Benjamin Franklin Funk (October 17, 1838 – February 14, 1909) was a
U.S. Representative from
Illinois, father of
Frank Hamilton Funk.
Biography
Born in
Funk's Grove Township, McLean County, Illinois
Funk's Grove Township is a township in McLean County, Illinois. As of the 2010 census, its population was 245 and it contained 105 housing units.
Geography
According to the 2010 census, the township has a total area of , all land.
Demographics ...
, Funk attended the public schools and
Illinois Wesleyan University in
Bloomington, Illinois
Bloomington is a city and the county seat of McLean County, Illinois, United States. It is adjacent to the town of Normal, and is the more populous of the two principal municipalities of the Bloomington–Normal metropolitan area. Bloomington ...
. He was the son of
Isaac Funk
Isaac Funk (November 17, 1797 – January 29, 1865) was an American rancher and politician, originally from Kentucky. In the 1820s, he founded Funks Grove, Illinois, in McLean County, Illinois, with his brother and became a prominent cattle trad ...
.
He left school in 1862 to enlist in the
Sixty-eighth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, as a
private, and served five months during the
Civil War.
After the war, he returned to the university and finished the course. After this, he engaged in
agricultural
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating Plant, plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of Sedentism, sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of Domestication, domesticated species created food ...
pursuits.
He returned to Bloomington, in 1869, and served as its
mayor from 1871 to 1876 and from 1884 to 1886. He also served as president of the board of trustees at
Wesleyan University for twenty years, served as a delegate to the
Republican National Convention
The Republican National Convention (RNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1856 by the United States Republican Party. They are administered by the Republican National Committee. The goal of the Repu ...
in 1888 and was a trustee of the asylum for the blind in
Jacksonville.
Funk was elected as a
Republican to the
Fifty-third Congress (March 4, 1893 – March 3, 1895). His candidacy for renomination in 1894 failed, so he returned to agriculture. He died on February 14, 1909, in Bloomington, Illinois. He is currently buried in Bloomington Cemetery.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Funk, Benjamin Franklin
1838 births
1909 deaths
Mayors of places in Illinois
Politicians from Bloomington, Illinois
Illinois Wesleyan University alumni
People of Illinois in the American Civil War
Union army soldiers
Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois
19th-century American legislators