Lewis Jackson Bennett (1833 - 1925)

Born 7 Jul 1833 in Schenectady, New York, United States

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 1925 at about age 91 in Buffalo, Erie, New York, United States

Biography

Lewis J. Bennett was born in the town of Duanesburg, Schenectady County, N. Y., July 7, 1833. When he was four years old his parents removed to Glen, Montgomery County, where he received a public and High School education. When sixteen years of age young Bennett became a clerk in the general grocery store of Chapman & Smith, in Fultonville, N. Y., and two years later he was admitted to partnership in the firm of Chapman, Peek & Co. In 1856 he became a partner of William R. Chapman and William W. Kline, under the firm style of L. J. Bennett & Co., which association existed till 1866, when Mr. Bennett sold out his interest and removed to Buffalo. There he engaged in general contracting in city. State and Government work, including the building of iron bridges, his partners being Andrew Spalding and John Hand. In 1877 Mr. Bennett organized the Buffalo Cement Company, of which he has ever since been President, and which has for many years been a leading concern in the manufacture of hydraulic cement.

Nowhere in Buffalo will Mr. Bennett be better known or longer remembered than in the Central Park district. He is the founder of this important section of the city, whose development he began in 1889, the work taking nearly four years and costing nearly $300,000 in improvements alone. Only a man with clear business judgment added to strong faith in the future of Buffalo could have carried such a comprehensive project to successful completion.

Mr. Bennett has been a steadfast Republican since the days of Fremont, for whom he voted for President. He was Canal Collector at Fultonville, N. Y., in 1861-62, and in 1865 he represented the town of Glen in the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors. In his religious faith Mr. Bennett is a Universalist, and he has long been a Mason, being affiliated with Fultonville Lodge, No. 531, F. & A. M., Johnstown Chapter, No. 78 and Apollo Commandery, No. 15, Knights Templar of Troy. He is a member of the Buffalo Historical Society and the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, serves on the managing boards of both those bodies, and belongs to Buffalo Chapter, Empire State Society, Sons of the American Revolution.

October 6, 1857, Mr. Bennett married Mary F. Spalding, daughter of Andrew Spalding of Johnstown, N. Y. Their surviving children are: Leslie J. Bennett, Vice-President, Secretary and Assistant Treasurer of the Buffalo Cement Company, and Louisa A., widow of the late James P. Wood, who was identified with the same company as Vice-President and Treasurer.

Mr. Bennett has ever lived an active life, devoted to business, to his family and to the welfare of the community. His business career has been varied by only one vacation of any note, this being taken in 1894-95, when he made a tour of the world, chronicling his impressions in a series of letters, which have been published.

Sources

MEMORIAL AND FAMILY HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY NEW YORK VOLUME I BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK- BUFFALO THE GENEALOGICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY 1906-8 THE WINTHEOP PEESS 419-421 LAFAYETTE STREET NEW YORK

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