Benjamin Clover, the Cambridge farmer who went to Congress
Clover settled near Cambridge in 1871, led the Kansas Farmers' Alliance and served one term as a Populist.
By Wade Ellison
Cambridge is one of the smallest towns in Cowley County, with fewer than a hundred people. It was laid out in 1880 by Benjamin H. Clover.
Clover was born near Jefferson, Ohio, in 1837 and came to Kansas in 1871, settling at Cambridge and farming. He served on the board of school commissioners from 1873 to 1888.
He was twice president of the Kansas State Farmers’ Alliance and Industrial Union and twice vice president of the national organization, at a time when farmers were organizing against railroads and lenders. In 1890 he was elected to Congress as a Populist and served from 1891 to 1893. He did not run again.
He went back to farming and died in Douglass in 1899.