Ayer, Benjamin F.

Born: 1825-04-22 New Hampshire

Died: 1903-04-06 Chicago, Illinois

Flourished: Chicago, Illinois

Benjamin F. Ayer was an attorney and city government official. Born in Kingston, New Hampshire, Ayer prepared for college at Albany Academy, Albany, New York. He matriculated to Dartmouth College, graduating in 1846. After leaving Dartmouth, he read law in Manchester, New Hampshire, and completed one year at the Harvard Law School. He received admission to the bar in July 1849 and opened a practice in Manchester. In 1853, he won election to the New Hampshire General Court and subsequently became prosecuting attorney for Hillsborough County, serving in that position for three years. Ayer moved to Chicago in 1857. In 1860, he was living and practicing law in Chicago and owned real and personal property valued at $15,000. From 1861 to 1865, Ayer was corporate counsel for the city of Chicago. He drafted the revised charter of the city, which was adopted in 1863.

Ayer married twice. He wed, in 1851, Delia Whipple, with whom he had four children--three of whom died in childhood. In 1868, he married Jeannie A. Hopkins, with whom he had four children.

Catharine V. Waite., ed., The Chicago Law Times (Chicago: C. V. Waite, 1888), 2:270-71; Some Descendants of Stephen Lincoln of Wymondham, England, Edward Larkin from England, Thomas Oliver of Bristol, England, Michael Pearce of London, England, Robert Wheaton of Swansea, Wales, George Burrill of Boston, England, John Porter of Dorset, England, John Ayer of Norwich, England and Notes of Related Families (New York: The Knickerbocker Press, 1930), 291; New Hampshire, U.S., Birth Index, 1659-1900 (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2013); U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Ward 1, Chicago, Cook County, IL, 155; The Chicago Daily Tribune (IL), 7 April 1903, 4:4; Gravestone, Graceland Cemetery, Chicago, IL.