Benjamin I. Cohen was born in Richmond, Virginia, but spent the bulkof his life in Baltimore, Maryland. His father, Israel I. Cohen, hademigrated from Bavaria to England, and there met and married JudithI. Solomon in 1786. YoungBenjamin was raised by his parents with a strong sense of businessethics and civic interest. His father and his uncle, JacobI. Cohen, had established themselves in business and civiclife in Richmond, while climbing the ranks of the Masonic order.Israel died in 1803, when Benjamin was still a small child, andJudith moved with her seven children, including Mendesand Maria, to Baltimore in 1808.

Benjamin followed his older brother Jacob into banking and in 1837 heestablished the Baltimore Stock Exchange with his brother David. Hebecame very active in the German Society of Maryland, serving as itstreasurer for twenty years and as co-chairman of the celebrationcommittee for the Revolution of 1848.

In1819, Benjamin married Kitty Etting,daughter of Solomon Etting and RachelGratz Etting, Baltimore’s other leading Jewish family. Theyhad eleven children before Kitty’s untimely death at age 38. Theirson Israel followed in his father’s footsteps—succeeding infinance (he was a founder of the second Baltimore stock exchange) andan active participant in the German Society of Maryland, of which heserved as treasurer for more than thirty years.