Nelson Bennett (October 14, 1843 – July 20, 1913) was a

Canadian-American Canadian Americans is a term that can be applied to American citizens whose ancestry is wholly or partly Canadian, or citizens of either country that hold dual citizenship. The term ''Canadian'' can mean a nationality or an ethnicity. Canadians ...

railroad magnate who contributed to the growth of Fairhaven and

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, Washington, Olympia, and northwest of Mount ...

in the late 19th-century. Bennett was president of the

Fairhaven and Southern Railroad The Fairhaven and Southern Railroad and its successor the Seattle and Montana Railroad were railroads in northwest part of the U.S. state of Washington, active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They ran roughly south from Blaine, Washingto ...

, which first connected the

Bellingham Bay Bellingham Bay is a bay of the Salish Sea located in Washington State in the United States. It is separated from the Strait of Georgia on the west by the Lummi Peninsula, Portage Island, and Lummi Island. It is bordered on the east by Bellingha ...

region with the rest of the country.

Early life

Bennett was born the third of six children to Nicholas Bennett and Diana Sprague on October 14, 1843 in the hamlet of Belhaven, Town of North Gwillumbury, York County,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

to a family of

American Canadians American Canadians are Canadians of American descent. The term is most often used to refer to Canadians who migrated from or have ancestry from the United States. Demography According to the 2016 Census, 29,590 Canadians reported American as ...

; his father's family were New Netherland Dutch/Pennsylvania German Dunkard Simcoe Loyalists originally from

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

and later western

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and his mother's of English Puritan descent from

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

and

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

. He was a descendant of the Danish/Dutch Willem Adrianse Bennet (born 1604 in Helsingør, Denmark) who was the first European settler of Brooklyn, New York. His two older brothers, Sidney James and David Henry, preceded him in returning to the United States where both served in the

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...

during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

. David Henry Bennett fell at Antietam on September 17, 1862 at the Dunkard Church. Bennett left for Ridgeway, Orleans County,

at 17 where he had paternal family members that had owned and operated at that time the largest salt boiling concern in the

Holland Land Purchase The Phelps and Gorham Purchase was the purchase in 1788 of of land in what is now western New York (state), New York State from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for $1,000,000 (Pound sterling, £300,000), to be paid in three annual installments, ...

and began a career in industry, first building barracks for the

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

before moving to

in 1864, where he made a significant amount of money constructing oil wells. He was joined in this endeavor by one of his younger brothers, Willard Manville Bennett, who later would be a successful businessman in

Butte, Montana Butte ( ) is a consolidated city-county and the county seat of Silver Bow County, Montana, United States. In 1977, the city and county governments consolidated to form the sole entity of Butte-Silver Bow. The city covers , and, according to the ...

and served as a two term

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state senator in the Territory and then State of

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

Pacific Northwest

By the 1880s, Bennett was fulfilling contracts for the American railroad industry, which included building the

Stampede Tunnel Stampede Pass (elevation ) is a mountain pass in the northwest United States, through the Cascade Range in Washington. Southeast of Seattle and east of Tacoma, its importance to transportation lies almost entirely with railroading, as no paved r ...

through the

Cascade Range The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...

Washington Territory The Territory of Washington was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1853, until November 11, 1889, when the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Washington. It was created from the ...

in 1886–1888. During this time, he invested heavily in Tacoma before focusing his attention on Fairhaven in 1889, with the hopes of developing the small town into a major port to rival

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

and Tacoma. Bennett, along with a number of business partners, including Charles Larrabee, founded the Fairhaven Land Company in November 1888. The following year, the company acquired a large amount of property in Fairhaven from

Daniel J. Harris Daniel Jefferson "Dirty Dan" Harris ( 1833 – August 18, 1890) was an early settler of the Bellingham Bay area and founder of the town of Fairhaven, Washington. Following a stint as a whaler in the Pacific Ocean, Harris arrived in Washington Terri ...

, who had originally

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bear ...

ted the town. Bennett intended to turn the town of Fairhaven into an international port and western terminus of the Great Northern Railway and so set about developing coal mines and building rail lines through the area. The Fairhaven and Southern laid track north to

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

and southeast to what is now

Sedro-Woolley Sedro-Woolley is a city in Skagit County, Washington, United States. It is part of the Mount Vernon– Anacortes, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area and had a population of 12,421 at the 2020 census. The city is home to North Cascade ...

, as well as to numerous mines in the area. While they succeeded in linking the region to the Great Northern, Seattle became the railway's western terminus in 1891 and Fairhaven never developed as much as Bennett had hoped. The Fairhaven and Southern properties were eventually bought out by Great Northern under the control of

James J. Hill James Jerome Hill (September 16, 1838 – May 29, 1916) was a Canadian-American railroad director. He was the chief executive officer of a family of lines headed by the Great Northern Railway, which served a substantial area of the Upper Midwes ...

around the turn of the 20th century. By the end of 1890, with the boom years of Fairhaven fading, Bennett sold his interests in Fairhaven to Larrabee and returned to Tacoma. He died there on July 20, 1913.

Personal life

Bennett married Lottie Huggins on September 2, 1881 in Dillon, Montana. The couple had five daughters; Sarah Sadie, Stella, Sheila ‘Ceta’, Nelsie, and Charlotte. Since no son resulted from the marriage, his youngest brother, George Albert Bennett, named his son after him. This nephew, Lt. Col. Nelson Bennett II, would serve in both World War I and II and is buried at

Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is one of two national cemeteries run by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 30 funerals conducted on weekdays and 7 held on Sa ...

. The name is still carried by his twice great nephew Nelson Bennett IV, a college professor residing in Bethesda, Maryland.

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bennett, Nelson 1843 births 1913 deaths History of Bellingham, Washington History of Tacoma, Washington Businesspeople from Toronto Emigrants from pre-Confederation Ontario to the United States