John Rowland BENNION

                   BIRTH: Birth Certificate, General Registration Office, London, England.
MARRIAGE: F.H.L. Film # 183,395 EHOUS: p. 601, #8572.
DEATH:  Salt Lake Daily Tribune, May 8, 1899, p.8 & F.H.L. Film #027539,Taylorsville, West Jordan Ward Records.

BAPTISM: F.H.L. Film   027359, p.10 #237, Taylorsville Ward Records, confirmed by John Bennion.
RE-BAPTIZED: F.H.L. Film #027,416,p.17, 12 Mar 1857, (rebap) West. Jordan Ward Records.
RE-BAPTIZED: 24 Jun 1876, probably another rebaptism.
ENDOWMENT: F.H.L. Film #183,404 EHOUS, p. 102. #6.
SEALED TO PARENTS: F.H.L. Film #184,657 SLAKE, 6.p.170, Children to parents.
SEALED TO SPOUSE: F.H.l. Film #183,395 EHOUS, p.601, #8572.

                                               Know Utah by Albert F. Phillips                    May 19
      The Bennion family has long been prominent in Utah. The Journal kept by the family and revised and rewritten by Harden Bennion, just issued, recounts the fact that John R[owland] Bennion (Samuels eldest son) was sent on a mission to Arizona to explore and settle if possible the Little Colorado river valley. In fulfilling this mission he endured many hardships, traveling, making roads, going without water and food and danger from Indians. He pioneered in Vernon, Tooele county, in the raising of sheep.


STRICKEN BY APOPLEXY
SUDDEN DEATH OF JOHN R. BENNION
Well-known citizen of Taylorsville Passes Away--was Reading when the Summons Came.
      John R. Bennion of Taylorsville, the well-known sheep man and farmer, died suddenly of apoplexy Saturday, at the age of 59. He sat down on the sofa in his house at 12:50 to read a paper while waiting for dinner, when death came without the slightest warning. Mr. Bennion passed away without a struggle. He leaves a wife and six children. The funeral will be held from the Taylorsville assembly rooms Wednesday, May 10th, at 11 a.m.
     The deceased was a pioneer of 1847. He was the oldest son of the late Bishop Samuel Bennion, and one of the first settlers of Taylorsville. Mr. Bennion was foremost in canal building and many industries and enterprises. In the early days he was one of those who went up onto the overland route to fight Indians; and he and his brothers were the first settlers in Tooele county. In 1873, the deceased went to Arizona with a company from this territory to help settle the country. He was a cousin of Bishop Heber Bennion of Taylorsville. Mr. Bennions death will be much deplored.  Salt Lake Tribune, May 8, 1899, p.8.

JOHN ROWLAND BENNION
    John R. Bennion, the oldest son of Samuel and Mary Bushell Bennion, was born at Liverpool, England, February 1,1840. He came to America with his parents in 1845, living in Nauvool, Illinois, until late summer of 1846. John R. rode a horse a good portion of the way. One day he fell from his horse and broke his arm. At that time, at the age of seven, he showed a characteristic that became prominent throughout  his life. He crawled into the back of  his father's wagon, without letting any know of his injury. He never wished to bother anyone with  his troubles
     Being the eldest child in the family, he learned very early to work. He assisted his father in farming and stock raising. He attended the schools, such as they had, but his education came largely from the school of experience. Most of his boyhood and early manhood days were spent in the solitude of the  desert, where he herded the sheep and cattle.
     At the age of eighteen he was called by Brigham Yount to go with a company of young men to Echo Canyon, to meet Johnston's army of United States troops. They served twenty one days and were released. During the Civil War, April 30th, 1862, he was called to United States Government service. He served in Captain Lot Smith's company of cavalry. They were guarding the western mail route from the Indians. At one time, when they were pursuing Indians to recover stolen horses, their food supply was cut off, and they lived for ten days on a bear and a mule, John R.'s portion, the last day or so being a bear's paw, which he carried on the back of his saddle.
    He was married to Emma Jane Terry in the endowment house of Salt Lake City, April 28, 1866, by Wilford Woodruff. To them were born six sons and one daughter. Five sons and the daughter survive, one son having died in infancy. They also reared a boy (Henry Hanson) who had been left uncared  for by his own parents. There have been born twenty-nine grandchildren, twenty-eight of whom are living. There are six great grandchildren.  His five sons have continued the industries their father began. They all follow the occupaation of sheep and cattle raising.
    March 26, 1873, John R. Bennion was called by Brigham Young on  a mission to Arizona to explore and settle, if possible, the Little Colorado river country. He was chosen councilor and chaplain in his company, positions he filled with integrity, until their return on July 22, 1873. The journal he carried with him on this trip recounts the hardships of traveling, making of roads, going without  water, scarcity  of food, the danger of savage Indians, also their acquaintances and friendship with a tribe of friendly Indians, whose homes were in the cliffs of the mountains. It also tells of the beauties of the Grand Canyon of Colorado.
    John R. pioneered in Vernon, Tooele county, in the raising of sheep and cattle, enduring many hardships; many a time a snow bank was his bed. He went into the sheep business for himself in his early married life, and remained interested in it, until a few years prior to his death, when he sold his sheep and devoted all of  his time to farming. He was one who never hunted the easy job, or the light end of the work. His motto was "my  share and a little more." His hands did much in making canals and irrigation ditches. He  can truly be called one of the fathers of irrigtion in Utah. He loved fine animals, especially horses, and alwayskept one or fwo fine ones for driving. The care of them was a joy and recreation to  him.
    His outstanding characteristics were honesty, generosity and humillty. During his life it was common to hear his friends when desiring to impress honesty, say "As honest as Johnny Bennion." He was generous almost to a fault. His mother said of him when he was a very young man, she hoped "Johnny would never want for any necessity, for he would take the clothing from his back to give to any one, who needed." He was very hospitable not only to friends, but to traveler or strangers going by  his door. Even the most lowly were  never denied a place to sleep and the best meal the home afforded was alway given to them, without price. The taking in of strangers often frightened some of  his children. Their father alway assured them that kindness and hospitatlity would never result in any harm.
    He was religious and studious in his nature, though he never pushed himself forward, more often he would be found on the back seat. He was an honest tithe-payer and in his heart a thorough Latter-day Saint. He revered the Priesthood and held the office of a Seventy. He believed in treating human kind well, not so he would receive the same t reatment in return, but simply because it was right. His evenings were invariably spent reading at his own fireside. His favorite books were the Bible, Shakespeare and history. He memorized many of the gems from the former two. He loved music and loved to sing himself.
    He revered women, and always felt their place was caring for the children and the home. He spared, wherever possible, his wife from the hardest work. To him, his wife was perfection. She was a woman of strong will, very thrifty, absolutly honest and bestowed true devortion to husband and children. She stood by her husband, through many trying times, always with faith and hope and cheer, and for it her children bless her. At this writing (1930) she is 80 years old, enjoying life to the utmost, happy and interested in all about her. She is a great strenth to her children and her grandchildren. She now enjoys many of the comforts that were denied her in her earlier life. She is devoted to temple work and spends much of her time in that service.
    During all of the life of John R. Bennion he enjoyed wonderful health, hardly knew a sick day. He was stricken, Saturday at 11:30 a.m., May 6th,  1899, at the age of fifty-nine years, with apoplexy, and died immediately at his  home on Red Wood Road, Taylorsville, where he had lived practically all of his    married life. His funeral was Wednesday, May 10th, from Taylosville meeting house. He was buried at Taylorsville cemetery.  Bennion Family History, Vol. 1, p.91-93.