 1900 - 1936 (35 years) Submit Photo / Document
Has more than 100 ancestors and 3 descendants in this family tree.
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| Name |
Joseph Dunkley Benson |
| Birth |
12 Nov 1900 |
Whitney, Franklin, Idaho, United States  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Initiatory (LDS) |
30 Apr 1924 |
LOGAN |
| FamilySearch ID |
LB5T-KXY |
| Death |
24 Apr 1936 |
Provo, Utah, Utah, United States |
| Burial |
26 Apr 1936 |
Provo, Utah, Utah, United States |
| Person ID |
I318 |
mytree |
| Last Modified |
25 Feb 2024 |
| Father |
George Taft Benson, Jr, b. 24 Jun 1875, Logan, Cache, Utah, United States d. 13 Aug 1934, Preston, Franklin, Idaho, United States (Age 59 years) |
| Mother |
Sarah Sophia Dunkley, b. 29 Jun 1878, Franklin, Franklin, Idaho, United States d. 1 Jun 1933, Preston, Franklin, Idaho, United States (Age 54 years) |
| Marriage |
19 Oct 1898 |
Logan, Cache, Utah, United States |
| Family ID |
F326 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Family |
Iva Laura Jones, b. 16 Jun 1905, Parker, Fremont, Idaho, United States d. 10 Dec 1978, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States (Age 73 years) |
| Marriage |
8 Sep 1927 |
Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States |
| Children |
| | 1. Joe Dell Benson, b. 18 Jan 1931, Provo, Utah, Utah, United States d. 13 Sep 1978, Orem, Utah, Utah, United States (Age 47 years) |
| | 2. Colleen Benson, b. 12 Mar 1929, Provo, Utah, Utah, United States d. 27 Oct 2006 (Age 77 years) |
| | 3. David Keith Benson, b. 12 Aug 1936, Provo, Utah, Utah, United States d. 21 Sep 2020, Provo, Utah, Utah, United States (Age 84 years) |
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| Family ID |
F330 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified |
3 Sep 2024 |
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| Event Map |
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 | Birth - 12 Nov 1900 - Whitney, Franklin, Idaho, United States |
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 | Initiatory (LDS) - 30 Apr 1924 - LOGAN |
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 | Marriage - 8 Sep 1927 - Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States |
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 | Death - 24 Apr 1936 - Provo, Utah, Utah, United States |
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| Burial - 26 Apr 1936 - Provo, Utah, Utah, United States |
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| Notes |
- Joseph Dunkley Benson: A personal History written by
Emily Lester (Great-Granddaughter)
Compiled from existing documents and a taped interview of Colleen Benson
Law, Daughter of Joseph Benson
On November 12, 1900 in Whitney, Idaho, George Taft Jr. and Sarah Dunkl e y Benson gave birth to their second son, Joseph Dunkley Benson. Their h um ble home consisted of a two-room cottage situated on a forty-acre far . H e was named after his grandfather Joseph Dunkley. Joseph was a kind a nd l oving boy, full of sympathy for the less fortunate. Even as a youn g child , he was known for his willingness to serve others. In fact, whe n his mot her needed something fixed around the house, she would say, “I’ ll just sa ve that until Joe comes home from school or has a free afterno on; and he’ ll fix it for me.” This practice continued even after Josep h moved away f rom home.
Several of Joe’s favorites growing up included marbles, horses, homema d e bread and milk with chokecherry jelly, and fruit. According to one o f h is sisters, he had a marvelous sack of marbles that continued to gro w a s he proved to be quite competent at the game. When it came to chores , Jo e preferred to tend the horses instead of milking the cows. Apparent ly h e was very good with them and would frequently help neighbors get st uck w agons out of fields. Additionally, he regularly drove four heads o f horse s hooked up to a big beet truck to the sugar factory with his bro ther.
When Joseph was just a young child, he would look through catalogs to fi n d little things like knife sharpeners to sell. This experience, couple d w ith his people skills, probably led to his eventual career as a sales man.
When Joseph was about six or seven years old, he came down with a bad ca s e of what we now know as rheumatic fever. However, at the time, medica l s kills were a lot more primitive and they diagnosed it as growing pain s. T here really was not much they could do for it. Consequently, he wa s ill a nd weak for a long time and stopped growing for a while so he wa s smalle r than most boys his age were. Thus, his brother would walk wit h him to a nd from school for protection and to make sure he was okay. Th is illnes s probably damaged his heart and contributed to his early death .
