Bennet Village Hall is located at 685 Monroe Street, Bennet, NE 68317.
Phone: 402‑782‑3300.
Beginnings [1]
The first settler in the vicinity of Bennet, William Roggencamp, arrived in 1860 to claim a 120-acre homestead. Roggencamp sold a strip of his land to the Midland and Pacific Railroad in 1871. In exchange, the railroad platted a town site on Nemaha Creek near his home, and the first buildings were erected that same year. The community was named for John Bennett, a railroad official instrumental in routing the railroad through the area.
Bennet grew quickly, taking advantage of the water power on Nemaha Creek. Extensive deposits of sandstone and limestone, discovered west of the community in the 1870s, were used for building material until around 1900 when the quarries were exhausted. When Bennet was incorporated in 1881, the community had a hotel, grain elevator, two doctors, and several businesses that catered to area farmers and local residents. In 1900 Bennet served as an important hub for transportation and flour milling. During the Great Depression, as many area farms consolidated, Bennet's population declined and businesses closed. Around the same time, more affordable automobile transportation allowed residents to travel to Lincoln, less than ten miles away, for a wider variety of goods and services. In recent decades, Bennet has had an influx of new residents who commute to work in Lincoln. Since 2000 Bennet's population has increased more than 20 percent, reaching 685 in 2006.