Blair County PA Archives Biographies.....Besant, Bernard Lee November 1, 1865 - ????
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Source: Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Blair Co, PA: Philadelphia, 1892.
Author: Samuel T. Wiley

BERNARD LEE BESANT, 
senior member of the wholesale grocery house of Besant & Hennaman, at
Altoona, and a young business man of great executive ability and unusual
promise, is a son of James II. and Margaret A. (Reed) Besant, and was born
November 1, 1865, at Frederick Maryland.  The Besants are of French descent,
though residents of the country since early times.  James Besant, paternal
grandfather, was a native of Montgomery county, Maryland, and died in that
county.  He was a merchant by occupation, and a Jacksonian democrat in
politics.  He married and reared a family of children, among whom was James
II Besant (father).  The latter was born in Frederick county, Maryland, about
1814, and died at his home, near Frederick city, in 1889, after life spanning
three-quarters of a century.  
He also was a merchant and grain dealer, and served as justice of the peace
in Frederick county for many years.  Politically he was a democrat, and in
religion a member of the Roman Catholic church.  He married Margaret A. Reed,
by whom he had a family of children.  She is a native of Montgomery county,
Maryland, a member of the Catholic church, and now resides in the city of
Frederick, that State, in sixty-seventh year of her of her age.
      Bernard Lee Besant was reared in the city of Frederick, Frederick
county, Maryland, and received a good practical education in the common
schools of that State, after which he took a course of training in the St.
John's college.  He then became associated with his brother in the grocery
business at Frederick city, and remained there until August 1890 , when he
came to Altoona.  Here he formed a co-partnership with John Hennaman, under
the firm name of Besant & Hannaman, and the new firm embarked in the
wholesale grocery business in this city the same year.  Their establishment
is located at No. 917 Eleventh avenue, Altoona, where they carry one of the
largest and finest stocks of plain and fancy groceries to be found in western
Pennsylvania.  The members of this firm are young business men of great
enterprise and ability, and have already secured a large and lucrative
trade.  With the rapid growth of population connected with the development of
this part of the Keystone State, the necessity for such enterprises as these
gentlemen are engaged in becomes every year more apparent, and it will not be
long until this city at the foot of the Alleghenies will be the recognized
base of supplies for the retail merchants of an extended region of
surrounding territory.
      In his political affiliations Mr. Besant follows the traditions of his
ancestors, and is a stanch democrat, giving that party a hearty support in
both general and local politics.  He is a member of the Catholic church of
this city.

Additional Comments:
Originally submitted 2001. Transcribed by Sharon McCartney Russell 
jerusse@erols.com.

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