1925 Biography - Owen L. Bennett

Owen Langworthy Bennett conducts in the City of Baton Rouge a large and prosperous lumber business, under the title of the Bennett Lumber Company, and he has also important alliance with plantation industry, in which connection he is the owner of valuable farm lands with a total area of about 7,000 acres. He has such lands in both East and West Feliciana Parishes, Louisiana, and also in Wilkinson County, Mississippi, where he has also tracts of valuable timber and where he operates sawmills that supply much of the stock for his extensive lumber business.

Mr. Bennett was born at Clinton, East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, March 25, 1879. He is a grandson of Barton Bennett, who was born in South Carolina, of Colonial American ancestry, and who became one of the successful planters in East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, where he continued to reside until his death, in 1854. Thomas B. Bennett, father of the subject of this review, was born in East Feliciana Parish in 1854, and the death of his father occurred in the same year. He was reared and educated in his native parish, became one of its influential citizens, and there served several terms as parish sheriff. He has been a resident of Baton Rouge since 1918, and here holds the office of captain of the receiving station at the Louisiana State Penitentiary. He had served as registrar and treasurer of East Feliciana Parish, and there his service as deputy sheriff and sheriff covered a total period of twenty-seven consecutive years. He has been active in the local councils and campaigns of the democratic party, is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, as was also his wife. Mrs. Bennett, whose maiden name was Fannie Hayes, was born in East Feliciana Parish in 1852, and her death occurred, at Baton Rouge in 1922. Kate, eldest of the surviving children, is the wife of John W. Grippen, a railroad man, and they reside at Pelham, Georgia, Mr. Grippen being a stockholder in the Georgia Southern Railroad Company; William H. is editor and publisher of the 'Southern Watchman' at Clinton, this being the official newspaper of East Feliciana parish; Wilbur C., a detective by profession, resides at Baton Rouge, and he is a veteran of the Spanish-American war; Ida died at the age of five years; Owen L., of this sketch, was the next in order of birth; Dr. Thomas S. is a dentist and is engaged in the practice of his profession at Lake Charles, Louisiana; Burd is the wife of John D. Temple, who holds a position in the Bank of Baton Rouge; and Emmett I. died at the age at eighteen years.

After attending public and private schools in his native parish, Owen L. Bennett was a student in Centenary College at Jackson, this state, until 1897. Thereafter he was clerk in a general merchandise establishment in East Feliciana parish until 1902, when he there purchased a half interest in the general store of I. D. Norwood & Company, in the village of Norwood. Two years later he acquired entire control of this business, which he thereafter conducted until 1914, when he closed out the enterprise to give his attention to his other large and important business interests. He became prominently identified with saw milling operations and farm industry, and with these lines of enterprise he has since continued his active alliance, and that with marked success. In 1921 he established his residence at Baton Rouge, where he engaged in the wholesale and retail lumber business under the title of the Bennett Lumber Company. He is the sole owner of this substantial business, and his large and well equipped yards, with their office headquarters, are situated on Chickasaw Street, with direct connection with the tracks of the Hammond & Eastern Railroad.

Liberal and progressive as a citizen and loyal in allegiance to Democratic party, Mr. Bennett has had neither the time nor inclination for political preferment or pubic office. He and his wife hold membership in the Presbyterian Church, and in the Masonic fraternity he has received the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite in the Consistory at New Orleans, his basic affiliation being with Masonic Lodge No. 54, A. F. and A. M., at Clinton.

November 2, 1904, marked the marriage of Mr. Bennett and Miss Daisy Young, daughter of Dr. Henry M. and Stella (DeBriton) Young, the latter of whom is deceased. Doctor Young has long been numbered among the representative physicians and Surgeons of East Baton Rouge Parish, and is now engaged in practice in the City of Baton Rouge. Mrs. Bennett's early educational advantages included those of Williman [Silliman?] College at Clinton. Frank Willard, eldest of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Bennett, is (1924) a student in the University of Louisiana; Owen Langworthy, Jr., and Gladys Dean are students in the Baton Rouge High school, and Sidney Barton and Martin are attending the grade schools of the capital city.

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Contributed 2021 Nov 04 by Mike Miller, from A History of Louisiana, by Henry E. Chambers, published in 1925, volume 2, pages 308-309.

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