Early church records from Patriarchal Blessing, baptisms for the dead in Nauvoo and sealings in Brigham Young's office all have birth date provided by Benjamin Franklin Grouard as 4 January 1819. The January 3rd date appears to come from the tombstone date calculated from his age at death as 75 years, 2 months and 15 days.

Son of Francis and Sophronia Grouard

• Married Caroline Mode, 30 May 1839, Methodist Church, Spring Garden, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Married Tearo, April 1845, Anaa Atoll, Tuamotu, Pacific Islands. Daughter - Sophronia Grouard
• Married Nahina. Children - Benjamin Grouard, Frank Grouard, male Grouard.
• Married Louisa Maria Hardy, on 23 January 1853, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah. Children - Ella Frances Grouard, Charles Edwin Grouard, Josephine M. Grouard, Hope Evelyn Grouard, Charlotte Isabel Grouard

Obituary - Death of B. F. Grouard, A Pioneer Citizen.

Santa Ana, March 18. -- The community was shocked this morning to hear of the sudden death of Mr. B. F. Grouard, a pioneer citizen of Santa Ana, who came here 14 years ago and has done a great deal to build up Santa Ana. Mrs. Grouard preceded her husband about a year ago. Mr. Grouard came to Santa Ana in 1852 and has been a strong, vigorous man until about six or eight years ago when he showed some signs of heart trouble.

A year ago next month he was stricken with paralysis of the left side, while up in Wyoming, and after his recovery from that illness he has had several attacks of heart trouble. This morning he stepped out the back door and while walking alone in the back yard he turned partly around to look at his daughter who was with him, when he gave a sudden outcry and sunk to the ground and died at once. His family rushed up to him at once but his spirit had taken its flight. When he arose from his bed this morning early he was feeling quite well and had been for a few days back. Mr. Grouard leaves one son, Charley and four daughters, Mrs. Shaw, Mrs. Bristol, Mrs. Tedford and Mrs. Stafford.

He was born in Portsmouth NH, on January 3, 1819, making him 75 years 2 months, and 15 days old. The funeral will take place at the family residence on the corner of Fifth and Olive Streets Tuesday, March 20th at 10 am and the burial at the Santa Ana cemetery. He was not a member of any secret society but was a man of excellent habits. All who knew him liked him for his true manliness and uprightness of character. His death causes a great deal of mourning in Santa Ana.

History - One of the first Latter-day Saint missionaries to the Society Islands in Stratham township (near Portsmouth), Rockingham, New Hampshire. He left his home when only fourteen years of age, going to sea. Becoming a convert to "Mormonism," he was baptized into the Church at an early day and ordained to the Priesthood.

Being called, together with Addison Pratt, Noah Rogers and Knowlton Hanks to fill a mission to the Pacific Islands, he was ordained a Seventy and left Nauvoo to fill said mission June 1, 1843. After a long and tedious passage, during which one of his missionary companions (Hanks) died, he reached the island of Tubuai (south of the Society Islands) in May 1844. Soon afterwards he went to the Island of Tahiti, where he raised up a branch of the Church and later performed a glorious missionary work among the natives on the Tuamotu Islands. With the assistance of the natives, he built a vessel on the Island of Tubuai, which was used for some time in carrying the missionaries from island to island. Not hearing from his family in America for a long time, he married a native wife on the Island of Anaa.

In 1852 he returned to America and settled in southern California. He made his home in San Bernardino, where, at that time, there was a considerable body of the saints. He finally left the Church and became a Spiritualist. After residing in San Bernadino and Los Angeles for several years, he moved to the Santa Ana Valley, where he died March 19, 1894, seventy-five years of age, leaving a son and four daughters.

*Oral family history states that Benjamin and his Pacific Islander wife had three boys, that the wife did not adjust to life in San Bernardino, and returned to her island with the older and younger boy.

The middle boy was Frank Grouard, who ended up being raised by the Pratt family (relatively famous LDS members), was captured by Indians, and taken in by the Sioux. He lived with the Sioux for quite some time and then escaped and became a scout for the U.S. Army, under the direction of General Crook. Later Frank became a marshall. His gravesite is listed on Find a Grave, as is a biography.

Benjamin believed for years that Frank had been killed when he was captured by the Indians and only learned that his son had survived when a biography (Life and Adventures of Frank Grouard by DeBarthe) was about to be published. Benjamin traveled to Wyoming to reunite with his son and died a short time later.