Siskiyou
County
Biographies
WILLIAM FINLEY BENNETT
One of the best known citizens of Yreka is
William F. Bennett, who is connected with the S. H. Gillette Company.
He is a member of an old family of Siskiyou county,
has led a very active life and is favorably known throughout this section of
the valley, of which he is a native. Mr. Bennett comes of old American stock
and has always exemplified the highest type of citizenship. The early records
of the Bennett family go back to three brothers of Scotch descent who lived in
Virginia. They were left orphans and were “bound out,” as was the custom of
that period. Benjamin Bennett, who was the ancestor of the branch of the family
to which William F. Bennett belongs, was stolen by Indians in a raid they
made upon the settlement. He remained with the Indians for many years and was
compelled to adopt Indian customs, although the savages treated him kindly in their
way. He became a great favorite with his captors and after a time they ceased
watching him so closely to prevent his escape, even allowing him to go on
hunting expeditions alone. He always returned to them, so they thought he was
content. The Indians planned a grand raid on the settlements and Ben told them
he knew where they could get some fine horses and asked permission to go ahead
and spy out the land. This was granted, but, instead, Ben warned the white
people of the raid and fought with them against the Indians. Because they were
forewarned, the settlers suffered little loss of life. Later Ben was a soldier
in the Revolutionary Army and by strategy captured three British officers and
took them into the American camp.
Benjamin Bennett married Elizabeth Moore,
an English woman, and settled in Kentucky. He had ten children, among whom was
a son named John Baptist Bennett, who was born at Breckenridge, Kentucky,
February 28, 1808. At an early age he married, and they had six children.
His wife died in Illinois, and he moved to Missouri, where he again married and
had a family of six children, only one of whom lived to maturity. This wife
died, and on December 5, 1853, he married Lucinda Kaphart,
a daughter of Charles and Elizabeth (Palmer) Kaphart,
of whom the former was of Pennsylvania Dutch stock,
and in whose family were sixteen children. To John Baptist and Lucinda (Kaphart) Bennett were born seven
children, of whom the second, Charles Kaphart
Bennett, was born October 11, 1856. The family lived on their farm near
Gregory’s Landing, Missouri, until the death of the father, November 13, 1868,
the mother being left with seven young children. The boys worked at home and on
other farms until the mother’s death, August 28, 1878, when they went to live with
various relatives, while one went to an orphans’ home.
Charles Kaphart
Bennett worked on a farm near Phelps City, Missouri, for a while, and then came
to California, landing at the Forks of the Salmon in July, 1877. There he
worked in a trading post belonging to his half-brother,
W. P. Bennett, and Peter Miller. They also owned another store,
several mines and two pack trains. At that time the only road to this country
was a pack trail and all food, clothes and tools and supplies had to be carried
over the mountains on the backs of mules. Charles K. Bennett grew very
homesick after about eighteen months and returned to Missouri, where he found
that his mother was dead, the home broken up and everything changed. He tried
farming, but with little success, and in April, 1880, returned to California,
and the Forks of the Salmon. He worked as a packer for W. P. Bennett
for five years, during which time he was married. In 1886 he took up a homestead
in Oregon, where he remained about eighteen months, when they returned to
California, where he bought a ranch, which he later sold. He worked on various
ranches until 1903, when he moved to Chico, where he went to work for the
Diamond Match Company, and he thereafter spent most of his time in Chico until
his death, on February 21, 1916.
On May 2, 1883, Mr. Bennett was married to
Miss Louisa Finley, whose family was of Scotch descent. David Finley was born
in Scotland, came to America and fought and was killed in the Revolutionary
war. There are records of two sons having been born to him, one of whom,
Joseph, married Louisa W. LaRue, a native of
Kentucky. Joseph was a soldier in the War of 1812. The LaRues
were French Huguenots who left France because of religious persecution. Joseph
and Louisa Finley lived in Illinois, where a family of
fourteen children were born to them, several of whom died in infancy.
Samuel LaRue Finley, the oldest child, was born
February 16, 1832, and was reared in a home of culture and hospitality. In 1849
he came to California, where he showed himself a man of self reliance and fond
of adventure. He mined and kept store. He liked mining, but was never
successful at it, and disliked storekeeping, but always made money at it. He
was one of the first in the New River country, where he prospected for mines,
but he and his companions were driven out by the Indians, barely escaping with
their lives. He finally settled at Sawyer’s Bar, where
he maintained a general merchandise store to the time of his death, on
September 18, 1901.
