JACOB BENNETT

Born. 1794-1796 Pennsylvania

** According to his tombstone he was born: 1 Feb 1794

**According to his bio he was born in Fayette county, PA

**Using census records his estimated birthdate would be between 1794-1796, PA

Died. 1882, Madison township, Madison County, Iowa

** According to tombstone: 1 Feb, 1882, PA (which is the same date as his birth)

Buried: Bennett Cemetery, Madison Twp, Madison Co., Iowa

** Write up on Bennett Cemetery:

"The land for the Bennett cemetery in Section 22 of Madison Twp. was given by Jacob Bennett. Mr. Bennett was one of the early settlers in Madison County. He was born in Pennsylvania, and came to this county in 1852. Mr. and Mrs. Bennett had two children who were buried in the cemetery in 1853. They owned approximately 1000 acres of land for which they paid $1.25 per acre. This cemetery has been used by members of the Bennett family and is now full."

Married. 1821 in either Ohio or Pennsylvania (a guess per his migration pattern in bio)

+ LYDIA SUSANNAH SHAFFER (called Susan in all census extracts)

Born. 1800-1803 Pennsylvania (using census entries)

Died. 29 May 1877, Madison Twp, Madison Co, Iowa (per tombstone)

** According to tombstone she was 73 y, 7 m, 25 d. old, which using the birthdate calculator gives her a birthdate of Oct. 4, 1803

** She is listed in the 1880 census still alive, so is the tombstone wrong or was the census wrong?

Parents: unknown, but her brother’s name is HENRY SHAFFER who lived in Madison Twp also, and is listed as living with them in the 1880 census.

Buried: Bennett Cemetery, Madison Twp, Madison Co., Iowa

Census:

1840 Pike Township, Marion County, Indiana

1850 Pike Township, Marion County, Indiana

1856 Madison Township, Madison Co, Iowa

1860. same as above

1870 same as above

1880 same as above

Migration according to bio:

Pennsylvania until 1806

Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio abt. 1806-1809

Back to Pennsylvania

Marion County, Indiana abt. 1830-1852

Madison Twp., Madison Co., Iowa 1852 to death.

Other bio information:

*Served in the War of 1812

Children of Jacob & Lydia Susannah (Shaffer) Bennett:

1. Hannah b.abt. 1821
2. David  b. 1822, d. 6 Feburary, 1852
3. Derrick b. 8 Feburary. 1826
4. JOSHUA b. 17 April, 1832 Indiana
5. SARAH/SALLY b. abt. 1832 Indiana
6. EDWARD b. 20 October, 1833 Marion County, Indiana
7. ANDREW b.10 Feburary, 1835 Indiana
8. MARIAH b. 5 July, 1837 Indiana
9. ELIZABETH b. 22 April, 1840 Indiana
10. FRANCIS b. 2 Feburary, 1839 Indiana
11. ETNA b. 3 Janurary, 1842 Indiana
12. SAMANTHA b. 9 March, 1843 Indiana
13. SEPTA b. abt. 1845 Indiana, died 1857 Madison Co, Iowa

Per Jacob’s bio he had 12 children alive, 2 others were buried in the Bennett cemetery around 1853.  Birthdates for Jacob's children were taken from a list of heirs to his estate, attached to his will.

 Derrick Bennett is listed as living with AQUILLA SMITH in the 1856 Madison Township census. What’s the connection there? Interesting that he is living with someone named "Aquilla" who was born in Virginia.  In our Bennett line we have a Jacob & Aquilla who are brothers...

Notes: The 1880 census seems to have some bad information. Jacob’s wife Susan is alive in the census for one. Also Susan’s brother Henry is listed as only 60 years old which is wrong, he was born between 1801-1805 according to his tombstone & 1860-census record.

Looking at the information per the Ashbridge Book:

*Jacob went to Canada w/ his mother after Isaac’s death.

*He moved to Iowa after that and had a "large property", the Iowa Jacob at one time owned more than 1000 acres of land in Madison Co, Iowa.

*He went back to Pennsylvania to take Hannah Barton to Canada, Per his Iowa bio Jacob did at one time go back to Pennsylvania. (notice he named his 1st daughter Hannah)

The dates are sketchy for Jacob, it is possible that his mother may have remarried, that could work with him stating that he was in Ohio in 1806, he would have been about 12 years old. If this Iowa Jacob is the same Jacob s/o Isaac Bennett it is also possible that he was in the war of 1812, he would have been around 16-18 years old.

