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Hiram Bennett

29 May 1796 - 21 Jul 1888

Since there are so many of his descendants in and around the Mesquite area, and many others who live elsewhere but look back to the source for any knowledge of their ancestors, I am offering for what it is worth as much as I know about Hiram Bennett.

Hiram Bennett, of Scotch-Irish ancestry was born May 29, 1796, in Georgia, of parents both born in South Carolina, as shown in the 1880 census, came to Dallas County, Texas prior to July lst, 1845, with a grant of land as a member of the Peters Colony. With him came three adult sons who also took up land under the colony charter. These were James Madison Bennett and family, William Hardy Bennett and family, and Elisha Williams Bennett, a single man. Also taking a grant was his daughter Delilah, widow of Redrick Manning, who had come to the new land with her family. These are all mentioned in "The Peters Colony of Texas" by Seymour V. Connor.

So far as I have been able to learn, and I have interviewed personally a number of his grandchildren, Hiram Bennett did not leave behind any traditional tales of his family background nor any "grandfather tales" about his early life and the years of growing up; nor of his relationships with grandparents, parents, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, and cousins. Family tradition says that Hiram Bennett and "two brothers and a half-brother" went to Alabama and later to Arkansas. This leaves the impression that they all traveled together, which they did not. Records show that two half-brothers went from Alabama to Arkansas some years after Hiram arrived there, but did not settle in the same area in which Hiram lived, and it is doubtful Hiram even knew they had come, as it seems they arrived after Hiram had gone to Texas. The father had left Georgia around 1810 with the older of these, and the other was born in Alabama. He apparently had been married to his second wife in Georgia, with the elder of these two brothers born there. The full brother is supposed to have gone on to Tennessee but his name is not known nor just where in Tennessee he might be found.

Hiram's father is thought to be William, born 1760-70 in South Carolina, according to the 1880 census returns given by all his sons, and reinforced by information sent me by a descendent of the half-brother, Pleasant Bennett. She also sent me copies of entries in Pleasant Bennett's Bible, which she had in her possession. This William has been found in the 1830 census of Jackson County, Alabama, where the age grouping of the members of his family corresponds with the family in the same location in 1840. William had died between 1830 and 1840, and in the latter census we find in that location his then grown sons, Pleasant and William with their own families, adjacent to their mother Sarah, who had still at home the daughter (Lucinda) and the son, age 20/30, who was age 10/15 in 1830. This would make Sarah the presumed step- mother of Hiram. She was much younger than William. Who Hiram's mother was has not yet been discovered. She apparently had died in Georgia.

According to biographical material submitted by his son, William Hardy Bennett, in the Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas Co., published by the Lewis Co., 1892, as a young man Hiram Bennett had gone to Tennessee. If, as indicated in census records, William Bennett had gone to Alabama between 1809 and 1812, Hiram would have been between 14 and 16 years old; but he was left behind, and it may be he was with relatives. Strong tradition leads us to believe he had relatives in Tennessee but these have not been traced and identified. He subsequently returned to Georgia and in 1820 at the age of 24 he married Dosia Dobbs, age 16, daughter of Lodowick and Sarah (Adams) Dobbs who lived at various times in South Carolina, Pendleton District, and in Franklin County, Georgia, moving back and forth across the line several times. Dosia was born in 1805 during one of the sojourns in Georgia.' She is named in her father's will dated Sept. 21, 1813; probated June 3, 1814, in Pendleton District, Anderson Court House, South Carolina.

Franklin County, Georgia, records show that Hiram Bennett purchased land in 1822, 1824, aid 1827 to a total of 205 acres. He is found in Franklin County Tax Lists 1821 to 1825. In December of 1833 he sold all of this land, apparently disposing of his holdings in preparation for his move to Alabama, Since his father died between 1530 and 1840, You have speculate as to whether this might have been a factor in Hiram's removal right at this time.

Franklin County, Georgia, records show Hiram Bennett as a Lieutenant of the Militia in 1820 and 1821, and in 1825 he was made a Captain. He resigned from the militia in 1827. In 1831 he was temporarily in Cobb County, Georgia, as his daughter Sarah Ann was born there, according to her granddaughter, Ruth Gilliland. There was another Hiram Bennett, a permanent resident of Cobb County, and they may have been related. In 1832 he was back in Franklin Co., and a Justice of the Peace as shown in the record of a marriage performed by him on January 1st, 1832, uniting Cooper Bennett to Nancy Mills.

