Julia Elizabeth Benson (1909-1999)

Life Story of Julia Elizabeth Benson Kingsford

I was born September 22, 1909 at Newton, Utah, being the oldest child of my parents, Daniel Benson and Emma Hansen Benson and was a member of a family of seven, three girls and four boys. When I was two years old my parents moved to Idaho, to a little place called Way, which was later changed to Talmage.

I was the first grandchild on both sides so I guess I was badly spoiled. My grandparents lived with us. My grandmother Hansen died when I was about two years old. My Grandfather Hansen remarried to Elizabeth Christensen. We called her Aunt Lizzie.

October, 1916, I started school. It was about 1 ½ mile to school so I went to live with my mother’s oldest sister, Aunt Mary, and her husband in Newton. They were very good to me and Aunt Mary taught me to crochet. She got me some gray outing flannel and cut it for a shawl for my doll. She taught me to crochet around the edge of it.

The second year in school, I stayed with my grandfather in Logan. I also went to school in Logan my third year. The following year my oldest brother, James, started school, and we both stayed with Grandmother Benson in Newton. Father's youngest sister, Aunt Amy, was just one month older than me, and we had some glorious times together. Dorothy Larsen, Aunt Amy’s niece, Mavis Benson, and I were just about the same age so we were together a lot. We lived close together when I was living with Grandmother Benson, so we played with our dolls and did a lot of things together.

Easter Sunday one year I was there, Grandmother fixed such a nice lunch for us and we went on an Easter hike up the mountains. There was quite a large field there at the foot of the mountain that was the most beautiful sight. It was one complete mass of yellow butter-cups. I shall never forget the beauty of that field.

One time I recall a bunch of us went to a house that was said to be haunted. Each one was daring each other to go into the house and as no one seemed to be brave enough to go inside, it was quite a foot race to see who could get home first; of course we really thought it was haunted. My Aunt, Amy, and I went to parties and different places together and had such good times.

We moved to Alexander for the winter the year I was in the eighth grade in school. My father was working on the dam there while they were building it. I got the red measles that year and was unable to go to school after about Christmas time so was unable to make my grade; so was in eighth grade the next year. I had to stay in bed in a dark room.

I remember an incident that happened with one of my brothers. I think it was Arnold. He was the brother that always seemed to be getting hurt. He made a flipper (sling shot). He climbed up on the bed where I was and put the wooden end up into the light socket. The flipper crotch must have had green bark on it because he got a shock that made him let out a yell.

After my Grandfather Hansen moved to Logan, he got one of the first Model T Fords. He took us kids for a ride; I believe Virgil was about 4 or 5 years old and he fell out of the car. He didn’t get hurt and jumped right up.

My folks frequently left us kids alone at home, even at night. I had such a lot of responsibility even as a young child. Aunt Luwellen was about nine years old and stayed for several days to take care of us. One night there was a show and my parents wanted to take Luwellen with them. As they were coming back, just as they started toward Grace, they could see a fire and they thought it was our house. Aunt Luwellen was so nervous she chewed the fingers out of her gloves until they got close enough to see that it wasn’t our house, but just a bonfire alongside the railroad tracks.

We had a little old buggy. We would take turns climbing in the buggy and pushing each other down the hill.

I went to High School in Logan and stayed with my grandfather during the school year. While there I met Kenneth Kingsford who later became my husband. We had grown up within twenty miles of each other, but met only when I was in Logan going to school while he was attending college there. We were married on the 26 of October 1927. We have had a hard time in a financial way, but we have so many wonderful blessings and have been so very, very happy.

We lived about three miles from Grace on the east side of Hwy 34 in a house built by Kenneth’s Grandpa Ormond. We lived there for about seven years.

The Depression came along and we couldn’t pay for as big a place as we had so we sold 80 acres of land and the big house on the east side of the highway. As the family grew, so did our house. Kenneth added a kitchen and two bedrooms on the west side of the house. As the family continued to grow, we used the attic for a bedroom for the boys. It was reached by an outside ladder and a three foot square door.

When Emma was about five years old, she had a mastoid operation on her ear. She had so many ear aches and it eventually developed into a mastoid.

