Sedgwick-Grant County KS Archives Biographies.....Bennett, W. E. 1864 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com March 19, 2007, 10:37 am

Author: O. H. Bentley (1910)

   W. E. Bennett, photographer, of Cheney, Kan., was born April 1, 1864, in
Watertown, N. T. His parents were A. J. and Mary (Greneson) Bennett. The father
was a native of New York and the mother a native of Switzerland. On the paternal
side the family traces its descent back to Scotch, English and Irish ancestors.
The education of W. E. Bennett was acquired in the common schools of Michigan.
In 1866, when W. E. Bennett was two years old, his parents left New York and
moved to Neenah, Wis., and afterwards moved to Newaygo county, Michigan, in
1868, where the father homesteaded eighty acres and resided on his farm from
1870 to 1882. He then bought land in Erie township, Sedgwick county, and January
2,1884, came to Kansas, his family coming in 1885, where he lived up to the time
of his death in 1904. Mrs. Bennett died in Michigan in February, 1881. They had
a family of ten children, viz.: A. J., Jr., W. E., Mrs. Lillian M. Gawthrop,
Mrs. Bertha R. Sellon, Inez R. (deceased), Mrs. Jennie G. Prown, Mrs. Adelia
Pierson, John N., Mrs. Vira Althoff and Mrs. Myrtle Hart. A. J. Bennett was a
prominent citizen wherever he resided. He acted as Justice of the Peace in Erie
township for six years, and he filled the same position when he lived in
Michigan. He was a public-spirited citizen, and a member of the official board
of the Wichita State Fair, in which he always took much interest. He was a close
student of history and well posted on current topics. Fraternally he was a
member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and in polities he was a
Republican. He was a devout member of the Methodist Church in his youth, but on
coming to Kansas joined the Christian Church. In early life he learned the trade
of a blacksmith, and while in Neenah, Wis., conducted a shop of his own.
Afterwards he took up the carpenter's trade, in which he became proficient, and
helped to build the roundhouse and bridges on the line of the Grand Rapids &
Indiana railroad and also on the Chicago, West Michigan & Lake Shore railroad.
W. E. Bennett came to Kansas in 1885, and took up a claim in Grant county, which
he afterwards disposed of and came to Sedgwick county, where he took up his old
business as a photographer, which he had learned in Michigan. In 1888 he entered
the gallery of his brother-in-law in Cheney, and in 1904 bought the gallery and
still conducts the same, turning out work equal to that which can be obtained in
any of the large cities of the country. Mr. Bennett is a member of the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Subordinate Lodge, No. 254, and of the
Twenty-ninth Encampment at Wichita. He is a Republican in politics. He was
married to Miss Edna S. Herrington, of Oklahoma, on November 9, 1904, in
Wichita, Kan., at the residence of Judge Enoch. Of this union two children have
been born, viz.: Myrtle Edna, four years old, and Walter Francis, one year old.

Additional Comments:
Extracted from 

History of Wichita and Sedgwick County: past and present, including an account
of the cities, towns and villages of the county

Editor in chief: O. H. Bentley
Chicago: C.F. Cooper & Co. (1910)


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