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Frederick Granger Williams II

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Frederick Granger Williams II

(1853 – 1918)

Frederick Granger Williams was born March 29, 1853, in Salt Lake City, Utah.  His parents were Dr. Ezra Granger Williams and Henrietta Crombie.

He was blessed by President Brigham Young in June of 1853.  His mother commenced his schooling, teaching him at home, at the age of seven. He was born in a little white house to the rear of the Hotel Utah, just east of Temple Square.  This house was still standing in 1925.

He married Amanda Burns on January 24, 1876, and was called that same year on a mission to Arizona on the Little Colorado River.  In the fall of 1877 he moved to Ashley’s Fork, now Jensen, Utah.  He was the first Presiding Elder in the Uinta Basin.  In 1879 he returned to Ogden, the home of his parents, working for two years on the Oregon Short Line Railroad at Hams Fork, Wyoming.

In 1886 he started for Mexico by team, and got as far as Fairview, Utah.  While living there he met Nancy Abigail Clement and married her in Salt Lake City on April 8, 1889.  In December of that year he moved to Pleasant View.  He was ordained a High Priest in February of 1890.

He moved to Mexico in August of 1890.  At this time, he, together with several other men in his same circumstances, chartered two large freight cars to make the long journey south.  In the end of one car the livestock was taken care of.  In the other end were placed the farm implements.  The number two car was partitioned off; on half held the household furnishings for four or five families.  The families rode in this way to Denver, Colorado.  There they changed trains, repacking all their belongings to travel on to Deming, New Mexico.

A short time before the family reached Denver, Flora May was stricken with spinal meningitis. By the time they arrived in Deming, she was very low.  Frederick Granger telegraphed to Winslow Farr who was a member of their party but had gone ahead of the group.  He had a place all ready for them when they arrived.  Amanda, the sick girl’s mother, was in very delicate health also. Deming at this time was just a small railroad town out in the desert.  Flora May was so ill it seemed her time had come to go.  The family remained about a month and she was still very ill.  Apostle George W. Teasdale passed through Deming on his way to the colonies to take charge of Mexican affairs for the Church.  Frederick Granger told him of the child’s condition and he came to the house and with Frederick Granger and two or three other Elders, Apostle Teasdale placed his hands on the little girl’s head and gave her a blessing.  He promised her that she would live to fill the measure of her creation and that she should be greatly blessed in life. The child began to mend so rapidly that within a very short time the family started on their way again to Colonia Diaz.  Flor May grew to maturity and raised a family of her own.

While in Diaz, Amanda, Nancy and Elizabeth, wives of Frederick Granger Williams were all very ill with mountain fever.  Elizabeth died.  Amanda’s little girl Hazel also became very ill.  She was six weeks old at the time.  They gave her up for dead.  They were washing her body for burial when she showed signs of life. The Elders administered to her and she immediately rallied and regained her health and lived to rear a lovely family.

The Williams moved to Colonia Dublan, 65 miles farther south of Diaz in 1891, and there Frederick Granger Williams found amply opportunity to be of service to the Mormon community in a variety of ways.  As a young man he had been taught the rudiments of medicine by his father, Dr. Ezra G. Williams, who tried to make a doctor out of him. The son’s tastes, however, were for farming and raising livestock. He became a blacksmith, farmer and rancher.  He did not permit his knowledge of medicine, however, to go unused. For many years he was one of the few trained health specialists available to the colonists.  During his busy lifetime, he delivered many hundreds of babies.

In November, 1909, he moved with his family to Arizona, arriving in Binghampton (now part of Tucson) on December 15. In June, 1914, he started a ranch near Sonoita, Arizona, where he had homesteaded a quarter section of land. It was here, On January 19, 1918, while hauling a load of hay with his son Orin Granger, that he was pulled off the load and instantly killed. Two of his sons have presided over three such missions; Spanish American, Argentine and Uruguayan.  A grandson, James A. Jesperson, is at this time laboring presiding over the Andes Mission, and his granddaughter, Leonor Brown, with her husband, Harold, presided over the Argentine Mission.  Harold is at this time President of the Mexico City Stake.