He may have had to grow up fast with no father or older brothers to guide him (knowing Jesse, John & Aquilla went to Canada by 1801-ish) he would have only been about 15 years old when he took Hannah to Canada, young in age, but it’s possible. Then again, we are only going by oral history and a bio which you can’t always be 100% sure is accurate. There is no date in the bio as to when he actually went back to Pennsylvania. It makes more sense that maybe one of Hannah’s other brothers, Aquilla, Jesse or John brought her to Canada. Aquilla is listed as being back in Somerset County, Pennsylvania in 1808

Final thoughts:  One can’t put a lot of faith in written bios or oral family history. They make a nice story but can only be used as research tools. We have found many details in bios for other family members and have found the information to be way off; the same holds true with oral family histories passed down. However, there are many similarities between this "Iowa Jacob Bennett" and Jacob Bennett s/o our Isaac that fit closely enough making it worth checking into.

Hannah Bennett & her mystery Barton husband:

There is no record found of Hannah Bennett marrying a Mr. Barton.

What we do know is that Hannah’s husband, who we call "Mr. Barton", died sometime before 1809.

Our Bennett’s at the time Hannah married Mr. Barton lived in Brothersvalley Twp., Somerset County, Pennsylvania. Now to find the Barton surname also in the general vicinity.

**1790 census, Somerset County, PA was part of Bedford County. Looking for Barton’s in Bedford County, there are none; therefore Mr. Barton came from elsewhere.

**1800 census, Somerset County, PA, there is one Mr. Barton, his name is Adam. In the adjoining county of Fayette, we find Thomas Barton. In Bedford County we find Elijah & George Barton. These 4 men are our possibilities as the husband of Hannah.

**1810 Census, Elijah & George Barton are still alive and living in Bedford county. There is no Thomas Barton in Fayette County.

Since we know that Hannah was a widow and remarried by 1809, our list now narrows to Thomas Barton & Adam Barton.

**1810 census, Fayette county shows a Joseph Bartor in German Twp., since there is no "Bartor" surname we assume it is "Barton" German township is halfway across the county from the border of Somerset county. We think that Joseph Barton who is in the Fayette County census is either a brother or son of Thomas Barton. The distance leads us to think that the Fayette County Barton’s stayed in Fayette County. That narrows our list down to one man…..Adam Barton of Somerset County in 1800.

Looking at the following state census indexes, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky, Delaware, New York, Maryland, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Connecticut & Maine we find no Adam Barton in 1810. So, he is either dead, somewhere else or was missed. Possible but doubtful.

** 1800 Quemahoning Twp., Somerset Co., Pennsylvania Census (neighboring Brothersvalley, PA)

Household of Adam Barton:

One male between 26-45 (Adam)

Two males between 16-26 (sons of Adam from prior marriage?)

One male under 10 years

One female between 16-26 (Hannah)

One female under 10 years

The breakdown:

The oldest female is less than 27 yrs. old, so she can’t be the mother of the two males 16-26. She is either the sister of the two males in the same age range or she is Hannah Bennett. If Hannah were born in about 1785 she would fit the age range in 1800.

Hannah could be the second wife of Adam Barton, and the two males age 16-26 would be the sons of the first wife. The male under 10 would also be the son of the first wife "IF" Delilah (Hannah’s daughter) is the female under 10. Remember, Hannah has a child with John Black out of wedlock around 1800, although Hannah claims that Delilah is the daughter of Mr. Barton and Delilah used the Barton surname we are talking about a big scandal in 1800 for a 16 year old girl to have a child without the benefit of marriage. It would not be a very comfortable situation for Hannah; living with her husband’s son’s who are as old as, or older than she was. Given her "situation" in that kind of community she may not have had a choice and married an older widower.

Final Thoughts: Here again, no evidence of the marriage other than the fact that Hannah’s surname prior to her marriage in 1809 to Jonathan Ashbridge was Barton. Along with the fact that her daughters Delilah, Julia & Phoebe also use the Barton surname. All we have is circumstantial evidence at this point as to whether Adam Barton is our guy…and we can not conclusively say that he is Hannah’s husband…but it sure looks like a match to us.

