Glenn Ferris Bennett, 100, longtime area resident and respected teacher, of Tuscarora Township died Sunday, October 16, 2005 at the Memorial Hospital, Towanda, PA.
He was born May 6, 1905 in Tuscarora Township in the house on Clapper Hill Road across the road from his present residence on Bennett Acres, a designated Century Farm. He was a son of Very Bennett and Mary Woodruff Bennett. Glenn attended local schools and graduated from Laceyville High School, Class of 1923 and from Mansfield Normal School, Class of 1924. He began his career as a teacher at the age of 19 in the one-room school house on Clapper Hill in 1924, and had 17 students at the time. He later taught history and English in Skinner’s Eddy, was an English teacher and the principal at Laceyville High School for two years (until consolidation), and taught English to the upper grades at Wyalusing Valley High School for over 15 years. His combined total was 44 years of teaching.
Glenn met his wife-to-be, Florence Beckman of Coudersport, PA, during summer school at Penn State, and on May 6, 1932 Glenn and Florence were married. Since the Depression had begun, they kept the fact a secret in order for Florence to keep her job. By 1938, there were three small children in the house and Glenn needed to complete his degree so he took classes at Mansfield State Teachers College while Florence taught in his place at Laceyville High School. The couple also managed a lunch-counter – gas station at Powers Corner near Mansfield. Florence was Spanish, Latin, French, science, social studies and chemistry teacher for many years, retiring from Wyalusing Valley High School in 1969. “Mr. and Mrs. B.”, as the couple were affectionately called by students, were exceptional teachers and a devoted couple. They enjoyed a long retirement together, traveling to visit family and remodeling their home. Glenn and Florence were married 63 years before Florence passed away on Dec. 18, 1995.
An avid reader and farmer, Mr. B’s interests and memberships over the years include: Beaver Meadows United Methodist Church, the Mayflower Society, John Howland Society and the sons of the Civil War and Roman Masonic Lodge #418 F&AM, LeRaysville, PA.
Survivors:
Sons Robert Glenn Bennett - Camarillo, CA
Dr. John Very Bennett - Atlanta, GA
James George Bennett - Columbus, Ohio
Daughter Suzanne Marie Bennett-Sagrati - Cincinnati, OH
21 grandchildren and 32 great-grandchildren
Funeral Services will be held on Wednesday, October 19, 2005 at 10:30 A.M. at the Beaver Meadows United Methodist Church with the Rev. William C. Nelson, his pastor, officiating. Internment will be in Beaver Meadows Cemetery.
Friends may call at the Church on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2005 from 2:00 to 4:00 PM and from 7:00 to 9:00 PM, and on Wednesday morning from 9:30 AM until the time of the service.
Memorials may be directed to the Florence and Glenn Bennett Memorial Scholarship Fund c/o First Liberty Bank, 101 E. Main St., Laceyville, PA 18623.∼Lot 16 and 17, V. D. Bennett lot
Bennett, Glenn Ferris (May 6) 1905 – (October) 16, 2005
Florence M. (Marie) Beckman (October 30) 1903 – 1995 (December 18)
Married 5 – 6 – 1932, Glenn, a schoolteacher farmer was the son of Very Dimock and Mary Lucina Woodruff Bennett. Flo, his wife, also a schoolteacher was born the daughter of George and Anna O'Halloran Beckman in Coudersport, Pennsylvania. Because Flo was a schoolteacher, they had to keep their marriage a secret. In that day and age married women were not allowed to teach!
There is a large family headstone etched BENNETT on the lot. Glenn decided just before Florence died that they would etch their names, dates and marriage date on the base, no need to buy a headstone when one already exists was his remarks to me.
Children: Robert Glenn, Suzanne Mary (Mrs. Alfred Sagrati), Dr. John Very, and James George. All are deceased except Suzanne Sagrati. Dr. John Bennett passed away July 18, 2013 in Atlanta, Georgia. He was cremated.
* Historians note: Mr. Glenn, as I joyfully refer to him was responsible for keeping many of the church and cemetery records. He was the first man to try to straighten out the burials in the cemetery. His handwriting is most prevalent in the original plot book. It appears that Mae Fassett and Mr. Glenn collaborated in her search for history also. He retired from church and cemetery work in the late 1970's. I've enjoyed a few nice visits with this talented historian. He will be quoted many times in my church historical records. He has shared with me what ever he could remember at his advanced age from 1994 – 2000.
* Historians note: I found a site on the Internet by his grandson Thomas Bennett that refers to the Bennett Homestead on Clapper Hill as the "Castle". http://www.mindspring.com/~tbennett/index.html
Many treasured memories are shared and kept by his children and many grandchildren at the Castle.
Daily Review October 16, 2005
Glenn Ferris Bennett, age 100, longtime area resident and respected teacher of Tuscarora Township, died Sunday, Oct. 16, 2005 at the Memorial Hospital, Towanda, Pa. He was born May 6, 1905 in Tuscarora Township in the house on Clapper Hill Road across the road from his present residence on Bennett Acres, a designated century farm. He was a son of Very Bennett and Mary Woodruff Bennett. Glenn attended local schools and graduated from Laceyville High School, Class of 1923 and from Mansfield Normal School, Class of 1924. He began his career as a teacher at the age of 19 in the one-room schoolhouse on Clapper Hill in 1924, and had 17 students at the time. He later taught history and English in Skinner's Eddy, was an English teacher for many years and the principal at Laceyville High School for two years until consolidation. He taught English to the upper grades at Wyalusing Valley High School for over 15 years. His combined total was 44 years of teaching.
Glenn met his wife-to-be, Florence Beckman of Coudersport, Pa., during summer school at Penn State, and on May 6, 1932 Glenn and Florence were married. Since the Depression had begun, they kept the fact a secret in order for Florence to keep her job. By 1938, there were three small children in the house and Glenn needed to complete his degree so he took classes at Mansfield State Teachers College while Florence taught in his place at Laceyville High School. The couple also managed a lunch-counter gas station at Powers Corner near Mansfield. Florence was a Spanish, Latin, French, science, social studies and chemistry teacher for many years, retiring from Wyalusing Valley High School in 1969. "Mr. and Mrs. B.," as the couple were affectionately called by students, were exceptional teachers and a devoted couple. They enjoyed a long retirement together, traveling to visit family and remodeling their home. Glenn and Florence were married 63 years before Florence passed away on Dec. 18, 1995. An avid reader and farmer, Mr. B's interests and memberships over the years include: Beaver Meadows United Methodist Church, the Mayflower Society, John Howland Society and the sons of the Civil War and a member of the Masonic Lodge. Surviving are: his sons, Robert Glenn Bennett of Camarillo, Calif., Dr. John Very Bennett of Atlanta, Ga., and James George Bennett of Columbus, Ohio; his daughter, Suzanne Marie Bennett-Sagrati of Cincinnati, Ill.; and 21 grandchildren and 32 great-grandchildren. Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2005 at 10:30 a.m. at the Beaver Meadows United Methodist Church with the Rev. William C. Nelson, his pastor, officiating. Interment will be in Beaver Meadows Cemetery. Friends may call at the Church on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2005 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., and on Wednesday morning from 9:30 a.m. until the time of the service. Memorials may be directed to the Bennett Memorial Scholarship Fund c/o First Liberty Bank, 101 E. Main St., Laceyville, Pa., 18623. To send condolences or sign the e-guestbook, please go to www.homerfuneralhome.com.
Name: Glenn Bennett
Event Type: Census Event Date: 1940 Event Place: Tuscarora Township, Bradford, Pennsylvania, United States
Gender: Male Age: 34
Marital Status: Married Race: White
Relationship to Head of Household: Head
Birthplace: Pennsylvania Birth Year (Estimated): 1906
Last Place of Residence: Same Place District: 8-57 Family Number: 27
Household Gender Age Birthplace
Head Glenn Bennett M 34 Pennsylvania
Wife Florence Bennett F 36 Pennsylvania
Son Robert Glen Bennett M 6 Pennsylvania
Daughter Susann Bennett F 5 Pennsylvania
Son John Bennett M 4 Pennsylvania
Hired man Robert Diamond M 23 Pennsylvania
Notes from his daughter Sue
Dear Carol, Rev. Bill had organized a drive through party. After church , people came to the farm and drove in the top driveway, Dad sat in his wheelchair in the door to the family room, and they exchanged greetings, and then drove out the bottom door of the garage. Dad gave out lollipops and these letters to each car. What a happy day that was for him!
Love, Sue
Dad's little dog, Chico, was a Bedlinton Terrier. He was just darling and good company for Dad and Jim.; He was so old and infirm, blind and arthritic, the Vet came and picked him up. She had been telling us for years that he would be better off asleep, but They just couldn't take him. He was 18 years old. That was in February 2005. I wanted to get Dad another, but the vet cautioned us that another dog might outlive Dad and then who would be able to take him..... Sue
OK Here's the letter:
Recollection of Walking to Beaver Meadow for Church in 1915 Sue Bennett sent me this
When I was about ten years of it was fun to go to church in good weather. Mother, Dad and I would start walking and as we passed out neighbors' homes they would join us. All the way to church everyone would be laughing, talking and all the kids would be running and playing. Clifford, Ernest, Daniel Clapper and I always played together. We would pass my Aunt Wavie and Uncle Chet Culver's house, but they would have already gone ahead in their buggy. Aunt Wavie often played the organ.
The Pickett's and the Bennett's and Sharers came from the opposite side of the hill., We'd all meet in the church yard, but I can't recall if they had walked. The last one to join our procession was "Crazy" Dennison. He lived alone in a big house in a cow pasture on the hill above the church. Walking home , when we would reach the top of his hill, Dennison would start to preach his own sermon. All the adults would stand around to listen, and we children had to be quiet until he finished.
The church services then were much like those of today. The children attended Sunday School while their parents were in church. I( remember Lena Clapper and :"Aunt Joey" Carter as our teachers, "Aunt" Joey's son, Herbert, had a beautiful voice and sang in church.
It was about this time that I can remember Reverend Trible who first opened the basement under the church and dug the drainage ditch. In later years, I remember Reverend Reid gratefully because he would come regularly and take my own children to Youth Fellowship. Oh yes, there is one other minister very important to this congregation. It's "Wild Bill - working to beat hell".
Over the years, I can't remember any sermons or any specific Bible lesson, but I can remember and appreciate the love and fellowship of our neighbors. That hasn't changed over the years. The people whom I recall from those summer Sundays have gone on to glory, and are deeply missed. They are resting in peace in Beaver Meadows Cemetery, but somehow, I'm still here - still having a good time. Thank you for coming to celebrate my birthday! I hope that your procession today brings you as much joy as ours brought us eighty six years ago and as much pleasure as you have given me on my 96th birthday. You're all invited back for my Hundredth... if you're still around.
