David Olney Bennett Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1523-1525 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	DAVID OLNEY BENNETT, deceased, was born in McDonough, Chenango 
county, New York, on the 10th of January, 1843, and is a son of Olney 
and Elizabeth (Place) Bennett, both of whom were born and reared in 
Rhode Island, where the former's birth occurred in 1800 and the latter 
about the year 1810, while their marriage was there solemnized. The 
father of the subject was a clergyman of the Baptist church, and about 
1830 removed with his family to Madison county, New York, where he 
remained until 1860, when he removed to Wisconsin, where he passed the 
remainder of his life, engaged in the noble work of his high calling and 
also being identified with agricultural pursuits. His wife likewise died 
in that state, and of their seven children two are yet living, our 
subject having been the sixth in order of birth. David 0. Bennett 
received his early education in the common schools of his native town 
and those of McGrawville, Cortland county, New York, while at the age of 
fifteen he entered Cincinnatus Academy, in Cortland county, where he 
continued his studies until 1861, being prepared for matriculation in 
college and expecting to thus continue his educational work. About this 
time, however, there came the call to higher duty, as the integrity of 
the Union was menaced by armed rebellion, and in August, 1862, having 
joined his parents in Wisconsin, he enlisted as a member of Company K, 
Twenty-ninth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, which was assigned to the 
western department and served under General Grant until after the 
surrender of Vicksburg, when his corps, the Thirteenth, was transferred 
to the Department of the Gulf. Mr. Bennett was discharged, on account of 
disability, in February, 1864, at New Orleans, and then returned to his 
home in Wisconsin. After recuperating his energies he, by chance, 
identified himself with the mercantile business, having been for six 
months employed in a clerical capacity in general stores in Beaver Dam 
and Juneau, Wisconsin, his intention being to soon enter college and 
complete his education. He was deflected from this course, however, and 
began the study of medicine under the direction of his brother, Henry 
Judson Bennett, a prominent practicing physician at Juneau, and finally, 
as offering further discipline along this line, he took a position in a 
drug store at Fond du Lac, that state, where he remained until 1869. His 
brother, previously mentioned, died in December of that year, and the 
subject thereafter continued his study of medicine under the 
preceptorship of Dr. H. M. Lilly, at Fond du Lac, and completed his 
technical course in that famous institution, Rush Medical College, in 
the city of Chicago, where he was graduated in February, 1870, with the 
degree of Doctor of Medicine. He thereafter remained with his preceptor, 
Dr. Lilly, until the following June, when he removed to Waterloo, 
Jefferson county, Wisconsin, where he was actively engaged in practice 
until 1887, when his health became so seriously impaired by rheumatism 
that he was compelled to withdraw largely from the active work of his 
profession. He purchased a half interest in a local drug business, but 
his health became even more precarious while in the store, so that in 
the latter part of 1887 he disposed of his interest in the same and in 
the following spring came with his family to Clark county, South Dakota, 
locating on a farm and devoting his attention to its improvement and 
cultivation for the ensuing eight years, within which time his health 
steadily improved. During the hard times of 1896 people left the state 
in great numbers and among them many of the physicians, so that there 
were left in Clark county or near its borders only three practicing 
physicians. Under these conditions calls upon the professional services 
of Dr. Bennett became so frequent and insistent that he was constrained 
to remove to the city of Clark and establish himself in practice, and 
here he continued, having built up a large and representative business 
as a physician and surgeon, until his death, April 16, 1904. He had been 
confined to his home about a week with a complication of diseases 
brought on by overwork, though the direct cause of death was heart 
failure. In politics the Doctor ever gave an uncompromising allegiance 
to the Republican party, and he recalled to the writer the fact that 
when a boy of thirteen years! at the time of the candidacy of General 
John C. Fremont, the first presidential nominee of the party, he was 
most enthusiastic in his youthful enthusiasm for the newly organized 
party. He held various village and school offices after coming to South 
Dakota and in 1892 was elected to represent the twenty-ninth district in 
the state senate, and was chosen as his own successor in 1894. In 1901, 
upon the reorganization of the state militia. the Doctor was 
commissioned assistant surgeon of the Third Battalion of the First 
Regiment, South Dakota National Guard, with rank of first lieutenant, 
and about a year later he was appointed surgeon general of the National 
Guard of the state, with rank of colonel. and remained incumbent of this 
office. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity with which he was 
identified from 1885 and also of the Grand Army of the Republic, and 
while a resident of Wisconsin he was affiliated with the Temple of 
Honor, in which he passed the various official chairs. He was a 
prominent and zealous member of the Baptist church as is his widow. 

	On the 17th of February, 1873, at Concord, Jackson county, 
Michigan, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Bennett to Miss Floretta 
Elizabeth Young, the eldest child of Andrew Sproul Young, who was a son 
of Andrew Young. The Young family formerly lived near Williamstown, 
Massachusetts, whence representatives removed to Bergen, Genesee county, 
New York, in 1833, and from that locality Andrew Young and his family 
removed to Concord, Jackson county, Michigan, in 1855. The maiden name 
of Mrs. Bennett's mother was Elizabeth Lewellin, who was a daughter of 
Lewis Lewellin. The Lewellin (or Llewellyn, as the name was originally 
spelled, according to the Welsh form) family removed from Pennsylvania 
to Genesee county, New York, in 1826. Mr. and Mrs. Bennett have three 
children, Henry Judson Bennett, D. D. S., who is engaged in the practice 
of dentistry at Fond du Lac, Wisconsin; Luella Elizabeth, who is in 
Clark, and Mary, who died March 13, 1886, at the age of thirteen months.