Erastus Bingham was born in Concord, Vermont on 12 March 1798. He joined the Mormon Church and followed the migration of that church to Kirtland, Ohio and to Far West, Missouri where he was driven out in 1838 to Hancock County, Illinois. In May, 1846, Bingham was forced out of Nauvoo, Illinois and began his migration westward through Mount Pisgah, lowa, to Council Bluffs, lowa. In June, 1847, Bingham and his family started for Utah, and arrived in the Salt Lake Valley 19 September 1847. In Salt Lake he acquired a farm in the Holiday area and had a grazing permit in the canyon of the Oquirrh Mountains in the west of the valley. This canyon was named after him, Bingham Canyon, and became the site of the great copper mine.

In April, 1850, Erastus Bingham moved his family to Ogden, and occupied the area where the Ogden City Building on 25th and Washington Boulevard is located. This area was later designated as a city square, and Bingham moved for a short time to the Farr Fort area near 12th Street. In 1851, Bingham moved to an area west of Wall Avenue and 2nd Street where he built a cabin and cultivated a farm. In that same year a fort was constructed out of a wooden frame structure with willows woven in between and then plastered with mud to make a fort of 120 rods long by 60 rods wide. The walls stood about 12 feet high with a gate at the east and west ends of the fort Several cabins were built within the fort, including Bingham's cabin, and farms were established around the fort Water was brought to the farms by a canal called the Lynn Canal The fort was first known as Bingham's Fort but the community that developed around it was later called "Lynn " Bingham later moved from the fort area to property near 23rd Street and Madison Avenue where he built a home At the end of the 1990s there was community interest to restore Bingham's Fort as a public historic park

Erastus Bingham was a leader in the community He held ecclesiastical offices of Bishop of the North Ward of the Weber Stake of Zion and later Bishop of the First Ward In 1852, he was elected as Ogden City Councilman, and in 1854 served in the first Territorial Legislature He helped lead several farnilies out of Ogden to Utah County during the Utah War migration in 1858 He and his family helped to construct many of the early public buildings in Ogden

Erastus Bingham had three wives in polygamy - Lucinda Gates Bingham Mehitable Sawyer Hall Bingham, and Emma Nye Wilson Bingham There were 10 children from these marriages Erastus Bingham died 22 May 1882.

Source: Weber County History, Page 59-60