Bennington, one of the incorporated towns of Ottawa county, is located on the Union Pacific R. R. and on the Solomon river, in Bennington township, 9 miles southeast of Minneapolis, the county seat. It has two banks, an opera house, two grain elevators, flour mill and a weekly newspaper, as well as all the main lines of business. There are telegraph and express offices, and a money order postoffice with two rural routes. The population in 1910 was 386. The community was settled in 1870 and a store opened in 1873 by George Parker. When the railroad was built in 1878 the town was laid out. The promoters were Daniel Struble and C. Nelson. An iron bridge was built over the Solomon at a cost of $4,500; Markley Bros. put up a flour and saw mill run by water power at a cost of $20,000, and in 1880 a $2,000 school house was built.