Benjamin Franklin Brown

Benjamin Franklin Brown was born February 22, 1823 in Rush, Genesee County, New York, the son of William Brown of Windsor, Vermont and Diantha Loveland. His wife Lucinda Leavitt was born July 25, 1825 in Compton, Quebec, Canada, the daughter of John and Lucy Rowell Leavitt.

When Benjamin Franklin Brown was a young lad he accompanied his parents, brothers and sisters to New York sometime in 1830, and from there the family moved to Burton, Ohio, about fifteen miles from Kirtland. There his father William purchased two hundred acres of forest land of which seventy-five acres were cleared for farming. A small home was erected from lumber purchased from a sawmill a mile and a half away. At this place the family passed through all the privations of pioneer life, and here, in this home, Diantha, the mother died, causing great sorrow to her husband William and great loss to her young family now deprived of her loving care. After this sad event, which occurred April 19, 1835, the family scattered, the older sisters married and the boys sought employment away from the home.

Then on October 23, 1852 William was kicked by a horse and killed. In 1860, William Folson, a missionary to England, converted the family to the Church of Latter-day Saints, they had not belonged to any other church before this time, and being desirous of joining the main body of the Church in Utah, Benjamin Franklin, his wife, Lucinda, her Mother Lucy Rowell Leavitt and their family, Philander (Brown), a brother, his wife Orilla Leavitt (sister of Lucinda), and other members of the Leavitt family, and also his younger sister Emeline (Brown), left Florence, Nebraska to join with other Latter-day Saint converts in the Salt Lake Valley. As captain of the Franklin Brown Company, Benjamin was put in charge of some 60 individuals and 14 wagons when it began its journey from the outfitting post at Florence, Nebraska (now Omaha) in late June 1860. Philander was selected captain of the guard and Charles R. Savage, chaplain.

The Benjamin Franklin Brown Company arrived in Salt Lake City between August 27 and September 4, 1860. Not long after his arrival in Utah, Benjamin Brown took up land where the Union Pacific Depot is located in Ogden, Weber County. He was the first shoemaker in Ogden, and also was a violinist and played for the family as they enjoyed singing and dancing as he accompanied them on his violin. Benjamin helped with the construction of the first railroad in that vicinity.

Just eight short years after arriving in Utah and at the young age of 45 years, Benjamin died of pneumonia on December 7, 1868 in Ogden, Utah. After Benjamin's death Lucinda and her children moved to Farmington, Utah where she helped her brother Lyman Leavitt, who had lost his wife, care for his three children as well as her own. Benjamin and Lucinda had six children.

• Reference: FamilySearch Genealogy - SmartCopy: Feb 27 2020, 16:51:20 UTC