Benjamin Franklin Leiter

Benjamin Franklin Leiter (October 13, 1813 – June 17, 1866) was a nineteenth-century politician, lawyer, teacher, and justice of the peace from Ohio who served two terms in the United States House of Representatives from 1855 to 1859. He was born in Leitersburg, Washington County, Maryland, where he received only a limited formal education in his youth. Despite these modest beginnings, he pursued learning on his own and entered the teaching profession at an early age, reflecting both his intellectual ambition and the educational opportunities available in rural Maryland in the early nineteenth century.

Leiter began his career as a schoolteacher in Maryland, teaching there from 1830 to 1834. In 1834 he moved west to Ohio, part of the broader migration of Americans seeking new opportunities in the developing states of the Old Northwest. He settled in the Canton area, where he continued to teach school from 1834 until 1842. During these years he combined his work in education with the study of law, reading law in the office of David A. Starkweather, a prominent Ohio attorney and political figure. This period of legal apprenticeship culminated in his admission to the bar in 1842, after which he commenced the practice of law in Canton, Stark County, Ohio.

Alongside his legal practice, Leiter quickly became involved in local public affairs. He served as a justice of the peace, a position that placed him at the center of community disputes and minor judicial matters, and he also served as mayor of Canton for ten years, helping to guide the town’s civic development during a period of growth and change. His local prominence and reputation for public service led to his election to the Ohio House of Representatives, where he served in 1848 and 1849. In the latter year he was chosen Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, a role that demonstrated the confidence his colleagues placed in his leadership and legislative abilities.

Leiter’s state-level experience provided a foundation for his subsequent national career. In the context of the political realignments of the 1850s, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1854 as an Oppositionist, a designation reflecting the fluid party alignments of the period as the Whig Party collapsed and new coalitions formed in response to the expansion of slavery and other sectional issues. During his service in Congress, he became aligned with the emerging Republican Party. As a member of the Republican Party representing Ohio, Benjamin Franklin Leiter contributed to the legislative process during two terms in office, serving from March 4, 1855, to March 3, 1859. His tenure in the Thirty-fourth and Thirty-fifth Congresses coincided with a significant period in American history marked by intensifying sectional conflict, and he participated in the democratic process by representing the interests of his Ohio constituents during the years leading up to the Civil War.

After leaving Congress in 1859, Leiter returned to Canton and resumed the practice of law. He remained a respected figure in local and state affairs, drawing on his long experience as a teacher, lawyer, municipal official, and legislator. His life reflected the trajectory of many self-made professionals of his era, rising from limited formal schooling to positions of substantial responsibility through study, public service, and political engagement.

In his personal life, Leiter married Catherine Burger of Canton in 1836. The couple had seven children, and their family life was rooted in the growing community of Canton. He was a member of the Lutheran Church, which provided a religious framework for his family and personal life. Benjamin Franklin Leiter died in Canton, Ohio, on June 17, 1866. He was interred in West Lawn Cemetery in Canton, where his grave marks the resting place of a prominent Ohioan who participated in local, state, and national public life during a formative period in the nation’s history.