Our son, Earl, was born on March 11, 1936, and Lee was born on February 18, 1938. We now had two girls and three boys.

Earl started to walk when he was only 10 months old. He always loved to climb on everything he could get to the top of. At the age of two he climbed on top of the kitchen cupboard and found a can of Lye. He somehow got the lid off the can and stuck his tongue into the lye. It burned his tongue pretty good but he soon recovered and went right on climbing. When Earl was little, he had a nice heavy snowsuit. He was outside rolling all over in the snow and throwing snow all over himself. When I ask him why he was doing that, he said, “Well I have a snowsuit, don’t I!”

When Earl was three years old, he and Alvin were playing in the barn. In order to investigate the contents of a sparrow nest, Earl held a five foot piece of 2X4 against the end of the barn for Alvin to stand on. Alvin got over-balanced and both he and his 2X4 came down on Earl’s leg, breaking it. After he got his cast on his leg, his Dad made a pair of crutches for him but since these caused him to move too slow, he discarded them quickly and crawled for the next three months until the cast was removed. As soon as it was removed, Earl took two steps very gingerly, and then took off on a run.

About 1940, Dad traded off an old black mare (which bucked every time we got on it) for a dreamy eyed, sway backed, white pony which we called Cap. All of the kids sure enjoyed riding that pony. When Lee was two years old, I looked out one day to see him underneath Cap’s stomach with a stick pounding on his legs. The old pony just stood there not moving a muscle.

When Lee was three or four years old, he was outside with his Dad. Dad said he sure wished he had that piece of railroad track that was by the granary. The piece of track was a couple feet long and weighed 50 or 60 pounds. The next thing he knew, Lee had taken his little wagon and somehow got that heavy piece of rail loaded in his wagon and brought it to his Dad. Kenneth was so astonished that a little boy that size could get something that heavy from the ground up into his wagon, and told him that he had really used his head for what it was intended for.

Just before Christmas of 1941, all the family got Scarlet Fever and we were all quarantined. We didn’t have a Christmas tree. All we had was an 18 inch piece of limb off a pine tree from across the road. We had a few decorations on it and it was sitting on the sewing machine. At 6:00 in the evening on Christmas Eve, Dad’s brother-in-law, Howard Ransom, knocked on our front door and when we opened it, to our surprises and delight, there he was with a 6 ft Christmas tree. We spent the next two hours popping popcorn and stringing it to decorate our Christmas tree.

Alvin was about 7 ½ years old when he got scarlet fever and it left complications which developed into rheumatic fever. Many were the anxious days and nights we sat by his bedside watching over him and praying for his recovery. We had to send him to Salt Lake City to the Primary Children's Hospital where he remained for nearly three months. One time when I was going to see him, I was trying to save money by walking instead of riding the city bus to the hospital, but I got mixed up on my directions and walked three times as far as I should have to get to the hospital.

After Alvin returned home, he got St. Vitus Dance which is a nervous condition. He went to Logan to stay with Grandmother Kingsford and she taught him to Crochet. He had to spend a lot of time in bed while he was sick so he did some of the most beautiful handwork, including crocheted doilies and other beautiful things; he also did waffle weaving and some beautiful braiding.

Our only means of transportation was a wagon in the summer time and a sleigh in the winter time which we used to go to church and to go into town to shop for the few groceries we bought.

On 20 January, 1942 another baby son was born. We named him Keith. When he was only ten days old I got chicken pox and was really sick. A few days later Keith got them but didn't have them very bad. Even having them in such a mild form, he still has some scars left from the pox.

When Keith was a young baby my invalid mother came to live with us. She was here nearly a year then went to Firth to live with my sister, Lucille. She stayed there until after Grant, another son, was born to us the 5th of August, 1944. A few months later she moved to Grace to live with my brother Virgil. She was there about a year and then came to live with us again. She took turns staying with my brothers and sisters and me until the time of her death at the home of my sister Lucille's on 2 April 1948. We all mourned her passing; also my father who followed her in death on 17 December 1954.

