Donald Benson Alder & Elsie L. Alder, comp., The Benson Family: The Ancestory and Descendants of Ezra T. Benson (The Ezra T. Benson Genealogical Society, Inc., 1979), pp. 230A-233.
[Transcribed by Ann Potter]
Fred Gollaher Benson married Clara Jane Rice of Smithfield, 29th of July 2889. This couple went to Helena, Montana where Fred went into the drayage business.
Fred and Clara lived in a house down by the railroad depot where Fred kept large wagons and big horses in the stable. Fred also kept race horses and let the children feed them lumps of sugar and a carrot sometimes.
The business was: Benson, Carpenter & Company, Receivers and Forwarders, Agricultural Implements, Farm and Spring Wagons, Ore Gears, Buggies, Surreys and Road Wagons, wholesale and retail deals for Steam and Domestic Coal and Wood; also, storage. They had an office and warehouse at the N.P. Freight depot, a sales room at 500 No. Main Street, and a city office at No. 19 N. Main Street in Helena.
Fred and Clara Jane had one daughter, Gretta Benson, born 5 Feb 1895 at Helena. The mother, Clara Jane Benson died when Gretta was four years old in 1899. Fred married (2) 1 Jan 1902 Mary E. Monroe.
Brigham Young Benson b 17 Dec 1858 in Salt Lake City, Utah, was the second son of Elizabeth Gollaher Benson and Ezra T. Benson. He married Margaret Ann Adams of Logan and they had five children, one dying in infancy. Sometime between 1885 and 1887, they moved to Trenton, Utah, where Brigham had a large farm.
Some notes from the Biographical sketch of John L. Edwards, “I used to travel back and forth from Willard to Battle Creek, with my stock and used to stop at the home of my good friends, B.Y. Benson. A short time ago he was telling me that he and a number of his friends were trying to raise enough money to build a grist mill at Trenton, Utah, and I told him to come down to Willard and thought I could secure him some stockholders. When I went home, I talked with a few of my neighbors and we had a little meeting at which brother Benson, was present.
We subscribed for a third of the entire stock, and B. Y. Benson was made president with H. T. Peterson as secretary and manager.” Trenton, Clarkston Milling and Elevator Company.
John L. Edwards also mentions, Mrs. Benson and their daughter, Luella..
Brigham Young Benson was active in banking interests and in church life, serving as counselor in the Bishopric in Trenton.
Brigham Young Benson d 31 July 1937 in Logan, Utah; Margaret Ann Adams Benson e 27 Nov 1922 in Trenton, Utah; both are buried in Logan, Utah.
Luella Gollaher Benson was born 12 Nov 1860 at Logan Utah, daughter of Ezra T. Benson and Elizabeth Gollaher Benson. Luella married Harvey W. Curtis, and they had a son, Harry Curtis. Luella died young at the age of 21 years. Luella’s mother, Elizabeth Gollaher Benson, raised Harry Curtis. Harry married, Nan, no issue.
William C. Benson, b 11 Nov 1862 in Logan, married Ida M Mason of Pony, Madison, Montana .They had a son Albert Mason Benson born 1909 in Pony, Montana.
William C. Benson was a mining engineer in Pony, Montana. Will died in Helena, Montana, and is buried there in the Odd Fellows part of a cemetery. Ida died Nov 1963 and is buried in Pony, Montana.
Hyrum Smith Benson married Nana Rice, Clara Jane Rice's sister. Hyrum was associated with Fred in the drayage business in Helena, Montana. Hyrum and Nana lived in a large house in the town of Helena where they had their own rooms, but they all ate in one large dining room where they had a woman who cooked all the food.
Hyrum and Nana had one daughter, Guinevere Benson, who married Glenn Cameron Henry.
Hyrum and Nana are both buried in Helena, Montana.
Edith Benson, daughter of Ezra T. Benson and Elizabeth Gollaher Benson, was a home type of woman and a good cook. Her husband's older sons used to like to come to her place, even after they were married, and sit around the old stove and visit because Edith was so much fun.
Edith had to work hard when she was a very young girl because her mother, Elizabeth Gollaher Benson, was in poor health. Edith did not get a chance to get much formal education but she spoke English correctly and was good at figuring out things. She was patient and loving.
Edith was the only one of her sisters to live in plural marriage. She had a dream one night that her father, Ezra T. Benson, was on the stand at a meeting, and she dreamed he beckoned to her to come and sit in a chair by his side. Edith interpreted this to mean that he was pleased with her as she had lived a law he had believed in.
Edith raised a big family and in addition had Mark Parkinson, one of her husband's sons, age 17, come live with her family.
Edith married Dr. William Brigham Parkinson, 27 Jan 1886 in the Logan Temple. Edith and her sister, Lizzie, were each given a lot in Logan by their mother, Elizabeth Gollaher Benson. Lizzie sold her lot, but, Edith's husband, Dr. Parkinson, built a brick house for her on her lot. Before that, the Parkinsons lived in a log house where her mother, Elizabeth, had lived at one time. Edith Parkinson died 11 Nov 1925 and is buried in Logan. She was the mother of three girls and five boys.
Dr. William Brigham Parkinson was born in England, but, left home at about 10 years of age; later, a man adopted him. He arrived in Morgan, Utah, in the early 1870's where he was a telegraph operator.
After he was married for the first time, he decided to become a doctor, so, he went to the Chi Medical Hospital in Philadelphia for his training as a physician. Several times after that, he traveled East to update his learning.
His first hospital in Logan was in a grey rock house, the old Howell home. Next, he established another hospital further in town where the old third ward meeting house used to be. He was very studious and learned to speak German when he was past 50 years of age so he could go to Germany to specialize in eye, ear, nose and throat treatment. He had the first X-ray in Logan, and, his daughter, Karma, remembers he prescribed good medicines for sore throats and burns. He served two missions for the L.D.S. Church in England. He died 9 Nov 1920 and is buried in Logan, Utah.
Lizzie Benson was the youngest child of Elizabeth Gollaher and Ezra T. Benson. She married Evan Richard Walters Owen, and they had 8 children born in Wellsville, Utah. She was the bishop's wife and she would take bread and kettles of soup to the sick and to every mother who had a new baby. There was no doctor inWellsville, Margaret Maughan delivered most of Lizzies babies. Lizzie was in labor 36 hours with Leslie and they had to bring in a doctor from another town. The baby weighed 13 pounds. The mothers liked Lizzie Owen to comfort them when they were in labor.
At Christmas time, Lizzie made donuts and cakes. She played the organ by ear and after church was over, the young people came into her house and they had more music after church.
Evan Richard Walters Owen, Lizzie's husband, was born in Wellsville, and he attended Brigham Young College in Logan, graduating in 1887, being the only boy in a group of four which formed the first graduating class of the B.Y.C.
He also attended the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. He returned to Wellsville and taught school for 24 years. He also ran a mercantile establishment. He was the mayor of Wellsville when he was 21 years of age.
He served an L.D.S. mission to Great Britain from 1898-1900. He was also bishop of the Wellsville ward for several years.
He came to Logan in 1914 and he was connected with the Telluride Power Company which became part of Utah Power & Light Company. He was a director of the Thatcher Brothers bank in 1916 until that institution was merged with First Security Bank of Utah. He was a member of the state legislature representing Cache County, Utah.
He assisted in building the Wellsville Tabernacle by overseeing the project as there were no contractors at that time.
Lizzie and Evan are both buried in Logan City Cemetery.