A younger photo of Glenn Bennett given to me by his daughter Suzanne Sagrati

Still fine at 99 By: Erin Lemley 05/07/2004 Daily Review
TUSCARORA TOWNSHIP - Glenn Bennett celebrated his 99th birthday Thursday in the company of his son Jim, opening too many greeting cards to count and taking phone calls from friends, kids and grandkids.
He's been opening cards all week and the estimate is that he's received between 50 and 100 so far - there's quite a stack.
"I never expected to be as old as I am," Glenn said with his easy smile and sparkling blue eyes. "I have no secrets; it's a long life."
His dog, Chico, who is even older than Glenn, counting in dog years, accompanied him to the hospital where Glenn spent part of his birthday having stitches removed from under his eye where a cancerous spot was recently removed. He got a piece of cake from the doctor though. Glenn and Chico are growing old together gracefully. Luckily for them, Jim drives up from Columbus, Ohio, the first two weeks of every month to care for them, and Claire Hercenberg takes care of them for the last two weeks. Glenn has had two heart attacks. He claims that Chico, a Bedlington terrier, stayed right by his side until he got better both times - only taking breaks for a drink of water.
Glenn has three sons - Robert, John and James Bennett - and a daughter, Sue Bennett-Sagrati. And last time he counted, he had 32 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. He lives across the street from the house he was born in on Clapper Hill Road in Tuscarora Township. Jim was born in the "new" house and Robert was born across the street like his dad.
Glenn fondly remembers his wife, Florence, who died in 1995. "We were married during the Depression and only our parents knew," he said. Jim explained that during the Depression, married women were expected to stay home and leave employment open for singles and the heads of households.
"She would have lost her job if they found out she was married. She taught chemistry and she had many students who became professionals," Glenn said. "She loved teaching and I think the kids all loved her too." Florence taught at Coudersport and Tyrone, Pa.
"I taught everything in a one-room school house on Clapper Hill. I had 17 students, many first-graders. That was in 1924," Glenn said. "I've gotten many cards from them." He also taught in Skinner's Eddy, was the principal in Laceyville for two years and taught high school English in Wyalusing. "I taught 44 years," Glenn said. "I've enjoyed teaching and I've had many (successful) students."
Glenn and Florence were secretly married for at least two years before they told anybody, and by that time Florence was allowed to keep her job. In addition to stacks of cards for his birthday, Glenn's received a bouquet, a dozen red roses, and also a flowering plant from Tina Pickett. He got a bell and a miniature Blarney Stone, and a local 86-year old man even sent him an autobiography he thought Glenn might enjoy parts of. Glenn's son Robert sent him a gazebo all the way from California. Volunteers from Beavers Meadows Church are going to assemble it and pave a walkway to it as soon as the ground dries out. Glenn said he's looking forward to sitting inside it, where maybe he'll read since that is one of his favorite things to do.
Glenn's children were just awarded a Century Farm certificate from the Bradford County Historical Society because Bennett Acres is 104 years old and has remained a continuous residence and operation owned by their family. Bennett Acres includes the house Glenn lived in since he got married in 1932 and also the one across the road that he was born in.

Glenn Ferris Bennett with his mother Mary Woodruff Bennett, courtesy of the Bennett genealogy

At right: Glenn Bennett's grave, October 20, 2005.

A stone will be placed later, when the ground settles.

