The Gathering
In 1874 Brigham Young, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, called for a mission to Mexico. In 1875, missionaries set out with the dual purpose of proselytizing and finding prospective locations for Mormon settlements. The missionaries returned with positive reports the next year and another group was sent in October 1876. Brigham Young died in 1877.
John Taylor became the next Church President and continued Brigham Young’s policy of sending missionaries to Mexico. Through the early 1880’s colonization was considered on several occasions without effort to begin the process.
It was not until the mid-1880s, however, that the time was deemed right for colonization. In January 1885 President John Taylor sent word to Saints in Arizona that a gathering place had been designated in the valley of the Casas Grandes River, in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. The first party of colonizers left Snowflake, Arizona, on 9 February 1885.
In Utah, and other Mormon settlements, many saints were being persecuted and jailed under the Edmunds Act, which, among many other things made it illegal to practice bigamy.
The Mormon Colonies in Mexico became a refuge for many saints who practiced plural marriage. The colonies were to not only serve as a safe haven, but also as President John Taylor stated, “A focal point for spreading the gospel in Mexico.”
Located in the desert between the town La Ascension and the U.S. border, Colonia Diaz was the first colony to be settled. The Mexican government forced the first saints to wait near La Ascension while land purchase agreements were finalized.
After permission was granted, the Saints arrived to settle Colonia Juarez later in 1885.
By the spring of 1886 there were some three hundred fifty colonists camping in dugouts on the banks of the Piedras Verdes River. As in all Mormon settlements, after arriving the colonists busied themselves building homes, a meetinghouse, plowing fields, and digging irrigation ditches to make their new community habitable. Within a year after arrival, it was brought to the settlers’ attention that they had settled on the wrong property. The correct property purchased was actually two miles up-river in a narrow valley with uneven, rocky ground.
Frustrated, the Saints were forced to abandon their homes after a year’s worth of toil. Unfortunately, this act of futility and heartache would not be the last to befall the Saints in Mexico. Famine, robbery, murder, and revolution would test the Saints in this new land. Thus began the Mormon’s main settlement in Mexico.
The mountain colony of Pacheco was settled in 1887 with Colonia Dublan being settled in 1888 located north of what is now the city of Nuevo Casas Grandes, eighteen miles northeast of Colonia Juarez.
Deeper into the high timbered valleys of the Sierra Madre, The Mormon Colonies of Colonia Garcia and Chuichupa were settled in 1894. On the Sonoran side of the border, the Mormon Colonies of Colonia of Oaxaca (1892), Morelos (1900), and San Jose (1905) were settled 70 miles southwest of Colonia Diaz.
The Exodus
In 1910 revolution spread throughout Mexico. Although Church officials declared their position of neutrality, differing factions fought each other while both the American and Mexican citizens of The Mormon Colonies in Mexico were caught in the middle. Many of the colonists in the outlying colonies were threatened, robbed, and killed by roaming bands of guerillas. In 1912, the Mexican Government told the Saints that the government would no longer protect them.
In July of 1912, the colonists congregated at the train station in Pearson (now Mata Ortiz). All women and children were to be evacuated to Douglas, Arizona and El Paso, Texas. Many Saints decided the uncertainties and heartache associated with life south of the border were too much to bear. Less than half the colonists returned to the Colonies with the revolution’s end in 1920.
The expatriates would resettle only five of the original ten colonies. Over the next 30 years the Anglo inhabitants would abandon the mountain colonies of Chuichupa, Garcia, and Pacheco. Due to isolation, lack of secondary schooling, and the inability to eke out an existence, the original settling families moved to the colonies of Dublan and Juarez.
Join us through this blog and our subscription Las Colonias newsletter as we tell the Colonies’ history sharing many harrowing and faith promoting stories of the individual Saints’ trials with Indian attacks, grizzly bears, bandito’s, and revolutionists.
Thanks for the interesting story
I’m LDS, a senior & interested in moving to one of the remaining colonies. I prefer colder climates, so, which colony would meet that requirement? Thank You.
Genia,
Contact John Hatch (jandshatch@yahoo.com). He can help answer your questions.
