Sellers, Charles S.,

Benjamin F. Johnson (1818-1905) was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Kirtland, Ohio, in 1835. He was a protégé and friend of the first Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith, a member of the first Council of Fifty, a Western pioneer, and a Mormon patriarch. In 1903, George S. Gibbs, an assistant in the LDS Church Historian's Office, asked him to write down some of his memories of early Mormonism, Joseph Smith, and Brigham Young. Charles S. Sellers created an edited version of this letter in 1911.

From the description of An Interesting letter from Patriarch Benjamin F. Johnson to Elder Geo. S. Gibbs [photostat], July 1, 1911. (Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens). WorldCat record id: 228769937