I'm grateful to God, to all of you and to my family. God Bless You. GFB
Glenn Bennett, 99, Looks Back on Being Part of Perfect Team By Wes Skillings Wyalusing Rocket
As of today, Glenn Bennett is a week into his 100th year. He celebrated his 99th birthday quietly at home, Thursday, May 6, and entertained guests during the day and read through a tall stack of birthday cards that appeared at least as large in number as the years he was celebrating. Glenn Bennett with the stack of cards and letters he received last week on the occasion of his 99th birthday. He is recovering from the recent removal of a growth from his right eye. Photo by Wes Skillings.
He is still at the family farm on Clapper Hill—one that recently achieved Century Farm status—and with the help of a wheelchair and a chair lift on the stairs manages to stay in the home he loves. His son, Jim, a retired deputy sheriff from Columbus, Ohio, is a big reason he is able to do that. Jim makes the trip from Ohio monthly to spend two weeks with his dad and a caretaker is there with Mr. Bennett the remainder of the month. "All of us had to work on the farm," Jim says. "This is where we learned about family and hard work."
Jim and his three older siblings, Robert, Suzanne and John, all learned a lot about academic discipline from their parents, Glenn and Florence, who weren't your typical farm couple. If there was a local teaching hall of fame, they would be the first inductees. Between them they taught in public schools for 80 years, Glenn for 44 years and Florence for 36. Their marriage goes back to one-room schools, in which they both taught, and at the Wyalusing Valley High School, where they were known simply as "Mr. and Mrs. B." They taught at the high school level from the start of that educational experiment known as consolidation to their retirement in 1969.
"I'm glad I'm not teaching today," Mr. Bennett says quietly. "I had many wonderful students."
Armed with a teaching certificate earned by attending the old Mansfield Normal School for six weeks, Mr. Bennett started teaching at a one-room school in the fall of 1924 at the age of 19. He, himself, had just graduated from the Laceyville High School that previous spring. It was at the Clapper Hill School just up the road from the family farm, and he had 17 students spread out between grades one through eight. Several were from immigrant families who had even more of a challenge learning to read and write.
It would be six more years before he would meet the woman who would become his life partner and professional peer. He continued to work on the farm with his parents, Very and Mary Bennett, when he wasn't teaching or going to summer school in Mansfield to keep his teaching certification. After three years of teaching and going to school in the summers, he took a year to earn his permanent elementary certification. He came back to take a job at the old Skinners Eddy School, and that took the young bachelor teacher up to the momentous summer of 1930 when, while at Penn State picking up more credits at the secondary level, he met Florence Marie Beckman, who he came to call Flo. The seeds of love had been planted, and though he went on to teach junior high history in a suburban Pittsburgh school and she back to teach in her native Coudersport, they would be back together soon. It was the only year that Mr. Bennett taught away from his beloved Bradford County, because when his mother broke her hip in 1931, he moved back to Clapper Hill and was again teaching at Skinners Eddy. Glenn and Flo married quietly on May 6, 1932—72 years ago as of last week. But they kept their marriage a secret until the next summer, and Mrs. Bennett continued teaching high school French, English and history in Tyrone, PA.
"Those were different times," said Mr. Bennett. "They didn't appreciate teachers being married in those days, especially women, and we tried to be discreet." The morality of the time, particularly in rural America, was that there was something impure, even provocative, about a teacher being married. They were also hard times, still recovering from the Depression, and they couldn't afford to lose their job because of some obsolete morality clause. Fortunately, times changed, but probably not before Mrs. Bennett came to live with her husband at the Bennett homestead in June of 1933. She would give birth to Bob in December of that year, and between then and January of 1936 would have, respectively, Sue, and Jack. That derailed her teaching career for a bit, but in the coming years, she would teach at the Edinger Hill School and he at Laceyville High School, and they would both be at Laceyville, she teaching French and chemistry and he English and history, while doubling as principal. It was the start of a 27-year span where they lived and taught together.
They did everything together, and one year, back in 1936, she even taught for him at Laceyville when he took a year at Mansfield State Teachers College to secure his bachelor's degree. Mr. Bennett took the three young children with him (Jim wouldn't be born until 1940), and Mrs. Bennett would teach at Laceyville during the week and drive out to be with her family in Mansfield on weekends. She did the teaching, but it was his name on the paycheck, and it was he who got credited with that year of teaching.
"She could teach anything," Mr. Bennett says of his wife, his voice betraying both love and admiration. "We always taught together in the same school." They both positively influenced a new generation of students while on the faculty at Wyalusing Valley High School, teaching their academic subjects at such a high level that those who went on to college found chemistry and English, for example, to be less demanding than their fellow collegians. Still both would tell you that they preferred the more intimate settings of the smaller community schools before consolidation. They had a long retirement together, getting to travel, remodel their home and enjoy their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They had been married 63 years and seven months when Mrs. B died in December of 1995.
The Bennetts may have been extraordinary educators, but Mr. Bennett reverted to his first love every summer, farming. Bob explained it a few years ago in a special issue of the Tuscarora Township Historical Society devoted to his parents.
"During the summers my father led a normal farmer's life. Planting, plowing, gathering hay and, of course, milking the cows twice a day, was how he spent his summer teachers' 'vacation.'" Mr. Bennett's eyes still light up when he talks about his children as Jim sits beside him. They were all taught the importance of an education and mental discipline, no matter what they did for a living. In fact, they had the three oldest in college at the same time. They all went in different directions. Bob started out at West Point, but a shoulder injury cut short a budding military career, and he ended up graduating from Penn State with a business degree. Today he runs a thriving vinyl fencing business in California and is handing over the reins to the next generation. Suzanne Sagriti followed her parents' footsteps and, after earning a degree from Seton Hill College, taught public school for many years, finding teaching jobs all over the country because her husband's sales job required extensive travel. In the meantime, she raised a family of 10 children. John, or Jack as he is known, became Dr. Jack Bennett after graduating from Princeton University and Jefferson Medical School. Jim's studies took him into criminal justice and forensic medicine which he applied to his career in law enforcement. "As long as they were doing what they wanted to do, I was happy for them," Mr. Bennett says now. Glenn Bennett never really went far from home in his first 99 years, but he opened up new worlds to the hundreds, more likely thousands, of students he taught in his 44 years in public education
A story about one man's gazebo BY ERIN LEMLEY 11/21/2004
TUSCARORA - When Glenn Bennett was 98 years old, his friend said to him, "Not everyone is able to reach 100. There must be something special you would like to celebrate the occasion. What is it?"
Looking back, Glenn explains, "When I said I wanted a gazebo for my hundredth birthday, I had no idea I would ever get it."
That friend of his - no spring chicken either - often reminds Glenn, "Only the good die young, you know." This always cracks them both up.
They're pretty good friends. One's even been known to lend the other a hearing-aid when a battery's gone bad.
Imagine two very old men, wearing one whistling hearing-aid apiece, and laughing because "only the good die young." And can you believe Glenn's friend is a preacher? One day the preacher got a magazine in the mail with plans in it for building a gazebo. He bought an extra copy and slyly left one on the coffee table at Glenn's house, so his family would start pondering the idea.
The seasons changed in the place where there was still no gazebo, but they discussed it from time to time.
When Christmas rolled around, Glenn and his son, Jim, collaborated with the preacher in sending letters to all of Glenn's family and friends. They hinted at his one-hundredth birthday wish and asked for a one-time gift to cover the next few birthdays and Christmases.
Because Glenn's so popular - he used to be a school teacher - there were nearly 100 responses. Consequently, a special fund was arranged for the project through a local bank. Anticipating the arrival of the gazebo, Claire Hercenberg, one of his nurses, brought Glenn a miniature one for Easter. He showed it to all of his visitors. Glenn picked a spot in his front yard for it next to a tree; visible from his bedroom and from the kitchen where he spends a lot of time in his wheelchair.
Friends and members of the Tuscarora Township community began planning its construction just before Glenn's hundredth birthday. Not long afterwards though, one of the lead volunteers had major surgery, and then a second, which brought things to a standstill.
The unassembled gazebo, sent all the way from California by Glenn's son, Robert, sat in Glenn's driveway inside a wooden crate. The summer months were slipping away and Glenn was already 99 years old...
Wyalusing Valley High School senior Robert Barth to the rescue! For Robert's senior project, he took over heading the construction on weekends. "Me and my step-dad laid out the stakes," Robert says. Then they placed boards to shape the concrete base.
"On Saturday, Oct. 2, we poured out the concrete and it was idle for a while."
of Glenn's grandsons, Charles, arrived for a visit and helped Robert assemble the gazebo since he works for his dad's company, which makes the gazebo kits. It's done and Glenn thinks it's beautiful. He's tested it out by sitting inside. It has a ramp so he can get in with his wheelchair.
In the end the gazebo was completed early. Glenn won't be 100 until May 6, but he recognizes it's a good thing that the Rev. Bill Nelson started in early - or he would have had to wait until he was 101. He's looking forward to getting some more use out of it though when the warmer weather shows up, hopefully in time for his birthday.
Glenn Bennett Celebrating 100th Birthday - by Wes Skillings - 5/5/2005 Rocket Newspaper
By the time they celebrate his birthday at the Beaver Meadows Church Saturday, Glenn Bennett will be a day into his 101st year. The long-time educator, who still lives on the family farm on Clapper Hill, observes his 100th birthday on Friday, May 6.
Mr. Bennett will be the guest of honor at a Saturday open house in the social center of the church. His family is extending an open invitation to all well-wishers to attend the buffet luncheon, which runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. All his former students, many of whom he has already outlived, are invited to stop by and share some memories. He has plenty to share since he taught in public schools for 44 years, the last decade as an English and literature teacher at the Wyalusing Valley High School until he retired in 1969. He started teaching in 1924 at the age of 19 in a one-room school with 17 pupils of assorted ages just down the road from his family farm.
If our numbers are accurate, that means his first students are all well into their eighties. Since he has been retired for 36 years, even his most recent students are in their fifties.
"He is still sharp as a tack," reports his pastor, Bill Nelson. "He doesn't miss much."
Mr. Bennett is able to stay on the family farm with some help from family and friends. One of his sons, Jim, spends about two weeks every month with him, and a caretaker is there for the other two. His other children, who are all at retirement age themselves, are Robert, John and Suzanne. The love of his live was his wife, Florence, to whom he was married for 63 years and seven months until her death in December of 1995. She, too, was a distinguished educator, and, like her husband, started in one-room schools and ended her career at the consolidated high school. "She could teach anything," Mr. Bennett told us last year. "We always taught together in the same school."
