My Genealogy Hound

BENJAMIN D. LUCAS, was born in 1849, about two miles south of Bloomington; in 1856, his parents moved to the city, and a short time after, his mother died; after moving to town, he attended school at the old yellow schoolhouse, in the south part of town, until October, 1860, when his father, Richmond Lucas, died, and he went to Indiana, and went to school in the winter-time and worked on a farm during the summer; after remaining there three years, he went to Shelbyville, Ill., and worked in a store, while not at school, about eight months; then he returned to Indiana, and after remaining there a few months, went to New York, and went to school in the winter and worked on a farm in the summer-time during three years; in 1866, he returned to Illinois, and again worked on a farm about four months, after which he taught school in the north part of the State. He then returned to Bloomington and entered the law office of Bloomfield & Fifer, and remained with them until they dissolved, after which he remained with Gen. Bloomfield until he was admitted to practice, in 1873; he then went into partnership with Mr. Bloomfield and remained nearly two years, when they dissolved; since then he has been alone. In the spring of 1876, he was appointed City Attorney by ex-Mayor Steere, which office he held until the expiration of the term. Mr. Lucas is certainly one of the most persistently studious lawyers at the McLean County bar; he is sincere and earnest in everything he undertakes, and from these very marked characteristics he has, for a young lawyer, reaped an abundant success; his character is faultless, and in private as well as in public life, he is a conscientious and dignified gentleman; no member of this bar is more highly respected by his professional associates; if any exception can be taken to Mr. Lucas as a lawyer, the writer considers that it is found in his modesty, which, for a man of his profession, is truthfully excessive.