HILARIO F. BENNETT
Hilario F. Bennett, attorney at law and translator, of El Paso, is a
native of the old town of Mesilla, New Mexico, and son of Col. Joseph
F. and Lola (Patton) Bennett. He acquired his literary education in
the schools of Mesilla, Silver City and Las Cruces and at a college in
Atchison, Kansas, and as a preparation for his chosen profession he studied in
the law department of Georgetown College at Washington, D. C., from which
institution he was graduated with the class of 1895. Among other members of
the class who have attained distinction was George B. Cortelyou. Before
entering upon the active practice of law in El Paso in 1899 Mr. Bennett held
various public positions in New Mexico. He was deputy county clerk of Grant
county, clerk of the Indian agency under his father and deputy district clerk
of Dona Ana county, and with his earnings in those positions he met the
expenses of his college course. After leaving Georgetown College he lived at
Austin, Texas, for about a year and for a similar period in San Antonio, at
the end of which time he became secretary to the consul general in the city of
Mexico. He was also Spanish stenographer and translator in the auditing
department of the Mexican capital until he entered upon the practice of law in
El Paso in 1899. During his residence in the City of Mexico he was enabled
through his thorough knowledge of Spanish to make a careful study of the laws
of Mexico, which study he has continued up to the present time, and he has
today probably the best knowledge of Mexican laws of any American lawyer in
the Southwest. He has a liberal and distinctively representative clientage,
indicative of his knowledge of the law and his correct application of its
principles to the points in litigation, and in addition to his practice he is
a translator of the Spanish language. A gentleman of broad, general culture,
he has won the friendship and regard of many of the leading and able men of
the Southwest and has made for himself a position of prominence in legal
circles in this section of Texas.
B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West
Texas, Vol. I (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), p. 445.
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