Benjamin Blake

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The following document is based upon an interview between Doris Blake Blackham and her father Benton LaRay Blake on February 21, 2004. The questions concern Benjamin Blake, the father of Benton L. Blake.

Doris: Is his name just Benjamin Blake?

Benton: Benjamin Blake. No middle name. It was too long a name so they didn’t give him one.

Doris: Is that what his parents said?

Benton: Yes. All of the siblings had Biblical names. Most of them have middle names, but Dad didn’t because Benjamin was so long.

Doris: His parents told him that’s why he didn’t have a middle name?

Benton: Yes.

Doris: Can you give me a physical description of him? How tall he was? How much did he weigh? What was his hair color? Eye color? In the pictures I’ve seen of him, he’s bald.

Benton: What color is bald?

Doris: I’m sure he had hair at some point in his life.

Benton: I don’t know what color it was come to think of it. It was brownish black. It wasn’t dark black. But it was . . .

Doris: Similar to your hair color?

Benton: Yes. My hair color. And then as he got older he went bald. Most of my time remembering him he was basically bald. With a strip around the head and being bald on top. That’s why he always wore a hat because he got sunburned on top of his head. He wore a hat to work and even around the yard and when we went down to the farm he always wore a hat.

Doris: Was his hair white? What hair he had at the time you knew him? Or was it still brown?

Benton: It was brown, but the latter years–the last 10 or 15 years–it was gray.

Benton: He was about 5′ 7″. He was fairly short.

Doris: So you’re taller than your father?

Benton: Yes. There were two types in the family. Tall and thin like Uncle Ike Blake. He was 6 foot and probably weighed 170 pounds. And then my dad was short. Dad and Sam and Jim and Will were all rather short. The other boys were on the tall side. So he was a short man.

Doris: How many brothers and sisters did he have?

Benton: There were twelve children in the family.

Doris: How many were boys?

Benton: Eight boys and four girls

Doris: And were the sisters tall and slim or short and fat?

Benton: They were short and fat. Well they weren t particularly fat, but they were on the heavy side and kind of short.
Doris: Would you say that your father was overweight?

Benton: At times. Then times he thinned down. During his last years he was not heavy because he d lost weight because of his illness. But at times he was on the heavy side, but I never thought he was fat.

Doris: What color were his eyes?

Benton: Blue. Blueish green. I don t know.

Jean Blake: Weren t they more of a green?

Benton: Yes.

Doris: What were his hobbies or his favorite books or different things that you would consider his favorites? Favorite food? Favorite things to do? Was he a gardener like you?

Benton: Well, as far as I can remember he had a farm and that was his hobby, his activity and his love. Often when he got home from work he d change his clothes, put on his hat and he and I get in the car and go down to the farm. Over our lifetime we spent hours down there. Looking at it. Walking it over when the crops were planted to see if the seeds were germinating. Checking it. When he had cattle, he d check them. And so that was probably his first love. And yes he did have a garden, and we grew vegetables. I don t know that he had any other particular hobbies.

Doris: Did he enjoy reading? Did you see him reading a lot?

Benton: He read a lot. He read a lot of current events. Since he was a lawyer, a senator, he was very interested in political affairs and matters. We subscribed to the Phoenix Gazette so that he
could keep current with the political affairs.

Doris: When you talk about him being a judge, was it an elected position? Was he appointed to be a judge? Was he a judge in different venues?

Benton: Well, lets follow his professional career. At age 17 my father left the home in Vineyard, down by Utah Lake and went to Arizona because his brother Ike was in Arizona. Ike had originally gone to Arizona to freight, to move a family down from Heber Valley. He drove a team and wagon down, and then he stayed and worked on the Anderson Dairy and ultimately married the Anderson girl Aunt Ella. So Ike was there, and I think he was married at the time Dad went down. And so Dad went down . . . First of all, as a young 17, 18 year old boy, he worked on the Anderson/Blake Dairy in Globe. And last week when we drove through Globe, we pointed it out to Julie as we were crossing on an elevated bridge over the railroad. There s a street in Globe, Arizona named Blake Street– named after Uncle Ike, because he lived there quite awhile.
And so Dad had a job. He went to work in the dairy. And he lived down in Globe (about 70 miles west of Pima) for a period of time. Thats where he, along with President Kimball who was about Dad s age, a little younger – both milked cows. However, President Kimball milked cows for a different dairy than Dad. But their free time was usually spent together. Some days in Globe it was so hot they would climb up on the windmill to get a breeze to cool them off. They had to get up early in the morning to milk the cows and feed them. And then they d have to start
milking them again in the afternoon. That was when there was no electric milkers, so they had to do the milking by hand. Dad commented that his hands were so sore from milking that during the off times, he would hold his hands up to let the blood circulate through his hands.
So from Globe he then went back to Safford, and he bought him a motorcycle, and he lived in Thatcher. And he got a job working in the Gila Valley Bank in Thatcher with Spencer Kimball. Ultimately he ended up as clerk of the Board of Supervisors. The county seat was then in
Solomonville which is now called Solomon. Thats about four or five miles east of Safford. And thats where he worked for three to four years as the clerk of the Board of Supervisors. And when they built the first bridge over the Gila River in the Valley, it was from Pima to Bryce.
They had the name of the Board of Supervisors, and Dad s name was on that bridge . . . Benjamin Blake, clerk of the Board of Supervisors. When we were there last, we checked, and that bridge is no longer there. Its been replaced by a modern bridge. When he was in Solomonville, he would ride his motorcycle down the railroad ties, and it was
bumpity, bump, bump, bump. And that was better than the dirt road, because they were all dirt and muddy roads, particularly when it was wet. He d get on his motorcycle and ride from Solomonville to Thatcher where he lived. Somewhere along that line, he met my mother which was Aunt Ella’s sister. About this time he started dating Mother.

