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Andrew Duthie

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Andrew Duthie

(1857-1939)

On July 23, 1857, Andrew Duthie III, was born to Andrew Duthie and Louise Brebner in the city of Aberdeen, Scotland.  He was born of a very fine family. He heard the Gospel first preach to him by John Gray who later became his brother-in-law and was a Patriarch of Randolph, Utah for 15 years.

Andrew Duthie filled two missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The first was in Scotland before he was married. There he heard our mother’s beautiful voice singing in the street meetings of Glasgow, Scotland, and fell in love with her.  He was introduced to Jeannie Frazer by Elder Alexander F. MacDonald.

They were a devoted couple. They crossed the Atlantic Ocean at separate times, to be married in the temple. As the temple wasn’t finished, they were married in the old Endowment House in Salt Lake City.

My father, Andrew Duthie III, came to Utah first in 1880, and lived with former President David O. McKay’s father, who was also from Aberdeen, Scotland, and knew his parents there. They were happy to have a Scotsman of father’s character and integrity in their home and Thomas McKay helped father obtained his first job in Utah. After he had saved enough to care for a wife, mother came to Salt Lake City and stayed with her mother’s sister, Isabelle Taylor. She also had another aunt, Sister Quayle.

Jeannie and Andrew had a lovers quarrel and made up under the famous Eagle Gate on State and South Temple Street in Salt Lake City.  She had a song for every occasion. She’d sing “I Cannot Give the Hand Where the Heart will Never be.” It is an old Scotch ballad and her heart always turned to her true lover, Andrew. They were married February 22, 1883, and Salt Lake City.

Andrew had learned to be a master mechanic in the large shipyards in Glasgow, Scotland. It took him eight years to finish his training, but later in Mexico he earned as much as $50 a day in the Pinos Altos Mine, making tools and machinery. He raised nine children of his own and six nieces and nephews of the Ireland family. He was always giving to the poor and helping those in need. Brother and Sister Duthie were blessed the with good things of life, whether it was in Mexico, El Paso, Randolph, Bear Lake, or Salt Lake City. There was always a welcome place for their friends to come and stay, not just overnight, but for weeks at a time. When I was a child we lived in El Paso, and Brother and Sister Wall would come to stay and buy things for their store. Brother and Sister Taylor were welcome, too, as were Brother and Sister Spilsbury, Brother and Sister Dan Skousen, and so many others who went to El Paso to shop. They never went to a hotel or café.  Colonists were welcome, or ever the Duthie’s lived. They were loved by all.

Andrew Duthie knew he would never have a happy wife until he sent to Scotland for each of her family. So one by one, he sent money for them to come to the United States. He also sent for his own sisters, Louise and Betsey.  

Jeannie, and three children, Gilbert, Agnes, and Louise stayed in Evanston, Wyoming while Andrew went to Mexico to help his brother, John Duthie, run some mines in Pinos Altos, Mexico.  The trip to Mexico, when she finally went was hard, with the children so small, and my brother John, a baby, died. She lived among the Tarahumara Indians in the mountains, where Andrew was working. Victoria was born in this mining camp.

The colonists needed people like Andrew and Jeannie. She was a midwife, and she helped to deliver many babies in the colonies. She had had enough nursing to train her to be a spotless housekeeper, and her mother taught her to cook. She loved to make fruitcakes for the Relief Society and Scotch shortcake for everyone who came to visit. Jeannie and Andrew received joy in feeding everyone who came to the home. They sang Scotch songs together, and taught all the family to sing. People loved to hear their Scotch brogue and accent. No matter where they lived, they enjoyed helping and serving others.

When they lived in Pearson, Brother Spilsbury used to carry the passengers to and from the railroad train. Being an old friend of the Duthie family, there was always supper waiting for him, a clean bed and love and friendship in the Duthie home. Week after week the Duthie and Spilsbury family spent evenings together. I looked forward to Grandpa Spilsbury letting me ride to the train with him in the big buggy. They were always helping others financially, and otherwise, and people came when they were in trouble.

In El Paso, they kept a bedroom for missionaries, and Church Authorities ate dinner in our home many times.

Since our home in Mexico was President Abram O. Woodruff’s home, Jeannie kept it furnished beautifully and it always was sparkling clean. Here in this beautiful home, she invited many Church Authorities to eat when they attended Stake Conference in Colonia Juarez, including  President Joseph F. Smith and Apostle James E. Talmage. It was he who dedicated our home in 1920. After Jeannie moved back to Mexico, Adam S. Bennion, Apostle Melvin J. Ballard, and many others honored them as visitors. She often had delicacies from El Paso sent to serve at these lovely dinners.

Andrew’s name among the gold and silver mines in Mexico became famous because of his knowledge of mining machinery. He worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad in El Paso for many years. His previous railroad experience was surveying for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad from Salt Lake City to Castle Gate, Utah.

In 1924, Jeannie moved to Provo, to be with Isabel and me, her daughter, while we attended BYU. She passed away in 1926 after an operation in Salt Lake City. She is buried in the Provo Cemetery. Andrew was ill at the time.  In 1929, Andrew Duthie went on his second mission for the Church. He served in the California Mission around Sacramento. While he was in Salt Lake City, he met President Anthony W. Ivins, who was happy to see his old friend. Since his wife had passed away, he tried to be both mother and father to his children. Brother Ivins knew how devoted Jeannie and Andrew always were. None of their children ever heard a quarrel. President Ivins called him to go on his second mission. We were always proud of our parents because of their great love and service to mankind. Andrew was a wonderful missionary even at 73 years of age.

In Houston, he passed away June 25, 1939 at 83 years of age, and is also buried in El Paso.

Margaret Duthie Naylor, daughter

Stalwarts South of the Border Page 143

 

Hyrum Albert Cluff

Hyrum Albert Cluff

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Hyrum Albert CluffHyrum Albert Cluff

(1866 – 1913)

 I was born in Provo City, Utah, October 26, 1866, and was baptized when I was eight years old by David Jones. I was confirmed by Henry Rogers.

My father, Moses Cluff, moved to Arizona in 1877 in Apache County, to Show Low. We cleared off the pine timber and fenced our farm, built large houses and ground are corn in hammer mills. For nearly 2 years, I herded cattle for Mr. Cooley with the Apache Indians, during the summers. In the year 1878, we moved to Forest Dale.

In 1879 my father went to Provo, Utah. My mother, Jane Margia Johnson Cluff, and the family moved to Arizona. My oldest sister got married that winter to James Clark Owens. Then my mother moved to Woodruff on the Little Colorado, and my father moved to the Gila River in Arizona, Graham County.

I worked on the Woodruff dam and bought me a span of horses, then worked on the railroad and bought mother of rock house in the Woodruff Fort.

In 1881 the Woodruff dam went out and I helped put it in again. In September 1882, I worked for J. C. Owens putting up hay and in October 1882, mother and I moved to the Gila in Graham County, Arizona, where my father was. There was quite a settlement and lots of mesquite brush all over the town and you could hardly see from house to house…

Mother and I went back to Woodruff on a visit. Mother stayed there and I came back and helped father on the farm. Mother took sick, and sent for me. I started for Woodruff in January, 1885 and came back in March, the same year, with William Rollans. We were nearly killed by Apache Indians. We camped on Turkey Creek, 10 miles from an Apache camp and the Indians danced and sang all night. We traveled down the Black River, which was running very high and we nearly drowned. The next day, the tongue of the wagon broke and when we stopped to fix it, an Indian road up and told us to follow him and to hurry. He seemed very uneasy. He led and we followed as we thought the other Indians were after us. The next day a party of white men passed on the road and told us that two of their group had been killed the day before and to keep our eyes open for Apaches…

In May, 1885, I met and started going with Rhoda Haws and hired to William Hunly to drive a team. In March 1886, I heard George M. Haws and worked and bought me a farm. I planted some corn and made adobes through the summer. My mother came from Woodruff that summer with brother Combs and Rhoda and I went to meet them. On September 5, George M. Haws ordained me an Elder in the Church and later that day, Rhoda and I were married. On September 6, 1886, the day after our wedding, Rhoda and I started for St. George…

The first night out, we camp at Thomas, Arizona. When we got to Black River, it was up quite high I crawled across in a big rope and got the boat on the other side. When we sent across the wagons, the women had to stand on the spring seats to keep them from getting wet. Brother Matice’s wagon tipped over, but we got it out of the river in one piece. We camped in Seven Mile Canyon and that night we had a dance on the ground around the campfire. From Seven Mile Canyon, we traveled to Woodruff. We stayed there for two days and had a good visit with my sister and her husband, J.C. Owens. We went on to Saint Joseph on the Little Colorado. We stayed at Brother Porter’s and had a dance. Then Rhoda, James Cluff and his wife went on and left the rest of us. They traveled to Black Falls where we caught up with them and traveled together to the Willow Springs.

When we got to the Colorado, it was up and Brother Johnson was herding a big herd of cattle over for Brother John Wiley. We had to take wagons all part and ferry them over in pieces but we got across all right. We arrived in Kanab and had a dance. We stayed there for three days and found one of our cousins there and then went to Long Valley where we stayed two weeks with Brother Warner Porter. They had lots of fruit which was quite a treat. We also saw G[eorge] M. Haws, Rhoda’s brother and his wife.  We went on to St. George and went through the temple on October 26, 1886, and saw and heard many great things which we will never forget. There we were sealed for time and all eternity by Brother McCallister. We then went to Washington, six miles from St. George. We stayed there all night and then started for Provo. It was a nice trip, but cold. We arrived in Provo on November 10th. We stopped at James Meldrum’s, Rhoda’s sister’s husband. We stayed with them all winter I hauled wood out of the mountain and frosted my feet that winter…

In May, 1890, I took my wife, her mother and two sisters and started from Mexico. We had a very dry trip. We got to the Animas Valley, horses got alkalied and the water made all the sick. We arrived in Colonia Diaz Sunday morning on June 6th. We got the Colonia Juarez on Friday the 11th and to Colonia Pacheco Sunday the 13th. We found Brother Haws and his family all well. Brother Haws went to Round Valley and I thought that it was the prettiest place I had ever seen.

We stayed at Pacheco and spend the Fourth of July there. Started back to Central and arrived there on 23rd of July. It was an awful muddy trip. The 24th of July we celebrated with the community.

I freighted from August to March of next year between Wilcox and Globe City, Arizona. On August 19, 1890, I started from Mexico. When I arrived at the Custom House at Senicone (Asencion), I had to give the $50 bond before they would let me pass. Bring your troubles went with me to look over the country around Colonia Garcia. Peter McBride, John Hill, George Haws and me went Round Valley to look for land for a farm but gave it up. I settled in Corrales, build the house and fenced me a lot.

The following spring was very dry and we had to live on cornbread. Brother James Sellers and I built a dam the creek and got irrigation water to our land. On October 20, 1892, I went to Colonia Juarez to make brick for George Haws. I went to Colonia Diaz in November to get some cattle from Hendricks. Arrived in Corrales with the cattle December 6th. On Christmas I was the clown and George Hardy was Santa Claus. While he was taking the presents off the tree, the cotton on his suit caught fire from the candles and he was burned quite badly. It was an awful experience…

In September, 1893, I was out hunting my horses and ran across a bear. I took out my lasso and caught him by the neck and pulled him out of a tree. The commotion frightened my horse and he threw me off. Somehow, I managed to hang on to the rope. The bear must have been as scared as I was because instead of attacking me, he tried to climb back up the tree. When he got up to fork in the tree, I let the rope go slack. The bear, caught off balance, fell headfirst through the fork in the tree and yanked the rope tight, he hanged himself as he was unable to touch the ground.

