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General Phillip Benner
Phillip Benner was born in 19 May 1762 in Chester County, Pennsylvania as the oldest son of Henry and Dinah (nee Thomas) Benner. He served in the Continental army during the American Revolutionary war under General Wayne. After the war, he returned to Chester County where he operated an ironworks and eventually married Ruth Roberts. They would have eight children, Hannah, Peninnah, Mary H. Roberts, Philip, Ruth, Josiah Matlock, Thomas Robert, and Henry Benner.

Benner died on July 27, 1832 at age 70, and he was buried near the Rock Ironworks.

Revolutionary War
He started as a Private under Captain Wilson for Chester County's 4th Battalion according to a muster fine of $0.01 he had accrued as of 1720????? He was a major-general of militia in the Revolutionary war under General Anthony Wayne, his neighbor and relative through Benner's maternal grandmother Esther Iddings.

Coventry Hammer Iron Works
Returning to Chester County, Philip Benner became a forgeman at Coventry Works under the joint ownership of George North and John Evans. When North and Evans partnership ended in 1790, Benner became the Ironmaster. However, his tenure at Coventry Hammer Iron Works lasted only two years. In 1791, he heard about the founding of Centre Furnace and the rich iron ore deposits found in Nittany Valley. So he moved his young family, Ruth and their two daughters Hannah and Peninnah five and four, to the area then known as Lamb's Crossing and would become Bellefonte.

Rock Iron Works
In 2 May 1792, Benner bought the Rock Forge tracks of land from Josiah Matlack. They consisted of the John Gill, William Lippincott, and Christopher Binks Warrants. He brought 92 men, and their families, with him from his Iron Works in Chester County. He started with building a house and a saw mill on the Binks upper forge tract. There he erected two gristmills, one for logs and one for stone, along Spring Creek. In 1794, he established Rock Iron Works, one of the first Iron forges in Centre County, taking the name from a large rock outcropping, which is still visible today from Rock Rd. When he took the first load to Philadelphia, merchants called it the finest iron ever seen.

Later he and the workers added, a grist mill (by 1801), saw mill (by 1801), a slitting mill (1799), rolling mill in 1803 and a nail mill. Finally, they started constructing a second forge called the lower forge in Feb. 20, 1800 and finished in 1804. Petition of Philip Benner, of Spring township, for road from his new rolling- and slitting-mill (on the west branch of Spring Creek) to Centre Furnace. 1803 owned a copper store. After settling various land disputes, Benner became the first Ironmaster to ship iron to pittsburgh in 1812. First, the iron was packed on horses. Later he attempted to ship iron from Pittsburgh to New Orleans, but the venture failed and resulted in large financial losses. At its height in the 1830s the various operations employed 200 men.

The Centre Bank of Pennsylvania november 26th 1813 quasi banking

He had a store in Ferguson township and one in Bellefonte.

Benner & Cambridge's store 1806 taken over by Philip Jr. 1824

and the 11th of July the large stone house of Gen. Benner at Rock Forge, occupied by Tiiomas R. Benner, w.is burned 1830

William Williams and Conrad Reamy were his first tenants. Williams, on the trial, June 20, 1815, of the suit of Lauman's executors vs. Benner, testified that he lived on the Binks upper forge tract, now (1882) Mordecai Waddle's farm, from 1793 to 1800, under Gen. Benner; that they made the first improvement in May, 1793, a house, two coopershops, and they commenced the forge and made iron at it in 1794, and a grist- and saw-mill and a number of dwellings were erected on the Binks tract ; that Reemy and one Stratton commenced clearing the John Gill the same year.

Isaac Jones, the master-mechanic, VS. Gen. Benner,

1815 June 20 Lauman's executors VS. Benner

1794 Evans, Thomas (living with Gen.Benner).

By 1794 his brother Mordecai also lived in bellefonte.

Rock Forge. — Situated about four and five miles from Bellefonte, are capable of making six hundred tons of bar iron annually. There is also a rolling-mill for rolling boiler, nail, slit, and sheet iron, and a nail manufactory cotiiipcted with these works, the property of Gen. Benner.