Doris: On the motorcycle?

Benton: Yes. He’d ride down from Thatcher down to . . .

Doris: I mean, did he put her on the motorcycle?

Benton: Yes. She’s ridden on the back of a motorcycle, believe it or not.
He was quite a dashing young man in the Gila Valley. Then finally the romance got quite serious. But my mother was dating a lot of men. Finally her mother took her to the side and said, “Laura, if you don’t shape up, you’re going to lose Ben. He’s the best thing that ever
happened to you.” And so by that time mother started getting serious with him, and they ultimately courted and got married.When they were married, they, along with quite a few couples from the Gila Valley, took a
special train car. They chartered it. It was the Wedding Express. It went to Salt Lake so they could be married in the temple. They had to go by horse and buggy from Safford out to Bowie. And they caught the train, and the train went to Los Angeles and from Los Angeles to Salt Lake.
So it was a two-day trip. And there was always couples go along to be chaperones for these young couples. When they got back, they lived in Thatcher where Dad worked in the bank, a cashier in the bank
with President Kimball—also a cashier in the bank. So they promoted themselves from milking cows in the dairy in Globe to cashiers in the Gila Bank which was situated on the corner now where the new alumni building is located on Eastern Arizona College. It was on Main Street in
Thatcher. And then Ike moved back from the dairy in Globe. Maybe they sold it, I don’t know. And Ike and Dad then leased the Anderson farm from Grandpa Anderson. He was getting old enough that he wanted to retire. So they rented his farm.

Doris: So was the farm your dad owned originally Grandpa Anderson’s?

Benton: Nope

Doris: A different farm?

Benton: A different farm. Adjacent to it. Close by. But the farm that they rented and operated was owned by Grandpa Anderson (Haakan Anderson). Uncle Ike later bought a farm nearby. Uncle Guy Anderson inherited and/or bought the Anderson farm from the family. The dirt road running by this farm is now named “Anderson Lane.”.
In the meantime, mother obtained her teaching certificate. In those days you didn’t have to be a college graduate. She had gone to the Gila Academy for a couple of years. And then she went to Northern Arizona (NAU) and got a teaching certificate.

Doris: This was prior to her marriage?

Benton: No. After. Well the education at Gila was before.

Doris: She went to school in Flagstaff?

Benton: Yes, for a summer or semester and got her teaching certificate. And that’s when Dad decided that he didn’t want to be a farmer all of his life. So with mother’s teaching certificate, she got a job teaching in Pima and Dad went down to the University of Arizona in Tucson to go to law school.

Doris: She’s teaching in Pima and he’s living in Tucson?

Benton: For one year.

Doris: So for one year they didn’t even live together, except for vacations, because they were in separate cities?

Benton: That’s right. Dad and Jess Udall were roommates at the University of Arizona in the Arizona Hall. There’s a picture of them with a couple of other people, including Richard Harless who later became a U.S. Congressman. And then after that mother got a teaching job down in South Hampton which was a suburb of Tucson that was largely a Mormon community. They had come up from the colonies and settled
in that part of Tucson. So the last year or year and a half they were in law school they were living in Tucson.

Doris: So he went from no education straight to law school?

Benton: Yes.

Doris: That’s how they did it back then?

Benton: Well he had taken some courses at Gila Academy. Some refresher courses, but he didn’t have to have a college degree.

Doris: So it wasn’t a graduate program back then?

Benton: No.

Doris: And when she taught, did she teach all the grades? Like all elementary?

Benton: I don t know. I think there were two or three grades together. When I went, it was separate grades. She may have been . . . In Tucson I think it was separate grades. Then Dad graduated from law school and took the bar exam. I think he took the bar exam before he ever graduated from law school because you could do that. Within two or three years after his graduation they introduced the bar in Arizona that you had to be a member of the bar to practice law. So he passed the bar and then he worked, got a job. It was quite a prestigious job then. He was what we call today a law clerk. In those days it was secretary to the federal judge.

Doris: In Tucson?

Benton: In Tucson. Judge Sawtell. Judge Sawtell, being a judge in the Federal Court System, held court often in San Francisco. That’s where the circuit court of appeals home office is. But they had a court in Tucson. So quite often Dad went to San Francisco for a brief period of time to be the clerk, or the secretary to the judge. And on one occasion he went back to New York with him to be the clerk. In 1927 they were living in Tucson in a home which is just a block east from where the Institute of Religion is now on the University of Arizona campus. Then my mothers mother died. And mother being the youngest child felt it was her responsibility to go back to the Gila Valley and take care of her father.

Doris: Did she have Phyllis at this time?

Benton: Yes. Phyllis was born February 11, 1927 in Tucson. And I was born in September 22, 1929 in Pima. So in that interim they moved in a Model T Ford from Tucson to Pima. At that time, my home in which I was born was a brand-new home. My Grandpa Anderson had just
lived in it for a year or so when his wife died. So mother moved in with Grandpa Anderson and took care of him until he died the June before I was born in September. And then because of her having done that, her inheritance was the home. So she owed that home free and clear. To show the fairness of my dad, when they sold that home and bought the home in Safford, he put the title to the home in her name. He said that was her sole and separate property because that was her inheritance.

Doris: So when they were in Pima, did Grandpa start working as an attorney?