His 100th birthday party photo

A story about one man's gazebo BY ERIN LEMLEY 11/21/2004
TUSCARORA - When Glenn Bennett was 98 years old, his friend said to him, "Not everyone is able to reach 100. There must be something special you would like to celebrate the occasion. What is it?"
Looking back, Glenn explains, "When I said I wanted a gazebo for my hundredth birthday, I had no idea I would ever get it."
That friend of his - no spring chicken either - often reminds Glenn, "Only the good die young, you know." This always cracks them both up.
They're pretty good friends. One's even been known to lend the other a hearing-aid when a battery's gone bad.
Imagine two very old men, wearing one whistling hearing-aid apiece, and laughing because "only the good die young." And can you believe Glenn's friend is a preacher? One day the preacher got a magazine in the mail with plans in it for building a gazebo. He bought an extra copy and slyly left one on the coffee table at Glenn's house, so his family would start pondering the idea.
The seasons changed in the place where there was still no gazebo, but they discussed it from time to time.
When Christmas rolled around, Glenn and his son, Jim, collaborated with the preacher in sending letters to all of Glenn's family and friends. They hinted at his one-hundredth birthday wish and asked for a one-time gift to cover the next few birthdays and Christmases.
Because Glenn's so popular - he used to be a school teacher - there were nearly 100 responses. Consequently, a special fund was arranged for the project through a local bank. Anticipating the arrival of the gazebo, Claire Hercenberg, one of his nurses, brought Glenn a miniature one for Easter. He showed it to all of his visitors. Glenn picked a spot in his front yard for it next to a tree; visible from his bedroom and from the kitchen where he spends a lot of time in his wheelchair.
Friends and members of the Tuscarora Township community began planning its construction just before Glenn's hundredth birthday. Not long afterwards though, one of the lead volunteers had major surgery, and then a second, which brought things to a standstill.
The unassembled gazebo, sent all the way from California by Glenn's son, Robert, sat in Glenn's driveway inside a wooden crate. The summer months were slipping away and Glenn was already 99 years old...
Wyalusing Valley High School senior Robert Barth to the rescue! For Robert's senior project, he took over heading the construction on weekends. "Me and my step-dad laid out the stakes," Robert says. Then they placed boards to shape the concrete base.
"On Saturday, Oct. 2, we poured out the concrete and it was idle for a while."
of Glenn's grandsons, Charles, arrived for a visit and helped Robert assemble the gazebo since he works for his dad's company, which makes the gazebo kits. It's done and Glenn thinks it's beautiful. He's tested it out by sitting inside. It has a ramp so he can get in with his wheelchair.
In the end the gazebo was completed early. Glenn won't be 100 until May 6, but he recognizes it's a good thing that the Rev. Bill Nelson started in early - or he would have had to wait until he was 101. He's looking forward to getting some more use out of it though when the warmer weather shows up, hopefully in time for his birthday.
Glenn Bennett Celebrating 100th Birthday - by Wes Skillings - 5/5/2005 Rocket Newspaper
By the time they celebrate his birthday at the Beaver Meadows Church Saturday, Glenn Bennett will be a day into his 101st year. The long-time educator, who still lives on the family farm on Clapper Hill, observes his 100th birthday on Friday, May 6.
Mr. Bennett will be the guest of honor at a Saturday open house in the social center of the church. His family is extending an open invitation to all well-wishers to attend the buffet luncheon, which runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. All his former students, many of whom he has already outlived, are invited to stop by and share some memories. He has plenty to share since he taught in public schools for 44 years, the last decade as an English and literature teacher at the Wyalusing Valley High School until he retired in 1969. He started teaching in 1924 at the age of 19 in a one-room school with 17 pupils of assorted ages just down the road from his family farm.
If our numbers are accurate, that means his first students are all well into their eighties. Since he has been retired for 36 years, even his most recent students are in their fifties.
"He is still sharp as a tack," reports his pastor, Bill Nelson. "He doesn't miss much."
Mr. Bennett is able to stay on the family farm with some help from family and friends. One of his sons, Jim, spends about two weeks every month with him, and a caretaker is there for the other two. His other children, who are all at retirement age themselves, are Robert, John and Suzanne. The love of his live was his wife, Florence, to whom he was married for 63 years and seven months until her death in December of 1995. She, too, was a distinguished educator, and, like her husband, started in one-room schools and ended her career at the consolidated high school. "She could teach anything," Mr. Bennett told us last year. "We always taught together in the same school."
The family reported that no gifts are being solicited at Saturday's open house and luncheon.

Glenn at 99 in 2004.

