Benjamin Franklin Hopkins (April 22, 1829 – January 1, 1870) was a nineteenth century politician, secretary and telegraph operator from Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

.

Born in Hebron, New York

Hebron, New York

Hebron is a town in Washington County, New York, United States. It is part of the Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. The town population was 1,773 at the 2000 census...

, Hopkins attended the common schools as a child and later became a telegraph

Telegraphy

Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages via some form of signalling technology. Telegraphy requires messages to be converted to a code which is known to both sender and receiver...

 operator. He moved to Madison, Wisconsin

Madison, Wisconsin

Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....

 in 1849 and served as a private secretary to Governor Coles Bashford

Coles Bashford

Coles Bashford was an American lawyer and politician who became the fifth Governor of Wisconsin. His one term as governor ended in a bribery scandal that forced him to leave the state, but he was later instrumental in the government of the newly formed Arizona Territory.-Early life and...

 in 1856 and 1857. He was a member of the Wisconsin Senate

Wisconsin State Senate

The Wisconsin Senate, the powers of which are modeled after those of the U.S. Senate, is the upper house of the Wisconsin State Legislature, smaller than the Wisconsin State Assembly...

 in 1862 and 1863 and served in the Wisconsin State Assembly

Wisconsin State Assembly

The Wisconsin State Assembly is the lower house of the Wisconsin Legislature. Together with the smaller Wisconsin Senate, the two constitute the legislative branch of the U.S. state of Wisconsin....

 in 1866. Hopkins was elected a Republican

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 to the United States House of Representatives

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

 in 1866, serving from 1867 until his death in Madison, Wisconsin

Madison, Wisconsin

Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....

 on January 1, 1870. There, he served as chairman of the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds from 1869 to 1870. He was interred in Forest Hill Cemetery in Madison.

External links

• Benjamin F. Hopkins at Find A Grave
  Find A Grave
  Find a Grave is a commercial website providing free access and input to an online database of cemetery records. It was founded in 1998 as a DBA and incorporated in 2000.-History:...