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Bennett, Charles, was born in Devonshire, England, November, 25, 1833, and was the youngest of eleven children
born to James and Mary Q. C. (Godfrey) Bennett. His father was a fuller and cloth dresser, and all of the sons
were brought up in the same occupation. At the age of twenty Charles and his brother James came in a sailing vessel
from Plymouth to this country, being five weeks on the voyage. They landed at Quebec and went to Bowmanble and
there found work, Charles found work tending mason; from there he came to Charlotte, thence to Gaines, where his
brother, William H. Bennett, then lived, and where Charles found work as a day laborer. He worked at various occupations
for several months, and in the next spring was employed on the enlargement of the canal. He then spent one summer
in the quarries and followed that by two years packing flour. In this latter connection he learned the cooper's
trade in the fall of 1857, and at that he worked for three years. By living frugally he managed to save a little
money. In the winter of 1861 he went to Canada but soon returned to Eagle Harbor. By this time he had saved $250,
and with that money bought and remodeled a barn into a cooper shop, borrowed an additional sum to purchase stock,
and became a manufacturing cooper at Eagle Harbor. This was the beginning of what afterward proved to be a very
successful business, although it was attended with some misfortunes and many vicissitudes. The present firm, which
is comprised of Charles and William Bennett, William Lee and Nathaniel Cole, had its origin in the little business
started way back in 1861 by Charles Bennett, and today the senior partner is the active man of the firm. Mr. Bennett
bought his farm in 1877. It contains eighty two acres, and is one of the best in that part of the town. When he
landed at Quebec in 1854, Mr. Bennett had but a half sovereign in his pocket, today he is in very comfortable circumstances.
In 1856 Charles Bennett married Isabella Lee, daughter of William Lee of Eagle Harbor. No children have been born
to them but they have had five by adoption. One of them, James T. Hayman, was in the 4th N. Y. Heavy Artillery;
was promoted to lieutenant of colored regiment, and was shot at Petersburgh in 1865. Another, William Hayman, was
in the 2d N. Y. Mounted Rifles, served through the war, returned home and died soon after. The third child was
Jennie S. Lee; the fourth Fred E. Bennett, and the fifth Charles J. Bennett, who lives with his foster father.
Since 1872 Mr. Bennett has been a Prohibitionist, formerly he was a Republican. For many years he has been a member
of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, for twenty years one of its officers and is now superintendent of its Sunday
school.
From:
Landmarks of Orleans County, New York
Edited by: Hon. Isaac C. Signor
Assisted by: H. P. Smith and others
D. Mason & Co., Publishers
Syracuse, N. Y. 1894
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