Born July 14, 1869 in Dewill County, Illinios, Paulen was less than six months old when his family moved to a farm four miles south of Fredonia. After graduating from Fredonia High School in 1887 he spent one term at Kansas University, took a course at Saint Louis College then entered into business with his father in 1889.

In Holton he was married to Miss Barbara Ellis on Valetine's Day, 1900. Before the City of Fredonia elected him mayor in 1900 he served as a city councilman and as the city treasurer.

In 1912 Paulen was elected into the Kansas State Senate for the Thirteenth Senatorial District and won the re-election in 1916. While serving his two terms as Senator, Paulen was on an impressive list of committees and was connected to the Bank Check Bill, which provides a punishment of overdrawing a bank account by check. In addition to that he introduced and championed the bill for cities of the second class to levy special taxes for the purpose of purchasing fire apparatus.

 

In 1922 he was elected Kansas lieutenant governor and captured the Republican nomination for governor in 1924. Beating out Emporia's publisher William Allen White, Paulen was elected Kansas Governor where he served two terms from 1925-1929. During that time he signed the 1927 Kindergarten Bill into law. Now part of the Fredonia High School, the Ben S. Paulen Elementary School was named in his honor in 1961.