Child, Benjamin F.

Born: 1806-10-12 Massachusetts

Died: 1872-02-10 Hardin, Illinois

Flourished: 1848 to 1872 Hardin, Illinois

Benjamin F. Child, merchant, was born and educated in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and apprenticed at the grocery trade in Boston. About 1835 Child relocated permanently to Illinois, living first in Alton and ultimately settling in Calhoun County at a place that was known for a time as Child’s Landing, and which eventually became the village of Hardin. He worked for the remainder of his life as a merchant, dividing his residence between Hardin and Alton. Child was a successful and prominent businessman and local official, and at the time of his death was referred to as the “King of Calhoun”. He served as postmaster of Hardin between 1848 and 1860, then again from 1861 until his death. Politically, Child was first a Whig and later a Republican, and he represented Calhoun County at the 1858 and 1860 Illinois Republican conventions. He was an Odd Fellow. In 1836 Child married Helen (Ellen) Brown in St. Louis, and was survived by three children.

Portrait and Biographical Album of Pike and Calhoun Counties, Illinois (Chicago: Biographical, 1891), 501-2; Elias Child, Genealogy of the Child, Childs and Childe Families (Utica, NY: Curtiss & Childs, 1881), 283; Alton Telegraph & Democratic Review (IL), 9 April 1847, 3:5; Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832-1971, NARA Microfilm Publication, M841, 145 rolls, Records of the Post Office Department, RG 28, 1845-1855, 18:16; 1855-1865, 20a:n.p.; 1865-1878, 32:32, National Archives Building, Washington, DC; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Calhoun County, IL, 299; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 17 June 1858, 2:3; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Calhoun County, IL, 693; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Ward 2, Alton, Madison County, IL, 80; Wayne C. Temple, “Delegates to the Illinois State Republican Nominating Convention in 1860,” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 92 (Autumn 1999), 291; Alton Weekly Telegraph (IL), 16 February 1872, 3:1; 23 February 1872, 3:1, 3.