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. 273-76.
[Transcribed by Ann Potter]
Louisa Benson, first child of Ezra T. Benson & Olive Mary Knight was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. She was a very beautiful girl. She married Charles Bruce and went to live in Nevada. Her mother, Olive Mary Knight, went there to visit her at one time. Olive Mary Knight Benson told Mae Lewis Baugh that she had to ride many miles in a horse drawn buggy to get to Louisa’s place in Nevada. Louisa had a child, which may have been buried in Nevada, name a d place of birth, unknown. Louisa came back to Logan. Louisa, b 29 June 1852, died 29 Nov 1878 and is she is buried in the Ezra T. Benson Lot 21 Block 2 Plat A in the Logan City Cemetery.
Heber Benson, 2nd child of Ezra T. Benson and Olive Mary Knight was born in 1860, probably in Salt Lake City; nothing is known of this child.
Moroni Benson, 3rd child of Ezra T. Benson and Olive Mary Knight, was born 5 Nov 1861 in Logan, Utah. In early childhood, Roni Benson suffered a childhood disease which affected his speech pattern. He was not able to attend public schools in Logan. Friends advised his mother, Olive Mary to place him in a school to be taught to communicate by sign language, but hs mother was afraid he would not be treated kindly and she refused to do so.
Although he had a slight limp, Roni would walk all around the town and everyone knew Roni. He used to drive the cows from First West in Logan way down to the pastures. He was very trustworthy and he did other kinds of work. Sawing was one thing he could do very well.
Roni could utter some words; he could make you understand him. He had expressive eyes and could talk with his eyes and facial expression. Roni never went without his hat and he became very angry if anyone touched it. Sometimes people teased him by taking his hat and he became very cross at them for this. He had a good head of hair. He used to go past Caroline Sorensons house every day and when she saw him through the window, she would hand him something to eat.
After his mother, Olive Mary Knight Benson died in 2905, his brother, Don Carlos Benson, took him to live at his house and he stayed there many years. However, after Don Carlos Benson’s illness, there seemed no one to take care of Roni, so he was sent to an institution in Provo, Utah, for custodial care. He died in Provo and was buried there. Edward Lewis, his brother-in-law, felt very badly about this, so he went to Provo and got his body and brought him back to Logan to be reentered in Logan Cemetery, by his sister, Louisa, and his mother. He is in Lot 21, Block 2, Plat A, Logan City Cemetery.
Lorenzo Taft Benson moved from Logan, Utah to Weston, Idaho, with his family, where he had two farms. After some years there, the family moved back to Logan where he was head engineer for a school for many years. He also was with the fire department and served on city councils.
Favorite memories are of the Edison phonograph with the disk records and the big horn. Lorenzo and Margaret and their children, Geneva, Morgan, Ira and Lucy would sit and listen to these records. One of the favorite songs from the phonograph was, “Sweet Spirit, Hear My Prayer,” performed by flute, violin and piano. Lorenzo, also played the accordion.
Margaret Ann Morgan, wife of Lorenzo Taft Benson, was born in Connecticut and crossed the plains when an infant. Before her marriage, she was much in demand for ironing and housekeeping.
She married Lorenzo Taft Benson and they lived in a little old log cabin when first married, the one Walter Benson had lived in. When the moved to the farm, in about 1915, they took their piano with them and Lucy used to play it.
Margaret Ann told about the times when Brigham Young used to come to Logan, Utah. All the children dressed in white and formed a line on either side of Main Street.
Margaret Ann used to walk three miles from the farm to church. Once she was back in Logan, she went to the temple every week. Eventually, she had to leave her brick home in Logan when the school bought their property. A little new home was put up where they lived together. She was very fastidious about her clothes, and she was in the Relief Society.
Margaret Ann was very good to Roni Benson. When Mary Larsen Benson married Peter Peterson, Mary had twins and not enough milk for them, so Margaret Ann Morgan Benson, helped her nurse them.
Joseph Benson, fifth child of Ezra T. Benson and Olive Mary Knight, lived in Summit Ward of Curlew Stake in the Arbon Valley, Oneida County, Idaho, on a dry farm, 30 miles northwest of Malad, Idaho. The Benson family had to rely on the snow and rain to raise their crops. They had a windmill which drew water for culinary purposes. When the first moved there, Joseph and sons, Joseph Guy and Eugene, helped build a log cabin, and the lived in this one room for three years. The boys slept in the loft; then had to climb up a ladder on the outside of the cabin to get into it. Later Joseph and the boys built a frame house which is still standing (1977)
Joseph’s wife, Sigrid Louise Larson was born in Sweden. Her father, Ola Larson, went to New Zealand from Sweden and was converted in New Zealand to the L.D.S. faith; he emigrated to the United States. In Logan, he was a basket maker and gardener. He had six or seven acres of land in the river bottom and sold his produce, green vegetables and flowers, himself.