In 1833 Hiram Bennett went to Alabama. As he had left that state before 1.840 census he does not appear there and we do not know exactly where he lived during the years there'. He remained in Alabama until after January 1st, 1839, as he had a son born in Alabama that month.. It was while he was in Alabama that his daughter Delilah, then age 15, married in 1838-39, Redrick Manning, age 38,'a widower with three children, the oldest only three years younger than Delilah herself. '

In 1839 Hiram Bennett went to Arkansas where he is found in the 1840 census of Randolph County. In 1842 his daughter Delilah, her husband and their combined family followed Hiram to Randolph County, where Manning died in 1843. This left Delilah a widow with three children of her own and three step- children; but on September 29th of that same year the eldest of these, Sydney, married her stepmother's brother, William Hardy Bennett.

In 1845, sometime before July 1st, Hiram Bennett came to Texas as a member of the Peters Colony, accompanied by his wife Dosia and their entire family, which included two married sons with children, two grown single sons, and his widowed daughter Delilah and her family. The date of arrival is according to "The Peters Colony of Texas" by Seymour V. Connor. Dosia is said to have died soon after their arrival in Texas,: aged 40, which would place her birth date as 1805. (M $ B Hist. Dallas Co.). The exact date of death and the place of burial are unknown, but she may be buried in present Greenwood Cemetery, as the location was the burying ground for , the earliest settlers of the area. Only recently was a possible clue discovered in a list found among papers of Gallison Newton Cole, grandson of Hiram, giving the names of several known persons of the family of Sarah Bennett Cole buried there, and including the name of Dosia Bennett. This list is in the possession of Mrs. E. H. McElroy of Carrollton, daughter of G. N. Cole. There are many old unmarked graves in the cemetery, some so completely indistinguishable that occasionally one is dug into when opening for another burial. As Sarah Bennett Cole was 14 when her mother died, she certainly knew and would have remembered where her mother was buried. Possibly she told her children.

Hiram Bennett first settled at the "Cedar Spring", near the new village of Dallas. The spring was their source of water. He subsequently acquired much larger holdings and lived in various locations in 'the county. When my husband and I purchased some land years ago on which we hoped to build a home, we discovered that Hiram Bennett had been the original owner of this and a considerable amount more where the town of Irving now stands.

In late 1846 Hiram Bennett took as his second wife, Sarah Dougan, by whom he had seven children. It was on July 31st of that year that he was bonded as a Constable of Precinct #1. On December 30, 1848, he received a commission as elected Justice of the Peace for the precinct.

Sometime after the close of the Civil War in which four of his sons fought in the Confederate Army, Hiram Bennett moved to Washington County, Arkansas, for his wife's health. Nearby lived his half-brother William and several of William's married children. Living with William was his widowed sister, Lucinda Billingsley. We find Hiram Bennett in the 1870 census in Crawford Co., Arkansas, White River Township, P. 0. McGuire's Store.

During his stay there, Solomon, Emily, Enoch, Martha, and Alphus married, and all except Martha Wilkerson remained in Arkansas or went to Oklahoma. In 1879 Hiram Bennett returned to Dallas County and settled in the eastern part near his two older sons. We find him and his wife, Sarah, and son, Alfred S., who had returned with his father, in the 1880 census. Listed in the same home are Isaac Wilkerson, his wife, Martha, and daughters, Sarah and Allie. Alfred then married and went back to Arkansas.

Hiram Bennett died July 21, 1888, aged 92, and is buried in the Bennett Family Cemetery section of Laurel Oaks on Lake June Road.

ADDITIONAL NOTES; The late Inez Moore married Porter Travis Bennett, Great Great Grandson of Hiram Bennett, about 1923.She was in her mid seventies when she published this book and spent 50 years collecting the information with her husband (who died 8 years before it was published). All of Hiram s descendents owe much to this couple for saving our family history for us.

From the Book: The Descendents of Hiram Bennett Pioneer Settler of Dallas County, Texas. Researched and Compiled by Inez Moore Bennett. (B & W Printing and Letter Service 1315 West Davis Dallas, Texas USA 1972) Copyright Sept 1973 Inez Moore Bennett.