George Bennett

George Bennett (1810–1888) was an American merchant and pioneer of Kenosha, Wisconsin. He was a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1859 and of the Wisconsin State Senate from 1860 to 1861.

Western Emigration Company Bennett was a founder of the "Western Emigration Company" which was established in the winter of 1834-35 at the home of John Bullen, Jr., in Oswego County, New York. The company was created to formalize and fund their plans to move west, along with co-founders Charles W. Turner, Waters Towsley, James Scott, Dr. B. B. Cary, Jason Lothrop, Hudson Bacon, Peter Woodin, Alfred Foster, Orlando Foster, William Bullen, and Sidney Roberts.

The explorers of the company first arrived at Milwaukee, which was then still a part of the Michigan Territory but would shortly transfer to the new Wisconsin Territory. They investigated settling in Milwaukee, but found they could not come to a favorable agreement with Solomon Juneau, George H. Walker, and others who were already well-established in Milwaukee. They moved south to the mouth of the Root River, but found that area was also already settled—by Gilbert Knapp, William Luce, and others—in what would become Racine, Wisconsin. They nearly made an agreement here to join the settlement, but were ultimately rejected by the existing settlers. They continued south and came to the mouth of the Pike River, where they finally settled.

When news of the attack on Fort Sumter reached Wisconsin, at the outbreak of the American Civil War, a meeting was called at the Kenosha courthouse for April 17, 1861. George Bennett was among the prominent men who addressed the assembled citizens and urged them to support the Union cause, along with former U.S. Senator Charles Durkee. Bennett himself was a significant donor to funding and equipping Wisconsin volunteer regiments.