Tag Archives: Colonia Juarez

Thomas Sunderland Hawkins

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THOMAS SUNDERLAND HAWKINS

1829-1903

Thomas Sunderland Hawkins, third child and first son of Job and Hepsibah (Sunderland Hawkins) was born October 2, 1829 in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England.

At the age of nine his father, Job, a sword maker by trade, was out of employment so Thomas was put to work. By age fourteen he was working as a tin plater. At sixteen he was apprenticed to Griffith Hopkins of Bradford Street, Birmingham. His hours of work were 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m, for which he received four shillings and sixpence, with an increase of one shilling per week the second year. He reached the fabulous amount of nine shillings by his fifth year. “Between eighteen and nineteen years of age,” to quote from his diary, “I joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was baptized by Edmund Warren April 26, 1848.”

“Hepsibah, my mother, died July 2, 1819. My parents had five other children: Harriet (Broodhurst), Hepsibah (Underwood), John, Eliza (Prime), and William.” According to marriage certificate 11258, of the St. George Parish, Birmingham, Thomas Hawkins is identified as a bachelor and tin plate worker, with his residence at Cheapside. Thomas was married May 26, 1850 to Harriet Jones, a “Spinster” and daughter of Thomas Jones, a whipmaker, also a resident at Cheapside. Harriet Jones was baptized on May 29, 1848. To this union were born four sons and five daughters: Thomas, Harriet, Hepsibah, Eliza Ann, William John, Mary Ann, George Thomas, Joseph Job and Emma Levinnia.

According to the roster of the ship, Ellen Marie, Thomas and Harriet, both aged twenty-one, sailed Sunday, February 2, 1851 for New Orleans. They arrived in St. Louis on April 6, 1851. Apostle Orson Pratt and his family returned from England with this company.

Leaving St. Louis, they arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on August 28, 1852. The very next day after arriving, Thomas attended a meeting in the old Tabernacle and heard the first sermon ever preached publicly on plural or celestial marriage by Orson Pratt. And in the afternoon the revelation on celestial marriage as given to the Prophet Joseph Smith was read publicly.

For two years, times were very hard. In 1855, Thomas built a small house in the Eleventh Ward so as to save rent but was soon out of employment again. He then moved his family to Ogden City were he bought a house and a lot, making adobes to pay for it. After paying for the house and lot, he sold out as his wife didn’t like being away from the city and so they returned to Salt Lake City.

Soon after arriving in Zion the Saints were taught that children should have their mother’s maiden name as their second or middle name. Thomas soon complied, by adding Sunderland to his own name. In turn each of his children was given their mother’s maiden name.

Quoting again from his journal:

In spring of 1858, we moved with body of Church to Springville. As government (President James Bucannan(sic))had sent an army to mob the Saints. In July we received word to return and I again had charge of Brother Ames’ business, as he was going to the States on business for about a year, during which time I saved some little means and Brother Alfred Best and I went into business ourselves and did very well making means fast and built a house and store (this was in the 200 or 300 block of South Main Street in Salt Lake City). Brother Best and I separated and I went into business with Brother Robert C. Sharkey. We built a house and store and did well. About 1861, I went to Saint Louis to purchase a stock of goods and we did well till Brother Sharkey had to leave town taking the money and most of the stock. But I borrowed to re-stock and did well.

On the 10 day of April 1856, we had our Endowments and were sealed in the Endowment House. I was ordained one of the Presidents of the 18th Quorum of 70’s on the 9th of October 1859. In 1862, we lived in the 14th ward. May 28, 1864, I was sealed in the Endowment house to Elizabeth Mears. To this union was born 3 sons and 2 daughters. Thomas, David, Elizabeth (Mortensen), Alma and Louise (Redd). This year I built a good 8 room house and cellar in the 14th ward, where we lived until 1870.

From this time on Harriet acted very foolish as she listened to outsiders and apostates and lied about her husband, Elizabeth and the authorities, I pity her and hope she may repent.

February 9, 1867, I was sealed to Sarah Davis.

Thomas Hawkins was the first man sent to prison for plural marriage. Harriet gave testimony against him and he was tried by Judge James B. McKean and sentenced to prison on October 28, 1871, for three years and fined $500. Bail was set at $20,000 which he obviously could not raise. He served for eighteen months. Then because of a ruling by the Supreme Court in the Englebrecht case, he was set free.

In the summer of 1869, he bought a farm in Lehi and moved Elizabeth Mears and Sarah Davis there. He still kept his business in Salt Lake City and walked from there to Lehi each weekend to be with his families. After imprisonment most of his property was confiscated.

In 1880, the family left Utah to establish a home in  Taylor, Apache County, Arizona. They knew this would be hard and required much of them, but they were willing to do so if they could live unmolested. Nevertheless they were doomed to more disappointment for no sooner had they begun to see the fruits of their labors in Arizona than the unrelenting crusaders against polygamy began to search them out.

A group was soon organized to colonize in Mexico. The Miles P. Romney and Thomas Hawkins families arrived there on December 9, 1885. The first Sunday School was organized early in 1886 with Joseph C. Cardon as Superintendent and Thomas Sunderland Hawkins First Assistant. Thomas Hawkins was appointed Superintendent on April 13, 1890.

In Mexico, Thomas first applied his American-learned trades of farming and house building to provide his family with the necessities of life. He then made use of his English training by establishing a tin shop which supplied dishes for the home, cans for canneries and toys for children. His wife Elizabeth Mears was active as midwife and primary worker. Sarah did a fine job of homemaking and mothering the two Hawkins families. David, a son of Elizabeth, often said he hardly knew which mother he loved most. The Hawkins homes were near the dugway and on the main street of Colonia Juarez.

Thomas learned that his first wife, Harriet, had died on February 4, 1892 in Salt Lake City. His sentiments were that, notwithstanding trials and troubles, he would have her in the next life if he “had to go to the depths of hell to get her.” His son, Joseph, a son of Harriet, died, June 9, 1898, in Lehi, Maricopa, Arizona. Then on March 20, 1901, his wife Elizabeth died in Colonia Juarez and was buried in the old cemetery east of town on the hill. In the spring of 1902, Thomas and Sarah made a long hoped for trip to Salt Lake City. They stayed at the home of his daughter, Harriet, and she made them most welcome, while they did temple work for their deceased relatives and received their second anointings. They then returned to Colonia Juarez.

At the age of seventy-four, Thomas became seriously ill and in a short time passed away on May 25, 1903. He was industrious, honest almost to a fault, a good neighbor, and a kind but stern father. He was a good husband and a Saint with a deep love of the Gospel.

Ruth Hawkins Dorset, granddaughter

Stalwarts South of the Border pg 247

Nelle Spilsbury Hatch

 