Sigrid was a good L.D.S woman and served as Primary President in Summit Ward and attended all church meetings and taught her children the faith. Sigrid’s daughter, Edith Benson Maugham used to drive Sigrid to Primary in a surrey (horse and buggy) they had brought from Logan, Utah.
Edson Benson remembers his mother as a good cook; one dish was sweet soup made with rice and different kinds of fruit, not cooked too much, but to a pudding. She used apples, although apples did not grow in Oneida County. There they had a few gooseberries., service berries and choke cherries. The service berry was like a large blue berry and had to be cooked with lemons to give it flavor.
The five youngest children attended school two miles south of the farm in a two room schoolhouse. In 1930’s they moved into Logan, Utah, so Edith and Gladys could go to high school.
Joseph served an LDS Mission to Germany after he was married. He was the first Branch President in Curlew Branch and later, Bishop of Summit Ward. He was a temple officiator in Logan for 8 years. He could act and officiate in every part of the ceremonies. The last two years, he was too ill to go to the temple. He died 5 June 1941 in Logan and is buried in Logan, Utah.
After Joseph died, Sigrid went to live with Lulu, (Louise Johannah Benson Peck) and she died in Malad, Idaho 4 Jan 1944 and is buried in Logan, Utah.
Ida May Benson was the sixth child of Ezra T. Benson and Olive Mary Knight. She was of medium size with medium brown hair. She was a very fussy housekeeper. Her house had to be just so and her cooking, also. At Christmas time, she sent pies and cakes to those not as fortunate as they were. Ida May never did have good health. She was a pale woman, but, she could always work.
When her son Clair, was called on a mission, she did not know if she wanted him to go so far away as Australia. Clair died in Perth, Australia, and his body was shipped home. His parents had a cement vault built in the Logan cemetery. Ida looked down into it and declared that it would be clean enough for her too. Eventually, May and her husband Edward Lewis, were laid in the vault beside Clair.
Ida’s husband, Edward Lewis, Sr. Ran a transfer company, Lewis Transfer. Edward was a small man, but, jovial. He had 2 cows on his place and a garden. He went to work every day, and he was known to take coal to the needy. Edward Lewis made a fuss over Roni Benson. He would go to see him and talk to him. When Roni died in Provo, Utah, and was buried there, Edward Lewis went down and got his body and had him reinterred in the Logan cemetery. Mae Lewis Baugh had a tombstone made for him.
Edward Lewis’ business was meeting the trains at the depot, paying money to the railroad, and, then delivering the merchandise to the merchants in Logan, and collecting from them.
Don Carlos Benson was the seventh child of Ezra T. Benson and Olive Mary Knight. Don Carlos was the sheriff of Cache County and at one time, a member of the Logan police force. He married Amelia Hurst in the Logan Temple, 26 Apr 1889. He was an ardent member of the church having performed a mission in the southern states from 1899 to 1901. He was also a member of the fire department. He spent the greater part of his life in Cache County, becoming a deputy sheriff under Miles Peterson. In 1926 he was elected as Cache County Sheriff, but ill health caused him to resign in 1928.
His job necessitated his being gone from home frequently. He used to take his son, Taft Benson, with him when he had to transport a prisoner or take an ill person to the State Mental Hospital in Provo, Utah. He had along lasting illness while he was visiting his son, Don Carlos Benson, Jr. In California, and he passed away in Stockton, California. He was 66 years old. His burial and funeral were held in Logan, Utah.
His wife, Aurelia Hurst, was born 28 Oct 1869 in Logan, Utah. She had: Don Carlos Benson, Jr. And Stanley Hurst Benson who died in 1918. Aurelia had the only quadruplets recorded thus far in the Benson family. Claud, Betty, Leo and Edgar Benson were born 29 Jan 1905, and they did not survive more than one day. They were perfectly formed, beautiful babies. Modern treatment might have been able to help them survive. Later, she had: Zella and Taft Benson. Also, Aleen Benson born in 1903, died same day.