Esther Wainwright and John Bennion

Bennion/Spencer/Player/Smith/Hodgkinson

Even though John Bennion and Esther Wainwright Bennion were not married at the time of their conversions, their stories are so intertwined that we will tell their stories together.

During the later part of 1836, John Bennion, a native Welshman, also from Hawarden, lodged with the Wainwrights for three years while he worked as an iron worker.  This was the beginning of a lifelong relationship between John Bennion and the Wainwright family.   John first heard the gospel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1840, when two elders came to Liverpool, John Taylor and Joseph Fielding.  In May 1841, he was baptized into the church.  Elder John Taylor also converted Esther Wainwright and her mother.  They were baptized August 1841.   

John Bennion and Esther were married in Liverpool, 15 February 1842, by Elder John Greenhow.  Esther was twenty-four years of age, John twenty-one years.  Esther was a lovely and striking young woman, highly intelligent and capable.  She and John shared an unwavering belief and commitment to their new-found religion.  Within a week after their marriage, John and Esther sailed for the United States on 22 Feb 1842, on the Ship John Cummins*.  This ship was among the earliest to bring companies of Mormons to the United States.  Esther was able to pack linens, clothing and other goods her parents made sure she got for her life in America.  Esther and John landed in New Orleans and traveled up the Mississippi River to Nauvoo, arriving in 07 May 1842.

John and Esther, were recipients of  the persecution against the Mormons and  like so many members of the Church, left Nauvoo and made the trek west, arriving in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847 shortly after the first parties arrived.***  John was asked to take on plural wives which he did**.  Subsequently he had a total of 31 children - 13 with Esther,  John and Ester's 5th child (our ancestor) is Rachel.  Rachel is noted as "the first white child born west of the Jordan  River", near present day Taylorsville, Utah****.  John and Esther loved and taught their children as reflected in this letter that John wrote to Esther's parents.

"We do not expect to save money so as to leave then an independent fortune.  This much I bear in mind, to teach them useful employment and an education, together with the gospel rooted and rounded in them, and being in possession of these, I think they are well prepared to work their own passage through the world. "

The  next part of their history states:  John and Esther were highly respected.  Their many children followed their example and left an enduring legacy.  Just looking at the descendants of Beverly Smith Hodgkinson, John and Esther would have no idea how true that statement would be.

Esther Wainwright Bennion

John Bennion

*  See passenger list and general voyage notes - Click Here
** Reflections from a grandaughter - Click Here
***  Account of the Bennions arrival in Salt Lake, crickets and seagulls - Click Here 
**** Additional History of the Bennions founding "Bennion", Utah which eventually was incorporated with Taylorsville is found in Wikpedia under Taylorsville, Ut.