CHRISTENA M. BENSON BARKER
by
Maud B. Jorgensen

     My mother Christena M. Benson Barker was born in Lehi Utah 22 Feb 1863.  Her second name was Martena, but she never liked it, so used the initial M.  Her father Jens Peter Benson was born in Aaker, Bornholm, Denmark 26 April 1831, and came to Utah in 1853.  Her mother Kersten Ericksen was born in Dokkedal Denmark 23 Feb 1837, and was baptized in 1852. She [Kersten] pulled a handcart across the plains in 1857 [see Kersten's history for an account of her trek across the plains - linked from her page], the year Johnston's Army came to Utah, and the people of Salt Lake moved south.  She went on to Lehi where her sister and husband, Mette Christina and Jens Peter Benson were living.  They took her into their home and cared for her while she lay ill for weeks, after her exhausting journey, on foot, from Iowa City to the Valley. She became the plural wife of Peter Benson 12 Sept 1858.  They made their home in Lehi until 1868, when they moved to Clarkston, Cache County.  Four children were born to them in Lehi, Alma Peter in 1860, my mother Christena Feb 1863, Marcus Joseph in 1865 and Samuel in 1867.  Their other children were born in Clarkston, Alice Marie in 1870, Isaac in 1872 and Rastus in 1875 who only lived eleven days.

     Mother was only five years old when they moved to Clarkston, but her grandmother Ericksen had already taught her to knit.  The tiny stocking she thought was for a doll she some day hoped to have, her grandmother told her was for the cat.  (The Ericksen grandparents crossed the plains in 1858, and made their home in Lehi, where they both lived to be 87 years of ago.)

     One of the things she remembered they took with them to Clarkston was one of Johnston's Army cannon balls which they used to crush or grind the grain into coarse flour for bread.  As in all pioneer communities food was scarce, and my grandmother said the first year there, she did not know what it was to have enough to eat, she was always hungry.

     Indians were not too friendly, and gave them plenty of frights.  One old chief used to come to their place and one day while mother was holding her little sister Alice, this Indian took the baby out of her arms, and no doubt would have stolen her had not Martha, one of the older girls of the first family, come into the room just then and snatched the baby away from him.

Mother along with the other children used to help herd cows on the meadows south and east of Clarkston.  She also remembered the severe winters and deep snow.

One of the persons she remembered well was Martin Harris, one of the Three Witnesses to The Book of Mormon.  He died in Clarkston in 1875.  My grandfather [Jens] Peter Benson was a carpenter, and had a work bench in one end of the log room, and mother remembered watching him make the coffin.  I do not know if she went to the funeral or not, but Aunt Alice remembered going to it.  It was held in a log room and was very crowded, she said her mother held the baby and she had to stand or lean against her during the services.  William B. Preston from Logan was one of the speakers, and she was very impressed by him, she thought him so good looking.

     While just a child in Lehi, mother picked up a small brown stone, which turned out to be a "peep stone".  Once while they were living in Clarkston, grandfather went to Lehi, she located him on the return trip, figured out about the time he would reach Clarkston, and she and the other children walked out to meet and surprise him, and have a ride back into town.  She never exploited this gift, not many knew about it, but she was asked at times to locate lost cattle.  One time a lady had some treasured lace curtains that were blown away in

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a storm, she promised mother a silk dress if she could locate them.  They were lodged in a ditch just under the edge of a bridge, but she never got the dress or anything else for finding them.  We children used to ask her what became of the stone, but all she ever said was that it got lost, and not until after her death did we learn how.  Once when father was away from home she told him something he did not anything out of place, but he resented it, and in his anger threw it away, and spent the rest of his life regretting it.  He was always bringing home odd rocks in hopes one would turn out to be another "peep stone."

     While they were living in Clarkston mother had scarlet fever, and was in bed for seven weeks, and had to learn to walk again.  I do not know if it was this time or another when she was sick that she craved something sour.  Lemons could not be had, and she begged for some vinegar, said she wanted it so bad she felt like she would never get well without it.  Her mother was afraid to let her have any, but one day a neighbor lady, Matilda Atkinson gave her some, and she started to get well from then on.  She was grateful to that lady all her life.

