bennettc
Transcribed from "An Illustrated History of The Big Bend Country, embracing
Lincoln, Douglas, Adams and Franklin counties, State of Washington",
published by Western Historical Publishing Co., 1904.
MRS. CHRISTENA BENNETT.
One of the most interesting personages in Adams county is the lady whose
name appears at the head of this sketch, and whose beautiful home, Woodland
Heights, is situated one and one-half miles north of Ritzville. Mrs.
Bennett comes of a historic Scotch family, her grandmother on her father's
side being a Sutherland for which family Sutherlandshire, Scotland, is
named. This grandmother was a refined and gifted woman, well educated,
with the command of seven languages. She enjoyed the distinction
of having served as a nurse at the battle of Waterloo, in which battle,
also, her husband, Hector McKay, served and was wounded, dying some years
after from the hurt received. On her mother's side Mrs. Bennett numbers
a long line of seafaring men, some of whom were captains. To this
family belongs Mary Johnston, author of "To Have and to Hold," "Audrey,"
and so forth, who is third cousin to our subject.
Mrs. Christina Bennett was born in Scotland,
April 18, 1845, the daughter of William and Margaret (Johnston) McKay,
whose lives are briefly touched upon on another page of this volume, with
whom she came to America in 1851. Mrs. Bennett's life in the United
States was spent in the states of Pennsylvania and Minnesota with her parents
until May 13, 1865, when she was married at St. Charles, Minnesota, to
James Gordon Bennett, born in Canada, January 18, 1841.
Mr. Bennett's father was a farmer and teacher
for many years, and died at Clinton, Iowa, when the son was a lad of five
years. His mother was Cynthia (Kinnard) Bennett, a native of Canada,
born near Toronto, the daughter of a farmer, who removed to Canada from
New York, where he was married. During Mr. Bennett's infancy he was
taken by his parents to Iowa, where he lived until arrived at his majority.
He was educated in the Clinton high school, while he lived on a farm with
his mother and brother, and with them later removed to St. Charles.
After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Bennett lived at St. Charles for four
years when they emigrated to Canton, South Dakota, filed on a homestead
and remained eight years. In 1879 they came to Walla Walla, Washington,
where they lived two years, during which time Mr. Bennett pre-empted the
present home of Mrs. Bennett and purchased railroad land. Upon the
formation of Adams county he was one of the first county commissioners,
and Mrs. Bennett was the first superintendent of schools. She first
served by appointment for one year, then was elected on the Republican
ticket twice to succeed herself, her entire term in office covering a period
of five years. They assisted in the organization of the first Congregational
church at Ritzvllle, and Mr. Bennett was the first Sunday School superintendent.
Mrs. Bennett was a graduate from the Winona,
Minnesota, high school and taught school both in Minnesota and at Walla
Walla, in all, five years.
A brother of Mr. Bennett, Creighton, was a
soldier in the Civil War, engaging in the famous Minnesota massacre.
He died from fever while home on a furlough. Mr. Bennett enlisted
in time to serve the last half year of the war. For a number of years
he was the sole support of his mother who died here, December 2, 1889,
aged ninety-two, prior to which time she possessed remarkable vigor, mentally
and physically. The mother was a member of a family of ten, all of
whom lived past ninety years.
Mrs. Bennett has living, two children; Van
V. and Clinton S. Bennett, the former a farmer near Ritzville, and the
latter a student at Belmount, California. She had one daughter, Bessie
M., wife of O. H. Green, a Ritzville banker, mentioned elsewhere in this
book, which daughter died at San Francisco, October 28, 1899.
Mrs. Bennett has six hundred and forty acres
of grain land upon which her husband ordinarily raised fifty bushels of
wheat per acre, and the most handsome and modern home in the vicinity of
Ritzville.
James Gordon Bennett passed away at St. Vincent
Hospital, Portland, Oregon, August 31, 1902, and was laid to rest in the
Ritzville cemetery. His funeral was the largest ever held in that
city, the entire community realizing the greatness of its loss in such
a progressive, liberal, honorable, and public-spirited man.
BACK