Frederick Granger Williams grand- and great-grandchildren have spent well over an accumulated 100 years in missionary work among the descendants of Father Lehi in Latin America.  Perhaps it was prophetic that the angel showed our progenitor, Dr. Frederick Granger Williams, the vision in which he saw Lehi’s landing place in South America.  This vision was received in the Kirtland Temple which is constructed on land that he donated to the Church for that purpose.

Frederick Salem Williams, son

Flora May Williams, daughter

and Leonor Jesperson Brown,granddaughter

Stalwarts South of the Border, Nelle Spilsbury Hatch, page 778

Charles Edmund Richardson

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Charles Edmund Richardson

(1858-1925)

Charles Edmund Richardson was born in Manti, Sanpete County, Utah, October 13, 1858.  He was the son of Mary Ann Darrow and Edmund Richardson, converts to the Church, who had been called to Manti to help increase the population of that city as protection against Walker’s band of Indians.  They later moved to Springville, Utah.

From his father, Edmund learned mechanics, carpentering, and building.  He was considered a prodigy because of the eas with which he absorbed learning.  When he was 14 years old his parents died, leaving to him the care of a younger brother, Sullivan Calvin.  This responsibility developed in him resourcefulness and ingenuity.  Thoughtful and logical, cheerful but never loud, he was inclined to plainness in clothes and manner, and yet was possessed of natural dignity.  He was cautions but never worried or fearful.  His hair was red, and, even as an old man, he had an erect figure which he maintained until his death. He had steady blue eyes and grew a heavy moustache.  After the death of his parents, he worked fo a short time in the mines but later took his younger brother and went to northern Arizona to join the United Order at Brigham City.  There he learned the art of community living and developed his skills in the trades.

Although he had married Sarah Louisa Adams (Sadie) in 1882, and Sarah Rogers in 1887, polygamy was not the reason he moved to Mexico in 1888.  Rather, it came about because of a misunderstanding over land.  This prompted him to leave Pleasant Valley, near Heber in Arizona, and move south with Sadie and their three small children.  He turned to Mexico because his friends and the relatives of his wife were either already there or planning to go there.  His recent plural marriage simply supported his decision. 

On a hot summer day in 1888, Charles E. Richardson and his family crossed the border into Mexico and settled in Colonia Diaz, a fast-growing Mormon colony three years of age.  This was not his first trip to Mexico, for he had interrupted his duties in the Indian Mission in 1885 to be transferred to northern Chihuahua as an interpreter for Apostle George Teasdale and others during the Mexican land purchase negotiations.

Edmund was an immediate asset to the Mexico communities.  He set up blacksmith and carpenter shops and came to be rated during those early years as one of the best mechanics among the Mormons in Mexico.  He shod horses, made wheelbarrows, and handcarts.  He even made a complete windmill, including pump.  As a complete wheelwright, he made repairs to wagons and wheels for the colonists.  He had taught school on his earlier arrival in Mexico and was one of the first school teachers in the colonies.

During those first years there was much sickness in Colonia Diaz, and no professional medical help was available, only services of several devoted women who served as practical nurses and midwives.  Among these were Annie Nelson, Maude Acord, and, later, Leah Jane Keeler, who was a registered nurse.  In January, 1891, tow of Edmund’s children died almost the same day.  This sorrow so affected him that he resolved to do something about the lack of medical help.  He consulted with doctors in Deming, New Mexico, Casas Grandes, and El Paso, Texas.  He bought books on medicine and drugs, and charts on anatomy.  He purchased a skull and the trunk of a skeleton.  With encouragement from area doctors, he began to study medicine earnestly.  William Gailbraith owned a large drugstore in Chihuahua City and, when Edmund and his brother, Sullivan, learned that Gailbraith was going to return to the United States, they bought his drug stock.

Aided by regular and frequent consultation with doctors, Edmund became remarkably successful in the practice of medicine among the colonists.  In 1892, he was called upon so much for medical service that he was forced to neglect other duties.  Often, the gristmill which he had set up earlier was left all day unattended, except by his nine-year-old son Eddie, who was too small to pour grain into the hopper, so the machine ground on without wheat until some older person happened by.  This was one of the first water-powered grist mills installed in the colonies.  He christened the mill El Molino Joyero, meaning “jewel mill.”  

