Hyrum BENNION

                   BIRTH: Samuel Bennion Family Bible.
MARRIAGE:	1. Eliza Ann Harker, F.H.L. Film #183,396 EHOUS, p.170, #14,863.
		2. Mary Karren, F.H.L. Film #183,398 EHOUS, p.44, #553.
DEATH: Taylorsville Cemetery Records, US/CAN 979.225\T1, & Deseret News Obituary.

BAPTISM: F.H.L. Film #27,416, p.13, West Jordan Ward Records.
RE-BAPTISM: 12 Mar  1857 North Jordan Ward Records, F.H.L. Film #027,416, p.17, no #. West Jordan Ward Records.
ENDOWMENT: F.H.L. Film #1239501 EHOUS, p.51, #7.
SEALED TO PARENTS: F.H.L. Film #184,657 SLAKE. p.170, no #.
SEALED TO SPOUSE: (1) Eliza Ann Harker F.H.L. Film #183,396 EHOUS, p.170, #14,863.
		          (2) Mary Karen F.H.L. Film #183,398 EHOUS, p. 44, #553.

1847 PIONEER TO BE BURIED SUNDAY
Life of Hyrum Bennion Filled With Work for Church.
     Funeral services for Hyrum Bennion, Pioneer of 1847, who died at his home, 761 Harrison Avenue, Thursday, will be held Sunday, Oct. 17, at 2 p.m. in the Hawthorne ward chapel, Eighty East and Roosevelt avenue. Bishop H. M. Taggart will be in charge. Interment will be in Taylorsville cemetery under direction of George E. Jenkins, mortician.
    Mr. Bennion was the son of Samuel and Mary Bushell Bennion and was born Jan. 13, 1847 at                 Garden Grove, Iowa, where his parents and other relatives had camped for the winter on their way from    Nauvoo to Utah.
     The Bennion families arrived in Salt Lake Oct. 5, 1847, and moved to the west of the Jordan river Jan.9, 1849, and settled in what is now Taylorsville the following year.  Here Hyrum spent his boyhood days attending school in the winter and attending his fathers sheep and cattle on the Jordan range. Married twice. Dec. 13, 1869, he married Eliza Ann Harker of Taylorsville, daughter of Joseph and Eliza Spencer Harker.  From this union seven children were born. Nov. 20, 1871, he married Mary Karren of Lehi, daughter of Thomas and Ann Ratliff Karren. From this union also seven children were born.
     In early manhood he entered into the livestock business for himself in connection with his father and brothers, and cousins.  He continued in this business up to 1891. This took him into Rush Valley, Tooele County, Castle Valley, Sanpete County, and parts of Wyoming. In 1875 he built his home in Taylorsville and entered into the mercantile business in 1881, and continued until 1924. In 1880 his fathers cousin, Samuel R. Bennion [1st cousin], and he purchased the flour mill located on the Jordan river in Taylorsville, which had just been built by Archibald Gardner, the pioneer mill builder.
     He continued active in this industry to the time of his death, being president and manager of the Hyrum Bennion and Sons Co., owning mills in Murray, Utah, and Ririe, Idaho. Active in Farming.
     He took a prominent part in irrigation from its earliest inception and at time of death was president of the North Jordan Irrigation Co. He was prominently connected in the development of many other industries of the state. He was always an active member of the Church being the first president of  the M.I.A. in Taylorsville ward. In 1879 and 1880 he filled a mission to Great Britain, laboring in the Bristol and Norwich conferences. He also maintains six of his sons in the mission field.
     He was one of the presidents of the 14th Quorum of Seventy and when the One Hundred and Fifteenth quorum was organized he was made senior president, continuing in this position until he was made a high priest in Cottonwood Stake in 1917.  In 1919 he moved to his present home, 761 Harrison Avenue, where he became actively connected with the Hawthorne ward.
     He was well known throughout the state and greatly loved and esteemed by numerous friends.
     He is survived by his widows and the following children: Mrs. T.D. Wallace of Downey, Idaho, Mrs. M.D. Wallace, Mrs. David Rishton, Mrs. F.H. James, Samuel T., Karren H., all of Salt Lake City; Hyrum Jr., Oscar J. and Joseph S. of Taylorsville, Ernest of McGrath, Canada and Robert of Ririe, Idaho; 55 grand-children, 7 great-grandchildren, 3 sisters, Mrs. Emma B. Lindsay, Mrs. Rebecca A. Sharp and Mrs. Alice J. Harker, two brothers, Wilford and Arthur Bennion.
			Obituary - Deseret News - October 15, 1926, F.H.L. Film #027,051.


Biography of Hyrum Bennion

Article undated.  Copy made November 11, 1991
Dear Uncle Harden;
	I enclose Uncle Hyrum's papers;  started last fall to copy out in connected order the yellow sheets from his son, Hyrum, but father tells me my judgment won't do for the task of selection and arrangement, so must leave it for you.  He says Uncle Hyrum's history is of paramount importance, he being the successor in business and affairs, to his father, and his story of the community building part of the story.  I enclose a copy I made, of his own story.  Love to Esther; I hope she is better.
							Jean.

