Benjamin Morgan Roberts was born Jan. 15, 1827 in Chester Co. Pennsylvania, to Samuel Roberts and Sarah Lamar.  His parents died when he was a small child leaving himself and his sister orphaned.  At an early age he became a wheelwright apprentice, which he used later in life.  In 1840 he found a pamphlet of Mormon literature with the address of the meeting place for the missionaries.  Secretly he attended their next meeting and became converted and was baptized in July 1840 at the age of 13.  Knowing that his guardians would voice strong objections should they found about his desires. He decided to join a group of Mormons that were going to Nauvoo. 

            In Nauvoo Benjamin was adopted into the family of David and Mary Ann Yearsley, who had previously adopted George Boyd.  Ben was in Nauvoo in the midst of the stirring times, witnessing the aftermath of the Prophet Joseph Smith’s death and the expulsion of the saints into the safety of the Iowa Territory.  

            Benjamin was in Council Bluffs where he and George Boyd enlisted in the Mormon Battalion on 16 July 1846.  They were assigned to Company D, where Benjamin served as a private.  They marched with the battalion from Council Bluffs to Santa Fe. NM, where Benjamin was detached with the sick to Fort Pueblo because of a fever and severe coughing spells.  After spending the winter in Pueblo, Captain Brown’s  detachment  of 140 men were ordered to march to the Pacific Coast. Their route was north along the pioneer trail, then west.

En route to the valley, the cattle Benjamin was driving stampeded three times.  Henry Sanderson wrote about the incident: Not long after (the first stampede), they stampeded again, and we had to get out of the way.  It was so dark that we could not see an ox not even if it ran against us.  As they did not run far we got them back again. Soon after, they stampeded the third time, and Roberts, not knowing just how far he was from the creek, ran to the bank and went into the creek heels over head.  We could tell by the sound made by the cattle that they were going a long distance, and Roberts in his thoroughly wet condition refused to follow them,  He went to camp and to bed.  It took over half the next day with a good force of hands to gather the strays up.

 The main battalion was about 7 days behind the west bound pioneers when thirteen members of the detachment were sent ahead to obtain some horses that had been stolen.  They had recovered all the horses except one that was at Fort Bridger.

             It was on the 4^th of July 1847 that these 13 horsemen met President Brigham Young and the vanguard pioneer company at the Green River. One member of this group was detached to return with other pioneers to meet the next company.  According to the Military Record Benjamin was discharged from the Mormon Battalion on 16 July 1847 therefore he was free to travel with the Saints to the Salt Lake Valley. 

            Benjamin entered the Valley on about the 22nd or 23^rd of July 1847.  He did not remain in the valley long and on 16^th of Aug 1847 he returned to Council Bluffs to rejoin his family on the Missouri River.  He found his foster mother, Mary Ann Yearsley, recently widowed and attempting to care for eight children. 

            Benjamin sawed the lumber from trees and built a coffin for his foster father to be buried in.  He remained in Council Bluffs for two and a half years, where he built a wagon and necessary conveyances for his family to travel west.  His early experiences as a wheelwright served him well.  In 1850 Benjamin and adopted family joined the Thomas Johnson Co. to travel to the Salt Lake Valley.

            From 1850 until 1856 the family located in Ogden, Weber county, where Benjamin labored as a farmer.  He also made some of the first wagons used to haul timbers from the mountains using his knowledge of a wheelwright trade.   On 25 March 1856 he was given his endowment in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City.  He was called on a mission to Fort Supply, (Green River), UT, USA in 1856.

            At Fort Supply, located about 5 miles south of Fort Bridger, Benjamin met and married Mary Ann (Polly) Bullock Hartley on 23 Nov. 1856.  This marriage was performed by Isaac Bullock, a probate judge (Pension File).   Polly was originally married to Jesse Hartley and had one son, Jesse T Hartley born 27 Nov. 1854.

            Polly was the sister of Isaac Bullock who was sent to preside over the mission at Fort Supply.  She was the daughter of Benjamin Bullock and Dorothy Kimball.

