Biography

copied from History of Tooele County

by -- Esther Warner -- researcher

Tooele County daughters of Utah Pioneers page 415


Benjamin Franklin Barrus was born 30 MAY 1838 at Perrysburg, Cattarugus County, New York, son of Emery Barrus and Abigail Nickerson (daughter of Freeman Nickerson and Huldah Abigail Nickerson)

Benjamin crossed the plains in the Appleton Harmon Company. He drove a herd of cattle across the plains; his father was appointed hunter for the company . They arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in October 1853, and settled in Grantsville.

He drove a team and wagon back to the Missouri river after emigrants and while there brought home seed and raised broom cane. From this cane he made and sold brooms to most of the families in Tooele County. On the 29th of September he married Lovina Ann Steele. They were parents of eleven children. His occupation was framer, stock raiser and fruit grower. He died in 1925.

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INFORMATION AND SOURCES GATHERED BY MYRTIS A. HUTCHINSON RELATING TO THE LIVES OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BARRUS & HIS WIFE LOVINA ANN STEELE, AND THEIR FAMILIES.


From "Grantsville City" by Virginia Alsop in "History of Tooele County" by Tooele County Daughters of Utah Pioneers - beginning page 215


10 OCT 1850 two families made camp in a grove of willows, those of James McBride and Harrison H. Severe, brothers-in-laws, the first permanent settlers of Grantsville. They stuck the ends of willows into the ground and wove them todether, then coated them with mud to make warm shelters. These were replaced by two log homes with stone chimneys and windows of muslin soaked in oil. The first winter a blanket was hung over the opening made for a door. They named the place Willow Creek. This first winter was a hard one. They had to depend on wild game for most of their food, along with fish from the North and South Willow streams. In March 1851, the Indians stole their cattle. Without the animals to plow with they decided to move to Pine Canyon, a small settlement to the east of them. The following summer they planted a garden, raised some beets, potatoes, and 20 bushels of wheat. Their hard work made it possible for them to buy some flour and other food stuff, plus some oxen. They move back to Willow Creek the first week in December.


NOTE: Other sources indicate these first settlers did not move back alone. The accounts vary as to the names and time of arrival. One source gives the name of Samuel Steele among the few that came.

According to Virginia Alsop's account on page 217, Willow Creek became a political entity when the County Court divided the county into two precincts, July 3, 1852. An election was held in August. Samuel Steele was one of the referees mentioned.

On this same page the following is printed, "Benjamin Baker, president of the Willow Creek Branch, wrote to President Brigham Young on August 30, 1852. His letter stated there were only about eight strong white men with their families and forty five Indians. He asked that a dozen more families might be sent there to help protect and strengthen the settlement. This would also add sufficient children to make a good school possible. His request was granted at the next October Conference 1853, when Elder Ezra T. Benson and Wilford Woodruff were called to gather up fifty families to enlarge the settlement of Tooele Valley. More than twenty families settled at Willow Creek.

James McBride, in his autobiography, writes, "In 1853 twenty three more families settled in Grantsville. The name of Barrus appears on that list, which is the year Benjamin Franklin Barrus mentions in his personal writings. He came with his parents, Emery and Huldah Abigail Nickerson Barrus, and brother and sisters, and he would have been fifteen years of age, having been born 30 May 1838.