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BARBOUR COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Valerie & Tommy Crook
vfcrook@trellis.net
March 18, 2000
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 352-353
ARTHUR F. BENNETT, former sheriff of Barbour County
and now deputy fish and game protector for the Second
District, is one of the best known of the younger men of
Philippi, where he has performed good and efficient serv-
ice in several different capacities.
He was born near Belington in Barker District of Bar-
bour County, April 11, 1884. His grandparents were Laban
and Sarah (Keller) Bennett. Laban Bennett was also
a native of Barbour County and died during the Civil
war when his sons were all too young for service in the
Confederate Army, where their sympathies lay. Jacob
J. Bennett, father of Arthur F., was nine years of age
when his father died, and he spent his life as a farmer.
He died in 1913, at the age of fifty-four. He married
Mary Shingleton, daughter of Jonathan and Nancy (Yea-
ger) Shingleton. Her father was a farmer and died while
a Union soldier. Mary, his only child, was born after his
death, and she grew up in the home of her stepfather,
John Anderson, secured a free school education and was
married to Jacob J. Bennett in 1881. She became the
mother of five sons and six daughters: Ida, wife of
M. L. Weese, of Meridan, Barbour County; Arthur F.;
William Floyd, of Barbour County; James F., of Parkers-
burg; Sarah Ellen, wife of Corder Weese, of Barbour
County; Talbott P., of Augusta, Georgia; Susan, wife of
Owen Day, of Barbour County; Viola, Mrs. William Stal-
naker, of Barbour County; Porter L., of Elkins, West
Virginia; Hazel and Masel, who still live with their mother
on the farm.
Arthur F. Bennett was reared in Glade District of Bar-
bour County, acquired a public school education, and with
this education he began teaching and taught six terms of
country school. His first term was in Hunters Forks School
and his last in Mud Run in Glade District. During vaca-
tion he worked on the farm, and he has never entirely
separated, himself from farming interests and owns a
farm today.
Mr. Bennett was strongly inclined to take up and fol-
low the profession of law. A good opportunity to acquaint
himself with the practical side of the legal profession and
acquire knowledge at the same time came when he became
employed in the Belington office of the well known law firm
of Ware and Viquesney at Philippi. He acted in behalf
of the firm, handling some of the work required by their
clients in Belington, and turning over matters of more
importance to the head office. He read law there, and
afterward read with Mr. Ware at Philippi. While a law
student he was agent for several fire insurance companies,
but soon afterward accepted the invitation of his friends
to make the race before the primaries for the nomination
for sheriff. He was successful over three competitors, and
in the following November he defeated his democratic op-
ponent and succeeded William B. Corder in the office. At
that time he was the youngest sheriff Barbour County
had ever had. He proved himself an able officer, and his
administration during four years was all that could be
asked.
After retiring from the office of sheriff Mr. Bennett en-
gaged in the real estate and coal business at Philippi,
but in September, 1921, accepted appointment under the
Forest, Game and Fish Department of West Virginia as
deputy protector of the Second District, comprising the
counties of Barbour, Taylor, Preston, Marion, Monongalia,
Harrison, Doddridge and Ritchie.
In the neighborhood where he was reared Mr. Bennett
married, April 15, 19U6, Miss Cleo Booth, who was born
and reared in the same locality and was educated in the
country schools. Her parents were Jeremiah and Rebecca
(Poling) Booth and her maternal grandfather was Israel
Poling, of Barker District. She was born March 2, 1886,
and ia the youngest of three children, the other two being
Lloyd J., a farmer and country merchant in Glade Dis-
trict; and Ottis, who married Stephen Fitswater, of Bel-
ington.
Mr. and Mrs. Bennett had one child, a beautiful daugh-
ter named Opal Lilie, who was born February 11, 1907,
and died December 22, 1917. Her funeral was preached
by Rev. G. S. Kanleiter on the day before Christmas.
Fraternally Mr. Bennett is a past chancellor of the Knights
of Pythias and a member of the D. O. K. K., is a mem-
ber of the Pythian Sisters, the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows and Rebekahs, the Junior Order United American
Mechanics, Knights of the Macabees and Woodmen of the
World. He is one of the trustees in the United Brethren
Church, and in politics is a republican. During the war
he was a member of the local Legal Advisory Board.
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