Eran Abegg Call

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1929 ~ 2018

Eran Abegg Call, age 88, passed away peacefully on October 29, 2018, due to conditions incident to age. Born on December 2, 1929, in Colonia Dublán, Chihuahua, Mexico, he was the youngest child of Anson Bowen Call and Julia Sarah Abegg. As the youngest of 12 children, he was taught the importance of serving others and hard work by his mother, father, and siblings. Eran’s mother passed away when he was seven years old, and was raised by his dear father, “Papa Call,” and his older siblings. 
He graduated from the Juarez Stake Academy in Colonia Juarez, Mexico. He then attended college at Brigham Young University where he received a bachelor’s degree and ran the 440 for the track and field team. Eran was called to serve a full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Mexico. He then served in the US Army in Panama during the Korean Conflict where he taught the gospel to the Kuna Indians of the San Blas Islands, baptizing the first Kuna Indian into the Church. 
Upon his return to Brigham Young University, he met his bride, love of his life, and best friend, Katherine “Kay” Groesbeck of Springville. After a brief courtship, Eran and Kay were married in the Salt Lake Temple on August 24, 1955. Later he attended New York University, where he earned a master’s degree in business administration. After graduating from NYU, they moved back to Utah to allow Kay to finish her nursing degree, fulfilling a promise Eran made to Kay’s father. 
Over Eran’s professional career he was active in business-from managing a department store to real estate investment and development. Eran’s central career was as a faculty member at Brigham Young University, from which he retired in December 1994. Eran was an active member in the community serving on the boards of several charitable organizations. His true passion was helping the less fortunate. Over the course of his life, he established numerous dental and medical clinics, orphanages, and schools in Mexico and Central America, rallying the aid of many physicians, dentists, hospitals’ and business people and support in an effort to improve the lives of thousands found in humble circumstances. 
At the age of 40, Eran was called to serve as mission president of the Mexico, Mexico City Mission. Within 10 days of his calling by Pres. Harold B. Lee, Eran, Kay and their 6 children were in Mexico City ready to serve. This Church calling was among many Eran would receive, including Bishop, Stake Presidency Counselor, Sealer, Director of the Church Education System in Central America, Patriarch, Mexico MTC President, General Authority Seventy, Area President Mexico North Area, the first Temple President of the Monterrey Mexico Temple, and full-time Public Relations Missionary in the Caribbean Area. Together he and Kay served over 16 years in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Eran was blessed with a keen mind, dogged work ethic, deep compassion for the needy, and a pure and enduring faith in Jesus Christ and His restored gospel. He will be remembered, especially by his children, for the love and respect he held for their mother, his wife and dearest friend, Kay. 
He is survived by his daughters, Katherine “Kathy” (Robert) Hymas, Bahia Blanca, Argentina, Christine (Guy) Golightly, Spanish Fork, Julia (Daniel) Doxey, Provo; sons, Robert (Suzanne), Oregon, John (Ann), California, Steven (SueEllen), Orem, Thomas (Hilary), California, Matthew (Maria), Indiana, David (Shanni), Spanish Fork; as well as 18 granddaughters, 25 grandsons, and 24 great-grandchildren. 
He was preceded in death by his dear wife Kay, by his parents; his sisters Lorna, Ola, Fulvia, Nelda, Vesta, and Ruth; brothers Ara, Omer, Homer, Adro Thone, and Arnold. 
Funeral Services will be held Saturday, November 3rd, at 12:00 noon, at the Edgemont 14th Ward Chapel located at 4200 North Foothill Drive, Provo, Utah, where a Viewing will be held prior from 9:30 to 11:30 am. Interment in Springville Evergreen Cemetery, Springville, Utah.
Funeral Directors: Utah Valley Mortuary. Condolences may be expressed to the family at www.uvfuneral.com.

David Alvin McClellan

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David Alvin McClellan

(1865-1953)

I was born June 16, 1865, in a little adobe house near the center of the little town of Payson, Utah, the eighth child of William Carroll and Almeda Day McClellan, who were married in July, 1849.
Father was born in Bedford County, Tennessee, May 12, 1828. His family moved to Illinois in 1833 and was baptized in 1839. They then moved to Council Bluffs, Iowa, in July of 1846 and here father joined the Mormon Battalion. He was released on July 29, 1847. My father with his two families pioneered Utah, Arizona and Mexico. My mother was born November 28, 1831, in Leeds, Ontario, Canada. Her family was converted to the Church in Canada in 1836. A few years later they crossed the St. Lawrence River on ice, into the state of New York.

I never heard of Primary or Mutual when I was a boy and about the only kind of amusement we had was made by ourselves. We made flutes and whistles of willows, and threw mud daubs at barns. Schooling wasn’t too bad while living in Payson. I can’t remember ever disliking any subjects. Reading matter was very scarce in most of the homes, but I spent many happy hours in the barn reading the Book of Mormon.

At the April Conference in 1877 many families were called to Arizona to help build up the country. Among these being my father from Payson and the Isaac Turley family from Beaver, Utah. We left Utah September 24 and arrived in the Lot Smith camp in Sunset, Arizona, November 20. Here we lived in the United Order. On November 20, 1879, their mission at the mill came to an end. Father had already decided that by this time he would move back to Sunset where the children could have better schooling. After two years here we moved again, and spent the next few years moving from town to town.

While living in Pleasanton, New Mexico, in the early part of 1885, rumors that U.S. Marshals were hunting for men with more than one wife reached this remote little village. August of this same year, Father took George and me with him to get his second family, Aunt Elsie, and move them to Mexico. Father and Ed were among the first in the camp, which was later called Colonia Diaz. In just a few months Father returned to the United States and moved our family to Mexico. Being driven to Mexico was a blessing for our family. The Church established colonies where the gospel was to be taught. Children could get a good spiritual upbringing. There were no saloons, or gambling houses, and a tobacco user among the colonists was almost unknown. Of my father’s eleven sons, only one used tobacco for a short time, then stopped for good.

Before the end of 1885, Joseph Fish had surveyed the old town site of Colonia Juarez and people began to move onto lots, living in wagon boxes, dugouts and tents, while they were waiting for approval of the authorities. After gaining consent from Father, I went back to Pleasanton, New Mexico to help earn money for the family. While there I worked, visited with friends, and spent my twenty-first birthday with my sister Maria (Ri) and her husband John Hatch. On September 28 I started back to Mexico, arriving October 9. I made several such trips to the United States, between the building I was helping my father with. One time when I wanted to leave, father told me, “I want you to go up to town and pick you out a lot and go to work improving it and settle down and behave yourself.” I had great respect for my father’s judgment and in the years later I was glad I had taken his advice. I bought a lot from my brother-in-law, Joseph S. Cardon for $20. Ed helped me work out a $19 contract on the West ditch, and I paid one silver peso, which squared the debt. The lot was directly across Main Street from the Turley lot. I liked to hunt, and one time on a trip to Strawberry Valley, with father and Ed, we killed six wild turkeys, our first wild meat. Throughout the years I killed many deer and antelope.

Soon after I returned from one of my trips to the States, I was invited to a party for the young folks at the home of Sixtus E. Johnson. He was among the lucky ones who had a tent to live in. From what I had been hearing, there were some who wanted Esther Turley and me to meet. She was a little under 16 years of age and very pleasing to look at. You might call it love at first sight if you want to. I tried in my blundering way to get her to like me until the Fourth of July, when I got offended over nothing and sulked until November. One night after choir practice I asked the privilege of walking home with her, which she kindly granted. By January 25 I had proposed marriage to her. She wanted a week’s time to decide and consider the matter. It was a long week, but it came to an end. One night as we were walking home we stepped into a shallow dry ditch and both fell. She gave me her answer that night, which was “yes.”

On January 21, 1888, my brother-in-law, Al Bagley asked me to go to his home in Utah and help him drive a bunch of young heifers back to Colonia Juarez. I gladly accepted the offer as it would give me a chance to start laying by the things I thought I wanted and needed before I could marry. I began setting out trees Father had given me and some I had bought, and on the morning of March 12 I was watching for a chance to speak with Brother Turley. He had some grape cuttings I wanted to buy, and I also wanted to ask him for the hand of his daughter.

After talking with all concerned it was decided that the next night, March 13, was the best time for our wedding and then I could take my wife with me to Utah and the Manti Temple. Brother Miles P. Romney, First Counselor, was authorized to perform the ceremony at the home of Esther’s parents. If that could have been done by proxy while I waited outside, it would have saved me a lot of misery. Esther’S parents and sister, and my father and mother and Aunt Elsie were the only family members present. On March 14 we held our wedding dance in the tithing office with Pete Skousen playing the music. March 15 we got an early start on our trip to Utah.

