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Biography of Benjamin Jackson

Benjamin Jackson, a son of James Jackson and Elizabeth Cash Jackson, was born March 24, 1801, in Winslow, Buchinghamshire, England.  He was christened June 12, 1801, in Winslow, Buckinghamshire, England.  On July 19, 1824, he was married to Ann Grimshaw.  To them were born nine children, all of them being born in Manchester, Lancashire, England.

    James Jackson        December 24, 1824

    Ann Jackson            January 24, 1827

    William Jackson        November 1, 1829

    Elizabeth Jackson        June 21, 1832

    Martha Jackson            April 20, 1835

    John Jackson                September 5, 1837

    Joseph Jackson            December 12, 1844

    Samuel Jackson            July 13, 1844

    Nephi Jackson                May 8, 1847

Benjamin Jackson joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the early days when the Gospel was first taught in England by Heber C. Kimball, George A. Smith, Wilford Woodruff, and others.  After he joined the Church, he was very faithful and, quite naturally, he wanted to "gather to Zion."

Benjamin was a carpenter by trade.  He and his family decided that he should go ahead to America and, there, he would work as a carpenter to earn money which he would send back to England to pay the way to America for the rest of the family.  In 1849, he boarded a sailing vessel bound for America.

He was not heard from again until the late 1860s.  About the year 1870, he came into Nephi, Utah, riding a mule, hunting his family.  It was as though he had been raised from the dead.  He told the story of his life while he had been away from his family.  He had successfully crossed the Atlantic Ocean but, while crossing the Plains, he had joined a group of "Forty-Niners" on their way to California to search for gold.  He never wrote to his family in England or, if he had written his family never received his letters.  And, he seemed to have been satisfied to live without his family for many years.  It is believed that he lived and worked in the area of Grass Valley, California, near Sacramento.

When the Jackson family arrived in Utah in 1856, they took action to have Benjamin declared legally dead, since they had not heard from him for seven years.  His wife, Ann Grimshaw Jackson, was declared a widow.  Later, she married a Brother Jenkins with whom she was living when Benjamin arrived in Nephi.

Benjamin built a small house on the north side of Nephi, and married "Old Lady" Scoggins with whom he lived for some time.  He turned his mule out on the range.  It is said that he left the bridle and saddle on the mule, so that it would be ready to ride in the spring.

Later, Samuel and Hannah built a lean-to onto their home, and Benjamin lived in it for a few years until 1880, when he moved to Salt Lake City to live with his oldest daughter, Elizabeth Jackson Kirkman, where he died on January 4, 1887.  His body is buried in Salt Lake City.

Benjamin's children were not satisfied with their mother being sealed to Brother Jenkins, so, on October 12, 1894, all of the children who were members of the church, met in the Salt Lake Temple, where they had the sealing annulled, and had their father and mother, Benjamin Jackson and Ann Grimshaw, sealed to each other, and the children, in turn, were sealed to their parents.