The 1870 United States census showed Oscar Bennett (age 22, born in Wisconsin, farmer) married to Katie (age 25, born in Canada) and living in South Bend Township, Blue Earth County, Minnesota.
The 1880 United States census showed Oscar Bennett (age 30, born in Wisconsin, laborer) married to Cate (age 32, born in Canada) and living in Mankato, Minnesota. A son, Ben. (age 4, born in Minnesota), also lived with the couple.
The 1900 United States census showed Oscar Bennett (age 52, born in December 1847 in Wisconsin) married to Kate (age 55, born in May 1845 in Wisconsin) and living in North Mankato, Minnesota. A son, Frank L. (age 24, born in December 1875 in Minnesota, brick yard foreman), also lived with the couple.
The 1905 Minnesota census showed Oscar E. Bennett (age 56, born in Wisconsin, brick maker) married to Kate (age 59, born in Canada) and living in North Mankato, Minnesota. A son, Frank L. (age 28, born in Minnesota), also lived with the couple.
Page 335. Bennett, Oscar E. – Of the men who are lending dignity, practicability and special qualifications to the manufacturing interests of Mankato, none are held in higher esteem than Oscar E. Bennett, junior member of the brick making firm of Wheeler & Bennett. Mr. Bennett is approaching his sixtieth year, and forty of these years have been devoted to the brick industry. Many of the buildings which make for the artistic and substantial appearance of this and other towns in the state are constructed of the products of these kilns, the brick being noted for its strength and durability, and its successful weathering of the heat and cold and storms of many succeeding seasons. On both sides of his family Mr. Bennett claims kinship with the men who laid the foundations of civilization along the Atlantic coast. His father, Rufus S. Bennett, was born among the shut in hills of Vermont, and his mother Lydia A. Bennett, was a native of Maine. Rufus Bennett and his wife spent the first year of their marriage in Boston, Massachusetts, where they contracted the western fever, and removed to Green Bay, Wisconsin, later taking up their residence in Calumet county, the same state. Here Mr. Bennett operated a hotel, country store and post-office for many years, his honesty and geniality winning him the popularity and prestige so often accorded men who are so closely identified with the every day needs of the people.
At the end of the Civil war he abandoned merchandising and inn-keeping and returned to farming in Calumet county, thus renewing his youth in the many sided occupation in which he was reared in Vermont. Five years later he removed to Joplin county, Missouri, where his death occurred in 1885, at the age of seventy-six years, his wife surviving him until 1897, in her seventy-fifth year. Mr. and Mrs. Bennett had ten children, eight of whom are living, Oscar being the sixth oldest in the family: Frank L., of North Mankato; Elvira, wife of Abel Osgood, of McLeod county, this state; Helen, wife of James Cook, of Baker county, Oregon; Amos C., of Lovelace, Colorado; Arthur C., of Joplin, Missouri; Mary, wife of James German, of Joplin; Maude, wife of Mr. Madison, of Joplin; George R., who was shot and killed at Fredericksburg, Virginia, during the Civil war; and Willard, who died when young in Wisconsin. The youth of Oscar E. Bennett did not differ from that of other country bred lands (lads) of his time and place. The years passed uneventfully in work, attendance at the district school, and the usual diversions of the neighborhood until the outbreak of the Civil War opened up interminable avenues of interest and discussion. Mr. Bennett was about seventeen years old when he enlisted in Company K, Seventh Wisconsin Cavalry, and served for thirteen months. He saw much of the hideous side of the conflict, and returned to his home with broadened perceptions and intensified humanity. The monotony of the farm no longer seemed to serve his life purpose, and soon after his marital experience he set himself the task of learning to make brick, an occupation which he followed in various yards until
Page 336. 1886, his last position being with the O. R. Mather Company, of whose yards he was superintendent for several months. After forming a partnership with A. L. Wheeler, under the firm name of Wheeler & Bennett, in 1866, he built the present yards, and has so increased the business that a branch has been established at Duluth, Minnesota, both plants being in fine working order and running to full capacity. Mr. Bennett is one of the civic fathers of North Mankato, and has done much to bring this community up to its present high municipal standard. His large brick house, with its spacious and well kept grounds is a distinct addition to the architectural dignity of the place, and he has promoted its schools as a member of the board of education, aiding its first and infantile progress as a member of the first board of alderman after North Mankato was incorporated. Fraternally he is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and he also is a member of the Commercial Club. He is an ardent sportsman, fond of hunting and fishing and is decidedly a social as well as business factor in the community. The marriage of Mr. Bennett and Kate Cook occurred in 1869, and of the union there is a son, Frank L. Mrs. Bennett is a daughter of Andrew and Pheobe Cook, of Stockbridge, Wisconsin, the former of whom first settled in South Bend, later moved to McLeod county, Minnesota, and still later to Mankato, where he died at an advanced age. Mr. Bennett is one of the sterling, dependable men of this part of Blue Earth county, and his rise to prominence upon the invisible assets of perseverance, grit and good judgment, should commend itself to the youthful aspirant for manufacturing and general success. (History of Blue Earth County and Biographies of its Leading Citizens, Thomas Hughes, Middle West Publishing Company, Chicago, 1909)
The 1910 United States census showed Oscar E. Bennett (age 62, born in Wisconsin, own income) married to Kate (age 64, born in Canada) and living in North Mankato, Minnesota. A son, Bennie F. (age 34, born in Minnesota, brick maker), also lived with the couple.
Oscar Eugene Bennett died on April 20, 1919, in Nicollet County, Minnesota.