Charles E. Bennett

CHARLES E. BENNETT, M. D., a prominent and highly successful physician of Wauseon* was born in Evansport, Defiance county, of that State, March 1,' 1856. He is the son of Dr. J. H. and Triphena R. (Denman) Bennett, both natives of New York State. His grandfather, Joseph Bennett, was a native of Bennington, Vt,, whose father, a Scotchman by birth, was a Revolutionary hero from the Green Mountain State. The family came to New England in early Colonial times and became thoroughly identified with the stirring events of the Revolutionary period. The subject of this sketch is also connected with the struggle for American Independence through his paternal grandmother, who was Miss Lucinda Bonney, of French birth, and whose father was a New Jersey soldier in the Continental Army. Dr. J. H. Bennett was born in Genesee county, N. Y., in 1824, and graduated from Starling Medical college of Columbus, O. In 1849 he located at Evansport for the practice of his profession, and there established an enviable reputation as a skillful physician and surgeon, attaining to a high degree of prominence as a public man. He served as coroner of the county by appointment of the Governor and filled various other professional offices with honor to himself and wit h satisfaction to his constituents. In October, 1863, Dr. J. H. Bennett moved to Wauseon and for many years maintained high rank in the medical fraternity of Fulton county. He continued in active practice until about ten years before his death, in March, 1904. Hi$ wife, who died at the age of thirty-six, was the daughter of Israel and Elizabeth (Hardenberg) Denman. Israel Denman was born in Tompkins county, N. Y., and from there removed to Defiance county, O., being one of the earliest settlers of Tiffin township, when Toledo was a small trading post on the shore of the lake. He died in Wauseon in 1895, at the ripe age of eighty-seven years. Dr. Charles E. Bennett is the only member of his family living in Fulton county, having lived in Wauseon since his seventh year. He received a liberal education in his youth, and at an early age decided upon medicine as his life profession, having been led to this decision by his father's devotion to the profession and his unusual success in it. In 1876 he graduated from the Detroit Medical college and at once engaged in practice at Wauseon, being associated for some years with his father. In a short time he succeeded in establishing a large and lucrative practice, which has continued to grow with passing years. The doctor has also held prominent official positions of a professional nature, being surgeon of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern and the Detroit Southern railway companies for many years. In 1878 he was elected county coroner and re-elected in 1880, thus serving four years in that official capacity. He has always been devoted to his profession and has never sought official honors of a strictly political nature. The tongue of public repute places him safely at the head of the medical profession in Fulton county. In keeping abreast 6f his high calling he has for many years affiliated with the leading medical societies of the county, State and nation, and surrounded himself with the current literature of the times. In recent years he has been associated with Dr. Jay H. Miller 9% a talented and successful physician, whose connection with the firm lightens the burden of professional life during the rigors of encroaching years. Politically Dr. Bennett has always affiliated with the Republican party and has manifested a deep interest in the supremacy of its principles. Of the social fraternities he is a Mason of exalted rank and high standing in the counsels of this time-honored fraternity; he is also a member of the Knights of Pythias and has been honored with important positions in connection with each. In religious affiliations the family attend the services of the Congregational church, of which Mrs. Bennett is a zealous member. Dr. Bennett was united in marriage to Miss Celia, the daughter of Joel Brigham, a sketch of whose life appears elsewhere in this work. She is also closely related to the late Col. J. H. Brigham, whose life history is an integral part of Fulton county's historical annals. The sketch of this distinguished man also appears elsewhere in this volume. Dr. and Ms. Bennett have a son and a daughter, the. elder of whom is Walter, a student at Howe Military school at

Lima, Ind., and Florence H., a student in the Wauseon public schools. The names of the Doctors Bennett/ father and son, have been household words in Wauseon and vicinity for considerably more than forty years, and the good they have rendered to suffering humanity is incalculable. The venerable father traversed the country in the early days, in all kinds of weather, and over almost impassable roads, and who can say that the pioneer physicians endured the hardships and perils of those days for the few paltry dollars which their nightly vigils brought to their pockets? True, that was a consideration, but the relief of human suffering was vastly greater, since many of the early physicians, and Dr. J. H. Bennett among them, often performed this philanthropic service without the thought of remuneration. This was notably true during the Civil war while the “boys” were at the front and their dependent ones at home. For many years the practice of Dr. J. H. Bennett was bounded only by his powers of enidurancfe, and no other physician in this section of the state was more widely or favorably known. He was the first surgeon appointed for the territory west of Toledo, for the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern railway, and officiated in that capacity during most of the years that he remained in practice. He was well known in high official circles and counted as personal friends some of the Nation's leaders.

As printed in The County of Fulton: A History of Fulton County, Ohio, from the Earliest Days, with Special Chapters on Various Subjects, Including Each of the Different Townships; Also a Biographical Department. (1905). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.