- James Rea Benson
James Rea Benson (
January 21 1807 –March 18 1885 ) was anOntario businessman and political figure. He represented Lincoln in the1st Canadian Parliament as aLiberal-Conservative member until March 14 1868, when he was named to theSenate of Canada for St. Catharines.He was born in
Ireland in 1807 and came to Kingston inUpper Canada with his family in 1819. He later moved to St. Catharines, where he was a hardware merchant, also operating mills and ships in partnership withThomas Rodman Merritt . Benson was president of the Niagara District Bank, the Welland Loan Company and the St. Catharines Gas Company. He served on the town council for St. Catharines and on the council for Lincoln County. He died in 1885 while still in office.The city of St. Catharines purchased his residence and used it for some time as the city hall.
His daughter Helen married Calvin Brown, the first mayor of St. Catharines. His niece, Mary Benson, the daughter of his brother Thomas, married Thomas Rodman Merritt.
External links
* [http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/people/key/bio.asp?Language=E&query=1961&s=M Synopsis of federal political experience from the Library of Parliament]
* [http://www.canadiana.org/ECO/mtq?doc=32946 "The Canadian parliamentary companion", HJ Morgan (1872)]
* [http://www.ourroots.ca/e/toc.aspx?id=6203 "St. Catharines : Canada's Canal City", JN Jackson, SM Wilson (1992)]
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