William Franklin Bess: Pioneer Roots and Heartbreak in Granger
William Bess: A Life Marked by Faith and Tragedy
William Franklin Bess was born in 1884 in Salt Lake County, Utah, the eighth of twelve children of James Lawrence Bess and Mary Alice Dykman. His parents were both Mormon pioneers: his father, James, crossed the plains as a 15-year-old with the Heber C. Kimball Company in 1848, while his mother, Mary Alice, arrived with her family in 1864. Raised in a large pioneer household, William grew up in the Granger area of Salt Lake County.
In 1906, William married Mary Breeze in the Salt Lake Temple. Together they welcomed two daughters, Velma May (1908) and Mary Lucille (1911). Their happiness was cut short when Mary contracted tuberculosis and died in 1913 at just 25 years old, leaving William to care for their two little girls.
Three years later, William married again. On June 7, 1916, he was sealed in the Salt Lake Temple to Lillie Maud Petersen, a young woman from another pioneering Granger family. Their son, William Grant Bess, was born on January 31, 1918. Tragically, Lillie died just a week later from complications of childbirth at only 27 years of age.
The following year brought even greater sorrow. In March 1919, the influenza pandemic struck the Petersen and Bess families. Lillie’s older sister, Mabel Petersen, died at the age of 30 from influenza and pneumonia. Twelve days later, William also succumbed to the illness at the age of 34. Within a month of their deaths, a posthumous temple sealing was performed for William and Mabel in the Salt Lake Temple, suggesting the two had intended to marry.
After William’s passing, his three children were raised by extended family: Velma by his sister, Lola Bess Latimer; Mary by his mother, Mary Alice Dykman Bess; and his son, William Grant, by his Petersen grandparents, Niels and Sarah Petersen.
William Franklin Bess, along with his first wife Mary Breeze, his second wife Lillie Petersen, and Lillie’s sister Mabel Petersen, were all laid to rest in Taylorsville Memorial Park Cemetery. His short life was filled with love, deep faith, and heartbreaking loss, leaving behind a legacy of devotion carried forward by his children and their families.
