Editing Bennington, Oklahoma (section)

==History==
In 1853, a Presbyterian minister named A. G. Lansing established  Mount Pleasant Mission Station near present-day Matoy in the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory. Lansing turned the mission operation over to Rev. Charles C. Copeland, who moved the mission a few miles farther south because the original site was in a boggy and remote location that was unhealthy. Copeland renamed the mission Bennington Mission Station, honoring his home town of Bennington, Vermont. A post office was established in 1873, but closed in 1878. It was reestablished in 1884. The peak population during this period was 45 people.<ref name="EOHC-Bennington">[http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=BE019 Olsen, Monty. "Bennington," ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture''.] Accessed July 28, 2016.</ref>

At the time of its founding, Bennington was located in [[Blue County, Choctaw Nation|Blue County]] of the Choctaw Nation.  In 1886 that portion of the county, along with portions of [[Atoka County, Choctaw Nation|Atoka County]] and [[Kiamitia County]], joined to form [[Jackson County, Choctaw Nation|Jackson County]], with its county seat at Pigeon Roost, near present-day Boswell.

The [[St. Louis, San Francisco and New Orleans Railroad|Arkansas and Choctaw Railway]] built through the area in 1902, and missed Bennington by two miles. Some of the buildings were dragged down to the railroad line, where a new town was established in 1903 and grew quickly to 250 people in that year. The 1910 census showed the population had about doubled to 513, then peaked at 915 in 1920, before falling to 492 in 1930.<ref name="EOHC-Bennington"/>