On the first of October we were counseled to move back into town because some Indians were acting up. We moved closer to Corrales and lived in a log house. The next February, we moved out to the ranch….

I also helped cut the road from Pacheco to Round Valley. Moved to Round Valley December 8, 1894 and cut logs and put a log house up. We moved into our new house on January 14, 1895 and had a dance. I plastered the house in April and helped survey the graveyard in Garcia.

Saturday, June 9th, Rhoda was not feeling well, so I didn’t go to meeting. Sister Phoebe J. Allred anointed Rhoda and confirmed the anointing. On June 10, 1895, at 1:00 a.m., Fernie Jane Cluff was born. Annie D. Farnsworth came in and helped us with household chores.

On July 24, 1895, we had a celebration here. People came from Pacheco, Cave and Juarez. We played ball, had a picnic and in the evening, we put on a very good program. I took the part of the nigger…

In November, I wanted cattle drive to Juarez. We camped out one night in Corrales. That night the cattle stampeded. When we got to the corral we found that they had mashed the log corral fence down and some of them were under the big logs. We stayed up all night to put the corral backup and at daybreak went out to look for the cattle that had stampeded. Rhoda met me at Pacheco and went on to In November, I went on a cattle drive to Juarez with me. The last of the month, I dug potatoes and went out hunting. I got four big gobblers. Rhoda put her carpet down the 29th…

On August 22, 1896, we went to Juarez to conference. We heard some very good instruction, but Fernie, the baby, took sick and we had to come home. She kept getting worse. She passed away on September 12, 1896 at 6:00 a.m. The funeral services were held at my house at 10:00 a.m. and called to order by Elder J[ohn] T. Whetten.  We sang “Come Let Us Anew Our Journey.”  The prayer was by Frank Shafer and we sang “Weep Not for Her That’s Dead And Gone.”  A.L. Farnsworth spoke for some time and gave some very good remarks.  Then Brother J. T. Whetten spoke a short time, and read some nice verses composed by Mary Farnsworth.  They we sang “Farewell All Earthly Honors.”  We then went to the graveyard and paid the last respects.  The dedicatory prayer was by Brother Farnsworth…

In July 1898, we moved to the sawmill where Rhoda cooked for the mill hands and I worked with the logging.  I took her from there with me up to work on the wagon road at Soldier Canyon.  I was the road overseer.  From there, we went home in November. 

The spring of 1899 was very cold.  I was called by the Bishop to take a man from New York up to inspect the timber of the nearby country.  He was with a railroad company who was anticipating building a railroad near here…

July 24,1900, we held a celebration representing the Pioneers reaching Utah.  We had Indians camped on the square.  We put up a liberty pole and I was the first one to climb it. 

On August 3rd, we were visited by Joseph F. Smith, Second Counselor to the President of the Church.  He brought with him, Brother Seymour B. Young, the First President of the Seventies. 

On September 12, 1900 Benjamin Cluff, President of the Brigham Young Academy, visited us.  He was traveling with a party from the Academy, on their way to South America.  They stayed in Garcia one week and excavated some ruins and got some specimens.  I traveled 75 miles south with the expedition as guide. On returning home, I met a couple of outlaws.  They drew their guns on me and held me a prisoner for several hours.  They finally decided to let me go and I gratefully returned home in one piece.

I cut the oats for the people here in Garcia with a self-binder.  Went out hunting and trapping.  Got two big lions and two wolves.  When I returned home, Apostle A[braham} O. Woodruff and President Ivins were there at Garcia.  They held meetings and then went on to Chuhuichupa where they organized a ward.  G{eorge] M. Haws, Rhoda’s brother, was appointed Bishop.  After the conference held at Juarez, Thomas Allen and Brother Harris followed some Indians who had been stealing corn and potatoes.  They ran onto their camp and killed two of them. Brother Ivins and Woodruff helped bury the Indians.  Bishop Whetten sent a runner out to Chuhuichupa to warn the people and another to Juarez to take the report to get ammunition for the protection of the ward…

February 23rd, Rhody and Josephine Haws, my sister, started to Gila Valley for a visit.  I am getting along fine.  There is now plenty of water thanks to the dam we put in.  The ground is in fine condition for plowing and every one is preparing to put in big crops this year. 

March 9th, got a letter from my wife, Rhoda.  She and the children arrived in Pima alright.  I went to Juarez after Dr. Shipp who came to operate on Sister Ida Whetten.  She took a baby from her.  I rode all night and it snowed and rained on me most of the way.  I caught cold in my eyes and I have been housed up doctoring them and it seems so lonesome here alone without Rhody and the children.  This is the first time that Rhoda and I have been away from each other for any length of time since we were married. 

June 3rd, the country is on fire and the valley is full of smoke.

Brother Taylor of Juarez sent for me to come down and trap some bear in his pastures.  They are killing off his cattle.  July 2nd, trapped one week and caught three bears and while I was there, Rhoda and the children arrived from Pima.  I was glad to see them again.  The baby looked quite bad.

August 23rd, got a letter from a Dr. Hughs of Philadelphia.  He wanted me to go out with him as a guide on a hunting and trapping trip.  He came with a party of friends and we killed several lions, grey wolves, foxes, turkey, and deer.  I took them down to Casas Grandes station and they returned from there back to Philadelphia apparently well satisfied with their trip to the wilds of Mexico. 

While I was out with Dr. Hughs, I took him to the old ruins 15 miles on the west side of Garcia Valley.  We excavated some ruins and found one skeleton.  Many thoughts passed through my mind while working on these ruins and reflecting on the people who built those houses.

October 22nd, me and Mr. Barker and Ernest Stiner started out trapping.  We went south-east from Garcia on the Rio Almais.  We were gone six weeks.  We caught and killed five bears, eight lions, eleven turkeys, and several deer.  The last bear we killed pretty near got Ernest and myself.  It was a large silver tip bear and he came within ten feet of us with his mouth open and had it not been for the dogs, he would have gotten both of us…

September 10th, I went to Juarez and took my family and then went on to El Paso.  I took Matilda and Lorena and Sister Haws with me to El Paso.  We returned home from there and I brought a hunting party in.  When we were between Casas Grandes and Juarez, I got on a mule and it jumped in a hole and fell.  I got my foot caught in the stirrup and the mule dragged and kicked me until finally the stirrup broke and I got loose.  I was badly banged up and the backs of my legs and my back were black and blue.  I didn’t have any broken bones though and was able to take the hunting party to the Blue Mountains.

November 22nd, I took another hunting party from Kansas on a trip. We sow one lion but didn’t get anything.  I also showed them some ancient buildings. 

December 25th, the band serenaded the town.  It was a very enjoyable holiday.

February 8th, was permitted to accept the high laws of God which was a very great trial to Rhoda.  The Lord has blessed us a great deal and I’m sure everything will work out.  I married Delia Floretta Humphrey here in Garcia, Mexico.  The year is 1903.

April 1st, I took a gentleman by the name of R. C. Cross of New York out on a hunt.  We visited the ruins at Cave Valley.  I took the folks out to Peacock after my traps and camped.  Rhody and I went into a very deep canyon and ate dinner.  I took her picture twice.  That day as we came over some very rough places, Rhody very nearly fell off her horse.  She went with me to hunt bear that had been gone with my trap for six days.  We were in some rough country but we found the bear dead and then found the trap on our way back to camp.  I killed three deer and took the picture of Rhoda’s horse and deer.

October 2nd, Floretta went to Juarez to put up fruit for us.  I got a letter from her.

January 1, 1904, the weather is very cold and windy.  The people seem to be getting careless and there is neglectful spirit among them.  I received word that my brother, James Cluff, was cut off from the church for adultery.  We put a drop curtain in our meeting house.  It cost $36…

March 7, 1904, this morning at 11:00 a.m. our first son was born to Rhoda and I.  He is our 9th child.  He weighed nine and a half pounds.  We are so proud of him and all the neighbors has been in to see him and congratulate us.  We have named him Hyrum Albert Cluff.

April 3rd, we took our boy to the meeting house and had him blessed.  The measles are raging here.  There are 44 cases here in the Garcia Ward.  So far there have been no deaths.

April 15th, 1904, the measles are still raging.  Rhoda is sick with them and five of the children are down with them.  We were called upon to give up our dear baby boy.  He only stayed with us one month and four days.  It is so hard to part with him because he is the only boy we have ever had.  I had to leave Rhoda and take him up to the cemetery.   She was sick and in bed with the other four children.  I am so sorry she could not at least see our sweet baby buried.  There were only two wagons, but there was quite a large crowd. Elder Clark of Dublan offered the dedicatory prayer.  The ward choir sang “Your Sweet Little Rose.”  Bishop Whetten offered prayer and we returned home.

April 16th, the children and Rhoda were awful sick again last night.  It is a very gloomy time for all of us but we feel to say in our hears that the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord. 

Sunday, April 24th, the family and I went to Bishop Whetten’s for dinner.  Most of the people are getting over the measles.

August 25th, there was a large flood that came down the creek here and washed out some fences.  Also the river at Hop Valley was up and washed out lots of the logs and ties which we cut for the railroad.  I was rolling logs and wading in the river until 12:00 last night.  Sister Haws and her daughter came here from the Gila Valley to visit.  Rhoda was glad to see her mother and sister.  Her mother is getting quite gray.  They visited in Chupa [Chuhuichupa] and then came back here.

October 12th, I took all of my folks and went to Cave Valley with Rhoda’s mother and sister and some of their brothers from Pacheco.  We had a good time and then they went back to the Gila Valley.

Sunday, October 23rd, we had a good meeting.    Spoke on the order of the marriage covenant.  I am still shocking my corn.

October 26th, this is my birthday Rhoda gave me a nice liver righ for a present.  My aunt’s father’s fist wife was here on her way to Chup.  She came on a visit from the Gila Valley.

October 31st, Bishop Whetten’s wife is very ill. It seems that her life hangs on a thread.  I just got a letter telling me that my brother John’s wife passed away.  She and the baby were buried together.

November 31st, Bishop Whetten’s second wife, Emma died today.  She was sick and almost a solid sore from head to foot, but it healed up before she died.

December 25th, Christmas.  Rhoda and I and two of the children went to Juarez and bought flour and apples and toys for Christmas.  We had a community program and played all kinds of games.  At night we had a dress party.  Rhody and I represented George Washington and his wife Martha.  Floretta represented the flower girl and Tillie represented Little Bo-Peep.  Rhody and I won the prize.

January 2, 1905, just settled my tithing for the year, 1904.  The amount was $100.25.  My brother Brigham Cluff is here from Pima, Arizona, also George Haws, Jr.  The Relief Society got up a big party to get money for the purpose of getting burial clothes for people. It is a hard matter to get clothing on such occasions as we are 50 miles from any railroad and 35 miles to where they can buy much from the stores.  The stores here are small and don’t keep much supplies. 

February 14th, I took a load of lumber to Juarez.  I saw Apostle Teasdale and he blessed me.  I have started up a trade and am trying to handle produce for the people. 

March 20th, there has been some talk and discussion on the God Head and I was called to make a special visit to all the people who had advocated that doctrine that Adam is God and the Father of Christ.  We were told to tell them that this doctrine is definitely false.  Today in meeting all were given one week probation and if they didn’t repent they would be dropped from their positons in the ward…

September 14th, went to Colonia Juarez to conference at the Stake Academy.  As President [Joseph F.} Smith and party entered the building the congregation stood and sang, “We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet.”  President Jarvis opened the conference and spoke of the growth of the people and stated that this was one of the greatest days that the people had enjoyed in this land by the presence of President Smith.  He mentioned that it also was the national day of Mexico.  I attended 11 meetings at the conference and all our children shook and with President Smith at Sunday School.  Two thousand two hundred seventy-two souls attended the conference.  President Smith told me to go and be baptized for my dead father. 

Floretta came up to stay with us for awhile.  On September 4, 1905 she gave birth to a boy at a quarter to seven o’clock in the morning.  We named him Charles G. Cluff.  It is her first child.

December 2nd, there has been lots of rain and the river has been up quite high.  The river washed lots of fence away at Corrales and took 4 houses out of Colonia Juarez, 8 in Colonia Diaz, 33 in Sonora and left the people without anything only the clothes they were wearing at the time.  Their household goods all were lost in the flood but through the blessings of the Lord, there was not one life lost.  The people of the Stake has made up a fund for the homeless.

My tithing for the year 1905 was $74.50.

March 3rd, we have got the telephone poles up through our town and it will only be a matter of time when the telephone will be in all of the homes of the ward in this stake. It will be a blessing to all of us.

April 2nd, had been out on the mountain hauling logs for H.H. James’ sawmill.  Art Farnsworth came over to tell me that the baby, Alberta, was sick. I went home and arrived there at 4:00 in the morning.  I found her quite sick. Friday night at 9:00, she passed away. She was a sweet little girl and she brought sunshine into our home with little time she was with us. The people here have been very kind to us and in all they can for our dear little pet. She was such a sweet baby. There seems to be so much sickness in the ward now.

September 24th, Rhoda and I are preparing to start for Salt Lake City this morning to do temple work.

February 26th, the Garcia sawmill blew up, killing George Turley and injuring Art Farnsworth and Sumner O’Donnal quite bad. The money panic which was raging in Utah and Arizona has struck us here and times sure are hard. 

May 15, 1908, our 12th child and third son was born to Rhoda.  We named him William Templeton Cluff.

June 5, 1908, Apostle Anthony W. Ivins and our stake presidency called a special meeting here in Garcia. There had been some differences and trouble in the order, but after the brethren were called together and matters were properly adjusted, there was a general hand-shaking all around and a good spirit prevailed. I was called his second counselor to Bishop J[ohn] T. Whetten of Garcia Ward and was set apart in ordained a High Priest…

June 19, 1909, Floretta had a baby girl. We named her Violet.

July 5, 1909, I planted corn on my lots. Times are very hard and the Bishop is letting the people have the tithing corn to eat…

February 2, 1910, a comet appeared in the western skies. June 16, almost all men Garcia are up in the mountains working on the railroad. I came home to check on things and found the farm is looking good. Those are staying here have planted all the farmland in the Valley in grain, mostly oats.  There are quite a lot of apples, peaches, plums, charities and a number of kinds of small fruit being raised here this year.

June 22, 1910, Rhoda had another boy which makes 13 children. We named him Harold Alton Cluff. Rhoda and the baby are getting along fine.

October, the rebels here took it up against the government. It has caused great excitement among the people, but they seem to be peaceable towards the Latter-day Saints.  The Church President, Joseph F. Smith, sent Apostle Ivins to assist the people here and he was the means of getting guns and ammunition in for the Mormons.

January 19, 1911, it is very cold. Forty rebels came into Garcia and bought supplies in the store and paid for them. They appeared very friendly.

January 24, the outlaws killed Sister Mortenson of Guadalupe and also her brother. The officers caught three of them and one got away. One of the rebels came and stayed all night here in town and said he was on his way to United States the purchase ammunition for the rebels. They have to of a great many of the Mexican soldiers and taken a great many smaller places, but not been able to hold them.

October, when hunting with a party from New York. Madero was the victor of the Revolution and was elected President of Mexico. 

December 11th, the railroad is nearly completed above San Diego Canyon. It will be a great benefit to the mountain colonies. The Revolution abated only for a short time. Some of Madero’s generals became jealous of Madero and started another Revolution. Every now and again there is a band of rebels that will ride into town and demand something like food or livestock or ammunition. One bunch numbered 250.

January 1912, the Church sent guns and ammunition to the colonies. The rebels are taking a lot of the colonists’ horses and saddles and are killing off cattle for meat. So far they have not stolen from Garcia…

The people here are getting quite alarmed about the rebel situation. They have attacked quite a few of the Mormons, beating them up with their guns and stolen their horses. Some people have been stopped by rebels on their way to church. They had to sit there in the wagons and watch them unhitch their horses and ride off with them. The rebel generals have gone back on their word to leave the colonies alone. Our men number about 300 and there are about 1,500 rebels in and around this. We are expecting to be called to leave for Pacheco any day now.

July 24th, we held a dance and had quite a good time.

July 28th, we received word to leave our homes. We spent the 29th packing what few things we could take and cooking. We just walked out and close the door and left everything. There were 27 wagons. The men stayed to defend the town and our property but the women and children camped in a lumber shed with very little room. The babies cried all night making sleep impossible for the rest. On August 2nd, Rhoda and the children left for Pima, and arrived the next day.

We men all gathered in Juarez where we decided to hide out in the mountains. I went back to Garcia herd our horses up into the mountains. When I got the horses up to the men, we decided to take them to the border. From El Paso, I went on to be sure Rhoda and the children were all right. On September 20th, some of us went back for as many cattle as we can drive out. October 13th,I arrived in Pima. We put Tillie and Lorena in school in Pima and November 4th, we started for Bluewater, New Mexico. We arrived there the 5th at 1:00 a.m.

November 11th we moved into Nelly Chatman’s house. Tilly went to work at the general store, clerking.

Heber took sick on June 21st and on July 17th, he died.

September 24, 1913, Hyrum* became very sick and was bad from the very first. We couldn’t get a doctor and we just didn’t seem to be able to do anything to help him. He died October 16th and was buried October 17th. His funeral was held at the meeting house in Bluewater. We sang “Come Let Us Anew” after which Brother Tietjen gave the opening prayer. We sang “Oh, My Father” and Brothers Call Hakes, Charley Martineau, Bishop Whetten and Welcome Chapman spoke.  We sang “Resurrection Day” and Brother Welcome Champman closed the meeting with prayer.  Brother Tietjen dedicated the grave.

We are left alone without a home, no one we know to help us and in a strange new place.

From the journal of Hyrum Albert Cluff, submitted by Mrs. Sarah Matilda Cluff Lewis, daughter.

Stalwarts South of the Border page 113.

*For clarity, the last entry would have been written by someone other than Hyrum as he was the person passing in the entry. 

Ernest Isaac Hatch

Ernest Isaac Hatch

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Ernest Isaac Hatch

1878 – 1952

Ernest Isaac Hatch, fourth child and second son of John and Maria Matilda McClellan, was born September 21, 1878 in Greenwich, Piute County, Utah, a small hamlet consisting of six widely separated families in Grass Valley lying in the tops of the snowbound Wasatch mountains.

Ernest’s father, John William Hatch, was born April 3, 1850, in the Old Union Fort, Salt Lake City, Utah, and grew up in Payson, Utah.  He met Maria Matilda McClellan, and they were married on March 14, 1874.  

In the early 1880’s, William C. McClellan, father of Maria was called by the Church leaders to move with others to New Mexico and settle on the San Francisco River.  The small town was named Pleasanton.  John and Maria left their home in Greenwich, Piute County, Utah and moved with four of their small children to Pleasanton.

The life of the settlers was hard. The Apache renegade, Geronimo, gave no little fear to the settlers of that area. John was called to carry, in his wagon, the bodies of four U. S. soldiers from where they were ambushed to their burial spot near the town of Alma.

John and Maria had two daughters, Myrtle and Pearl, born to them at Pleasanton. Pearl died soon after birth was buried there.  

As a Pleasanton project did not work out well for the settlers, they moved out, John Maria returning to their former home in Greenwich.

Except for three years spent in Pleasanton, New Mexico, Grass Valley was Ernest’s home until he was 20 years of age. He hearded a sheep in the summer, voluntarily being the soul shepherd for his grandfather’s sheep one summer when he was but nine years of age. His herding also included cows for his father’s dairy at Fish Lake where he helped with the milking and assisted in the making of butter and cheese for sale.

He went to school one term each winter, breaking fresh trail through the snow drifts each day. When he had finished all Grass Valley had to offer, his parents were able to send him to Ephraim, to the Snow Academy, for two years. This opportunity spurred plans to continue his education with his favorite cousin, Jim Bagley, at the Brigham Young Academy at Provo.

The long winter evenings for the Hatches were turned into a miniature factory when, seated around a blazing fire, they picked wool, sewed carpet rags, pieced quilt blocks, carded wool, knit socks and stockings as their mother read to them, propping open her book with the scissors, rocked the cradle and knit. Each child would be occupied in tasks best suited to his age.  Ernest served longest at the carpet rag sewing, saying in later years he could remember when he cut his first tooth, but not when he learn to sew carpet rags. He also took his turn at the washboard and at scrubbing the pine board floors and chair seats. His parents were thrifty and frugal and drafted every child into an organization that “kept the best side out.” “We may live in poverty,” his mother would often say, “but it will be slick poverty,” and use every child help make it so.

A crisis in Ernest’s life came when his mother suddenly decided she could no longer endure the long cold winters in Grass Valley. Of the nine children born after Ernest, including twins, five had died. I move to a warmer climate was imperative. Ernest’s strong objections to his interrupted education plans, and the need to sell everything just at the peak of prosperity, subsided as he saw affairs definitely moving toward Mexico, and he finally promised to go and help with the move, but found that nothing could make him stay. With that understanding, the move got underway.

They left their home, friends and relatives in Grass Valley in October, 1898, and arrived in Colonia Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico in mid-December of the same year. The slow team travel had taken them through most of Utah and Arizona, across New Mexico to El Paso, Texas, where Maria’s father and brother met them to help with immigration and custom inspection. From there they all enjoyed their first train ride on the newly completed Mexico Noroeste railroad, with their wagons, teams and other traveling gear being shipped with them.

It was a good time to become members of the Juarez Ward. Holiday festivities were underway, giving all a chance to make quick acquaintances.  A large family with eight unmarried children, as well as a married daughter with her husband and three children, were welcome additions to the Ward. Each member of the family found friends of their own age, and all were soon happy over the move. All but Ernest, that is, who was still determined to return to Grass Valley.

Three things changed his mind. First, Professor Guy C. Wilson convinced him that his ninth grade could offer as many advantages as could the Snow Academy and he could remain at home as he studied. Second, Dennison and E. Harris offered him a job after school and on Saturdays clerking in  his store, to keep him going as he studied. Third, and most of all, he fell under the charm of fun-loving Lillian Haws. He canceled all his intentions to return to Grass Valley and enrolled in school.

He was soon under the spell of Professor Wilson’s psychology and from it was born a desire to make a teaching career. He graduated from the Juarez Stake Academy in May, 1901, he not only was a member of the first graduating class, but he also had two engagements, one to teach school in the institution from which he had gained his training, and the other to marry the girl he had courted through the years.

