02 Andrew Bennett
Andrew Bennett Coming to Canada and America
Sources are from the MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW Oct. 1955; the HISTORY OF
NORTHWEST MISSOURI VOL. 3 pages 1889-1890, copyright 1915, the MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW, and from various family records.
Andrew Bennett, the son of Thomas Bennett, was born on the 8th of October,
1797 in Cork County Ireland, near Skull. At the age of 34 (about 1831), Andrew
emigrated to Quebec, Canada. In Quebec, Andrew owned a farm in Beauharnois County,
along the Chataguay River, near Ormstown. It is here that Andrew married Ann Abbott
in 1833. Andrew and Ann had 13 children, all of whom lived to adulthood, a remarkable
achievement in those days. Andrew was ill for many years until he died on October 3rd,
1865. It is remembered that he spent most of his time, due to his illness, in a rocking
chair, even to sleep. It is also remembered that Andrew was excommunicated from
the Anglican Church and readmitted shortly before his death. It is not known at
this time why Andrew was forced out of the church, it might have been since Ann Abbott
was Catholic. Andrew is buried in the churchyard of St. James' Anglican church in
Ormstown.
Ann Abbott was born on the 25th of January 1817, near Drimoleague, Cork County Ireland.
She came to Canada when she was three years old. In 1867 the widowed mother of
thirteen set out with several of her children by a combination of water and rail routes
to the southwest and west. Entering the United States at Port Huron, Michigan,
and continuing "on the cars" to Chicago, the family finally reached a temporary haven
with one of her sons, John Bennett. John had proceeded the others westward and was then
living in Sussex, Wisconsin. It was from this point that another of Ann's sons, 29 year
old Charles Bennett, set forth in the search for new land that ultimately let the
family to Empire Prairie on the Northwestern Missouri frontier. Ann Bennett died
June 4th, 1910 in Stanberry, Missouri at the home of one of her daughters.
To find more information about Ann Abbott's family and where she came
from, go back to the Front page, select the family name(s) McKillen and Abbott and
read the: Remembrances from A.M. McKillen - son of Elizabeth Abbott, and nephew
of Ann (Abbott) Bennett, written in 1898
Note: These memories go way back into the author's past, some may have been embellished,
particularly the story of a John Abbott being the first Governor of Gibralter. That has
not been established as an historical fact. Many thanks to Justin and Beverly Jones,
Harlingen Texas who provided a copy of this very interesting narrative!
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