Benton: Grandpa then started practicing law in Safford. Eight or nine miles to the east. In those days, probably twelve because you d go a mile east and then the road would go a mile north or south so that they could cover all the homesteads.  He practiced there for years and then . . . I don t know when it was. In the 30′ s sometime he ran for and was elected county attorney. That was an elected office as it is in all the counties. He
held that for two terms.

Doris: How long were the terms?

Benton: Two years. And I remember one of the elections he ran against Charles Rogers. And Charles Rogers was a good friend of Grandpa Owens. Of course I didn t know Grandpa Owens at that time. My dad knew him. I wouldn t be surprised but what Grandpa Owens voted for
Charles Rogers because he was his good friend, and lived in his ward in Safford.

Doris: Were there a lot of attorneys practicing in Safford? What kind of law did your dad do?

Benton: I think there were eight or ten attorneys. He did all, the whole thing. I don t know whether he ever did criminal work, except as County Attorney but he did general law practice. He had two terms as County Attorney, and then he gave that up and went into full time private
practice. He served as County Attorney during the Depression years, so I am sure that the fixed salary of the County Attorney was helpful and alluring. Later he was elected as county senator from Graham County.

Doris: State Senator?

Benton: State Senator. There were only 14 counties in Arizona at that time and each county only had one senator. So Graham County with its 15,000 people had as much clout as a senator from Maricopa County did with its 70,000 or 80,000 people at the time. So he had quite a prestigious position. He was chairman of the judicial committee and served on the appropriations committee. The appropriations committee is where they appropriate all state expenditures. So he had quite an influential position. The first term he and mother went over and stayed in the Adams Hotel in Phoenix, and I stayed with Aunt Ella and Uncle Ike.

Doris: Now the terms were what time of the year?

Benton: Each term was for two years and they were in session from January through March. About three months.

Doris: Three months.

Benton: I think it was two or three months.

Doris: And it was held in Phoenix?

Benton: Phoenix. At the State Capitol. At that time they only met every other year. So it was just during those two sessions that he lived in Phoenix. He would make lots of overnight trips to Phoenix on business. In the second session they decided they were going to rent an apartment in Phoenix, so Phyllis and I lived with them. We lived in an apartment right across from the Masonic Hall.

Doris: So that is roughly where? The Masonic Hall means nothing to me. Where was it?

Benton: The Masonic Hall was about two blocks east of the Capitol. We lived in an upstairs apartment.

Doris: How old were you?

Benton: I was in the fourth grade.

Doris: So you went to school in Phoenix from January to March?

Benton: Yes. My teacher was Mrs. Divivier. I was in trouble with her because I couldn t pronounce her name. She didn t like that. City people were really different. It was the old Capitol School. It is now torn down. But it was there for years and years. Later as we would drive by it, I knew the school room I was in, and I hated attending school there because there were so many people in the school. That was when I went to my first big movie in the theater in Phoenix. It was a color movie.

Doris: What was it?

Benton: I don t know. But I got scared because of the MGM lion . . . I d never seen such a big thing in all my life. It scared me so I didn t like to go to movies. But I went with them once or twice. In the meantime he maintained his law practice to support the family. Jess Udall had gone to
school with dad and they were very good friends, professional and church. Jess Udall became the judge. When he was called up to serve in the war the second World War, he resigned his judgeship and went back to Washington, D.C. and worked as the Judge Advocate. So when he left, the governor then appointed my father judge.

Doris: It was an appointed position?

Benton: It was at that time, but when the term was up, he had to go through an election. And those were four year terms. So he ran and was elected for two four-year terms on his own. So he served as a judge that way for eight to ten years.

Doris: What kind of judge was he?

Benton: Well, there was just one judge in the valley, so he did everything. Criminal law, probate, divorce . . . and juvenile.

Doris: Where was the courthouse?

Benton: Right down at the end of the street there in Safford. A block, two blocks from where he had his law office.

Doris: Everybody would come to Safford basically when they had a need for a judge?

Benton: That was the county seat. Thats where the courts were. That’s where the offices were.

Doris: When you are talking about a county judge, is that different? Did you have justices that took care of city things?

Benton: Oh yes. City judges and JP s weren t lawyers, they were really interested in the law. Even now it is so. But the county court judge was the original jurisdiction of all matters, both civil and criminal. And at that time there were four judges in Phoenix, and I think three in
Tucson. In each of the other counties, they had one judge. And because Graham County wasn’t the most populous county, quite often when the other judges needed additional help, either because of case load or they were disqualified on a case, my dad was called in as a county judge.
So he held a lot of court in Clifton, which is in Greenlee County, an adjoining county, and in Globe, in an adjoining county, Gila County. He went down to Tucson quite often. He was in Tucson when Jeanie and I were in law school and came down there and held court a few times
and stayed with us. That was the last time I ever saw him alive . . . when he went down there once.

Doris: So the remainder of his life he functioned as the county judge?

Benton: Until he retired in June 1953 due to ill health. He also acted as the juvenile judge, and all juveniles came before him. He was very well respected throughout the state because of his fairness and judicial temperament. That was when he told me that he never wanted to see me in court officially. And if he did, I was in serious trouble.

Doris: How old do you estimate he was when he began to be a judge?

Benton: Probably 50. He may have been 48, or in his late 40′ s.

Doris: Until his death? And he died at . . . ?

Benton: 63

Doris: So when he was a judge it wasn t like when he was a state senator? It was a full time job?

Benton: Full time judge. He couldn t practice law. He had to give that up. He had his office in the upper floor of the courthouse. And his private office faced the main street in Safford. He was on the third floor. And Grandpa Owens had his office on the basement floor on the opposite
side. So they both had offices in the courthouse at the same time.

Doris: So how well did he know Stephen Owens?

