BENJAMIN
CHARLES BUTTARS
1898-1957
Benjamin Charles Buttars ("Ben")
was born June 20, 1898 in Clarkston, Cache
county, Utah. Ben's parents,
CharlesWilliam Buttars
and Angeline Vilate Stewart Buttars, started
their married life on a ranch two and one-half miles north of Clarkston,
up City Creek. They lived in a two-room log house. This ranch was homesteaded,
which meant living on the land to redeem it. While living here, their first
five children were born. Archie, the first, died at birth. Then May, Lillie,
Bennie, and Sarah were born. A few years later they moved to Clarkston
to put the children in school.
Ben's dad died at the age of 37,
throwing a lot of responsibility on this family and causing many hardships.
Ben was only ten years old and the oldest boy in the family. He took over
his mother's ranch and did the farming with horses, at the age of sixteen.
He worked hard. It took a month to plow an 80 acre field. When the family
went anywhere, they always traveled with horses on a buggy or sleigh. The
snow drifts in the winter were as high as the house, well as over the fence
tops.
Ben had only eight years of grammar
school but he had a loaded brain. When he learned anything it was tucked
away in his head instead of a notebook. He said, "When I went to school,
I took home the notebooks I had taken at the first of the year - empty."
From his mind he didn't have to search long to have the answer, he seemed
to always have it with him.
Ben enjoyed riding his horse "Old
Bollie" in the hills on Sunday afternoons after Sunday School. He had a
full attire for riding, a good saddle with daps, lasso rope, chaps, bridle
and martingale. They were all trimmed up with plenty of nickel spots, too.
Ben often rode "Old Bollie" from the ranch to town for lunch in five minutes,
a distance of two and one-half miles.
Ben's clothes were always neat
and were very exact. He was a clean, particular fellow. He looked like
a boy but had the experience of a man at the age of 21. Ben would not so
much as let a single tin can lay around on their lot. Everything was in
order and the place was neat. His workbench where he did his carpenter
work was always clean and in order, or he could not work. At an early age
he was dealing with water masters, header crews and thrasher machine bosses.
He rented land from land owners and had a good reputation with his bankers.
When he was sixteen Ben built a garage/shed and shop on his mother's place.
Ben had a good set of carpenter tools and he liked to work with hardwood
and make furniture which he used in his home after he was married. Ben's
carpentry work was of the very best. It was exact and neat. However, carpentry
was only a hobby for him since he had his regular farm work plus the responsibilities
of his mother's farm.
In 1918 a bad flu went around
and there were not enough well people in town to take care of the sick
or bury the dead. Ben was one of the flu patients. He was very sick and
had a high fever. He had a lot of stomach trouble that turned to ulcers.
He carried the effects of this for many years. At 16 it was discovered
in a physical exam that he also had kidney troubles.
You have heard of school children
falling in love. Well, that is what happened with Ben. He first let it
be known that he liked a little girl, Laura Griffiths,
in the third grade. He sent her valentines and one time gave her the ring
off of a stick of candy. Several years later, one of his boyfriends, Verner
Clark, challenged Ben to ask Laura for a date and he bet he would get it
or he would cook a supper for him. Well, Ben got the date and Laura had
the supper to cook for the boys after they were married.
Ben really caught Laura's eye
when he came around in his mother's new maroon-colored, Studebaker car.
It was the prettiest car in town. The roads in Clarkston didn't allow a
car to be driven in the winter time so they always walked to the dance,
the movie show, and Sunday night meeting. For Christmas one year Ben bought
Laura a wristwatch with the smallest face of any watch he'd seen. That
was a very special gift. After they were engaged Ben drove Laura to Logan
almost every Sunday afternoon and he gave her a box of Bluebird chocolates
every trip until she had thirteen boxes.
One Sunday afternoon before they
were married, Ben, Laura, Ben's mother and grandmother all went to the
Temple and had President Shepherd give them all a patriarchal blessing.
On November 10, 1920 Benjamin
Charles Buttars and Laura Susannah Griffiths were married in the Logan
Temple. From this marriage nine living children were born: four boys and
five girls; one daughter died in infancy. They also had a set of twins
that were born premature; they were stillborn.
Ben and Laura's first home was
a small rental just two blocks from Ben's mother's home which made it easy
for Ben as he still helped his mother with her home. At this time Ben decided
to make a "water-powered motor" which he attached to the hydrant to run
the washing machine. It ran the washer all right, but it also could be
heard all over town. It made the washing a lot easier than rubbing the
clothes on the washboard.
Early in the 1920's Ben was told
that he had sugar diabetes. He saw a doctor about it regularly for ten
years. After that he had a dormant spell before it returned. Once it returned,
Ben had to live on a diet and insulin for the rest of his life.