One of the most character building experiences of his life involved hi s f ather being called on a mission to the Eastern States. When he receiv ed t he call, there were seven children in the family with an eighth on t he wa y. They had little extra money and it took all their savings just t o bu y appropriate clothing and pay for his trainfare. Yet, George Taft B enso n faithfully left his young family and farm in the care of providenc e i n order to serve the Lord. They could not afford to hire anyone to he lp ; so the boys, the oldest being only twelve, ran the farm. Eventually , th ey found a couple that received room and board in exchange for thei r assi stance. Also, they sold part of the cattle and a few horses in ord er to s end money to their father in the mission field. These times wer e extremel y hard; but it taught the children how important the gospel wa s to thei r parents and proved their willingness to make sacrifices. Cons equently , all of the children born at that time made the gospel the cent er of the ir lives. In later years, every one of them said they were gla d to have t he opportunity to serve the church and sacrifice in order fo r their fathe r to go.
Joseph was always very thoughtful to his family members. One of his youn g er brothers recounted the story of a time when the Idaho winter was par ti cularly cold and snow came up past the waist. Joseph and three younge r br others were assigned to go round up the missing cattle before they f roz e to death. This was the first time that the youngest brother there h ad e ver received such an assignment. They were out for hours before the y gath ered up the last of the strays and still had the long walk home ah ead o f them. Each of the brothers wore heavy clothes and had boots on, b ut th e youngest one complained of the cold. Thus, Joseph took his own ja cket o ff and wrapped it around his little brother. He also carried him p art o f the way home because the snow was so deep.
An excellent scholar with a brilliant mind, Joseph always excelled in h i s schooling at Whitney grade school, Preston High, and at Brigham Youn g U niversity. He especially did well in his business classes. Many profe ssor s respected his abilities and he ended up becoming quite popular amo ng hi s peers and teachers. In fact he was voted as president of the Comm erce C lub at BYU. These accomplishments were particularly amazing becaus e he wa s often called home to help on the farm, and still managed to ge t high ma rks on his test. He loved school and was always anxious to obta in a degre e.
In May of 1924 Joseph was called to serve a mission for The Church of Je s us Christ of Latter Day Saints in the North Central States. Accordin g t o the mission journal he left for posterity, he enjoyed his mission a nd l oved the gospel will all his heart. He also made a book of picture s fro m his mission, but unfortunately he never wrote anything on them s o no on e is sure whom they are of. His mission lasted nearly three year s and inc luded a large area. Several times he served as president in var ious branc hes and later also served as conference president. In this cap acity, he s pent a lot of time traveling all over the mission, helping tr ain new miss ionaries.
During the course of his mission, Joseph acquainted an elderly sister w h o he baptized towards the end of his mission. She had no family of he r ow n so she sort of adopted him and his later family. Joe’s children kn ew he r as Grandmother Cromely. While they never met her, she would sen d them c ards and presents on birthdays and at Christmas. In her letters , she reco unted how much Joseph meant to her and how much the gospel h e brought wit h him meant to her. She continued to keep in contact for th e rest of he r life.
Joseph first met his future wife, Iva Laura Jones at a Gold and Green Ba l l. She was on the stake board for mutual and thus was there helping wi t h refreshments. One of Joe’s buddies asked her to dance and told her th a t there was a fellow standing over there who badly wanted to meet her a n d was claiming he was going to marry her. She jokingly replied, “You g o a sk him if he has his trousseau ready and everything ready for a home. ” La ter that evening, Joe and Iva were introduced and he asked her to da nce . As they were dancing, he said, “You might as well prepare yoursel f fo r it, I’m going to marry you and I don’t give up easily.” She laughe d an d replied; “I’ve heard that before.” That Sunday he took her out an d the y later attended the Junior Prom together. After having been on a f ew dat es with him Iva noted that although she felt she was treated wit h respec t by other dates, she had never been treated as beautifully by a nyone els e before. He brought out the best in her, as he did with the ma jority o f the people he knew and he gave her a special feeling of worth.
Several qualities that Iva admired in Joe included his sense of humor, h u mility, and friendliness. He never judged anyone. He chose his friend s ba sed on their character rather than on money or prestige. He was quit e pop ular and admired by many. People would say that Joe never met a str anger . Also, he was very neat. He kept his clothes immaculate although s ometim es they were a little well worn. Yet, the most endearing quality a bout Jo e for Iva was his great love for his mother.
Joseph’s mother, Sarah Dunkley Benson was kind and very caring. The fami l y used to say that Joe was always her favorite. During the last few mon th s of her life while she was battling cancer, she wanted Joseph to be w it h her. So, he rented his home in Provo and moved up to Idaho with hi s fam ily to stay with her.
