Frederick S. Bennett.—Duty, affection, and contentment retain many boys upon the farm all their lives, while temperament and natural powers send others forth to play a stirring part upon the battlefield of life. Of alert mind, capable and energetic, Mr. Bennett early entered upon an active business career and, judged as men are in this practical age, by what they have accomplished, he may well be termed one of the successful men of this state. He is a Kansan by nativity, born in Anderson county, April 29, 1864. His parents, Zarr Bennett and Sarah J. Hinman, were natives respectively of New York and Connecticut. They came to Kansas City, Mo., and from thence to Anderson county, Kansas, in 1857, being among the earliest settlers of that county. The father was a farmer. He was a strong anti-slavery man and witnessed many of the stirring events that occurred on Kansas soil during the Civil war, in which he participated by assisting in repelling the advance of Price in his raid through Kansas. He died in 1898, when ninety-four years of age. The mother was a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal church.

Mr. Bennett was educated in the common schools of Anderson county, and was a worker on the paternal farm until seventeen years of age. He initiated his independent career by engaging in the hay business. Later he became immigration agent for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company, with headquarters at Galesburg, Ill., and was thus employed from 1889 to 1894. After three years' residence at Westphalia, Kan., he located at Iola and was there engaged in the real estate business until 1905. In the meantime he had begun developing oil lands in southern Kansas, and was one of the first to discover and to open up the treasures of that section. In 1905 he built, at an expense of $100,000, a large oil refinery at Longton, Kan. This plant, which he recently sold, has been removed to Caney, Kan. Mr. Bennett gives his whole attention to the real estate business, in which he is extensively engaged and of which he has made a success. He buys his land outright and his operations in that line of business extend all over southeastern Kansas. Personally, he is a large land owner and has one of the fine ranches of the state, 200 acres of which is given to the raising of alfalfa. He also raises a great number of mules. Mr. Bennett has won a fortune, not by wafting of a magic wand, but by shrewd business ability and intrepid endeavor, for he began his business career without capital, save good mental endowments and a large capacity for hard work. His attainments are the more marked by the fact that he is still a comparatively young man.

In 1905 Mr. Bennett wedded Miss Lazie A. Callison, daughter of James Black, who came to Kansas from Iowa. Mr. Bennett, by a former marriage, has a son, Webster, who is associated with his father in the real estate business. Mrs. Bennett is a member of the Presbyterian church. Their residence is one of the most modern and finely appointed homes in Elk county and is presided over by a genial host and a gracious hostess. Fraternally, Mr. Bennett is a Royal Arch Mason and a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the Knights of Pythias. He has been secretary of the last named order for a number of years. In political affairs he is a Democrat and is at the present time mayor of Longton.