History of John Lars Bolinder - copy found at the Benson Grist Mill Historic Site

John Lars Bolinder was born in Ransburg, Sweden on July 25, 1836. The son of Anders Erickson and Stina Jacobson. His wife was Mary Stina Johnson.
He spent the early years of his life in Sweden learning the trade of blacksmith and stonemason.
Then he left Sweden and went to Denmark and then to Liverpool, England, where he bought a saw from some ship builders. This saw was one of his prized possessions as long as he lived.
He then came to America on the ship Minnesota. The voyage took approximately six weeks. He landed in New York and came from there on train to Omaha, Nebraska. Here they were making up the first immigrant train to come to Utah. He came as far as Ogden and when they asked him where he wanted to go, he told them to a place where there were mountains and trees because that's the way it had been in Sweden. They then sent him to Grantsville. The first winter, he and his family settled on the old Bolinder lot and lived in a dug-out.
He went to Bear Lake and set up a saw mill and worked at it for some time. He then came to Grantsville and worked as a blacksmith at Mercer, Stockton, and Grantsville.
Many times when Brigham Young and his company came from Salt Lake along w3ith others, he was sent out along with others to watch as a body-guard while he went to either Grantsville or Tooele.
He helped build the Academy (which is now known as poverty flats). He also did the iron work on the old Pavilion.
In some slack months when there wasn't much blacksmith work, he, with some others, set up a saw mill in South Willow. The lumber on the outside of the old Bolinder home is from that mill.
He was married twice and his second wife was Charlotta Erickson Quist.
He had five children by his first wife. They were Alfreda, Gustave, Lorenzo, Hortense, and Dorthea. He had eight by his second wife. They were Gilbert, Annie, Matilda, William, Frances, Ellen and Emma. He died on May 22, 1932.