		761 Harrison Avenue, Salt Lake City, 15th April 1923.
	I, Hyrum Bennion, was born 13th January 1847 at Garden Grove, Decatur County, in the state of Iowa.  My parents were driven from their home near Nauvoo, 19th May, 1846.  Sold their two-story brick house and eighty-five acres of land for two hundred fifty dollars part in trade; crossed the Mississippi River at Nauvoo and traveled one hundred sixty miles southwest to Garden Grove; stayed there for the winter.
	While there I, Hyrum, was born, and my grandfather, John Bennion, was buried by the wayside, at Garden Grove.
	We arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah, 5th October, 1847.  Stayed the winter of 1847 on the Pioneer Square.  In the spring of 1848 moved and farmed some land near Eleventh South and State Street, raised some grain.  In the fall of 1848 moved across Jordan River and farmed for some years; built what was called the English Fort a little north of Fourteenth South St, now Thirty-third South St. what is now Taylorsville Cemetery.
	These were hard times for a few years; I went almost naked and barefooted.  The next move was two miles up the river, near Thomas Mackay, J. K. Butterfield and Thomas Fields; then up the river to what is now the old home in Taylorsville.
	John Hague, Samuel Bennion, George and William Spencer, Joseph Harker, Brother Mantle and John Bennion made the ditch known as the Mound Ditch, taken out of the Jordan River three hundred yards north of the old Hickman Mound.  This ditch was made with pick and shovel, and they all raised grain and did very well for a few years.
	In 1863 the Parker Ditch was taken out of the river at West Jordan.  I worked on this ditch with pick and shovel.  This ditch took in all the land west of the mound Ditch Bend, father's bend, and Robert Pixton's farm, and emptied into the Jordan River where the power house of Hyrum Bennion and Sons now stands.
	My father and uncle, John Bennion, were getting a few sheep and cattle around them, and we used to herd them on Bingham Creek in the summer.  We had them at home in the winter.  In 1863 my father and uncle, John Bennion, moved their sheep and cattle to the south end of Rush Valley.  John R. and myself took some cows of John Taylor's on shares; we were to have half the calves.  Also, we took some cows and horses of A. O. Smoot's on shares; and in the winter they would send their work oxen and horses out to be herded. This is where we got our start.
	Samuel R. Bennion took Dr. Bernhisel's stock, and we all camped together; herded the stock and sheep in the summer in the hills near the Bennion Ranch.  Then we took some sheep from Tooele people on shares.  John Taylor, A. O. Smoot and Dr. Bernhisel had to have a report of half the calves, colts and lambs, which were raised for them.
	In 1869 I married Miss Eliza Ann Harker, and built a small house - two log rooms - in the town of Vernon, seven miles north of the Bennion summer ranch.
	Feed got scarce, and we wintered our sheep in Skull Valley, West Tintic, and on the great western desert; and I don't think there is a man living today that is better acquainted with the western desert than I am, from the sinks of the Sevier River to the western shores of the Great Salt Lake.
	This was a wild country; Indians not very friendly; they took the shirt off my back and I went without one for the rest of the day; had them draw their guns on me, but the Over-ruling Providence held them from pulling the trigger and my life was spared.
	The town of Vernon was named after a man by that name, who was killed there by a very bad Indian, Tabby Weepup.  A few years afterward Tabby accidentally shot himself through the wrist.  Blood poisoning set in, and he died a very bad death.
	Samuel R. and myself presided for several years over the Vernon branch of Tooele County.
	In 1871 I married a second wife, Mary Karren, and we lived together at Vernon until 1875, when I built my home in Taylorsville.  Have raised seven children each from these unions.
	In 1876 we moved our cattle into Castle Valley.  Drove down through San Pete Valley, up the Sevier River to Salina, then east, up Gooseberry Valley into Castle Valley.  Leased the cattle to Thomas Simpers, a brother of Dan Simpers who used to herd for us.
	After 1875 I lived with my family in Taylorsville and tended my sheep; wintered them on the Desert and summered them on the San Pete mountains, usually; twice on Coalville Creek near the head of Echo Canyon.
	In 1879 I was called on a mission to my mother country.  After I was called I made one trip out to the sheep and turned them over to my father to look after.  Also, he looked after my family.  On January 5th 1879, in company with W. H. Haigh of Taylorsville I started on my mission.
	I had never been out of the state of Utah [Uncle Hyrum forgot about being born in Iowa] and had not traveled much by rail.  The snow was deep and the weather very cold, and I was very sick all the way across the United States.  Homesickness, and then seasickness are not very pleasant.
	I labored in the Bristol and the Norwich conferences.  I was released and returned home late in the fall of 1881.
	My dear wives met me in Salt Lake City with two fine babies, Hyrum junior and Maida.  I have been truly happy since then with my family and my people in Utah.
	While I had been away there came a very hard winter and most of the cattle in Castle Valley died.  On reaching home, Samuel R. and myself took some men down and received our stock from Simpers.  Samuel and John Bennion, John R., Samuel R. and myself sold the cows and young stock at the ranch and drove the steers and fat cows to Evanston and sold them there.
	We did not get over half our cattle.  Simpers reported that the rest had died; but a number of large steers never turned up.  That finished our cattle business.
	In 1876 Samuel R. Bennion, Samuel Bennion and myself took a mortgage on the Gardner mill, on the Jordan River at Taylorsville, for two years.  Samuel R. took half and father and I half of the amount, which was five thousand dollars.  At the end of two years Archibald Gardner could not redeem the note and he gave us the burr mill with land and mill race.  This was in 1878.  While I was on my mission father, Samuel Bennion and my cousin Samuel R. Bennion ran that business.
	In 1889 my father died, and his interest in the mill was given to me by his administrators, Archibald Gardner and Samuel Bringhurst.  This made me half owner with my cousin Samuel R. Bennion.  We put in the Great Western machinery; changed it from a burr mill to a roller mill.  I leased his interest for a number of years.
	Then he sold his interest to Thomas Talhurst, and we ran the business as partners for a few years, until my sons bought Talhurst out.  Hyrum Bennion and Sons then incorporated.  Later the old mill burned down.  Hyrum Bennion and Sons built a power house on the site; bought a corner lot from John Burch and Carlson, by the side of the Utah Southern railroad, and in 1909 built the present mill and installed the Alice (?) Chalmers machinery.

