SKETCH OF HON. B. F. FRENCH

Benjamin F. French was born in Chatauqua county, N. Y., on the 10^th day of August, A.D., 1832.  His father, Captain John French, who died a few years ago, at the residence of his son-(the subject of this sketch) at Neillsville, Wisconsin, was a soldier of the war of 1812.  For a period of about seven years, young French lived with his parents, in Chatauqua county, New York, when in the year 1839, he removed with them, to Warren county, Pennsylvania, where he remained, until the year 1844, when the family moved to Jefferson county, Iowa.  In the year 1848, his mother died, and in 1849, at the age of seventeen years, he left his father’s house, and came to Crawford county, Wisconsin, and settled in what is now known as (245) Clark county, (then a part of Crawford), near the bank of Black river, upon section number four (4), in township number twenty-three (23), north of range number two (2), west.  Here he built a log shanty, and for about five years, kept bachelor’s hall, in primeval manner, until the 8^th of June, 1854, when he was married to Miss Elizabeth R. Brown; a very estimable lady, who immediately thereafter, assumed the household duties at the “log shanty,” and who now is living with her husband, at Neillsville, Wisconsin, doing the honors, at their handsome residence, in the same unaffected and unostentatious manner, with which she presided over the log cabin in 1854.  In 1848, Mr. French studied medicine with Dr. Mellon, but never engaged in the practice thereof.  He occasionally waits upon his friends and relatives, when they  are sick, but never for fee or reward, he disclaiming, always, any pretensions to being a medical man, although his friends, in years gone by, by virtue of two-years study of medicine, dubbed him with the sobriquet of “Doc”; a title of which he bears to this day, and which he claims to have acquired from being named after the illustrious philosopher, Doctor Franklin.

In the years 1854-5, Mr. French studied law with his brother, Joseph French, then a prominent lawyer, at La Crosse, Wisconsin, who died in the fall of the year 1855; and in the month of September, 1856, he was admitted to the bar, by Judge George Gale, who then was presiding judge of Sixth Judicial Circuit of the state of Wisconsin.  As a lawyer, Mr. French has been very successful, having been engaged in many very important cases, arising in the western portion of the state, and being uniformly successful in the greater portion of the cases in which he has been engaged. As an advocate, or as it is sometimes termed, a “jury Lawyer,” Mr. French has few equals if any superiors in the western part of Wisconsin.

In the year 1854, and at the early age of twenty-two, Mr. French was elected County Treasurer of Clark county---being the first Treasurer elected in the county.  He held that office for one term, until the 1^st day of January, 1856.  In the fall of 1860, he was elected District Attorney of the county, and entered upon the duties in that capacity, in January, 1861, and continued to serve the people in that capacity, until the first Monday in January, 1869, serving four terms in that office, successively, being re-elected three times, twice without opposition.  He held several other offices, in the town and county, being elected a number of times as one of the County Board of Supervisors, and being one or more terms, the chairman of that body.

In the year 1873, he was a candidate on the democratic or opposition ticket, for member of the Assembly, in the Assembly district composed of the counties of Jackson and Clark, but was defeated; the district being strongly republican.  His opponent received only three hundred and fifty-two majority, whereas, the member of Congress on the republican ticket, (Mr. Rusk), in the same district, received nearly twelve hundred majority.  In the county of Clark, at the same election, the republican ticket, generally, had a majority of over seven hundred, while Mr. French, as an opposition candidate, handsomely carried the county by a majority of sixty-nine, thus running nearly eight hundred ahead of his ticket, in his own county.

In 1867, the first Masonic Lodge in Clark county, was instituted at Neillsville, Wisconsin, of which lodge Mr. French was the first Master.  He was elected three terms thereafter in succession, and held the office until the year 1871.

In personal appearance, Mr. French is about five feet eight inches in height, and weighs one hundred and ninety pounds; full face, florid complexion, with hair and whiskers tinged with grey, causing him to have the appearance of a much older man than he is.

Although Mr. French has resided in Clark county for over twenty-five years, he did not become a resident of Neillsville until the year 1862, when he removed from his farm, six miles south of the village, to the place where he now lives, at the corned of Fourth and East streets.  Mr. French has been a prominent man in the history of Clark county and Neillsville.  Energetic and influential, he has been instrumental in furthering all the public improvements that have been made in the county for a score of years.  As a man and a citizen he is respected, and held in the highest esteem in the community where he has resided for over half of his life.  He is emphatically a self-made man.  Having had but few advantages, and little education in his younger days, he has, by energy, perseverance and natural talent, amassed a competency, and placed himself in an honorable and enviable position among his fellows, in the society in which he moves.

Source: The American Sketch Book by Bella French.