Edmund successfully applied his ingenuity and resourcefulness to many facets of the Mexico colonization project, but perhaps his greatest contribution was with legal problems encountered by the colonists.  Many precedents established by cases he fought in the Mexican courts proved invaluable to the welfare of the Saintes long after the Exodus in 1912.   

In January, 1896, Edmund received a mission call to Great Britain.  This was later changed to Mexico City to allow him to study Mexican law to prepare him to act as legal advisor to the Mormon colony Diaz which, at that time, was considered the most thriving of the colonies.  Two other men, Pleasant S. Williams and Hyrum Harris were also called at the same time to study law to prepare for duties at Colonia Dublan and Juarez. 

Having lawyers among the Mormons was a wise move inasmuch as the colonists had suffered for lack for legal counsel from the time they first crossed the line into Mexico.  Some cases had dragged on for years and amounted to nothing less than extortion or blackmail.  In compliance with the missionary call, Edmund enrolled as a student at the University of Mexico where he completed a four-year course in two years and graduated with honors. 

Through a series of circumstances, Edmund became the only “home grown” lawyer in the colonies and the sole source of legal counsel unless Mexican lawyers were engaged, whose sympathies were not always clear.  A fellow colonist said of him, “As a lawyer in Mexico, Edmund Richardson knew his stuff.”  And a Mexican lawyer is said to have observed, “If Don Edmundo is on the other side, we will not take the case.”  He had a phenomenal memory and the word of Don Edmundo, as he was called, came to be received with deference at the jefetura (county seat).  His son Edmund is authority for the statement that Charles Edmund Richardson never lost a case in the Mexican courts.

In 1889 Richardson married Caroline Rebecca Jacobsen, and, in 1904, Daisy Stout.  He had also brought his second wife, Sarah Rogers, down to Mexico.  Edmund was a family man cum laude.  His family and genealogical records kept in his own handwriting are examples of his efficiency and thoroughness and compliment to his love for his families.  That the family was due to their deep religious convictions, forbearance, and the wise counsel and just dealings of of the husband and father.  He created such harmony and good attitudes that the family continued to have close and strong bonds of affection even after Edmund had died.

In the latter part of 1904, Edmund moved his wife Sadie to Colonia Juarez and later established a home there for his fourth wife Daisy. This move provided a home for the lawyer during the time his legal duties kept him a t Casas Grandes, county seat, and put the children near the Juarez Academy.  However, Sadie and Daisy often returned to the ranch at Colonia Diaz to spend the summer.

An incident told by Edmund’s daughter, Hazel, reveals the need of the people for the help he could and did give.  “One day,” said Hazel, “not long after my father’s death, I met Daniel Skousen of Colonia Juarez on the streets of El Paso, Texas.  AS soon as the greetings were over, he asked me where my father could be reached, and said, “We need him so much.  If we could only persuade him him to come back to the Colonies!  The people down there are in trouble and he is our only hope.  He must come back!”  When I finally said, “He is dead,” Uncle Dan Remarked, “No one will ever do for the colonies what he has done.  He filled his mission faithfully and well.  He knew how to handle the Mexicans and they knew that they would receive justice.”

Adam Fredrickson of Colonia Diaz noted that:

Edmund Richardson was a student of merit, utilized all his spare time for study.  His overland trips were made with a team and a book.  He spoke both Spanish and English fluently.  His interesting and enlightening sermons were second to none, and were enunciated clearly.  He had the best control of his temper of anyone I knew.  Once while he was fencing his property, an angry stockman who favored open grazing reviled him with abusive language and every foul name at his command.  Richardson went calmly about his work remarking, “If you get any pleasure out of calling me such names, just go ahead.”  Even when the cattleman threatened to strike with a shovel, Richardson laughed him out of it.  He was a friend to everyone… He helped many a poor family enjoy a better Christmas because he helped Santa put dolls and toys on the community Christmas tree.

Edmund Richardson tried to make the best possible use of every hour for he believed that wasting time was foolish and irresponsible.  He read avidly while traveling to his appointments at the courts, or on business, thus accumulating a superior store of knowledge.

