Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/296

 BENNET.

BENNETT.

bejran his iron works in the ' Rock Forge 4ands." Two years later he built a for^e. and in a few years addeil another forge, a gristmill, a i^jiil mill and the best machinery that the time pro- duced. He was the first one to manufacture the " Juniata iron." He became very wealthy, and was noted for his liberality and public si)irit. He was a major general of the Pennsylvania state militia and atUiined prominence in politics, and on two occasions was chosen Democratic presi- dential elector. He owned and conducted a newsjxij>er in the interest of Andrew Jackson's candidacy for president. He died in Centre county. Pa.. July 27, 1832.

BENNET, Richard, colonial governor. In October, lO.lO. the "Long Parliament" passed an ordinance prohibiting trade with Virginia and other places, and Bennet was a Roundliead who had fled from Virginia to Maryland, to the pro- tection of Lord Baltimore, and thence to London, was appointed one of three commissioner.s to reduce Virginia to submission. They arrived in March, 1652, and on the 12th the capitulation was ratified, by which it was agreed that the colony of Virginia sliould be subject to England. Not long after this, Bennet and William Clayborne proceeded to reduce Maryland, and on April 30, 1652. they organized a provincial government subject to the control of England. Bennet was cho.sen governor. In March, 1655, he was super- seded by Edward Digges. In 1666 Bennet, as major-general, commanded the militia of three of the four military districts of Virginia. He was a member of the council as late as 1674, but there is no record of the date of his death.

BENNETT, Alice, phy.sician, was born at "VVrentham, Mass., Jan. 31, 1851, daughter of Francis I. and Lydia (Hayden) Bennett. After receiving a common -school education she began to teach in country schools, following this occu- pation from 1868 to 1872, entering in the latter year the Woman's medical college of Pennsyl- vania, whence .she was graduated in 1876. During the spring and summer of that year Dr. Bennett worked in a dispensary in the poorest quarters of Philadelphiii. and in October she returned to the medical college as demonstrator of anatomy, at the same time e.stablishing a practice and study- ing for a Ph. D. degree, which the University of Pennsylvania conferred upon her in 1880. Shortly after her graduation she was made superintendent of the women's department of the Pennsylvania state insane hospital, which po.sition she held until 1896, resigning to devote herself to private practice. Dr. Bennett was a member of the American me<lical as.sociation, the Pennsylvania state medical society, the American academy of political and social science, the Philadelphia medi- cal juri.sprudence society, the Philadelphia neu-

rological society, and the Montgomery county medical .society, of which last she was chosen president in 1890. She was one of the fir.st women to make a special study of insanity, and was the very first to occupy a practical chairman- ship of a great institution. In 1893 she became a member of a commission appointed by the governor to erect a new hospital for the insane in Pennsylvania.

BENNETT, Edmund Hatch, educator, was born at Manchester. Vt.. April 6. 1824. son of Milo Lyman Bennett, justice of the supreme court of Vermont. He was educated at the Burr seminary, and was graduated from the University of Vermont in 1843. He entered upon the study of the law in the office of his father, and in 1847 was admitted to the Vermont bar. In 1848 he re- moved to Massachusetts, was admitted to the Suffolk bar and began practice at Taunton where he took up his residence. In 1858 he was appointed judge of probate and in- solvency, holding the office until his resignation in 1883. From 1865 to 1867 he was mayor of Taunton, and in 1889 he delivered the address in honor of the 250th anniversary of the foundation of that city. From 1865 to 1871 he was lecturer at Harvard law .school. In 1872 he received the degree of LL.D. from the University of Vermont, and was afterwards made dean and professor at the Boston university law school. In 1896 he was chairman of the Massachusetts commis- .sion on "Uniformity of Legislation" through- out the United States, and also chairman of the commission to revise the Massachusetts statutes. He was married, June 29. 1853, to Sally, daughter of Samuel L. Crocker, and their son. Samuel C. Bennett, was professor and assistant dean of the Boston law school. He edited many legal works, including all those of Judge Story: "English Law and Equity Reports" (30 vols.); " Cushing's Reports" (vols. IX. to XII.); " Massa- chusetts Digest"; "Bingham on Infancy"; " Blackwell on Tax Titles"; "Leading Criminal Ca.ses " (2 vols.); " Greenleaf's Reports" (8 vols.); ' ' Goddard on Easements "; " Benjamin on Sales "; " Pomeroy's Constitutional Law "; " Indermauer's Principles of Common Law"; "Fire Insurance Cases'' (5 vols.). He was co-eilitor of the Amer- ican Law liegister for manv years. He died in Boston. Mass., Jan. 2. 1898.

BENNETT, Emerson, author, was born at Monson. llamixlen county. Mass.. March 16, 1822. His early life was spent on a farm, where his father died in 1835, after which, by his own efforts, he acquire<l an education, and on going to New York in 1839 began writing for periodicals. He removed to Cincinnati and later to Philadel- phia, and attracted some notice by his poems and stories. Among his numerous books are: