Bennington History
Information comes from Treasured Tidbits of Time Volume I by Jens Patrick Wilde and is a condensed version
From the very beginning Bennington has maintained its name, but the location of the town is different from its original settlement. Although the first settlers moved into the community in the fall of 1864, it was not established until July 6, 1866 by an act of the Richland County court of Utah.
Jared Bullock and Jonathan Hoopes came by way of Soda Springs in the fall of 1864 and constructed the first cabins in the area. The first townsite was located on what is now the present Grant Wright ranch. For the first two years no effort was made to name the community. It is said that Brigham Young named the community after Bennington, Vermont, where he once lived. By then three other families had arrived. They were Evan M Greene, appointed the first presiding elder, Hyrum Hoops and Edward Homer, who later surveyed Star Valley and roughly blocked out the route that later became known as the Crow Creek road.
Additional families arrived in 1865. Among those were Amos R Wright and George Kent. To the Wright's was born the first child in the community, Winifred Rebecca Wright, Feb 18, 1866.
Bennington settlers found it extremely difficult to farm on the land. It was situated on a high bench land where cold winds, early fall frosts and late spring storms handicapped them. The lack of water was also a problem and is to this day. Evan Greene's son Admanzah was the communities first death who died at the age of 10. It was an extremely cold winter. Seven of Green's cattle and a horse froze to death. Shortly after, his daughter, wife of Jared Bullock died in childbirth. It was impossible to bury them that winter so the bodies were kept frozen until spring. After the funeral, the Greene and Bullock family left the valley returning to Smithfield Utah.
In the spring of 1870 Alonzo Bingham surveyed the first town site. He also became the presiding elder. By 1873 Joseph William Moore got regular church meetings in a vacant home. In 1873 a public meeting determined that a new town site should be chosen. it was surveyed and by spring of the next year the community had shifted. Following the organization of the Bear Lake Stake, the Bennington Ward was organized, Aug 6, 1877. Moore became the first Bishop and the community began to grow.
Bennington had two different post offices at different times. The first post office discontinued in 1887 and in 1892 another started, with the first post master of the second one was Silas Wright. It served until 1966. With the long lonely winters, Bennington residents developed musical talents, dancing and drama to combat the winters. The Bennington Traveling Band became very popular and was originally composed of Jesse Dunn, Horace Weaver, Brady Dunn, Riley Weaver, Isaac and William Speirs, George Birch, Peter and Hans Hansen and Henry Short. John Dunn also established the first dancing academy on the west side of the valley.
In the 1930s a serious water drought hit the community and water was hauled to the homes by M B Crane. Through the PWA, Bennington established a more stable water supply in 1935.