Charles Benjamin FARWELL, Congress, IL (1823-1903)

FARWELL Charles Benjamin , a Representative and a Senator from Illinois; born in Painted Post, Steuben County, N.Y., July 1, 1823; attended Elmira Academy; moved to Illinois in 1838 and settled in Mount Morris; employed in government surveying and in farming until 1844, when he engaged in the real estate business and banking in Chicago; clerk of Cook County 1853-1861; engaged in the wholesale dry goods business; member of the State board of equalization in 1867; chairman of the Board of Supervisors of Cook County in 1868; national-bank examiner in 1869; elected as a Republican to the Forty-second and Forty-third Congresses (March 4, 1871-March 3, 1875); chairman, Committee on Manufactures (Forty-third Congress); presented credentials as a Representative-elect to the Forty-fourth Congress and served from March 4, 1875, until May 6, 1876, when he was succeeded by John V. Le Moyne, who contested his election; declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1876; resumed mercantile pursuits; elected to the Forty-seventh Congress (March 4, 1881-March 3, 1883); declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1882; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John A. Logan and served from January 19, 1887, until March 3, 1891; was not a candidate for reelection in 1891; chairman, Committee on Expenditures of Public Money (Fiftieth Congress), Committee on Enrolled Bills (Fifty-first Congress); resumed mercantile pursuits; died in Lake Forest, Ill., September 23, 1903; interment in Rosehill Cemetery, Chicago, Ill.

Bibliography

Dictionary of American Biography.

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