James V. Bennett as a young man
James V. Bennett encounters a Native American
Another piece of family lore relates to James Bennett's time on the Peyton farm. During one of his extended visits, he encountered a group of white settlers torturing a Dakota man, dragging him by a rope affixed to the back of a horse. Grandpa Bennett was allegedly so disturbed that he confronted and fought the torturers, insisting on the man's release.
Violence against Native Americans must have been a common feature of life on the Great Plains during these years, so it is interesting that Bennett adopted this humanitarian stance. Like the gender-bending play of his favorite sister Lizzie, it is another example of cosmopolitan values coming into conflict with the rough-and-tumble ethos of settlers in earlier generations.