In 1942, Kenneth’s youngest brother, Charles, was drafted into the Army and gave us his 1935 Dodge to keep for him until he came home and to have if he didn’t come home. He was killed on Iwo Jima in the summer of 1943. After Charles was killed, Grandma and Grandpa Kingsford moved out of their home one mile south from where we were living and moved to Logan where they spent the rest of their life. We bought and moved on to the old homestead and into the house that went with it. Our old house didn’t have indoor plumbing so it sure seemed good to have indoor plumbing.

The winter of 1947-48 was an extremely hard winter with 6 to 7 ft of snow on the level. All of the fence posts were covered. The roads closed between the farm and Grace for three weeks. During that three weeks, we ran out of flour and yeast to make bread. Dad rode a saddle horse into Grace to get a sack of flour and some yeast. The two grocery stores in Grace were nearly stripped. He was able to get the sack of flour but the only yeast he could find was a start of live yeast from the spudnut shop. Eventually the roads were open and things were back to normal, but the kids sure enjoyed the vacation from school.

I had a wonderful opportunity of attending some classes at the Utah State Agricultural College (USAC) in Logan with our two daughters, Ila and Emma, in the winter of 1948-49.

Ila was married to Jay Taylor Cox in the Logan Temple on 15 March 1949. She graduated from college in June. The following year Emma attended Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho, where she met and later married Wayne Byron Wheeler on 19 Jun 1950 in the Salt Lake Temple.

On March 12th 1950, another dear little boy whom we named Lowell came to bless our home. He as a little ray of sunshine in our home. Then on January 20, 1952, a lovely little baby girl was born to us. We named her Martha Faye. Oh, how happy we all were to have a little girl in our home again. It had been twenty-one years since Emma was a baby so we all really enjoyed her.

In 1952 we bought our first new car, a Chevy. We’d had two used cars before this. We sure enjoyed having a nice new car.

We always looked forward to the huckleberry season each year and farm work permitting, we normally spent two or three days up in the mountains picking huckleberries. If the men were too busy with farm work, I would sometimes take the younger kids to the mountains to camp for a few days and pick huckleberries.

In the fall of 1967, we celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary and had all nine of our children home for the celebration, as well as their spouses and children. We rented the Stake Camp in Childs Canyon and made it a three day celebration. Many friends and relatives came as well as the family to celebrate with us.

In 1968, the year Lowell graduated from High School, he thought it would be a fine idea to rent a camper for our old pickup and take his parents to Alaska, a place we had always wanted to see. He overhauled the engine on the pickup before we started our trip and except for minor details, all went well on our trip. We sure enjoyed Alaska and many points between Idaho and Fairbanks.

In 1970, Alvin and Joan took us on a wonderful trip to Hawaii. We visited the Hawaiian Temple and the Polynesian Center and many other points of interest and had a wonderful time in beautiful Hawaii.

In the fall of 1972, we decided it was time to stop farming and go on a mission. Since Emma and Wayne had been wanting to buy the farm for some time, we decided to let them move in and take over. We left for the mission home in October, 1972 where we spent a week and then went on tot Holbrook, Arizona. Our first field of labor was Sheep Springs Trading Post, New Mexico. Our mission was teaching the Navajo Indians on the reservation. We did a variety of things besides teaching to the Navajos. Among them were well digging, hauling water for the neighborhood since we had the only car. One time a lady asked us to go with her to get her husband out of jail. We did and it was rather interesting because an hour later she came to us to get our help to get him put back in jail because he promptly beat up on her.

After proselyting for about eight months, we were called to live at the mission home where Dad took care of the mission grounds and drove new missionaries out to their first fields of labor all over the states of New Mexico and Arizona. I was called to be the cook for the mission home and cooked for 15 to 40 people all the time. The nice part about it was that I had a pretty well unlimited budget to buy food with so I was able to prepare a lot of different meals and really enjoyed it. Our mission was to end in March of 1974 but the mission president said he was too used to my cooking and didn’t want to break in a new cook so would we please stay until his term as mission president ended in the fall.

Earl and Janice were in Germany at that time and had sent us tickets to come and visit them and see some of the sights in Europe. We told President Felt we would be glad to stay if we could have 30 days off to go to Europe. He agreed to that and we traveled to Los Angeles and caught an airplane to Frankfurt, Germany.

