From picking strawberries as a child to raising cattle as an adult, George Bennett has spent his life in Plant City.
Growing up, George Bennett’s family owned land from what is now Buddy Freddy’s all the way to Marshall Drive.
Now 86, George Bennett lives on Bennett Road, within the same mile-radius of where he spent his childhood.
In 1934, the family’s house caught fire and burned to the ground. George Bennett, along with his parents Howard and Mary Bennett, went to live on his grandfather’s nearby estate.
But troubles weren’t over for the family. In 1937, Howard Bennett died of liver cancer at the age of 52. Mary Bennett, now widowed, was left to raise seven children.
“There was no welfare for us,” George Bennett said. “We couldn’t get anything because my mother owned property.”
Family responsibilities fell on George Bennett’s older brother, John. John Bennett dropped out of school just before starting the eighth grade. The remaining children set off to work on the family’s farm. With no electricity, George Bennett and his family picked strawberries by the light of a kerosene lamp. Bathroom breaks were a trip to the outhouse. After school, he would drink an ‘ice cream mix’ — a combination of raw egg, milk, vanilla extract and sugar. The family would go back in the fields and work until dark.
“We worked hard,” George Bennett said. “The running water we had was you with a bucket, and running.”
Military service quickly became a way of life in the Bennett family. George Bennett’s brother Paul joined the United States Navy. While George Bennett’s other brothers were rejected during the draft, George Bennett made the decision to enlist.
“I joined the Navy,” George Bennett said.
Prior to enlisting, George Bennett graduated from Turkey Creek High School, where he had excelled academically and on the field. He was the first all-conference football player from Turkey Creek High School, and had a stint as quarterback at Plant City High School. He also was involved in Future Farmers of America (FFA) and 4-H.
“I graduated in 1948,” he said. “I won the American Legion award. That’s the only event my mother went to in my school years. The Mt. Zion church pastor came and picked her up because four students from the church were graduating.”
George Bennett asked his mother for a new suit to wear to the ceremony, something he’d never had before.
But soon enough, he’d be wearing a different uniform. George Bennett joined the Navy in 1951, during the height of the Korean War. He served in Korea as an electrician on the USS Hopewell.
When he returned back home to the Winter Strawberry Capital of the World, his mother’s house was just as he’d left it: a shell with no running water or electricity.
“I went to H&H Supply and bought an electric water pump, a hot water heater and gave her a finished house,” he said. “I bought a kitchen sink and built a septic tank. I fixed the bathroom so she wouldn’t use the outhouse.”
When George Bennett’s mother died in 1963, the children evenly split the family’s 130 acres based on value rather than size.
“We were very democratic,” George Bennett said.
The family met Jan. 18, 1965, to divide the parcels. They drew straws to determine who would go first.
“My sister got the shortest straw,” he said. “But she traded straws with me because it was my birthday. My birth certificate says the 11th, but it’s wrong. I learned that when I joined the Navy and had to get a birth certificate.”
Though he owned land in Plant City, George Bennett spent part of his adult life in Sarasota County. There, he worked for the Sarasota division of Schlumberger. In 1970, he started the George Bennett Cattle Company in Plant City.
“I bought six purebred Angus and a bull for $1,700,” George Bennett said. “I started buying heifers for breeders at auctions.”
George Bennett passed on the management of his cattle to family friend Ken Hill last year.
“Now I just stay here,” George Bennett said. “Ken does everything.”
When Hill took over, he installed the George Bennett Cattle Company sign at the front of Bennett’s property -— a tribute to the veteran and the Bennett family’s longstanding history in Plant City.
Contact Emily Topper at etopper@plantcityobserver.com.