Because he was so capable, it was sometimes a relief to find that he was human, too.  An incident will illustrate this.  His wives, Sadie and Becky, when they fed the pigs, were in the habit of going together, one carrying the feed in a bucket and the other armed with a large stick to keep off the pigs as the women approached the trough.  One day Edmund was at home, he decided to feed the pigs himself.  “Take a stick,” cautioned Sadie.  “Never mind my dears.  Don’t worry.  I will take care of myself,” he called back as he walked away out the kitchen door, both knowing well the difficulties involved, and yet wondering if he could possibly take care of the situation. But before he reached the trough, an overeager pig had run from behind, pushed himself between Edmund’s legs, tripping him.  Before he realized what was happening, Edmund was down on the ground, completely out of sight of the watching women, surrounded by a horde of scrambling, pushing pigs.  It is understandable that the story was told and retold with relish by the wives.  The husband, after all, was just human enough to still have something to learn.

Charles Edmund Richardson’s versatility was evident by his many activities:  law, medicine, cattle raising, farming, mechanics and blacksmithing, teaching, designing and building, reconciliation fo the needs and demands of his wives and pluaral families, not to mention his church activities.  He managed to crowd all these activities into his life with a fair degree of success in every area.  He seemed to have a driving force and ability to manage his time which enabled him to accomplish what he did.

His daughter, Hazel R. Taylor, happened to be talking with Anthony W. Ivins, President of the Juarez Stake in Mexico, and perhaps Edmund’s closest friend in Mexico. At the time of the conversation with President Ivins was then in Salt Lake City as Counselor to the President of the Church.  President Ivins said, “Do you know you have a wonderful father?” Hazel, who adored her father, as did all his children, said, “Well, I am his child and perhaps inclined to be prejudiced, but I think that my father is just wonderful!”

Brother Ivins went on, “I suppose that he did as much or more good for the colonies in Mexico that any other man.  Did you know that except for one thing he would have had many important positions in the church, but we couldn’t depend on him…”  Shocked, Hazel interrupted him to expostulate regarding her father’s dependability.  She said she could not imagine him, who knew her father so well, thinking such a thing.  President Ivins quickly said, “Now wait, let me explain,” and went on to say that her father had a brilliant mind, that his capabilities were remarkable, that his spirituality was far above average, and that his principles were unquestioned, but that because of his mission he could not be relied upon to fill scheduled church appointments.

This was certainly true.  When he was teaching commercial law at the Juarez Stake Academy, the only way students knew whether he was in town was by the ringing of the bell.  Edmund would advise the custodian, John Allen, when he came into town to ring the bell and students would prepare for class.  Because his lessons were so enjoyable he was retained as the teacher of the adult class in Sunday School for many years.  Likely as not, Brother Richardson would be found in some Ward other than his own on a Sunday, and was usually called upon to talk in his clear yet deep and thoughtful way to an appreciative audience while his Sunday School class accepted a substitute.

So it was true, as President Ivins indicated, the positions Edmund held in the Church did not reflect the extent of his abilities, his spirituality, or his dependability.  Through he valued his property holdings, he valued his membership in the Church and his testimony of its truthfulness far more.  His entire life dedicated to compliance with its demands.  He honored his priesthood and was sincere in his devotion to it. He vowed to submit to authority, and succeeded in every instance.  Great characters stand tall, and Charles Edmund Richardson towered with other stalwarts who established and maintained the Mormon colonies of Mexico.  He was a pillar of strength on whom others depended for help. 

In August, 1925, Edmund became ill and passed away.  H was buried in Thatcher, Arizona. He was the father of 36 children, 24 of whom grew to adulthood.  If there is anything that can be said to describe the family generally, it would be an unusual closeness among the families of the four wives, the clean living and high moral character of the family members, and their involvement in church activity. Among his posterity are found professional men and women in the fields of medicine, education, law, and finance.

Compiled and submitted by members and descendants of the Charles Edmund Richardson family

Stalwarts South of the Border Nelle Spilsbury Hatch, page 564

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

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

 

John Kartchner

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John Kartchner

1851 – 1946

John Kartchner was born the first night following the day the Mormons arrived in San Bernardino, California, and he was the first white child born in that city. He was the fourth of his mother’s 11 children. He was born in a tent and the wind was blowing so hard that it was necessary for one man to attend each of the four corners of the tent so mother a baby would have protection from the bitter weather of the night.

