Benjamin Franklin Knowlton Jr.

Benjamin Franklin Knowlton Jr. was born 11 September 1866 in Salt Lake City to Benjamin Franklin and Rhoda Ann Richards Knowlton. He married Sarah Lavina Clark on 14 April 1866 in the Logan Temple in Logan, Utah Territory. Frank as he was called grew up in Skull Valley helping his father raise livestock on the open range. He had limited opportunities to go to school and was not prepared when his father had some misfortune. With his growing family he saw he could no longer be a partner with his father. As a means to provide for his family he decided to go to the Philippines as a U.S. civilian employee in 1900. When he returned in 1906 he worked for the Union Pacific in their engineering department for eight years supervising important railroad location surveys and construction projects. Frank left his family in 1914 for California and Sarah divorced him on 22 October 1917. On 15 April 1933 he was traveling with son to Salt Lake City from San Francisco when he died in Sparks, Washoe, Nevada. He had been recovering from a recent illness. Frank was cremated and is buried in an urn garden in the Sunset View Cemetery, Berkeley, California. After his divorce with Sarah he married Louise Buzzo.