STARK, Benjamin, United States senator, born in New Orleans, Louisiana, 26 June, 1820. He was graduated at Union school. New London, Connecticut, in 1835, entered a counting-house in New York, and became a merchant. In 1845 he removed to Oregon, and engaged in trade with the Sandwich islands, but studied law in 1850, was admitted to the bar of Oregon, and began practice in Portland, of which city he was a founder. He was a member in 1853 of the territorial house of representatives, and in 1860 of the state house of representatives, and was appointed a United States senator from Oregon as a Democrat, in place of Edward D. Baker, serving from 27 February, till 1 December, 1862. He was a delegate from Oregon to the National Democratic convention at Chicago in 1864, and from Connecticut to the one in New York in 1868. Since 1867 he has been a member of the board of education of New London, Connecticut, a director of the New London Northern railroad company, and since 1871 a deputy to the conventions of the Protestant Episcopal church.