The family reported that no gifts are being solicited at Saturday's open house and luncheon.
He was born May 6, 1905 in Tuscarora Township in the house on Clapper Hill Road across the road from his present residence on Bennett Acres, a designated Century Farm. He was a son of Very Bennett and Mary Woodruff Bennett. Glenn attended local schools and graduated from Laceyville High School, Class of 1923 and from Mansfield Normal School, Class of 1924. He began his career as a teacher at the age of 19 in the one-room school house on Clapper Hill in 1924, and had 17 students at the time. He later taught history and English in Skinner’s Eddy, was an English teacher and the principal at Laceyville High School for two years (until consolidation), and taught English to the upper grades at Wyalusing Valley High School for over 15 years. His combined total was 44 years of teaching.
Glenn met his wife-to-be, Florence Beckman of Coudersport, PA, during summer school at Penn State, and on May 6, 1932 Glenn and Florence were married. Since the Depression had begun, they kept the fact a secret in order for Florence to keep her job. By 1938, there were three small children in the house and Glenn needed to complete his degree so he took classes at Mansfield State Teachers College while Florence taught in his place at Laceyville High School. The couple also managed a lunch-counter – gas station at Powers Corner near Mansfield. Florence was Spanish, Latin, French, science, social studies and chemistry teacher for many years, retiring from Wyalusing Valley High School in 1969. “Mr. and Mrs. B.”, as the couple were affectionately called by students, were exceptional teachers and a devoted couple. They enjoyed a long retirement together, traveling to visit family and remodeling their home. Glenn and Florence were married 63 years before Florence passed away on Dec. 18, 1995.
An avid reader and farmer, Mr. B’s interests and memberships over the years include: Beaver Meadows United Methodist Church, the Mayflower Society, John Howland Society and the sons of the Civil War and Roman Masonic Lodge #418 F&AM, LeRaysville, PA.
Survivors:
Sons Robert Glenn Bennett - Camarillo, CA
Dr. John Very Bennett - Atlanta, GA
James George Bennett - Columbus, Ohio
Daughter Suzanne Marie Bennett-Sagrati - Cincinnati, OH
21 grandchildren and 32 great-grandchildren
Funeral Services will be held on Wednesday, October 19, 2005 at 10:30 A.M. at the Beaver Meadows United Methodist Church with the Rev. William C. Nelson, his pastor, officiating. Internment will be in Beaver Meadows Cemetery.
Friends may call at the Church on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2005 from 2:00 to 4:00 PM and from 7:00 to 9:00 PM, and on Wednesday morning from 9:30 AM until the time of the service.
Memorials may be directed to the Florence and Glenn Bennett Memorial Scholarship Fund c/o First Liberty Bank, 101 E. Main St., Laceyville, PA 18623.∼Lot 16 and 17, V. D. Bennett lot
Bennett, Glenn Ferris (May 6) 1905 – (October) 16, 2005
Florence M. (Marie) Beckman (October 30) 1903 – 1995 (December 18)
Married 5 – 6 – 1932, Glenn, a schoolteacher farmer was the son of Very Dimock and Mary Lucina Woodruff Bennett. Flo, his wife, also a schoolteacher was born the daughter of George and Anna O'Halloran Beckman in Coudersport, Pennsylvania. Because Flo was a schoolteacher, they had to keep their marriage a secret. In that day and age married women were not allowed to teach!
There is a large family headstone etched BENNETT on the lot. Glenn decided just before Florence died that they would etch their names, dates and marriage date on the base, no need to buy a headstone when one already exists was his remarks to me.
Children: Robert Glenn, Suzanne Mary (Mrs. Alfred Sagrati), Dr. John Very, and James George. All are deceased except Suzanne Sagrati. Dr. John Bennett passed away July 18, 2013 in Atlanta, Georgia. He was cremated.
* Historians note: Mr. Glenn, as I joyfully refer to him was responsible for keeping many of the church and cemetery records. He was the first man to try to straighten out the burials in the cemetery. His handwriting is most prevalent in the original plot book. It appears that Mae Fassett and Mr. Glenn collaborated in her search for history also. He retired from church and cemetery work in the late 1970's. I've enjoyed a few nice visits with this talented historian. He will be quoted many times in my church historical records. He has shared with me what ever he could remember at his advanced age from 1994 – 2000.
* Historians note: I found a site on the Internet by his grandson Thomas Bennett that refers to the Bennett Homestead on Clapper Hill as the "Castle". http://www.mindspring.com/~tbennett/index.html
Many treasured memories are shared and kept by his children and many grandchildren at the Castle.
Daily Review October 16, 2005
Glenn Ferris Bennett, age 100, longtime area resident and respected teacher of Tuscarora Township, died Sunday, Oct. 16, 2005 at the Memorial Hospital, Towanda, Pa. He was born May 6, 1905 in Tuscarora Township in the house on Clapper Hill Road across the road from his present residence on Bennett Acres, a designated century farm. He was a son of Very Bennett and Mary Woodruff Bennett. Glenn attended local schools and graduated from Laceyville High School, Class of 1923 and from Mansfield Normal School, Class of 1924. He began his career as a teacher at the age of 19 in the one-room schoolhouse on Clapper Hill in 1924, and had 17 students at the time. He later taught history and English in Skinner's Eddy, was an English teacher for many years and the principal at Laceyville High School for two years until consolidation. He taught English to the upper grades at Wyalusing Valley High School for over 15 years. His combined total was 44 years of teaching.
Glenn met his wife-to-be, Florence Beckman of Coudersport, Pa., during summer school at Penn State, and on May 6, 1932 Glenn and Florence were married. Since the Depression had begun, they kept the fact a secret in order for Florence to keep her job. By 1938, there were three small children in the house and Glenn needed to complete his degree so he took classes at Mansfield State Teachers College while Florence taught in his place at Laceyville High School. The couple also managed a lunch-counter gas station at Powers Corner near Mansfield. Florence was a Spanish, Latin, French, science, social studies and chemistry teacher for many years, retiring from Wyalusing Valley High School in 1969. "Mr. and Mrs. B.," as the couple were affectionately called by students, were exceptional teachers and a devoted couple. They enjoyed a long retirement together, traveling to visit family and remodeling their home. Glenn and Florence were married 63 years before Florence passed away on Dec. 18, 1995. An avid reader and farmer, Mr. B's interests and memberships over the years include: Beaver Meadows United Methodist Church, the Mayflower Society, John Howland Society and the sons of the Civil War and a member of the Masonic Lodge. Surviving are: his sons, Robert Glenn Bennett of Camarillo, Calif., Dr. John Very Bennett of Atlanta, Ga., and James George Bennett of Columbus, Ohio; his daughter, Suzanne Marie Bennett-Sagrati of Cincinnati, Ill.; and 21 grandchildren and 32 great-grandchildren. Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2005 at 10:30 a.m. at the Beaver Meadows United Methodist Church with the Rev. William C. Nelson, his pastor, officiating. Interment will be in Beaver Meadows Cemetery. Friends may call at the Church on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2005 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., and on Wednesday morning from 9:30 a.m. until the time of the service. Memorials may be directed to the Bennett Memorial Scholarship Fund c/o First Liberty Bank, 101 E. Main St., Laceyville, Pa., 18623. To send condolences or sign the e-guestbook, please go to www.homerfuneralhome.com.
Name: Glenn Bennett
Event Type: Census Event Date: 1940 Event Place: Tuscarora Township, Bradford, Pennsylvania, United States
Gender: Male Age: 34
Marital Status: Married Race: White
Relationship to Head of Household: Head
Birthplace: Pennsylvania Birth Year (Estimated): 1906
Last Place of Residence: Same Place District: 8-57 Family Number: 27
Household Gender Age Birthplace
Head Glenn Bennett M 34 Pennsylvania
Wife Florence Bennett F 36 Pennsylvania
Son Robert Glen Bennett M 6 Pennsylvania
Daughter Susann Bennett F 5 Pennsylvania
Son John Bennett M 4 Pennsylvania
Hired man Robert Diamond M 23 Pennsylvania
Notes from his daughter Sue
Dear Carol, Rev. Bill had organized a drive through party. After church , people came to the farm and drove in the top driveway, Dad sat in his wheelchair in the door to the family room, and they exchanged greetings, and then drove out the bottom door of the garage. Dad gave out lollipops and these letters to each car. What a happy day that was for him!
Love, Sue
Dad's little dog, Chico, was a Bedlinton Terrier. He was just darling and good company for Dad and Jim.; He was so old and infirm, blind and arthritic, the Vet came and picked him up. She had been telling us for years that he would be better off asleep, but They just couldn't take him. He was 18 years old. That was in February 2005. I wanted to get Dad another, but the vet cautioned us that another dog might outlive Dad and then who would be able to take him..... Sue
OK Here's the letter:
Recollection of Walking to Beaver Meadow for Church in 1915 Sue Bennett sent me this
When I was about ten years of it was fun to go to church in good weather. Mother, Dad and I would start walking and as we passed out neighbors' homes they would join us. All the way to church everyone would be laughing, talking and all the kids would be running and playing. Clifford, Ernest, Daniel Clapper and I always played together. We would pass my Aunt Wavie and Uncle Chet Culver's house, but they would have already gone ahead in their buggy. Aunt Wavie often played the organ.
The Pickett's and the Bennett's and Sharers came from the opposite side of the hill., We'd all meet in the church yard, but I can't recall if they had walked. The last one to join our procession was "Crazy" Dennison. He lived alone in a big house in a cow pasture on the hill above the church. Walking home , when we would reach the top of his hill, Dennison would start to preach his own sermon. All the adults would stand around to listen, and we children had to be quiet until he finished.
The church services then were much like those of today. The children attended Sunday School while their parents were in church. I( remember Lena Clapper and :"Aunt Joey" Carter as our teachers, "Aunt" Joey's son, Herbert, had a beautiful voice and sang in church.
It was about this time that I can remember Reverend Trible who first opened the basement under the church and dug the drainage ditch. In later years, I remember Reverend Reid gratefully because he would come regularly and take my own children to Youth Fellowship. Oh yes, there is one other minister very important to this congregation. It's "Wild Bill - working to beat hell".
Over the years, I can't remember any sermons or any specific Bible lesson, but I can remember and appreciate the love and fellowship of our neighbors. That hasn't changed over the years. The people whom I recall from those summer Sundays have gone on to glory, and are deeply missed. They are resting in peace in Beaver Meadows Cemetery, but somehow, I'm still here - still having a good time. Thank you for coming to celebrate my birthday! I hope that your procession today brings you as much joy as ours brought us eighty six years ago and as much pleasure as you have given me on my 96th birthday. You're all invited back for my Hundredth... if you're still around.