On the other hand, Joseph’s Father was a very stern man and fairly opini o nated. He was a hard worker and expected his children to be also. Duri n g one of their visits back home, “Grandfather Benson” was tormenting Jo se ph’s son, Joe, by spraying him with the garden hose every time he cam e ou tside. Sarah would tell him that he really should not tease him lik e that , but he thought it was funny. Later that night, all the men got d resse d up for a priesthood meeting. The younger boys were mischievousl y laughi ng at something. When Grandfather Benson came out of the house , Joe was s tanding outside with the hose and one of the other boys turne d it on. H e pointed it right at Grandpa, soaking him. Grandfather was re ally angr y but Sarah came out and said, “Leave him alone George, you’v e been doin g that all day to him and he’s just following your example. ” Needless t o say, Grandfather Benson did not tease Joe anymore.
On September 8, 1927 Joseph and Iva were married to each other for Tim e a nd All Eternity in the Salt Lake Temple. Iva claimed she marred him f or h is outstanding qualities, his high ideals, his sincerity, and his ab ilit y to bring out the best in others. Joseph was twenty-seven when the y wed.
Joseph treated his wife like a queen. In fact, it was difficult for Iv a t o get him to let her do anything strenuous because he would always tr y t o find someone else to do it for her. For example, because Joe had al way s helped his mother do the wash on the farm, he vowed as a boy that h is w ife would never have to do that. Of course, when he was a child, i t was m uch more of a chore because it required pumping water into a grea t big ke ttle that was brought in and heated on the stove. Then his mothe r would s crub the clothes and pump more water to rinse them. Finally, sh e would dr y them by hanging them on bushes and the fence, or in the wint ertime, al l over the house because she didn’t have a clothesline.
By the time he married, electric washing machines and hot water heater s h ad been invented making the task much easier. Even so, he arranged fo r wo men to do their washing every week. However, as soon as a baby cam e along , Iva argued that she needed to wash the diapers more than onc e a week s o he bought her the best washing machine he could find. Yet, e ven then th ey would send the heavy things like sheets and blankets to th e cleaners b ecause he did not want her to have to work too hard.
Joseph and Iva both wanted a large family like the ones they had grow n u p in. On March 12, 1929 their first child, Colleen, was born. About t wo y ears later they had a son named Joe Dell. They wanted more children , bu t it was not until just before he died that Iva found out she was pr egnan t with a third child. Joseph was often inclined to spoil his childr en. Iv a had to be the disciplinarian in the home because he could not st and t o spank them or speak crossly. In fact, Colleen only remembers on e time w hen he did get angry with her. And, she is sure she deserved i t because s he kept arguing about wanting something she should not have.
Colleen and Joe learned right and wrong from their parent’s examples. Th e y were always very active in the LDS church. Regularly they attended t h e Salt Lake Temple, and then would talk about how much it meant it the m . Joseph often talked to his children about the gospel and told him th e i mportance of serving others. He was always doing something for someon e o r going somewhere on some kind of church assignment. He was a usefu l asse t to the Sunday School for many years. After all, he had a knack f or hand ling disruptive classes of eleven, twelve, and thirteen-year-ol d boys.
Joseph and Iva were very careful with their money. They tried to sav e a s much as they could, and never bought anything until they could affo rd t o pay cash for it. As a result, it took several years to furnish the ir ho me. Economically, times were hard for most of the world. They wer e in th e middle of a depression, and while Joseph had a good job, he cou ld neve r be sure how long it would last because so many companies were f olding.
Joseph worked as a regional representative for a company that made car r e pair kits. He often had to take business trips to Nevada, Idaho, and So ut hern California. However, his family was his highest priority, and h e wa s always happy to be back home. When he returned he would bring surp rise s with him. One time he was unable to return in time for Colleen’s s ixt h birthday and therefore sent her a beautiful birthday card that expr esse d how much he wished he could be there and how much he loved her. Th is wa s very important to her. It was probably the first piece of mail sh e rece ived with her name on it. When he did finally return he brought an other s urprise gift that was a dresser set of a comb, brush, and mirror.
Right after receiving this job, Joseph decided that he needed to buy a n e w car for all the traveling he would do. So he bought a brand-new Mod e l T Ford. Whenever they were in a new city and accidentally broke a tra ff ic rule while trying to find their way around, they would just spend m or e time taking the policeman for a ride in their car and did not get th e t icket.
