Lucy Bennion: Devotion, Home, and Heritage in Granger
Lucy Evelyn Smith Bennion: Matriarch of the Bennion Family in Granger
Lucy Evelyn Smith Bennion was born July 9, 1866, in Farmington, Utah, to George W. and Catherine Wooten Smith. Her parents had immigrated from England, joining the Church and enduring the difficult pioneer journey to Utah by ox team. Lucy’s earliest years were marked by movement and settlement as her family helped establish new communities, including a challenging stint in Southern Utah when she was about five years old. Despite the hardships, she remembered her childhood adventures as thrilling and full of wonder.
After returning to the Salt Lake Valley, her family settled in Cottonwood, where Lucy helped her father build a home from adobe bricks. She also learned to read and sew under her mother’s careful guidance, developing the handcraft skills that she would carry into adulthood. Due to the distance to school and limited schooling seasons, Lucy did not start formal schooling until age nine, entering at an advanced level thanks to her home learning. She attended school until her mother’s death when Lucy was fourteen. Afterward, she kept house for her father and worked for neighbors, gaining early experience in household management and domestic care.
Following her father’s death, Lucy moved to Taylorsville to care for Mrs. Mary T. Bennion, performing all the household labor including carrying water and wood and washing on the board. It was in this home that she met Marcus Bennion, whom she married on December 27, 1888.
The couple moved to Granger, first renting a small house near the schoolhouse, then purchasing a farm home in the fall of 1889 at 3965 South and 3200 West, where Lucy would spend the rest of her life. She became the devoted mother of seven children: Hilda, Ivy, Marcus Leslie, Edna, Mildred, Roy, and Leo. After Marcus passed away in 1913, leaving several children still young, Lucy relied on her older children to help raise the family, ensuring they grew up with love, discipline, and faith.
Lucy’s life was characterized by selfless devotion, patience, and joy. She maintained a warm and orderly household, teaching her children domestic skills while fostering a home full of laughter, learning, and nurturing traditions. She was known for her delicious baking, creative handwork, and attentiveness to family activities, from gardening to summer sleeping porches to quiet Sunday afternoons.
Later in life, Lucy became active in the Relief Society, serving as counselor to Sister Caroline Harmon, and devoted herself to temple work, finding deep satisfaction in her service. Her religious faith and community involvement reflected the values of her pioneer upbringing, marked by resilience, service, and love for family and neighbors.
Lucy Evelyn Smith Bennion passed away April 23, 1937, at the age of seventy, leaving behind a legacy of faith, devotion, and enduring family love. Her children and grandchildren remember her as a happy, patient, and steadfast matriarch, whose life and example shaped generations of the Bennion family in Granger and beyond.