Benton: Well he knew him . . .

Doris: Because they were in the same building?

Benton: They had business . . . Grandpa Owens diary refers to Ben Blake a few times when they had meetings in his office with the REA . . . the Rural Electric Association.

Doris: What did they do?

Benton: They built power lines to farms. They furnished some power at night to the homes. I always had electricity in the home. But they installed electricity to the farms so they could have all these electric pumps. So all the way from Wilcox to Globe there were power lines put in for the farms. That was a big improvement, because until then their wells had to have gasoline engines. Electric engines were cheaper.
Doris: I know in Spencer Kimballs book he refers to your dad as well as Stephen Owens.

Doris:Would you say that your father was closer to Spencer Kimball than was Grandpa Owens? That they were life long friends? Describe his friendship.

Benton: My dad s friendship started when he worked on the dairies with him in Globe and continued through business affairs until Elder Kimball was called to the Quorum of the Twelve.

Doris: Did they maintain their friendship?

Benton: Yes they maintained it. They were in the same stake for a long period of time. They were all one stake . . . St. Joseph s Stake.

Doris: So that was the stake that President Kimball was the stake president of when he was called to be a general authority?

Benton: No. For years and years the St. Joseph s Stake was the only stake. It went from Globe, Arizona to El Paso, Texas. And anybody who had stake callings spent a great deal of time traveling back and forth on two lane, paved roads. And then they created the Mt Graham Stake which ran from Safford, east. It still included El Paso. And then the St. Joseph’s Stake was from Thatcher on down to Globe. At that time there
were more members of the church in the St. Joseph Stake than in the upper part of the Gila Valley. Because in the upper part of the valley there were a lot of Hispanics.

Doris: The upper part of the valley . . . ?

Benton: Meaning Safford and Solomonville . . . Pima was the first Anglo city settled in the valley, so it had more prestige, clout and LDS
population for a long period of time than Safford.

Doris: Grandpa Anderson settled in Pima, not Thatcher or Safford?

Benton: Oh no, Pima.

Doris: So before you married mom, your dad didn’t have more than a business relationship with Stephen Owens?

Benton: I that’s right. He greeted him in the courthouse.

Benton: President Kimball graduated from the 1914 class of Gila Academy with my mother. So he was my mother’s age and my Dad was just two years older. So it was probably 1910 when my Dad first met President Kimball. Grandpa Owens didn’t know President Kimball until the 1930′ s. He knew him longer, but he wasn’t as close to him church wise as Grandpa Owens, because President Kimball was Grandpa Owens’stake president when Grandpa Owens was bishop. That’s why when your mother and I went to Salt Lake, we were always invited by the Church Office receptionist to visit President Kimball since we were from the Gila Valley. President Kimball always retained his affinity for “The Valley.”

Doris: Why did your dad leave home at age 17?

Benton: (Chuckle.) I guess he wanted to.

Doris: Did he ever say why? Was it the sense of adventure? He wanted to be with his brother? Tired of being at home? Wanting to be treated as an adult?

Benton: All of the above. It depends on who you talk to. He didn’t ever tell me. The question never came up. He was in Arizona. He was going to live and die in Arizona. But I gather from mother . . . I learned more from mother . . .

Doris: Your mother or mine?

Benton: My mother. When he had moved from Center Creek to Vineyard, he was preteen or teen. They lived down there near Utah Lake and they did farm work and dairy work and he went to school. Apparently he was a live, rambunctious boy and whenever anything happened wrong, they always blamed Benny Blake. My father said he wasn t involved all the time, but he got all the blame because he was an outgoing, bubblish boy. I think that coupled with the fact that he
felt that his father was overbearing with anything to do with religion . . .

Doris: Forced religion on him?

Benton: I think he sensed that. It got to the point where he wanted his freedom, to do his own thing, and to not be accused of things he didn t do. I understand he ran away from home once. Caught the train. Was gone three or four days. Apparently went as far as Ogden or someplace
and came back. So I guess he was a difficult teenager. He wanted to leave and then Uncle Ike was down there (Arizona) and his brother was married. So it was good for him to go down.

Doris: Did your dad have a testimony? Did he struggle against the Church?

Benton: I depended on him. As long as I knew him, he was faithful. He didn t miss anything. He was absolutely stalwart. He studied the scriptures. He was active in the Church. He served in the Bishopric, Stake Presidency. All those years as a patriarch. I don t remember him
teaching classes much. He was mostly in leadership positions.

Doris: What where his church callings? When was he called as patriarch? Did he give you your patriarchal blessing?

Benton: He was a counselor in the Pima bishopric. I don t know the years. But I do know I was told that I d quite often leave my mothers lap in church and go up on the stand and sit in my dad s lap. So I was that age when he served in the Bishopric. And he was a counselor to Bishop
Reece Green who was the father of Max Green. He was on the Stake High Council. He was in the Stake Presidency. Judge Udall was the stake
president, and he and my dad were personal friends. Jim Smith was a counselor and Dad was a counselor. And then when Pres. Udall was called up into the military, Jim Smith was made the Stake President and my dad was his first counselor until he moved to Safford. But primarily my experience with Dad was while he was in the St. Joseph stake presidency, which included the area from Thatcher to Globe. We oftentimes went driving in the evenings to go down to visit, to
call people to positions I guess. I would stay in the car.

Doris: This was the St. Joseph s Stake?

