Enloe, Benjamin S.
Born: 1798-XX-XX South Carolina
Flourished:
Enloe was born around 1798 in South Carolina and he moved to Illinois some time prior to 1830. Enloe represented Johnson County in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1832-34. He returned to the Illinois General Assembly to represent Johnson County again from 1836-38 but resigned upon his election as warden of the Illinois State Penitentiary at Alton in January 1837. The legislature took three votes for warden in 1837; Abraham Lincoln, who was a member of the House of Representatives, voted against Enloe all three times. However, when Enloe posted a $10,000 performance bond for his position as warden, Lincoln and nine others signed the bond as sureties. Enloe served as warden of the Penitentiary until July 21, 1837; he sued the state auditor for the remainder of the salary for his two-year term but lost the suit in the Illinois Supreme Court. By 1850 Enloe was engaged in farming in Massac County and owned $600 in real estate.
U.S. Census Office, Fifth Census of the United States (1830), Johnson County, IL, 66; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968
(Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 203, 205; Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Massac County, 818:59, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Massac County, IL, 228; Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 276-79; Bond for Benjamin S. Enloe as Warden of State Penitentiary;