            Shortly after their first child, Benjamin Morgan Roberts, was born in Aug 1857 they left Fort Supply and settled in Provo, UT.  This evacuation and destruction of the Fort came as a result of the advancing of Johnson’s Army.

            Their married life was spent mostly in Provo, where they had one of the finest homes in the town at that time.  Their home was in the center of an entire block with fields and orchards.  Their family consisted of 11 children, including the adoption of Jesse Hartley, 6 boys and 5 girls. The children were:

            Jesse T Hartley                         27 Nov 1854               

            Benjamin Morgan                     12 Aug 1857                Fort Supply, UT

            Samuel Kimball                        19 Nov 1858                Provo, UT

            Isaac Bullock                           24 Feb  1860                Provo, UT

            Mary Jane                               18 Oct  1861                 Provo, UT

            Dorothy Melissa                        4 Mar 1863                 Provo, UT

            John Riggs                                 29 Oct  1864               St. George, UT

            Sara Ann                                   11 June 1866               St. George, UT

            Martha Elizabeth                         5 Feb  1868                Provo, UT

            Electa                                        17 April1870                St. Joseph, Lincoln, NV

            Joseph Bullock                          25 June 1871                Provo, UT

            Benjamin ruled his household with kindness and firmness which demanded love and respect and willing obedience.  He was man of few words, but when he spoke he gained immediate attention.  He had a gentleness, a keen sense of justice and was honest to a fault. Always giving the other fellow the benefit of the doubt.  He did much to help others but was to modest to mention made of it.

 In the life of Jesse Knight of Provo, written in the Westerner, Jan 1930, we read, “At the age of sixteen he (Jesse Knight) obtained employment from Benjamin Roberts at a large salary of $30 per month.  He worked hard and his employer noted the diligence with which the lad served him and rewarded him by paying him $50 a month.  Here was Jesse’s start in life.  Benjamin Roberts’ justice and generosity remained an incentive throughout Jesses’ life and after he became wealthy he passed a good deed on and for twenty years he paid his men for seven days work when they had only worked five.

Many years had passed and Benjamin had never known what had become of his own people, so in 1881 or 1882 he decided to return to his home in Pennsylvania.  He discovered a woman whom he recognized as his sister.  He asked her if she had a brother, to which she answered that she had a brother years ago but that he had gone with the Mormons and had been killed by them.  He asked her if she would be able to identify him in any way   She said “yes” that he had a burn which left a scar on his arm.  He then told her that he was that brother and showed the scar on his arm.  Great was the rejoicing of brother and sister who were meeting for the first time in many years.

Benjamin’s sister told him that she had been brought up by their mother’s people who were the Lamars, or in French Lemaire.  They were part of the aristocracy in France and very wealthy who came to this country..  This sister had been brought up in culture and refinement.  He was entertained in a royal manner.  Before he returned to Provo he was given two (2) silver tablespoons and a silk blanket that had been in the Lemaire family in France for “years”.  These heirlooms were given to the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers in Provo and are now displayed in the Provo Museum at 600 North and 500 West.

During this visit he gathered all of the genealogy of his people that he could so that work could be done for them in the Temple.

In 1864 Benjamin and his family were called to join the southern settlement at St. George, UT.  It was here during this time that 3 children were born. Life was difficult for this family and others that were sent to settle the area called the Muddy.  Benjamin Morgan his eldest son tells of the time he was with his father to get a load of logs, when an oxen laid down and would not get up.   His father was away from the team and Benjamin tried to get him up but to no avail, when his father returned he said this is the way to get  an ox up when he is down,  so he cut a willow  and started to rub the oxen’s tail, he soon got up.

They returned to Provo in 1868, then in 1870 the family moved to Lincoln County, Nevada.  They returned again to Provo  in 1871 and  remained there for the rest of his life.

By 1888 his continual coughing spells had confined him to bed for three months. He claimed that these severe attacks had limited his strength and health since the battalion march.

Benjamin died on 7 August 1891 in Provo, Utah at the age of 64, and was buried on 8 August 1891 in the Provo City Cemetery, Block 6 Lot 6.