My wife, Esther Turley, was born January 9, 1871, in Beaver, Utah. Her parents were Isaac Turley, born in Canada, November 22, 1837, and Clara Tolton, born in Illinois, April 13, 1852. Esther was the second of twelve children born to them.

After 51 days on our trip to Utah, and working there during the summer, we started on our return trip to Mexico on October 5, taking my sister, Cynthia Bailey, and five children with us. After two months on many rough roads we arrived in Colonia Juarez, December 5, 1888.

My father-in-law had built an adobe house facing main street, leaving the frame house for us. About the only household goods we took to this house were the clothes we had when we left, and our well-worn bedding, no extras. We had a few dishes, mostly the kind used around camps. We lived here for a little more than 2 months, and our first child, Clara Estella, was born, January 30, 1889, then we moved onto a ranch, the McClellan’s and Turley’s working together, caring for the stock, but because of the lack of water and provisions, we moved again onto the lot I had purchased on Main Street. Here we first lived in a wagon box, then in a shed, until we could build a one room adobe house. This was our home for many years and where nine of our children were born, several times throughout these years we added onto this little house.

The winter of 1893 and 1894 was a hard one for us, very little work for me that would bring the necessities of life. I always had a lot of work for myself and was never idle. My brother Ed found work early in the year of 1894 at the Corralitos Mines. One day a note came from him telling me that the boss had said for me to come. He could not pay me carpenter wages, and I was not a carpenter, but he would pay $4 a day, which I considered a very good salary. I had to buy me a hammer, saw and square, and I worked helping Ed for several months and later at the Sabinal Mine. 1895 we spent working with Ed on jobs in and around Colonia Juarez and I also decided to learn more about being a mason by getting some books, which cost me $7. I got some good ideas but they didn’t teach me how to use the trowel and mortar, I had to learn that from experience. We built a special room with fires in it to dry fruit, which saved our fruit that had no market and we did have a good sale for our dried fruit. In 1896 I worked with a small cane mill I had acquired for making molasses during the season and in between times I was building the Harper Hotel with Ed as the carpenter.

In May of 1900 I went to Naco, Sonora with my sister Ri and her husband John Hatch to look for work. Being unsuccessful there I went to Cananea to work in the mine, but the rough companions and hard work didn’t prove very successful so I returned to Naco, finding several odd jobs for a while, and finally returning home in July. Times were very hard and I tried to keep busy with my masonry and building, but too many people were in the same condition as I was. During this time I helped build the band stand and the suspension bridge (called the swinging bridge) in Colonia Juarez.

I was called to the Southwestern States Mission and was set apart in my home Sunday morning, April 10, 1904, by Apostle John W. Taylor. I left home one hour later with my family and father and mother for Colonia Dublan, where I took the 8:00 a.m. train the next morning for El Paso, Texas. My wife went that far to do some shopping for the family. I went on to the Mission Headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri, arriving there April 16, 1904. The mission covered a lot of territory, Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri. We walked many miles, some days as far as 28 and many days in the cold and rain. We had very little money and some days had no dinner or supper. Sometimes we would buy crackers and cheese for a meal. Many times we slept in the schoolhouse or on bare benches, winter and summer. Sometimes we took a hotel room for 25 cents. We often bathed in creeks and did our laundry there. Sometimes the Sisters did the laundry and the Elders worked in the fields, harvesting corn or cotton. Certain parts of the country were very friendly, even the Campbellites and Josephites took us in and fed us well and listened to us. We had to walk 16 miles for our mail. Some of our meetings were held in school houses, but many times the school trustees would refuse us the use of the buildings. We heard of the funeral of President Lorenzo Snow. We walked a few miles to see the damage a cyclone had done. It was terrible, 104 killed and 150 injured. Twenty houses had been completely wiped out and others carried away. I was released May 17, 1906, and met my wife and son David at the station in Casas Grandes, on May 25, with a team and buggy to convey me home. I cannot express the pleasure it was to see my loved ones after an absence of twenty-five and a half months.

After my return home we started building our two story brick home on the same lot, and another child was born to us in July of 1907. During the years 1907 and 1908, with the aid of my brothers, we built our parents a nice comfortable home. We moved into our new home in 1908 and another child was born in November 1909.

Things started to get bad in Juarez. There were so few lots left to build on and the future didn’t look good. Not much of my type of work left. Some of the men decided to investigate some land in Sonora, and finding a new valley where there was plenty of land and water, we decided to buy a tract of land and try farming. In the spring of 1909 I went with my daughter Estella and her husband Sam, and we located in the Colony of San Jose, a few miles distant from Colonia Morelos. We arrived in time to build Estella’S house and get our crops in. I moved my family over in February of 1910. I spent my time working the farm and in the off season working with my brother Ed in the construction business in Colonia Juarez and we also worked on the Pearson sawmill. During this period of my life I recall I did all kinds of work, around my home and for others. Besides working the cane mill and farming I also learned to make shoes and was able to supply the necessary shoes for my family. I also learned to weave chair bottoms, hauled wood, lumber, posts, and produce, fixed fence and slacked lime for the building of the church house.

The San Jose Ward was organized September 12, 1911. I was Ward Clerk to Bishop George H. Martineau and kept the minutes of the Gabilondo Canal Company meetings, while we lived in San Jose. Our Priesthood Meetings were carried on in the usual way, with singing and prayer. We had a comfortable home and our crops were good and we prospered. We were now settled down for sure, among the rattlesnakes, skunks, gila monsters, wildcats, tarantulas and more snakes. One day I was walking along the ditch bank when one hit on the leg, I jumped and used some choice words and looked back just in time to see that it was a stick that I had stepped on which had flipped up to hit me on the leg. During this time in May, 1912 our last baby was born. Our little three-year-old, Hazel, was not in good health and caused us quite a bit of concern.

Then came the trouble with the Mexican Revolution. We were molested a few times and I always carried my rifle to the field with me. Some of our livestock was stolen. They were everywhere it seemed and wanted all our possessions, guns, ammunition, saddles, horses and food. On August 15, (1912), President Hyrum Harris arrived at the home of Bishop Martineau at midnight, advising us to move our families to the United States as soon as it was convenient. We hurriedly made preparations and were ready to leave by the seventeenth. After camping out each night we arrived in Douglas, Arizona on the twenty-first. Here we were placed in tents provided for us by the U.S. government, and while we waited to see if conditions would improve so we could return, I made two trips back to the farm to rescue some of our belongings such as farm implements, our organ and other household furniture and livestock. By September 5, all the women and children were safely in the United States.

Having lived in the refugee camp for several weeks we found it necessary to go somewhere to get settled down. We went to Tucson, Arizona to clear a 40 acre farm we negotiated with the Tucson Farm Company. However, this didn’t work out as we had planned, so we moved back to Douglas for a while then to Tempe where our son David was, and we stayed for a short time with him, trying to get some cows with which to start a dairy farm. We were offered a place east of Chandler which we worked and lived in and around there for some fifteen years before we finally moved to Mesa, Arizona, where we were able to buy a small lot and build a home, most of the work being done by the family. Early in the year of 1930 the Second Ward in Mesa was doing some remodeling and I volunteered some of my services, which later helped me get the job of janitor for eight years.

A daughter, Clara Estella M. Bradshaw, continues this sketch of the life of David Alvin McClellan.
During his life he was Ward Clerk or Secretary of something almost all the time. Mother always sang in the choir and both held many positions in the Church. Father loved to play ball. He played ball in Mexico and with his children and grandchildren. While living on the Walker ranch in Chandler, he first worked on the Arizona Temple and had many interesting stories to tell about it.

