Life Sketch of MARK ROYDEN BENSON
Having been urged by members of the family, I will attempt to write a


brief history of my life. Although it has been interesting to me, I
think it would be of little interest to others.
It began 21 March 1900 in Newton, Cache, Utah. This has been an easy


date to remember: the first day of Spring and also the turn of the
century. As the scripture (Nephi 1, Book of Mormon) says, "I was
born of goodly parents"--Marcus Joseph Benson and Magna Olga Larsen
Benson. I was blessed with three lovely sisters: Hazel, Norma, and
Mildred, and a fourth, a little girl named Helen, who died at birth.
My first recollection of childhood was about age four when I used to
go places with the folks, and particularly out to Grandfather Ole
Larsen's home. He lived with my Aunts: Amanda and Elizabeth (or
"Aunt Libbie" as we all called her). About the next thing I recall
was when Father received a call to go to the Northern States Mission.


At that time, it was Michigan, Illinois, and that area. I well
remember the morning the folks took Dad to the train in Cache
Junction in the white top buggy with a team of horses, that being the


best means of transportation that we had in those days. While Dad
was gone, the family (the girls and Mother) cared for what animals we


had. I was too small to be of much service (probably a nuisance).
The farm labor was all hired.
After two years in the mission field, Dad returned home and resumed
his farming operations.
About this time, a new school house was being erected to replace the
old rock school we had, the new one being white brick, and two
stories high. It was later destroyed by fire. My school days in
Newton were happy days and I often think back over many pleasant
times. My teachers in the grades were Anna Christensen, Mary
Redford, Beatrice Burns, Lewis Allen and A.A. Johnson.
At eight years of age I was baptized by my father and confirmed a
member of the L.D.S. Church by Bishop Mart C. Rigby. The baptism was
performed in the Bear River, in what was then the Chris Nelsen
pasture. It has since been flooded by the Cutler Dam. I well
remember how we waded out in the river to the proper depth and being
immersed in that cold water--it was a cold day.
My Church record is as follows:
Baptized by my Father, M.J. Benson - Confirmed by Bishop M.C. Rigby -


Ordained a Deacon by James C. Petersen 15 Jan 1912 - Ordained a
Teacher by - Bishop M.C. Rigby 24 Jan 1915 - Ordained an Elder by
W.R. Ballard 30 Dec 1919 - Ordained a Seventy by Rufus K. Hardy 24
July 1938 - Ordained a High Priest by LeGrande Richards 25 Feb 1940
I was Elders Quorum President for several years. I served in the
YMMIA Presidency with Joseph R. Tuddenham as President. Later I was
in the Sunday School Superintendency with Marcus Cooley and Roland
Griffin. Following this I was called to be the Superintendent and my


assistants were LeRoy Salisbury and Carr Jones. From here I went
into the Bishopric with Bishop LeRoy Salisbury and Amos Griffin.
After several years, David R. Clarke was sustained as a counselor in
place of Amos Griffin who was released. (Together we oversaw the
completion of the Newton Ward Chapel.)
On 14 December 1927, I was married to a lovely girl, Ilda Marinda
Clark, daughter of John Peter Clark and Sarah Homer Clark of
Clarkston, Utah. The marriage was performed in the Salt Lake Temple
by Apostle George F. Richards, who was president of the temple at
that time.
To Ilda and me were born four children: Glen, Mark, Ilda Marie, and
John, a baby who died soon after birth and at the time of his
mother's death in the Salt Lake LDS Hospital. The shock of this was
great, and seemed impossible to bear. My sister Hazel came to my
rescue and took over the housekeeping and the care of the children.
My schol record consisted of the Newton Elementary, one year at Hyrum


