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NEWTON C. BENNETT.
Newton C. Bennett, a well known and well established building contractor at Fairfield and an influential figure
in the general social and industrial life of that town, is a native of Solano county, where his interests ever
have been centered. He was born in the village of Rio Vista, January 5, 1884, and is a son of William and Letha
(Butler) Bennett, the latter of whom is still living. She also was born at Rio Vista and is a daughter of the pioneer,
N. C. Butler, who had come here in settlement days and had become a substantial rancher in that neighborhood. N.
C. Butler also served for years as postmaster of Rio Vista, and in his time he was one of the best known and most
influential citizens of that section of the county. The late William Bennett, who died in 1890, was a native of
England. In 1870 he came to California and after his marriage here he established his home on a ranch adjacent
to Rio Vista and there spent the remainder of his life, having been one of the substantial citizens of that community.
Of the children born to him and his wife three are living, the immediate subject of this sketch having an elder
brother, Joseph Bennett of Rio Vista, and a sister, Mrs. Rose Anderson, also of that place.
Reared on the home place at Rio Vista, Newton C. Bennett had his initial schooling there and then attended and
was graduated from the Fairfield high school. Upon putting aside his textbooks he became employed in the building
operations of Comstock & Salisbury and became a skilled carpenter, later transferring his connection to the
bridge crew of the Southern Pacific Railway Company. He was thus engaged in bridge construction on that road for
ten years, this work taking him over the Sacramento, the Oakland and the San Joaquin Valley divisions and thoroughly
familiarizing him with the details of heavy construction work. In 1913 Mr. Bennett embarked in business on his
own account as a building contractor at Fairfield, and he has since been thus engaged, having directed much of
the better class of building operations that have been carried on there in recent years, this including the erection
of many of the best business buildings on Texas street. Among the structures erected by Mr Bennett may be mentioned
the Fairfield Theater building, the John Thomas building, the Martha Washington store building, the Vallado pool
room, the I. D. E. S. hall, the new reinforced McGinnis block, and the Evans & Pyle and Soares reinforced concrete
stores, besides numerous cottages and ranch houses.
In 1905, at Fairfield, Newton C. Bennett was united in marriage to Miss Ivy Carpenter, who was born in that city,
a daughter of Frank Carpenter, and they have ten children: Norman, Opal, Inez, William, John, Lucian, Joseph and
Newton (twins), Dorothy and Mary Jane. The Bennetts have a pleasant home at Fairfield and have ever taken an interested
and helpful part in the general affairs of the community. Mr. Bennett is a member of the volunteer fire department
and secretary of the Fairfield Firemen's Club. He is a past president of the local aerie of the Fraternal Order
of Eagles, is treasurer of the local grove of the Order of Druids and is a charter member of the Fairfield Lions
Club, in the affairs of all of which popular fraternal organizations he takes an earnest and helpful interest.
From:
History of Solano County, California
BY: Marguerite Hune
and
Napa County, California
BY: Harry Lawrence Gunn
The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Chicago 1926
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