Freestone County, Texas
Biographies


Biography of Lieutenant Colonel Joseph L. Bennett
  

  Joseph L. Bennett married Elizabeth Seaborne by 1821 probably in Alabama. Joseph
was a military officer, moved to Texas in the spring of 1834 at the age of 34.  
Joseph served as Justice of the Peace in the precinct known as Viesca as early 
as 1837. This precinct was absorbed into the larger Montgomery County on July 8, 
1837.
  At the outbreak of the Texas Revolution he joined the army. Joseph L. Bennett 
was elected Captain of a volunteer company organized in that part of old 
Washington Municipality (now embraced in Montgomery and Walker Counties) in 
February 1836 and Mr. James Gillaspie was elected First Lieutenant. About March 1, 
1836, he set out with his company for San Antonio, planning to march to the 
relief of the beleaguered garrison at the Alamo, but learned of the fall of the 
fort at the Colorado River. There upon Bennett joined Sam Houston's army at 
Beeson's Crossing and was commissioned captain on March 12. 
   With the reorganization of the Texas army on April 8, Joseph was elected 
lieutenant colonel of Col. Sidney Sherman's Second Regiment of Texas Volunteers. 
Also Lieutenant James Gillaspie was promoted to succeed Joseph as Captain of the 
Sixth Company of the Second Regiment. Lt. Col. Bennett fought with distinction 
at the battle of San Jacinto.  According to his account in a letter to Houston, 
he actually led the regiment of which Sherman was the nominal commander, while 
Sherman skulked in "a small island of timber." 
   On May 27, 1837, Bennett received Houston's commission as a full colonel and 
appointment as commander of a regiment of "mounted gunmen" for the protection of 
the frontier.  This group was later to become the Texas Rangers.
   Joseph was presented with a land grant of 640 acres of donation land in Fannin
County for having "fought bravely at San Jacinto on April 21, 1836."  Joseph 
also received a grant for 320 acres in Austin County for "having fought in the 
Texas War of Independence".  The Montgomery County Board issued Colonel Bennett 
a headright certificate for one league of land on February 1, 1838 in Robertson 
County. During this period, he also held the government contract for the delivery 
of mail between Houston and Montgomery. 
   Bennett served in the House of Representatives of the Third and Fourth 
congresses of the Republic of Texas, November 5, 1838, through February 3, 1840. 
Joseph represented Montgomery County as a stout supporter of the policies of Sam 
Houston.
  In late 1842, Bennett raised a battalion for the Somervell expedition.  Colonel
Bennett started leading his spread out battalion westward from Montgomery in 
early October 1842. Most of his men, tiring of inaction after reaching the Rio 
Grande, returned to their homes. When Brigadier General Alexander Sommervell 
ordered the command back into Central Texas on 1 Jan 1843, Bennett returned and 
did not take part in what became known as the Mier Expedition.
  Joseph Bennett was appointed administrator on 30 Nov 1846 over the estate of 
Matthew Finch, who died without a will in 1841, by the Probate Court of Walker
County.  On 29 Mar 1847, Joseph gave a property inventory to the court in which 
a third of a league of land was sold for $87.97 to Alexander McDonald.  This would
later grow into a court case that was decided by the Texas Supreme Court in 1853 
(after Joseph's death in late 1848) in a case of "Finch v. Edmonson".    
  In 1848 between May and September, Joseph moved from Montgomery to Navarro 
County and settled on his headright, located partly in Navarro County and partly 
in Freestone County. The present town of Streetman is within three miles of the 
old Bennett home, where Bennett died in the fall of 1848.  He signed his will 
September 28, 1848 and the will was opened for probate in Navarro County, October 
30th. Col. Joseph Bennett's death was announced in the Nov. 18, 1848 issue of the
"Erie Observer" newspaper of Erie, PA. saying, "The Huntsville Banner announces
the death of Col. Joseph Bennett, one of the soldiers of the Texas Revolution.
He command the left wing at the battle of San Jacinto."  The Northern Standard
newspaper (of Clarksville, Texas) of Nov. 25, 1848, says, "We learn from the 
Huntsville Banner, that Col. J. Bennet[t] lately died at his residence in Navarro 
county. The Banner says he was a trusty friend, a good neighbor, an affectionate 
husband and parent, and an honest man. He was a Lieut. Colonel, and commanded a 
portion of the left wing of the Texian army at San Jacinto -- Telph." [found at
Briscoe Center at U. of Texas at Austin]. 
  Surviving him were his widow wife, Mrs. Elizabeth, and their five children: 
Seaborn J. Bennett (abt 1822-abt 1860, married Mary Ann Epps); Julia Ann Bennett 
Clark (1825-1855, wife of Joseph C. Clark, m Oct 8, 1846 in Walker Co., TX.); 
Frances F. Bennett Dyer (9 Apr 1827-1899, wife of Benjamin Franklin Dyer, Jr.); 
Lilian Bennett Curry (wife of Kenneth Curry); and Seliane Adaline Bennett Epps 
(1829-1875, wife of Henry Batt Epps). 
   The house and family cemetery was located just inside Navarro County line, 
while the barn was located just over the Freestone County line. Joseph Bennet 
was believed to be the first to be buried at the family cemetery. When Mrs. 
Elizabeth Bennett and her son Seaborn J. Bennett died, they were also buried in 
the family cemetery.  
   
   [For further information, look at Bennett Cemetery on this website.]
   [For further information, look at articles by Sonny Sessions in the Reflections
   section on this website.]
   
   [WARNING - There is are other well-known Bennett families (David Crockett 
   Bennett and Daniel Pink Bennett) around the community of Rehoboth/Young in 
   Freestone County.]