Benton: Yes. They didn t have phones. So when you called someone to a church position you went down after your work and hoped they were home. Sometimes they were and sometimes they weren’t. Mother and Dad would go visit quite often. When I was old enough (about 12) I’d
milk the cow at night so Dad would be free to make his calls at night. They went down to glen bar and Ft. Thomas and Emory. Your mother wanted to know where the town Emory was because Grandpa Owens refers to Emory in his diary. It no longer exists, but it was near Ft.
Thomas.

Doris: So does Stephen have that on his GPS too?

Benton: No. I don’t think we have anything west of Ft. Thomas on the GPS.

Doris: When was he called as a patriarch? Was that after he served in the Stake Presidency?

Benton: Yes. Before Dad moved to Safford in 1947, he had commuted back and forth to work and waited until I finished high school, then we moved.

Doris: Was that the house I knew?

Benton: No, it was a rental house. I don’t know which house you knew. We lived in a rental house in Safford for a year while the red brick home was being built, it was located one block west of the new home.

Doris: The red brick house where Grandma Blake lived when you finished high school?

Benton: No, I lived in Pima until finishing high school That was the only other home we lived in in Safford. I think we were in that home at the time that President Kimball was attending a stake conference and called my Dad to be a stake patriarch . . . I thought it was interesting that he
called my father. We had several letters from President Kimball and whenever he was in the Gila Valley he would always come and visit my Mom and Dad. One letter he had written to them said he had called on them and they weren’t home. That was the type of friendship–that he’d always call on them. So the interesting thing was . . . I think Dad and President Kimball had the greatest love and respect for each other, but they never took advantage of it. Dad was very careful and cautious in
his relationship with “Elder Kimball.” He respected and revered Elder Kimball as an Apostle. He did not live to see him made the President.

Doris: Was he a patriarch until he died?

Benton: Yes. Until he died. No, he did not give me my patriarchal blessing. I’ve kicked myself a hundred times, because he could have and should have. But it was not suggested and I didn’t
know enough to ask.

Doris: What did you and your father enjoy doing together?

Benton: We went to the farm. We had a few athletic events that we went to. You could go to a college basketball game. Today parents are so involved with their kids in athletics. Of course my father was working. We always played our high school football games during the daytime,
because there were no lights on the field. I don t recall either of my parents ever going to a game that I played in.

Doris: Ever?

Benton: Ever. Football, basketball. Whatever sport I was playing in. Except for basketball, they were all played during the daytime.
Doris: So when you went to the farm with your Dad, you were working the farm, or checking the farm? Thats what you did together?

Benton: Yes. I ve walked over almost every foot of that farm at one time or another.

Doris: When did he purchase the farm?

Benton: Well, he purchased it at different times. When Dad bought them, there were five or six different farms, all contiguous. Not being there I can t tell you, but basically he bought several farms from the people who homesteaded them. Toad Haggard owned one of the farms. He bought the McBride place, and also the Vic Christensen place. So there were just different people who had homesteaded. He eventually leveled them all off and got them all into one 200- acre farm. He d buy 20 acres here, 40 acres there. The individual farms had been irrigated in
different directions before being leveled into one farm.

Doris: What did he raise?

Benton: His cash crop was cotton. Also some alfalfa. At that time they didn t have all the commercial fertilizers that they have now, so they would have to rotate their crops. He d plant alfalfa and then cotton. Alfalfa was a good soil builder. But it would take two or three years for
the alfalfa crop to rebuild the soil. The first year it didn t produce much. The second year it produced a full crop. But the price of alfalfa, like all crops, fluctuated. In Grandpa s history it went all the way from $8 a ton to $22 a ton.

Doris: Grandpa Owens history?

Benton: Yes.

Doris: Did your father have people helping him with the farm?

Benton: Yes. He rented it out. He always had a tenant farmer that did the work. Their arrangement was that Dad paid the real estate taxes and the canal water assessments. The farmer furnished and paid all his laborers. Dad and the renter split the profits fifty-fifty.

Doris: Did the tenant have to pay rent?

Benton: No. He got half the proceeds. They ran it together. Some people would run it on a cash rental, but that was dangerous. It was best if you shared whatever crop you had.

Doris: Did the tenant farmer live on the farm? Was there a house there?

Benton: Well there was a house there, but it was for the hired foreman. One of the farm renters I remember was Ed John. His father lived across the street from your mother in Safford. And that was when I worked on the farm. He taught me how to chop cotton, pull weeds and clean
irrigation ditches.

Jean:: There was a lot of humility in the air. His father would come over and say humility instead of humidity when it was hot and sticky.

Benton: And then there was Glen Kempton who lived in Solomonville. There were Alders that lived in Pima. And then there were one or two others that never lasted over a year.

Doris: These were his tenant farmers?

Benton: Yes. Then the one that Dad really liked and had the longest was Angel Escobedo. The reason he liked him so well was because Angel rented and farmed several farms between Safford and Pima. And every time Dad drove to work he d see how well these farms were doing. And
when Angel had too much to do he brought in his brother-in-law Casey Garcia. And that was the man who lasted the longest because Angel had heart problems and had to retire. But they were good people. Absolutely honest. When Casey retired Warner Mattice took over. We sold the
farm to Warner Mattice and his father.

Doris: Did he use the wet backs for most of the labor?

Benton: Not that I know of. They didn t have many wet backs in those days. I think in later years they did.

Doris: So who were the laborers?

Benton: Well, there would be people who would hire out to do farm work.

Doris: Were they migrant workers?

Benton: Some were. They were seasonal. During the cotton picking season they all were. Again in Grandpa Owens’diary he mentions the “Okies” had come to town.

Doris: He talked about the German prisoners of war as cotton pickers and different pickers that would come in.

Benton: They would just follow the crops. They would start in Oklahoma and go all the way to the coast.

