WI BIO - Lafayette Co - BENNETT, Byron & James
Commemorative Biographical Record of Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and 
Lafayette, Wisconsin, Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and 
Representative Citizens, and of Many of the Early Settled Families. Chicago: 
Beers, 1901, pp 223-224  

James BENNETT, of Willow Springs, Lafayette County, Wisconsin, who resides on 
Section 33, Town 3 North, Range 3 East, is one of the pioneers of his town. 
James BENNETT, his father, was born about 1807 in Cornwall, England, where he 
was reared a miner and where he married Mary RECORD. In 1837 the family, 
then consisting of the parents and four children, three sons and one 
daughter, came from England to Wisconsin, journeying directly to Mineral 
Point [probably Iowa County, not Mineral Point in Green County, Wisconsin], 
where the father engaged in mining. At that time Indians and wild animals 
were numerous, and in all respects the country was a hardly discovered 
wilderness, the only white citizens being the few miners. The wife and 
mother, unused to such pioneer life, besought her husband to return to 
England. Mr. PILLING [probably Elias PILLING], to whom Mr. BENNETT sold his 
mineral, was, on account of the stringency of money, unable to pay cash for 
the same, and so turned over to Mr. BENNETT a quarter section of land, which 
became the family homestead, and where our subject still lives. This is but 
an illustration of the chance or Providence that determines one's lot; had 
Mr. BENNETT secured cash for his ore, he would have taken his people back to 
England, and everything would have been vastly different. The land was 
heavily timbered, but in due time James BENNETT, the son, succeeded in 
clearing it up and reducing it to the condition of a model Wisconsin farm.

James BENNETT, Sr., was an industrious and hard working man, of exceedingly 
powerful physique, and possessed an iron constitution. As an illustration of 
his powers of endurance it is remembered that at one time, having purchased a 
lead mine, shortly after he had located on the farm, he was accustomed 
to walk to his work in the morning, and home again at night, making a daily 
tramp of 16 miles, besides doing a long day of hard work. That the mine 
developed well, and richly rewarded his intense exertions, would seem only a 
fair dealing of fortune. For some years he lived in Mineral Point [probably 
Iowa County, not Mineral Point in Green County, Wisconsin], that he and 
his family might be near the mine, and then, returning to the farm, erected 
the stone house where he and his wife passed their last days, and where his 
descendants are still living. Of the four children of this honest and worthy 
couple who came with them from England, it is possible that James BENNETT is 
the only one now living. John, the eldest, was killed by foul air at Galena 
[Jo Daviess County, Illinois], when about nineteen years old. Mary Ann 
married Charles COX, and after his death became the wife of Zacharias WARREN; 
she died in April 1881. William went to California with his father, soon 
after the discovery of gold in that region; after returning to Wisconsin he 
journeyed into the West, and his whereabouts today are entirely unknown. 
Mrs. Catherine Jane BURG, of Mineral Point, another daughter, was born in 
Mineral Point [probably Mineral Point in Iowa County, not Mineral Point in 
Green County, Wisconsin].

James BENNETT, Jr., whose name opens this [p 224] sketch, was born in England 
in 1832, and came to America with his parents, and he has had his home where 
he now lives since the first venture of the parents into agricultural life. 
Going to California in 1854, he returned in 1859, after an eventful and 
varied experience in the land of gold. James BENNETT, Jr., married Hannah 
JEFFERY, a native of England, who died 01 February 1881, the mother of six 
children: (1) William G., whose farm adjoins that of his father; (2) Nellie
, the wife of Benjamin MITCHELL, of Willow Springs [Lafayette County, 
Wisconsin]; (3) Robert, also a resident of Willow Springs; (4) Byron, 
living at the family homestead; and (5) Phillipia and (6) James, both of 
Willow Springs.

Byron BENNETT, who lives on the family homestead, and on whom its management 
and work now very largely fall, was born at his present home on 01 March 
1871, and has always lived at home, from an early age relieving his father 
from much care and worry. Byron BENNETT was married to Miss Mary Ellen KING, 
a daughter of William John and Mary Ann (FERREILL) KING, and to this union 
have come two children: Henry R., born 10 October 1897; and Hannah, born 29 
April 1900.

Submitted by Cathy Kubly
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