In 1876 grandfather's first wife Mette, died after the birth of her tenth child, he died too, so grandmother and family were moved to Newton to take over the care of the motherless family.

     In pioneer times all shared in the tasks of homemaking, and mother learned to card wool both for spinning and into batts for quilts.  She did her share of the family spinning and knitting, sewed clothing by hand including shirts for her brothers, braided straw and made hats.  Washings were done on the wash board, irons were heated on the stove.  Their fuel was wood from the mountains, chopped by hand.  Starch, soap and candles were also made in the home.  Their good times came from parties, dancing and singing.

     Opportunities for schooling were limited, but mother attended school when possible, and my father was her first school teacher.

     April 3, 1879 she was married in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City to John H. Barker, as his plural wife, and in September 1879 he also married Johanna Jensen of Weston, Idaho in the Endowment House.  Mother's honeymoon was a trip to Lehi to visit her grandmother and grandfather whom she had not seen since leaving there in 1868.

     The log house on the farm north of town had two good sized rooms, so mother and Aunt Hanna each had one.  They got along well together.

     June 8, 1880 mother's first child, a daughter Alice Marinda was born.  In 1882 after the rail road had been built on up to Montana, father went up to Beaver Canyon (near Spencer Idaho) to take care of the store for Samuel Roskelly, who had a saw mill up there.  Mother went to run the boarding house and hotel, she had only one helper, a girl from Newton.  That summer she said she learned to roll out a pie a minute.  She had so much to do that she could not watch her little girl as closely as she would like to have done, so she had a number of narrow escapes.  One Saturday night she was not to be found, so mother went down to see if father had seen her.  In the back of the store was a group of Indians, they had two year old Marinda up on the counter and were feeding her pine nuts.  One time her foot got caught in the rail road track, one of the men saw the train coming and got her away just in time.  One day she climbed up on one of the big piles of logs that were ready for the mill, because of her red dress they were able to spot her.  Another

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time a herd of Texas long horn cattle were being driven through there.  In the center of the road, playing in the dust or sand, was the little girl, totally unaware of any danger.  When the leader of the herd saw her, he stopped, pawed the dirt and bellowed; in that instant one of the men who had seen her and was racing for her, was able to snatch her up, he lifted her high above his head, and the herd went on.  Mother had seen the rescue, but was not close enough to have reached her in time.

     In the fall they returned to Utah, and father went to work for the Logan Branch of the Z. C. M. I. as shipping clerk.  Their home was down in the part of Logan that was called the "island", south and east of the Temple.  The temple was being completed and mother spent much of her time helping there.  The ladies cleaned, sewed strips of homemade carpet together, made curtains and helped at numerous jobs.  She had to take Marinda with her and would put her down among the bronze oxen that supported the baptismal font, it made a good play pen.  She was four years old when the temple was dedicated, a quiet child, small boned and fine featured and small for her age.  Because mother had worked so faithfully there, and could not attend the dedication unless she took her, she received special permission to take her with the promise that she would make no disturbance whatever.  She made not a sound, and needless to say, was the only child at the dedication.

     In July 1885, mother's second child, a son was born, he was named Irvin Benson.  The home in Logan had been sold, and she was then living back in the house on the term at Newton.

     Mother often told us how she would walk to town to pick currants, then with them and a child in the little wagon would walk back up to the farm, it was all uphill going home.  One time she said she was so tired she felt she just couldn't pull the wagon another step; she prayed for strength and her prayer was answered immediately, she said it was as though someone was pushing the load and all she had to do was guide the wagon.

     Those were troublesome times for the men that had more than one wife, and for the women.  The United States marshals were everywhere it seemed, and people lived in constant fear, so Aunt Hanna with her two boys Henry and David, and mother with her little boy Irvin, went to Ogden where they were not known, or as it was spoken of then, "on the underground". Mother left her little girl Marinda with grandmother Benson in Newton.  They rented a log house in Five Points, as North Ogden was then called, and mother went to work as a hired girl in different homes to provide for them while Aunt Hanna took care of the three little boys.  Mother would walk into Ogden in the morning and back at night most of the time.  One of the families she worked for and were so good to her, was named Hinchcliffe.

