John Samuel BENHAM, Congress, IN (1863-1935)

BENHAM, John Samuel, a Representative from Indiana; born on a farm near Benham, Ripley County, Ind., October 24, 1863; attended the public schools, a business college in Delaware, Ohio, and a normal school in Brookville, Ind.; taught school in the winter and attended college in the summer, being engaged as a teacher in various places in Indiana from 1882 to 1907; was graduated from Indiana State Normal School at Terre Haute, Ind., in 1893 and from Indiana University at Bloomington, Ind., in 1903; specialized in history at the University of Chicago for several terms; superintendent of schools for Ripley County for fourteen years; returned to Benham, Ind., in 1907 and engaged in the timber, milling, and contracting business; also followed agricultural pursuits; delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1916; elected as a Republican to the Sixty-sixth and Sixty-seventh Congresses (March 4, 1919-March 3, 1923); chairman, Committee on Expenditures on Public Buildings (Sixty-seventh Congress); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1922 to the Sixty-eighth Congress; moved to Batesville, Ripley County, Ind., in 1923 and engaged as a building contractor; again superintendent of schools for Ripley County, Ind., 1924-1929; retired from active business pursuits in 1931 and resided in Batesville, Ind., until his death there on December 11, 1935; interment in Benham Church Cemetery, near Benham, Ind.

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