Earl and Janice picked us up at the Frankfurt Airport and took us to their apartment in Wiesbaden. We spent most of the 25 days seeing some of the interesting sights in Europe. Among the things we saw were: The Swiss Temple, the famous Bear Pits in Bern Switzerland, King Ludwig’s Chiemsee Palace, and the sights in Salzburg, Austria. We went on a Rhine River Cruise, went to Holland and saw the Keukenhof Tulip Gardens, the Rotterdam Harbor and ship repair dry docks, the miniature city of Madurodam, the cheese factory in Holland, and some windmills. We saw some of the large dairy farms where instead of fences they have canals with a steep concrete edge on the outer side that serves as a fence. We also went to Paris where we saw the Eiffel Tower, Arch of Triumph and Notre Dame Cathedral. We also saw some art museums and diamond cutting facilities. So in 25 days, we visited parts of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Saarland, Belgium, Luxemburg, France, and Holland.

After our European trip, we completed the remainder of our mission and returned back to Idaho where we lived in a mobile home about a half a mile from the house where we lived for many years. Since all of our kids were on their own, we had enough room for the two of us in the trailer.

In 1975, we bought a 30 day Greyhound Bus Pass which allowed us to ride the bus to any destination. We had always wanted to see the Florida Everglades and the Keys so we started out heading southeast. We stopped and spent three days with Earl and Janice in Montgomery, Alabama, where they lived after returning from Europe. From Alabama we traveled on to Key West, Florida. We cut our vacation short because Dad was having some medical problems so we headed back to Idaho.

In the fall of 1975, we decided to spend the winter in St. George and work in the Temple. We were able to get into one of the temple apartments where the rent on the apartment was about the same amount we would have to pay for heat if we had stayed in Idaho for the winter. We enjoyed the warm, sunny weather in St. George and were able to accomplish a lot of temple work. After that, we returned to St. George each fall and came back to Idaho each spring. We were able to stay in the temple apartments in St. George every year until 1990. That year it was full so we had to rent an expensive apartment for the winter. When spring came, a townhouse near the temple became available to buy. We decided if we were going to spend as much time in St. George as we had been doing, we might just as well buy the townhouse.

In December 1992, Dad fell on the pavement and broke his right hip. The break was a bad one since he already had an artificial hip. It split the bone lengthwise nearly to the knee. The doctor installed a new hip and Dad was in the hospital several weeks.

The following April, Dad mentioned to Earl that he would like to see Nauvoo and some of the church history points of interest while he could still travel. So Earl took Dad and I on a wonderful trip. Janice wasn’t able to go with us because she was recovering from back surgery. We saw Liberty Jail, the temple site at Independence, Missouri, Adam-ondi-Ahman, the temple site at Farr West, the Carthage Jail, and spent two days seeing everything of interest in Nauvoo. Our trip took about 10 days and we had a wonderful time.

A couple of months later, Dad started running a fever. He went to the doctor to see what was wrong. The doctor discovered that Dad had a severe staph infection. Dad had to stay in the hospital for the next three weeks and then another two weeks in a rest home before he could come home. During this time, several of our children took turns coming and staying with us.

Soon we realized that we were going to need some permanent full time help, so Earl and Janice offered to have us move in with them. We decided to sell our townhouse and move to Roy, which we did in August, 1993.

Since we have been in Roy, we’ve had a lot of friends and relatives stop by and see us. We’ve been able to attend the Idaho Falls Temple, Manti Temple, West Jordan Temple, and the Ogden Temple, and went to the Bountiful Temple Open House.

We went to the Temple Square at Christmas time to see the beautiful lights and we also were able to see the wonderful movie, “Legacy”. I’ve also been able to frequently visit my Aunt Amy since she lives in South Ogden.

I have so many wonderful blessings and have had such a wonderful life. I’m so very grateful for each one of my family and all the good friends we have.

******

Here's another life history found as a note in my PAF file. I'm not sure where it originated. (Bryan Kingsford)

Life Story of Julia Elizabeth Benson Kingsford

I was born September 22, 1909 at Newton, Utah, being the oldest child of my parents, Daniel Benson and Emma Hansen and was a member of a family of seven, three girls and four boys. When I was two years old my parents moved to Idaho, to a little place called Way, which was later changed to Talmage.

