ERASTUS BINGHAM, JR. (1822-1906) P
MILITARY SERVICE: Private, Company B
Enlisted: 16 July 1846, Council Bluffs, Iowa Territory (age 23)
Captain James Brown's Detachment: Pueblo (Santa Fe), 17 October 1846
Discharged: 16 July 1847
Major, Utah War
Bounty Land Claim: 72610-160-50
Survivor's Pension: 13 April 1887, Piute County, Utah
Widow's Pension: Susan Green Bingham, 5 April 1906, Arizona
BIRTH: 30 September 1822, Concord, Essex County, Vermont
Son of Erastus Bingham, Sr. and Lucinda Gates
FIRST MARRIAGE: Olive Hovey Freeman, 15 October 1844, Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois
Daughter of Isaac F. Freeman and Lydia (Freeman)
Birth:8 January 1820, Waterford, Caledonia County, Vermont
Children:
Olive Louise Bingham, 3 October 1844, LaHarpe, Hancock County, Illinois
Erastus Perry Bingham, 20 March 1846, LaHarpe, Hancock County, Illinois
Lucinda Maria Bingham, 1 June 1848, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah
Lydia Roxania Bingham, 6 January 1850, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah
Isaac Farwell Bingham, 20 September 1852, Ogden, Weber County, Utah
Mary Ann Bingham, 9 February 1854, Ogden, Weber County, Utah
Lorenzo Bingham, 7 December 1855, Ogden, Weber County, Utah
Dianna Bingham, 17 July 1857, Ogden, Weber County, Utah
Ophelia Cedenia Bingham, 19 August 1860, Ogden, Weber County, Utah
Death: 22 July 1905, Idaho
SECOND MARRIAGE: Susan Green, 16 November 1854, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah (plural wife)
Daughter of Benjamin Pike Green and Lucy Wisdom
Birth: 5 August 1828, Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia, Canada
Children:
Susan Melvina Bingham, 23 November 1856, Ogden, Weber County, Utah
Nephi Bingham, 9 April 1858, Ogden, Weber County, Utah
Lucy Ann Bingham, 5 March 1860, Slaterville, Weber County, Utah
Marintha Eltharia Bingham, 26 May 1861, Slaterville, Weber County, Utah
Eda Bingham, 21 January 1862, Ogden, Weber County, Utah
Enoch Bingham, 7 March 1864, Ogden, Weber County, Utah
Daniel Bingham, 7 March 1864, Ogden, Weber County, Utah
Harriet Adelthia Bingham, 2 November 1865, Huntsville, Weber County, Utah
Mary Jane Bingham, 28 April 1867, Huntsville, Weber County, Utah
Erastus Alma Bingham, 28 September 1868, Huntsville, Weber County, Utah
Violetta May Bingham, 20 May 1870, Huntsville, Weber County, Utah
Benjamin Wisdom Bingham, 7 January 1872, Huntsville, Weber County, Utah
Myrtle Adele Bingham, 2 September 1873, Huntsville, Weber County, Utah
Clara Isabella Bingham, 29 July 1876, Huntsville, Weber County, Utah
Zina Dianthia Bingham, 20 July 1878, Huntsville, Weber County, Utah
Jacob Moroni Bingham, 4 November 1880, Huntsville, Weber County, Utah
Death: 12 March 1922, Tucson, Pima County, Arizona
DEATH: 4 April 1906, Mesa, Maricopa County, Arizona (age 83)
BURIAL: 5 April 1906, Mesa City Cemetery, Mesa, Maricopa, Arizona
On 11 November 1833, Erastus was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in St. Johnsbury, Caledonia County, Vermont, by Elder Evans. Two years after his conversion, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles held a meeting at his family home. Brigham Young told him that it was the only meeting in which "the original members of the Twelve were all together after the organization of the Quorum" (Life Sketch, Erastus Bingham).
In 1837 Erastus moved with his family from Vermont to Kirtland, Geauga County, Ohio. Three months after arriving in Kirtland, they removed to Far West, Caldwell County, Missouri, where they faced extreme religious persecution and were forced to flee for safety to Illinois. In Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, Erastus was ordained a high priest on 30 October 1840 and was ordained a seventy on 8 October 1844 by J. Gates (Early Church File).
He was married to Olive by H. Hall (Nauvoo Neighbor, 1 Nov. 1843). During the early years of their marriage, they were often separated. In January 1846, Erastus left Olive "to make roads, build bridges, and plant crops at various points" in preparation for the general migration from Nauvoo (Life Sketch, Erastus Bingham). He returned to Nauvoo and received the endowment on 30 January 1846 in the Nauvoo Temple (Nauvoo Temple Register).
Erastus continued to build roads for the fleeing Saints across Iowa Territory. In Council Bluffs he enlisted in the Mormon Battalion. He stood 5'9", having blue eyes and brown hair (Pension File). He enlisted with his brother, Thomas, and his brother-in-law, Elijah Norman Freeman.
Erastus marched with the Battalion from Council Bluffs to Santa Fe. During the march he contracted a fever which he believed led to his kidney disease and his back injury (Pension File). Due to these physical problems, he was detached with the sick of the Battalion to Fort Pueblo.
