Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Title
Date(s)
- 1887-1942 (Creation)
Extent
2 cubic feet
Name of creator
Biographical history
Richard Heber Bennett (1866-1945) was a pastor, moral reform leader, and author. He attended private schools in Richmond and Ashland, Virginia. He received a B.A. in 1883 and am M.A. in 1885 from Randolph- Macon College. From 1883 to 1885 he was an assistant professor at Randolph- Macon. Hebrew was his field of post graduate work. In 1895 he married Mamie Bruce. They had four children.
Bennett was the principal of Woodbourne Academy in Louisa, Virginia from 1885 to 1888. During 1889, he was principal of Spring City, Tennessee, High School. Later that year he was licensed to preach. In November 1889, he joined the Virginia Conference and was assigned to Washington Street in Richmond.
Between 1892 and 1893 Bennett attended Princeton Theological Seminary. He returned to Virginia in the summer of 1893 and worked in the West Mathews Circuit. He was then assigned to Trinity Church in Richmond. After a brief time in the Baltimore Conference, Bennett returned to Richmond in 1894. Later that year he was transferred to Farmville and Norfolk.
Bennett pastored the McKendree Church in Norfolk from 1894 to 1899 and the St. James Church in Richmond from 1900 to 1901. In 1901 he was re-assigned to Norfolk. At the Conference of 1902, he was appointed presiding elder of the Richmond District. Bennett held this position for a year, and then went to Randolph-Macon College to become professor of moral philosophy. During his four years at Randolph- Macon, Bennett became the Virginia State Superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League.
In 1907, he left his administrative post and returned to the pastorate at the Court Street Church in Lynchburg. After four years he left that church and became the conference's missionary secretary for three years.
During his time at Lynchburg the donated $20,000 to their missionary offering which went to the construction of a building at Soochow University in China.
In 1914, the General Board of Education of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, elected Bennett secretary of ministerial supply and training. During this time, he also oversaw the correspondence school at Emory University in Atlanta.
In 1926, he was elected field agent for the southern states of the Anti- Saloon League of America. A year later he was elected president of Lander College in Greenwood, South Carolina, a position he held for five years. He returned to his pastoral duties in 1932 at Portsmouth, Virginia. This was followed by appointments at Norfolk and Lawrenceville, Virginia. He retired in 1936.
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
This collection contains ten scrapbooks compiled by R. H. Bennett during his career. These scrapbooks contain many of the writings he contributed to magazines and church related publications. He wrote "Twitterings of Timothy Twig", a weekly syndicated column for newspapers, and many of these columns are included in the scrapbooks. At the back of the 1906-1911 scrapbook, there are several black and white photographs of the building Bennett's Lynchburg congregation built at Soochow University in China.
In addition, these scrapbooks contain commentaries on missions and temperance, and are an excellent source of social history during the first half of the twentieth century. Materials found in these scrapbooks include news clippings, articles, photographs, correspondence, and pamphlets.
System of arrangement
Arranged in chronological order.
Conditions of access and use elements
Conditions governing access
There are no restrictions regarding this collection.
Physical access
Technical access
Conditions governing reproduction
Detailed use restrictions relating to our collections can be requested from the office of the archivist at the General Commission on Archives and History. Photocopying is handled by the staff and may be limited in certain instances. Before using any material for publication from this collection a formal request for permission to publish is expected and required.
Languages of the material
- English
Scripts of the material
Language and script notes
Finding aids
Acquisition and appraisal elements
Custodial history
Immediate source of acquisition
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information
Accruals
Related materials elements
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related archival materials
Related descriptions
Notes element
General note
The purpose of this finding aid is to help you understand the nature of this collection and to assist you in the retrieval of material from this collection. The following pages contain a brief biographical history of the person, or persons, who created or collected these papers; followed by a general description of the collection in the scope and content note. If more detailed information is warranted then series descriptions also appear. The container listing appears last and is the listing of material in each box, or container, of this collection. To request material you need to turn to the container listing section. It is essentially a listing of file folders, or artifact items, in the collection. Each folder, or item, has a call number associated with it. Each folder also lists the inclusive dates of the material in the folder. On the material request form list both the call number and the folder, or item, title. Use a different line for each folder, or item, requested. When your request sheet is complete, or full, bring it to the archivist and the material will be retrieved. The pages of these scrapbooks are in excellent condition. There is little deterioration and the glue is holding. The bindings of the scrapbooks are a bit weak.
General note
When citing material from this collection please use the following format: Direct reference to the item or its file folder, Richard Bennett Scrapbooks, United Methodist Church Archives - GCAH, Madison, New Jersey. Do not make use of the item's call number as that is not a stable descriptor.
Specialized notes
Alternative identifier(s)
Description control element
Rules or conventions
Sources used
Archivist's note
Prepared by Kristen Turner, Associate Archivist
Access points
Subject access points
Name access points
- Soochow University (Subject)
- Bennett, Richard Heber (Subject)