Doris: They would also work your Dad’s farm?

Benton: Yes. They were seasonal labor. Picking of the crops. Sometimes digging ditches and things like that. Usually the renter didn’t do the physical work himself. He’d have one foreman for each of the farms and the foreman, if there was a house on it, lived there. But that’s where I
worked in the summer times. There was always a job chopping cotton, cleaning ditches.

Doris: Did your dad choose your name? I’ve heard different stories.

Benton: Well I wasn’t there and so I can’t tell you.

Jean:: You were too.

Benton: I have no personal recollection.

Doris: So what were the stories you heard?

Benton: The story is that my mother wanted me to be named after my father and my father did not want it.

Doris: Why?

Benton: He didn’t want me to be a Junior. I don’t know if they ever completely agreed. My mother maintains that when I was blessed it was Benton after Benjamin and LaRay after Laura and that she didn’t know what my name would be until I was blessed. That’s the story.

Doris: Did your father talk much of his childhood memories? What he did in Utah? What he enjoyed doing? His family? Did he stay close to his family in Utah?

Benton: He was very close to his family in Utah. We came up every year to visit them. He was very proud of his siblings and his folks. He always loved to go to Center Creek and show us where he was born. I don’t think the house is there anymore, but we’d always go to Center Creek. Uncle Jim and Sam that lived in Vineyard. We d always stop and stay with them. That’s why I was quite close to those cousins, Grant, Joseph, George and Rex Blake and others. We d spend a week or two because in those days it was quite difficult to get from Pima to Utah.

Doris: And you came every summer?

Benton: Almost. We came up here far more than they ever came down there.

Doris: Did you travel by car, train, bus?

Benton: Always car. We d stay overnight someplace . . . probably Flagstaff. Bear in mind in those days there was no freeway from Phoenix to Flagstaff. We had to go out to Wickenburg, then up to Prescott. We came into Prescott from the south. Then from Prescott we had to go
over to Jerome, then Oak Creek Canyon to Flagstaff. So it was no easy job. The other way would be to go to Globe, go up across the Salt River Canyon. That was a terrible road in those days. Then go to Holbrook and from Holbrook into Flagstaff. It wasn t easy going.

Doris: Once you hit Flagstaff?

Benton: Basically the same way we go. It was 89. (US 89)

Doris: Did your father sing, enjoy music or play an instrument?

Benton: My father had a good voice, and I understand he and Mother, when they were first married, sang quite a few duets together. And my father could play the piano with chords. He would sit down at the piano and would chord with both hands. Whenever my Dad wanted to
remember things, he d put it to music and he would never forget it. So he put a lot of things to music. He appreciated music.

Doris: I didn t know you had a piano in your home.

Benton: They had it painted green when we moved to Safford and they put it in the home primarily as a piece of furniture.

Doris: They painted it GREEN?

Benton: Yes, green, it fit with the decor of the living room in the new Safford home. But we painted it. And that’s why, remember when we bought a piano, your mother was asked if she wanted a musical instrument or a piece of furniture, and she wanted a musical instrument and not just a piece of furniture. But my mother played the piano. She used to play it for ward meetings. But Aunt Ella was the best.

Doris: You told me a couple of songs your dad liked. Did he like a specific kind of music? Grandpa Owens liked the oldies, but didn’t like that jazz stuff.

Benton: His favorite songs . . . My Dad like the old sentimental songs. “I’ll Take You to Your Home Kathleen,” that was his favorite. “Mexicali Rose,” “South of the Border,” and Gene Autry type songs. He had his records he’d play.

Doris: He had a phonograph?

Benton: Yes, it played the large records.

Doris: Did he enjoy or participate in sports?

Benton: He did not participate in any, but enjoyed baseball.

Doris: What is your earliest memory of your father?

Benton: I don’t know. Can’t answer that.

Doris: When did he have his first heart attack, and how many did he have?

Benton: Oh

Doris: Do you remember him as being ill while you were growing up?

Benton: He seemed healthy. My mother was ill all the time, and she lived to be 99 years old. She had headaches as one of her problems.

Doris: Did they ever determine what was wrong?

Benton: Yes. At the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota she had a complete checkup and it was determined she was anemic.

Doris: What were her symptoms?

Benton: Headaches. Sick headaches.

Doris: Do you think it might have been migraines?

Benton: It might have been. I don’t know. And she was weak some.
But no Dad’s health I think was robust, real good health until 1947. Aunt Nora Davis (that’s Mother’s sister) and her husband from Pocatello came down to visit them. My mother and father
and Uncle Ike and Aunt Ella took them on a picnic to Mt. Graham. I was working on the highway that summer between Safford and Bryce on the north side of the Gila River. And I think it was Boyce Lines, my cousin, who came and told me Dad had had a heart attack in the mountains and was being brought down in an ambulance. I didn t know what to think.

Doris: How old were you?

Benton: 17. I had just graduated from high school.

Doris: Where did they take him? Was there a hospital there in Safford? Did they take him to Phoenix?

Benton: The Morris Squib Hospital in Safford.

Jean:: Over by me.

Benton: Over by where mother used to live.
Benton: Then off and on he had more heart attacks. I remember once it was May Day and he had an attack, but Safford didn t have an ambulance. We were living in the rental home. And the hearse (acting as an ambulance) came and they took him to the hospital.

Doris: In the hearse?

Benton: Yes, that was the ambulance. Mother and I went downtown to do something and were told they had heard that my Dad had died, since he had been put in the hearse. But in reality he was taken to the hospital.

Doris: So how many heart attacks would you say he had?

