George Conrad Naegle
1860-1935
George Conrad Naegle was the son of John Conrad Naegle, of sturdy German ancestry. His father was born in Albersweiler, Pfalz, Bavaria, September 14, 1825.
The Naegles had lived in this beautiful little village, nestled among foothills on a tributary of the Rhine River since about 1653 when Leonard Negelin, a direct ancestor, was among the first to have settled there with his family after the town was swept clean by a civil war. The Naegles played their part in the history of the town after that time. Legend affirms that in feudal days there was a castle on every strategic hilltop occupied by lords of the manor or the monks who ruled with them. Today those same hillsides are terraced to the top since wine making is the foundation of this town’s economic and commercial life and every available foot of ground must be planted to grape vines. George Conrad’s mother, Rosanna Zimmerman (number three of John Conrad’s wives), was born May 1, 1841 in Franklin County Pennsylvania, of the first generation of German immigrants of this line to come to America.
George Conrad Naegle was born October 1, 1860 in Lehi, Utah. He spent his early years there with a garden and orchard to be looked after and animals to be cared for. No doubt he was often at Warren Spring Ranch (now Saratoga) where his father had most of his cattle and horses. As a large family of which she was a member was very strict and religious observance, he had strict training in the principles of the Gospel, but little, if any, formal education. Father, busy with projects for developing the fast-growing empire of Utah, apparently did not since the need for it. One wonders why Grandfather Zimmerman, educated in the universities in Germany in German, French, Latin and English, himself a teacher of renown in the early days, did not leave his cobbler’s bench in all classes for the young of Lehi.
John Conrad’s was a strictly patriarchal home and George Conrad, the oldest son, was his right hand lieutenant. He made all decisions for all the family, did all the planning, controlled all activities.
Shortly after 1875, George’s parents moved to Beaver, Utah. Their father Naegle found faster for his growing herds of cattle and bands of horses, and an excellent garden spots produce food for the rapidly increasing family. At the stay at Beaver was short-lived. Friends were securing rangeland in the Buckskin Mountains and John Conrad was able to secure land in this region, so he moved Rosanna and family to Toquerville and his stock to Kaibab Forest near the Grand Canyon of the Colorado.
George Conrad was baptized by his father at Lehi, ordained a Deacon in the early 1870’s in Toquerville, made in Elder in 1880, and became a Ward teacher an officer in the first YMMIA organized there. He married Sara Higbee, daughter of pioneer John S. Higbee of Toquerville in the St. George Temple, 18 February, 1880. This he responsibility made him definitely aware of his lack of education. George determined to correct an embarrassing situation. John Conrad readily agreed and purchased a home in Provo where his children might attend Brigham Young Academy. George, now highly motivated, but the preparatory studies in record time and, at the close of the term in 1882, left with credits in bookkeeping, German and other courses, some taken under Karl G. Maeser.
In a cave for he was called to fill a mission in Germany, and on 7 April was ordained a 70 by Francis M. Lyman. He first labored in Switzerland and later in the part of Germany where his father’s people had lived for generations, Albersweiler and Liensweiler. He searched genealogical records together information on the Naegle family line. Later work done by a bonded archivist at Speyer Staatarchiv verify George Conrad’s work for accuracy to the last detail. Scraps of letters to his father at this date have interest:
“In November, 1885, I was called on a special mission to Turkey to aid Elder Jacob Spari and opening a mission in Constantinople. We started for the Orient but in Genoa, Italy, were interrupted by a letter which called us back owing to cholera, which at that time was raging Greece.”
