Today, Assemblyman J. W. Van Benschoten was added to the list of Shortest Terms in Office page on JoinCalifornia.com

Assemblyman Van Benschoten served 66 days between December 15, 1849 and February 18, 1850. One source indicates that he was appointed Postmaster of the Graysonville Post Office (then in Tuolumne County, now in Stanislaus) on or around July 1, 1850.

A quick biographic point that I found amusing was the explanation that “John Wesley V.B. in his early years was a delicate boy, and his parents, to give him a more robust constitution, apprenticed him to a butcher.”

Van Benschoten, described as “one of the oldest residents of Stanislaus County”  by the Daily Alta Californian, died January 12, 1886 after falling into the San Joaquin River while transporting a passenger across the river on a ferry he operated.