Benjamin F. Funk

Benjamin Franklin Funk (October 17, 1838 - February 14, 1909) was a U.S. Representative from Illinois, father of Frank Hamilton Funk.

Born in Funks Grove Township, McLean County, Illinois, Funk attended the public schools and Wesleyan University in Bloomington.He left school in 1862 to enlist in the Sixty-eighth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, as a private, and served five months during the Civil War.He returned to the university and finished the course.He engaged in agricultural pursuits.He moved to Bloomington, Illinois, in 1869.He served as mayor of Bloomington 1871-1876 and 1884-1886. Trustee of the asylum for the blind at Jacksonville.He served as president of the board of trustees of Wesleyan University for twenty years.He served as delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1888.

Funk was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-third Congress (March 4, 1893-March 3, 1895).He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1894.He resumed agricultural pursuits.He died in Bloomington, Illinois, February 14, 1909.He was interred in Bloomington Cemetery.

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