In 1938 he began a hobby which earned him the title of the most patient man in Arizona. He was then seventy-three years of age. He began reproducing in miniature, pioneer articles, household furniture, professional tools and farm implements, all exactly to scale. He reproduced the cane mill he used in Mexico, with moving parts that really worked. He also built three types of wagons: a farm wagon, a prairie schooner, and a light spring wagon, all with single trees, tongues and neck yokes, spring seats and wheels, with or without spokes. His workshop was made from cinder block salvaged from the city dump. He made a work table with pockets down the side, “as handy as a pocket in a shirt,” he would say. This was on wheels and could be moved anywhere he was working, and was made from the lining of the chest used to carry and display these articles on the Centennial Tour from Salt Lake City to Nauvoo and back over the old Mormon Trail in 1947. For material from which to make these articles, his friends and family brought him such items as scraps of leather, lumber, hardwood, ashwood, balsam, aluminum, wire, copper, brass, wool, buckskin, toothbrush handles, canvas, rope, string, etc. He made most of the tools he worked with. He worked at this hobby for the last sixteen years of his life, spending sometimes six to eight hours a day. At the end of that time he had a collection of pioneer articles that will be a major attraction in any museum fortunate enough to have them on display.

He died in Mesa, Arizona, January 4-, 1953, at the age of eighty-seven. His wife lived to be ninety-two years of age and died July 10, 1963, leaving some 266 descendants.

Clara Estella Bradshaw, Daughter

Stalwarts South of the Border, 

Nelle Spilsbury Hatch, pg 

Edward Christian Eyring

Edward Christian Eyring

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Edward Christian Eyring

(1868-1959)

I was born in St. George, Utah, May 23, 1868, the second son and fourth child of Henry and Mary Bommeli Eyring. I grew up as most children of the time did. My first remembrance was going with the family to Salt Lake City, to see my first railroad train. On our way home we lost our mules but arrived home safely.

My father went on a mission to Germany and I remember Henry and I in Washington, Utah when I was eight years old. I remember also that I worked for Solon Foster at that age driving a team for ten cents a day and enjoying it very much. At that age my father bought land that gave employment to Henry and me, who worked it. The height of my ambition then was to own six pretty black mules, two wagons and to be a real freighter. Later my ideal was to be a real cowboy, own a ranch and lots of cattle.

I went to school but didn’t like it too well. Yet my father sent me to he Brigham Young Academy in Provo when I was seventeen. I liked better to work with my uncle on a ferry over the Colorado River in the summer. I used to swim in the river, often going down at nights to cool off when the nights were too hot to sleep. We also used to boat ride on the river. Ferrying was fascinating work. One time when the river was high we went over the rapids with a big freight outfit, then we had to tow the boat up the other side of the landing. Uncle was a splendid hand at the ferry business, employing several Indians. One time we went up the river about ten miles and brought back a big raft of wood and railroad timbers. Uncle Daniel, Aunt Ann, cousins Isabel, George, Frank and Alice were the relatives with whom I spent the summer, and who were very kind to me. When I returned to school in the fall, George went with me.

My schooling that winter was cut short, however, for in February, my father needed me to accompany him to Mexico to drive a team. We left St. George for Mexico on February 10, 1887. Father, Aunt Deseret, Annie, Andrew, and I were in the company. Andrew was then only three years of age. We went by way of Price, Scandlens Ferry, Hackberry, Mesa, Tucson, Fort Bowie, San Simon, and La Ascension, arriving in Mexico in April, 1887. We had quite an agreeable trip, traveling in company with Eli Whipple and family. Brother Whipple had hired Joseph Bryner to help him. He was a good friend of mine for we had grown up together. Accordingly, we had good times together hunting as we traveled along. The Indians were periodically bad, and we had one little scare at San Simon, where an Apache raid had taken place about the time we passed.

On arriving at the customs house in La Ascension, we began to learn something of Mexico and the Mexicans. We arrived in Colonia Juarez, all O.K. and settled on the Old Town site two miles below the new town. We commenced at once to fence lots and to get out logs for houses. After one month’s stay in Mexico I started back to the United States in company of Joe Bryner. We went to San Jose on the Mexican Central and from there by rail to EI Paso, Texas. At that time EI Paso was just a little frontier town, with a population of about four thousand people. We went from there into New Mexico and got work on a sawmill where we worked all summer.

The next winter I went back to St. George and went to school. The next spring I went to Arizona and took employment on my Uncle’s cattle ranch at Quail Springs, sixty miles southeast of the Colorado Ferry. I stayed there with my cousin George, our nearest neighbor living ten miles away. Sometimes George would go away and I would be alone for two or three weeks, never seeing a white man in that time and seldom an Indian. I quite enjoyed the ranch work. I liked to practice roping cattle and breaking broncos, and got, I thought, quite proficient. I remained there over a year. I got a lot of good experience there. George was a good cowboy, a good roper, and a good horseman. I learned a good many things, which helped me in the cattle business later on in Mexico.

Father needed to have me come to Mexico at this time to help him in the store. I was twenty-one years old in 1889, and the colonies had begun to be quite prosperous, as I found when I returned. It was splendid grass country, in which cattle and horses did well. While I helped my father in the store I found time to use the money I had saved while working in Colorado to buy up a few ponies and to trade for horses, which I enjoyed. I grew up with a natural love for horses and cattle and dearly loved to work with them.

In 1893, I bought a lot and made preparations for building a home. On October 11, 1893, Caroline Romney and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple. I had proposed to her prior to this time, but it took me two years to convert her father to the idea. However, he finally approved and later paid me a very fine compliment, saying, he thought I was an ideal husband. Caroline and I commenced housekeeping under many obstacles. We had only a straw tick and very little furniture, but we were extremely happy. Our own home was being built and was soon ready for us. Before long we were quite comfortable, considering the times and country.

I continued working in the store for awhile. However, I had a number of horses which I had hired out to the Davis boys who were using them to haul lumber out of the mountains. When the railroading commenced I took my teams out on the railroad grade and worked there until the grading was finished as far as Colonia Dublan. I then stopped working on the grade and sold and traded my teams, getting ready to go on a mission to Germany. My first daughter, Camilla, was born December 7, 1894. We then learned what childbearing meant. I wondered many times that night if I would have a wife or child by morning, but, oh, the joy when we finally succeeded.

I started on my mission the first of October 1897 going with my father and mother to Salt Lake City. When I went out to get in the carriage, I threw my tobacco away and have never tasted it since. If my mission did nothing more for me than that, that alone would be worth it. I have often wondered if I should ever have been able to discontinue its use, had I not gone on my mission. My wife was very brave, never making a complaint while I was away and was able to earn enough to keep me on my mission, but she worked very hard.

I left Salt Lake City with a number of Elders, James Skousen going as far as Liverpool with me, and Walter Romney and Ernest Schutler of Salt Lake City going on to Berne, Switzerland. On our way we visited Chicago, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Philadelphia, embarking at the latter place on the S.S. Belganland, a small second class boat. The commencement of the journey was marvelous, sailing down the river, but the next morning the wind had risen and the sea was rolling high. It was not long until we were feeding the fish. Jim was sick almost the whole way over. I soon got better but I never relished my meals. I remember how happy I was when I saw the Irish coast looming up in the distance. We landed at Liverpool, having been thirteen days on the water.

We went by rail to London where we saw the sights for a few days and then started for Berne. I was seasick again crossing the channel. We traveled through France, going to Paris. From Paris, we got on the wrong train. There was no one we could talk to, as the train kept carrying us farther off the track. Finally, at Lyons we were put on the right train, but it is a queer feeling to know you are going wrong and unable to get going right. We arrived safely in Berne, the headquarters of the Swiss and German Mission, where I did some sightseeing. Then I was sent to Mannheim, Germany, where I met my cousin Henry E. Bowman, who was my first missionary companion, and with him I began the study of the German language. After three months Henry was called to Berne to preside there and I was left alone in the branch. I will never forget how lonely I felt, but I got along nicely. I didn’t speak English for three months.