May 2005, Mr. Glenn Bennett

Glenn Bennett of Wyalusing celebrates centennial birthday
BY ERIN LEMLEY 05/10/2005 Daily Review
TUSCARORA TOWNSHIP -- A hundred years offer the unique opportunity to touch many people's lives. And that's just what Glenn Bennett has done. The beloved man from Clapper Hill Road in Tuscarora Township celebrated his 100th birthday among hundreds of family members, friends and former students over the weekend.
Some of his very first students from the former one-room school house on Clapper Hill attended the birthday bash held Saturday at Beaver Meadows United Methodist Church. Adella (Sistas) Stevens of Wyalusing and Sofia (Dziuba) Hill of Buffalo, N.Y., were chatting away like the girls they were when they first met their 19-year-old teacher, Mr. Bennett.
"We were in his very first class, before he was certified," Adella said. "He was a kid himself -- he used to go to recess with us."
"He used to go outside and play 'Fox and the Goose' and a game where we threw a ball over the roof of the school house," she said. "We really loved him for being out there with us."
Sofia and Adella were both 8-years-old in 1924 when they started first grade. They eventually caught up, even skipping grades. They were each from Polish immigrant families who moved to Tuscarora Township from Wilkes-Barre.
"He had to put up with us foreign kids," Adella said with a laugh.
"When I was in first and second grade I was teaching English to my parents," Sofia said.
"One of the Eldridge boys -- I sat next to him all the time - so Glenn decided to 'marry' us," Sofia said. "My father came to the school in horse and buggy the next day and was speaking Polish and English, saying, 'My daughter thinks she's married now!'"
Glenn taught both of Sofia's brothers too. Sofia
used to ride her horse, Topsie, to school and hitch her up to a post outside the school house. In those days, the students also took turns hauling buckets of water to school from Culver's Springhouse, which the students shared using one dipper.
Before there were cars and running water in Tuscarora Township, Glenn was entertaining the youngsters in his classroom and doing so much more than just the lessons.
He was even known to give the poorer neighborhood boys haircuts behind the school house, Adella remembers. "He put a bowl on their head," she said. Glenn went on to teach for 44 years throughout the Wyalusing Area School District.
"He was also my daughter's 12th-grade teacher," Adella added.
Other former students at the party included Rose Welles-Kipp of Wyalusing and her husband, Mark Kipp. They both had Florence Bennett, Glenn's wife, for a teacher as well. Florence passed away 10 years ago.
"They are the reason I became a teacher," said Welles-Kipp, now a retired English teacher from Wyalusing Valley High School. "Mr. Bennett was my English teacher and taught me to love literature. Mrs. Bennett was a chemistry teacher and she taught me how to discipline a class -- she could discipline without a word."
The prolific Glenn Bennett wasn't just an unforgettable teacher. Glenn and Florence Bennett were the parents of four children: Robert, John, Sue and James. And at last count there were 32 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
The family held one birthday party for Glenn last Friday night, and one the week before just to ensure all could attend.
Many stories about him floated around the Carriage Inn in Tunkhannock Friday too, as each guest reiterated his relation to Glenn. Stories from Glenn's not-so-distant past included putting a rubber snake in a caretaker's car.
One of his nieces remembered the thrill of taking trips to visit the Bennett farm. "Our Uncle Howard was a police officer and 'arrested' him in his classroom one day too," she added.
Glenn's grandsons, through son John, expressed the same excitement about the farm. Looking into the big vats of milk was "great for a city kid," one said. Robert, Glenn's oldest son, recounted how one day when his father was taking care of rotten ensilage he heard his father's ladder slip. When Robert got inside the silo, Glenn was hanging over the empty silo by two fingers until his son could get the ladder back up to him. Apparently there were some close calls along the way. "You gotta think of this guy as a farmer too," Robert said with a laugh. Members of the Bolles family, who have continued to operate the Bennett farm since 1953, recalled baby-sitting many of those present at the party Friday night and thanked Glenn for making the farm a great place to be over the years.
Carol Pedersen, one of Glenn's daughters-in-law, recalled a car trip with Glenn all the way to California and how good-natured he was about his baby granddaughter, who screamed the whole way. "I love you, Grandpa," said James' daughter, Kimmy, the once-screaming baby.
Then Robert's children all spoke. Charles Bennett presented his grandfather with a poem and a photo album.
"You sure know how to fill up a room," said Michael Bennett. "Hopefully a lot of us have the same genes," Steve Bennett added. His sister, Laurie, thought maybe they did, as she jokingly commented that many in the room looked alike. It was fitting that, also from Clapper Hill, Doug Clapper's band, Northern Harmony, entertained while Glenn heard from each of his children, grandchildren, caretakers and guests Friday, both publicly and as he visited quietly with each one. A former exchange student even attended the party all the way from Argentina. "Mama and Papa Bennett told me 'Get a good job, get educated first, and be proud of all your children,'" said Juan Torroba. He said he followed their advice and it was good. Glenn received poems, a handmade quilt featuring family photos, and also a framed portrait of his grandmother, which proved to be a very emotion-stirring gift. Contributed by Carol Brotzman

The Bennett Home

Glenn (left) with his Mom, Mary Lucina Woodruff Bennett.

Mary was the half-sister of my great granddad, LeRoy Arthur Featherbay. She was the daughter of my great-great-grandmother, Juliet Ross Featherbay Brown Woodruff, by her third marriage to Calvin Woodruff.

From the Wyalusing (PA) Rocket-Courier newspaper for May 6th, 2004.