"An Illustrated History of the Big Bend Country; Embracing Lincoln, Douglas, Adams and Franklin Counties; State of Washington". Spokane, Western Historical Publishing Company, Publishers, 1904. pp. 814-815. MRS. CHRISTENA BENNETT. One of the most interesting personages in Adams county is the lady whose name appears at the head of this sketch, and whose beautiful home, Woodland Heights, is situated one and one-half miles north of Ritzville. Mrs. Bennett comes of a historic Scotch family, her grandmother on her father's side being a Sutherland for which family Sutherlandshire, Scotland, is named. This grandmother was a refined and gifted woman, well educated, with the command of seven languages. She enjoyed the distinction of having served as a nurse at the battle of Waterloo, in which battle, also, her husband, Hector McKay, served and was wounded, dying some years after from the hurt received. On her motherís sided Mrs. Bennett numbers a long line of seafaring men, some of whom were captains. To this family belongs Mary Johnston, author of "To Have and to Hold," "Audrey," and so forth, who is third cousin to our subject. Mrs. Christina Bennett was born in Scotland, April 18, 1845, the daughter of William and Margaret (Johnston) McKay, whose lives are briefly touched upon on another page of this volume, with whom she came to America in 1851. Mrs. Bennettís life in the United States was spent in the states of Pennsylvania and Minnesota with her parents until May 13, 1865, when she was married at St. Charles, Minnesota, to James Gordon Bennett, born in Canada, January 18, 1841. Mr. Bennett's father was a farmer and teacher for many years, and died at Clinton, Iowa, when the son was a lad of five years. His mother was Cynthia (Kinnard) Bennett, a native of Canada, born near Toronto, the daughter of a farmer, who removed to Canada from New York, where he was married. During Mr. Bennett's infancy he was taken by his parents to Iowa, where he lived until arrived at his majority. He was educated in the Clinton high school, while he lived on a farm with his mother and brother, and with them later removed to St. Charles. After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Bennett lived at St. Charles for four years when they emigrated to Canton, South Dakota, filed on a homestead and remained eight years. In 1879 they came to Walla Walla, Washington, where they lived two years, during which time Mr. Bennett pre-empted the present home of Mrs. Bennett and purchased railroad land. Upon the formation of Adams county he was one of the first county commissioners, and Mrs. Bennett was the first superintendent of schools. She first served by appointment for one year, then was elected on the Republican ticket twice to succeed herself, her entire term in office covering a period of five years. They assisted in the organization of the first Congregational church at Ritzville, and Mr. Bennett was the first Sunday School superintendent. Mrs. Bennett was a graduate from Winona, Minnesota, high school and taught school both in Minnesota and at Walla Walla, in all, five years. A brother of Mr. Bennett, Creighton, was a soldier in the Civil War, engaging in the famous Minnesota massacre. He died from fever while home on a furlough. Mr. Bennett enlisted in time to serve the last half year of the war. For a number of years he was the sole support of his mother who died here, December 2, 1889, aged ninety-two, prior to which time she possessed remarkable vigor, mentally and physically. The mother was a member of a family of ten, all of whom lived past ninety years. Mrs. Bennett has living, two children; Van V. and Clinton S. Bennett, the former a farmer near Ritzville, and the latter a student at Belmount, California. She had one daughter, Bessie M., wife of O. H. Green, a Ritzville banker, mentioned elsewhere in this book, which daughter died at San Francisco, October 28, 1899. Mrs. Bennett has six hundred and forty acres of grain land upon which her husband ordinarily raised fifty bushels of wheat per acre, and the most handsome and modern home in the vicinity of Ritzville. James Gordon Bennett passed away at St. Vincent hospital, Portland, Oregon, August 31, 1902, and was laid to rest in the Ritzville cemetery. His funeral was the largest ever held in that city, the entire community realizing the greatness of its loss in such a progressive, liberal, honorable, and public-spirited man. Submitted by: Georgia Harter Williams, georgiahw@earthlink.net