He was married to Lillian Haws, May 15, 1901, and spent the summer in Naco, Sonora, earning enough money to set them up in housekeeping. By fall they were established in the Olive Stolwell home and Ernest had started a career that kept him many years in the classroom. December 29, 1901, Lillian prematurely gave birth to a baby girl, and complications following its immediate death kept her hovering between life and death for six weeks as Ernest and the doctors fought off a stage of puerperal fever.  She survived, but was threatened by its recurrence with each succeeding birth.

By July, 1912, Ernest was certified as head of the commercial department in the Juarez Stake Academy, was teaching bookkeeping and rapid calculation, was School Registrar, and he knew and could call by name each registrant, and was a successful athletic coach, with basketball and baseball teams competing successfully with teams along the border of the United States. Business-wise he had invested in a cannery and had a car load of cans ready for use. Church-wise he was Sunday School Superintendent, a Stake YMMIA officer, and a teacher in his Priesthood class. Family-wise he had a neat brick bungalow, a family of five children:  Lillian, Fleeta, Ernest Seville, Genevieve, and Ernest LeRoy.

He had also seeing how the breakup of law and order can change otherwise peaceful and friendly neighbors into enemies with murderous intent that came with the beginning of the 1910 Madero Revolution. He had been one of the deputized officers commissioned to arrest Juan Sosa, a belligerent malcontent, and was on the ground when the murderous attempt to kill Frank Lewis was stopped with a volley of shots that killed Sosa. He had lived through the aftermath, facing the shocking fact that when the licentious usurpers are in control, there is justice for no one and anything can happen. With turbulence quieted and a seemingly reliable recognition of neutrality for the colonists, a complete evacuation of the colonies from Mexico was a horn of the dilemma not then to be considered. Nothing could more definitely halt the progress and kill the prosperity they were enjoying.

When it came, however, no matter if it was disaster supreme to him, he followed the dictates of Priesthood leaders without a murmur.

The anguish she suffered as he sent Lillian, again in a delicate condition, to the U.S. border, was endured because he was sure the move was only temporary. Lonely vigil along with other men and boys was endured for the same reason. But conditions forced the men to follow their families.

Acting on the notion that there is “no luck without pluck,” he located and provide for his family until his return, and borded the first train for home, arriving again in Colonia Juarez by September first. There, with marshaled neighbors, he canned vegetables wasting in the gardens and preserve the fruit from the orchards.  Back in El Paso he earned money to pay doctors fees when their third son Ernest Sanford, was born November 25, 1912 and for his caring for Lillian, as they fought off another siege of puerperal fever. The little fellow died Christmas Day.

Six weeks later, in February 1913, he joined a pilgrimage, 65 strong, headed by Bishop Joseph C Bentley, that took them by team from Columbus, New Mexico back to their homes in Colonia Juarez, each one choosing the hazards of Revolutionary life in their own homes to insecurity and homelessness in the United States.

For three years they endured this strippings of roving bands. The incident most closely affecting Ernest was when his father, in self-defense, killed Guadalupe Treviso, and he and his brothers were forced to endure bullying from first one party then another until he could be cleared in a reasonable court session. Watching his neighbor Ernest L. Taylor he manhandled by an extortionist, and once stood up to be executed, was another ordeal that touched him, especially when he could do nothing about it. But he still faced situations as they came and found life reasonably good until the cruelest blow of all struck him. He lost his loved companion. Lillian, with the birth of their fourth son, Ernest Herman, March 27, 1916, succumbed to her old enemy, puerperal fever on April 29. He was bereft of a wife and was left with six motherless children.

By that time Pancho Villa had made his hit-and-run attack on Columbus, New Mexico, and the Punitive Expedition of 12,000 men, under General John J. Pershing, was engaged in the famous but unsuccessful manhunt.  In November of that year Ernest was ordained a High Priest and made Second Counselor to Bishop John J. Walser in Colonia Juarez, a position he held a short time. With a partnership offer from Lillian’s brothers, Jim and George Haws in Mesa, Arizona, in the dairy and poultry business, he moved his family there for five years.

At the end of the first two years, prospects for accumulating property, machinery and teams were good. Yet life was lonely. He needed a companion, his children needed a mother and home life. On August 19, 1918, he married Nelle Spilsbury, an associate teacher from the JSA and one month later they were sealed in the St. George Temple. Home life for Ernest went on as though uninterrupted.

The first crisis in their life came when Ernest contracted the Spanish flu and narrowly escaped death in the epidemic that swept the country, leaving countless victims in its wake. The only reason he survived was his intense desire to live and his faith in the power of the Priesthood. Nelle’s first daughter, Ernestine, was born May 25, 1919.

When the partnership with Lillian’s brothers dissolved, Ernest was in possession of a 40 acre tract of land, and his share of cows, teams, chickens and sheep. When an offer came to take over a couple of the farms in Colonia Dublan, he accepted. He left Nelle to dispose of his farm to the highest bidder and went to put in his first crops.

Then the bottom fell out of everything. The depression following World War I struck, farm after farm went falling into the hands of receivers, banks closed their doors, and Ernest’s valuable farm, almost overnight, became a liability. Even, produced on this farm was sidetracked on an Eastern market demanding demurrage. On top of it all, his crops in Dublan failed.

At the end of two years his rosy dream of a model dairy and poultry farm, fed by rich yields from his farm, collapsed, and with things going from bad to worse, he moved his family to Colonia Juarez. His farm in Mesa, his Ford car, his machinery, most of his teams and cows were lost in the final settlement. With his family he settled into a happy home and began again from scratch from that time, there was no direction to go but up, Nelle’s first son, Garth Spilsbury, was June 29, 1923.

One by one he tackled the problems besetting the half-paid for Junius Romney orchard. Coddling moth left its pollution in every apple, killing frost could in one night wipe out a crop, and apples shriveled on the trees during the dry season.  Finding himself in a vicious circle of needing a fruit crop to buy spray material, smudge pots, and sink a well, how could he get these things until he had a fruit crop?  Yet, whipping one problem after another, he soon realized that he had made the best investment in life.

Among the other challenges that Ernest faced was that of the death of his parents. His father, John William Hatch, died January 22, 1932, at the age of 82, after suffering a heart attack. Maria followed her husband and was laid to rest at his side in the cemetery of Colonia Juarez on July 27, 1940. They were the parents of 14 children: Lillian Maria, Minnie Almeda, John Alma, Ernest Isaac, Mary Agnes, Rhoda Evelyn, Myrtle, Pearl, Cynthia Irene, George Lynn, Frances Fern, Elmer Hugh, and twins Charles and Carroll.

In 1932 he entered the fruit market in Mexico City with the first carload of apples to be shipped from the colonies since 1896 as an exhibit in the Coyoacan Fair.  He re-established the quality of colony fruit and opened up a market that has since steadily grown and still flourishes.

With his original orchard paying off, other orchards on both sides of him were purchased and soon yielding handsomely. His family was soon enjoying the fruits of his labors, though going through “the narrows” had taught them many lessons such as the worth of the dollar and the value of family unity in solving family problems.

During those years of pulling himself up by his “bootstraps,” his last child, Madelyn, was born October 19, 1925.  He had taught school a couple of years to keep his family eating, had filled six months mission in California, had continued as Sunday School Superintendent, promoted the Boy Scout program, and had acted as watermaster for the East Canal. Hi0s family followed his example and fill positions in church work along with him. He was released from the High Council to be First Counselor to Bishop Anthony I. Bentley in 1934.

In September, 1937, he was set apart as Bishop of the Juarez Ward with David Samuel Brown and Velan Cal, and later Willard Shupe as Counselors. He was now in a position to continue a rehabilitation program that is still in progress (1966).  Blackened walls of burned buildings dotted the town, homes were windowless and porches were sagging and floorless. The elementary school building (original Juarez Stake Academy and the only Church house the Ward had known) was remodeled into a modern one-story building. Church functions were moved to the Ivins Hall in the JSA building, which did service until October, 1966 when a new chapel was built.

Home rehabilitation began with his own home by removing the rotting roof and changing it into a Spanish-style residence, adding a sleeping porch and a kitchen, and commencing a system of landscaping around the grounds that is still in progress.

Ernest’s term as Bishop ended in October, 1944. The remainder of his life was spent serving as High Councilman. His sons took over the management of his orchard. Life ended for him October 7, 1952 in Dalhart, Texas, where his tired heart suddenly stopped. Leaving a posterity that now numbers eight children, 43 grandchildren, and 32 great-grandchildren, he was buried in Colonia Juarez cemetery October 11, 1952. Typical of the regard in which he was held by the Mexican people, is a remark made by a neighbor boy: “I had lost a father, adviser, banker, neighbor and friend.”

A member of the first graduating class himself, he was the first to have a daughter graduate, and the first to have a granddaughter graduate, from the Juarez Stake Academy.

An officer in both Stake and Ward MIA, six of his children have been Ward Presidents, and one has been Stake Superintendent. One daughter is currently Stake Primary President, having served first as Ward President. Two of his sons are eminent physicians, one of them a specialist in obstetrics and gynecology, a daughter an accredited nurse and anesthetist, a grandson an oral surgeon, a son-in-law a dentist and a grandson-in-law a dermatologist. Himself a teacher, four of his children have done service in the classroom, while two have made it a career. Himself and one son having served as Bishop of the Juarez Ward, another has served in two Bishoprics. Himself a missionary, a son and daughter and two daughters-in-law have filled full-time missions while two sons have served as Mission Presidents, and his 13th grandson is now in the mission field.

All the posterity can truly say, “we are following in your footsteps.”

Nelle Spilsbury Hatch

Stalwarts South of the Border, page 241

Eli Archer Clayson

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Eli Archer Clayson

(1876 – 1933)

Eli Archer Clayson was born at Payson, Utah, on November 12, 1876. He was the son of Nathan and Annie Harriet Butler Clayson.

Eli’s father, Nathan Clayson, had been baptized into the Church at the age of fourteen.  At seventeen, he had left his birthplace in Northamptonshire, England, and emigrated to America.  After a passage of 46 days between London and New York City, Nathan’s family went by train to Florence, Nebraska.  From Florence, Nathan drove a team of oxen to Salt Lake City, suffering from frostbite and frozen feet on the plains.  They arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on December 3, 1864, moving on to Payson, Utah, where the family made its home.  In 1877 the family moved to Lake Shore, where they cleared land for a farm.  They lived in a dugout for years until a home was built.  Eli Archer was one of twelve brothers and sisters.

In 1881, with Eli was 14 years of age, his parents went to Colonia Juarez, Mexico where they were instrumental in colonizing the settlement of the Latter-day Saint Church.  It was there that he met Mary Louise Naegle, who had come to attend school. The Church had an academy in Colonia Juarez.  In 1896 and 1897, Mary attended Brigham Young Academy in Provo, Utah. The following August, Eli went to Utah and they were married in the Salt Lake Temple, August 6, 1897. They then returned to Mexico and made their home in Colonia Juarez.

In 1908, Eli was called to serve a mission in England. He left his wife and four children to give himself to this calling. He returned in 1910.

His father ran a harness shop in the colony. They also have an interest in the local tannery. They were expert in making shoes, harnesses, callers, settled, bridles and other leather articles. Eli also purchased tracks of farming and rangeland and stocked them with valuable cattle and horses. In addition to this, he owned two homes in Colonia Juarez.

