Robert Benjamin Hilton

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Robert Benjamin Hilton , born as Robert Benjamin Smith , (* 1821 in Virginia ; † January 10, 1894 in Tallahassee , Florida ) was an American lawyer , newspaper owner and editor and Confederate officer and politician.

Career

Robert Benjamin Hilton graduated from Brown University in 1843 . During his studies he belonged to the Phi Beta Kappa . He later moved to Tallahassee, Florida, where he opened a law firm, which subsequently became successful. In January 1849, he legally changed his last name to Hilton. He also founded a newspaper, the Tallahassee Floridian , with Augustus Maxwell that same year , where they also worked as editors. They later merged the newspaper with the Southern Journal to form the Floridian and Journal. In 1858 he was elected clerk in the Florida House of Representatives.

After the outbreak of the civil war , he received in April 1861 an officer license as captain in company D with the first Florida infantry . Between 1862 and 1865 he represented Florida in the first and second Confederate Congresses . During this time he successfully supported a draft law in January 1864 to repeal the exemption from military service for men of military age, which was previously granted if they could provide a paid deputy. He was also active in legislating on tax limits and the financing of the confederate currency.

After the war, he briefly held the post of State Court judge in 1867 . He died in Tallahassee in 1894 and was buried there in St. John's Episcopal Cemetery .

Trivia

Hilton's Civil War diary survives and is now owned by the University of Florida at Gainesville .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Address Book of the Living Graduates, Sixth Issue, Providence, Rhode Island: Brown University, Remington Printing, 1899, p. 118
  2. ^ Acts and Resolutions of the General Assembly of the State of Florida, Tallahassee: Office of the Florida Sentinel, 1849, 109
  3. ↑ Manley, Walter W .; Manley II, Walter W .; Canter, E .: The Supreme Court of Florida and Its Predecessor Courts, 1821-1917, University Press of Florida, 1997, ISBN 0-8130-1540-5 , p. 208
  4. ^ Journal of Proceedings of the House of Representatives of the General Assembly of the State of Florida at its Ninth Session ... November 22nd, 1858, Tallahassee: Office of the Floridian & Journal, 1858, p. 6
  5. ^ Burrage, Henry S .: Civil War Record of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island: self-published, 1920, p. 5
  6. ↑ An Act to Put an End to the Exemption from Military Service of Those who Have Heretofore Furnished Substitutes, Granted on January 5, 1864, House of Representatives, Committee on Military Affairs, Published by CSA, 1864
  7. ^ Robert Benjamin Hilton on The Political Graveyard website

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hilton, Robert Benjamin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Smith, Robert Benjamin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American lawyer, newspaper owner and editor, and Confederate officer and politician
DATE OF BIRTH 1821
PLACE OF BIRTH Virginia
DATE OF DEATH January 10, 1894
Place of death Tallahassee , Florida