Josh Bennett

Black male, born about 1879 in Escambia County, FL. Died 2 February 1927 at the Escambia County Poor Farm, which was also listed as his last residence. He was 48 years old and single at the time of his death, and had worked as a laborer. The death certificate lists his parents as “unknown” to the informant, James Steward, Superintendent of the Poor Farm. Bennett died of carcinoma of the jaw and throat, from which he had suffered for at least six months. He was buried in the Escambia County Poor Farm cemetery.

I have had a hard time finding the decedent, though his father, Joshua Bennett, Sr., shows up in several records. The only census in which I find the younger Josh is 1900, for Pine Barren, Escambia County, FL. He lived in the home of his father (named spelled Joshuway Bennit), who was 58 years old at the time of the census and worked as a day laborer. The elder Bennett was born in April 1842 in Alabama, of two parents born in Alabama, and was a widow. He rented his house and could read but not write. Joshua, Jr. was 23, born October 1875 in Florida to two parents born in Alabama. He was also illiterate and had no occupation listed. He had a sister, Marthie Bennett, 22 years old and single, able to read and write. Also in the household was six-year-old Willis Turner, listed as a boarder, and another boarder by the name of Andrew Bennett, 19 years old, a day laborer.

Joshua Bennett, Sr., was married to J. Lucy Bennett at the time of the 1870 census of Pensacola, and there were two children: Frank (2) and Jane (6). Neither of these children are in the household by the 1900 census. I cannot locate the household in the 1880 census. Joshua, Sr. appears in the federal land office records as having acquired 79.5 acres of land in Township 2N, Range 31W, Section 8 on 9 January 1896. The center of this lot is at the intersection of Chance and Chestnut Roads in Molino, FL. In the Pensacola Daily News of 4 September 1897, the land is listed among property due to be auctioned on the courthouse steps for lack of payment of taxes ($3.41) and W.H. Waters is listed as a co-owner. On 19 August, 1899, the property appears again in the Pensacola Daily News as having been sold by “Joshua Bennett and his wife to Ernest Y. Morgan” for $75. Joshua, Sr. appears again in the 1910 federal census in Brewton, AL, married to Carrie Bennett. In the 1920 census, he was living with his daughter and son-in-law, Lila and Edward Castleberry. He died in 1925.

I cannot locate Joshua, Jr. between the 1900 census and his death in 1927. Research continues.

FAMILY:

Father: Joshua Bennett, Sr.

Mother: J. Lucy Bennett (assumed)

Siblings: Frank Bennett, Jane Bennett, Marthie Bennett, Lila Bennett

SOURCES:

Death Certificates for Joshua Bennett, Sr. (3 March 1925) and Joshua Bennett, Jr. (2 February 1927). Florida Certificate of Death, Florida Deaths, 1877-1939. Database. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 14 June 2016. Index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City.