Alfred Bennett was born into a Christian home in Mansfield, Connecticut on September 26, 1780. Twenty years later he was born again and joined the Baptist church of that community. In 1802, after marrying the daughter of the church deacon, the couple moved to the wilderness of central New York. In an unbroken forest, the Bennetts built a log cabin and began a farm and family in the place called Homer.
Soon a Baptist church was started, but for years there was no settled pastor, so Alfred was urged to preach. The blessings of God fell – over and over again. Protesting his unworthiness, Bro. Bennett was ordained in 1817. For the next 25 years Elder Bennett pastored that congregation in the wilderness, and when the church’s history was finally written, it was found that he had baptized 770 people. That number, of course, is outstanding under any circumstances, but in the light of the sparse population of the area in that day it is amazing. The congregation willingly split on two occasions mothering new churches in the neighborhood.
As one might expect, Bro. Alfred Bennett was a strong proponent of missions, both locally and abroad. One of the greatest tributes to the work of this man came from the American Baptist Missionary Union a year after his death. In that year’s minutes, Bennett’s name was joined to that of Adoniram Judson. One point out of four stated – “The high honour conferred upon us in giving us such men at the beginning of our great enterprise, and continuing them in uninterrupted labor so long, calls for the most profound, universal and lasting thankfulness to God our Saviour.”
Alfred Bennett went to be with the Lord on this day in 1851.