Benjamin Butterworth

Benjamin Butterworth (* October 22, 1837 in Maineville, Warren County, Ohio; † January 16, 1898 in Thomasville, Georgia ) was an American politician of the Republican Party. From 1879 to 1883, from 1885 to 1891 he was a member of the House of Representatives of the United States for the 1st Congressional District of the State of Ohio.

Biography

Benjamin Butterworth was born near Maineville in Warren County. There he attended the public schools and the Academy in Maineville. At Ohio University, where he studied law. In 1861 he was admitted to the bar and then he opened a law firm in Cincinnati. In 1868 he was appointed Deputy District Attorney. From 1874 to 1875 he served in the state Senate.

In 1879 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, representing the 1st District of Ohio for the first time. There he sat until 1883. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1880 in Chicago. After he resigned from the Congress, he was chairman of the Smithsonian Institution. From U.S. President Chester A. Arthur, he was appointed in 1883 as Chairman of the Northern Pacific Railway. In 1885 he was re-elected to the House of Representatives. His term lasted this time to 1891. During his last term he was chairman of the Committee on Patents. In 1890, he no longer went to the election.

He went after re resignation from the Congress returned to his legal practice after, this time in Washington DC., 1896, he was appointed by U.S. President Grover Cleveland appointed head of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. He held this office until his death. He died in 1898 in Thomasville, where he was to recovery. He was at the Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington DC buried.