We had a lot of old timers in the branch, who were none too lively in the Faith, but we did the best we could with them. I found there a man in my tracting who afterwards joined the Church and now after thirty years, has just finished a mission to Germany. Our efforts sometimes bear fruits. I remained in Mannheim one year, going from there to [what was called] Frankfort-on-Maine, where I enjoyed my work very much. While laboring in Mannheim I made an excursion trip down the Rhine River to Koln. It is the most beautiful place I have ever seen…cliffs, the castles, vineyards on the steep hillside, all most wonderful. Koln is such an interesting old town. The old Koln dome took six hundred years to construct.

A little later, Brother Schutler and I were sent to Nene Vied on the Rhine to open a branch. There we found it quite difficult to do much because most of the people were Catholic. Three months later we returned to Frankfurt where I remained until I was released. Then I made an extended tour of Germany, Berlin, Dresden and Mannheim. While I was in Mannheim, Henry Bowman and I visited Koburg, my father’S birthplace. We passed through the old town where Martin Luther translated the Bible, and saw the spot on the wall of the old castle where he threw the ink bottle at the devil. We met Aunt Clara in Koburg. She took us all around, showing us the old family home, the cemetery where so many of our people are buried. On my return home we went through Paris, taking in the sights. Then I went to Glasgow, Scotland, which was a very dirty city, the river and docks being simply thick with oil and smoke, from where I embarked for New York City. My homeward journey was better than the one going over, for I was not seasick. I landed in New York and remained there a few days sight-seeing. Going overland, I visited Niagara Falls, Chicago, Kansas City, Independence and El Paso, Texas.

When I arrived home I found my wife better. She was just recovering from a very severe illness. Camilla was then a big girl of five years, and Mary, whom I had never seen, was two years old. I had not known that Mary had been born deaf. I think I never felt so badly in my life over anything. Nevertheless, I felt to praise the Lord that everything was as well as it was. I went back into the store to work, but decided it was too slow and that the cattle business might be better. Accordingly, I secured the job of tending the company pasture and commenced to buy stock in it. I succeeded in getting considerable stock and later, when we decided to separate, I got still more. I traded for the Palo Quemado Ranch of six thousand acres, which we used for our cattle in the summer, moving them back to the Tinaja for the winter. When Dennison E. Harris left, I bought his cattle and pasture interests. Then my cattle interest grew.

When Father died in 1902, Andrew and I continued to run our cattle together. I think the happiest time of my life was when we ran the dairy on the Tinaja, breaking broncos and caring for fat cattle on those green grassy hills. A t that time the colonies were in their best days, everyone was prospering and there were good schools and good times for all.

In 1903, I decided to enter the holy order of plural marriage, so with the help of my wife, I was able to woo my wife’s sister, Emma, and after considerable persuasion, I married her in November of 1903. We then built her a home on the lot joining ours. My idea of plural marriage was strict equality, which I have tried to practice all these years.

In 1905 we moved across the river to be closer to the Juarez Stake Academy, so I bought a number of lots from James C. Peterson and one hundred acres of pasture and land adjoining. There we built two very comfortable homes (brick) and were living very happily together-too much so-for the best good of mortals. I feel now that the twenty-five years of my life spent in Mexico were wonderful indeed. In July 1912, owing to Revolutionary conditions in Mexico, we were forced to move into the United States. At the time of leaving we had not the slightest idea we were making a permanent move. The families going out on the train took only a few necessary articles to last for a couple of weeks when we expected we would return. Most of the men remained in the country to guard the property, but conditions became so unbearable, that we knew sooner or later something terrible would happen. Accordingly, we decided to pack up, just leave everything, and move for the border. This we did, arriving at Hachita and leaving our horses there. From there we went to El Paso where we had sent our families. Even then we could not realize we were not going back.

We remained in El Paso hoping for encouraging signs that we might return. We waited to see how it went with some of the brethren who went in to see how things were. When they were forced to come out again, our hopes wavered. Finally seeing the futility of going back there now, we decided to move to Arizona. We had lived in EI Paso ten months. I moved to Safford, Arizona, and bought the Corder place, going in partnership with Miles A. Romney. This deal soon proved unsatisfactory so I sold out to Miles. By this time I had decided there was no possible chance of returning to Mexico, now or ever, to operate my prosperous business there, and that I had just as well abandon the idea. I tried the livery business as a substitute for a few months but soon saw there was no future in that. So I traded it for the Rogers farm in Pima, and moved my family there. As part of the farm was still brush, it was uphill business getting settled. There was only one two-roomed house on it so we had to pitch tents for part of the family.  Getting a comfortable home built, lands cleared and under cultivation, and still keeping the family fed and clothed, was a superhuman task and one that could not have been possible had not the Lord helped us as we struggled to establish ourselves.

Yet by about 1922 I decided the Pima farm was just too small to sustain my family, and there being a colonizing project under way on the upper Gila, I gave it a try. Taking Emma and family with me, and leaving Eddie who had just returned from a mission, to operate the farm in Pima and care for his mother, we threw in our lot with this company. But after a year of the hardest work, and the heaviest kind of soil to work with and being betrayed by the perfidy of land dealers, we returned to Pima worse off than when we left.

The dividends from the Tinaja property in Mexico proved our salvation. I had traded it off in 1916 for a store in Safford, Arizona which Andrew took part interest in and ran for me. But by trading it for land in Mexico and selling Andrew’s property in Mexico to Miles Romney, we began to see daylight. Eddie had done well with the Pima farm. We still have the farm, the comfortable duplex we built on it and are thankful for getting the mortgage gradually paid off while still keeping all the children in school. I will add that I have recorded only a small part of the deals, trades and monies I made to better our future after the Exodus, for there is not space to record one hundredth part of them.

In 1931 all of my mother’s family met in Mesa and spent three months together doing temple work. Besides our good times together, we were able to do many names, most of them for our own progenitors. Had it not been for the pleadings and encouragement of my brother Henry, who is blind, this gathering would not have taken place, nor this history written. I will close this history by giving my testimony concerning the principle of plural marriage. This will no doubt be obnoxious to some who may read it. Even some of our descendants may wish it had been otherwise. I wish to impress this fact upon the minds of my children: that to discredit the principle of plural marriage is the same as discrediting any other principle of the Mormon doctrine as they all come from the same source. Joseph Smith the Prophet was commanded to establish this principle in the Church. I testify to you that I know my father entered into the principle in full faith of receiving a generous reward from our Heavenly Father for his honest efforts to live it properly. The same can be said of my father-in-law, Miles P. Romney, and I testify to you myself after twenty-eight years’ experience in trying to live it that I know the principle is divine.  Although it is at the present time unlawful both from the Church’s view as well as from the standpoint of the state, I know it was established by God.  Those who have lived it faithfully and well will receive a very enviable reward in the world to come.  We are very thankful that the great government of the United States has granted amnesty to our people, and it is up to us to submit to the laws and to uphold the same. 

Edward Christian Eyring

Stalwarts South of the Border by Nelle Spilsbury Hatch, page 146

Charles Eli McClellan

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Charles Eli McClellan

1875-1967

Charles Eli McClellan was the twelfth and last child of William Carroll McClellan and his first wife, Almeda Day. He was born February 8, 1875, in Payson, Utah County, Utah. When he was two his family moved to Sunset, Arizona, and lived under the United Order there four years.

The earliest memories which he has recorded were at Sunset. The family then moved to Forest Dale, Arizona. This was found to be on Indian land, so after only one year they moved on to Pleasanton, New Mexico. At Pleasanton, he recalls, he helped with the family chores and in particular with the removal of unending rocks and weeds from the garden. Here he also attended a one-room school and received the beginnings of his lifelong education.