In 1912, the Mexican Revolution made the lives of Mormon colonists miserable. The Revolutionary forces hoped to drive Americans from Mexican territory and divide the land among themselves without giving compensation for what they took. During 1912, Mexican soldiers repeatedly invaded the vicinity of Colonia Juarez, trespassing on private property, tearing down fences and pasturing their horses on the lots and fields without the least regard for the rights or objections of the owners. They took anything they wanted from the tannery and other stores, never making payment of any kind. On one occasion, in the latter part of June, 1912, and Mexican army officer entered Eli’s shop and demanded that he produce all the equipment they wanted, saying that they knew it had been concealed. They impressed him with the seriousness of their demand by threats of violence, accompanied by thrusting a pistol in his side. Needless to say, Eli produced merchandise which they took without payment. On another occasion, a group of colonists gathered on Eli’s lawn, discussing the situation confronting the colonies. They were becoming increasingly concerned for the safety of women and children. On this occasion, a soldier walked by the group of men observed a box of crackers that one of them had purchased from the store, yet wrapped in paper.

The Mexican immediately he rushed to the schoolhouse where his officers were holding a meeting and said that they had some dynamite, apparently referring to the box of crackers. He said they were on their way to blow up the schoolhouse where the Mexican officers were located. Immediately one of the officers led troop pf soldiers to the place we the Americans were still discussing and arrested Eli, marching him as a prisoner to the schoolhouse.

Before this happened, Eli had given one of the Mexican officers a saddle horse. When the arresting officer said he was going to shoot Eli at once, the individual to whom Eli had given the horse stepped forward and remonstrated, saying he should not be executed, at least for the time being. They continued to hold the prisoner until one day when Mexican scouts rushed in stating the force of Yaqui Indians under the command of General José de la Luz Blanco, a federal, was approaching town. The rebels lost no time in saddling and packing their horses and departing, leaving Eli behind. But for this occurrence, it is likely he would have suffered the same fate many others had met, that of cold-blooded murder.

Because the help the Americans of hoped for did not materialize it was necessary to leave homes and properties behind and go to the United States. Many years later, in February 1936, the Mexican government made a financial settlement with the people who left Mexico and had been disposed of their properties. Eli had calculated that the total of his expenses due to the Revolution amounted to $10,872. The total value of his property loss was placed at $13,202. The family therefore submitted a claim of $24,074. They received from the Mexican government only a percentage of what was asked, nothing in the actual amount that was lost.

After leaving Mexico, Mary Louisa, with her children and mother-in-law, went to Bountiful, Utah. Eli followed several months later, finally securing a job in a harness shop in American Fork, Utah. His family later relocated in American Fork. Three years later they moved to Spanish Fork, Utah where Eli spent the rest of his life. It was there that he purchased the harness and saddle shop from the Spanish Fork Co-op, and oversaw it until illness forced his retirement in the early 1930s.

Eli Archer Clayson was always active in the Church and was a member of the Bishopric in Colonia Juarez. He was a member of the Superintendency of the Spanish Fork Third Ward Sunday school for an number of years and was the Chairman of the Genealogical Committee until his final illness. He was ill for 16 months, following a stroke. He died on November 27, 1933 in buried Spanish Fork, Utah.

Roslie Clayson Mikkelsen, daughter and Mary Louisa Naegle, wife.

Stalwarts South of the Border, page 111

Martha Cragun Cox

Martha Cragun Cox

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Martha Cragun Cox

(1852 -1932)

Martha Cragun Cox was born March 3, 1852 in the Mill Creek Ward, Salt Lake County, Utah. Her father, James Cragun, was a descendent of Patrick Cragun, born in Ireland, who came to America, settling in Massachusetts.  Family tradition has it that in his early manhood he was one of the “Indians” threw the English tea overboard in Boston harbor.

Martha’s mother Elenor Lane, a granddaughter of Lambert Lane who was born in England and emigrated to America with his parents when he was about 12 years of age.

Martha’s parents joined the Mormon Church in 1843 and arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1849. They received the call to pioneer the Dixie, Utah country in 1862. As a girl, Martha learned to leave on her mother’s loom. She made cloth for her own dresses and earned a little money weaving for other people. Quoting from her “Reminiscences,” we learn of an experience that had a profound effect on her life:

One day I was taking from the loom of piece that I had woven for a pair of pants for Brother Jeffreys, a cultivated English gentleman.  It had been made from nappy yarn and I told him it did not reflect credit on the weaver.  “Oh, well,” he said, “twill only be for a little while we will need it.  Twill soon be worn out and then my nappy cloth and the weaver’s work will be forgotten and the weaver too. Though she becomes round shouldered over the loom in trying to serve people with good cloth, (she) will wear out and be forgotten and no one will know that she wove.”  These words fell on me solemn-like and prophetic and I pondered them deeply.  “What profit is there finally,” I said to myself, “in all this round of never ceasing labor? Weaving cloth to buy dresses to wear out. When my day is past, my warp and woof in life and labors ended and my body gone to rest in the grave, what is there to mark the ground in which I trod? Nothing!”  And the thought maybe weep.

I went to McCarty (her brother-in-law James McCarty) and told him what brother Jeffreys had said to me. What can I do that my work and myself will not be forgotten, I asked. He answered “You might plant.”  To this I replied that the day would come that our neighbor with all his fine trees, flowers, vegetables, etc., that he had given to St. George would be forgotten by the people and his fine gardens vanished. “Plant in the minds of men and the harvest will be different,” he said. “Every wholesome thought you succeed in planting in the mind of a little child will grow and bear eternal fruit that will give you such joy that you will not ask to be remembered.” His words, though they enlightened, brought to me an awful sadness of soul. I was so ignorant. I saw that I had hitherto lacked ambition for I had been content to dance, laugh, and sleep my leisure time away, never supposing that I might reach a higher plane than that which enabled me to support and clothe myself.

Opportunities for schooling in those pioneer days were very limited and books were not plentiful, but Martha read everything she could find. She kept a list of words of which she wanted to learn the meaning and pronunciation. She would quiz available people for information, including strangers passing through the country, cowboys, miners, old timers. She started teaching school in her middle teens and taught school for 60 years of her life.

Martha married Isaiah Cox December 6, 1869 and became the mother of eight children, five of whom lived to raise families of their own. Isaiah died April 11, 1896 in St. George, Utah.

Martha taught school in Bunkerville, Nevada until 1901, then she went to Mexico to be with her daughters, Rose Bunker, Geneva, and Evelyn. She traveled by way of team and wagon with some of the David F. Stout family. Arriving on the Mexican border, they made camp and stayed for some time in Naco, Sonora. Living there was a family of Indians of the Yaqui tribe. In Martha’s writing she said, “This family of Yaquis were the finest of the human race and looks. The woman who was the honored mother of a large brood had splendid features. In fact, I thought as I looked at her that she was the noblest looking woman in face and form I’ve ever seen.”

Martha had deep sympathy and love for all the Indian tribes. When just a young girl she listened many times in the town of Santa Clara, Utah, to Jacob Hamblin relate his incidents and experiences among the Indian tribes. She felt sure the Walker War trouble in Utah came about because white men broke their promises to the Indians.

Martha taught school in Colonia Diaz in the winter of 1901-1902. The 1902 the family moved to Colonia Morelos in Sonora. By 1906 Martha had moved to Colonia Juarez and for several years taught the Mexican children there. The class was held in the rock basement of the schoolhouse. When Bishop Joseph C. Bentley informed her that the people of Juarez refused to furnish funds to maintain the Mexican school any longer, she was astonished. The Bishop, too was grieved over the condition.  “It is better,” he said, “for us to educate them than to try to control a hoard of uneducated ones.”  On visiting the home of a Mexican family Martha met the mother, an intelligent woman who spoke her mind on the closing of the Mexican classes. “You Mormons,” she said, “came her poor, you were good people. You teach our little children, we work for you, wash, scrum, anything. You are now rich, you got your riches in our country, now you say you do nothing for us, not teach our children, we are fit only to do your work. You will treat us right or we will in a little while drive you out of our country.” The woman knew more than Martha at the time thought she knew.

Martha taught school in Guadalupe, Chihuahua, the last year or so before the Exodus. Returning to the States, Martha joined her family members including her two sons Edward and Frank Cox and their families. Again she taught school in Utah and Nevada for many years before moving to Salt Lake City where she worked in the LDS Temple as recorder and did other services there. She also taught classes in the next branch of the church, and the MIA and the Relief Society.

In 1928 she commenced writing a biographical record of her life entitled “Reminisces of Martha Cox.” This record ran to 300 handwritten pages, well done and very legible. The journey to Mexico, she writes:

… was the commencement of what I term the fifth chapter of my life.  The first being my childhood to adult period. The second chapter, the time from my entering marriage until our family came separated. My third chapter seemed to be proper to my life on the Muddy, in Nevada, comprising nearly 10 years being instrumental in acquiring over 300 acres of good farmland on which the town of Overton was built. The fourth chapter might be my years in Bunkerville and the fifth of our lives in Mexico.

A six chapter, consisting of the 20 years after the Exodus from Mexico, might have been added.

Martha died at 80 years of age on November 30, 1932 in Salt Lake City and was buried there.

Emerald W. Stout, grandson

Stalwarts South of the Border page 123

A longer account of Martha’s life taken from her 300 page autobiography can be found here:

http://goo.gl/fgC179

Mary Ellen Elizabeth Wilden Lillywhite

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Mary Ellen Elizabeth Wilden Lillywhite

(1850-1922)

Mary Ellen Elizabeth Wilden, daughter of Charles and Eleanor Turner Wilden, was born December 5, 1850 at Council Bluffs, Iowa. Her parents had joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in England and although Charles a better work for more than 14 months, they left their home with their six children, their relatives and friends to gather with other Mormons in Utah and establish a new home. They sailed from Liverpool, England, November 10, 1849 and arrived in New Orleans on December 24 of the same year. Then they went on to St. Louis, Missouri, where they spent two years preparing for the journey to Utah. Here the youngest child, Maria, died in the next year Mary Ellen Elizabeth was born in a dugout.

In 1852, when they started their journey across the plains to Utah, they had a 50 pound sack of cornmeal supply the family on this long journey, but the father was a good marksman and was able to exchange meat for other foodstuffs. The father and the oldest son were the only members of the family with shoes when the journey began, but they were able to make use of shoes, bedding and clothing discarded by a company of gold seekers on their way to California and lost many members due to cholera.

They were among the first settlers of Cove Creek (now Cedar), Utah. Times were hard indeed. They gathered segos and other roots for food, along with mushrooms and wild berries. The women and children gathered willow twigs on which they found honeydew and from which they were able to make a syrup for sweets. Charles Wilden took the first sheep into this area. These animals were a great help to the family, not only furnishing food but also wool from which they may clothing and blankets.

In 1866 the family moved to Beaver, about 25 miles from Cove Creek, where they established another frontier home and made life comfortable and pleasant. They planted fruit trees and Mary Ellen spent some of the happiest days of her life there. It was at Beaver that she met and fell in love with Joseph Lillywhite.  She went with a group of young girls to visit him while he was recovering from a gunshot wound in the chest. He had been working on John D. Lee’s ranch a few miles from Beaver, when they were attacked by Indians. Joseph was taken to Brother Lee’s home where he received the best care and it was there that Mary Ellen went to visit him. They were married in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City, December 5, 1867, traveling in the company of others for protection from the Indians.

