Bennett, E.C.

DICKEY, SCHUCKNECHT, LEEGE

Posted By: BCGS
Date: 1/5/2010 at 10:17:13

On the roll of Bremer county's honored dead appears the name of E.C. Bennett, a pioneer farmer of this locality, who at the time of his death, in 1912, was in the forty-ninth year of his residence here. During the time he contributed substantially to the agricultural progress of the community and became a factor in its social and public life, and his death was widely and deeply regretted by the many friends to whom hes personal characteristics has so greatly endeared him. He was born April 19, 1839, and came to Iowa from Illinois in 1863, settling on a farm on section 33, Frederika township, where he afterward made his home. He was a man of excellent education and for a number of seasons taught school near Tripoli and was also master of a singing school. He gave a great deal of attention to the development of his farm, bringing it from a tract of raw prairie land to a productive and valuable property, provided with a good house and substantial barns and outbuildings and all the equipment necessary for dairy farming, in which Mr. Bennett engaged successfully. About 1874 he took up the work of editing a farm department for the Waverly Republican and this work was continued until the summer of 1912, when he was no longer able to continue it. For several years before his death he was a member of the staff of contributors to such papers as the Homestead, the Orange Judd Farmer and other publications of that nature. He was also in demand as a speaker at farmers' institutes and when the Bremer County Fair was organized he became president of the association, holding that position until he died.

Mr. Bennett married Miss Amelia Dickey, now a resident of California, and they became the parents of six children; Mabel, the wife of T.H. Shucknecht, of California; Victor, who died in infancy; Florence, who passed away in 1912; Burton B., who is operating the homestead; Clem C., of Morristown, South Dakota; and Merrill W., of Tripoli.

Burton B. Bennett was born upon the farm he now operates August 31, 1879, and was educated in the district schools, in the public schools of Tripoli and the Tripoli high school. He is now engaged in dairy farming upon the homestead and has met with gratifying and well deserved success. He married Miss Eva Leege, a native of Bremer county, and they have become the parents of a daughter, Charlotte. Burton B. Bennett gives his allegiance to the republican party and is now secretary of the district school board.

E.C. Bennett died in Fresno, California, on the 8th of December, 1912, and his death was felt as a personal loss to those who knew him in Bremer county. He was an active member of the Congregational church of Tripoli, which he aided in organizing, and he gave his political allegiance to the republican party. He was public-spirited and loyal in matters of citizenship, taking a deep interest in those measures and projects which had for their object the progress and development of the community, and thus it was that in his passing Bremer county lost a representative and valued citizen.

History of Bremer County, Iowa Vol. II 1914