In October 1922, Ben went with
a group of other men to travel down the Snake River on a raft. They began
at the head of the south fork, near Alpine, Idaho. From logs they gathered,
they made a raft 120 feet long. It took 2 ½ days with all helping
to construct the raft. Then they loaded it with tents, bedding and food
supplies. They floated down the river for three days, fishing during the
day and pulling to shore at night, and finally ending their journey by
Rigby, Idaho -- a distance of 80 miles.
In 1925 Ben and Laura loaded all
they owned in a hayrack pulled by their team "Chief and Barney" and traveled
to Cedarville to rent and run Wesley Fifield's ranch. They had only $50
to their name. They kept a nice home furnished with a little furniture
they had bought and Ben had made. When the rent ran out they bought the
"Norton Estate" of 160 acres plus another 80 acres close by.
From 1923 to January 1924, Ben
went to work with the Western Pacific Railroad. His work took him out through
Pequotes and Laray, Nevada and out into the cedar hills to repair railroad
tracks etc. Their headquarters was located in a stationed box car and they
traveled to and from work on a hand car. Laura and their baby Lora stayed
at her mother's place while he was gone. In January Lora got sick with
a bad case of cankers which was upsetting her whole system. When Ben got
this word, he quit the job and came home. All the money he had earned had
to go toward the last year's farm bills except for $8.50. With $8.00 Ben
bought Laura a gold wedding band and the 50 cents bought a little brown
rubber dog to keep Lora quiet while they fit the ring and paid for it.
The family often had company come
to see them. They cooked many Sunday dinners for a crowd. The family loved
their home and had many happy memories there.
Ben did many different things
to bring in the income needed to raise their family. One time they got
in the cow business, until 1946 when they sold the cows, paid off their
farm debt and bought a home in Weston. They spent the summer remodeling
the home, taking out partitions, building a back room, taking out fences
and shrubs for new grass, removing out-buildings, building a new garage,
large shed and shop. Later they also built a new barn and tore down the
old fence making their home the nicest and largest in Weston. Ben's ranch
then consisted of many acres scattered around the valley and up Weston
Canyon. He named it "Scattered Acres" and had that name printed on the
side of his grain trucks (which were always red).
In 1954 they bought a new Buick
car for Easter. It was white on the bottom, yellow in the center and had
a green top. Laura called it her "Easter Egg".
Ben was active in the L.D.S. church
all his life. He served as a ward teacher from the age of 15 years old.
He also served as 1st and 2nd councilor in the Sunday School, and first
councilor to Bishop George Georgeson while in Cedarville till the ward
was consolidated with Weston Ward. Ben served as 1st councilor in the Weston
Sunday School, and also on the "New Weston Meetinghouse Building Committee,"
generously donating to the cause. Ben and Laura went often to the temple,
at times going for two sessions a day until their allotted names for the
year were done.
One winter while living on the
ranch in Cedarville, Ben accepted a part to play in the melodrama "White
Ginger" that the mutual was putting on. It was a good play that went over
well. When the actors peeked through the curtains to see how the audience
was reacting to the play, they saw the people wiping their noses and eyes.
They felt like they were pretty good actors. They took the play to several
other towns, traveling with their scenery in two sleighs pulled by horses.
Ben was also involved in many
community affairs. He served on the Cedarville School board, and later
the Weston High School board, serving for 23 years. He also served as a
county committeeman on school consolidation for five years, and director
for the first Franklin County A.A.A. Committee for two years. He was elected
president of the Farmer's's Grain Association in Weston and shortly after
was elected as director of the Grain Growers Association in Ogden, which
board he served on for 20 years. He was elected vice-chairman of the Grain
Disposal Committee of the Idaho State Wheat Grower's Association which
he served on until his death. The people he worked with in these areas
remembered Ben for the way he talked, his fair-mindedness, and clear thinking.
In 1949 Ben had the opportunity
to travel to Mexico on a bus tour. At this time Clint, their youngest,
was only three years old and not in very good health. Also they had four
children in school so Laura stayed behind to keep the home fires burning.
"While in Mexico Ben saw many archeological ruins and evidence of the truthfulness
of the Book of Mormon. Upon his return, he had a great desire to read it
again more thoroughly. As he read he pondered upon what he had seen and
heard. He knew it was true. He was asked to report on his tour at fireside
meetings in several towns and left many others with the desire to read
the Book of Mormon.
One year after his return from
Mexico, Mrs. Flora Reed came to their home selling fire insurance. Ben
and Mrs. Reed got into a discussion about the Book of Mormon and Mrs. Reed
commented that she wished he would talk to her husband and convert him
to "Mormonism". Ben said he would be glad to. Ben and Curly Reed did get
together and had a long talk about the Book of Mormon. Curly was stimulated
with a desire to read the Book of Mormon. He borrowed Ben's book and promised
to return it when he'd finished reading it. He was back in two days. Not
long after this he became a member of the Church. He gave up his bad habits
and eventually took his family to the temple. Curly was one of the speakers
at Ben's funeral several years later and bore his testimony and thanked
Ben for the good he had instilled in his heart. They were now a happily
sealed family and it was Ben's testimony that had caused all this good
work.
