Rusk, Benjamin D.

Died: 1858-XX-XX Sangamon County, Illinois

Flourished: Sangamon County, Illinois

The son of a Revolutionary War soldier, who died during the war, Rusk had two sons of his own: Archibald H. and David L. He moved to Sangamon County, Illinois, sometime before 1831 and served in two of the same Black Hawk War companies as Abraham Lincoln. He was still living in the county in 1858, when Lincoln and William H. Herndon were hired to collect a debt from him but he died before the collection was finalized.

John Carroll Power and S. A. Power, History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois (Springfield, IL: Edwin A. Wilson, 1876), 632; Muster Roll of Captain Elijah Iles’ Company of Mounted Volunteers; Muster Roll of Captain Jacob M. Early’s Company of Mounted Volunteers; Lincoln and Herndon collected debt for Coon and Rogers, 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), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=141889.