Thanks,
Ryan Windley
I have just recently found out that my ancestors were perhaps some of the first to make the move to Mexico from Utah. Would you have any information on the Staley Family. I am looking for information on my great grandmother. She was born in Colonia de Dublan but I cannot find any information on her. Her name was recorded as Treaca (or Teareca) Staley ( B.1895 D. 1975) her father was Merritt Edward Staley and her mother was Eliza Jane (Jones) Staley. I am trying to re-trace her journey from Mexico to Lac La Biche Alberta Canada where my grandmother was born.
Thank you!
Leanne Smith
Leanne,
Are you still looking? After Eliza Jane (Jones) Staley died in 1903 and was buried in Colonia Dublan, Merritt “Ed” Staley Sr. took his family to Bonneville County Idaho where he was buried in 1947 in the Little Butte Cemetery in Annis, Jefferson County, ID. Tearseca Staley married a German immigrant, Frank Kreuzer (born 1879), 8 days after her 19th birthday in Bonneville County. At some point they decided to move to Slave Lake, Alberta, had 7 children and were both buried there.
I know this because Merritt “Ed” Staley Sr. was the stepbrother of Vermina “Minnie” Staley, born in Mexico in 1889 and buried in the Panteón de Colonia Morelos, Agua Prieta Municipality, Sonora in 1918. She was the grandaunt of my 4th cousins 2x removed Moroni Fenn and Nora Fern Baldwin. I have over 300 in my family tree that were either born, buried or both in the Mexican colonies.
do you know about the ALLRED families who settled that area. Issac allred was to have supposedly colonized somewhere in that area. He had several wives.
Thank you .
What year was this article written (I’m trying to find out so I can cite it). Also, what source led you to write “In 1912, the Mexican Government told the Saints that the government would no longer protect them.” ?
My great-grandparents settled in Colonia Morelos in 1901. They were part of a larger group who came south from Bunkerville, Nevada. I am Interested in information about any of the families who lived in Morelos or San Jose etween about 1902 and 1912, In particular, Vanleuvens Aldridge’s, Browns, Lillywhites or Iversons. Any information would be helpful.
My great, great grandfather was among the 1st colonizers of Colonial Juarez. George Washington Sevy. He became the 1st LDS Bishop there. Miles Romney Mitt Romney’s great,great grandfather was one of his counselors. My daughter while studying for her masters degree in education at the University of Utah visited Colonial Juarez to do a study of how special education students were taught there and was able locate the gravesite of George W. Sevy at the Juarez seminary.
I am also a descendant of George Washington Sevey through his 3rd wife Martha Thomas. His son, George Thomas Sevey, is my great grandfather. I miss our Sevey reunions but grateful to still be connected to my mom’s Sevey cousins! I grew up around all of them and my great aunts and great uncle Leonard Sevey. He was my favorite!
I am a descendant of Dulces Nombres Gonzalez, one of the first Mexican families to be baptized in the Mormon Colonies. He lived in Chuichupa with my grandmother, Maria Juana Gamboa de Gonzalez also baptized on August 5, 1911. Does anyone have any information on history regarding them. They suffered through all the same revolutionary struggles as the other colonists did. Trying to write their history and seeking answers. My father was one of his sons. I am a 3rd generation member. Thank you for any help you can provide.
Rogelio Gonzalez
Anyone know of a Esperanza and Olympia Carmona Guerro. My great great great grandmother and a daughter of hers lived there during the war. Terrible and sad story I just found out bout them and where they lived yesterday. Olympia was taken as a young girl while playing w dolls in Chihuahua, Then taken again to the Colonias. They lived in a cardboard box. Any help would be helpful and start the healing process. She has two granddaughters still alive and Probably need closure. I’m sure no one knew she was still alive when she was a child.
My Aunt worked at a hospital near there, does anyone know what it is called?
My Grandma was born in the Chuichupa Colony in 1900. Her mother Mary Elizabeth Rasmussen her father Henry Smith Christensen. They moved back to Colorado but I am not sure when. I’m trying to find out more about their time spent there. Any direction from anyone is appreciated thank you. Nancy
My Grandfather, Albert Stephen Farnsworth was one of the originals. He was born in Navoo and was an infant in his mother’s arms at the Funeral of Joseph and Hyrum.