In October 1916 I started school, staying in Newton with my mother's oldest sister and husband who were very good to me. The second year in school, I stayed with my grandfather in Logan. I also went to school in Logan my third year. The following year my oldest brother, James, started school, and we both stayed with Grandmother Benson in Newton. Father's youngest sister was just one month older than myself, and we had some glorious times together. Easter Sunday the year I was there, Grandmother fixed such a nice lunch for us and we went on an Easter hike up the mountains. There was quite a large field there at the foot of the mountain that was the most beautiful sight. It was one complete mass of yellow butter-cups. I shall never forget the beauty of that field.

We moved to Alexander for the winter the year I was in the eighth grade in school. My father was working on the dam there while they were building it. I got measles that year and was unable to go to school after about Christmas time so was unable to make my grade; so was in eigth grade the next year. The following year I went to High School in Logan and stayed with my grandfather during the school year. While there I met Kenneth Kingsford who later became my husband. We had grown up within twenty miles of each other, but met only when I was in Logan going to school while he was attending college there. We were married on the 26 of October 1927. We have had a hard time in a financial way, but we have so many wonderful blessings and have been so very, very happy.

On August 9, 1928 a darling baby daughter came to bless our home. It seemed that no matter how many playthings Ila had her one desire was to have a baby sister, and great was her joy when on the 21st Day of December 1930, a dear little sister came to complete her happiness. There was nothing in the world Ila wouldn't do for her baby sister, whose name was Emma. (Even to almost drowning her trying to give her a drink of water out of a glass when she was only five weeks old "because she was thirsty.") They were both such lovely healthy children with real long, dark hair and blue eyes. They were such dear little pals always. On the 24th of April 1933 our first son was born. We named him Alvin. At the time the dear little fellow was about 7 1/2 years old he got scarlet fever and it left complications which developed into rhematic fever. Many were the anxious days and nights we sat by his bedside watching over him and praying for his recovery. We had to send him to Salt Lake City to the Primary Children's Hospital where he remained for nearly three months and returned home well and strong. While he was in bed he learned to crochet and did some of the most beautiful handwork included croceted doilies and many other beautiful things, also waffle weaving and some beautiful braiding.

Before Alvin's affliction, however, we had two more sons to come to bless our home. Earl was born on 11 March 1936, and Lee was born on 18 February 1938. We now had three boys and two girls. Then on 20 January, 1942 another baby son was born. We named him Keith. When he was only ten days onld I got chicken pox and was really sick. A few days later Keith got them but didn't have them very bad. Even having them in such a mild form, he still has some scars left from the pox. When Keith was a young baby my invalid mother came to live with us. She was here nearly a year then went to Firth to live with my sister, Lucille. She stayed there until after Grant, another son, was born to us the 5th of August, 1944. A few months later she moved to Grace to live with my brother Virgil. She was there about a year and then came to live with us again. She took turns staying with my brothers and sisters and me until the time of her death at the home of my sister Lucille's on 2 April 1948. We all mourned her passing; also my father who followed her in death on 17 December 1954.

I had a wonderful opportunity of attending some classes at the U.S.A.C. in Logan with our two daughters in the winter of 1948-49. Ila was married to Jay Taylor Cox in the Logan Temple on 15 March 1949. She graduated from college in June. The following year Emma attended Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho, where she met and later married Wayne Byron Wheeler on 19 Jun 1950 in the Salt Lake Temple.

On 12 March 1950 another dear little boy whom we named Lowell came to bless our home. He as a little ray of sunshine in our home. Then on 20 January, 1952, a lovely little baby girl was born to us. Her name is Martha Faye. How happy we all were to have a little girl in our home again. It had been twenty-one years since Emma was a baby so everyone was real pleased with Martha.

Three of our sons have served in the armed forces of our country. Alvin was in the army and was stationed in France for almost a year. Joan and their two little girls joined him there for part of that time. Earl seved in the marines and was stationed in Japan and later made his career in the Air Force of the United States of America. Lee worked in Chicago for a while before leaving on a mission to the West Central States. Keith also served a mission for the Lord. He was called to the California Mission.