(South Cache High School) in 1914-15, and three years at Brigham
Young College in Logan, graduating in the spring of 1918.
World War I was in progress at the time I graduated, and I enlisted
in the Student Army Training Corps in October 1918 at the University
of Utah in the School of Law and had military training at Fort
Douglas. The Spanish Influenze epidemic caused the school to be
closed, but we continued with the military training at the Fort. On
11 November 1918, the war ended--the Armistice was signed and on 13
December, I received my discharge from the service. I decided to
stay with the farm and never did go back to school.
In 1924, I was elected director on the board of Newton Irrigation
Company and later the Newton Water Users Board, a position I served
on cintinuously until 1964. I had several terms on the Town Board
and two terms as Mayor. I belonged to, and was an officer in, the
Newton Lions Club. For several years, I was a Field Assessor for
Cache County. In June of 1945, the Newton Cemetery Districty was
instituted. Governor Herbert B. Maw appointed a three-man commission


to develop the project and I served on that board for a long time.
In September of 1948, I took on a new venture in the form of a
partnership along with Murland Anderson, Grant Cooley and Mariner
Anderson. It consisted of a dry farm in the Sublette-Cold Spring
area of Cassia County, Idaho. This, together with what we had in
Utah, made a busy and interesting life, especially while the boys
were in school and on missions.
By this time, ways of doing things had changed a lot. My first
recollection of the harvest was with a header, drawn by four horses;
the header cut the grain and elevated it up into a header box wagon
drawn by two horses. It traveled along with the header and when it
was loaded, another one replaced it. It required a man to load the
headings on the header box. The harvest crew consisted of six men:
One driving the horses and operating the header, the loader, the
stacker, and the three men to drive the header box wagons. It also
required a boy to drive the derrick horse. This was my job until I
was big enough to take on one of the other jobs. Then after the
grain was cut it had to be threshed by a threshing machine powered by


a steam engine. Haying was done by horse drawn mowers, then raked
with a sulky rake, also drawn by horses. The hay was raked in
windrows and then piled, usually by hand and hauled on hay racks
loaded by pitching the piles on to the hay wagons and unloaded with a


derrick, the same as the grain. To prepare the land for the crops,
it was all done with horse power, plows ranging from one to three
mouldboards. Farming was done in a relatively small way.
Then there was the dairy. Everybody had a few cows. We had a cow
barn, milked the cows by hand for years. We had a small mild house
with a separator in it, to separate the cream from the milk, but most


of the milk was placed in ten gallon cans. A milkman came each day
to pick it up and haul it to the creamery or dairy. To cool the
milk, the cans were placed in cold water.

***This was the end of Royden's writings. His son-in-law, Bill
Berge, said of him: "I have heard many people say Royden was one of
the finest men they ever knew. He was a true gentleman who
epitomized the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and truly did


unto others as he would have had others do unto him. I never heard
him say an unkind word. He lived an exemplary life that will not be
forgotten and should be taken as an example to all his descendants.
He had integrity in business. He was known for it throughout Cache
Valley and Southern Idaho. As a manager of Geothermal Operations for


Phillips Petroleum Company, I had a crew working near Burley. They
had some trouble with a vehicle and needed to deal with a Burley
company who would not give them credit as employees of Phillips.
When they mentioned that they knew Royden Benson, they got the help
they needed."
Royden (Dad) had a tractor accident in 1964. Although he
miraculously recovered from it, he was in pain for the rest of his
life from the injuries. He never complained about it, but continued
to do all he could to make life better for those around him. He
retired from the farm in Idaho in 1973. He always helped out,
wherever he was, however he could. He loved Spring. It rejuvenated
him. I think he undertood better than most the promis of rebirth
that Spring means to all. When his grand children were small he
would rock them and sing to them, and among his repertoire of songs
was always, "When it's Springtime in the Rockies." He loved to get
out and start working the soil.
His influence upon his children and grandchildren, his nieces,
nephews, and all of us has been and will be great. He was gentle,
kind, caring, encouraging, complimentary, and ever helpful. 23 May
1980, Royden suffered a fatal heart attack as he was working outside.


His sister, Mildred, had cooked dinner for him and went to find him
when he did not answer her call. She found him on the front lawn.
He is buried by his beloved wife and the little son in Newton
Cemetery.