Benedict, Kirby

Born: 1810-11-25 Kent, Connecticut

Died: 1874-02-27 New Mexico Territory

Benedict moved to Sangamon County, Illinois in 1835 and then to Macon County in March of 1836. In Macon County, he practiced law and served as probate justice of the peace, holding that position from 1838 to 1842. Benedict remained in Macon County until 1849 when he moved to Paris, Illinois. In 1853, President Franklin Pierce appointed Benedict as an associate justice for the Supreme Court of New Mexico Territory. He was associate justice for three years until President James Buchanan appointed him chief justice for the court.

Aurora Hunt, Kirby Benedict: Frontier Federal Judge (Glendale, CA: Arthur H. Clark, 1961); Usher F. Linder, Reminiscences of the Early Bench and Bar of Illinois (Chicago: The Chicago Legal News, 1879), 196-203; John W. Smith, History of Macon County, Illinois, from its Organization to 1876 (Springfield: Rokkers, 1876), 250-51. Illustration courtesy of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, IL.