One evening at the fort, Erastus asked Captain Jefferson Hunt if he could exchange his rations. Hunt exclaimed, "I'll give you your rations when I get ready". Erastus retorted, "I'm not afraid of any Hunt that God ever made". The captain immediately jumped through the campfire and hit Erastus. They exchanged punches until the men holding them back could calm them. The bruised captain conceded, "You may come and get your rations" (Life Sketch, Erastus Bingham).
Erastus remained at the fort during the winter and spring of 1847 when he migrated to the Salt Lake Valley, arriving on 27 July. There he helped build log cabins. En route to Council Bluffs, he met his wife and her parents at the Sweetwater River. Olive had been sick during most of the journey. A fellow traveler, noting her deteriorating condition, had brought extra boards under his wagon to make a coffin for her. Her life was spared when "a voice told this unnamed traveler to find a spring of water and some herbs and make a tea for her." He did as directed, and she was healed. Erastus and Olive arrived in Salt Lake City on 19 September 1847.
Erastus remained in the Valley until 1849 when he and his brother, Thomas, left for California in pursuit of gold. In 1851 he returned and joined his family at Bingham Fort in Ogden, Weber County (Life Sketch, Erastus Bingham). On 1 April 1852, he was appointed a selectman of Ogden (Carter, Treasures, 3 :367). He
received a patriarchal blessing on 5 December 1854, again on 12 March 1854, and again on 6 August 1855 at Ogden (Patriarchal Blessing Index). He participated in the law of plural marriage with Susan Green (Pension File).
When Johnston's army approached Utah in 1857, Erastus was appointed a major in the cavalry. He was assigned to harass and annoy any contingent of the army found near Ham's Fort and Soda Springs. He led one hundred men in Echo Canyon whose purpose was to stop the main body of the army from advancing. From Echo Canyon, Erastus was sent to defend Ogden (Life Sketch, Erastus Bingham).
When the threat of war diminished, he resettled his second wife in Slaterville, Weber County, and continued to pursue his vocation of farming and herding cattle. In the spring of 1861 he worked on a canal from Slaterville to Plain City, creating a four-mile channel by driving five or six oxen pulling a fifteen-foot scraper. However, the water supply was inadequate even after the canal's completion.
In 1861 Erastus traded his property in Ogden, Weber County, for two houses in Slaterville. His first wife and her children moved into one house while Susan and her children moved into the other. In December 1861, Erastus heard water rushing into his well, which was located between the two houses. This water, loosed by a broken dam in Ogden Canyon, soon flooded his property. He hurriedly placed his wives and children in a wagon to save their lives. One of the houses, with all of its household goods and furniture, was destroyed in the flood (Life Sketch, Erastus Bingham).
The two families lived together in the remaining house. Three weeks later, an approaching storm led Erastus to move both families into Bingham's Fort for the winter. In the spring he built a log house about a mile north of his farm for his wife, Susan, and her family. His wife, Olive, and her family moved back to Ogden. Erastus was discouraged in Slaterville, so he sold his remaining home and bought a farm in Ogden (Life Sketch, Erastus Brigham).
On 15 November 1873 he was called to serve a mission to Vermont. He visited many of his relatives in Vermont and taught the gospel to them. Erastus returned to Weber County in the spring of 1874 and resided in Huntsville where he farmed and served as president of the Thirty-eighth and Seventy-fifth Quorums of the Seventy.
Fear of imprisonment and persecution stemming from the Edmunds-Tucker Act caused him to migrate with his wife, Susan, to Colorado. In Colorado he mined for coal, silver, and gold. He also sold butter and cheese made from the milk of his forty dairy cows. Erastus wrote to Olive, "We sell the cheese at 17 1/2 cents a pound and butter at 25 cents a pound" (Life Sketch, Erastus Bingham).
During his prosperous years in Colorado, he lost his affiliation with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He became convinced. that he had discovered "the divine religion". When the leader of this "divine religion" absconded with all of his possessions, Erastus realized the deception. From Colorado, he removed to Tucson, Pima County, Arizona, and then to Mesa, Maricopa County, Arizona. From Mesa, Erastus inquired of President Joseph F. Smith about restoring his membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Elders were sent from Salt Lake City to teach him. He and his wife, Susan, accepted the gospel and were rebaptized.
In 1883, Erastus moved his family to Piute County, Utah, where his health and finances rapidly declined. At age 72, his property
.consisted of "a span of mares and suckling colts, wagons not to exceed in value of $75.00." His only source of income was a small
government pension (Pension File) . After his death, his widow, Susan, then removed to Ogden to live with her daughter, Mrs. Stuart Eccles. Mrs. Eccles described her mother's old age as "very childish and forgetful." (Pension File).
In 1883, Erastus moved his family to Piute County, Utah, where his health and finances rapidly declined. At age 72, his property consisted of "a span of mares and suckling colts, wagons not to exceed in value of $75.00". His only source of income was a small
government pension (Pension File). After his death, his widow, Susan, then removed to Ogden to live with her daughter, Mrs. Stuart Eccles. Mrs. Eccles described her mother's old age as "very childish and forgetful". (Pension File).