We also are not claiming that Delilah Barton is definitely the daughter of John Black…this is why we named the page "Musings & Speculations", we are just trying to cover all possible scenario’s.

Isaac Bennett. Where are you from??        

We can’t seem to locate Isaac Bennett on any 1790 census. There are many Isaac Bennet/Bennett’s found in 1790, however none seem to match up with the data we do have on him. So we are looking at land records in hopes of finding him prior to the earliest known date of 1793 in which he is listed in the Tax Assessments. We have found 2 land records for Isaac Bennett, both can be viewed on the "Documents" page.

Record #1: Isaac Bennett & Richard Nichols Letter of Agreement.

This document is dated 1801 and is an agreement drawn up between Isaac & Richard Nichols. In short what it basically states is that Isaac owned 2500 acres of land in Shade Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania which he wanted to "swap" for 2500 acres of land in Virginia owned by Richard Nichols. Richard Nichols was a land speculator who owned thousands of acres in Virginia and Pennsylvania. We have gone to the Bedford & Somerset County Courthouses and spent hours looking for any reference to the land Isaac owned in Shade Township, we unfortunately found nothing.

Now the questions…. How did Isaac acquire this land? 2500 acres is a pretty big chuck of land to own in 1801. Was it a dowry from his wife, who is listed in the agreement and to our frustration, was only named as his "wife" (so we still don’t have her name!) Or did he get it as part of an inheritance from one of his own family members? Perhaps he was a Revolutionary War Soldier. The possibilities are many the answers at this point are nil. Did Isaac know Richard Nichols? And why did Isaac want land in Virginia? We wonder if he didn’t actually come from Virginia and wanted to go home. The Ashbridge Book does mention that Isaac’s family came from England to Virginia. From the obituary of Willard Bennett, who is the great grandson of Isaac Bennett: "In the ancestry of Hon. Willard Bennett, of Helena, the Cavaliers of Virginia and the Puritans of Connecticut were united, in his character and career, the best features of both, being a courtly and cultivated gentleman". So again there is the old family legend of the Bennett’s coming from Virginia. We know the Puritans from Connecticut are Willard’s maternal ancestors, the Sprague’s. His Paternal grandmother, Susannah Cober, was 100% German, leaving the "Caviler’s of Virginia" statement to describe the Bennett side of the family.

In looking for answers we began by contacting the Courthouses in Wood & Ohio Counties, West Virginia. The land Nichols had was originally part of Virginia, but now is part of West Virginia. We have Land Record indexes for both counties; there is no transfer of land between Isaac & Nichols. Leading us to believe that the swap never took place. We then hired researchers to take a second look, hoping to find anything placing Isaac in Virginia around 1801-1805, they could not find him either

So what happened to the land in Shade Township, Pennsylvania? We only know that it is now owned by the State of Pennsylvania and is being used as a gaming area. We have even walked on the land, which is absolutely gorgeous with the Upper Shade creek flowing through it. We were quite pleased to know that our ancestor’s property was not developed and time stands still to this day where Isaac once walked. At one time there was a mill-run there, the foundation stones still lay intact. This may have been part of the furnace owned by the Vickroy’s, which was at the mouth of the Shade Creek. We are not sure that the Vickroy Blast Furnace was on Isaac’s land, but it was at the very least in close proximity to it. Now we are considering doing some research at the Pennsylvania State Archives, hoping there might be records there that will shed light on this piece of land.

Record #2, Isaac Bennett & Christian Leman Deed of Sale.

Once again, we know Isaac owned land in Quemahoning Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania. Yet we still cannot find a record of how Isaac came to own this tract of land. It appears that Isaac only owned part of the land, sharing ownership with George Edmonds. At the time we searched the land records in the Courthouses, we weren’t looking for George Edmonds but focusing on the Bennett name. This particular piece of land could have originally been listed under Edmonds name.

Questions: Isaac Bennett & George Edmonds shared ownership on this tract, why? What was their relationship? Does this record have anything to do with the land that was warranted in 1794 to the mysterious Jacob Bennett in Quemahoning Township? (See "Maps") That tract also adjoins James Walker (Wacher) who is mentioned as adjoining Isaac 2500 acres of property to the south.

We will keep you updated on our findings and would appreciate any ideas or enlightened comments regarding possible leads or answers to some of our questions, so we may finally know more about our predecessor and his beginnings.