Benjamin Franklin Grouard (January 4, 1819 – March 18, 1894) was one of the earliest Latter Day Saint

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Miss ...

to the

Society Islands The Society Islands ( , officially ; ) are an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean that includes the major islands of Tahiti, Mo'orea, Moorea, Raiatea, Bora Bora and Huahine. Politically, they are part of French Polynesia, an overseas country ...

, which now constitute

French Polynesia French Polynesia ( ; ; ) is an overseas collectivity of France and its sole #Governance, overseas country. It comprises 121 geographically dispersed islands and atolls stretching over more than in the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Ocean. The t ...

. Grouard was born in

Stratham, New Hampshire Stratham is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The town had a population of 7,669 at the 2020 census. It is bounded on the west by the Squamscott River. The town is the home of the only U.S. Lindt & Sprüngli factory an ...

,. He joined the

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian restorationist Christian denomination and the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement. Founded dur ...

and in 1843 was called to go with Addison Pratt, Noah Rogers and Knowlton Hanks, with the plan to preach the gospel in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

. On the trip aboard a whaling ship, Hanks died. Due to ship sailing schedules they were only able to reach the Society Islands. They had many converts there and Grouard married a native woman. When the other missionaries left Grouard stayed. After Pratt returned he reconnected with Grouard. In 1852, Grouard and his family returned to the United States, settling in

San Bernardino, California San Bernardino ( ) is a city in and the county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a population of 222,101 in the 2020 census, making it the List of ...

. In 1855, Grouard left the church and became Disfellowshipped and excommunicated. During this time he became a spiritualist. Grouard was the father of the army scout Frank Grouard.

References

Dan L. Tharpp. ''Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography''. pp. 592–593
* R. Lanier Britsch. "French Polynesia". in Arnold K. Garr, Donald Q. Cannon and Richard O. Cowan, ed., ''Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History''. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2000) pp. 399-400

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Grouard, Benjamin Franklin 1819 births 1894 deaths 19th-century Mormon missionaries Former Latter Day Saints American Mormon missionaries in French Polynesia Converts to Mormonism People from Stratham, New Hampshire People from San Bernardino, California