Mendocino County Biographies

Frank Kelley Bennett

Transcribed by: Pat Howard

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

	This gentleman, whose portrait appears in this work, is 
generally known by the name of Frank Kelley only, but his name is the same as 
given above. When he was a mere child, his father died, and in the course of a 
few years his mother married a Mr. Kelley, and Frank was naturally called by his 
step-father�s name, and thus grew up in the name, and never cared to attempt to 
correct the matter as it might lead to more confusion than to let it stand as he 
was known. We append this explanation that Mr. Kelley (Bennett) may not appear 
in a false light in our work. He was born in the Province of Canada East, July 
12, 1848. He resided at his birthplace till 1861, being so busily engaged at his 
farm labors that he had not an opportunity to acquire even a common school 
education. In that year he went to Thurso, Province of Quebec, where he served 
an apprenticeship at the  shoemaker�s trade during a period of four years. 
During all the time of his apprenticeship he devoted his spare moments to his 
books, thus acquiring a fair knowledge of much more than the rudiments of an 
education. In 1865 he opened a shoe shop of his own at Thurso, and continued 
business till 1869; on the 17th of October of which year he arrived in 
California, and on the 21st of that month came to Caspar, Mendocino county. Here 
he found employment at the mill, working at piling lumber at the port, which he 
followed for a couple of months. He then began to �peg away� at men�s �soles,� 
�foxing� their boots and �tapping� them for the full price, �stitching� to �save 
the rent,� until at �last,� March 6, 1876, he threw the business up �awl� 
together, and, uniting with Joseph Lampitt, he embarked in a mercantile 
enterprise. At the end of a year the partnership was dissolved, Mr. Kelley 
(Bennett) purchasing the entire stock. He has since conducted the business, and 
with a great degree of success; and well he deserves success for he is a genial, 
obliging, and, withal, a gentleman of high order, while his sense of honor is 
not to be excelled by any one. From a boy on a farm, deprived of even the 
advantages of a common school education, he has developed into one of the first 
business men along the Mendocino coast, and all through his own personal 
energies and indomitable will. He was married March 6, 1871, to Miss Georgenia 
Mathews, a native of Clarence, Canada, who was born November 3, 1846. They have 
one child, Eleana Isabella, born July 23, 1874.
 
SOURCE: History of Mendocino County, California - San Francisco, Cal. Alley, 
Bowen & Co., Publishers. 1880 Pp. 546, 547