5^ BENNETT. BENT. was with Josephine A., daughter of John S. and Sylvia E. Bassett. Their children are Fred W. and Ethel F. Bennett. BENNETT, JOSEPH, son of William and Charlotte Bennett, was born at Bridgton, Cumberland county, Maine, May 26, 1840. He received his early education at the district school in Sweden, Maine, and pre- pared for college at the Bridgton Academy JOSEPH BENNETT. and the Boston Latin school. He entered Bowdoin College with the class of 1864, withdrawing in junior year, and subse- quently receiving from the college the degree of A. B., out of course. After studying law in the office of Asa Cottrell, in Boston, he was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1866, circuit court bar in r868, and to the United States supreme court in 1882. He has practiced law in Boston since 1866, and is special justice of the Brighton district municipal court. Mr. Bennett was married April 26, 1S66, at Boston, to Elizabeth R., daughter of John and Mary (Harding) Lafavour. They have three children: Joseph I., Frederick S. and Mary E. Bennett. In 1879 Mr. Bennett was elected a mem- ber of the House of Representatives. In 1881-82 he was a member of the State Senate, being made chairman of the com- mittees on taxation, election laws, and division of the State into congressional dis- tricts. He also served upon committees on probate and chancery, and judiciary. Mr. Bennett has been a member of the Boston school board, and for several years a member of the school committee of Brigh- ton, one of the trustees of the Holton lib- rary, and trial justice in Middlesex county at the time of the annexation of Brighton to Boston. BENT, GEORGE C, was born in Lud- low, Windsor county, Vermont, July 17, 1848. His childhood was principally spent in the neighboring town of Cavendish, as a farmer's son. He early showed remark- able fondness for study, but how to ac- quire the means to fulfill his youthful ambition for a liberal education was the problem that confronted him. Having passed the public schools, at the age of eighteen he began teaching in the common schools of his state. He was eminently successful. By teaching, and performing whatever of manual labor came to hand during vacations, he man- aged to attend an academy six months in each year until he had fitted himself for college. This academic education he re- ceived from Black River Academy, Lud- low, Green Mountain Institute, Woodstock, Vermont, and Dean Academy, Franklin, Mass. He graduated from the last named with the class of 1871. He was at once elected president of the Dean Alumni Association, and two years later delivered the commencement day ora- tion at this institution. He was admitted to Tufts College, but having received an offer to take charge of the high school at Machias, Me., he accepted, and thus lost the opportunity of a college training. He remained in charge of the Machias high school four years, a full measure of suc- cess attending his efforts. In 1875 he resigned this position, and came to Boston, where he entered upon the study of law, with Heman W. Chaplin. He was ad- mitted to the Suffolk bar, 1876. He then moved to Cambridge and opened law offices both in Boston and Cambridge, where he has continued in practice. Mr. Bent has always been prominently identified with the Republican party. He has repeatedly served the city of Cam- bridge as chairman of the ward and city committee, and as member of the com- mon council i88o-'83. He served in the General Court for three years, i8S4-'5-'6, representing ward two, Cambridge, with
