Bennettsville, New York

Bennettsville, New York by Jeremy Dibbell

Located in the southeast corner of the town of Bainbridge, on Bennett's Creek, Bennettsville was probably first settled in 1789, when when Phineas and Reuben Bennett erected a grist mill on Bennett's Creek. The Bennettsville Baptist Church was formed in 1846, and the Bainbridge Center Baptist Church was incorporated in 1855. This church had 39 members in 1880. The first merchant in Bennettsville was Amasa Cowles, who arrived in 1836 from Owego.

	David Van Horne served as the first postmaster until 1861. Ezra Church and William C. White succeeded him, and Charles Humphrey was appointed to the office in 1877. The first physician in the town was Dr. Blin S. Sill in 1848. Dr. Sill was from Bainbridge, and returned there soon after. Dr. Lewis Livingston, his eventual successor, was a deaf mute.
In 1870, Bennettsville consisted of a store, a grist mill, a carriage shop, and about 20 dwellings. Next stop: Bainbridge

The 1870 Business Directory for Chenango County has the following listings for Bennettsville:

Isaac Benedict, shoemaker
Arnold Bennett (with Hiram), farmer
Henry R. Bennett, farmer
James W. Bennett, farmer
Phineas M. Bennett, farmer
Rufus Bennett, dealer in lumber and shingles
Orange Benton, retired farmer
Edward L. Bradstreet, retired farmer and agent for Buckeye Reaper and Mower
Ezra B. Church, proprietor of carding and cloth dressing mill, postmaster, justice of the peace, and farmer
Susan Clark, farmer
William Corbin, W.C. White and Company
Daniel Corey, farmer
William Crandall, tanner and currier
Hugh Crawford, carpenter and joiner
Jesse Crumb, sawyer
David Devol, shoemaker
Abraham Drake, farmer
Myron H. French, blacksmith
Nathan Hand, shoemaker
James Howe, farmer
Charles M. Humphry, wagon-maker
William Ireland, farmer
George King, farmer
Aaron Lathrop, cooper
Lewis Livingstone, physician and surgeon
John Lloyd, farmer
Morgan Madison, farmer
Chester Neff, farmer
Daniel Olmstead, farmer
Matthew Price, farmer
Samuel Scofield, drover
Nathan Slater, carpenter and joiner
Martin Somborger, grist mill operator
Hiram Utter, farmer
William Welch, carpenter and joiner
W. C. White, owner of W.C. White and Company, general merchants

As evidenced by this list, agriculture was by far the most common occupation in Bennettsville at this time, but it must have been a busy little hamlet, with a doctor, a cooper, several carpenters, the grist mill, etc.

In 1880, the sawmill was producing 300,000 board feet of lumber and 200,000 shingles annually. There was a union school, the Baptist Church, two wagon shops, two shoe shops, a cooper's shop, and a blacksmith shop, and the population was 161.

Today, Bennettsville consists of a few dwelling houses.

Sources: Child, Hamilton. Gazetteer and Business Directory of Chenango County, NY for 1869-70,1869, Offices of the Syracuse Journal, Syracuse, NY.

History of Chenango County, Chenango County Historical Society, Norwich, 1880.

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