James Rea Benson
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Credit: Topley Studio / Library and Archives Canada / PA-026342
James Rea Benson (January 21, 1807 – March 18, 1885) was an Ontario businessman and political figure. He represented Lincoln in the 1st Canadian Parliament as a Liberal-Conservative member until March 14 1868, when he was named to the Senate of Canada for St. Catharines.[1]
He was born in Ireland in 1807[1] and came to Kingston in Upper Canada with his family in 1819. He later moved to St. Catharines, where he was a hardware merchant[2], also operating mills and ships in partnership with Thomas Rodman Merritt.[3] Benson was president of the Niagara District Bank, the Welland Loan Company and the St. Catharines Gas Company.[2] He served on the town council for St. Catharines and on the council for Lincoln County.[1] He died in 1885 in Ottawa while still in office.[4]
The city of St. Catharines purchased his residence and used it for some time as the city hall.[5]
Benson married the daughter of Charles Ingersoll.[2] His daughter Helen married Calvin Brown, the first mayor of St. Catharines.[5] His niece, Mary Benson, the daughter of his brother Thomas, married Thomas Rodman Merritt.[6]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Synopsis of federal political experience from the Library of Parliament
- ^ a b c The Canadian parliamentary companion, HJ Morgan (1872)
- ^ Warwick, Peter D. A. (1994). "Thomas Rodman Merritt". Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=6928. Retrieved 2009-09-15.
- ^ Johnson, J.K. (1968). The Canadian Directory of Parliament 1867-1967. Public Archives of Canada.
- ^ a b St. Catharines : Canada's Canal City, JN Jackson, SM Wilson (1992)
- ^ The Canadian biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of eminent and self-made men (1880)
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