Trumbull, Benjamin M.

Born: 1801-05-17 Colchester, Connecticut

Died: 1866-09-02 Omaha, Nebraska

Flourished: Sangamon County, Illinois

Benjamin M. Trumbull, farmer and merchant, was the oldest brother of Illinois politician Lyman Trumbull. When Lyman Trumbull was appointed Illinois secretary of state in 1841, Benjamin came to Illinois to act as his brother’s secretary and continued to live in Sangamon County for about twenty years. In 1860 he owned real estate valued at $1,000 and possessed $500 in personal property. That same year Trumbull retained Abraham Lincoln to pursue a debt he was owed. Lincoln appointed Trumbull receiver of public moneys at Omaha, Nebraska Territory in 1861, and reappointed him in 1865 when his initial commission expired. Trumbull married and had five children.

Reuben H. Walworth, Hyde Genealogy; or the Descendants, in the Female as Well as in the Male Lines, from William Hyde, of Norwich (Albany: J. Munsell, 1864), 1:586-87; Ralph J. Roske, His Own Counsel: The Life and Times of Lyman Trumbull (Reno, NV: University of Nevada Press, 1979), 7; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Sangamon County, IL, 205; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Springfield, Sangamon County, IL, 115; Trumbull v. Barrett, 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=140671; Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1887), 11:307, 312; 14:294, 298; Illinois Daily State Journal (Springfield), 4 September 1866, 4:1-2; Gravestone, Prospect Hill Cemetery, Omaha, NE.