I'm grateful to God, to all of you and to my family. God Bless You. GFB
Glenn Bennett, 99, Looks Back on Being Part of Perfect Team By Wes Skillings Wyalusing Rocket
As of today, Glenn Bennett is a week into his 100th year. He celebrated his 99th birthday quietly at home, Thursday, May 6, and entertained guests during the day and read through a tall stack of birthday cards that appeared at least as large in number as the years he was celebrating. Glenn Bennett with the stack of cards and letters he received last week on the occasion of his 99th birthday. He is recovering from the recent removal of a growth from his right eye. Photo by Wes Skillings.
He is still at the family farm on Clapper Hill—one that recently achieved Century Farm status—and with the help of a wheelchair and a chair lift on the stairs manages to stay in the home he loves. His son, Jim, a retired deputy sheriff from Columbus, Ohio, is a big reason he is able to do that. Jim makes the trip from Ohio monthly to spend two weeks with his dad and a caretaker is there with Mr. Bennett the remainder of the month. "All of us had to work on the farm," Jim says. "This is where we learned about family and hard work."
Jim and his three older siblings, Robert, Suzanne and John, all learned a lot about academic discipline from their parents, Glenn and Florence, who weren't your typical farm couple. If there was a local teaching hall of fame, they would be the first inductees. Between them they taught in public schools for 80 years, Glenn for 44 years and Florence for 36. Their marriage goes back to one-room schools, in which they both taught, and at the Wyalusing Valley High School, where they were known simply as "Mr. and Mrs. B." They taught at the high school level from the start of that educational experiment known as consolidation to their retirement in 1969.
"I'm glad I'm not teaching today," Mr. Bennett says quietly. "I had many wonderful students."
Armed with a teaching certificate earned by attending the old Mansfield Normal School for six weeks, Mr. Bennett started teaching at a one-room school in the fall of 1924 at the age of 19. He, himself, had just graduated from the Laceyville High School that previous spring. It was at the Clapper Hill School just up the road from the family farm, and he had 17 students spread out between grades one through eight. Several were from immigrant families who had even more of a challenge learning to read and write.
It would be six more years before he would meet the woman who would become his life partner and professional peer. He continued to work on the farm with his parents, Very and Mary Bennett, when he wasn't teaching or going to summer school in Mansfield to keep his teaching certification. After three years of teaching and going to school in the summers, he took a year to earn his permanent elementary certification. He came back to take a job at the old Skinners Eddy School, and that took the young bachelor teacher up to the momentous summer of 1930 when, while at Penn State picking up more credits at the secondary level, he met Florence Marie Beckman, who he came to call Flo. The seeds of love had been planted, and though he went on to teach junior high history in a suburban Pittsburgh school and she back to teach in her native Coudersport, they would be back together soon. It was the only year that Mr. Bennett taught away from his beloved Bradford County, because when his mother broke her hip in 1931, he moved back to Clapper Hill and was again teaching at Skinners Eddy. Glenn and Flo married quietly on May 6, 1932—72 years ago as of last week. But they kept their marriage a secret until the next summer, and Mrs. Bennett continued teaching high school French, English and history in Tyrone, PA.
"Those were different times," said Mr. Bennett. "They didn't appreciate teachers being married in those days, especially women, and we tried to be discreet." The morality of the time, particularly in rural America, was that there was something impure, even provocative, about a teacher being married. They were also hard times, still recovering from the Depression, and they couldn't afford to lose their job because of some obsolete morality clause. Fortunately, times changed, but probably not before Mrs. Bennett came to live with her husband at the Bennett homestead in June of 1933. She would give birth to Bob in December of that year, and between then and January of 1936 would have, respectively, Sue, and Jack. That derailed her teaching career for a bit, but in the coming years, she would teach at the Edinger Hill School and he at Laceyville High School, and they would both be at Laceyville, she teaching French and chemistry and he English and history, while doubling as principal. It was the start of a 27-year span where they lived and taught together.
They did everything together, and one year, back in 1936, she even taught for him at Laceyville when he took a year at Mansfield State Teachers College to secure his bachelor's degree. Mr. Bennett took the three young children with him (Jim wouldn't be born until 1940), and Mrs. Bennett would teach at Laceyville during the week and drive out to be with her family in Mansfield on weekends. She did the teaching, but it was his name on the paycheck, and it was he who got credited with that year of teaching.
"She could teach anything," Mr. Bennett says of his wife, his voice betraying both love and admiration. "We always taught together in the same school." They both positively influenced a new generation of students while on the faculty at Wyalusing Valley High School, teaching their academic subjects at such a high level that those who went on to college found chemistry and English, for example, to be less demanding than their fellow collegians. Still both would tell you that they preferred the more intimate settings of the smaller community schools before consolidation. They had a long retirement together, getting to travel, remodel their home and enjoy their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They had been married 63 years and seven months when Mrs. B died in December of 1995.
The Bennetts may have been extraordinary educators, but Mr. Bennett reverted to his first love every summer, farming. Bob explained it a few years ago in a special issue of the Tuscarora Township Historical Society devoted to his parents.
"During the summers my father led a normal farmer's life. Planting, plowing, gathering hay and, of course, milking the cows twice a day, was how he spent his summer teachers' 'vacation.'" Mr. Bennett's eyes still light up when he talks about his children as Jim sits beside him. They were all taught the importance of an education and mental discipline, no matter what they did for a living. In fact, they had the three oldest in college at the same time. They all went in different directions. Bob started out at West Point, but a shoulder injury cut short a budding military career, and he ended up graduating from Penn State with a business degree. Today he runs a thriving vinyl fencing business in California and is handing over the reins to the next generation. Suzanne Sagriti followed her parents' footsteps and, after earning a degree from Seton Hill College, taught public school for many years, finding teaching jobs all over the country because her husband's sales job required extensive travel. In the meantime, she raised a family of 10 children. John, or Jack as he is known, became Dr. Jack Bennett after graduating from Princeton University and Jefferson Medical School. Jim's studies took him into criminal justice and forensic medicine which he applied to his career in law enforcement. "As long as they were doing what they wanted to do, I was happy for them," Mr. Bennett says now. Glenn Bennett never really went far from home in his first 99 years, but he opened up new worlds to the hundreds, more likely thousands, of students he taught in his 44 years in public education
A story about one man's gazebo BY ERIN LEMLEY 11/21/2004
TUSCARORA - When Glenn Bennett was 98 years old, his friend said to him, "Not everyone is able to reach 100. There must be something special you would like to celebrate the occasion. What is it?"
Looking back, Glenn explains, "When I said I wanted a gazebo for my hundredth birthday, I had no idea I would ever get it."
That friend of his - no spring chicken either - often reminds Glenn, "Only the good die young, you know." This always cracks them both up.
They're pretty good friends. One's even been known to lend the other a hearing-aid when a battery's gone bad.
Imagine two very old men, wearing one whistling hearing-aid apiece, and laughing because "only the good die young." And can you believe Glenn's friend is a preacher? One day the preacher got a magazine in the mail with plans in it for building a gazebo. He bought an extra copy and slyly left one on the coffee table at Glenn's house, so his family would start pondering the idea.
The seasons changed in the place where there was still no gazebo, but they discussed it from time to time.
When Christmas rolled around, Glenn and his son, Jim, collaborated with the preacher in sending letters to all of Glenn's family and friends. They hinted at his one-hundredth birthday wish and asked for a one-time gift to cover the next few birthdays and Christmases.
Because Glenn's so popular - he used to be a school teacher - there were nearly 100 responses. Consequently, a special fund was arranged for the project through a local bank. Anticipating the arrival of the gazebo, Claire Hercenberg, one of his nurses, brought Glenn a miniature one for Easter. He showed it to all of his visitors. Glenn picked a spot in his front yard for it next to a tree; visible from his bedroom and from the kitchen where he spends a lot of time in his wheelchair.
Friends and members of the Tuscarora Township community began planning its construction just before Glenn's hundredth birthday. Not long afterwards though, one of the lead volunteers had major surgery, and then a second, which brought things to a standstill.
The unassembled gazebo, sent all the way from California by Glenn's son, Robert, sat in Glenn's driveway inside a wooden crate. The summer months were slipping away and Glenn was already 99 years old...
Wyalusing Valley High School senior Robert Barth to the rescue! For Robert's senior project, he took over heading the construction on weekends. "Me and my step-dad laid out the stakes," Robert says. Then they placed boards to shape the concrete base.
"On Saturday, Oct. 2, we poured out the concrete and it was idle for a while."
of Glenn's grandsons, Charles, arrived for a visit and helped Robert assemble the gazebo since he works for his dad's company, which makes the gazebo kits. It's done and Glenn thinks it's beautiful. He's tested it out by sitting inside. It has a ramp so he can get in with his wheelchair.
In the end the gazebo was completed early. Glenn won't be 100 until May 6, but he recognizes it's a good thing that the Rev. Bill Nelson started in early - or he would have had to wait until he was 101. He's looking forward to getting some more use out of it though when the warmer weather shows up, hopefully in time for his birthday.
Glenn Bennett Celebrating 100th Birthday - by Wes Skillings - 5/5/2005 Rocket Newspaper
By the time they celebrate his birthday at the Beaver Meadows Church Saturday, Glenn Bennett will be a day into his 101st year. The long-time educator, who still lives on the family farm on Clapper Hill, observes his 100th birthday on Friday, May 6.
Mr. Bennett will be the guest of honor at a Saturday open house in the social center of the church. His family is extending an open invitation to all well-wishers to attend the buffet luncheon, which runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. All his former students, many of whom he has already outlived, are invited to stop by and share some memories. He has plenty to share since he taught in public schools for 44 years, the last decade as an English and literature teacher at the Wyalusing Valley High School until he retired in 1969. He started teaching in 1924 at the age of 19 in a one-room school with 17 pupils of assorted ages just down the road from his family farm.
If our numbers are accurate, that means his first students are all well into their eighties. Since he has been retired for 36 years, even his most recent students are in their fifties.
"He is still sharp as a tack," reports his pastor, Bill Nelson. "He doesn't miss much."
Mr. Bennett is able to stay on the family farm with some help from family and friends. One of his sons, Jim, spends about two weeks every month with him, and a caretaker is there for the other two. His other children, who are all at retirement age themselves, are Robert, John and Suzanne. The love of his live was his wife, Florence, to whom he was married for 63 years and seven months until her death in December of 1995. She, too, was a distinguished educator, and, like her husband, started in one-room schools and ended her career at the consolidated high school. "She could teach anything," Mr. Bennett told us last year. "We always taught together in the same school."
The family reported that no gifts are being solicited at Saturday's open house and luncheon.
