HISTORIAN, DAUGHTERS OF THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS.
Colonel Miles Squier Bennet died at his home on the Guadalupe river, north of Cuero, at 5 o'clock on the evening of May 3. With the passing of this venerable representative of the old school, Texas mourns one of those who shared her early trials in the days when enemies beset her on every hand, one who contributed to her welfare as a citizen, as a soldier, as a noble Christian gentleman.
His father was Major Valentine Bennet, and his mother Mary Kibbe. They lived near Buffalo, New York, where, on December 14, 1818, Miles Squier was born; soon afterward the family emigrated to Louisiana, his mother died and his father took him to Cincinnati, where he remained until 1838, when, with his father, who had, in the meanwhile, become a colonist in Texas, he went to the Lone Star State.
As a member of De Witt's colony, his father was one of those brave men who in 1835 made Gonzales famous for her defiant attitude toward Mexican aggression. His name is recorded as one of the “Old Eighteen Defenders of Gonzales.” He also took part in the battle of Concepcion, and was complimented by his commander for efficient services at the siege of Bexar in the same year. In the Texas army he held the rank of assistant quartermaster general.
At the time of the arrival of Miles S. Bennet in Texas, which was on June 3, 1838, that being the date of his landing at Galveston, his father was a commissioned officer stationed at San Antonio by order of General Barnard E. Bee; and in this service he also enlisted. Under Captain Hays, he engaged in surveying lands on the Frio river, where he several times narrowly escaped capture at the hands of the Indians; he engaged in many scouting parties against them in the general defense of the settlers, and when the Mexican General Vasquez invaded Texas, he served in the commands of Generals Henry and Ben McCulloch in their march against him. Subsequently he participated in the campaign which at the battle of Salado succeeded in repulsing and driving out the Mexican General Woll after his daring capture of San Antonio in 1842.
In 1841 Miles S. Bennet settled in De Witt county, making his home on the headright given him by his father, a place long known as the, Valentmirk home, so-called in honor of his father's name, Valentine. In 1843 he married Miss Bathsheba Gibson, a lady no less noted for her heroic conduct in times of danger than for her Christian virtues in the quiet circle of her home life. In their pleasant country home they lived together fifty-eight years. Mrs. Bennet was called to the higher life in June, 1901. Their eight children survive them. They are: Sam D., Robert M., Valentine, Dudley M., Marie B., wife of Dr. Max Urwitz, of Houston, Mrs. J. R. Wofford of Cuero, Mrs. T. M. Walker, of Gonzales county, and Miss Annie Bennet, who is unmarried and always made her home with her parents.
At the breaking out of the war between the States, Miles S. Bennet enlisted in Captain Cook's regiment, and was at the capture of Galveston, January 1, 1863.
Throughout a long life of more than sixty-five years in Texas he was ardently interested in his country's welfare. As a member of the Presbyterian church he attended the first meeting of the Texas Presbytery in 1851, at Victoria, and attended nearly every meeting held since; he was present at the semi-centennial at Victoria in 1901. As a member of the Texas Veteran Association since its organization, a meeting seldom or never occurred without the presence of himself and wife, and one of the chief delights of his declining years was this yearly reunion with old companions and friends. Gifted with fine mental faculties and unfading memory, the leisure moments of his later years were sometimes employed in writing of events in Texas' history. One of these articles, published in the Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association at Austin in April, 1899, gives a very clear and interesting account of the battle of Gonzales, the Lexington of the Texas revolution. It is signed, Miles S. Bennet, captain Company E, ex-ranger battalion. This signature is a significant indication of the social qualities of his nature, a desire to be associated with those companions who had mutually shared life's dangers and hardships. Among those who mourn his death are the members of this organization, as well as the other orders, military and religious, to whose memories he was endeared by ties of loving companionship.
“The bravest are the tenderest, The loving are the daring.”
The long train of carriages which formed the funeral cortege conveying his remains from the Presbyterian church in Cuero to Hillside cemetery was a testimonial of the popular esteem of his fellow citizens, and the many beautiful floral emblems with which loving hands sought to conceal all suggestions of earth's decay, seemed to speak of love's fruition in those blest abodes, toward which his Christian faith had unswervingly led his footsteps.
How to cite:
Looscan, Adele B., "MILES SQUIER BENNET ", Volume 007, Number 2, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, Page 166 - 168. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v007/n2/article_2.html
[Accessed Tue Dec 2 0:49:48 CST 2008]
