BENJAMIN F. BENTLY, a leading and influential citizen of Monongahela, is a native of this county, bon in Carroll township in December, 1821. His grandfather, Sheshbazzar Bentley, was born in Chester county, Penn., where he learned the trade of millwright, which he followed in both that and Washington counties. In Chester county he was married, and had one child, Hannah. Afterward he came with his little family to Washington county, a wagon being their mode of conveyance, in which they brought their chattels. They crossed into the county through the river at what is now Monongahela, and for the first night camped out near where the present fair grounds are located. They then proceeded up Pigeon creek until they arrived at a point where Mr. Bentley established a mill site and built the first mill on the creek. On an adjoining hill he put up for himself and family a log cabin, in which they lived some years, and then erected a hewed log house, where he passed the remainder of his pioneer life. He also at this place founded, in 1816, the village of Bentleyville, in Somerset township. His children, born in this county were House, George and Sheshbazzar. Mr. Bentley was a Democrat in politics, and in religious faith a member of the Society of Friends. House Bentley attended in his early boyhood the subscription schools of the neighborhood of the place of his birth, Bentleyville, until he was old enough to work, when he entered his father’s mill to learn the trade. While a resident of Bentleyville he married Fannie, daughter of William Wallace, of Somerset township, and the children born to them were Hannah (Mrs. John Kennedy), Elizabeth, Sheshbazzar, William, Martha, Margaret, Benjamin F. And Amanda (Mrs. Joshua Stevens). After marriage Mr. and Mrs. Bentley moved to Carroll township, where he built a mill on Mingo creek, which he carried on many years. In 1824 he moved to a farm near Monongahela river, and there passed the remainder of his busy life, dying in 1852, a member of the M. E. Church. Politically, he was a Whig, actively and enthusiastically patriotic, and was considerably interested in militia matters, having at one time been a general. Benjamin F. Bentley was reared in Carroll township, in the primitive subscription schools of which he received a fair education for those early days. The schoolhouse was made of logs, the floor and seats being rough puncheons, and the windows of greased paper in lieu of glass. He lived on the farm four or five years after marriage, and then came to Monongahela, where he has since made his home. He built his present comfortable and commodious residence in 1873. In 1849 Mr. Bentley was married to Mary, daughter of Daniel Van Voorhis. They have no children. They are members of the Baptist church, in which he has served as a deacon, and in his political affiliations he is a Republican. Mr. Bentley represents a family prominent and influential in the affairs of Washington county.

Text taken from page 1145 of: Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893). Transcribed January 1997 by Larry Jones of Pittsburgh, PA as part of the Beers Project. Published January 1997 on the Washington County, PA pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.

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