In Beaver they lived in a little one-room log house with the bare essentials of furniture consisting of a bedstead, (two trestles with boards across, a straw tick and another of cat tails), a table, one home each year, as though, no stone but a big oven, one iron kettle, a brass bucket and a few dishes, most of which were wedding presents. Their clothing was made at home, spun and woven in those days. But what mattered hard work and crude furniture so long as they had each other? For the young husband was a very kind, affectionate man. On October 25, 1868, their union was blessed with a baby boy who may need Joseph for his father. On January 28, 1871, another boy, Benjamin, was born, living only a few weeks.

July 4, 1872, the liberals, joined by a Mormon apostate group, tried to “gun” the town. Their yelling and cursing aroused the townspeople and they armed themselves with clubs, guns or any other implements they could lay their hands on and met the intruders at the saloon. They were cursing and threatening to kill President Young. Joseph Lillywhite left his wife and young family in their home on the edge of town to join with his brethren to help drive the unpleasant element from town. President Murdock was out of town so his 18-year-old son took charge and told the intruders that they would not be harmed if they would leave town, which they did.

Several days later, on the 13th, Mary Eleanor was born. By this time they had been able to buy a small farm and plant fruit trees. The textile factory was operating, so spinning and weaving at home where unnecessary. By 1874 they were able to build a two-story home and the orchard was bearing fruit to help with their needs. Charles Wilden was born this year, 26 December. Lawrence was born January 29, 1877 and John LeRoy was born April 6, 1879. Six months later they decided to move to the San Juan country. Her husband’s health was not good due to his collapsed lung, so they thought a move to a warmer climate might help.

They were the first company to go through the Hole-in-the-Rock to San Juan. They were six months on the road, having to use their seed wheat and corn for food on the way. It was too late to plant crops when they finally arrived and the water from the San Juan River was not available. So they went on to Bush Valley, Arizona. They found the altitude of Bush Valley too high for Joseph. So, in October 1881, they moved to Woodruff, Arizona, having worked on the Santa Fe Railroad with his older sons to earn enough to buy their year’s provisions. They were among the first families to settle in Woodruff and lived in the Fort. They spent a good part of their lives there.

October 24, 1882, Horace Franklin was born. The dam across the river which furnished water for their gardens and farms had to be rebuilt each year so they could have fresh vegetables and irrigate farmland. Mitchell Woodruff was born December 24, 1884 and Annie Louise on April 11, 1887. When the baby was three months old the whole family came down with the measles. Eight-year-old John died from complications, while his mother was that fast. Six months later, Mary owns husband Joseph died of pneumonia. This was on January 18, 1888.

Mary Ellen knew she needed to prepare herself to care for her six children, so she took a course in obstetrics and cared for the sick. President Jesse N. Smith set her apart to do this work. During her lifetime she delivered some 300 babies including 11 pairs of twins. She was 71 years old when she attended her last delivery.

In October, 1893, when her son Franklin was 16 years old, he went with some friends to the lake to kill geese. On the way home they were playing soldier when a friend, thinking his gun was empty, shot and killed Franklin. So much sorrow in such a few years would dishearten most people, but not Mary Ellen. She carried on in spite of difficulties.

When her son Charles came home from his mission, the entire family moved to Colonia Morelos, Sonora, Mexico. Arriving there November 5, 1900, Charles became Bishop of the ward until the Exodus in 1912. They built comfortable homes for each of the sons and their families and also for Mary Ellen and her children who were not married. They also built a flour mill which they operated along with their farms. There were the usual tasks confronting the settling of a new community; canals to be built to bring water onto the farms; land to be cleared; crops  planted and harvested; school and church houses to be built. In November 1905, the Bavispe River flooded and washed away many homes and farms. Soon after, the flour mill burned. All had to be rebuilt.

The Mexican Revolution began in 1910 and soon bandits and soldiers began arriving in around Colonia Morelos, first one faction and then another. All demanded food for themselves and their horses. They also needed arms and ammunition. The colonists stood firm to remain neutral, but finally it was necessary for all to pack up and leave on short notice. By August 1912 they were all in United States, living in tents provided by the government, taking with them only what they could hurriedly pack into their wagons.

The Lillywhite families moved to Mesa, Arizona in March 1913. Mary Ellen’s children were all married now, so she lived with her son Mitchell and family. She stayed on with Mitchell’s wife and children after his death in July 1913 from complications of typhoid.  In 1920 her health was so poor that she could not be left alone while her daughter-in-law worked, so she went to live with her son Horace.

Mary Ellen was small in stature, but large in spirit.  She had a dynamic personality and was very positive in her views.  Her judgment was always considered seriously by her family. Even in her later years she continued to be of service. One incident which showed the faith and courage of this remarkable woman occureed while the family still lived in Woodruff.  A man residing in town was thrown from his wagon, inflicting a large scalp wound.  There were no doctors available, so people just stood around not knowing what to do.  As soon as Mary Ellen arrived on the scene, she called for hot water, clean clothes, a needle and thread, and a strong man to help her.  But strong men became weak, fainted or turned away with nausea, and were helpless.  Joseph Lillywhite, her oldest son assisted her and the man’s life was saved.  Years later, after they had been many years in Mexico, Charles, the second son, was on the train going to Salt Lake City.  Someone called him by name and an old gentlemen in the next seat asked, “Do you happen to know Mary Ellen Lillywhite?”  Charles answered, “She’s my mother!”  The old man said, “I want to shake the hand of the son of the woman who saved my life.”

Her hair was white and her body bent from many years of bending over patients, caring for and lifting them.  But her dark eyes still had their sparkle.  She died July 6, 1922, at the age of 72, in the home of her son Horace in Chandler, Arizona.  She was preceded in death by her husband and five of her eight children.

Compiled by Ernestine Hatch from material submitted by Ethel Lillywhite, Georganna Lillywhite, daughters-in-law and Eleanor Romney, granddaughter. 

Stalwarts South of the Border page 405.

Warren Longhurst

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Warren Longhurst

(1868 – 1951)

Warren’s parents were William Henry Longhurst, born January 22, 1817, in Little Hampton, Sussex, England, and Ann Preston, who was born April 13, 1825 in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England.

William Henry’s father was a shipbuilder, and the son took up the trade.  His business took him to Portsmouth where he met and, in time, married Ann.  In associating with their friends, they both heard of the Latter-day Saint Church.  She told him about it and was amazed to find that he also was interested.  So they went together to hear the Elders.  They became convinced that what they heard was true and were baptized. They then tried to convert their families and friends, but were rejected.  It took them 15 years to save up the money to emigrate to America.  They were poor and it was difficult; also, the whole sum of money had been stolen once and they had to start over.  By this time, Ann’s father was wealthy and offered her everything he had if she would give up her religion and stay with him.  If not, she was to be disinherited.  She chose to cast her lot with the Mormons and bid her family good-bye.  They set sail in the early 1860’s.  There was much sickness while sailing, but they arrived in New York in good condition, then made the trek across the plains to Salt Lake City. From Salt Lake City they moved to Bountiful, Utah, where his mother died while he was young.  His sister raised him.

Warren married Eva Allred on November 17, 1909. Eva’s parents were Byron Harvey Allred, born May 29, 1847 in Kanesville, Pottawattamie, Iowa, and Alta Matilda Rolfe, born August 5, 1855, at Lama, Iowa.  They had 12 children of which Eva was the eighth child. She was born in Garden City, Utah.

Warren, the 10th child of his family, was born March 2, 1868. They moved to Woodruff, Utah in 1872 were his mother, and Preston Longhurst, died and was the first reburied in the Woodruff cemetery. He was four years old the time and the youngest in the family so he was raised by his older sister Marintha and her husband George Whittington.  His father went to Arizona to live in the United Order with his daughter Clara. He never lived with his father after that except for a few months. George and Marintha moved to Garden City, Rich County on the shores of Bear Lake, where new tracts of land were being open. Here Warren grew up. He was baptized May 14, 1875. His childhood and young man days were very happy ones he enjoyed ice-skating and sleigh riding in the winter and swimming, spearfishing, boating, and berry picking in the summer. He attended high school over the mountain in Randolph where he stayed with his brother, Tom, sometimes hitching a ride part of the way home on the mail sleigh at Christmas time and skating along the edge of the lake the last 11 miles. He also helped on the farm where they raised pigs.

In 1885 his brothers George, Charles, and Joe and his father moved to Idaho along the Snake River and Warren went with them to help drive the cattle. They tried to get him to stay and “grow up” on the homestead but he decided to return to Garden City. He had been keeping company with Myra Irene Allred and they were engaged to be married by April, 1888. Her parents were Alta Matilda Rolf and Byron Harvey Allred, and they were moving to Star Valley, Wyoming to homestead a tract of land and persuaded Warren to go with them. He chose land near the Allreds and built a one-room house on it, made improvements on the land, and in the fall of 1889 he was ready to marry Myra. She had returned to Garden City during the summer to bottle fruit and vegetables for winter use. They were married in the Logan Temple, October 2, 1889 and returned to Afton Wyoming to live on their Homestead. Myra taught school for several years and Warren worked the land, cutting poles for fencing in the wintertime and farming during the summer. There were no children to bless this union, so they were mother and father to all the young people wherever they lived.  They were both very good at singing, drama, and teaching in the auxiliaries.

Warren’s father passed away in Idaho, May 17, 1890 in the age of 73. For several years, Warren and Myra worked hard to establish a desirable home. He was chosen to be a member of the High Council when the Star Valley Stake was organized in 1892. He had been ordained a Seventy in 1891.

In the fall of 1898 they were called on a mission to Samoa leaving their dream cottage and farm in the hands of a nephew, James Whittington. The members of the Ward gave them a nice farewell party and to their surprise gave them $75 in cash. They left Star Valley in November, went to Garden City by sleigh, bidding farewell to their relatives in the Cache Valley. They then went to Salt Lake City where they receive their instructions and were set apart as missionaries. They sailed from San Francisco Bay on the steamship Moana, making her maiden voyage across Pacific Ocean, in November 1898. They spent a five day layover at Hawaii visiting members and sizing. However most of the time was spent resting up from there seasickness. Thirteen days later they arrived in the Samoan Islands and were met aboard ship by Mission President E. J. Wood. They saw many strange sites, among which was a war waged very near the mission home. The war was a political nature and soon dwindled away into nothingness, leaving the old chief command. They felt that they were very blessed with learning the language and customs of the people.

Their main assignment was to teach school and the Gospel to the people on the island of Savaii, the largest of the Samoan group. The natives came to help build their first house, which was a far cry from the solid walls of their home in faraway, cold Wyoming. Released from this mission in the fall of 1901. Many poems written by both worn and Myra was told of their wonderful experiences there.

After greeting friends and relatives in Utah and Wyoming, they moved to Mexico in early 1902 were Myra’s parents had gone in the early 1890’s to escape persecution due to their living in polygamy. They lived in Guadalupe, near Colonia Dublan in northern Chihuahua, where many Mormons were already located. Myra’s health was not good and in 1903 she was taken to El Paso, Texas to have her appendix removed, returning soon to her active life.

