Ezra Taft Benson was born February 22, 1811, in Mendon, Worcester County, Massachusetts. As a young man he moved his family west to the vicinity of Nauvoo, Illinois, where after meeting Mormon refugees from Missouri and hearing anti-Mormon preaching they became interested in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and were baptized July 19, 1840. He served missions for his new church and after being driven by mobs from Illinois with the Saints was called to be an Apostle. He accompanied Brigham Young on the 1847 pioneering trip to Utah, returning to Iowa that fall, and leading additional pioneer companies west in 1849, 1852, and 1854. He owned lumber and grist mills in Tooele, Utah, and later presided over the settlements in Cache Valley. He served numerous short missions around the territory and extended ones in the Eastern States, the British Isles and Scandanavia, and Hawaii. After working tirelessly to bring the railroad to Utah, he died suddenly on September 3, 1869, at the home of a friend in Ogden. He had eight wives and numerous children. He is the great-grandfather of Ezra Taft Benson, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture under President Eisenhower and later President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

His Wives

Photo Needed	Photo Needed
Pamelia Andrus	Adeline Brooks Andrus	Desdemona Fullmer
	Photo Needed
Eliza Ann Perry	Lucinda West	Elizabeth Gollaher

Olive Mary Knight	Mary Larsen

I am in the process of writing a new book on E. T. Benson. I'm including many new materials from Church Archives and various published and unpublished sources and have also gathered photos of E. T. and family. If you have sources (especially family histories or photos of Ezra, his wives, his children, and their spouses), please contact, Benson Parkinson, webmaster, at "feedback at bensonfamily.org" (replace "at" with "@").

I'm also considering self-publishing a book with all of E. T.'s known writings: journals, histories, letters, and speeches, as well as brief histories of Ezra and other family members by myself and others. If you would be interested in either book, please drop me a line.

 —Benson Parkinson

Learn more about the Ezra T. Benson family

• Histories
• Photos (and web pages of kids)
  • E.T. Benson
  • Pamelia Andrus and family
  • Adeline Brooks Andrus and family
  • Desdemona Wadsworth Fullmer Smith (still looking)
  • Eliza Ann Perry and family (still looking)
  • Lucinda Barton West (still looking)
  • Elizabeth Gollaher and family
  • Olive Mary Knight and family
  • Mary Larsen and family
• Ancestors, now in a graphical format. Based on data from Carla Cannon. Thanks, Carla!
• Descendants, from Ancestral File, with a few additions—volunteer needed to correct this.

• Parkinsonfamily.org, our sister site
• S. Hunter Cannon's site, including Benson photos and documents

• Replaced contact form, protected DUP images (6 Apr 2009)
• Added brief bios of kids from the Benson book (7 Jun 2006)
• Added photos of Mary Larsen and family, George T. and Louisa, ETB painting, and ETB's SLC home (20 Feb 2006)
• Added new John Rowberry portrait, first guestbook entries (9 Apr 2005)
• Added survey and guestbook forms, plus Harpers engraving of ETB (23 Jan 2005)
• Corrected Tom Balls's name—sorry, Tom! (29 Apr 2004)
• Rearranged pages, added contact form, added numerous letters and histories (26 Jan–1 Feb 2004)
• Added 1856-57 speeches (18 Jun 2003)
• Added 1851 speech (10 Jun 2003)
• Added histories of ETB and George T., and 1842 speech (21 May 2003)
• Added Frontier Guardian transcripts (1 May 2003)
• Added 1846 documents (see speeches) (25 Mar 2003)
• Added Elden Watson version of ETB autobiography (6 Mar 2003)
• Added 1849 pioneer trail correspondence (4 Mar 2003)
• Added several histories of ETB and wives (1 Mar 2003)
• Added transcript of E.T. Benson 1857 British mission journal and several mission letters (19–20 Feb 2003)
• Added conference talks and pioneer and mission sources (15–16 Feb 2003)
• Added history of Frank's wife Amanda (23 Jan 2003)
• . . .
• Page launched (5 May 2002)

Contact

Write to Benson Parkinson, webmaster, at "feedback at bensonfamily.org" (replace "at" with "@").