In 1951 Ben, Laura, Colleen and
Sadie (Sadie was Ben's sister) made a trip back East to get two new Buick
cars. While touring they went up through Canada to see Dr. Charlie Coltman.
Ben had met Dr. Coltman at the Spears Hospital in Denver, Colorado where
Ben had gone for treatment for his sugar diabetes. During one of his hospital
visits with Ben, religion had come up and Dr. Coltman had discovered that
Ben was a Mormon. He had never met a Mormon and asked many questions about
his religion. The more they talked, the more interested Dr. Coltman became.
When Dr. Coltman returned to Canada, Ben referred him to the missionaries
up there and then kept in close contact through letters back and forth.
Dr. Coltman had become converted and on this trip to Canada Ben
was going to be the Elder to baptize him. Unfortunately, through a mix
up in dates, they arrived one week after the baptism had taken place. There
was disappointment felt by both sides but Ben's group stayed for a few
days, attending church with them while they were there. Dr. Coltman and
Ben remained good friends and Dr. Coltman occasionally came to Weston to
visit Ben and Laura. Jeanne Hunter was an office nurse for Dr. Coltman.
Both she and her mother, Winifred Hunter were converted to the Church through
these associations.
On their return trip from Canada,
Ben and Laura traveled down through the eastern states, visiting the Hill
Cumorah and even sleeping in Joseph Smith's own bed in the upstairs room
of the Smith's home. They also traveled through Carbondale, Illinois where
their son, Stewart, was serving a mission.
In 1954 they made another trip
back East to get a patent on a grain harvester sieve Ben had invented.
Ben had used this sieve on his harvester for two years and found it would
work. They visited many implement plants to show their design. The plants
were interested but didn't want to change their manufacturing process to
build a new sieve when they were already getting more orders than they
could fill. Ben knew if he could get someone to manufacture them, he could
peddle them himself and that they would sell but, because of problems,
Ben never got his patent.
On the trip home, Ben and Laura
traveled down through Kansas where he met with the head contractor who
had built the Ogden Farmer's Grain Elevators. There was a problem over
a misunderstanding. Ben met with them and their attorney and was able to
resolve the problem, returning with a $5,000 note that was canceled. The
boardman had previously made several trips back to Kansas over this problem,
without any good results, and had said if Ben could clear up the problem
they would pay him for it. However, when Ben returned, they denied ever
saying anything like it and in the end only paid him a little for his problems,
which barely covered the gas for the extra miles it took him to do this.
When Ben and Laura returned home,
they were told about a seminary party that had been held up Dry Canyon
that night. A truck full of kids had rolled over and one girl was killed.
Their daughter, LaReen, had been in the truck and she was quite shook up
and in shock. They were glad they were home when she was brought home.
There was a trip they took after this
to Yellowstone, British Columbia, and down through Idaho's panhandle, a
trip to Tijuana City, and up the Pacific coast where they did some salmon
fishing and Ben caught a 36 pounder. Later trips included the Dakotas,
Canada (to see the Cardston temple) and a trip to Phoenix.
Ben picked up many beautiful rock
souvenirs from Mexico and the Dakotas. Some of these rocks were displayed
on a special table in his living room at home. There were rocks that glittered
with silver or gold-like tones, some that were blue veined as well as many
other colorful rocks.
One winter in the 1950's Ben heard
about the uranium scourge that was so rampant at that time. He heard about
some good uranium prospects in Wyoming so he took the red truck that was
equipped for a camping home and with his son, Charles, and Weldon Reeder,
headed off for Wyoming. They found a rich field of uranium all laying on
the surface of the ground. They had to return home for equipment to work
with and when they returned a week later they found the government had
put a lease on the ground. Ben brought home a real good sample of uranium
but he could do no more to his disappointment.
Ben was ambitious, fair-minded
and liked to learn. He enjoyed reading, studying history and keeping up
with current events. He also enjoyed writing humorous poetry and was often
asked to read it at ward programs. A collection of his writings was made
by his daughter. People liked to talk with Ben because he knew something
about so many things.
He did some arguing also. He said,
"A good way to learn is to argue it out, and see both sides from more than
one man's view of it. A good square argument, when no one gets mad, is
a good way to learn about a lot of things. He was a broad-minded man. He
always answered when spoken to, was honest, paid bills promptly, and made
many friends.
In November of 1957, Ben was stricken
suddenly with a heart attack. He was rushed to the Preston hospital and
lay in critical condition until he passed away on November 24th at the
age of 59 years. Laura was with him all the time until he died. It was
a shock and a very sorrowful passing for his family.
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