Although not of a pioneer Wyoming Valley family. Judge Ziba Bennett was one of the representative men of his day, was one of the leading merchants of the valley, for sixty years was engaged in business, was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Assembly, and was associate judge of Luzerne county. For half a century he was one of the strong pillars of Methodism in Wilkes-Barre, and in all that was good, ennobling, or elevating, this courtly, gracious gentleman of the old school lent his means, his time, and his influence.

Judge Bennett was of Connecticut birth, son of Piatt and Martha (Wheeler) Bennett, a descendant of James Bennett, of England, who came with the Pilgrims and was made a freeman of Concord, Massachusetts, May 13, 1639. Through intermarriage the Bennetts were connected with the oldest and best blood of the New England colonies.

Ziba Bennett was born in Weston, Connecticut, November 10, 1800, and died in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, November 4, 1878. In 1815 he came to Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, at the solicitation of Colonel Mathias Hollenback, and was employed in the principal Hollenback store, then located on South Main street. Seven years later, in 1822, he became a partner with George M. Hollenback in a general store business. In 1826 he purchased the Stephen Tuttle store and business on North Main street, continued that business, and became one of the leading merchants of the Wyoming Valley. At his death after sixty years of mercantile life, he was head of the firm of Ziba Bennett & Company, and the oldest merchant in Luzerne county. He developed the soundest business qualities, was a man of unquestioned business integrity, clearheaded, and possessing rare judgment. He was naturally cautious and conservative, but when his judgment was satisfied that success in any venture was possible, he boldly stepped even into untried fields. He was uniformly successful, was associated with many Wilkes-Barre enterprises of his day, and was one of the men who laid broad and deep the foundation oi the city's prosperity. He was one of the founders, a director from organization in 1829 and for ten years president of the Wyoming Bank of Wilkes-Barre, and was for years president of the Wilkes Barre Bridge Company and of the Hollenback Cemetery Association. He was one of the incorporators of the WilkesBarre Gas Company, Wilkes-Barre Water Company, the Miners' Savings Bank, and founder in 1862 of the private banking house of Bennett, Phelps & Company, and its active head until death.

He was one of the founders of the Home for Friendless Children, and of other well-known benevolent institutions, and contributed liberally not only to the support of his own church but to the maintenance of several other religious and charitable bodies. He was for more than fifty years a devoted and useful member of the Methodist Episcopal church, gave to that church the land upon which the Franklin street church stands, and was equally interested in the spiritual life of the church.

In 1833 he was elected a member of the Pennsylvania House of Assembly, and was one of the legislators who supported the bill giving the State free public schools. He was a member of the Reform Convention that met in Harrisburg in 1834, and took active part in its deliberations. In 1842 he was appointed associate judge of Luzerne county. In all his public service he displayed the same careful interest in the welfare of the State that characterized his private business management, and was faithful to every public trust. Kindly hearted, generous and gracious, his life was both a blessing and an inspiration.