Hon. Norval L Bennett
From the Biographical Cyclopedia of the Commonwealth of
Kentucky, published by the John M Gresman Company, Chicago-Philadelphia 1896
HON. NORVAL L BENNETT of Newport, Judge of Campbell County Court, is the son of George W and Louisa (Perry) Bennett. His father is a native of Culpepper C. H. Virginia, and came to Kentucky with his parents when fifteen or sixteen years of age. He now resides on his farm at Cold Springs, Campbell County, where he has lived for the past thirty years. He is now eighty-one years old and has always been a farmer and is a stanch Republican.
George W Bennett Sr. (grandfather) was also a native of Culpepper County, Virginia, but removed to Kentucky in 1827 and owned a line of flatboats which ran between Pittsburgh and New Orleans. The Bennetts belonged to an old Virginia family whose ancestors came from Germany. Louisa Perry Bennett (mother) was a native of Kenton County. She died in 1872, aged fifty-two years.
Charles Perry (grandfather) was a native of England; came to America when a youth; was a soldier in the War of 1812 and was a farmer, miller and a millwright. He died at his home in Covington in 1860.
Judge Norval L Bennett was born near Latonia Springs, Kenton County, July 17, 1853. He was educated in the common schools of the country and was a farmer until 1878, when having an adventurous spirit, he enlisted in the regular army. At the time of his enlistment there were thirty-three men examined and he was one of three who were accepted. He served five years, the full term of his enlistment, doing duty in the west and from Canada to Mexico. He was all through the Rocky Mountain regions and was with the command through the Ute campaign. During the last three years he was first sergeant, Company H, Sixth Regiment United State Infantry. He was discharged in Salt Lake City April 28, 1883. After returning home he read law, graduated from the Cincinnati Law School and was admitted to the Newport bar in 1889.
In 1894 he was the Republican candidate for county judge and was elected, assuming the duties of the office January 7, 1895.
Judge Bennett and Mattie A Dodsworth, daughter of Robert Dodsworth of Cold Springs, were married in 1883, soon after his return from the army. He is president of the board of deacons of the Christian Church; an active member of the Young Men's Christian Association; a Knight Templar; member of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics; the Maccabees, Order of Ben Hur, K.A.E.O. and commander of the Regular Army and Naval Union.