Reuben Moore Benjamin

Reuben Moore Benjamin (1833 to 1917) was an American jurist, born on a farm near Chatham, New York. He graduated from Amherst College in 1853, attended Harvard Law School from 1854 to 1855 and was admitted to the bar in 1856, practising in Bloomington, Illinois. In 1869 he was elected to the Illinois constitutional convention and wrote a version of the Illinois bill of rights. He was a county court judge in McLean County from 1873 to 1886 and dean of the law school at Illinois Wesleyan University from 1874 to 1891. As counsel he took part in the Granger cases on the power of state legislatures to regulate railroad and warehouse charges, including Chicago and Alton Railroad Company v. Illinois, and he wrote treatises on elementary law, contract and the sale of goods.