Issac Behunin

Issac Behunin was very active in the early American religious revival and movement westward. His main occupation was farming but he was also involved in other projects, one of them being the Erie Canal. In 1823, he married Meribah Morton and later joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1833. The family, which now consisted of three boys named Philo, Isaac M. and William, lived in Kirtland, Ohio, with the main body of Latter-day saints for a time. Meribah sadly died while they lived there, so Isaac then got remarried to Elmina Tyler in 1834. With Elmina, he then had nine more children.

Among his many roles for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Isaac served as a bodyguard for the Prophet Joseph Smith, served a short mission in Iowa, helped build the Kirtland and Nauvoo temples, was ordained an Elder, and later a Seventy and High Priest within the church.

A few days after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, Isaac and his family were sent to the Provo settlement in September 1850. However, in 1852, the family moved to Sanpete County and Isaac became the first settler of Ephraim. The family then lived in a dugout along Pine Creek in Ephraim during the winter of 1852. During the following summer, they had farmed 40 acres of ground but were then forced to leave that land and move to Manti because of the Indians.

During the rest of his time in Sanpete County, until 1861, Isaac and his sons served in the Sanpete Militia and helped build both the little and the big forts in Ephraim and Manti. Later a ditch was named after him, ”Behunin’s Ditch,” which ran across, diagonally, from the little fort in Ephraim.

Children (According to the Utah Census of 1851)

Philo (Age 22)

Isaac M. (Age 18)

William (Age 16)

Andrew (Age 15)

Alma (Age 13)

Nancy (Age 10)

Stephen (Age 7)

Hyrum (Age 5)

Elijah (Age 3)

Almina (Age 6 Months)