When the president of his company asked Joseph to spend some time in Cal i fornia setting up branches and hiring people there, he really did not w an t to go because it would mean leaving his family for over a month. So , h e convinced Iva to take enough money out of their savings to bring th ei r whole family down to Los Angeles for a sort of vacation. His motto w as , “Don’t miss opportunities, they may never come again.”
Thus, they left in January to drive to Los Angeles. At that time, practi c ally the entire drive was just desert, and the tracks across it were t h e only roads. Tires were not built as well then, and they had to repai r s everal on the way. Additionally, and car had a fire under it once, an d th ey had to stop to put it out. The children thought this was a grea t adven ture but Joseph had different impressions as he kept getting san d in hi s eyes when he was trying to repair things from little kids throw ing it t o put out the fire. Fortunately, Iva took the children to look f or cactu s and things so he could keep his temper down.
When they got to LA, which was a much smaller city back then, they rent e d an apartment in the middle of town. There was a flower shop on the co rn er where someone was always selling flowers from their gardens out fro nt . Every day they would go down and pick out a bouquet to give to thei r mo ther. They also spent a lot of time going to the beach and had load s of f un. Little did they know then that this was the last vacation the y woul d take together. A few months later the bank where they had thei r saving s failed and Joe said that he was so glad they used their mone y to go t o California because it would have just been lost.
Joseph loved to plan family activities that he thought his children wou l d like. One winter they had a particularly hard and long winter and th e c hildren were longing to play outside. So, Joe said they were going t o hav e a picnic. They packed a basket and got out the picnic blanket the n sa t down in the living room on the new carpet. Joseph built a roarin g fir e in the fireplace and they roasted marshmallow and weenies over it . Th e carpet surely had some damage caused to it, but Joe did not mind a nd sa id they needed something to be happy about.
Joe had an interesting nightly ritual. As soon as he was ready to leav e t he office, he would call to say he was headed home. Then, to keep awa ke w hile driving, he always sang a song that he made up by combining a f ew li nes out of about six different songs. He had a beautiful voice an d ofte n made up songs with his children. Iva could hear him as soon as h e turne d onto their road. So, she would meet him at the back door, openi ng it fo r him. He would park his car in the garage, shut the door, wal k in and ki ss her on the cheek. Then he pushed his hat to the back of hi s head and g o straight to the refrigerator to see what was in there. Hi s favorite wa s cream pies, so Iva always made sure she had something lik e that.
Admirably, Joseph never felt like he was above anyone else. In one incid e nce, several couples including Iva and he were on their way to a very n ic e formal affair when a lady with a questionable reputation from abou t a b lock away called to Joe. She had done some of their laundry when Iv a wa s down with the babies but Joe didn’t mention that. Instead, he walk ed ri ght up to her, put his arm around her and introduced her to the oth er cou ples standing there saying she had helped them out in a time of ne ed.
Joseph died April 24th, 1936 leaving behind two children and a wife wh o w as pregnant with their third. He left for work one day feeling fine , bu t came home looking horribly ill. The doctors diagnosed it as strept ococc us, which was very new then, and they were just beginning to recogn ize it . They did not have any antibiotics to fight it. Consequently, th e famil y had three out of four friends who had it die of the illness wit hin jus t a few weeks.
Their son Joe was sick at the same time with Scarlet Fever. He was in o n e room and his Dad was in the next with the hall between them. They wou l d talk across the hall making all sorts of plans for that summer. Witho u t even realizing what was happening little Joe saw the paramedics carr y h is Dad out on a stretcher.
Joseph was always a charitable man inside the family and out. He was alw a ys perfect in the eyes of Iva, and never criticized or found fault wit h h er. He never spoke an unkind word to her, and made their marriage th e bes t nine years of Iva’s life.
Years after his death people would come up to his family and tell the m o f the wonderful things he did for them. Times were hard for many beca us e of the depression. But, as long as Joseph had a job, he knew he coul d h elp others. He used to take baskets of food to the families where the re w as illness or a death. Also he anonymously sent coal to several wido ws ho mes during the wintertime. One of the ladies eventually got the del iverym an to reveal where it was coming from, and she told the others. Th ey al l expressed their gratitude to him by sending his family cakes.
Joseph Dunkley Benson left behind a tremendous legacy. He served selfles s ly, never telling anyone about what he did. When he saw something tha t ne eded to be done, he immediately went to work. He never put off til l tomor row what should be done today. Throughout his life he always pu t his fami ly first. The gospel, of which he had a strong testimony, wa s also a bi g part of his life. He was considerate of everyone and kind t o all he kne w.
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Has more than 100 ancestors and 3 descendants in this family tree.
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