Hampton, Benjamin R.

Born: 1821-04-12 Ohio

Died: 1886-03-27 Macomb, Illinois

Flourished: 1840 to 1863 McDonough County, Illinois

Benjamin R. Hampton, attorney, newspaper editor, and farmer, was born in Warren County, Ohio, and moved with his family at a young age to Miami County, where he attended the local schools. Hampton worked in his father’s woolen mill as a young man, then in 1840 he settled in McDonough County, Illinois, where he read law in the office of Cyrus Walker and worked under his uncle, William H. Randolph, who was clerk of the McDonough County Circuit Court. Hampton was admitted to the bar on December 21, 1842, after being examined by a committee that included Abraham Lincoln, and worked as an attorney for seventeen years. From 1855 to 1859 he was an editor of the Macomb Enterprise. Hampton registered for the draft in the Ninth Illinois Congressional District in 1863, but there is no further evidence that he served in the Civil War. Later that same year he moved to Abingdon to further the schooling of his children, but returned to McDonough County two years later and lived in Macomb for the remainder of his life. At the time of the 1860 census, Hampton owned real estate valued at $10,000 and possessed $1,500 in personal property. He married Angeline E. Hail in 1845 and was survived by three children. In politics Hampton was active as a Whig beginning with the election of 1840, and following the dissolution of the Whig Party he became Republican. He was a member of the Christian Church in Macomb.

S. J. Clarke, History of McDonough County Illinois (Springfield, IL: D. W. Lusk, 1878), 363-65; Portrait and Biographical Record of Hancock, McDonough and Henderson Counties Illinois (Chicago: Lake City, 1894), 245; Lincoln et al. examined Hampton for admission to bar, Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), https://lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=141383; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, McDonough County, 2 April 1845, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), McDonough County, IL, 238; Franklin William Scott, Newspapers and Periodicals of Illinois, 1814-1879, vol. 6 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1910), 231; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), McDonough County, IL, 152; U.S., Civil War Draft Registrations Records, 1863-1865 (Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2010); The Macomb Journal (IL), 1 April 1886, 4:5-6.