At the age of ten, Charles Eli McClellan and his family migrated to Mexico which was to be his home for the next twenty-seven years. Here he added to his meager education in a larger school with a better building and more teachers. He learned rapidly and became a foremost student of Dennison E. Harris. Having mastered the fundamentals he was asked to teach and in the spring of 1895, at the age of twenty, he began teaching grade school in Colonia Juarez. This opened a new life for him and inspired a teaching career.

Before the year was out, he had learned much about discipline, individual differences and the common sense approach to problems. He also realized that further education for himself was imperative. So he attended Brigham Young Academy in Provo the following year and then in the fall of 1897 Charles Eli McClellan was called to serve a mission in Colorado in the newly established Western States Mission.

Charles Eli McClellan served there without purse or script for two and one-half years and was released in the spring of 1900. On April 11, 1900, he and Josephine Haws were married in the Salt Lake Temple. She was the first child of George Martin Haws and his first wife, Josephine Cluff, who had lived in Mexico since 1891. Charles began teaching at the Juarez Stake Academy in the fall of 1900 and taught there continuously until the summer of 1912.

During these years he was in charge of the English department and taught kindred subjects the entire time. For the first three years, he was a student as well, for he had not yet graduated from high school. In 1903 he and Franklin S. Harris were formally graduated from an accredited four-year high school course at the Juarez Stake Academy.

His love for oral English and his admiration for classical use of words brought deep appreciation of language to the minds of those he taught. His precise diction made him exemplary and his approach to the mastery of fundamentals was effective and stimulating.

He developed in himself an advanced philosophy of education and psychology. He put human welfare as the final goal and held that any course failing to build integrity and character was only partially achieving its objective. From the outset, he looked past the subject material to the pupil, and recognized each as being important and distinct from any other individual. This was a basic tenet throughout his lifetime of teaching. He looked for the good in every pupil. His task was not done when the class was finished. Through personal contact he set more than one pair of feet on the path of better living and greater self-realization.

Charles Eli McClellan recognized that people learn faster when they are interested and was brave enough to break away from traditional teaching procedures. One of his novel plans has been used in countless ways since he introduced it.  He had pupils write to pupils of other English classes in far away places, using, of course, clear and correct English. Replies came from Florida, Maine, Michigan and other parts of the United States as well as from islands of the seas. They contained choice descriptions of the localities from which they had been written as well as interesting information about the writers. The natural result was an aroused interest in composition, letter writing and descriptive language.

Eventually specimens of the flora and fauna of various regions were exchanged which became the beginning of a school museum. Mining men donated various mineral specimens in their various steps of refinement. A room was fitted with shelves, tables and stands for the various displays. Arrows gathered by President Ivins from the body of the Apache Kid were added and taxidermists, both local and foreign, stuffed and mounted birds and animals. Bottles were filled with rare reptiles from local and foreign places, carefully preserved in alcohol. The outcome of the freshman English class project was the establishment of an enviable high school museum.

Though always busy with school activities, Charles Eli McClellan was equally immersed in church activities. Soon after his return to the colonies from his mission, he was called by Bishop Joseph C. Bentley to be the Superintendent of the Sunday School. At the same time, in the years 1902-1905, he taught a Stake training class for missionaries. This course was instigated by examining boards and the Seven Presidents of the Seventies. Those who enrolled in it were expected to make the same sacrifices to master its fundamentals and complete the course that a real mission would require. In addition to Gospel principles, lectures treating problems incident to missionary life were added by faculty members, Mission Presidents, returned Elders, and Church and Stake Authorities.

After four years he was called to be a Counselor to Bishop Bentley where he served for four additional years. In his final four years in Mexico he served as Second Counselor to President Junius Romney during the years leading up to the Exodus in 1912.

Even with all of his regular duties and callings he found time to promote extra-curricular activities for the students. Story telling, public speaking, and debating were all outcomes of his oral English classes and provided many school and evening programs, giving at the same experience and personal growth to the participating students.

He also fostered dramatics for both the school and the Ward auxiliaries. He carried on the work started by Miles P. Romney. He directed plays, promoted school dramas and provided school and community with theatrical events several times a year. The events ranged from light comedy to Shakespearean productions. On occasion he participated in as well as directed a play. He loved this activity and was particularly pleased by the training and development it brought to the participants. His was a dynamic means of teaching the dramatic arts while entertaining and having fun.

The Mexico years were exciting but also brought great sorrow. During this time Charles and Josephine became the parents of six children, four girls and two boys. But they were grief-stricken during the final four and one-half years as they stood helplessly by as death took two of the girls and both of the boys. This may have precipitated a return to the United States.

In the summer of 1912 Charles Eli McClellan returned to Provo, with his family, to  continue his studies at Brigham Young University. When the Exodus occurred at the end of July, 1912, he went from Provo to El Paso to see how the refugees from the colonies were faring. He went down into the colonies to evaluate the situation relative to possible return of the colonists. He reported to Church Authorities that he could see nothing to assure the safety of a return at that time. He then returned to Provo and completed his B.A. degree in 1914.

While Charles Eli McClellan was in school another son was born. After graduation Charles became Superintendent for one year of the Independent School District in Rigby, Idaho. This was followed by two years as President of the Hinckley Academy, in Hinckley, Utah. While there, they were blessed with two more sons. They then returned to Rigby where Charles was Superintendent of Schools for the years 1918-1921.

In 1921 they moved to Logan, where Charles was a student and part-time instructor at Utah Agricultural College, later to become Utah State University. In 1923 he received a Master’s Degree there and became a full-time teacher. Soon after, in 1924, their last child, a boy, was born.  This was their first child to be born in a hospital.

With interruptions for graduate study at Stanford and Columbia, he taught continuously at Utah State, advancing to Full Professor. He served one year as Acting Dean of the School of Education. He was the prime mover behind the establishment of a school for teacher training. He officially retired in 1945 but continued to teach part-time for several years thereafter.

His teaching at Utah State was characterized by a basic philosophy developed in his early years of teaching at Juarez Stake Academy. Always he put the needs of the student as an individual ahead of the course material and inculcated this philosophy into many of the hundreds of teachers and teachers-to-be who came under his influence. Many students have commented that in his classes, as in none other, they were encouraged to really develop their thinking abilities.

While teaching and well into his retirement years, he was active in church and community affairs. After retirement, Charles and Josie, as he called her, remained in their home in Logan where he enjoyed life as a Professor Emeritus and in 1959 he was presented with the University’s Distinguished Service Award. Josephine continued to extend her great love for children and was known affectionately as “grandma” to all of the little ones in the neighborhood. Failing health finally took her life in 1959 at the age of eighty-one.

A year later Charles married a widow, Mae McAllister, who had been a fellow teacher at Juarez Stake Academy fifty years earlier. She passed away in 1966 and Charles died in the fall of 1967 at the age of ninety-two.

Cyril E. McClellan, son

Stalwarts South of the Border, Nelle Spilsbury Hatch

Page 422

Franklin Stewart Harris

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Franklin Stewart Harris

1884 – 1960

Details of activities and achievement of this illustrious educator, administrator, and ambassador of goodwill need no repetition. But mention of them assures him a place among the stalwarts of the Mormon colonies in Mexico. His heritage, his natural adaptabilities as well as his basic potentialities assure him this claim.

Franklin S. Harris was born into a family of educators. His father and mother, Dennison Emer and Eunice Stewart Harris were both students of Karl G. Maeser. They met and marr ied while attending Brigham Young Academy. Both did competent work in the schoolroom before and after marriage, first in the Nebo District in Utah and later in the pre-Juarez Stake Academy days in Colonia Juarez.