Glenn Ferris Bennett, 100, longtime area resident and respected teacher, of Tuscarora Township died Sunday, October 16, 2005 at the Memorial Hospital, Towanda, PA.
He was born May 6, 1905 in Tuscarora Township in the house on Clapper Hill Road across the road from his present residence on Bennett Acres, a designated Century Farm. He was a son of Very Bennett and Mary Woodruff Bennett. Glenn attended local schools and graduated from Laceyville High School, Class of 1923 and from Mansfield Normal School, Class of 1924. He began his career as a teacher at the age of 19 in the one-room school house on Clapper Hill in 1924, and had 17 students at the time. He later taught history and English in Skinner’s Eddy, was an English teacher and the principal at Laceyville High School for two years (until consolidation), and taught English to the upper grades at Wyalusing Valley High School for over 15 years. His combined total was 44 years of teaching.
Glenn met his wife-to-be, Florence Beckman of Coudersport, PA, during summer school at Penn State, and on May 6, 1932 Glenn and Florence were married. Since the Depression had begun, they kept the fact a secret in order for Florence to keep her job. By 1938, there were three small children in the house and Glenn needed to complete his degree so he took classes at Mansfield State Teachers College while Florence taught in his place at Laceyville High School. The couple also managed a lunch-counter – gas station at Powers Corner near Mansfield. Florence was Spanish, Latin, French, science, social studies and chemistry teacher for many years, retiring from Wyalusing Valley High School in 1969. “Mr. and Mrs. B.”, as the couple were affectionately called by students, were exceptional teachers and a devoted couple. They enjoyed a long retirement together, traveling to visit family and remodeling their home. Glenn and Florence were married 63 years before Florence passed away on Dec. 18, 1995.
An avid reader and farmer, Mr. B’s interests and memberships over the years include: Beaver Meadows United Methodist Church, the Mayflower Society, John Howland Society and the sons of the Civil War and Roman Masonic Lodge #418 F&AM, LeRaysville, PA.
Survivors:
Sons Robert Glenn Bennett - Camarillo, CA
Dr. John Very Bennett - Atlanta, GA
James George Bennett - Columbus, Ohio
Daughter Suzanne Marie Bennett-Sagrati - Cincinnati, OH
21 grandchildren and 32 great-grandchildren
Funeral Services will be held on Wednesday, October 19, 2005 at 10:30 A.M. at the Beaver Meadows United Methodist Church with the Rev. William C. Nelson, his pastor, officiating. Internment will be in Beaver Meadows Cemetery.
Friends may call at the Church on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2005 from 2:00 to 4:00 PM and from 7:00 to 9:00 PM, and on Wednesday morning from 9:30 AM until the time of the service.
Memorials may be directed to the Florence and Glenn Bennett Memorial Scholarship Fund c/o First Liberty Bank, 101 E. Main St., Laceyville, PA 18623.∼Lot 16 and 17, V. D. Bennett lot
Bennett, Glenn Ferris (May 6) 1905 – (October) 16, 2005
Florence M. (Marie) Beckman (October 30) 1903 – 1995 (December 18)
Married 5 – 6 – 1932, Glenn, a schoolteacher farmer was the son of Very Dimock and Mary Lucina Woodruff Bennett. Flo, his wife, also a schoolteacher was born the daughter of George and Anna O'Halloran Beckman in Coudersport, Pennsylvania. Because Flo was a schoolteacher, they had to keep their marriage a secret. In that day and age married women were not allowed to teach!
There is a large family headstone etched BENNETT on the lot. Glenn decided just before Florence died that they would etch their names, dates and marriage date on the base, no need to buy a headstone when one already exists was his remarks to me.
Children: Robert Glenn, Suzanne Mary (Mrs. Alfred Sagrati), Dr. John Very, and James George. All are deceased except Suzanne Sagrati. Dr. John Bennett passed away July 18, 2013 in Atlanta, Georgia. He was cremated.
* Historians note: Mr. Glenn, as I joyfully refer to him was responsible for keeping many of the church and cemetery records. He was the first man to try to straighten out the burials in the cemetery. His handwriting is most prevalent in the original plot book. It appears that Mae Fassett and Mr. Glenn collaborated in her search for history also. He retired from church and cemetery work in the late 1970's. I've enjoyed a few nice visits with this talented historian. He will be quoted many times in my church historical records. He has shared with me what ever he could remember at his advanced age from 1994 – 2000.
* Historians note: I found a site on the Internet by his grandson Thomas Bennett that refers to the Bennett Homestead on Clapper Hill as the "Castle". http://www.mindspring.com/~tbennett/index.html
Many treasured memories are shared and kept by his children and many grandchildren at the Castle.
Daily Review October 16, 2005
Glenn Ferris Bennett, age 100, longtime area resident and respected teacher of Tuscarora Township, died Sunday, Oct. 16, 2005 at the Memorial Hospital, Towanda, Pa. He was born May 6, 1905 in Tuscarora Township in the house on Clapper Hill Road across the road from his present residence on Bennett Acres, a designated century farm. He was a son of Very Bennett and Mary Woodruff Bennett. Glenn attended local schools and graduated from Laceyville High School, Class of 1923 and from Mansfield Normal School, Class of 1924. He began his career as a teacher at the age of 19 in the one-room schoolhouse on Clapper Hill in 1924, and had 17 students at the time. He later taught history and English in Skinner's Eddy, was an English teacher for many years and the principal at Laceyville High School for two years until consolidation. He taught English to the upper grades at Wyalusing Valley High School for over 15 years. His combined total was 44 years of teaching.
Glenn met his wife-to-be, Florence Beckman of Coudersport, Pa., during summer school at Penn State, and on May 6, 1932 Glenn and Florence were married. Since the Depression had begun, they kept the fact a secret in order for Florence to keep her job. By 1938, there were three small children in the house and Glenn needed to complete his degree so he took classes at Mansfield State Teachers College while Florence taught in his place at Laceyville High School. The couple also managed a lunch-counter gas station at Powers Corner near Mansfield. Florence was a Spanish, Latin, French, science, social studies and chemistry teacher for many years, retiring from Wyalusing Valley High School in 1969. "Mr. and Mrs. B.," as the couple were affectionately called by students, were exceptional teachers and a devoted couple. They enjoyed a long retirement together, traveling to visit family and remodeling their home. Glenn and Florence were married 63 years before Florence passed away on Dec. 18, 1995. An avid reader and farmer, Mr. B's interests and memberships over the years include: Beaver Meadows United Methodist Church, the Mayflower Society, John Howland Society and the sons of the Civil War and a member of the Masonic Lodge. Surviving are: his sons, Robert Glenn Bennett of Camarillo, Calif., Dr. John Very Bennett of Atlanta, Ga., and James George Bennett of Columbus, Ohio; his daughter, Suzanne Marie Bennett-Sagrati of Cincinnati, Ill.; and 21 grandchildren and 32 great-grandchildren. Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2005 at 10:30 a.m. at the Beaver Meadows United Methodist Church with the Rev. William C. Nelson, his pastor, officiating. Interment will be in Beaver Meadows Cemetery. Friends may call at the Church on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2005 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., and on Wednesday morning from 9:30 a.m. until the time of the service. Memorials may be directed to the Bennett Memorial Scholarship Fund c/o First Liberty Bank, 101 E. Main St., Laceyville, Pa., 18623. To send condolences or sign the e-guestbook, please go to www.homerfuneralhome.com.
Name: Glenn Bennett
Event Type: Census Event Date: 1940 Event Place: Tuscarora Township, Bradford, Pennsylvania, United States
Gender: Male Age: 34
Marital Status: Married Race: White
Relationship to Head of Household: Head
Birthplace: Pennsylvania Birth Year (Estimated): 1906
Last Place of Residence: Same Place District: 8-57 Family Number: 27
Household Gender Age Birthplace
Head Glenn Bennett M 34 Pennsylvania
Wife Florence Bennett F 36 Pennsylvania
Son Robert Glen Bennett M 6 Pennsylvania
Daughter Susann Bennett F 5 Pennsylvania
Son John Bennett M 4 Pennsylvania
Hired man Robert Diamond M 23 Pennsylvania
Notes from his daughter Sue
Dear Carol, Rev. Bill had organized a drive through party. After church , people came to the farm and drove in the top driveway, Dad sat in his wheelchair in the door to the family room, and they exchanged greetings, and then drove out the bottom door of the garage. Dad gave out lollipops and these letters to each car. What a happy day that was for him!
Love, Sue
Dad's little dog, Chico, was a Bedlinton Terrier. He was just darling and good company for Dad and Jim.; He was so old and infirm, blind and arthritic, the Vet came and picked him up. She had been telling us for years that he would be better off asleep, but They just couldn't take him. He was 18 years old. That was in February 2005. I wanted to get Dad another, but the vet cautioned us that another dog might outlive Dad and then who would be able to take him..... Sue
OK Here's the letter:
Recollection of Walking to Beaver Meadow for Church in 1915 Sue Bennett sent me this
When I was about ten years of it was fun to go to church in good weather. Mother, Dad and I would start walking and as we passed out neighbors' homes they would join us. All the way to church everyone would be laughing, talking and all the kids would be running and playing. Clifford, Ernest, Daniel Clapper and I always played together. We would pass my Aunt Wavie and Uncle Chet Culver's house, but they would have already gone ahead in their buggy. Aunt Wavie often played the organ.
The Pickett's and the Bennett's and Sharers came from the opposite side of the hill., We'd all meet in the church yard, but I can't recall if they had walked. The last one to join our procession was "Crazy" Dennison. He lived alone in a big house in a cow pasture on the hill above the church. Walking home , when we would reach the top of his hill, Dennison would start to preach his own sermon. All the adults would stand around to listen, and we children had to be quiet until he finished.
The church services then were much like those of today. The children attended Sunday School while their parents were in church. I( remember Lena Clapper and :"Aunt Joey" Carter as our teachers, "Aunt" Joey's son, Herbert, had a beautiful voice and sang in church.
It was about this time that I can remember Reverend Trible who first opened the basement under the church and dug the drainage ditch. In later years, I remember Reverend Reid gratefully because he would come regularly and take my own children to Youth Fellowship. Oh yes, there is one other minister very important to this congregation. It's "Wild Bill - working to beat hell".
Over the years, I can't remember any sermons or any specific Bible lesson, but I can remember and appreciate the love and fellowship of our neighbors. That hasn't changed over the years. The people whom I recall from those summer Sundays have gone on to glory, and are deeply missed. They are resting in peace in Beaver Meadows Cemetery, but somehow, I'm still here - still having a good time. Thank you for coming to celebrate my birthday! I hope that your procession today brings you as much joy as ours brought us eighty six years ago and as much pleasure as you have given me on my 96th birthday. You're all invited back for my Hundredth... if you're still around.
