Montgomery County PA Archives Biographies.....Bennett, William Hodgson March 7, 1847 - January 4, 1904
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Source: Biographical Annals of Montgomery County Pennsylvania, T. S. Benham & Company and the Lewis Publishing Company, 1904
Author: Ellwood Roberts, Editor

WILLIAM HODGSON BENNETT, deceased, was a native of 
Elkton, Maryland, although for many years one of the best 
known residents of Norristown. He was born March 7, 1847, 
and died January 4, 1904.

Mr. Bennett was educated in the public schools of Elkton, 
his native town, which is the seat of justice of Cecil 
county, Maryland. There he acquired the rudiments of an 
education which was very much broadened by contact with the 
great world of business in which he afterwards moved. On 
leaving school he entered the store of an uncle in the town 
of Elkton, where he remained a number of years, and became 
familiar with business rules which became valuable to him in 
after life. On reaching manhood he went to Philadelphia, 
where he engaged in the china and queensware business on 
Market street, which business he still followed at the time 
of his death, making a trip daily to the city for that 
purpose. They were wholesale and heavy importers. His widow 
still has an interest in the business at the same place.

Mr. Bennett married, October 29, 1884, Mrs. Flora (Shannon) 
Howell, widow of J. Robert S. Howell, of Philadelphia. Mrs. 
Bennett is the daughter of Mr. George Shannon, the well 
known and highly esteemed cashier of the First National Bank 
of Norristown. Mrs. Bennett had no children by either 
marriage.

Mr. Bennett was a member of the Republican party, in 
politics, but he never sought or held office, preferring to 
give strict attention to his business interests. He had an 
excellent war record, having enlisted in the Sixth Regiment 
of Maryland Volunteers at the beginning of the rebellion as 
a drummer boy. As time passed he was promoted to the 
position of drum major. He was captured by the Confederates 
and was in Libby Prison for three months, in which place, in 
common with other Union prisoners, he encountered the most 
severe hardships. Mr. Bennett was a man of amiable and 
kindly qualities which greatly endeared him to a large 
circle of friends. He was much respected as an enterprising 
and public spirited citizen, always interested in whatever 
promised to promote the welfare of the community of which he 
was an honored member. In 1890 he made a trip to Europe for 
his health. He attended the Episcopal church. Mrs. Bennett 
resides in a handsome home on DeKalb street, bought by her 
husband but a short time before his death, which was sudden 
and a great shock to his many friends in Norristown and 
elsewhere. As a business man, a citizen, and in every 
relation of life, Mr. Bennett stood high, and few men were 
more appreciated or more kindly remembered than he. (For 
genealogy of the Shannon family to which Mrs. Bennett 
belongs, see the biographical sketch of George Shannon, 
elsewhere in this work.)


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