BENEDICT, WILLIS B., was born in the village
of Enterprise, township of Southwest, on the 19th day of February, 1838.
He comes of an ancient English family, the first emigrant from which to
this country, Thomas Benedict, settled in Massachusetts Bay in 1638,
removing from there to Connecticut. He died at Norwalk in 1690, where
many of his descendants are now living. The great-grandfather of the
subject of our sketch, named Thomas Benedict, bore an active part as a
soldier throughout the War of the Revolution, and was afterward a
pensioner, as was also another great-grandfather, James Spencer. W. B.
Benedict’s grandfather, Jare Benedict, was the first of the family to
settle in Southwest. He was born in December, 1787, in West Stockbridge,
Mass. His father emigrated from Massachusetts to Onondaga county, N.Y.,
whence, in the winter of 1833, Jare Benedict removed to Southwest,
bringing his family and worldly effects with him in sleighs. His wife
Annis, daughter of James Spencer mentioned above, was born in West
Stockbridge, Mass., in 1791, and died in Southwest township on the 9th
of August, 1858. When they came to this township, in 1833, their
children, Elbridge G., Selden Spencer, Major F., and Harriet, afterward
wife of George C. Pettit, of Fabius, N.Y., were all born. Jare Benedict,
at once upon his arrival in Warren county, formed a partnership with his
brother-in-law, Selden Spencer, for the purpose of engaging in the
manufacture and sale of lumber. They purchased large tracts of lands
covered with a dense growth of pine timber of the best quality, and
erected what was in those days a fine saw-mill on Pine Creek, at what is
now the site of Enterprise village, on the ruins of the first mill ever
built in this part of the county. Mr. Benedict continued in a most
successful prosecution of the lumber business until his death, on the
19th of July, 1844, when he had reached the age of fifty-six years, six
months and twenty-eight days. He was a noted than in his day, both for
his superior sagacity and energy in the management of his private
affairs, and for his unbounded public spirit. He was an acknowledged
leader in all matters relating to the welfare of his town and county. He
was a staunch but intelligent Democrat. To his enterprise and industry
are due the laying out and opening of many of the roads in this
vicinity. He and all his family were members of the Baptist
denomination. Before coming to Pennsylvania he and his brother Aaron,
almost unaided, built a Baptist house of worship in Fabius, N.Y., which
is still standing. His only surviving son, Major F. Benedict, resides in
Titusville. Major F. and Selden S. Benedict succeeded to their father’s
estate.
Selden Spencer Benedict was born in Fabius, Onondaga county, N.Y., on
the 27th day of March, 1817, and was consequently sixteen years of age
when he came to Southwest with his father’s family. In July, 1836, he
married Mary H., daughter of the celebrated Dr. John Heffron, of
Erieville, Madison county, N.Y., where she was born on the 22d of March,
1817. Her father was a graduate from Dartmouth College, and a surgeon,
in the War of 1812. Selden S. Benedict and wife reared a family of five
children: Willis B., the eldest; Eugenia, now the wife of W. J. Booth,
of Titusville, Pa.; Francis Wayland, who died November 22, 1865, aged
twenty-two years; M. Laverne, who became the wife of Dr. John Chick,
removed with him to Kansas City, Mo., and after his death, in 1881,
removed to Titusville, where she now resides; besides a son, born next
after Wayland, who died in infancy. Selden Benedict succeeded not only
to a share of his father’s property, but inherited his energy and public
spirit. He was esteemed for his open-handed charity and liberality; was
a member of the Democratic party until 1856, when he joined the ranks of
the Republicans, during that period of general osmosis between political
parties; and was a member and supporter of the Baptist Church in his own
town. In 1865 Major F., his brother, retired from business and settled
in Titusville, after which he conducted the business in his own name
until his death, on the 6th of February, 1873. His wife died on the 23d
day of May, 1879.
Willis B. Benedict passed his boyhood in attendance upon the district
schools of Southwest township, after which he underwent a thorough
training at the Waterford Academy in Erie county. In 1856 he had the
benefit of a course of study in Duff’s Commercial College of Pittsburgh,
the first and about the best institution of the kind west of the
Allegheny Mountains. Thus equipped for the serious business of life, he
returned to Enterprise and busied himself in aiding his father; until
the oil development of 1859, when he added the production of oil to the
manufacture of lumber. He commenced the production of petroleum in the
fall of 1859, when he drilled a well in Rouseville, Venango county. From
that time to the present writing Mr. Benedict has united the two
industries— that of operating in oil and that of manufacturing lumber—
with a degree of success. He has drilled many hundreds of wells, and
still owns large tracts of timber and oil lands. He was, unfortunately,
a victim of the great oil fire, which caused the death of Henry R.
Rouse, on the 17th of April, 1861, and himself escaped only with serious
injuries.
Though not ambitious for political eminence, Mr. Benedict’s ability for
management, and his personal influence, has made him, of necessity,
active in public affairs. He is in principle a Republican, and while a
firm and unyielding one, is not an "offensive" partisan. ‘In 1862 he was
elected treasurer of Warren county, and during his administration
demonstrated his fitness for the position. He was elected to a seat in
the State Legislature in the fall of 1880, and served with credit to
himself and his constituents. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church of Enterprise, and contributes liberally to its support.
Mr. Benedict has been thrice married. His first wife, Mary, daughter of
Elisha Sprague, of Fabius, N. Y. (an early friend of his father) he
married on the 18th of September, 1860. She died in July, 1872, leaving
one daughter, Myra E:, who was born on the 30th of December, 1868, and
is now living with her father. In June 1874, he was united in marriage
with his second wife, Jennie, daughter of judge Richard Irwin, of
Franklin, Venango county. She died in April, 1877, leaving one child,
Selden S., born on the 23d of June, 1875, and also at home. On the 25th,
of July, 1878, he married Edna J. Ruland, then of Shamburg; Pa., though
formerly of Batavia, N.Y., who is his present wife. By her he has had
four children - Willis B., born on the 16th of March, 1880; Wayland R.,
born on the 19th of January - 1882; Harry H., born on the 4th of January,
1884; and Robert B., born on the 8th of March, 1886.
History of Warren County:
With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of some of its Prominent
Men and Pioneers, J. S. Schenck, Syracuse, NY: D. Mason & Co., 1887.
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