I'm grateful to God, to all of you and to my family. God Bless You. GFB
Glenn Bennett, 99, Looks Back on Being Part of Perfect Team By Wes Skillings Wyalusing Rocket
As of today, Glenn Bennett is a week into his 100th year. He celebrated his 99th birthday quietly at home, Thursday, May 6, and entertained guests during the day and read through a tall stack of birthday cards that appeared at least as large in number as the years he was celebrating. Glenn Bennett with the stack of cards and letters he received last week on the occasion of his 99th birthday. He is recovering from the recent removal of a growth from his right eye. Photo by Wes Skillings.
He is still at the family farm on Clapper Hill—one that recently achieved Century Farm status—and with the help of a wheelchair and a chair lift on the stairs manages to stay in the home he loves. His son, Jim, a retired deputy sheriff from Columbus, Ohio, is a big reason he is able to do that. Jim makes the trip from Ohio monthly to spend two weeks with his dad and a caretaker is there with Mr. Bennett the remainder of the month. "All of us had to work on the farm," Jim says. "This is where we learned about family and hard work."
Jim and his three older siblings, Robert, Suzanne and John, all learned a lot about academic discipline from their parents, Glenn and Florence, who weren't your typical farm couple. If there was a local teaching hall of fame, they would be the first inductees. Between them they taught in public schools for 80 years, Glenn for 44 years and Florence for 36. Their marriage goes back to one-room schools, in which they both taught, and at the Wyalusing Valley High School, where they were known simply as "Mr. and Mrs. B." They taught at the high school level from the start of that educational experiment known as consolidation to their retirement in 1969.
"I'm glad I'm not teaching today," Mr. Bennett says quietly. "I had many wonderful students."
Armed with a teaching certificate earned by attending the old Mansfield Normal School for six weeks, Mr. Bennett started teaching at a one-room school in the fall of 1924 at the age of 19. He, himself, had just graduated from the Laceyville High School that previous spring. It was at the Clapper Hill School just up the road from the family farm, and he had 17 students spread out between grades one through eight. Several were from immigrant families who had even more of a challenge learning to read and write.
It would be six more years before he would meet the woman who would become his life partner and professional peer. He continued to work on the farm with his parents, Very and Mary Bennett, when he wasn't teaching or going to summer school in Mansfield to keep his teaching certification. After three years of teaching and going to school in the summers, he took a year to earn his permanent elementary certification. He came back to take a job at the old Skinners Eddy School, and that took the young bachelor teacher up to the momentous summer of 1930 when, while at Penn State picking up more credits at the secondary level, he met Florence Marie Beckman, who he came to call Flo. The seeds of love had been planted, and though he went on to teach junior high history in a suburban Pittsburgh school and she back to teach in her native Coudersport, they would be back together soon. It was the only year that Mr. Bennett taught away from his beloved Bradford County, because when his mother broke her hip in 1931, he moved back to Clapper Hill and was again teaching at Skinners Eddy. Glenn and Flo married quietly on May 6, 1932—72 years ago as of last week. But they kept their marriage a secret until the next summer, and Mrs. Bennett continued teaching high school French, English and history in Tyrone, PA.
"Those were different times," said Mr. Bennett. "They didn't appreciate teachers being married in those days, especially women, and we tried to be discreet." The morality of the time, particularly in rural America, was that there was something impure, even provocative, about a teacher being married. They were also hard times, still recovering from the Depression, and they couldn't afford to lose their job because of some obsolete morality clause. Fortunately, times changed, but probably not before Mrs. Bennett came to live with her husband at the Bennett homestead in June of 1933. She would give birth to Bob in December of that year, and between then and January of 1936 would have, respectively, Sue, and Jack. That derailed her teaching career for a bit, but in the coming years, she would teach at the Edinger Hill School and he at Laceyville High School, and they would both be at Laceyville, she teaching French and chemistry and he English and history, while doubling as principal. It was the start of a 27-year span where they lived and taught together.
They did everything together, and one year, back in 1936, she even taught for him at Laceyville when he took a year at Mansfield State Teachers College to secure his bachelor's degree. Mr. Bennett took the three young children with him (Jim wouldn't be born until 1940), and Mrs. Bennett would teach at Laceyville during the week and drive out to be with her family in Mansfield on weekends. She did the teaching, but it was his name on the paycheck, and it was he who got credited with that year of teaching.
"She could teach anything," Mr. Bennett says of his wife, his voice betraying both love and admiration. "We always taught together in the same school." They both positively influenced a new generation of students while on the faculty at Wyalusing Valley High School, teaching their academic subjects at such a high level that those who went on to college found chemistry and English, for example, to be less demanding than their fellow collegians. Still both would tell you that they preferred the more intimate settings of the smaller community schools before consolidation. They had a long retirement together, getting to travel, remodel their home and enjoy their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They had been married 63 years and seven months when Mrs. B died in December of 1995.
The Bennetts may have been extraordinary educators, but Mr. Bennett reverted to his first love every summer, farming. Bob explained it a few years ago in a special issue of the Tuscarora Township Historical Society devoted to his parents.
"During the summers my father led a normal farmer's life. Planting, plowing, gathering hay and, of course, milking the cows twice a day, was how he spent his summer teachers' 'vacation.'" Mr. Bennett's eyes still light up when he talks about his children as Jim sits beside him. They were all taught the importance of an education and mental discipline, no matter what they did for a living. In fact, they had the three oldest in college at the same time. They all went in different directions. Bob started out at West Point, but a shoulder injury cut short a budding military career, and he ended up graduating from Penn State with a business degree. Today he runs a thriving vinyl fencing business in California and is handing over the reins to the next generation. Suzanne Sagriti followed her parents' footsteps and, after earning a degree from Seton Hill College, taught public school for many years, finding teaching jobs all over the country because her husband's sales job required extensive travel. In the meantime, she raised a family of 10 children. John, or Jack as he is known, became Dr. Jack Bennett after graduating from Princeton University and Jefferson Medical School. Jim's studies took him into criminal justice and forensic medicine which he applied to his career in law enforcement. "As long as they were doing what they wanted to do, I was happy for them," Mr. Bennett says now. Glenn Bennett never really went far from home in his first 99 years, but he opened up new worlds to the hundreds, more likely thousands, of students he taught in his 44 years in public education
A story about one man's gazebo BY ERIN LEMLEY 11/21/2004
TUSCARORA - When Glenn Bennett was 98 years old, his friend said to him, "Not everyone is able to reach 100. There must be something special you would like to celebrate the occasion. What is it?"
Looking back, Glenn explains, "When I said I wanted a gazebo for my hundredth birthday, I had no idea I would ever get it."
That friend of his - no spring chicken either - often reminds Glenn, "Only the good die young, you know." This always cracks them both up.
They're pretty good friends. One's even been known to lend the other a hearing-aid when a battery's gone bad.
Imagine two very old men, wearing one whistling hearing-aid apiece, and laughing because "only the good die young." And can you believe Glenn's friend is a preacher? One day the preacher got a magazine in the mail with plans in it for building a gazebo. He bought an extra copy and slyly left one on the coffee table at Glenn's house, so his family would start pondering the idea.
The seasons changed in the place where there was still no gazebo, but they discussed it from time to time.
When Christmas rolled around, Glenn and his son, Jim, collaborated with the preacher in sending letters to all of Glenn's family and friends. They hinted at his one-hundredth birthday wish and asked for a one-time gift to cover the next few birthdays and Christmases.
Because Glenn's so popular - he used to be a school teacher - there were nearly 100 responses. Consequently, a special fund was arranged for the project through a local bank. Anticipating the arrival of the gazebo, Claire Hercenberg, one of his nurses, brought Glenn a miniature one for Easter. He showed it to all of his visitors. Glenn picked a spot in his front yard for it next to a tree; visible from his bedroom and from the kitchen where he spends a lot of time in his wheelchair.
Friends and members of the Tuscarora Township community began planning its construction just before Glenn's hundredth birthday. Not long afterwards though, one of the lead volunteers had major surgery, and then a second, which brought things to a standstill.
The unassembled gazebo, sent all the way from California by Glenn's son, Robert, sat in Glenn's driveway inside a wooden crate. The summer months were slipping away and Glenn was already 99 years old...
Wyalusing Valley High School senior Robert Barth to the rescue! For Robert's senior project, he took over heading the construction on weekends. "Me and my step-dad laid out the stakes," Robert says. Then they placed boards to shape the concrete base.
"On Saturday, Oct. 2, we poured out the concrete and it was idle for a while."
of Glenn's grandsons, Charles, arrived for a visit and helped Robert assemble the gazebo since he works for his dad's company, which makes the gazebo kits. It's done and Glenn thinks it's beautiful. He's tested it out by sitting inside. It has a ramp so he can get in with his wheelchair.
In the end the gazebo was completed early. Glenn won't be 100 until May 6, but he recognizes it's a good thing that the Rev. Bill Nelson started in early - or he would have had to wait until he was 101. He's looking forward to getting some more use out of it though when the warmer weather shows up, hopefully in time for his birthday.
Glenn Bennett Celebrating 100th Birthday - by Wes Skillings - 5/5/2005 Rocket Newspaper
By the time they celebrate his birthday at the Beaver Meadows Church Saturday, Glenn Bennett will be a day into his 101st year. The long-time educator, who still lives on the family farm on Clapper Hill, observes his 100th birthday on Friday, May 6.
Mr. Bennett will be the guest of honor at a Saturday open house in the social center of the church. His family is extending an open invitation to all well-wishers to attend the buffet luncheon, which runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. All his former students, many of whom he has already outlived, are invited to stop by and share some memories. He has plenty to share since he taught in public schools for 44 years, the last decade as an English and literature teacher at the Wyalusing Valley High School until he retired in 1969. He started teaching in 1924 at the age of 19 in a one-room school with 17 pupils of assorted ages just down the road from his family farm.
If our numbers are accurate, that means his first students are all well into their eighties. Since he has been retired for 36 years, even his most recent students are in their fifties.
"He is still sharp as a tack," reports his pastor, Bill Nelson. "He doesn't miss much."
Mr. Bennett is able to stay on the family farm with some help from family and friends. One of his sons, Jim, spends about two weeks every month with him, and a caretaker is there for the other two. His other children, who are all at retirement age themselves, are Robert, John and Suzanne. The love of his live was his wife, Florence, to whom he was married for 63 years and seven months until her death in December of 1995. She, too, was a distinguished educator, and, like her husband, started in one-room schools and ended her career at the consolidated high school. "She could teach anything," Mr. Bennett told us last year. "We always taught together in the same school."
