THE EARLY SETTLERS / BENNET FAMILY CEMETERY

The Bennet Family Cemetery is located on a small hill on the north side of Walden Avenue just east of Harlem Road. It is surrounded by retail stores and an auto dealership. This is the cemetery where some of the founding families in Cheektowaga are laid to rest.

Elnathan Bennet emigrated from Pawlet, Vermont in the company of Jesse Munroe and his newly-wed wife Harriet in February 1816. On the way, they stopped in Burlington New York where Elnathan married Jesse's cousin Jerusha Munro. Together they all settled in the Town of Buffalo N.Y. and built a double log home on the Buffalo-Batavia Road (now Broadway). In 1818 this property was then located in the new Town of Amherst N.Y. and in 1839 in the new Town of Cheektowaga. This property (Township 11, Range 7 Lot 24, sublots B & C) was previously purchased on Feb. 1, 1813 by Jesse, owning 130 acres of land. Then in 1829, Jesse and Elnathan split the property, each owning 65 acres. Jesse Monroe's property was later sold to Christian Ernst. In the 1830's Elnathan Bennet built a new home on the northern end of his property, this time on the Buffalo-Moscow Road (now Walden Avenue) which in about 1817 cut through their property. It was there that the first Cheektowaga Town Board meeting was held on the 16th day of April, 1839 when Elnathan Bennet was elected one of the Town Assessors and Path Masters. Elnathan Bennet would also serve as the first unofficial Cheektowaga Postmaster (he did not take the oath of office) from August 12, 1841 to June 17, 1842 when the office position was discontinued.
The Bennet Family began using the back portion of their land as a cemetery in 1825 when they buried their daughter Sarah (or possibly even earlier in 1816 when their first born infant died). This burial location was thought to be adjacent to a community cemetery that had been established at some unknown earlier time. This westerly adjoining property (sublot D) had been purchased by the Bennet's neighbor, Major Nobles, in July of 1811 and was then sold to later to Nathan Gould Stebbins, whose two children are interred here.

Elnathan Bennet and Jerusha would have ten children in all, and seven of them and their families of three generations are buried in this cemetery along with many of the neighboring friends and families, our early settlers.

The cemetery is now owned and maintained by the Town of Cheektowaga with volunteer help from the Cheektowaga Historical Association. This cemetery is listed on "Findagrave.com" showing each of the 78 individual gravesite memorials.