BENJAMIN MORGAN ROBERTS
15 Jan 1827 – 7 Aug 1891

Benjamin is my third great grandfather on my mother’s mother’s side. He was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, the sixth of seven children of Samuel Roberts, Jr. and Sarah Lamar. His father, Samuel, died when he was just two years old and his mother, Sarah, died when he was only four. The family was then split up and raised by the Society of Friends or Quakers. From them, young Benjamin learned to read the Bible and to write. He also apprenticed as a wheel-right.

In 1840, when he was just thirteen, young Benjamin came across a pamphlet in Philadelphia about the Mormons. He went to the address listed in the brochure to learn more about this nascent religion. Evidently, he couldn’t tell his Quaker family about his interest in Mormonism so legend has it that he would quietly sneak out of the house to attend Mormon services after everyone had gone to bed.

After learning more about the Mormons, Benjamin decided to travel to Nauvoo, to hear directly from their prophet Joseph Smith Jr. Benjamin was baptized in July of 1840 in Nauvoo on the bank of the Mississippi River.

Benjamin and his adopted family, the Yardsleys, were eventually driven out of Nauvoo by anti-Mormon mobs and on June 30, 1846, in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Benjamin joined the U.S. Army and became part of 500 Mormon infantrymen, later known as the Mormon Battalion, who enlisted to help defend America’s southern borders during the U.S.-Mexican War.

Benjamin took sick during the march to Santa Fe and was sent to winter in Pueblo, Colorado. Afterward, he resumed his journey westward and was one of thirteen men who came across Brigham Young and the original pioneers on July 4, 1847, in what is now Green River, Wyoming.

The Battalion men entered Utah Valley on July 29, 1847 and immediately commenced building the Bowery, the first meeting house in Utah, and a fort where Pioneer Park now stands.

In 1855, Benjamin was called on a mission to the Shoshone Indians in Fort Supply, Wyoming. While in Wyoming, he met and married Mary Ann “Polly” Bullock, the sister of Captain Isaac Bullock. Their first son, Benjamin Morgan Roberts Jr., my second great grandfather, was born on 12 Aug 1857.