     One night when her little boy Irvin was saying his prayers he said "Please God send me some oranges.''  She didn't even know he knew what an orange was, and she could not afford to buy them.  She told a friend of it, he took a dollar out of his pocket and told her to buy oranges with every cent of it.  Prayers are answered in many ways.

     Mother had left a big crock of currant preserves in Newton, and Birdie (Bessie) one of the girls of the first family, told me how well she remembered the morning father got it out of the cellar and opened it for them, and how good it was.

Aunt Hanna and mother were getting along fine, when father came down in June 1888 with the news that Aunt Susan, his first wife had died from diabetes.  They had a family of nine children,

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three boys and six girls.  The two oldest, John and Annie were married, the youngest was seven years old.  He wanted one of them to go back with him to care for the family.  They felt they were doing alright where they were, and preferred to stay in Ogden.  Father started for home alone; but as soon as he left, the lady they rented from came over.  When she heard the story she told them they were not doing their duty, that as his wives one of them should go to the motherless home.  Tender hearted mother was conscience stricken and knew that she must go.  Meanwhile father had turned the team around and come back, said he was staying, until one of them decided to go back with him.  Mother had saved a few hard earned dollars, so they drove into Ogden and she spent it all at Wrights store for yard goods to take back with her.  She found the little girls badly in need of clothing, the first thing she did was make underclothes and dresses for them.  Their mother had been sick for a long time.

     Father's court trial on charges of polygamy was held 4 Dec 1888, but the first wife having died, they could not prosecute, and the case was dismissed.  Father and mother had had another marriage ceremony performed by Probate Judge J. Z. Stewart in Logan on July 2, 1888 making mother the legal wife in the eyes of the law.

     Mother's third child, George Isaac was born 22 Aug 1890 in the home on the farm.

     About this time the north part of the old rock house was being built or perhaps finished.  Father' a sister Jennie came from England when George was about six weeks old, she stayed in Newton a while, then went on to Salt Lake City.

     Mother's fourth child, Jesse Benson was born 4 Nov 1892, Susie Myrtle 6 Dec 1894, Naomi Benson 25 Sept 1897, Maud Benson 14 Aug 1899 and Stephen Waldo 3 Dec 1901, making a family of eight, four sons and four daughters. She nursed us through childhood illnesses, scarlet fever, measles, mumps, earache, colds and other upsets, there were no doctors near.

     How well I remember the good things she used to cook, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, suet puddings and fruit cakes, the English roly-poly puddings, big crocks of preserves and chow-chow and mustard pickles, soup with Danish dumplings, Danish sweet soup, the long round loaves of breed, doughnuts, roast wild duck and dressing, English apple dumplings, honey candy and the big freezer of ice-cream for the 4th of July.

     I never remember mother being really well, for years she took heart pills.  I dreaded to see her go to meeting for nearly always she was carried home.  She would fight and gasp for breath, while folks rubbed her arms and legs to help keep her blood circulating.  Then afterward she would be too weak to speak above a whisper, and would be in bed a day or two.  Then she found certain strychnine tablets would sometimes give her heart the needed stimulant to ward off an attack.  I also remember the terrible headaches she would have.  Yet during all these years and later too, there was seldom a week when we were alone.  Father would bring church and political speakers home for meals, and show troupes and other travelers would stay at our place.

     Father's cherished dream of returning to England came true in 1909.  He wanted to search for genealogy and fulfill a mission.  He left in April and was assigned to the Bristol conference, or District, a cold damp climate.  He was 67 years old and not too strong, the food much different than he wee used to at home.  His health failed and he returned in September, too weak end ill to

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walk alone.  He was soon bed-fast, gangrene developed in one of his legs and it was amputated in January at our home.  He recovered from the operation, but was too weak to withstand an attack of pneumonia and passed away 27 Feb 1910.

     This was a long hard siege for mother - even with help, for he wanted her by his side constantly.  My sister Sue who was in the eighth grade in school, quit to stay home and help.  Our half sister Mary B. Arnn left her family in Arbon, Idaho and spent several weeks helping care for father.  Toward the end of his illness mother never had a nights rest in 6 weeks.  She was completely worn out and almost on the verge of collapse when he passed away.  In the late spring she went to Ogden and spent a week with Aunt Hanna whom she had not seen in years, and thoroughly enjoyed the visit.

