Bentley, Henry W
orator, lawyer, legislator, congressman, and financier, was born Sept. 30, 1838, in DeRuyter, N. Y. He received the rudiments of his education in Morrisville, and subsequently attended Yates Polytechnic Institute at Chittenango, and Judds' private school at Berkshire. For several years he taught school in New York and Illinois, and in 1861 was admitted to the bar. He then opened an office in Boonville, N. Y., where he has attained eminence as one of the leading lawyers of his native state. In 1890 he was elected to the fifty-second congress of the United States, and took an active part in the deliberations of that body, and was a prominent advocate for a ship canal from the great lakes to the Hudson. He was appointed by Governor Flower as commissioner to investigate the charges pending for the removal of Sheriff Beck; and in 1894 he was appointed as surrogate of Oneida county, and filled that office with distinction. He was a delegate to the democratic national convention at Chicago in 1896, and was most pronounced in opposition to the free silver platform. He has been four times elected president of Boonville; is vicepresident of the First national bank of that city, and takes an active part in the public affairs of his city, county and state.