Benjamin Wright Raymond was born on June 15, 1801 in Rome, New York. His father, Benjamin, a descendant of William Raymond who emigrated to America about 1652, was a civil engineer. A native of Richmond, Berkshire County, Massachussets, he moved to Rome in 1796, where he married Hannah, daughter of Thomas Wright, one of the first settlers of that place. Benjamin Wright Raymond was her eldest son. At her death, five years after his birth, he went to live with an aunt.
At the age of ten he was sent to a school in Potsdam, New York, established by his father. In Montreal he studied practical mathematics.
After four years here and two years in Montreal he began work as a surveyor. Soon he bought a stock of goods and went into business as a merchant at Norfolk, St. Lawrence County, New York.
The income from this venture proved insufficient for his needs - his father had died and the care of several younger children now devolved upon him - and he returned to Rome, where he became first a clerk in the store of William Wright, a leading merchant of the town, and later his partner. About this time he came under the influence of Rev. Charles G. Finney, who awakened in him a lasting interest in religion and temperance.
In 1831 he formed an acquaintance with S. Newton Dexter, agent of the Oriskany Manufacturing Company of Oriskany, New York, who now became his financial backer. This same year, with Dexter's assistance, he made two prospecting trips into the West, one to Ohio, the other to Michigan. The outlook for establishing a merchandising business was not bright, however, and he returned to conduct a wool buying enterprise for four years at East Bloomfield, New York.
In 1836, with a considerable stock of merchandise, Raymond went to Chicago with the intention of establishing himself in business. He found the field so well occupied, however, that he had great difficulty in disposing of his stock, and was compelled to open a branch store in Milwaukee, one at Geneva, Illinois, and another at Des Plaines, Illinois.
The business depression which continued through 1837-39 left the firm of B. W. Raymond & Company heavily in debt, but his friend and partner, Dexter, again came to his assistance with additional credit and he was able to weather the storm. He had so well established himself in the good will of the people of the pioneer city that in 1839 he was elected mayor on the Whig ticket, serving for one year. Much against his will, he was again elected, as a compromise candidate, on the Democratic ticket in 1842. Through good management he brought the city through the after effects of the depression.
In 1843 he sold out his mercantile business and invested his money largely in city real estate. He was active in 1846 in promoting the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad, the first railroad built west of Chicago, and was on the first board of directors. He laid out the town of Lake Forest and was president of the board of trustees of Lake Forest University for twelve years. He was also a trustee of Beloit College, Beloit, Wisconsin, and of the Rockford Female Seminary, Rockford, Illinois. With part of the proceeds from the sale of his mercantile business, he bought a half interest in the town of Elgin from its founder, James T. Gifford. He established a store there, and in 1844 built for his partner, Dexter, the first woolen mill in Illinois.
He acted as agent for various eastern insurance companies and gave much time to promoting the building of railroad lines into the country west of Chicago. In 1864 he organized the National Watch Company (later the Elgin National Watch Company), was its first president, and continued active as a director until 1878.
In 1842 he helped to organize the Second Presbyterian Church of Chicago, of which he was long a ruling elder. In qualities of character and capacity, Raymond belongs with those other early merchants, John V. Farwell and Marshall Field, whose faith in the future of their city contributed so largely to the successful growth of Chicago as a commercial metropolis.
He was instrumental in having State Street widened, and in bringing an important addition within the city boundaries. When the Fort Dearborn reservation was ordered sold, he induced the government to grant part of the reservation and all of the lake front east of Michigan Avenue to the city for a park. Thus the city's park system may be said to have had its start under him.
Typical of his character was the donation of his salary as mayor to unemployed workers.
At East Bloomfield, New York on January 12, 1834, he married Amelia Porter. They had two sons, one of whom, George Lansing Raymond, became a professor in Princeton University.