                                                    Hyrum Bennion
Bennion Family History, Vol. 1, p.96-99
     Hyrum Bennion, son of Samuel and Mary Bushell Ben­nion, was born January 13, 1847, at Garden Grove, Iowa, at which place his parents, his uncle, John Bennion and family and his grandfather, John Bennion, were spending the winter of 1846-47 while on their journey from Nauvoo, Illinois, to Utah. He was therefore a mere babe in arms when he reached the Salt Lake Valley in October, 1847, but it was always a matter of pleasure and pride to him that he was entitled to recognition as one of the pioneers of the Beehive state. But babes in those days were not permitted to remain long as such. Within a very few years he was called upon to share with his brothers and cousins in the care and handling of the sheep and other livestock that had come into the hands of Samuel and John Bennion by reason of their settlement on the west side of the Jordan River, to which location they moved January 9, 1849.
When the little colony of Bennions, Harkers and others, having finally made permanent settlement of Taylorsville and later gathered up and built for themselves what became known as English Fort, adjoining Taylorsville cemetery, a school was established in the home of John Taylor with David
0. Calder as teacher, and there Hyrum first became a school­boy, being in the year 1854. Later he attended school held in the home of his uncle, John Bennion, whose wife Esther A. was the teacher. Other very crude and meager school facilities were available to him for about three months of the year for a time, the other nine months of each year being spent in caring for livestock, working in garden and on farm. He also remem­bers participating in the Grasshopper War, in the course of which he assisted in driving these insect pests into trenches in which grass and straw had been placed and then fired.
    As he grew to manhood his time and attention were given largely to the care of his father's livestock interests (in which he gradually acquired part ownership) same having been transferred to Rush Valley, Tooele county, in August, 1863. During these years his life was spent largely in the saddle and he became an expert horseman, resourceful and competent in the manage­ment of business affairs, a good judge of human nature, and otherwise qualified to meet and carry on in the everyday affairs of life.
    His early married life was spent at Vernon, near the old ranch home in Rush Valley, his entire time being occupied in the care of the sheep, cattle and horses belonging to the Bennion families, such livestock having by this time so increased in numbers that it became necessary, in 1875, to find a new range, at least for the cattle. Same was found in the south end of Castle Valley, now Emery county, whither the herd, now num­bering over five hundred head, was moved that year and left in charge of Thomas Simpers and Israel Bennion.
That same year Hyrum moved his family to Taylorsville, built him a four roomed brick house on land bought of Robert Pixton, and soon enlarged his holdings to a point that demanded much of his time in farming operations, although he still gave some of it to the cattle in Castle Valley and to his sheep, which it also soon became necessary to remove from Rush Valley. Range was found for them in summer on the Sanpete mountain, returning to the west desert for winter, for a number of years, and later in Wyoming.
     In 1880, in partnership with his father and his cousin Samuel R. Bennion, he became part owner in the flour mill built by the pioneer mill builder Archibald Gardner and located on the Jordan River at Taylorsville. He became president and manager of the company and finally bought out all other in­terest and organized the Hyrum Bennion and Sons Company, built a new milling plant and elevator at Murray to take the place of the old mill on the river, same having been destroyed by fire, also another mill at Rifle, Idaho. During the later years of his life his activities and interests became centered largely in this milling business, although in 1881 he, his father, his cousin Samuel R., his brother John R., and others also organ­ized and operated a mercantile business at Taylorsville, known as the Ta