Erastus Bingham, born in Concord, Essex, Vermont, 12 March 1798, son of Elisha Warner and Sarah (Perry) Bingham; died in Ogden, Weber, Utah, 2 May 1882; buried in Ogden. He married in St. Johnsbury, Caledonia, Vermont, 20 March 1818, Lucinda Gates, born in Ackworth, Cheshire, New Hampshire, 19 September 1797; died in Ogden, 3 January 1874, daughter of Thomas and Patty (Plumly) Gates. Additionally, as a polygamist, Erastus married (2) Patience Perkins (1783-1862) in Salt Lake, 4 April 1852, (3) Sally Maria Barber (1811- ) in Salt Lake, 7 April 1853, (4) Mehitable Sawyer (1806-1886) in Salt Lake, 11 September 1857, and (5) Emma Nye (1837- ) in Salt Lake, 13 December 1862.
When he married Lucinda Gates, Erastus had a farm in Concord, where he and his bride resided and where the first four of his children were born. About 1825, the family removed to Littleton, Grafton County, New Hampshire. Lucinda and Louisa Maria were born there in 1826 and 1828, after which the family returned to the farm in Concord.
Erastus had no formal affiliation with any religion until spring 1833, when Elder John F. Boynton brought him word of the "restored gospel." He read the Book of Mormon, was converted, and was baptized 11 November 1833, in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, together with his wife and three of his children. A fourth child, Sanford, was baptised there on 18 November. Erastus was the only one of his father's family to join the Church, but his wife's father and her brother, Jacob, also joined. In spring 1836 Erastus sold his farm, and in the following June he traveled with his family (accompanied by Willard Snow and others) to Kirtland, Ohio. The family stayed there until September, 1836, then continued the journey to Far West, Missouri, arriving on 4 November 1836. Erastus rented a farm on Shoal Creek, about two and a half miles from Far West, and built a log house, into which he moved his family. The following spring he fenced his farm, which he cultivated until Fall 1838, when Governor Lilburn W. Boggs issued the exterminating order that forced him and the rest of the Saints to leave Missouri. At Far West, in January 1839, Church leaders named Erastus a member of the committee to orchestrate the exodus. Other members of this committee were John Taylor, Alanson Ripley, Brigham Young, Theodore Turley, Heber C. Kimball, John Smith, Don Carlos Smith, Elias Smith, Stephen Markham, and James Newberry. "On motion of President Brigham Young," says the record, "it was resolved that we this day enter into a covenant to stand by and assist each other to the utmost of our abilities in removing from this State, and that we will never desert the poor, who are worthy, till they shall be out of the reach of the exterminating order of General Clark, acting for and in the name of the State."
Leaving Far West toward the end of March, Erastus and his family arrived in Hancock County, Illinois, in April, 1839. He rented farms in the neighborhood of LaHarpe until Spring 1845, when he bought a 160-acre farm a few miles from Nauvoo. The following year, when the resumption of mob violence compelled the Saints to leave Illinois, as they had Missouri, Erastus exchanged his farm for a team of horses with which he could take his family into the wilderness. He left Nauvoo on 6 May 1846. He and his family suffered greatly from exposure and lack of proper food during the trip to Winter Quarters in Iowa (now Council Bluffs), but when they finally arrived they found that food and provisions were very scarce in that place as well, and as there were so many others there who were less fortunate than they, they decided to move on to a place where the necessities of life could be found. They ended up 150 miles north of Winter Quarters, at Swift River [Running Water], where they wintered with the Ponca Indians, living in their wagons and a wickiup the friendly Indians provided for them. The family returned to Winter Quarters the following spring. In June 1847, Erastus purchased additional provisions, equipment, and supplies and joined the second company to leave for the west (the Daniel Spencer Company). This company arrived in Salt Lake Valley on 19 September 1847, and Erastus made a home for his wife and children in Salt Lake City. In Spring 1848, he was alotted a farm in the Holiday district and acquired a grazing permit for an area about twenty miles southwest of Salt Lake, now known as Bingham Canyon. There he erected a herd house.
In 1850, Brigham Young called upon Erastus to help build new settlements in the North (Weber County). Thus, in early April, Erastus went with his son Sanford and son-in-law Isaac Newton Goodale to the Weber river, where he staked out a farm and built a house. This farm was located on property now occupied by city and county offices. In September, when Brigham Young chose this location as site for a city to be named "Ogden," Erastus sold his claim and moved to the vicinity of Farr's Fort, north of the Ogden river. There, he laid out another farm and built another house for his family. When the Weber Stake was organized, Sunday, 25 January 1851, Ogden was divided into two wards, with Erastus Bingham serving as Bishop of Ogden North Ward (Farr's Fort). The following Spring, Erastus relocated with his family to a parcel of land northwest of Farr's Fort. There, sometime between 1851 and 1853, Bishop Bingham began construction of a fort (Bingham's Fort) to protect his family and other settlers from the depredations of hostile Indians. This fort was located in what is now known as the Lynn district, north of Second Street and west of Wall Avenue in Ogden.
Meanwhile, on 28 January 1850, the General Assembly of the territory created Weber County encompassing "all that portion of country known as Weber Valley, extending as far south as Stony Creek, and west to the Great Salt Lake." However, the organization of a civil government there awaited the appointment of Isaac Clark as Probate Judge on 7 February 1852. On 1 April that year, Clark named Erastus Bingham one of three selectmen for the County. In its first session, on 24 April, the County Court named "supervisors" for the various settlements, designating Erastus Bingham supervisor for "Ogden Settlement North of Ogden River." In the first municipal election, October 1852, Lorin Farr emerged as mayor of Ogden; Erastus Bingham, as one of the four aldermen. In June 1856, when the County was divided into four Wards, Erastus Bingham was named Bishop of the First Ward. He served in that capacity until released, in 1868, on account of age and ill-health. Erastus also served a term as representative of Weber County in the first Territorial legislature, which convened in December 1854.
Bingham's Fort, with walls built of rock and mud to a height of about twelve feet, enclosed an area 120 by 60 rods. By the end of 1854, Bingham's Fort had a population of 732. But the following year, when Brigham Young visited the stronghold, he advised the residents to abandon it to build a "real city" south of the Fort, on the site he had previously chosen for the City of Ogden. Though he continued to operate his farm in the Lynn district (Bingham's Fort), Erastus acquired property in Ogden (at what is now 23rd and Madison), where he build another home for his family. In 1858, with the approach of Johnston's Army, Erastus moved his family to Payson, Utah, but left his son Thomas and son-in-law Isaac Goodale behind with orders to "burn everything" if it looked as if Johnston's Army would try to bivouac in the city. When the threat passed, Erastus and his family returned to Ogden.
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