Expenditures, and Schedules. He was one of the most active delegates at the convention, but he is remembered the most for his work on the Bill of Rights. Benjamin’s revision of Article II of the Bill of Rights was accepted with only one minor change. Because of Benjamin’s revised article, the state agreed that “no law making any irrevocable grant of special privileges or immunities shall be passed.” Benjamin passionately believed that the government should have the power to regulate these industries for the public good, thus reducing the power of large corporations.

            A few years later, in 1872, Benjamin worked on the case Chicago and Alton Railroad Company vs. the People. This case helped to outlaw extortion and unjust discrimination by railroad companies. As a result of his efforts, he was then hired as a special counsel for the Illinois State Board of Railroad and Warehouse Commissioners in the Munn vs. The People case. Munn vs. The People was the lead case of the “Granger Cases,” which granted the states the right to protect the public welfare by regulating warehouse and railroad charges. He also held very strong anti-trust (anti-monopoly) viewpoints, and wrote a large article expressing his opinions in The Daily Bulletin on June 23, 1906. In 1911, he helped pass a resolution in the Illinois General Assembly supporting an anti-monopoly clause of the U.S. Federal Constitution. Benjamin was also ardently opposed to Socialism and greatly admired Lincoln. He believed that protecting the rights of the accused was essential to a just verdict and strongly promoted human rights, especially the abolition of slavery.

            Benjamin had been elected as a McLean County judge in 1873 and remained judge until 1886, when he retired from county service in order to spend more time on private legal pursuits, teaching, and writing. During his time as judge, he was very active in the community. In 1874, he became involved in organizing the Illinois Wesleyan University law school. He taught classes in real property and constitutional law until 1912. He also served as the School of Law’s dean until 1892; when he stepped down to focus more on teaching. Benjamin was also instrumental in establishing the Illinois Wesleyan chapter of Phi Delta Phi law fraternity in 1878. Phi Delta Phi was a very prestigious organization, established at Michigan University in 1869 with the mission of giving young men studying law the opportunity to find friendship and assistance throughout their academic and professional careers. The IWU chapter was only the second chapter established, and it became known as the “Benjamin Chapter” in honor of Judge Benjamin. By 1911, the Benjamin chapter had 81 members, many of whom later became members of the Bloomington Bar Association. Benjamin received an honorary LLD (law degree) from IWU in 1880 in recognition of his work with the law school.

            In 1888, Benjamin established his final law partnership with John Morrissey, one of his former IWU students. He retired from active practice in 1893, six months before his 60^th birthday, just as he had promised himself years before.

After his retirement in 1912, he spent much of his time writing political opinion articles for The Daily Pantagraph and The Daily Bulletin, as well as dabbling in poetry writing. Many of his poems and personal essays were never intended for publication. He was also a founding member of the McLean County Historical Society, founded in 1892.

            His home life was quiet and modest, and although he had no children, there were at least five women living in his house at various times throughout his life. They included his mother (Mrs. Martha Benjamin), Miss Kate Woodin (an unmarried sister of his wife), and the three Raycraft sisters, Nellie, Anna, and Ellen (most likely domestic help). The Benjamins would also have guests visit their home from time to time. These visitors included his wife’s parents. On one particular visit in August 1870, Laura’s mother, Mrs. Sarah G. Woodin, died suddenly of a cholera attack.

While Benjamin’s wife, Laura, was a devout member of the Presbyterian Church in Bloomington, Benjamin himself was not very religious. He was, however, born a Methodist, but continued to become less religious as he grew older. He believed in Christianity but did not attend church often. His brothers lived among the Quaker population in rural McLean County, and the conservative values and utilitarian outlook found in Quaker doctrine may have influenced Benjamin as well.

            On August 4, 1917, Judge Reuben Moore Benjamin passed away in his sleep after his health had been declining over the previous two years. He was buried in Evergreen Memorial Cemetery next to his wife, who had passed away the year before. In a speech given about him for the McLean County Historical Society, the author stated “he lived frugally, he worked steadily, his ambitions high and his career well-rounded.”