Joseph Bennett of Evans: And the Growing of New York's Niagara Frontier

by Kevin H. Siepel

The story of the settlement and growth of western New York state from the War of 1812 to the 1890s using the never-before-published journal of early settler Joseph Bennett as its central thread. Bennett--who was born during Jefferson's presidency and died during McKinley's--was not only a farmer, builder, and entrepreneur, but he also held political office at the town, county, and state level. His journal takes note of national, state, and local events occurring over virtually the entire nineteenth century,

200 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2006

About the author

Kevin H. Siepel writes on personal, historical, and environmental themes. His most recent work is the two-volume Conquistador Voices, a fresh look at the Spanish Conquest of the Americas that makes extensive use of eyewitness and first-person accounts by conquistadors or others to whom the account may have been dictated. The five personages covered in these two volumes are Christopher Columbus, Hernan Cortes, Francisco Pizarro, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, and Hernando de Soto.
The author’s benchmark Rebel: The Life and Times of John Singleton Mosby (St. Martin’s, DaCapo, University of Nebraska Press) has proven durable, as has his biography of a western New York state pioneer, which also broke new ground.
Siepel’s essays and articles have appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, Foreign Service Journal, Civil War, Wild West, two Chicken Soup for the Soul volumes, at www.wordworth.com, and elsewhere. One of his Monitor essays was translated into several languages and published worldwide by Readers Digest.
Siepel speaks and teaches Spanish.