Benjamin F. Johnson
| Benjamin F. Johnson | |
|---|---|
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
Benjamin Franklin Johnson July 28, 1818 Chautauqua County, New York, United States |
| Died | November 18, 1905 (aged 87) Mesa, Arizona, United States |
| Resting place | City of Mesa Cemetery 33°26′18″N 111°49′58″W / 33.4383°N 111.8329°W |
| Spouse(s) | Melissa Bloomfield LeBaron Mary A. Hale Sarah Melissa Holman Susan Adelaide Holman Sarah J. Spooner Harriet N. Holman |
| Parents | Ezekiel Johnson Julia E. Hills |
| Relatives | Joel H. Johnson (brother) |
Benjamin Franklin Johnson (July 28, 1818 – November 18, 1905) was an early member of Latter Day Saint Movement, and a member of the Council of Fifty and a formerly private secretary to Joseph Smith. He served fourteen terms in the Utah State Legislature and was also a brickmaker, merchant, tavern keeper, leatherworker, farmer, nurseryman, and beekeeper.
Born to Ezekiel Johnson and Julia Hills at Pomfret, New York, he moved to Kirtland, Ohio in 1833. He married Melissa Bloomfield LeBaron on Christmas Day, December 25, 1841.
Johnson was baptized into the Church of the Latter Day Saints at Kirtland by Lyman E. Johnson in the spring of 1835. Heber C. Kimball ordained him an elder March 10, 1839 at Far West, Missouri and John Smith ordained him a high priest in 1843 at Ramus, Illinois. He served as a missionary for his new faith to the eastern United States and Upper Canada between 1840 and 1842. He was appointed to Joseph Smith’s Council of Fifty in 1843.
In 1838 he moved to Adam-ondi-Ahman, Missouri. He moved to Springfield, Illinois in 1839, Ramus (later Webster) in 1842, Nauvoo in 1845, and Bonaparte, Iowa Territory in 1846. In 1848 he arrived in the Salt Lake Valley with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and served in the Utah territorial legislature from 1855 to 1867. Johnson left Utah for the Arizona Territory in 1882, settling in Tempe before going to Colonia Diaz, Chihuahua, Mexico in 1890 and returning to Arizona in 1892. He died at Mesa.
Johnson's sister married Joseph Smith as a plural marriage. Johnson records the event where Joseph Smith approached Johnson about the arrangement:
His words astonished me and almost took my breath. I sat for a time amazed and finally, almost ready to burst with emotion, I looked him straight in the face and said: “Brother Joseph, this is something I did not expect, and I do not understand it. You know whether it is right, I do not. I want to do just as you tell me, and I will try, but if I ever should know that you do this to dishonor and debauch my sister, I will kill you as sure as the Lord lives.” And while his eyes did not move from mine, he said with a smile, in a soft tone: “But Benjamin you will never know that, but you will know the principle in time, and will greatly rejoice in what it will bring to you.” “But how,” I asked, “can I teach my sister what I myself do not understand, or show her what I do not myself see?” “But you will see and understand it,” he said, “and when you open your mouth to talk to your sister, light will come to you and your mouth will be full and your tongue loose, and I will today preach a sermon to you that none but you will understand.” Both of these promises were more than fulfilled. The text of his sermon was our use of the “one, five and ten talents,” and as God had now commanded plural marriage, and was exaltation and dominion of the saints depended upon the number of their righteous posterity, from him who was then but with one talent, it would be taken and given him that had ten, which item of doctrine seems now to be somewhat differently constructed.
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