Bennett, William W. (of Mount Vernon, IL)

Born: 1816-06-08 Virginia

Died: 1878-11-04 Texas

William W. Bennett was a laborer, farmer, and railroad contractor. In April 1845, he married Mary J. Hobbs in Jefferson County, Illinois. In October 1845, he became a founding member of the Mount Vernon Lodge of Freemasons. In 1850, Bennett was a laborer living in Mount Vernon with his wife and three children and owned real property valued at $300. In 1855, he purchased eighty acres of public land east of Mount Vernon. Sometime after 1855, Bennett moved his family to Dallas, Texas, where he found work as a railroad contractor. In 1860, he was living in Dallas and owned real property valued at $500.

Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Jefferson County, 3 April 1845, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; William Henry Perrin, ed., History of Jefferson County, Illinois (Chicago: Glove, 1883), 341; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Mount Vernon, Jefferson County, IL, 398; Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Jefferson County, 112:171, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Precinct 1, Dallas, Dallas County, TX, 177; Gravestone, Old City Cemetery, Paris, TX.