Charles Swan BENTON, Congress, NY (1810-1882)
BENTON, Charles Swan, a Representative from New York; born in Fryeburg, Oxford County, Maine, July 12, 1810; pursued preparatory studies; moved to Herkimer County, N.Y., in 1824 to live with an elder brother; attended Lowville Academy, Lowville, N.Y.; learned the tannerâs trade; editor of the Mohawk Courier and the Little Falls Gazette 1830-1832; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1835 and commenced practice at Little Falls, N.Y.; surrogate of Herkimer County in 1837; judge advocate of the State militia; elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth Congresses (March 4, 1843-March 3, 1847); was not a candidate for renomination in 1846; clerk of the court of appeals 1847-1849; moved to Milwaukee, Wis., in 1855 and subsequently became editor of the Milwaukee News; appointed by President Franklin Pierce in 1856 as register of the United States land office at La Crosse, Wis., and served until 1861; was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1862 to the Thirty-eighth Congress; engaged in agricultural pursuits near West Salem, Wis., and later, in 1865, at Galesburg, Ill.; returned to La Crosse, Wis., in 1869; judge of La Crosse County 1874-1881; died in La Crosse, Wis., May 4, 1882; interment in Oak Grove Cemetery.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