Benton: Five or six. One serious heart attack came while I was serving in Minot, North Dakota, on my mission. They were not sure he would survive, but he did.

Jean:: What did he say that one time when they got him off the mountain?

Benton: He was conscious, and he heard the doctor say if he could live through the night he had a chance of making it. He didn t dare go to sleep for fear he wouldn t make it through the night.
Benton: I guess there was a phone on the mountain, and when he had his first heart attack they called Dr. Butlers office. Dr. Butler left his practice immediately and met them halfway at up the mountain at what is called the straight-a-way. But overall when he came to Phoenix and had his complete physical the doctor determined that he had angina attacks. They prescribed nitroglycerin pills to put one under his tongue when he
felt an attack coming. I’m sure had he lived in this day and age it would have been a simple thing to correct with surgery. There wasn’t such thing as heart surgery in those days. Other than that he’d keep holding court.
Then they went to Mesa to live after he had retired. He had to retire in July and he died in October.

Doris: What year was this?

Benton: 1953. Uncle Ike and Aunt Ella and Mom and Dad rented a home in Mesa for several months to do temple work. It was while he was there he had his final heart attack. He died in Good Samaritan Hospital on November 9. 1953. Phyllis and Marvin and Mother were there, but
by the time we got there he was dead. We didn’t have a phone in our home in Tucson and Mother, Phyllis and Marvin went to Phyllis’home in Phoenix and called President Kimball‘s brother, Gordon, who lived in Tucson. And he came out and waited for us to give us the message when we returned home from a drive-in movie.

Jean:: But that wasn’t it. We came home from a movie with Mickey and Connie (Hancock). Brother Kimball was sitting in the car. He was waiting to tell us. We got out and we recognized who it was getting out of the car and said, “That’s Brother Kimball. It must be something about
my Dad.” He said, “Your dad had a heart attack. You need to go to Phoenix immediately.” While we were talking, another car drove up and it was his wife, and she came over and said, “He already passed away.”

Doris: How devastating.

Benton: That’s when Mickey came to the rescue. He wouldn’t let us drive.

Jean:: He said, “You’re in no condition to drive. I’m driving.” He drove us to Phoenix in the middle of the night, and the next morning he took a bus back to Tucson.

Benton: He must have missed his classes all day, but he was kind enough to do it.

Doris: So did your father spend much time with Karen? Did he get to know Karen very well before he died?

Benton: We have pictures of them together while we were in Tucson. He was very proud of her. As with all kids he would spoil her rotten. He spoiled all his grand kids. Karen doesn’t remember it.

Doris: Give me some examples of your father’s kindness and gentleness. You’ve talked many, many times how kind he was. Can you give specifics?

Benton: I remember in Pima while outside working he chatted with a teenage girl, Irene Crockett, on her way home from school. He asked how she was doing, how her folks were, and how she was doing in school. He commented afterwards, She s a beautiful young girl, did you
notice how her eyes sparkle? Things like that. He would always compliment people.

Doris: So you learned how to give TL s from your dad?

Benton: Yes. He saw a lot of people that he knew whether from lawyer, judge or from church. So he was known by most of the people of the valley. And they all called him honest, and a peacemaker. His soft voice and wisdom often kept contested school and canal board meetings
from becoming even more heated.

Doris: And he looked for the good in people? It seems like as a judge he could have easily turned the other way and become critical.

Benton: But he didn t.

Doris: What did he say or do about the pranks you pulled as a boy?

Benton: Nothing. I don t remember my father disciplining me.

Doris: Nothing? He spoiled you rotten? Did he not discipline you because you were so good or he just didn t discipline?

Benton: Both of them. The way he disciplined was I knew when he was unhappy. Thats all I needed to know. I knew when he was disappointed in me for any reason. But those were just kid pranks. There was no malice aforethought. I had nothing to do at night. Looking up at the stars
got boring after awhile. We d sleep outside at times. How many stars can you count? All the kids in the neighborhood, youth and teenagers would get together at night and play games. Hide and Go Seek. Kick the Can, Run Sheep Run, Red Rover . . .

Doris: So tell me about the fake rope.

Benton: Julie took a picture of where it happened.

Doris: But what did you do? Tell us.

Benton: Julie can t comprehend this, but the road that went by my home in Pima was the main Highway 70 from Los Angeles to New York . . . Highway 70. It went right around the curve at the corner there. Since it was kind of on an incline that wasn t the best place to pull tricks. But
down at Aunt Ella s the ground was perfectly level. She had a hedge along the side, in front of her house and an irrigation ditch. And then on the other side of the road there was a little home with another ditch. So on certain nights, two or three of us would go on one side of the road.
Two or three of us would go on the other side of the road and we d pretend that we were pulling a rope across the road. We d pull back like as if we were pulling a rope across the road. The cars would come. Several were smart enough to realize it was a trick. But this one truck driven by Br. Jessup, he didn t realize what we were doing. He put on his brakes and his truck really skidded. He ended up going backwards. We took off and he was pretty upset.

Doris: You all took off?

Benton: Yes, we were hiding behind the hedge. So that’s all there was to that story.

Doris: Wasn t Arthur Patterson one of the prank companions?

Benton: No.

Doris: Was Kendall Haynie?

Benton: Yes. And Bevan Blake and a few others.

Doris: Who was your fathers best friend?

Benton: Uncle Ike, his brother. We were double relations, brothers married sisters, so we spent quite a lot of time together. Sisters and brothers visited each other. I guess professionally it would be Jess Udall. We would visit their home quite often in Thatcher. My Mom and Dad always wanted Phyllis to date his son, but she never did. They wanted me to date their daughter. I dated their daughter once. Took her to the Junior Prom.