Spring fiiriKice.— Situated about four miles from Bellefmte Creek. This furnace is capable of making upwards of luie ihu pig-metal annually. It ia the property of Con. Benner

Land Disputes
Two years later, in 1802, an ejectment was brought against him by the owners of the Hubley warrants for the land he bought from Josiah Matlack. He won in the lower court, but when the case was brought to the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court he lost in 1811. The court ordered that he had to buy his land a second time.

Colonel Miles dispute with Benner over southern portion of three warrants: Christopher Gettig, Richard Rundel, and Thomas Murgatroid.

David Whitehill, Esq., came to Spring Creek in 1789, according to his own statement in the Benner vs. Houser suit.

Obituary

To every public work he was a liberal contributor. As an elector on two several occasions he represented in part the people of Pennsylvania in the Electoral College, and at all times expressed his high gratification in recording his vote for our venerable President, claiming him as a fellow-laborer and a co-patriot in the Revolutionary war. As a father he was remarkable for his kindness and indulgence to his children. As a friend he was unshaken in his attachments; his house was the seat of hospitality and kindness. Few men have descended to the grave whose loss will be so extensively felt and deplored. Gen. Benner established this pa|)er in 1827 for the avowed purpose of supporting the election our present worthy Chief Magistrate, and owned it up to November last, when it was purchased by the writer of this humble tribute of respect to his memory, and he can truly say that death has deprived him of an ardent and sincere friend."

Noteable Achievements

 * 1810 Built the Benner-Walker-Linn House for Judge Jonathan Walker, now home of The Bellefonte Art Museum for Centre County
 * After he had been here some years. Governor Snyder offered to transfer him to the Northumberland district, but he was so popular the people offered him every inducement to stay, the grand jury in a body asking him to decline Governor Snyder's proposition. Gen. Benner offering him the money to build any kind of house he liked, and a lot to build it upon
 * 1814 January 23 Director of The Centre Bank of Pennsylvania
 * 1821 First president of the Centre and Kishacoquillas Turnpike Company
 * 1824 July 5 Logan's Branch Woolen-Factory. Gen. Philip Benner commenced operating a factory on Logan's Branch where carding, fulling, and dyeing were done.
 * 1827 Founded the Centre Democrat, one of the oldest weekly newspapers in the United States, and sold it in 1830 to its editor John Bigler
 * 1853 Benner Township was incorporated in Centre County, Pennsylvania and named after him

The Rock Iron Works also included two copper shops, a grist mill, saw mill, a slitting mill, Benner’s own sizable home and several other dwellings, none of which exists today.

Sources:

https://www.springcreekwatershedatlas.org/post/2019/04/26/The-Gristmills-of-the-Spring-Creek-Watershed

https://centrehistory.org/article/philip-benner/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/23911070/philip-benner

http://www.searchforancestors.com/bios/pennsylvania/history_of_centre_and_clinton/benner_philip.php

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=91075

http://www.bennertownship.org/?page_id=8

https://www.anb.org/browse?t_1=OccupationsAndRealmsOfRenownANB%3A45&t_2=OccupationsAndRealmsOfRenownANB%3A251

https://www.familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/55627275?p=40023503&returnLabel=Maj.%20Gen.%20Philip%20Benner%20(KCGX-CHM)&returnUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.familysearch.org%2Ftree%2Fperson%2Fmemories%2FKCGX-CHM

History of Chester County, Pennsylvania: With Genealogical and Biographical; By John Smith Futhey, Gilbert Cope 1881. Page 481

https://hsp.org/sites/default/files/legacy_files/migrated/findingaid212forgesandfurnaces.pdf

https://centrehistory.org/the-iron-industry-in-centre-county/

http://paheritage.wpengine.com/article/centre-county/

https://archive.org/details/historyofcentrec00linn/page/36/mode/2up?q=benner&view=theater