Calaveras
County
Biographies
JAMES F. BENNETT
James Frederick Bennett was born in
Galena, Jo Daviess County, Illinois, on the 15th of September, 1837,
and is descended from Scotch-Irish ancestry, who located on the Susquehanna
River, in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, at an early period in the history of
that portion of the state. The founder of
the family in the new world was James Bennett, who crossed the Atlantic and
became one of the prominent citizens of Lycoming County. The old family homestead there is still in
the possession of his descendants. George
Bennett, the father of our subject, was born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, on
the old home farm which had been the property of his ancestors, his natal day
being the 28th of August, 1808.
He married Miss Amanda Fisk, a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, and a
daughter of Nathan Fisk. In 1852, with
his wife and two children, he crossed the plains to California, making the
journey with oxen. His sons, William
Henry Harrison and James Frederick, the latter then fifteen years of age, were
of great assistance to him on the journey.
There were three other families in the company, and seven teams in
all. They left Galena on the 4th
of March, and although this was the terrible cholera year their early start
enabled them to escape the plague which carried off many of the emigrants. Neither did they have trouble with the
Indians, for they arrived safely at Downieville, Sierra County, on the 24th
of August, 1852, completing the journey after five months and twenty days spent
upon the road.
Mr. Bennett and his family made
their way direct to Angel’s Camp, where he engaged in mining on the Calaveras
River, after which he secured a claim, turning his attention to agricultural
pursuits. From time to time he added to
his realty possessions until his land aggregated ten hundred and eighty
acres. He raised stock, grain and hay
and his crops brought him a good return.
In 1859 he sold his farm for nine thousand dollars and returned to his
native state, where he remained for six months, but California had become dear
to him and on the expiration of that period he again started for the Golden
state, making the voyage in the Jenny Lind.
He located in Sonoma County, and was engaged in lumbering. He also purchased a farm of one hundred and
sixty acres upon which he resided for five years, when he sold that property
and returned to Angel’s Camp, there spending his remaining days. His death occurred in 1870, when he was in
the sixty-eighth year of his age. His
good wife afterward started on a visit to her people in Mount Carroll,
Illinois, but died in New York City, about a year after her husband’s death, in
the fifty-fourth year of her age. They
were both highly esteemed people who gained and retained friends by their many
excellent qualities. Mr. Bennett was a
man of temperate habits, industrious, energetic, and always true to the duties
of citizenship, while his wife was to him a faithful helpmate and was a loving
and devoted mother.
James Frederick Bennett is now the
only survivor of the family. He attended
the schools at Angel’s Camp, but his opportunities in that direction were
limited and he is largely self-educated.
He is now recognized as a man of intelligence and ability, and through
reading, observation and experience has broadened his knowledge and made it of
a practical character. Throughout the
greater part of his business career he has followed mining. He engaged in placer mining at Jenny Lind,
where he obtained from a third of an ounce to an ounce each day. There he continued for about five years,
after which he went to Sonoma County, where he engaged in clerking in a store
for two years, after which he removed to Austin, Nevada, where for four years
he made his home, successfully engaged in silver mining. On the expiration of that period he returned
to Angel’s Camp and followed quartz mining with arrastras
which he built. At one time he was
interested in eleven of these, finding it a cheap way of obtaining gold by men
who had a limited capital. He prospered
year by year, his possessions steadily increasing, and in 1898 he purchased a
five-stamp mill, in partnership with Robert Leeper. His mine is known as the Pilot Knob and is
being successfully worked.
On the 6th of October,
1871, Mr. Bennett was united in marriage to Miss Ann Elizabeth Rasberry, a native of Angel’s Camp and a daughter of Bennager Rasberry, who was born
in Georgia and married Miss Maria Bowes, a native of England. They were married
in the east and in 1852 crossed the plains to California from Wisconsin. One of their children died on the journey and
his wife suffered with the cholera, but ultimately recovered. Theirs was a most trying trip, but eventually
they reached California and for a short time the father was engaged in mining
at Volcano, and later at Angel’s Camp.
He then turned his attention to horticultural pursuits and planted and
became the owner of the first orchard in the mountains. He departed this life on the 4th
of September, 1893, at the age of seventy-five years, and his wife still
survives him, in the sixty-seventh year of her age. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Bennett
have been born two children, a son and a daughter, George Bennager,
who is now working in a mine; and Maria Amanda, who became the wife of D. Rolleri, and shortly afterward was taken ill with typhoid
fever which terminated her life.
She was a lovable daughter and young wife, and her death was the
occasion of great grief to her parents and her husband and the entire
community. She passed away in her
eighteenth year.
Mr. Bennett has been a lifelong
Democrat, unswerving in his loyalty to the party. He formerly belonged to the lodge of the
Knights of the Golden Eagle, but the organization has given up its
charter. He and his wife are independent
in their religious views, but their lives are upright and honorable, commanding
the confidence and good will of all.
They have a cozy home at Angel’s Camp, surrounded by shade and fruit trees,
and there they are spending the evening of life surrounded by many comforts in
the midst of friends who entertain for them a high regard. Great changes have occurred since their
arrival in the west. In the winter of
1852 it required two months with an ox team to go to Stockton to bring back a
load of provisions, which incident indicates in a slight measure the
difficulties that the first settlers had to undergo. With Mr. Bennett success in life has been
reached by sterling qualities of the mind and a heart true to every manly
principle. In his varied business
interests his reputation has been unassailable, his name being synonymous with
honorable dealings.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 339-341. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Calaveras County Biographies