Andrew Jackson Bentley (1827-1895) was born on January 10, 1827 to Rev. David Niles Bentley and Letitia (Gardner) Bentley in Norwich, Connecticut. He married Abby Kinney in December 1848. His father performed the ceremony. Andrew Jackson Bentley died of pneumonia on March 18, 1895 in New London, Connecticut.
Andrew started life as the master of a vessel in 1850. By 1880 he was a lumber dealer and by 1891 the proprietor of Columbia Steam Saw Mills on Cemetery Road, later Trumbull Street, New London. He was a member of the Connecticut State House of Representatives and Mayor of New London. The lumber for his mill came in to New London harbor in schooners from Jacksonville, Florida so it is probable that he was master of a lumber schooner, saw what a good business it was and went ashore to own the saw mill.
“Bentley - Andrew Jackson Bentley (1827-1895),” Southwest Harbor Public Library, accessed May 30, 2023, https://swhpl.digitalarchive.us/items/show/10838.Item 14787
