Benjamin Abel Arthur was born in 1834 in Monmouthshire, South Wales to Christopher Abel Arthur (1796-1859) and Ann Jones (1793-1852). His father, a Baptist, joined the Mormons while Benjamin was in his teens. Benjamin was baptized into the Mormon Church in 1850.
Immigration to America and onto Utah
Following his mother's death in 1852, he, his father, Christopher Abel, and his brothers, Joshua and Christopher J., immigrated to America. Traveling in the Spencer company as part of a Mormon wagon train, they arrived in Utah in 1853 and settled on a farm in Great Salt Lake Valley.
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To Cedar City and the Ironworks
In 1854, the Arthurs were among the British emigrants called to the Iron Mission in southern Utah. There they farmed and worked in the fledgling ironworks. His father, Christopher Abel Jones, was a trustee and shareholder in the Deseret Iron Company. He also served as clerk in the ironworks. His brother Christopher Jones Arthur also was involved in the ironworks.
In the early years, Benjamin Arthur participated in the Cedar City Dramatics Association. He was also a member of John Weston/Western's "English Choir."
Between 1855 and 1858, there are various references to Ben Arthur in the Deseret Iron Company account book. Focusing on 1857, the ledger shows that on May 11, while working for the "engineering department," Arthur was credited for 2 1/2 days of tending the masons. Long before then, they had determined that water was unreliable for motive power because the creek froze in the winter, ran dry in the summer, and was liable to dam failures at any other time. They had recently taken delivery on a steam engine which would replace water power. At the time they were building an engine room in which they would install the steam engine. The masons built the engine room and Arthur and others assisted the masons. They may have acted as hod carriers.
On June 13, Arthur was credited with a half day of hauling shingles for the engine room. On August 27, while James Williamson and his crew mined coal up the canyon, Benjamin Arthur along with Isaac Haight, Thomas Cartwright, and George Hunter hauled the coal down canyon to the ironworks.
There were no entries between September 4 and 28. The entries on September 29 were brief and cursory. In the next entry, for October 1, they were "melting down the furnace." This indicates that the days-long run they made in late August and early September had ended in another failure. Also, since there was no evident work done between September 4 and 28, the test run probably failed on or before September 3. Thus, the ironworkers had experienced yet another painful failure while rumors continued to swirl of the U.S Army invading them through the eastern mountains just as the appearance of Arkansas emigrants in Cedar City sparked a crisis.
In the Iron Military District: Sergeant Benjamin Arthur, Company D, Isaac Haight's 2nd Battalion
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In 1857, 23-year-old Benjamin was a sergeant in the 4th Platoon in Company D of the 2nd Battalion. Major Isaac C. Haight commanded the 2nd Battalion and his adjutant was his step-son, John M. Macfarlane. Company D was led by Captain Joel White whose adjutant was Daniel Macfarlane.
When word reached southern Utah in mid-August that the U.S. Army was approaching the territory, the Arthurs and other local settlers hurriedly prepared for the rumored "invasion" of their valley. In these tense circumstances the Arkansas emigrants passed through Cedar City and beyond to Mountain Meadows. In early September 1857, after the Fancher and Baker companies had passed through Cedar City, Major John M. Higbee (also a counselor to stake president Isaac C. Haight) ordered Benjamin Arthur, Josiah Reeves and Ellott Willden to follow the Arkansas emigrants. According to Willden, they were to find a pretext to set the local Paiutes on the emigrants. They were also to direct the wagon train to a point some miles below Mountain Meadows where the original plans called for the attack to take place.
David Tullis recalled that Benjamin Arthur, Ellott Willden, and Josiah Reeves rode to Mountain Meadows, saw the emigrant camp and had a civil exchange with them. According to Willden, their orders were to "find occasion . . . that would justify the Indians being let loose upon the emigrants. . . ." Evidently in the evening of Monday, September 7, or, more probably, the following evening, Arthur was with other militiamen a short distance east of Mountain Meadows. According to John D. Lee's account in Mormonism Unveiled, Benjamin Arthur was with William Stewart and Joel White during the pivotal assault in which Stewart suddenly shot and killed Tennessean William Aden of the wagon train and White wounded Aden's companion. The injured man managed to retreat to the emigrants' besieged camp. This confirmed to the emigrants that local Mormon settlers were complicit in the "Indian" attack on their camp.
Arthur was also at the final massacre on September 11, although Ellott Willden later claimed that Arthur was unarmed. Earlier that day in Cedar City, Major Isaac C. Haight reportedly decided to halt the attack at Mountain Meadows. He sent Elias Morris and Benjamin Arthur's brother, Christopher Jones Arthur to reverse his earlier order. But they arrived too late to prevent the massacre. Joseph Clews's account implicitly confirms that they were unable to reach Mountain Meadows until all of the company except 17 small children had been massacred.
Moving From Cedar City to Beaver County
In the years after the massacre, Arthur drifted away from Cedar City. By the early 1860s, the Welshman Arthur had moved north to Beaver County where he married Jennette Easton, a native of Scotland.
By 1862, the Arthurs and other families had joined the new agricultural settlement of Greenville in Beaver County. Eventually, the Arthurs had eight daughters and two sons. Besides pursuing a livelihood in farming, dairying and livestock, Ben Arthur was one of the early school teachers in Greenville.
Ben Arthur was among the two-thirds of Greenville's residents who had immigrated from Wales to Utah. The British Isles' emigrants and especially the Welsh had a strong musical tradition which they imported to their new surroundings in the American West. In the early days in Cedar City, Ben Arthur had joined the English Choir. Later in Greenville when its choir director George Eyre departed for nearby Minersville, Ben Arthur assumed the directorship of Greenville's 35-member choir. He was well regarded and continued the success of the largely Welsh choir.
In the mid-1870s when John D. Lee was tried in the federal district court in Beaver, Arthur lived in the area and presumably followed the course of the trial although it is not known whether he attended the proceedings.
Final Years
In 1883, Benjamin Arthur died in Beaver County at the age of 49. He was survived by his wife Jennette and eight of his children. His wife died in 1911.
References
Bagley, Blood of the Prophets, 133; Bethers, A History of Schools in Iron County, 1851-1970, 182; Bradley, A History of Beaver County, 64; Essom, Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah, 724; Jenson, LDS Biographical Encyclopedia, 2:186; Lee, Mormonism Unveiled, 230, 235, 379; Merkley, ed., Monuments to Courage: A History of Beaver County, 155, 156, 160, 415, 470; New.familysearch.org; Turley and Walker, Mountain Meadows Massacre: Jenson & Morris Collections, 43, 189, 191, 206, 209, 216-217, 221, 223; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, 140-41, 149, Appendix C, 256.
For full bibliographic information see Bibliography.