The family reported that no gifts are being solicited at Saturday's open house and luncheon.
He was born May 6, 1905 in Tuscarora Township in the house on Clapper Hill Road across the road from his present residence on Bennett Acres, a designated Century Farm. He was a son of Very Bennett and Mary Woodruff Bennett. Glenn attended local schools and graduated from Laceyville High School, Class of 1923 and from Mansfield Normal School, Class of 1924. He began his career as a teacher at the age of 19 in the one-room school house on Clapper Hill in 1924, and had 17 students at the time. He later taught history and English in Skinner’s Eddy, was an English teacher and the principal at Laceyville High School for two years (until consolidation), and taught English to the upper grades at Wyalusing Valley High School for over 15 years. His combined total was 44 years of teaching.
Glenn met his wife-to-be, Florence Beckman of Coudersport, PA, during summer school at Penn State, and on May 6, 1932 Glenn and Florence were married. Since the Depression had begun, they kept the fact a secret in order for Florence to keep her job. By 1938, there were three small children in the house and Glenn needed to complete his degree so he took classes at Mansfield State Teachers College while Florence taught in his place at Laceyville High School. The couple also managed a lunch-counter – gas station at Powers Corner near Mansfield. Florence was Spanish, Latin, French, science, social studies and chemistry teacher for many years, retiring from Wyalusing Valley High School in 1969. “Mr. and Mrs. B.”, as the couple were affectionately called by students, were exceptional teachers and a devoted couple. They enjoyed a long retirement together, traveling to visit family and remodeling their home. Glenn and Florence were married 63 years before Florence passed away on Dec. 18, 1995.
An avid reader and farmer, Mr. B’s interests and memberships over the years include: Beaver Meadows United Methodist Church, the Mayflower Society, John Howland Society and the sons of the Civil War and Roman Masonic Lodge #418 F&AM, LeRaysville, PA.
Survivors:
Sons Robert Glenn Bennett - Camarillo, CA
Dr. John Very Bennett - Atlanta, GA
James George Bennett - Columbus, Ohio
Daughter Suzanne Marie Bennett-Sagrati - Cincinnati, OH
21 grandchildren and 32 great-grandchildren
Funeral Services will be held on Wednesday, October 19, 2005 at 10:30 A.M. at the Beaver Meadows United Methodist Church with the Rev. William C. Nelson, his pastor, officiating. Internment will be in Beaver Meadows Cemetery.
Friends may call at the Church on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2005 from 2:00 to 4:00 PM and from 7:00 to 9:00 PM, and on Wednesday morning from 9:30 AM until the time of the service.
Memorials may be directed to the Florence and Glenn Bennett Memorial Scholarship Fund c/o First Liberty Bank, 101 E. Main St., Laceyville, PA 18623.∼Lot 16 and 17, V. D. Bennett lot
Bennett, Glenn Ferris (May 6) 1905 – (October) 16, 2005
Florence M. (Marie) Beckman (October 30) 1903 – 1995 (December 18)
Married 5 – 6 – 1932, Glenn, a schoolteacher farmer was the son of Very Dimock and Mary Lucina Woodruff Bennett. Flo, his wife, also a schoolteacher was born the daughter of George and Anna O'Halloran Beckman in Coudersport, Pennsylvania. Because Flo was a schoolteacher, they had to keep their marriage a secret. In that day and age married women were not allowed to teach!
There is a large family headstone etched BENNETT on the lot. Glenn decided just before Florence died that they would etch their names, dates and marriage date on the base, no need to buy a headstone when one already exists was his remarks to me.
Children: Robert Glenn, Suzanne Mary (Mrs. Alfred Sagrati), Dr. John Very, and James George. All are deceased except Suzanne Sagrati. Dr. John Bennett passed away July 18, 2013 in Atlanta, Georgia. He was cremated.
* Historians note: Mr. Glenn, as I joyfully refer to him was responsible for keeping many of the church and cemetery records. He was the first man to try to straighten out the burials in the cemetery. His handwriting is most prevalent in the original plot book. It appears that Mae Fassett and Mr. Glenn collaborated in her search for history also. He retired from church and cemetery work in the late 1970's. I've enjoyed a few nice visits with this talented historian. He will be quoted many times in my church historical records. He has shared with me what ever he could remember at his advanced age from 1994 – 2000.
* Historians note: I found a site on the Internet by his grandson Thomas Bennett that refers to the Bennett Homestead on Clapper Hill as the "Castle". http://www.mindspring.com/~tbennett/index.html
Many treasured memories are shared and kept by his children and many grandchildren at the Castle.
Daily Review October 16, 2005
Glenn Ferris Bennett, age 100, longtime area resident and respected teacher of Tuscarora Township, died Sunday, Oct. 16, 2005 at the Memorial Hospital, Towanda, Pa. He was born May 6, 1905 in Tuscarora Township in the house on Clapper Hill Road across the road from his present residence on Bennett Acres, a designated century farm. He was a son of Very Bennett and Mary Woodruff Bennett. Glenn attended local schools and graduated from Laceyville High School, Class of 1923 and from Mansfield Normal School, Class of 1924. He began his career as a teacher at the age of 19 in the one-room schoolhouse on Clapper Hill in 1924, and had 17 students at the time. He later taught history and English in Skinner's Eddy, was an English teacher for many years and the principal at Laceyville High School for two years until consolidation. He taught English to the upper grades at Wyalusing Valley High School for over 15 years. His combined total was 44 years of teaching.
Glenn met his wife-to-be, Florence Beckman of Coudersport, Pa., during summer school at Penn State, and on May 6, 1932 Glenn and Florence were married. Since the Depression had begun, they kept the fact a secret in order for Florence to keep her job. By 1938, there were three small children in the house and Glenn needed to complete his degree so he took classes at Mansfield State Teachers College while Florence taught in his place at Laceyville High School. The couple also managed a lunch-counter gas station at Powers Corner near Mansfield. Florence was a Spanish, Latin, French, science, social studies and chemistry teacher for many years, retiring from Wyalusing Valley High School in 1969. "Mr. and Mrs. B.," as the couple were affectionately called by students, were exceptional teachers and a devoted couple. They enjoyed a long retirement together, traveling to visit family and remodeling their home. Glenn and Florence were married 63 years before Florence passed away on Dec. 18, 1995. An avid reader and farmer, Mr. B's interests and memberships over the years include: Beaver Meadows United Methodist Church, the Mayflower Society, John Howland Society and the sons of the Civil War and a member of the Masonic Lodge. Surviving are: his sons, Robert Glenn Bennett of Camarillo, Calif., Dr. John Very Bennett of Atlanta, Ga., and James George Bennett of Columbus, Ohio; his daughter, Suzanne Marie Bennett-Sagrati of Cincinnati, Ill.; and 21 grandchildren and 32 great-grandchildren. Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2005 at 10:30 a.m. at the Beaver Meadows United Methodist Church with the Rev. William C. Nelson, his pastor, officiating. Interment will be in Beaver Meadows Cemetery. Friends may call at the Church on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2005 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., and on Wednesday morning from 9:30 a.m. until the time of the service. Memorials may be directed to the Bennett Memorial Scholarship Fund c/o First Liberty Bank, 101 E. Main St., Laceyville, Pa., 18623. To send condolences or sign the e-guestbook, please go to www.homerfuneralhome.com.
Name: Glenn Bennett
Event Type: Census Event Date: 1940 Event Place: Tuscarora Township, Bradford, Pennsylvania, United States
Gender: Male Age: 34
Marital Status: Married Race: White
Relationship to Head of Household: Head
Birthplace: Pennsylvania Birth Year (Estimated): 1906
Last Place of Residence: Same Place District: 8-57 Family Number: 27
Household Gender Age Birthplace
Head Glenn Bennett M 34 Pennsylvania
Wife Florence Bennett F 36 Pennsylvania
Son Robert Glen Bennett M 6 Pennsylvania
Daughter Susann Bennett F 5 Pennsylvania
Son John Bennett M 4 Pennsylvania
Hired man Robert Diamond M 23 Pennsylvania
Notes from his daughter Sue
Dear Carol, Rev. Bill had organized a drive through party. After church , people came to the farm and drove in the top driveway, Dad sat in his wheelchair in the door to the family room, and they exchanged greetings, and then drove out the bottom door of the garage. Dad gave out lollipops and these letters to each car. What a happy day that was for him!
Love, Sue
Dad's little dog, Chico, was a Bedlinton Terrier. He was just darling and good company for Dad and Jim.; He was so old and infirm, blind and arthritic, the Vet came and picked him up. She had been telling us for years that he would be better off asleep, but They just couldn't take him. He was 18 years old. That was in February 2005. I wanted to get Dad another, but the vet cautioned us that another dog might outlive Dad and then who would be able to take him..... Sue
OK Here's the letter:
Recollection of Walking to Beaver Meadow for Church in 1915 Sue Bennett sent me this
When I was about ten years of it was fun to go to church in good weather. Mother, Dad and I would start walking and as we passed out neighbors' homes they would join us. All the way to church everyone would be laughing, talking and all the kids would be running and playing. Clifford, Ernest, Daniel Clapper and I always played together. We would pass my Aunt Wavie and Uncle Chet Culver's house, but they would have already gone ahead in their buggy. Aunt Wavie often played the organ.
The Pickett's and the Bennett's and Sharers came from the opposite side of the hill., We'd all meet in the church yard, but I can't recall if they had walked. The last one to join our procession was "Crazy" Dennison. He lived alone in a big house in a cow pasture on the hill above the church. Walking home , when we would reach the top of his hill, Dennison would start to preach his own sermon. All the adults would stand around to listen, and we children had to be quiet until he finished.
The church services then were much like those of today. The children attended Sunday School while their parents were in church. I( remember Lena Clapper and :"Aunt Joey" Carter as our teachers, "Aunt" Joey's son, Herbert, had a beautiful voice and sang in church.
It was about this time that I can remember Reverend Trible who first opened the basement under the church and dug the drainage ditch. In later years, I remember Reverend Reid gratefully because he would come regularly and take my own children to Youth Fellowship. Oh yes, there is one other minister very important to this congregation. It's "Wild Bill - working to beat hell".
Over the years, I can't remember any sermons or any specific Bible lesson, but I can remember and appreciate the love and fellowship of our neighbors. That hasn't changed over the years. The people whom I recall from those summer Sundays have gone on to glory, and are deeply missed. They are resting in peace in Beaver Meadows Cemetery, but somehow, I'm still here - still having a good time. Thank you for coming to celebrate my birthday! I hope that your procession today brings you as much joy as ours brought us eighty six years ago and as much pleasure as you have given me on my 96th birthday. You're all invited back for my Hundredth... if you're still around.