When President Anthony W. Ivins was released as President of the Juarez Stake in 1907, his home, surrounded by price fruit trees and berries, became the property of the Juarez Stake Academy. Warren and Myra, recently from the Samoan Mission, moved into it. She became its matron and he the Agricultural Director for the Juarez Stake Academy and turned the Ivins block into a small experimental farm.  Student agriculturalists learned the fundamentals of horticulture by fulfilling the needs of growing trees in the orchard. They also learned first principles of animal husbandry by studying and working with the cows and horses in the barn and stable. From the flush of Leghorn hens in the coops, fundamentals of poultry were also taught. In garden spots in between the tree rows, all varieties of vegetables were grown and through experimentation it was taught what and how to plan for best results in various localities. A nursery was establish that grew into a career for Warren in later years and for his son, who took up the business when he became unable to carry on. He was among the pioneer fighters of the coddling moth when its infection was discovered. He became an authority on control of pests and of ailments that afflicted cattle, horses and chickens.

While setting up the agricultural department, he was also foremost in promoting cultural activities in the community and helped to forward every good cause. In this he was helped by his wife, Myra, who was capable and willing where and when help was needed. They were a childless couple and in a position to continue being foster parents to the entire student body. They entertained frequently, and were often a part of the programs presented by the school. Both had good voices and entertained  many a group dressed in Somoan costumes and singing Somoan songs. In fact they complement each other in public entertainments as well as they did in their home life and patterns for peaceful living.

When Warren later married Eva, Myra’s sister, the children born to Eva had two mothers. These children were: William Preston, Myra Myryl, Harvey Ashton, and Brandon. They lived a very happy life until Myra died September 9, 1912 in El Paso, Texas, shortly after the Exodus.

Warren took his family to Idaho to live for a while, but soon returned to Mexico and there, in November 1918, with all the family ill with the flu, Eva passed away, leaving her husband to care for the children. He started nursery in Dublan where they settled upon returning from Idaho. Here he married Mary Lavinia Moffat, April 12, 1919 and one child, Woodrow Wilson, blessed this union. The marriage was not a happy one and when they separated, Warren was both father and mother to his children. He lived to see them all married and settled. He died peacefully in his home May 14, 1951, and passed on to his reward awaiting the faithful.

The nursery he established has grown until it is one of the largest in the country, having over 750,000 trees all of fruit bearing types, suited to the locale. The nursery is now run by a son Ashton, the only one of his children residing the Mexico.

Nelle Spilsbury Hatch,

Stalwarts South of the Border page 409

Pearson Ballinger

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                Pearson Ballinger

(1832-1910)Pearson Ballinger young

Pearson Ballinger, a High Counselor in the Juarez stake of Zion, Mexico, was a son of John Ballinger and Mary Sparrow.  He was born in Leigh, Gloucestershire, England, June 9, 1832.  His own account follows.

I was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, October 6, 1853, and crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the ship Thorton in 1856.  With wife and one child, I resided in Quincy, Illinois for six years; here I buried the child one and a half years old. There were born immediate Quincy one son and two daughters, namely, Albert, now residing in Ogden; Emily (Mrs. Emily Ballinger Ware) now dead; and Clara (Mrs. Clara B. Williams) residing in Ogden. We moved from Quincy to Florence, Nebraska where we resided six weeks, and then started on our journey across the plains in Capt. Brunson’s company.  We left Florence with a blind pony and two cows, the cows furnishing milk and butter sufficient for our needs. We got along all right until we were 300 miles from Salt Lake City, when one of the cows gave out. The Captain of the company told me to ask brother Williams for another cow to assist me on my journey, as he had plenty, but he refused to let me have one. I then prayed concerning it, after which my cow was able to travel and stood the rest of the journey well.

The company followed along on the old “Mormon trail,” passing close to the Carthage jail, and crossed the river Keokuk. We arrived in Salt Lake City August 29, 1862. Here we stayed a few days and then went to Ogden where I obtained work with Elder Lorin Farr, assisting to build the first flour mill in Weber County.  I worked for Elder Farr for several years and also worked for Elder Peery as a millwright, etc., for 10 years.

I have seven children born to me in Ogden, namely: Willard, Frederick, James, John, Charles, George, Sarah and Isaac. Willard and Frederick died in infancy. Charles died at the age of 14 was smallpox. John, George and Sarah (now Mrs. Sarah B. Wright), and Isaac are still residing in Ogden.  

I went to Hooper for a while and had a farm there, Bishop Belnap being my nearest neighbor.  I was driven from Hooper and exiled for conscience sake and went to Mancos, Colorado, where I resided for three and a half years.  Here I worked at the coopering trade and ran the grist mill for three years.  I also helped to build the first meeting house at Hooper.  I returned to Ogden and was arrested and put under $2,000 bonds.  I then left Ogden again for Colonia Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, December 20, 1890, again enduring necessary trials incidental to the building up of a new country, being exiled from my family.  

Often I longed for the leeks and onions of Utah, as at times I would tire of Mexican mush and molasses and would wish for something else for a change.  But I still rejoice that I have passed through these trials with the Saints, knowing that the Gospel is true.  I have now resided in Colonia Juarez 17 years with wife and one child, Alma Nephi, and I expect to close my mortal career here, as I am now 75 years of age and quite feeble.  I was ordained a High Priest in Ogden, in 1889, and set apart as a member o the High Council in Colonia Juarez, in 1894.

Pearson Ballinger died August 23, 1910, in Colonia Juarez.

Stalwarts South of the Border  

Nelle Spilsbury Hatch

page 24

William Wallace Haws

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William Wallace Haws old

William Wallace Haws

(1835 – 1895)

William Wallace Haws, son of Gilbert and Hannah Witcomb Haws, was born February 18, 1835, at Green Township, Wayne County, Illinois. 1835,  he was the seventh of fourteen children. He had six sisters and seven brothers. The father, Gilbert Haws, was born March 10, 1801, in Logan County, Kentucky. The mother, Hannah Witcomb, was born April 17, 1806, at Cazenvonia, Madison County, New York.  The couple first learned of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints about 1840. Previous to this time they had not affiliated with any church. They, with two of their daughters, Lucinda and Elizabeth, were baptized during the years 1842-1843. Gilbert and Hannah lived on a farm near Xenia, Illinois, in the northwestern part of Wayne County, helping with the sheep and cattle. 

In 1845, after the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith, they received word from the Elders of the Church that a body of the Saints would leave the State of Illinois the next spring. Although they lived in Wayne County, some distance from Nauvoo, and suffered less persecution, they decided to leave with the others. They made their preparations and left Wayne county in May, 1847, leaving many friends and some relatives behind. 

The family traveled northwest through Illinois, crossed the Mississippi River into Iowa, beyond the first account of Saints at Garden Grove, to Mount Pisgah, about 200 miles from Nauvoo. Here they stayed the winter. William was 12 years old at the time. In the spring of 1848, the family continued on to Council Bluffs, then to Winter Quarters. They crossed the Missouri River in Lorenzo Snow’s company. Here they made preparations to go west with the first company of the season. In May, 1848, they left winter quarters for the Rocky Mountains. The trip was difficult. They washed clothes in cold water and use Buffalo chips for fuel, for wood was scarce. The crossing was not all hardship, however, for the 13-year-old boy enjoyed many adventures incident to the pioneers’ travels —the programs and dances at night, the herds of buffalo on the plains, and the ever present threat of molestation by the Indians. 

They arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on September 23, 1848, where the father bought one of the little adobe houses in the old fort which had been built by the pioneers the year before. The new Haws home was one room, 12 feet square. It had a fireplace and two portholes about 10 inches square on each side of the chimney. The roof of the house was made of logs across which willows and bushes were piled and covered with dirt. The floor was packed dirt.  The old fort was formed by a great many of these little houses built together in the shape of a square with all doors opening into the square.  Spaces were left for gates on the east and west sides of the fort. No windows were put into the house for fear that Indians, who were numerous and had attacked the fort, might again do so. The portals were on the outer wall to shoot through in case of attack. 

William Wallace, in company with Orville Cox, went to the Sessions settlement about 10 miles north of Salt Lake City to take care of his father’s animals grazing on land leased until they could locate on a place of their own. He was baptized in City Creek, November 18, 1848, by Brother E. Strong.   

In December 1848, three of his sisters were married to men who had just returned from service with the Mormon Battalion. Food was very scarce this first year in Utah. Few crops were planted and the harvest was meager. They have little corn for making bread but very little to go with it. Sometimes a beef was killed and a little meat rationed to each family. Dried buffalo meat was available at times, which was cut into small pieces and pounded and used to make gravy and soup, with flour added to make the gravy thick and more palatable.

In March of 1849 William’s father was called to help settle Utah Valley at what is now Provo.  John S. Higbee was called to organize this group of 150 people. They were met by Timpanogos ,or Ute Indians, who would not let the colonizers cross the Provo River until the interpreter had made a treaty with them that they would not drive the Indians from their lands. The treaty made, the company establish the Provo Branch of the Church, March 18, 1849, with John S. Higbee as President. 

William helped with the herding of the cows and though he was but 14 at the time he also helped build a fort. This year his sister Matilde died and was buried on a little knoll near the river. The body was later moved to the Provo Cemetery. His brother Gilbert Oliver was born in Provo, being the second white child to be born there. While they lived in and around Provo, they were harassed, quite severely at times by the Indians, and more than once had to move to the fort until the Indians were at peace again. 

On December 1, 1853, William was married to Barbara Belinda Mills, by Bishop J.O. Duke.  She was the third child of John and Jane Sanford Mills.  She was born July 1, 1836, at Suffan’s Creek, Pickering Township, Leads, Canada.  Her family was taught the Gospel and was baptized by Elder John Taylor.  Her parents and an older sister received their endowments in the Nauvoo Temple, having moved from Canada, settling in Nashville, Iowa, until the temple was completed.  In October of 1846, they started west, but spent the winter at Winter Quarters.  John Mills preceded his family to the Salt Lake Valley.  Jane and the children crossed later in the company of Morris Phelps, arriving in Lehi, Utah in the fall of 1851.  They soon moved to the Provo bench, where Barbara and William met and were married.  They lived that year with  Barbara’s parents, farming with her brother Martin W. Mills.  For several years they had a hard time getting enough to eat.  But they built a small home, helped to establish a sawmill and gave birth to two children, Hanna Jane and William Wallace. 

During the October Conference of 1871, William was called on a short term mission to the area around his old home of Xenia, Illinois. He visited and preached the Gospel to many of his relatives and saw the old homestead.  He was released from his mission in February 1872, but consumed a month returning home because of heavy snow.  He earned most of his passage home by shoveling snow so the train could travel. 

In May, 1875, Millie May was born and William became a member of the Provo police force in 1875, continuing at the same time to carry on his farming and wood hauling.  He married Martha Barrett, November 8, 1875, a twin, who was the eleventh child of William and Phoebe Colburn Barrett, recent immigrants to Provo from England.  Her twin stayed with an Aunt in England when the family came to the United States.  As a result the twins did not see each other for some 32 years, when Mary and her family came to America. Martha’s first child, Wallace John, was born February 21, 1878.   

Because of the crusade against polygamy, William Wallace was obliged to spend most of 1878 hiding in one place and another. In April 1879 he sold his property in Utah and moved with his sons William and George and their families to Show Low, Arizona, near Fort Apache, where they engaged in wood hauling for the fort, and in farming.  They provided butter and cheese and fresh produce for the fort. On April 15, 1881, Charles James, Martha’s second son was born. That fall his wife Barbara took her family to Provo so that the girls could go to school. He found out that the land he had settled on near the fort was government land, so he moved both his families to Smithsville (now called Pima), Arizona, where he started anew with his land clearing and planting crops. In the Arizona community they lived very happy lives and were able to build and make improvements on homes for both families. William established a sawmill at the mouth of a canyon in the Graham mountains nearby.   

