Alva Benson: An 1832 Convert Who Gathered to Jackson County and Cache Valley (1832-1860)

Alva Benson and his wife Cynthia Vail Benson joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in February 1832 in Indiana, in the very earliest years of the Restoration, and then joined the Saints in Jackson County, Missouri. After the Saints' expulsion from Missouri and the long westward gathering, he helped to colonize the Salt Lake Valley and, in 1860, brought his family to Cache Valley to help settle and build up that country, joining other pioneer families in establishing a community in the northern valley. His faithful journey from an 1832 baptism in Indiana to the colonizing of Cache Valley is a faith-promoting witness of the earliest converts who, having come into the Church in its first years, walked with the Saints through every gathering and every expulsion, and helped plant Zion in valley after valley.