Frank, their second son, was born in Benjamin, Utah, August 27, 1884 and was but five years of age when his parents joined their educational efforts with the struggling settlers of Colonia Juarez. They were a vital part of the community life until Frank was nineteen years of age. His growing-up days afforded experiences that laid a firm foundation for his future greatness. Being a grandson of sturdy pioneers on both sides of the family, he was richly endowed with resourcefulness, endurance, an abiding faith in God, and a consuming desire to qualify for whatever life had to offer. Many of his future positions of trust stemmed from lessons learned in these early years.

Frail and delicate in health during his childhood years, he would sit much of his time, looking at pictures in a book and holding a pet. His love for good books and his later ability to author several important textbooks had their beginnings in these early years. What he read from them made a profound impression on his life. No matter where his travels took him in later life, he never bypassed a library building nor failed to browse through its aisles to leaf through its. most appealing volumes. “I like the feel of a good book in my hand,” was his usual comment at the end of these visits.

From this came his wide reading habits, his ability to assimilate information, to classify and use it to make him an authority on many vital questions. The value of good books and voluminous reference material geared his promotion of adequate library facilities in every university he headed, and filled them with books containing information in all fields.

As a boy Franklin S. Harris was taught the Spanish language in school, and was provided with infinite opportunities to use it in free conversation with natives of Mexico, working, playing and later doing business with them. This made it easy to love those of another race, to respect their customs and way of life. From this he found that mastering one foreign language was an open sesame to the fundamentals of another and being able to understand a foreign people. Growing up on a foreign frontier, he worked for what he had, or went without. From his first job, clerking in his father’s store, he learned to hand Ie money, to be strict in accounting for what passed through his hands. Later as an administrator of large universities, where he had to handle great sums of money, these fundamentals helped. Riding the range and rounding up cattle to preserve and build up a good herd gave him genuine respect for a good mount. He never outgrew his love for a faithful horse, nor lost his enjoyment of the feeling of a sturdy, dependable animal under him.

His interest in food preservation originated in Mexico also. Until a cannery, in which he worked, was instituted, the only means of enjoyment of fruits and vegetables the year-round was through drying apples, peaches, grapes, green corn and squash. The only means of keeping pork, beef and butter for year-round consumption was in preserving it in brine or dry salt.

Through his continued interest in this subject, he became chairman of the United National Food and Agricultural Association of Greece in 1946 where his findings were of international benefit.

In his evening strolls from home on star lit nights, study of the stars and other heavenly bodies became a favorite pastime. He often said, “No place in the world stars seem so close and friendly” as he found them on these strolls. He came to know many of the common constellations. At an early age he could talk understandingly of heavenly bodies and impart his awe and amazement of the perfect order in the universe. On one of his trips through the deserts in Iran, his group had been following the tracks of a truck, for there was no road. When the truck tracks disappeared, everyone had a different idea about which way they should go. Frank quietly said,

“We will sit and wait until it is dark. Then I can tell you by the stars the direction we should take.”

Frank was an independent thinker and worked out his own problems, never asking for help until he had done all he could for himself. He also learned the value of time, and was always willing to do his share of work. These stable qualities contributed immensely to his future success.

With the coming of Guy C. Wilson to Colonia Juarez in 1897, Frank’s school life took on more purpose. He was just ready to enter his freshman year. This was a privilege made possible after only ten years of settlement.

Ordinarily high school privileges were not possible in so short a time, and Frank was not slow in realizing this opportunity as an outlet to his ambitions. He was primed to be fed educationally by this dynamic Utah-trained educator and to digest his teachings. Under Professor Wilson’s stimulating direction, learning-hungry Frank went fast. Quoting his brother, we read:

Education was not the only manifestation of quality among these resourceful pioneers. Though poor in material things they were rich in aspirations of the cultural and spiritual attainments. Mediocrity and the shoddy were looked upon with disfavor, while excellence and high quality were sought. As early as the 1890s many cultural achievements were manifest. A band under the direction of German-trained John J. Walser was organized in which Frank played the cornet. Local dramatics and musical presentations were of a high order. A well-trained Ward choir directed by Walser enriched the weekly Sacrament meetings in which Frank sang a tenor part. Intense interest in these cultural activities were developed in Frank.

His reward was the cultural uplift such things gave to his life. Frank also was influenced by the missionary system that, in spite of poor conditions, sent several missionaries a year to all parts of the world. In this atmosphere, Frank passed through four years of high school and graduated in May 1903. His appetite for learning had been whetted so that nothing but a college degree could be considered. Three months after his graduation from high school, he enrolled in the Brigham Young University to begin a brilliant career. He was primed and readied for a dedicated life by taking seriously what his mother had often repeated: “Preparation is the key that opens the door of opportunity.”

Franklin S. Harris returned to Colonia Juarez after one year at the Brigham Young University to be a fellow teacher with Guy C. Wilson, and proved by the efficient way he opened scientific doors to students so inclined, that the torch Professor Wilson had lit for him was being passed on to others still burning. His father moved his family from Colonia Juarez that year, 1904, to a farm near Cardston, Canada. So the community in which he had grown up saw him no more as a resident. During college years he met and married Estella Spilsbury, daughter of Moroni and Rosalie Haight Spilsbury of Toquerville, Utah. The marriage began a long, happy fruitful life together and was solemnized in the Salt Lake Temple June 8, 1908. Together they reared six children, all of whom do honor to his name, one of them being the well-known columnist for the Improvement Era, where for twenty-five years approximately he shared his scientific findings under the title, “Exploring the Universe.” All are graduates, even Estella, of the Brigham Young University.

Franklin S. Harris received his Bachelor Degree from the Brigham Young University in 1907 and his Ph.D. in soil sciences, chemistry and plant physiology from Cornell University at Ithaca, New York in 1911. Less than ten years later he was appointed President of the Brigham Young University. He was then thirty-six years old. Because of his doctorate, his training under Dr. Widtsoe, his teaching at the Agricultural College in Logan and his magnetic personality, he was rated the best man in the State of Utah for the position. His twenty-four years of service proved this to be no exaggeration. His fame as an agronomist was worldwide, and his textbooks are yet in demand.

In one year Franklin S. Harris increased the enrollment from 425 to 800, and in twenty-four years to more than 3000. There was only one college within the university, education, when he began. “Not everyone who enters the BYU wants to be a teacher,” he reasoned. “There must be other departments added for training in other fields.” Five more colleges were added in less than four years: the College of Arts and Sciences; the College of Applied Science; the College of Commerce; and finally, the College of Fine Arts.

Later a Graduate School and Extension Division were added. His annual budget was less than 5 percent of what other universities were receiving. Yet with his ability to stretch dollars and make every penny do maximum service, and by insisting that every department stay within its budget, he saved enough to buy property on “Temple Hill” for an expanded BYU campus, and began the fabulous building program that still is in progress.

The Maeser Memorial was the only building on the upper campus. To it were added seven more buildings: The Heber J. Grant Library in 1925; the Stadium in 1929; the Brimhall Building in 1935; the Stadium House in 1936; the dormitories, Allen Hall for men and Amanda Knight Hall for women in 1938; and the Joseph Smith Memorial building. The J. Reuben Clark Library replaced the Heber J. Grant Library in 1963. The George A. Smith Field House was added to the Stadium about the same time. And vision of what has since been accomplished building-wise was in mind.

As his school expanded, his popularity with teachers and students grew. He was friendly and helpful and his office door stood open always for free entrance of students or teachers with problems to discuss. This easy accessibility to his office made Franklin S. Harris personally acquainted with many students and teachers. He could call more of them by their first name than any other administrator on campus. He curtailed the fraternity system extensively, viewing it as a detriment to academic attainment, and as insufficiently democratic. He controlled his students by giving them just one rule to follow, which was: “Make every thought and act of your life while attending the Brigham Young University square with the teachings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” He set the example and required faculty members to do the same.

