Benjamin Brown French
![Benjamin Brown French](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Benjamin_Brown_French_%28cropped%29.jpg)
The August 30, 1845, issue of the Baltimore ''Sun'' led to the composition of a ballad by French about Luther Fuller who died aboard the steamboat ''Erie''. It was printed on September 5.
French was very active in a number of clubs and societies, particularly Freemasonry. In the 1850s, he was Grand Master of the Knights Templar of the United States. He succeeded William S. Wood as Commissioner of Public Buildings in the fall of 1861.
He was present at Abraham Lincoln's inauguration (and was president of the inaugural ball committee), and is reported to have physically restrained John Wilkes Booth, who had gained access to the capitol rotunda, and was trying to push through the crowd. French was also present for the Gettysburg Address, and oversaw Lincoln's funeral. He gave the main speech April 14, 1868, at the dedication of the Abraham Lincoln statue at Washington's City Hall.
He composed a hymn for the consecration of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg.
Amos Tuck French was his great-grandson.
Daniel Chester French, the sculptor of the Statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial, was French's nephew.
His journals were donated to the Library of Congress by an heir. His Capitol Hill home had been next to where the library was built. The journals were edited into a book and published as ''Witness to the Young Republic''. Historian Joanne B. Freeman drew extensively upon these journals as a resource when writing her 2018 book, ''The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War''. Provided by Wikipedia
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2by Marina Cuchel, Anna C. Raper, Donna M. Conlon, Daniel A. Pryma, Richard H. Freifelder, Rahul Poria, Debra Cromley, Xiaoyu Li, Richard L. Dunbar, Benjamin French, Liming Qu, William Farver, Ching-Chiang Su, Sissel Lund-Katz, Amanda Baer, Giacomo Ruotolo, Peter Akerblad, Carol S. Ryan, Lan Xiao, Todd G. Kirchgessner, John S. Millar, Jeffrey T. Billheimer, Daniel J. RaderGet full text
Published 2017-04-01
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