1915 was a big year for Lewis Bentley: He was elected San Jacinto mayor and he remarried

Lewis Bentley moved to San Jacinto from North Dakota in approximately 1904. He was born in Canada in 1876, and his family immigrated to the United States in 1882. He brought with him to San Jacinto his wife, Emma, and his son, Warner. The couple later had another son, Frederick.

In 1908, Lewis, also spelled “Louis” in local newspapers of the time, Bentley ran for the board of trustees of San Jacinto, as the City Council was called at that time, and won. There was a debate in San Jacinto between the pro-saloon faction and the temperance faction. Bentley was an anti-saloon man, and his wife was also involved in the temperance movement.

The Bentleys bought a 3040 acre property on Central Avenue, outside downtown San Jacinto. They lived there until early 1911, when they sold the property and moved to a house in town, at South Central Avenue and Grand Army Street. Bentley went into the real estate business at that point. Unfortunately, Emma died on Christmas Eve 1911, after a two-week illness at age 34.

She was buried in San Jacinto Cemetery.

Bentley continued to be reelected to the city board and in 1915 was elected president by his fellow board members. The president position came with the title of mayor for that year.

Another momentous event for Bentley occurred in 1915. As a child in Canada, he lived near another family with a little girl his age, Louise M. Gerrard. The families had lost track of each other over the years. Then sometime in 1915,

Bentley heard through relatives of Louise that her family was now living nearby in the city of Ontario. Bentley must have reached out to Louise Gerrard, as it was only a matter of months before they were planning a wedding.

The wedding was held in Louise’s sister and brother-inlaw’s home on Orange Grove Avenue in Riverside. It was an intimate affair, attended only by immediate relatives of the bride and groom. The vows were exchanged near the living room fireplace, which was decorated with fern and white roses. Hanging above was a wedding bell of white marguerites. The Rev. Alfred Goodwin of the First Christian Church of San Jacinto conducted the service.

After a honeymoon in San Diego, the bride moved into Bentley’s home in San Jacinto, with his two sons. Bentley remained on the council until 1917. In December of that year, Bentley and his family moved to Claremont and he resigned from the San Jacinto city board, after nine years of service to his adopted city of 13 years.

It isn’t known why Bentley moved to Claremont, but it appears he went into the grocery business. Newspaper reports say he did become manager of an Alpha Beta grocery store in that city and in 1939 was sitting as one of the board of directors of the Alpha Beta Corporation, along with his brother, Fred.

Bentley and his second wife remained in Claremont for the rest of their lives. Louise died in 1949. Bentley lived 88 years and died in 1962. Both are buried in Ontario.

PHOTO BY KIM JARRELL JOHNSON Orange Grove Avenue in Riverside was the location of a 1915 wedding that included a groom who was the mayor of San Jacinto at the time. Today, the street still includes some of the original homes, which look much as they did at the time of the wedding.