Representative Benjamin Mayberry Samuels View All Years
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Benjamin Mayberry Samuels
Dubuque County
Born in Parkersburg, Wood County, Virginia, on the 21st of December, 1823. He entered Lexington College in the same State, from which he graduated with the honors of his class in three years thereafter. He immediately commenced the study of law with Judge Samuels, in Woodstock, and was admitted to practice at the bar in 1844. He emigrated to Iowa in the fall of 1847, and commenced the practice of his profession in Dubuque. He soon gained a reputation for ability and eloquence and his practice became very extensive. He became noted as an advocate, and the defense in the most important criminal trials in the county was entrusted to him. In 1855 he entered the political arena, having for years been a Democrat, and was elected member of the legislature. About this time he also served as a member of the Common Council of this city. He soon became a prominent leader of the Democratic party in Iowa. His brilliant oratory, his noble looking person, and his genial social manners, won for him a popularity that has been enjoyed by but few of his party in this State, and in 1857 he was unanimously nominated for Governor of the State by a Democratic Convention. His election to the gubernatorial seat was a moral impossibility, yet he secured many votes which would have been given to his opponent had he not run, and he came nearer being elected than any other man in his party to a State office since the Republicans came into power. In 1860 Mr. Samuels was selected as one of the delegates to the Charleston Convention, and was we believe, Chairman of the Iowa delegation. Mr. Samuels was united in married to Otis A. Mason on November 18, 1892, in Dubuque, Iowa. He was a member of the Methodist Church.
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