Doris: Whose advice and counsel did he seek? Or did he really need that?

Benton: He had all he needed. Im sure he and President Kimball business-wise consulted each other often. Jess Udall in a legal way.

Doris: Did you seek your fathers advice and counsel?

Benton: I guess if I needed it. I don t know. I was just growing up. I sought his advice when I started law school, and before I married your mother. I knew that he loved me.

Doris: Did your father serve in any of the wars?

Benton: No. They were married in 1916 and he had his military pre-induction physical and was scheduled to go with the next group leaving, but the war ended.

Doris: Was your father a tease like you?

Benton: Well that’s a loaded question so I won t answer it.

Doris: Did he tease?

Benton: Yes.

Doris: A lot? A little bit?

Benton: Just the right amount.

Doris: How did he tease? What did he do?

Benton: I don t remember anything specific.

Doris: But you do remember him being a tease?

Benton: Yes. He was always pleasant to be around. The best thing was that he seemed to enjoy having me around him.

Doris: Did he tell bedtime stories?

Benton: Nope. Not that I remember.

Doris: Do you have any letters written to you by your father?

Benton: Somewhere. I think we kept a few to preserve his handwriting. I don t know. He had a beautiful signature.

Doris: Did he write to you while you were on a mission? Faithfully?

Benton: Well I always heard from home once a week. He d sometimes write a personal note.

Doris: Do you remember him giving you counsel before you went on your mission or before you got married?

Benton: I remember when we got married, his parting advice to us as we left the temple. Now be true to each other. Since Im a judge in Arizona, Ill see that you can never get a divorce in Arizona.

Doris: This will be the last question. Tell me a little bit about his relationship with your mother and your sister.

Benton: He spoiled us all rotten. I never heard he and Mother speak a cross word. They might have disagreed, but I didn t hear it. He never raised his voice. I think the only time I even thought that he was mad was when the folks were playing a card game in our Safford home and
someone (I think in jest) said that he was cheating. And that didn t sit well. Suddenly it got quiet and they quit playing the game.

Doris: So he was impeccably honest. There was no question that he was honest.

Benton: I never heard a disparaging word spoken about my father by anybody. Through his church callings and as a judge he met lots of people. Some of the people he had to send to jail would come back afterwards and say he was fair with them. One time he had sent this man to prison for having committed a serious crime. At his sentencing he threatened Dad: When I get out of jail, Ill come back and kill you. So when he got out of jail and was walking the street of Safford, he came up to Dad and said, You were fair.

Doris: Was his life ever in jeopardy from that threat?

Benton: No

Doris: Thanks for answering the questions, Daddy.

Benton: Is that all?

Doris: For now.

Memories of Benjamin Blake—-by Phyllis Blake Larson
The greatest memory that I have of my father is that he LOVED me. After waiting for 11 years before
having any children, my dad was so happy to have me, his first born. He would come home from work,
take me in his arms and dance around the room singing, “Mother and me and Baby makes three, My
Blue Heaven. ” Honestly our home was Heaven on Earth, as there was so much love in it. My first
memory of my brother was on Mt. Graham and we (my mother, dad and me) were out for a walk and I
became tired and asked my father to carry me and he said to me, “You now have a baby brother and I
need to carry him, so you must be grown up and walk by yourself.”
My parents indeed thought they were the luckiest in the world to have a daughter and a son to love, care
for and to raise. I never remember being spanked by my father, yet I always wanted to do good things,
as I didn’t ever want to disappoint him. I could always talk to my dad, as he would put his arm around me
and give me encouragement. An example was when I entered the U of A at such a young age and I had
always excelled in school and I made the dean’s list with a “D” at mid-term. Over the phone my dad’s
advise was, “Don’t worry about the grade, just do your best.” I did pull a C out of the class, much to his
advise.
My dad always loved and spoiled my mother. He would let her sleep in and he would cook breakfast for
us of side pork that he would trim off of our pork hanging outside under the eves, fried eggs and fried
toast. One of the suppers we had in the winter was one of my dad’s favorite, milk toast (toast with butter,
cinnamon and sugar with hot milk poured over it). An Old English favorite was ‘Lumpy Dick’ (flour and
sugar mixture dropped into scalding milk).
My dad was always sitting on the stand in church in his position and he would come home from church
and say to me, “I looked over everyone in the audience and you were the prettiest one there.” Now we
had mirrors in our home and knew that I wasn’t that pretty, but I knew for sure that in my father’s eyes, I
was the prettiest.
I know that the greatest booster in my life was self confidence in myself due to the love that I received in
our home. I was like “Annie Get your Gun”, there wasn’t anything that I couldn’t do, because my father
believed that I could. When I skipped grades, who would sit by me and teach me the U.S. and State
Constitutions and show his love and admiration for me.
I will end by telling you another story that I heard about my father just a few years ago. Marvin and I were
in Hawaii visiting a school class mate of his. This class mate’s name was Marvin Allred and he is a
billionaire , as he made his fortune in pool chemicals. We were riding down the elevator from his pent
house and he put him arm around me and said, ” I will always love you Phyllis, even though I hardly
know you, because of your father, the Judge. I got in trouble as a teenager and he could have sent me
to Ft. Grant, but instead I was to report to him weekly and tell him of my life. The judge always put his
arm around me and seemed so interested in me and gave me confidence to live a good life. I later went
into World War II, then went to the U of A and was graduated in chemical engineering. What a difference
your father made in my life and I will always be indebted to him”
How happy I am to have grown up with a loving father, mother and brother. As we visited my brother in
this past Oct. I could see the same loving traits in him as I saw in my father