Transcription contributed by Martie Callihan 27 November 2004

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726

DAVID P. BENNETT, merchant, Lebanon, was born in Warren Co., Ohio, March 31, 1815; he is the son of David and Hannah (Smith) Bennett, both natives of New Jersey, the former of English and the latter of Welsh descent. His father emigrated to Warren Co., Ohio, in 1806, and settled in Turtle Creek Township, on what is now known as the “old Baker Farm,” on which our subject was born and reared. At the age of 18 years, he commenced learning the carpenter trade, which he followed sixteen years; he then opened a store, which he has carried on continuously for over thirty-three years. He has now associated with him in business his son-in-law, Albert M. Osborn, who was for sixteen years his clerk. Mr. Bennett was married in 1838 to Eliza A. McConnell, a native of Pennsylvania, of Irish Descent. By her, he had three children. The oldest, Robert S. M. Bennett, now a citizen of Chicago. At the breaking-out of the rebellion, he enlisted in Co. G, 75th O. V. I., as a private, and was afterward promoted to Orderly Sergeant. At the battle of Franklin, Tenn., he was promoted to Adjutant, for bravery. Mr. Bennett’s second child, Mary J., is now the wife of his business partner, A. M. Osborn; the third was Leroy W., who died in 1849. Mr. Bennett was a Whig until the Republican party was organized, since which time he has been a stanch Republican. During the war, he was connected with the Christian commission, and made two trips to the south, in one of which he witnessed the battle of Nashville, Tenn. His duty was to attend the wounded and dying; write letters home for the boys who were sick or disabled, and to do anything necessary for the temporal or spiritual welfare of the warring heroes. While neither a preacher or exhorter, he