A newly re-created saddlery shop in Old Deseret Village at This Is The Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City not only depicts that aspect of life in pioneer Utah but also conveys a message about the dedication and faith of Benjamin F. Johnson, the Latter-day Saint who owned the original.

Photo by R. Scott Lloyd

Elder D. Todd Christofferson pauses during his dedicatory comments of the B.F. Johnson saddlery to recognize Raymond Johnson, direct descendant of Benjamin Johnson who, he said, is the "spitting image" of his ancestor.

Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Presidency of the Seventy addressed an audience of several hundred Johnson descendants July 2 at dedication ceremonies in which the family organization conveyed the 20-by-32-foot structure to the park, having constructed it with donated funds totaling more than $120,000. Elder Christofferson's wife, Kathy, who also spoke during the program, is a Johnson descendant.

"I'm pleased to be with you — here on my wife's skirttails," Elder Christofferson quipped.

He paid tribute to Brother Johnson, saying, "It is significant that what has been built here is the saddlery," adding that it represents physical survival for the Johnson family. "They were struggling just to survive when, through the work that was provided when the '49ers came through, he was set on the road to relative prosperity. This saddlery and the services he could provide because of it made a huge difference in the physical welfare and wellbeing of his family."

It enabled him to develop other enterprises and acquire wealth, Elder Christofferson noted. "What's important about it, though, is that it did not turn his head away from faith. He did not transfer his faith from God to things." That is represented, he said, by Brother Johnson's statement when he was called on a mission to Hawaii, then called the Sandwich Islands, with 10 days' notice. It was an inopportune moment, when he was engrossed in his saddlery and drugstore "all to be disposed of or thrown away," plus a U.S. Mail contract and unsettled business from north of the city to Manti. It would require him to leave his family and rent out his farms. Elder Christofferson read this quote:

"Reason said, 'No you cannot go.' It is not just to require it under such circumstances. . . . It was terrible for one so weak as I. I asked myself, 'What shall I do?' " He said faith answered, reminding him from whom he had received family and possessions. "To whom do you owe all you are, all you possess and all you hope for but to God? Then why hesitate, when you have professed to be willing even to die for all the truth and gospel you have received? In gratitude to God, I said, 'With the Lord's help, I will go.' "

Elder Christofferson closed by reading Doctrine and Covenants 97:8-9, commenting, "I see before me some of that precious fruit from the life of this man, and I pray that each of you will be similarly a fruitful tree planted in a goodly land by a pure stream yielding in your lives as he did much precious fruit."

Sister Christofferson said of the saddlery, "Although it ably depicts an important aspect of pioneer life, it reminds us of much more than that. For all of us it is an example of determination, initiative, hard work and adaptability."

She said, "B. F. Johnson was a cabinet maker prior to moving to the Salt Lake Valley but he had to adapt, and he adapted to this frontier environment by becoming a saddle and harness maker. He was also the first druggist in this valley. Throughout his life he made a living by doing whatever it took to survive, including farming, growing orchards, canning fruit, manufacturing sorghum and cane syrup, raising livestock, logging, running a sawmill, building roads, contracting freighting jobs, beekeeping and even serving in the Legislature."

But, she said, she also appreciates "Grandpa Johnson for leaving us his personal history" and encouraged all to follow his example.

E. Dale LeBaron, a Johnson descendant and retired professor of Church history and doctrine at BYU, reflected on his research about Brother Johnson for his master's thesis which ultimately resulted in a book, B. F. Johnson: Friend of the Prophets. It covered his friendship with Church presidents beginning with Joseph Smith

Speaking of that undertaking, Brother LeBaron said that by that time, "there were some, unfortunately, that bore the name that I bear that chose to leave the Church and make claims that Benjamin passed on secret keys of authority. And so, I was able, through the research that I did, to find Benjamin's own testimony and statement that every prophet right up to the time prior to Benjamin's passing was a prophet of God, including and especially President Wilford Woodruff, who issued the Manifesto directing that the Lord had revealed that plural marriage, or the practice thereof in the Church, had ceased at that time in 1890."

Raymond Johnson, second counselor in the family organization presidency, quoted Benjamin as recalling after Joseph's martyrdom the Prophet's words: "I could do so much more for my friends if I were on the other side of the veil."

"And Benjamin wrote: ' "My friends." Oh, how glad that he was my friend.' And in his Life Review, he underlined those three words, was my friend. And our extended family can say, oh how glad we are to have that connection with Joseph through our great progenitor."

E-mail to: rscott@desnews.com