When John was five years of age, he moved with his father and mother and their family from San Bernardino, California, to Beaver, Utah. In Beaver John lived the farm boy life. He was the oldest living son so he spent many hours with his young brother, Mark, hoeing weeds and doing farm chores. John’s father was nearly always in his blacksmith shop, so as John advanced in years a little, he took charge of much of the farm operation.

In 1865 the Kartchners move to what was at the time called “The Muddy” in Nevada. William D., John’s father, had rheumatism and it was believed that he would be better in the low climate of The Muddy. The father went ahead and then sent for the family to follow. John drove to yoke of oxen the long distance from Beaver, Utah to The Muddy, over very rough frontier roads. He was 14 at this time.

The Kartchners stayed at The Muddy for six years. Through this time John’s father ran his blacksmith shop and was the postmaster. John was in charge of the farming with his sisters and the younger boys. He raised corn, potatoes, squash, alfalfa hay, and truck garden items. The main cash crop was cotton which they hauled to St. George, Utah. Some of the cotton they would sell for much needed cash and some they wove into cloth, taking the cloth back to The Muddy for their own use.

In 1871, when John was 20 years old, President Brigham Young called all the Mormons from The Muddy and advised them to return to Utah. The Kartchner family lost their home and all they had developed at The Muddy. They had wheat up and growing fast, cotton ground prepared, and the farm was ready for a crop. Most of the Mormons set fire to their houses and barns and sheds and buildings.

During this early part of John’s life he had become a very good fiddler. He played hundreds of popular tunes for all kinds of square dancing and he didn’t need a drink to put pep into it. Where he went he was welcome. He played for house parties and public dances, much of the time for benefit dances and of course the house parties were mostly for the fun, and he had a lot of fun doing this service. He could play all night and not play the same tune twice John loved his fiddle and he liked anyone who enjoyed dancing.  He also liked anyone who can play a fiddle or guitar or an organ.

The Kartchners moved from The Muddy to Panguitch, Utah, in 1871. Here he met Lydia Amelia Palmer who later became his wife. They were married May 11, 1874 in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City. On return to Panguitch John built a long log house. He moved into the house in 1875 where his first child, Theda, was born April 29, 1875. John and his wife and their baby lived in the log house until the spring of 1876.  At this time he became interested in the United Order.  So, he sold all he owned in Panguitch and moved to Long Valley or Orderville.

In 1877 all the Kartchners were called to help colonize the northeast corner of Arizona. They settled in te area which carried the post office address of “The Little Colorado.” Here, through a period of time John was Presiding Elder. He was also foreman of one of the crews of men in the dam construction. The settlers attempted to build an earthen dam across the Little Colorado River.  When the rains came which brought flooding in the river, the dam did not hold and the settlers decided to move, giving up the project.

The committee was delegated to talk business with Mr. Stinson who owned a ranch in the location which is now a Snowflake, Arizona. The committee became discouraged and returned without making a deal for the ranch.  William Flake, John’s brother-in-law, then went to the Stinson place and purchase the ranch. Mr. Flake then invited all who wished to join him, and all the Kartchner clan moved to the Stinson Ranch (Snowflake).  A townsite was surveyed in each family drew to find which homesite or lots each would own. In this drawing, Mr. flake took his chances along with the rest. The town was named Snowflake in honor of Mr. Flake and Erastus Snow. Award of the LDS church was organized with John Hunt as Bishop, William Flake as First Counselor and John Kartchner  as Second Counselor.

While in Snowflake John met and married Nancy Jane Mann. They were married in the St. George, Utah, Temple, March 20, 1884. The Kartchners lived a rugged frontier life, but they were happy. He made himself part of all the activities for the betterment of the town. John ran a small farm, had milk cows, pigs, chickens, raised hay and grain, and always raised a good garden. In addition to these activities John ran a small herd of sheep on the open range.

All the time John was making people dance to some of the best country fiddlin’ they had ever heard. With or without pay the music was always the best he knew how to give, which was good. He loved every minute of it.

While in Snowflake, John served on the town Council, acted as deputy sheriff, and acted on the committee which selected the first County officers.

