Archibald Fowler Bennett was born to William David Bennett and Emma Neat on 17 March 1896 at Dingle, Bear Lake County, Idaho. In May 1899 his parents accepted a request from Lorenzo Snow to settle in southern Alberta, Canada, and work on the canal which was being built there. They travelled all of July in covered wagons and settled in Magrath. The family moved to Taber in 1907, where he graduated high school in 1914. After attending Normal School at Calgary, Alberta, in 1915 and receiving a First-Class Teacher's Certificate, he taught in Neidpath, Marchessault and Barnwell.