From a later letter:
We distributed two tracts and “Articles of Faith,” conversely them all [his relatives in Albersweiler] from the principles of the Gospel, but it remains for the future to see if any will embrace it. I borne testimony to many and hope the seed sown will find some good ground and bring forth fruit. I have five companions, noble and praiseworthy young men viz: Elder F. M. Lyman, Jr. of Provo and Elder A. W. Musser of Salt Lake City. The former is president of the South German Conference in the latter and myself his co-laborers; but we do not enjoy each other’s company very much as we are… in the Missionary field, I desire to be an instrument in His hands and bringing souls to salvation. We have some pretty warm times, especially in the Kingdom of Bavaria from where Elders Smoot and Jennings were banished last June. I was sent there last July from Switzerland and spent two months with the police at my heels, was summoned before the chief of police twice and each time threatened with banishment, but I got over the border into Wurttemberg and escaped being banished. That was in September last and in October Elder F. M. Lyman, Jr. was banished from the kingdom…
After his return the summer of 1886, George Conrad moved his family to Kanab, Kane County, Utah, where he was ordained a High Priest by Thomas Chamberlain and set apart to act as first counselor to Bishop Lawrence C. Mariger. Other positions held by him in Kanab were President of the Ward and Stake YMMIA, Home Missionary, and Clerk of the Stake Board of Education.
In about 1890, having married his second wife, he decided to join his father in a move to Mexico where he had already purchase a tract of land in the Sierra Madre Mountains near Colonia Juarez. After a three month’s trip they arrived in Colonia Pacheco and establish their large herd of cattle on the range nearby. It was there, in June, 1892, that his brother Hyrum was killed by a large brown bear west of Pacheco.
Soon after the said event, typhoid struck family. Sabra had gone to Utah to receive medical aid. His second wife, Anna Foutz, baby girl, and his only son (child of Sabra) were carried away by the scourge. His Mexico family wiped out, the bereaved man left Mexico to join Sabra in Utah.
Church Authorities, realizing that he needed a complete change, called him to preside over the Swiss-German Mission. Accompanied by Sabra, he arrived in Bern, Switzerland, February 16, 1894, and in April took charge of the Mission. He held this position for three years in which time the number of missionaries laboring there increased from 40 to 82. Four of them were his brothers: Heber, Joseph, Casper, and Enoch.
Sabra kept the “Missionary Home” and endeared herself to all who came there. Here they adopted a baby girl, Margie Pope. During this period, George traveled through the entire European mission and Scandinavia with Anthon H. Lund and later again with Rulon S. Wells.
George Conrad was released from his mission, in January 1897, he returned to Colonia Pacheco, Mexico. A year later he moved to Colonia Oaxaca, Sonora, where his father assisted in settling the colony and also Morelos. From Oaxaca he was called on a mission in the interest of the MIA to St. Joseph Stake, Arizona, that he returned home to succeed Franklin Scott as Bishop of the Oaxaca Ward in the Juarez Stake.
In 1889, he married, as a second plural wife, Maggie Romney, daughter of Miles P. Romney and Hannah Hill. Their son, George, was born June 27, 1900. The daughter, Sabra, was born May 25, 1902. With their babies, Maggie went home to Colonia Dublan for a visit. While there, little George died of typhoid fever. A grief stricken father brought his sorrowing wife and baby home. She did not rally but grew weaker day by day. It was realized that she, too, had typhoid fever, of which she died. George Conrad thus found himself 42 years of age with two adopted daughters and an invalid wife, but no son to bear his name.
In 1903, he married the Philindra Keeler and Jennie Jameson. Philindra’s first born, Joseph Abner, died in September of 1905 of spinal meningitis, but Jennie’s boy, Owen, survived. The family lived through the Oaxaca flood of 1905 which swept away their houses and most of their cattle. This is been George’s means of support all his life. In the fall of 1906, the family moved to Colonia Dublan where they were in 1912 when the Mormons left the colonies, as part of the Exodus, with little cash on hand. Families coming out on the train, where George was in charge of the company, were limited to a bedroll and suitcase her family. With no more than this, a start in a new country had to be made from the ground up.
George Conrad Naegle was killed in an automobile accident in Salt Lake City, July 29, 1935, and was buried in the Wasatch Lawn Cemetery. He left 15 children, five sons and ten daughters, and ever increasing group of grandchildren.
Philinda Keeler Naegle, wife
Stalwarts South of the Border by Nelle Spilsbury Hatch page 499