This gentleman is one of the progressive farmers and leading and publicspirited citizens of Deer Park township, LaSalle county, and as such his biography is of more than passing interest in this work.
Isaac Heman Bennett was born in Litchfield county, Connecticut, June 30, 1835, a son of William Bennett and a grandson of Stephen Bennett. The Bennetts are descended from English and Scotch ancestors who were among the early settlers of Connecticut. Stephen Bennett passed his life in that state. His father grew up on the Connecticut frontier, around Great Barrington, among the red men of the forest and was necessarily one of the hardy pioneers of our colonial period. For the most part the Bennetts have been engaged in agricultural pursuits, and wherever they have lived have been among the leading and highly respected citizens of their respective localities. William Bennett, the father of Isaac H., brought his family to the west by the lake route to Chicago and by canal to Ottawa, Illinois, in 1852. He chose Deer Park township as his place of settlement and bought a tract of land, mostly wild and with scarcely an evidence of the white man's presence, and upon this tract he spent the rest of his life and died. His wife, whose maiden name was Sarah Brunson, survived him a number of years, her death occurring in 1899, at the age of eighty-six years. Their children are: Diana, the wife of Rev. A. S. Calkins, of Normal, Illinois; Isaac H.; George A., of Utica township; Henry F., of Deer Park township; Charles Franklin, of California; Edgar, of Mendota, Illinois; Edwin, of Iowa; Nelson G., of Livingston county, Illinois; and Emma, who died aged four years.
Isaac H. Bennett was seventeen years old when he first saw the prairies of LaSalle county. He remained a member of his father's household until his marriage, after which he was for a few years a renter. Then, in the early '60s, he bought a portion of his father's farm, and this he has improved and enlarged in area, and has made it his home. One of the first lessons he learned was that of industry. All his life he has practiced industry and a wise economy, and in consequence has reached a position of financial independence.
Mr. Bennett was married in January, 1856, to Miss Anna Reed, a daughter of Jonathan Reed, and the fruits of their union are three sons William is a resident of his native township; Arthur E. is in California; and Milton G. is a minister of the Christian church in Iowa.
Politically Mr. Bennett has no public record. He has found it to his interest to support the Republican party in all elections affecting the state and nation, but has never been ambitious to possess any place of public trust.
Extracted by Norma Hass from Biographical and Genealogical Record of LaSalle County, Illinois published in 1900, volume 1, pages 344-345.
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