     Mother had many spiritual experiences in her life time, one I will relate.  On the night of Aug 29 1910, father came to her and told her to go tell "mother" (grandmother Benson) that he "had found a place for her."  I will never forget how chalk white and weak she was that Sunday, but she went over to Grandmother's and delivered the message.  Outwardly grandmother brushed it aside, but on 28 of Sept she had a stroke, and on 22 October she passed away, never having been able to speak a word. She was 73 years old, had passed through all the hardships of pioneer life, including pulling a handcart across the plains in 1857.  She had a strong testimony of the gospel and always prayed aloud, she didn't just "say" her prayers, but it was just as if she was talking to the Lord face to face.

     Another sorrow came to us when Naomi, the sister just older than I became ill.  She was sick all winter, mother took her to Salt Lake to the best doctors available, when nothing could be done, they returned home and after weeks of suffering she passed away 25 April 1914. (malignant sarcoma).  She was sixteen years old, had an outstanding personality, was a talented singer and sang much in public, and was loved by all who knew her.

     We had a small flock of sheep, and after they were sheared mother would wash the wool, then it was "picked" and she would card it into batts for quilts.  She pieced and made quilts, knit our stockings when we were youngsters, also socks for the men folks, and made almost all of our dresses and other clothes.

     All were welcome in our home, she fed blend and stranger alike, no one ever left our home hungry.  She was sweet and kind to all.

     About 1916 electricity came to Newton, and the town also put in a water system, so we had electric lights, electric iron and grill.  We had a sink and cold water tap in the kitchen, later was added a hot water tank.

     Mother had her last heart spell about 1914, then started with gall stones, the spells became worse and more frequent as time passed.  More than once I was alone with her in the wee hours of the night through one of the terrifying ordeals, a tiny morphine pill the only medicine.

     About 1917 she had a slight stroke in her right side, and though in continual pain, she knit a number of sweaters for the Red Cross during World War I.

     The gall stone attacks were getting worse and worse; Dr Campbell of Logan advised an operation.  He took her to Salt Lake City and on 8 June 1918 Dr Charles Mayo of the Mayo Bros Clinic, performed the operation.  He was serving in the Army and stationed at Fort Douglas at the time.  When his orders came to leave, he removed the

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drainage tubes from her side, perhaps they should have remained longer, at any rate the poison spread through her body and she passed away 21 of June in the Holy Cross Hospital.

     Sue and I were in Salt Lake and spent the day at the hospital, going to Aunt Jennies at night.  I dreamed I saw her drive away with someone in a little black top buggy.  I awoke and felt that I knew what it meant.  We were very uneasy, got up at four o'clock and took the first street car up to the hospital.  As we walked down the hall we could see the door was open, and we knew before we reached the room that she was gone.

     Soon after her passing she was permitted to come to both Sue and I with a message that brought lasting comfort to both of us.

     She left seven children and twelve grandchildren.  The two youngest of the family, Waldo and I, were not married.  She was only fifty five years old, but during those years had experienced joy and happiness with family, loved ones and friends, and received many blessings.  On the other hand it seemed she had almost more than her share of sickness, sorrow, trials and testings, but remained faithful to the end.  She taught her children the gospel not only by precept but was a living example.

     Her services were Sunday 23 June 1918, and she was laid to rest in the Newton Cemetery.

IN MEMORY OF SISTER BARKER

     Tread oh so softly, don't break her rest
     Sleeping so sweetly, is she not blest?
     Don't break the silence, hush, do not weep
     Angels are near, their silent watch keep.

Hark, I hear music, faint but tis clear,
Yes, they are singing, the tones I can hear.
Come my dear Sister, come, come away
Where pain and sorrow never can stay.

Come where cold breezes never can blow,
But love all abiding for ever shall flow.
Just cast on God your every care
And you shall meet your loved ones there.

So her works behind her shine.
As the sunset in the west
Leaves a track of light behind,
go her works light her to rest.

How quick the change from Joy to woe,
How chequered is our lot below.
Seldom we view the prospect fair
Dark clouds of sorrow pain and care.

From a friend and Sister
        E. H. Weakley
June 21, 1918 Newton, Utah