Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/297

 BENNETT.

BENNETT.

"Viola" (1852); "Waldo Warren" (1852); '• Clara Moreland" (1853); "The Artist's Bride" (1857) ; " Prairie Flower " ; " Lena Leoti " ; " Ellen Norbury"; "The Outlaw's Daughter" (1874); "Villeta Linden" (1874), and "The Phantom of the Forest" (1874.)

BENNETT, Henry Stanley, clergyman, was born at Brownsville, Pa., April 16, 1838. He was graduated from Oberlin college, Ohio, in 1860, and finished his theological course at the same college three years later. He was called to the Second Congregational church of Wakeman, Ohio, and or- dained, Nov. 17, 1863. He was a member of the National Guards called out by Governor Brough. This company was stationed in Fort Stevens at the time of the Confederate attack on Washing- ton under Gen. Jubal Early. From 1867 to 1892 he was secretary of the faculty, professor of German, and university pastor at Fisk university. From 1868 to 1869 he was a member of the board of education of Nashville. In 1869 he began the work of training young men for the ministry. He was one of the original members in the State teachers' association of Tennessee, and for several years contributed educational papers to the local press of the state capital. In 1878 he made the tour of England and continental Europe, visiting Scotland, England, France, Italy, Switzerland, Holland and Belgium. Pro- fessor Bennett's work was among the colored people, especially in the direction of their higher culture. He died Aug. 5, 1805.

BENNETT, James Gordon, editor, was born in the village of New Mill, in Keith, Scotland, Sept. 1, 1795, of French extraction, his ancestors having emigrated to Scotland from the banks of the Seine. After receiving his preparatory education at a school in Keith, he was sent to a Catholic seminary in Aberdeen, to be fitted for the priesthood. He pursued the usual college course for three years, and then detennined to go to America. Hearrivedat Halifax, N. S., in 1819, where he taught book-keeping. Being unsuccess- ful, he went to Boston, where for three years he was employed as a proof-reader. Then followed a year's work in New York, writing stray bits and paragraphs for various newspapers, after which he accepted a position on the Charleston (S. C.) Courier, his principal work being the translating of articles from Spanish - American journals. Drifting back to New York, he attempted to es- tablish a commercial school, and also tried to get a footing in the journalistic world, but was for a time unsuccessful in all his efforts. He did reporting, paragraphing, and editing, and then became, in 1827, the Washington correspondent of the New York Enquirer; there he made quite a reputation for himself and the Enquirer by his accurate accounts of the proceedings of Congress,

and by his spicily interesting descriptions of Washington Life and people. He was a careful and interested student of the political history of the country, and when at this time he entered politics as a member of the Tammany society, he was a valuable addition to the Democratic party. In 1829, at his instance, the Courier and the En- quirer were consolidated, and Mr. Bennett became associate editor, and a recognized leader in poli- tics. A change in the policy of the Courier and Enquirer instituted by the chief editor, James Watson Webb, compelled him to withdraw from its editorial staff in 1832, and he migrated to Phila- delphia, where he bought an interest in the Pennsylvanian, of which he became the editor. Editors in those days were mostly mere secre- taries, writing at the dictation of political chief- tains who had their own ends to serve. Mr. Bennett's nature was of too individual and inde- pendent a stamp for him to act as a tool for any man or bodj" of men, and as a result he made a host of enemies among the Philadelphia politi- cians, who now assailed him with such vehemence, that he withdrew from the Pennsylvanian and returned to New York, where he invested his fifteen years' experience, together with five hun- dred dollars, his savings, in establishing a small four-page journal, which he sold for a cent a copy, and called it the Neiv Yoi'k Herald. Of this paper he was sole editor, reporter, contribu- tor, book-keeper, and clerk. His office was in a cellar on Wall street, and he shared the profits of the venture with two young printers. The x^rin- ciples on which the Herald was founded were the outgrowth of Mr. Bennett's observation and expe- rience in the field of journalism. The paper was free from all party control; the acquisition of news from all parts of the world at any cost was its chief aim ; it gave publicity to all forms of fraud, and especially to the tricks of the stock jobbers; it was a disseminator of facts, not opinions, and it sustained every enterprise calculated to elevate mankind, and unite all nations in commerce and civilization. On June 13, 1835, Mr. Bennett printed an article in which he discussed the state of the money market, wliich attracted wide atten- tion by reason of its novelty and candor, and the money article became, after partisan opposition had been overcome, a necessary part of the con- tents of every newspaper. In July. 1835, the " office " was bvirned out, and the young printers deserted the venture. On August 31, Mr. Bennett re-issued the Herald, as sole proprietor. He orig- inated, through the incident of the great fire in New York, Dec. 16, 1835, the reporting in detail of public occurrences, and he engaged special correspondents in every quarter of the globe to report the news. He established the practice of reporting sermons and the proceedings of public