Early in 1885, President John Taylor advising people in Snowflake that any person who was about to be jailed for polygamy could if he wished, go to Mexico where the Saints were forming some colonies. Many of the men and some of the women decided to go to Mexico. Jesse N. Smith was President of Snowflake Stake.  He and Jesse N., Jr., Lot Smith, and Bishop John Hunt were among the ones to start for Mexico. John Kartchner was the only one who completely sold all he owned in Snowflake, and he and his family moved to Mexico. John and Bishop Hunt traveled together. Soon after they arrived in Mexico, Bishop Hunt received word that one of his wives he left behind in Snowflake had burned to death in an accident. Bishop Hunt rushed back to Snowflake and never returned to Mexico.

A short time after the John Kartchners arrived in Mexico, John began to help organize, survey, and do the things necessary to create the colony which was to be called Colonia Diaz. John’s wife, Lydia Amelia, lived in very poor health and in Diaz  her condition became rapidly worse. So, because of Lydia’s health condition, the John Kartchners moved up into the mountains of Chihuahua and help to settle Colonia Pacheco. It was in Pacheco that the Karch nurse spent most of the time they were in Mexico and it was in Pacheco most of John’s 18 children were born.

In Mexico, life for the Kartchners was packed with hardships. They lived an extremely rugged frontier life. They would go many weeks and even months without sugar. Part of the time they were fortunate enough to have molasses for sugar substitute. On rare occasions they would enjoy wheat flour. And sometimes there was not much to season the cornbread. It was common in most of the Pacheco homes to see a little container in a convenient place in the kitchen with a piece of rock salt and which had been gathered from the hill. Water would be soaking the salt and then the salty water would be used to season food.

John worked many different jobs trying to make a living for his large family. He was a fair carpenter, a good blacksmith, and a good sawmill man.  He worked at all these trades, but the deepest interest was in farming and livestock and he kept trying to get into this business.

In the evenings when the day’s work was done and the Kartchners would gather around in the frontier home, they would have good times. All the family would enjoy singing with each other and they would see many songs and also they would spend time testified each other of the truthfulness of their Christian faith. Some of the favorite songs of this family group were “All is Well,” ”We Thank Thee Oh God for a Prophet,” and “The Unknown Grave.”  They sang many of the songs of the prairies, the plains, the Indians, and the cowboys. And, of course they also enjoyed many of the current love songs. In those days new songs and the words to those songs traveled around very slowly, but they learned and kept in the family circle the decent songs they could hear and learn.

On August 10, 1896, Lydia Amelia Palmer Kartchner died in Colonia, Juarez. At this time Nancy was living in Dublan and when it became apparent she was going to pass away she felt heartbroken about Lydia. Nancy and Lydia loved each other dearly and had respect and trust for each other. After Liddy’s death the Kartchners moved back to Pacheco but for the rest of the time John lived in Mexico he owned a shack in Diaz, a home in Juarez, and a home in Pacheco.

By 1909, there was already some Revolutionary rumblings in the Sierra Madres. The rebel army by necessity had to live off the land. This condition made it more and more difficult for the Mexican colonists.  John Kartchner decided to leave Mexico and go to United States at this time. He sold, by contract, most of what he owned in Pacheco and stored the things he didn’t want to sell in a cave nearby. He never returned to the cave. He then went to Juarez with the intention of selling his property there. While in Juarez, Vanetta reached her 17th birthday and while a small group of children were playing at the party she fell off a spring seat which was placed on a double bed wagon. Her side struck the wagon tongue and within four days she died from this injury. The John Kartchner family then stayed in Juarez as until the spring of 1910.

By the spring of 1910 John had rounded up more of his cattle and made time payment sales of the things he could not take with him to the States. He left the colonies with three teams, two wagons, a white top buggy, and riding mare. He arrived in El Paso with one team and wagon, and sold them for money to live on and to travel by train to Bluewater, New Mexico. The Kartchners then went my team and wagon to Blanding, San Juan County, Utah, arriving in Blanding on July 10, 1910.

In 1923 John and Nancy had only two children left at home and at that time the family moved to the Salt Lake Valley. John Kartchner died February 3, 1946, in Salt Lake City. At this time his home was at 316 East on 13th South Street. Nancy Mann Kartchner died November 1, 1961 at Blanding, Utah.

Pearl K. Robertson, daughter

Pg 382 Stalwart’s South of the Border Nelle Spilsbury Hatch.