Stephen O. Bennett


Stephen Osander Bennett was an American merchant and farmer from Raymond Center, Wisconsin who spent one year as a Free Soil Party member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from Racine County and two years as a member of the Wisconsin State Senate from the 17th District. He later moved to Michigan.

Background

Bennett was born in 1807 in Milton, New York. He moved in his youth to New Haven, Connecticut in preparation for college, but his eyesight made that impractical. Instead, he became a merchant, first in Albany, New York and later in New York City. In 1832 he moved to Ohio, and in 1840 settled in a farm in the Wisconsin Territory. He was one of the first settlers in Raymond Center. He declared himself bankrupt in 1843.

Public office

He was elected as a Freesoiler or "Free Soil Democrat" delegate to the First Wisconsin Constitutional Convention, serving on the committee on amendments to the constitution. He was elected to the Assembly from Racine County for a one-year term, and to the Wisconsin Senate, District 17 for 1851-52 succeeding fellow Free Soiler Victor Willard.
The Senate was expanded in 1853, and Bennett was succeeded in what was now the 7th District by Democrat John W. Cary. In later years he joined the Republican Party.

After the Assembly

In 1853 he was elected president of the Racine County Agricultural Society.
In 1859 he sold his farm and moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he resumed his prior occupation as a merchant. He died suddenly on May 24, 1886 while on a business trip to Chicago.