On May 28, 1861, Mr. Finley was married to
Lydia Ann Robinson, a daughter of David H. and Elizabeth (Drinkwater)
Robinson. The former, of Scotch descent, was born in New York, January 16,
1810, while the latter, who was of English lineage,
was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, December 13, 1813. Both David and
Elizabeth Robinson died of cholera within a few days of each other, leaving
seven children. Lydia Ann Robinson was born September 21, 1841, and died
November 14, 1897. In her childhood, after the death of her parents, she found
a home with a family named Monroe (cousin of President Monroe) and lived for a
time in Illinois, moving to California in 1853. They used ox teams and
experienced all of the hardships and adventures
incident to a journey across the plains in those days. To conserve the strength
of the oxen, members of the party walked much of the distance and little Lydia,
being young, walked nearly the whole way to the land of gold. The party was
about six months on the way. While in the east Mrs. Monroe was kind to
Lydia, but after reaching California her treatment became cruel and
unreasonable and she imposed on the young girl many arduous tasks and heavy
floggings. On one occasion before leaving the house she assigned Lydia a lot of
work to be completed before noon. The child, seeing the impossibility of doing
this within the given time and dreading the threatened punishment, decided to
run away. For three days and two nights the child wandered, hiding during the
daytime and traveling at night, barefoot and poorly clad, her food consisting
of wild berries and nuts. She was in a wild, mountainous district. One morning
she stopped at a house to ask the way to Shasta, where some friends of the
Robinson family resided. The woman fed her and while she was there a man rode
up. He knew the child and her living conditions at the Monroes,
so he took her to his home, where he and his wife treated her as their own
child. As they were poor at that time, though later very wealthy, Lydia went
out to work, although their home was always hers and was so considered until
her marriage to Samuel L. Finley, who took his bride to Sawyer’s Bar, where he had provided a nice home. They had thirteen
children, the oldest of whom, Louisa, was born April 16, 1862. At the age of
nineteen she began teaching school and during the winter of 1881-2 taught the
public school at Forks of the Salmon. There, boarding with the family of
W. P. Bennett, she met his half-brother, Charles K. Bennett, whom she
married May 2, 1883, and they had a family of ten children, as follows: Lydia
Lucinda, who was born February 27, 1884, and became the wife of J. F.
Chester in 1904; William Finley; Gilbert Claude, born August 8, 1886; Jesse
Oscar, born January 16, 1888; John Samuel LaRue, born
December 13, 1888; Hattie, born November 20, 1891; Mildred Lee, born May 11,
1893; Charles Louis, born August 27, 1895; Margery Althea, born June 21, 1898;
and a son who died in infancy.
Life in the mountains in those early days
was frequently strenuous, as is indicated by some of the entries made by Mrs.
Bennett in an old journal which she kept for many years. In this record it is
noted that in February, 1885, when she was twenty-three years old, her husband
suffered a broken leg at nine o’clock a. m. on one Friday and the
physician arrived to set it at four p. m. Sunday. While the leg was still
in splints, on March 18th, they had a fire; on March 23d William
Finley Bennett was born; on March 26th the house again caught fire,
and in June her husband was kicked unconscious by a mule. This journal, its
entries covering twenty-five years, tells interestingly of their simple lives
and simple pleasures. On one trip to a Fourth of July celebration, they started
at one-thirty a. m. and reached their destination at four p. m.
At another time they made a three days trip over the mountains to Montague to
see a circus, starting at 3:30 a. m. and camping out two nights.
William Finley Bennett was born at
Sawyer’s Bar, Siskiyou county, March 23, 1885, and
acquired his education in the East Fork school, in Plowman valley, which is the
east fork of the Scott river. He also attended high school there for two years,
after which he took up ranching in the same district. He gave his attention
largely to stock raising, which he carried on until
1902, when he sold out and moved to Chico, Butte county, where he and his
father together bought a home and went to work for the Diamond Match Company.
Mr. Bennett worked there until 1905, when he entered the postal service,
filling the position of postal clerk at Chico until 1916, when he was
transferred to the post office at Yreka. In 1920 he resigned and entered the
employ of the Yreka Transfer Company, remaining until 1926, when his health
failed. He found it necessary to give up his position and put in two years in
traveling up and down the coast, from San Francisco to Spokane. On June 3,
1929, he entered St. Mary’s Hospital in San Francisco, in which
institution his daughter Helen was a trained nurse. On July 5, 1929, when he
returned to Yreka, he joined the S. H. Gillette Company, by which firm he
had previously been employed about three months, and he is still with this
concern. The S. H. Gillette Company serves as jobbers and distributors for
automotive, sawmill and mine supplies.
On September 30, 1906, Mr. Bennett was
united in marriage to Miss Helen Gibson, a daughter of George K. and Queen
Esther (Broyles) Gibson. Mr. Gibson, who was a native of New Hampshire, came to
California in an early day by ox-team and located in the northern part of the
Sacramento valley, where he became a successful rancher and stock raiser. He
spent his last years in Chico, at which time he was running the Gibson Harness
Shop. He died at the age of sixty years. His widow now lives in Lodi,
California. Mr. and Mrs. Bennett are the parents of four children, namely:
Helen Esther, who is still in St. Mary’s Hospital in San Francisco; two
who died in infancy; and Charles Gibson, who is with his father’s sister near
Sacramento, where he is attending high school. Since coming back to the valley,
Mr. Bennett has made his home at Yreka. He was formerly a member of the Knights
of Pythias, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and
the Fraternal Order of Eagles, but when his health failed he dropped his
membership in those organizations. He was reared in the faith of the Baptist
Church, in which he held the office of deacon, but there being no society of
that denomination at Yreka, he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which
he was a member of the official board for a time. He maintains an independent
attitude in political affairs. For eleven years he was a member of the Second
Regiment California National Guard at Chico and was a sergeant when he quit the
service.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
14 May 2010.
Source: Wooldridge, J.W.Major
History of Sacramento Valley California, Vol. 2, Pages 122-126. Pioneer Historical Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010 Marie Hassard..
Golden Nugget Library's Siskiyou County Biographies