I'm grateful to God, to all of you and to my family. God Bless You. GFB
Glenn Bennett, 99, Looks Back on Being Part of Perfect Team By Wes Skillings Wyalusing Rocket
As of today, Glenn Bennett is a week into his 100th year. He celebrated his 99th birthday quietly at home, Thursday, May 6, and entertained guests during the day and read through a tall stack of birthday cards that appeared at least as large in number as the years he was celebrating. Glenn Bennett with the stack of cards and letters he received last week on the occasion of his 99th birthday. He is recovering from the recent removal of a growth from his right eye. Photo by Wes Skillings.
He is still at the family farm on Clapper Hill—one that recently achieved Century Farm status—and with the help of a wheelchair and a chair lift on the stairs manages to stay in the home he loves. His son, Jim, a retired deputy sheriff from Columbus, Ohio, is a big reason he is able to do that. Jim makes the trip from Ohio monthly to spend two weeks with his dad and a caretaker is there with Mr. Bennett the remainder of the month. "All of us had to work on the farm," Jim says. "This is where we learned about family and hard work."
Jim and his three older siblings, Robert, Suzanne and John, all learned a lot about academic discipline from their parents, Glenn and Florence, who weren't your typical farm couple. If there was a local teaching hall of fame, they would be the first inductees. Between them they taught in public schools for 80 years, Glenn for 44 years and Florence for 36. Their marriage goes back to one-room schools, in which they both taught, and at the Wyalusing Valley High School, where they were known simply as "Mr. and Mrs. B." They taught at the high school level from the start of that educational experiment known as consolidation to their retirement in 1969.
"I'm glad I'm not teaching today," Mr. Bennett says quietly. "I had many wonderful students."
Armed with a teaching certificate earned by attending the old Mansfield Normal School for six weeks, Mr. Bennett started teaching at a one-room school in the fall of 1924 at the age of 19. He, himself, had just graduated from the Laceyville High School that previous spring. It was at the Clapper Hill School just up the road from the family farm, and he had 17 students spread out between grades one through eight. Several were from immigrant families who had even more of a challenge learning to read and write.
It would be six more years before he would meet the woman who would become his life partner and professional peer. He continued to work on the farm with his parents, Very and Mary Bennett, when he wasn't teaching or going to summer school in Mansfield to keep his teaching certification. After three years of teaching and going to school in the summers, he took a year to earn his permanent elementary certification. He came back to take a job at the old Skinners Eddy School, and that took the young bachelor teacher up to the momentous summer of 1930 when, while at Penn State picking up more credits at the secondary level, he met Florence Marie Beckman, who he came to call Flo. The seeds of love had been planted, and though he went on to teach junior high history in a suburban Pittsburgh school and she back to teach in her native Coudersport, they would be back together soon. It was the only year that Mr. Bennett taught away from his beloved Bradford County, because when his mother broke her hip in 1931, he moved back to Clapper Hill and was again teaching at Skinners Eddy. Glenn and Flo married quietly on May 6, 1932—72 years ago as of last week. But they kept their marriage a secret until the next summer, and Mrs. Bennett continued teaching high school French, English and history in Tyrone, PA.
"Those were different times," said Mr. Bennett. "They didn't appreciate teachers being married in those days, especially women, and we tried to be discreet." The morality of the time, particularly in rural America, was that there was something impure, even provocative, about a teacher being married. They were also hard times, still recovering from the Depression, and they couldn't afford to lose their job because of some obsolete morality clause. Fortunately, times changed, but probably not before Mrs. Bennett came to live with her husband at the Bennett homestead in June of 1933. She would give birth to Bob in December of that year, and between then and January of 1936 would have, respectively, Sue, and Jack. That derailed her teaching career for a bit, but in the coming years, she would teach at the Edinger Hill School and he at Laceyville High School, and they would both be at Laceyville, she teaching French and chemistry and he English and history, while doubling as principal. It was the start of a 27-year span where they lived and taught together.
They did everything together, and one year, back in 1936, she even taught for him at Laceyville when he took a year at Mansfield State Teachers College to secure his bachelor's degree. Mr. Bennett took the three young children with him (Jim wouldn't be born until 1940), and Mrs. Bennett would teach at Laceyville during the week and drive out to be with her family in Mansfield on weekends. She did the teaching, but it was his name on the paycheck, and it was he who got credited with that year of teaching.
"She could teach anything," Mr. Bennett says of his wife, his voice betraying both love and admiration. "We always taught together in the same school." They both positively influenced a new generation of students while on the faculty at Wyalusing Valley High School, teaching their academic subjects at such a high level that those who went on to college found chemistry and English, for example, to be less demanding than their fellow collegians. Still both would tell you that they preferred the more intimate settings of the smaller community schools before consolidation. They had a long retirement together, getting to travel, remodel their home and enjoy their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They had been married 63 years and seven months when Mrs. B died in December of 1995.
The Bennetts may have been extraordinary educators, but Mr. Bennett reverted to his first love every summer, farming. Bob explained it a few years ago in a special issue of the Tuscarora Township Historical Society devoted to his parents.
"During the summers my father led a normal farmer's life. Planting, plowing, gathering hay and, of course, milking the cows twice a day, was how he spent his summer teachers' 'vacation.'" Mr. Bennett's eyes still light up when he talks about his children as Jim sits beside him. They were all taught the importance of an education and mental discipline, no matter what they did for a living. In fact, they had the three oldest in college at the same time. They all went in different directions. Bob started out at West Point, but a shoulder injury cut short a budding military career, and he ended up graduating from Penn State with a business degree. Today he runs a thriving vinyl fencing business in California and is handing over the reins to the next generation. Suzanne Sagriti followed her parents' footsteps and, after earning a degree from Seton Hill College, taught public school for many years, finding teaching jobs all over the country because her husband's sales job required extensive travel. In the meantime, she raised a family of 10 children. John, or Jack as he is known, became Dr. Jack Bennett after graduating from Princeton University and Jefferson Medical School. Jim's studies took him into criminal justice and forensic medicine which he applied to his career in law enforcement. "As long as they were doing what they wanted to do, I was happy for them," Mr. Bennett says now. Glenn Bennett never really went far from home in his first 99 years, but he opened up new worlds to the hundreds, more likely thousands, of students he taught in his 44 years in public education
A story about one man's gazebo BY ERIN LEMLEY 11/21/2004
TUSCARORA - When Glenn Bennett was 98 years old, his friend said to him, "Not everyone is able to reach 100. There must be something special you would like to celebrate the occasion. What is it?"
Looking back, Glenn explains, "When I said I wanted a gazebo for my hundredth birthday, I had no idea I would ever get it."
That friend of his - no spring chicken either - often reminds Glenn, "Only the good die young, you know." This always cracks them both up.
They're pretty good friends. One's even been known to lend the other a hearing-aid when a battery's gone bad.
Imagine two very old men, wearing one whistling hearing-aid apiece, and laughing because "only the good die young." And can you believe Glenn's friend is a preacher? One day the preacher got a magazine in the mail with plans in it for building a gazebo. He bought an extra copy and slyly left one on the coffee table at Glenn's house, so his family would start pondering the idea.
The seasons changed in the place where there was still no gazebo, but they discussed it from time to time.
When Christmas rolled around, Glenn and his son, Jim, collaborated with the preacher in sending letters to all of Glenn's family and friends. They hinted at his one-hundredth birthday wish and asked for a one-time gift to cover the next few birthdays and Christmases.
Because Glenn's so popular - he used to be a school teacher - there were nearly 100 responses. Consequently, a special fund was arranged for the project through a local bank. Anticipating the arrival of the gazebo, Claire Hercenberg, one of his nurses, brought Glenn a miniature one for Easter. He showed it to all of his visitors. Glenn picked a spot in his front yard for it next to a tree; visible from his bedroom and from the kitchen where he spends a lot of time in his wheelchair.
Friends and members of the Tuscarora Township community began planning its construction just before Glenn's hundredth birthday. Not long afterwards though, one of the lead volunteers had major surgery, and then a second, which brought things to a standstill.
The unassembled gazebo, sent all the way from California by Glenn's son, Robert, sat in Glenn's driveway inside a wooden crate. The summer months were slipping away and Glenn was already 99 years old...
Wyalusing Valley High School senior Robert Barth to the rescue! For Robert's senior project, he took over heading the construction on weekends. "Me and my step-dad laid out the stakes," Robert says. Then they placed boards to shape the concrete base.
"On Saturday, Oct. 2, we poured out the concrete and it was idle for a while."
of Glenn's grandsons, Charles, arrived for a visit and helped Robert assemble the gazebo since he works for his dad's company, which makes the gazebo kits. It's done and Glenn thinks it's beautiful. He's tested it out by sitting inside. It has a ramp so he can get in with his wheelchair.
In the end the gazebo was completed early. Glenn won't be 100 until May 6, but he recognizes it's a good thing that the Rev. Bill Nelson started in early - or he would have had to wait until he was 101. He's looking forward to getting some more use out of it though when the warmer weather shows up, hopefully in time for his birthday.
Glenn Bennett Celebrating 100th Birthday - by Wes Skillings - 5/5/2005 Rocket Newspaper
By the time they celebrate his birthday at the Beaver Meadows Church Saturday, Glenn Bennett will be a day into his 101st year. The long-time educator, who still lives on the family farm on Clapper Hill, observes his 100th birthday on Friday, May 6.
Mr. Bennett will be the guest of honor at a Saturday open house in the social center of the church. His family is extending an open invitation to all well-wishers to attend the buffet luncheon, which runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. All his former students, many of whom he has already outlived, are invited to stop by and share some memories. He has plenty to share since he taught in public schools for 44 years, the last decade as an English and literature teacher at the Wyalusing Valley High School until he retired in 1969. He started teaching in 1924 at the age of 19 in a one-room school with 17 pupils of assorted ages just down the road from his family farm.
If our numbers are accurate, that means his first students are all well into their eighties. Since he has been retired for 36 years, even his most recent students are in their fifties.
"He is still sharp as a tack," reports his pastor, Bill Nelson. "He doesn't miss much."
Mr. Bennett is able to stay on the family farm with some help from family and friends. One of his sons, Jim, spends about two weeks every month with him, and a caretaker is there for the other two. His other children, who are all at retirement age themselves, are Robert, John and Suzanne. The love of his live was his wife, Florence, to whom he was married for 63 years and seven months until her death in December of 1995. She, too, was a distinguished educator, and, like her husband, started in one-room schools and ended her career at the consolidated high school. "She could teach anything," Mr. Bennett told us last year. "We always taught together in the same school."
The family reported that no gifts are being solicited at Saturday's open house and luncheon.
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