Benjamin "Ben" Granger Bistline was an American historian of Mormon fundamentalism in Short Creek, a community of which he was a part.
10 Facts About Benjamin Bistline
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Benjamin Bistline's parents were practitioners of mainstream Mormonism, living in Providence when some residents of Cache County began to challenge the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' ban on polygamy.
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Benjamin Bistline received permission from his stepfather to court one of his daughters on the condition Benjamin Bistline would practice plural marriage.
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The courtship was interrupted by the Short Creek raid, but eventually Benjamin Bistline married Annie Jessop on 24 June 1955.
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Subsequently, marriage assignment by FLDS leadership began, and Benjamin Bistline was never called upon to take a second wife.
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Benjamin Bistline worked as a timber cutter, farmer, contractor and crane operator.
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Benjamin Bistline was among the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed by Short Creek residents who claimed they were evicted for trivial offenses.
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Benjamin Bistline lived in Colorado City until 2003, when the UEP trust agreed to sell him a mobile home in nearby Cane Beds, Arizona at a low cost, and assisted in the relocation there.
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Benjamin Bistline was blind from around age 70 and suffered a variety diabetes-related ailments.
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Benjamin Bistline wrote The Polygamists: A History of Colorado City, Arizona, which he self-published in 1998.