{{Short description|American politician (1894–1961)}} {{for|the English footballer|Ben Hulse (footballer)}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = Ben Hulse | honorific_suffix = | image = Ben Hulse, 1935.jpg | alt = | caption = Hulse in 1935 | office = 40th President pro tempore of the California State Senate | term_start = January 3, 1955 | term_end = April 5, 1956 | predecessor = Clarence C. Ward | successor = Hugh M. Burns | state_senate1 = California State | district1 = 39th | term_start1 = January 8, 1945 | term_end1 = January 7, 1957 | predecessor1 = Emile G. Luckey | successor1 = John William Beard | term_start2 = January 2, 1933 | term_end2 = January 4, 1937 | preceded2 = Nelson T. Edwards | succeeded2 = Edward H. Law | birth_date = September 24, 1894 | birth_place = near Fayetteville, Arkansas, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1961|03|02|1894|09|24}} | death_place = El Centro, California, U.S. | occupation = owner of farm implement and car dealerships | party = Republican | spouse = {{marriage|Bessie Menser|1919|1935|end=}}<br>Laura (m. ?) | alma_mater = }}
'''Benjamin Harrison Hulse''' (1894–1961) was a California politician. He represented the 39th district in the California State Senate for 12 years, including two years (1955–56) as Senate President Pro Tem.<ref name="join">{{cite web|url=http://www.joincalifornia.com/candidate/5503|title=Ben Hulse|work=JoinCalifornia|accessdate=17 November 2013}}</ref> He was a Republican.
==Personal life== Hulse was born and raised on a farm near Fayetteville in Washington County, Arkansas. His parents were John Hulse, a wealthy farmer and U.S. marshall, and Drusilla (Delano) Hulse. With just a high school education, he came to California as a young man. He worked at a machine shop in Stockton for two years, then moved to Imperial County in 1910, where he began to sell tractors and Ford cars in Calexico, El Centro and Yuma. By 1920 his dealerships (Hulse and Dick in Yuma, Hulse and Anderson in El Centro) were important in promoting the agricultural development of Imperial County.<ref name = "south">{{cite book|last=McGroarty|first=John Steven|title=California of the South|url=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~npmelton/imphuls.htm|volume=V|year=1933|publisher=Clarke Publ.|pages=243–244|chapter=Hon. Ben Hulse}}</ref>
He married Bessie Phenia in 1919; they lived in Imperial. He was an Elk and a Mason.<ref name = "south" /> He died at a hospital in El Centro in 1961 at the age of 66.
==Political career== He served on the local school board and the Imperial County Board of Supervisors. He was elected to the Senate in 1932 and served four years. He was then re-elected in 1944, 1948, and 1952.<ref name = "join" /> He was known as "the watchdog of the treasury"<ref name = "dies" /> during his years in the Senate, serving on the taxation and other committees. He was elected Senate President Pro Tem in 1955. He retired from the Senate on March 14, 1956.<ref name = "dies">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2245&dat=19610221&id=k6gzAAAAIBAJ&sjid=iu4HAAAAIBAJ&pg=2700,4278099|title=Former Senator Ben Hulse dies|date=March 3, 1961|work=Lodi News-Sentinel|accessdate=17 November 2013}}</ref>
==Recognition== *Ben Hulse Elementary School in Imperial, California, is named for him.<ref name = "join"/> *A stretch of California State Route 78 is named the Ben Hulse Highway.<ref name = "join" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== *{{cite book|last=Odens|first=Peter R.|title=Ben Hulse: From mountain boy to state senator|year=1984|publisher=s. n. |isbn=978-0-9609484-7-5}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hulse, Ben}} Category:Politicians from Fayetteville, Arkansas Category:People from Imperial County, California Category:Republican Party California state senators Category:American Freemasons Category:1894 births Category:1961 deaths Category:Presidents pro tempore of the California State Senate Category:20th-century members of the California State Legislature