BENJAMIN F. BENTLY, a leading
and influential citizen of Monongahela, is a native of this county, bon
in Carroll
township in December, 1821.
His grandfather, Sheshbazzar Bentley, was born in Chester county, Penn.,
where he
learned the trade of millwright,
which he followed in both that and Washington counties. In Chester county
he was
married, and had one child,
Hannah. Afterward he came with his little family to Washington county,
a wagon being
their mode of conveyance,
in which they brought their chattels. They crossed into the county through
the river at what
is now Monongahela, and
for the first night camped out near where the present fair grounds are
located. They then
proceeded up Pigeon creek
until they arrived at a point where Mr. Bentley established a mill site
and built the first mill
on the creek. On an adjoining
hill he put up for himself and family a log cabin, in which they lived
some years, and then
erected a hewed log house,
where he passed the remainder of his pioneer life. He also at this place
founded, in 1816,
the village of Bentleyville,
in Somerset township. His children, born in this county were House, George
and
Sheshbazzar. Mr. Bentley
was a Democrat in politics, and in religious faith a member of the Society
of Friends.
House Bentley attended in
his early boyhood the subscription schools of the neighborhood of the place
of his birth,
Bentleyville, until he was
old enough to work, when he entered his father’s mill to learn the trade.
While a resident of
Bentleyville he married
Fannie, daughter of William Wallace, of Somerset township, and the children
born to them
were Hannah (Mrs. John Kennedy),
Elizabeth, Sheshbazzar, William, Martha, Margaret, Benjamin F. And Amanda
(Mrs. Joshua Stevens). After
marriage Mr. and Mrs. Bentley moved to Carroll township, where he built
a mill on
Mingo creek, which he carried
on many years. In 1824 he moved to a farm near Monongahela river, and there
passed
the remainder of his busy
life, dying in 1852, a member of the M. E. Church. Politically, he was
a Whig, actively and
enthusiastically patriotic,
and was considerably interested in militia matters, having at one time
been a general.
Benjamin F. Bentley was reared
in Carroll township, in the primitive subscription schools of which he
received a fair
education for those early
days. The schoolhouse was made of logs, the floor and seats being rough
puncheons, and the
windows of greased paper
in lieu of glass. He lived on the farm four or five years after marriage,
and then came to
Monongahela, where he has
since made his home. He built his present comfortable and commodious residence
in
1873. In 1849 Mr. Bentley
was married to Mary, daughter of Daniel Van Voorhis. They have no children.
They are
members of the Baptist church,
in which he has served as a deacon, and in his political affiliations he
is a Republican.
Mr. Bentley represents a
family prominent and influential in the affairs of Washington county.