By January, 1885, U.S. Marshals were moving into Arizona Territory and men with plural wives again went into hiding. William made immediate plans to move his family to Mexico. He first made a preliminary trip on horseback. At Corralitos he found a body of Saints in conditions similar to his own, with more families arriving each day. He stayed long enough to help plant crops on land rented from Mexican neighbors. In August he returned to Arizona and by September 14, 1885 was back in Mexico with Martha’s family. 

The Saints in Corralitos could not arrange for enough land in one tract to meet their needs, so they split up into two camps, renting land at Janos and Casas Grandes. William went with the Casas Grandes group which later established the colony of Colonia Juarez. The Janos group founded Colonia Diaz. A third group, called the Turley group, merged with the two larger groups, although for a while most of the Sunday services were held at the site of the Turley camp. 

In Mexico, William was helpful in laying out townsites, carrying the surveyor’s chain, digging ditches and planting crops.  When not busy with farm, church or community duties, he explored the mountain areas to the west in search of new townsites.  On one of these trips he located the areas later named Hop Valley, because of the many wild hops growing there, Corrales Basin and in the Strawberry Valley.  He helped build a road to get to these areas and planted crops such as potatoes, squash, beans and corn in the Strawberry Valley, so named because of the abundance of wild strawberries. Other locations nearby were Williams Ranch and Cave Valley, where a Ward was established. Near Cave Valley were many well-preserved cliff dwellings. 

In May, 1887, William was called as one of the several men to go with teams and wagons to meet a group of native Mexican Saints being moved from the interior of Mexico to the colonies. Efforts of these missionaries had been fruitful, but the lot of new converts was difficult because of persecution. It was thought best, to have the Mexican converts moved to the colonies. The men left on April 30, 1887 and returned May 10, traveling 260 miles. 

Among these converts was a widow and her children, Gertrude Guameros Paez, whom William married on March 1, 1888 as a plural wife. The men in the Church were advised in those times to marry widows as a way to help care for them. William built her a home in Corrales where she lived until his death, after which she moved to Colonia Juarez where her children could receive adequate schooling. Three children were born to this couple: two girls and a boy. One of these youngsters reached adulthood —Elizabeth. Gertrude’s children by her previous marriage moved back to the interior of Mexico after living in the colonies only a short time. After Elizabeth married, Gertrude also returned to her old home near Mexico City, where she died during the Mexican Revolution. 

William was happy with his family as at Corrales, where he built, planted, harvested and fenced.  Soon other families were also locating in the vicinity and a Branch of the Church was organized on April 28, 1889.  During this time, William helped survey and stake out the townsites for Colonia Pacheco. His son George and family moved to Pacheco in January, 1891 and William spent considerable time helping them build a home and getting crops planted.   

By this time many families had moved into the Corrales-Pacheco area:  The Staleys, Lunts, Naegles, Humphreys, Carlins, Smiths, McConkies, Farnsworth, Sellers, Spencers, Jarvises, and Cluffs to mention a few.

To get money to buy salt, sugar, clothing and other staples, William would haul lumber from the sawmills to the lower valleys to sell. During one of these trips, his eyes became terribly infected and he nearly lost his sight. His eyes troubled him for the remainder of his days.

He spent his days making a livelihood for his family by logging, hauling lumber, planting and harvesting his crops, in fair weather and foul. During one of his trips to the valley with lumber he contracted a heavy cold which kept him ill for many weeks. During this time he was clearing land in Galeana, with several other men, to give them more acreage on which to plant, they also built a reservoir to hold irrigation water. Here he contracted chills and fever, which bothered him more as time went on.

In December 1892 he went with a group of men to clear roadway to Colonia Chuhuichupa. The group some on horseback, some with teams and wagons, consisted of Alexander F. Macdonald, George Russell, David A. McClellan, John McNeil, William Ivins, Alfred Baker, Brigham Stowell, and George and William Wallace Haws. 

He was ordained a High Priest at meetings held in Pacheco by Apostle John Henry Smith in February 1893. He suffered from the chills and fever all that summer and on  August 3, 1894 his wife Martha gave birth to twins, Mary and Martha.  He suffered terribly as a result of the cold weather and exposure while working on the Galeana project, but was able to return to Colonia Pacheco.  William died on March 6, 1895 and was buried in  the cemetery at Colonia Pacheco.  He was survived by three widows, the two in Mexico and Barbara, who had remained in the United States.  Martha and her family stayed in Mexico until the Exodus in 1912.  The William Wallace Haws estate was divided equally among all three wives.

Nelle Spilsbury Hatch

Stalwart’s South of the Border page 254

James Douglas Harvey

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James Douglas Harvey beardJames Douglas Harvey

(1863-1912)

My father, James D. Harvey, had two wives and when Church leaders advised men living in plural marriage to go to Mexico, he was one of those who made that long journey south in 1890. He and my mother, Sarah Elizabeth Kellett, went to Colonia Diaz, leaving the other wife, Nancy Anderson, with her folks until they could get a place. They bought an adobe structure with a dirt floor.Father worked for John W. Young who was attempting to build a railroad through the country at that time. This required my mother to stay at home and care for the garden and similar chores by herself. The railroad project failed. Father came home but receive no pay for his work. Mother had worked so hard while he was gone getting the garden planted that she was sick and lost the baby.

In the autumn of 1890, they sold the place where they were living for a team and wagon and moved into a tin shop. In March 1891, they took the team and wagon and went to Deming to meet my father’s second wife, Nancy, and her little boy.  They succeeded in buying two lots on which all live together.  My mother inherited a home which she sold for sheep that she was able to also sell for enough money that she was able to buy a nice three-room house in which the entire family lived for some time.

Both my mother and Father’s wife Nancy gave birth to children 1892. There was a drought at the time and nearly all the cattle died from thirst. My parents’ only cow was one of the victims. Then it rained so much that the wheat grew in the bundles. They would pound it out on a canvas with sticks and grind it into flour.  Flour was so scarce that it was selling for $10 a hundred.  There were some fruit but no milk and no grease of any kind. They learn to make cake without grease.  The Church gave them some beef but it was so poor they just made soup out of it.  They raised garden vegetables and lots of cane and made lots of molasses. It was delicious. They made cornbread with vinegar and soda. Mother could not eat it. It gave her heartburn and took all the skin off her throat and tongue.  On one occasion, a family came from their hometown in Utah and stayed with them for a week. They had brought lots of flour with them and other groceries. They divided them with our family for which we were very grateful. Then the family went on up into the mountain colonies to settle.

The next summer our family raised grain, plenty of fruit and garden vegetables. They also made butter, cheese and had lots of eggs. My father took these things out to the mines in the mountains to sell. After a great deal of hardship and saving all we could, my father was also able to purchase a farm five miles west of town.

On this farm my parents raised two crops of potatoes every year, grain, corn, and came to make molasses. There was a two room house on the farm. My father’s wives took turns living there in the summertime.

I remember being told as a child how Apostle George Teasdale had dedicated a certain spot on which he wanted Colonia Diaz to be built. He named it Rock Joseph.

But the settlers were already starting their farms elsewhere and didn’t want to move. As it turned out, it was wise that they didn’t move because when the river flooded the area was so swamped that a levee had to be built.  They named the place where the settlers located Colonia Diaz.

During all this time father’s families were growing. Eventually each of his two wives had nine children, 18 in all.

In 1912, Frank Whiting arose at two o’clock in them morning with a crying baby and heard a commotion in the co-op store next door to his home.  He looked out the window and could see some Mexicans trying to pry open the doors of the store. He slipped out of the house rounded up some of the men of the town. When they arrived back at the store the Mexicans were leaving. Whiting and the men with him shouted for them to halt but they refused. Consequently, the men fired on them and killed one of the thieves. One of those running away was named Cesario. He didn’t have a horse but succeeded in making his way to his home on the edge of town. It was his brother who was killed. When he found out that his brother that was shot, he went out to his farm which bordered on the land we owned. He allowed his mother-in-law to live at the farm house and kept his own family at home in town. He knew how to get into the store because he was always hanging around and observing the Mormons who owned and operated it.

Once a Cesario reached his farm, he turned his horses in my father’s grain, which, at the time, was ripe and ready to harvest. On the morning of May 3, 1912, my father and my brother Will were in that part of his properties the horses were permitted to enter.  When they saw the horses, Father told Will to go over to the house until Cesario to please take care of his horses. Will said he was afraid to go over there because the family had such a mean dog. So Father said he would go, taking a shovel for protection against the dog. When he had almost arrived at the house, Cesario came out swearing, using foul language. His mother-in-law was crying, begging him not to be violent. But Cesario swore that he would get gringos to pay for the death of his brother.  He had a pistol and pointed at Father but his mother-in-law knocked his arm down forcing him to miss. This made him so angry that he knocked her to the ground.  Father raised his shovel and was going to hit Cesario, trying to escape him by running around the house. My brother Will was shouting at Father telling him which way to go but Cesario was able to get close enough to fire, and shot my Father through the heart. He shot him three times. He walked up after Father fell and shot him in the temple close eye.

Will ran to Mexican neighbors and told them what happened. They took him into their house and told him that if Cesario were to come after him, they would protect Will with their own guns. But rather than pursue Will, Cesario had taken a horse into the Mexican town of La Ascension.  Will then went to the house and told the rest the family what had happened, telling him to go cover Father’s body with the quilt and that he would go to town and get help. Everyone was terribly frightened. I was married at the time and Will had to pass by the home where I was living, and gave me the sad news. I then took my baby and went to comfort my mother as best I could.

The Bishop and others of the men from town took a wagon and went to the home of Cesario where my father still lay. Some other men went to La Ascension to get the authorities to conduct an inquest so that the body of my father could be brought home. It was late afternoon before the Mexican authorities came out to the place were my father’s body was. When they arrived, they arrested Brother Jim Jacobson and those with him rather than pursuing Cesario. Father’s body was placed in a wagon and brought home. It was drenched in blood and was a horrible sight. When Jim Jacobson and the boys got to the La Ascension they said it was like going into a den of hungry wolves. The Mexican population was so aroused they didn’t expect to get out of there alive. The next morning three Mexican officers came out and looked father’s body but never did anything about it. Cesario was allowed to go free.

Some of the Church brethren  went over to La Ascension to see if they couldn’t have Cesario restrained or put behind bars so he could not do any more killing. The Mexican sheriff just cried and said that if he tried to do anything more people would be killed and to please just go home and peace. They did allow Jacobson and the boys to leave jail and return to their homes. My father was buried on May 5, 1912.

His sons went to the farm, gathered the grain and planted a second crop of potatoes. They lived in fear all the time. We were told later that Cesario was killed by Poncho Villa. I and my husband, George Guile Hardy, then went with my mother and her four small children north across the border to visit her people in Utah and Idaho. While there, we heard that the leaders had directed the colonists to leave, taking only what they needed for they would be gone for only a few days.

Those in Colonia Diaz went to Hachita, just across the line where some American soldiers were stationed.  Some men and boys remained in the colony to watch and care for the people’s livestock and properties but word was sent for them to come out also and to join the rest in Hachita.  They never went back.  The Rebels that came through were so upset at not obtaining guns and ammunition that they burned and destroyed everything they could.

Sarah Agnes Hardy, daughter

Stalwarts South of the Border Nelle Spilsbury Hatch pg 235