While Franklin S. Harris was changing the Brigham Young University from a small unknown college into a renowned institution of learning, he was filling other assignments of a world-wide nature. In 1929 he was chairman of an American Commission to travel to the Soviet Union to observe the living conditions of the Jewish people. After traveling through parts of Europe and European Russia his commission went to Eastern Siberia to explore the agricultural possibilities of land which was thought to be a suitable place for Jewish colonization. Franklin S. Harris reported his findings to Jewish leaders in Europe and his descriptions of various colonization projects were welcomed by influential American Jews. In 1939 Franklin S. Harris served a year as agricultural advisor to the Shah of Persia. Sometime later he returned to set up a workable four-point program. He later returned to Persia (now Iran) again in 1952, after he left the Brigham Young University and was President of the Utah Agricultural College in Logan, Utah. Even after his retirement in 1950, he undertook similar missions. He raised the standards of production, improved methods, and made lasting friends from His Majesty the Shah to the lowliest workman. His reputation as an agricultural advisor never suffered a decline.

His appointment to become President of the Utah State Agricultural College caused deep regret in the separation from his beloved BYU, but he entered his new duties in the fall of 1945. Franklin S. Harris held this position until the spring of 1950, and remained President Emeritus of this institution until he died. Death marked the passing of a remarkable educator, a lover of mankind and a world-wide benefactor. He died April 18, 1960 and was laid to rest in the Salt Lake City cemetery. He was mourned and revered by his family and legions of friends. His funeral service was held in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square, Salt Lake City and his memorial services were held in the George Albert Smith Field House on the campus of his beloved Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, May 23, 1960.

In 1962, a lasting memorial for Franklin S. Harris was planned and in 1965 BYU’s largest academic building, the Franklin S. Harris Fine Arts Center was dedicated. It is a structure that dramatically perpetuates his love of the Fine Arts, his appreciation of the culture that produced it and his dedication to the promotion of a keener appreciation of the beauty of art.

The building, while perpetuating the memory of a revered founder, is truly an art center, a sight-lifter for all who enter and a cultural uplift to the campus. It is also a reminder of one who enriched life and added beauty to that of others.

Nelle Spilsbury Hatch

Stalwarts South of the Border, by Nelle Spilsbury Hatch

Page 234

Robert Chestnut Beecroft

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ROBERT CHESTNUT BEECROFT

(1873-1958)

Robert Chestnut Beecroft was born in Holden, Millard County, Utah, July 15, 1873. He was the son of John Hurst and Ellen Chestnut Beecroft.

December 24, 1889 he arrived with his parents in Colonia Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. There he remained with his uncle, Henry Chestnut, who was night-watchman at the Henry Eyring store, until March 1890, when he moved on to Colonia Pacheco.

In Pacheco, he went to work at a sawmill, first for Al Farnsworth and later for John Campbell. He dearly loved the people of Pacheco. The memory of friendships with such men as John E. and Walter H. Steiner and William and David P. Black were cherished memories all of his life.

There in Pacheco Robert Chestnut Beecroft met Lilly Marinda Rowley. They were married April 14, 1894. To them were born a boy, Nello Robert, August 11, 1896 and a girl, Emma, January 4, 1898.

Besides working at sawmills, “Rob” did freighting.

In March 1898 he moved his family to Colonia Oaxaca, Sonora, Mexico. There, two girls were born to them, Lilly Mae, September 30, 1899, and Ellen, July 27, 1902.

Rob carried on as a freighter, hauling ore from the El Tigre mine, near Colonia Oaxaca to Nuevo Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico. The road he traveled over was truly a pioneer road. The treacherous Bavispe River had to be crossed. The Pulpit Canyon road was next to impassable. It was solid rock for miles and in places it was like a staircase.

At one point called “The Squeeze” it was so narrow that a wagon could barely pass through.  There were drops from ledge to ledge to ledge; the wagon tongue would knock the horses from side to side, even knocking them down at times. His own words tell it thus:

I made my living freighting, driving six to eight horses on one line and three wagons. The mountain roads were so rough that could only take one wagon at a time, taking it to the top of the mountain, leaving it, and going back after the next. After getting the last wagon to the top, I would put the ore all in one wagon. The trip was then made the rest of the way to Nuevo Casas Grandes. The ore was then loaded on the train and taken to El Paso, Texas to the smelters.

In Colonia Oaxaca, Rob built a brick house for his family. Later a flood came down the Bavispe River, washed sixteen houses away and took the roof of his new brick home.

His wife Lilly died in 1904, so he moved back to Pacheco with his young children. His brother John took Nello and Emma to Colonia Garcia. Mae went to live with Lilly’s sister, Ozella Rowley. Ellen went to another sister of Lilly’s, Orissa Rowley, while Rob continued freighting.

There in Pacheco he met and married Nancy Erina Buchanan, October 18, 1905. At this time, Robert had acquired some farm land and farmed in season. He also worked on adjoining sawmills, being fireman and engineer. 

December 3, 1906 they had a son born, William Elvin.

Rob said:

In 1908 I was called to go on a two year mission in Mexico. I took my wife and baby with me to Salt Lake City. There we were sealed. Then we took the train back to El Paso. We had to walk across the bridge crossing the Rio Grande River which separates the USA and Mexico. Edna and the baby took a train for the colonies which was the way back home for them, while I took another train for Mexico City and my mission, where I labored for a little over two years. I arrived back home Christmas Eve 1910. While on my mission in Mexico State I was living at Ozumba. I presided over eight different branches. Rey L. Pratt was President over the Mexican Mission, with Will Jones as first counselor and myself as second counselor.

While laboring there I was fined for not paying taxes on my wages. We were in court two days. The judge said either my church paid me or the people over whom I presided paid me. I told him that neither of them did, but that I paid my own way. I appealed to Chalco, and the officers at Chalco appealed to the state capitol. But I never did hear from them again.

His mission being ended, he took a train for home, arriving at the nearest railroad station in Pearson, Chihuahua, near Colonia Juarez where his wife Edna awaited him. His son Nello met him at Pearson with horses. “Horseback” they returned to Pacheco arriving Christmas Eve, 1910. For the first time he saw his daughter Marva, who was born four months after he left for his mission. She was born February 17, 1909.

Again in Rob’s own words:

Back to work again, sawmilling. We moved to Cumbre sawmill working for Lester Farnsworth and John Whetten. They had acontract to build a bridge which was the highest bridge in America,being 800 feet high, and took one million feet of timber. At Cumbre was a tunnel that was three-quarters of a mile long which the train went through.

October 5, 1911 a baby boy was born to us, Carl J.

In 1912, because of the Mexican Revolution, we were told to leave Mexico. In August of that year we put our women and children on the train and sent them to El Paso. All men over fifty years of age, and boys under sixteen years had to go with the women. All boys over sixteen had to stay with the men. So my son Nello stayed with me, as he had just turned sixteen August 11.

Early the next morning, the train left Pearson for El Paso, Texas, USA, while we men and boys headed back to the mountains and our homes and our crops.

I had to stay to a meeting in Colonia Juarez, at President Bentley’s place, and before I got back to my home at Pacheco, which was thirty-five miles from Colonia Juarez, our Bishop met me and sent me through the hills, away from the road to Colonia Garcia as a runner, to tell the Garcia men to meet with the Pacheco men at a certain place in the mountains. Then the valley men were to meet us and all head for the USA together. In our travel overland, Bishop A.D. Thurber was chosen captain. He chose Lester B. Farnsworth as first assistant and Robert C. Beecroft as second assistant of the company, which consisted of 240 men.

The night we left our homes at Pacheco the Mexicans set fire to the town, burning all the lumber houses.

Our daughter Valoise was born August 6, 1915 at St. Johns, Arizona.

I went back to Mexico because our land and everything we owned was there. In our company going back was myself and family, brother John and family, Frank 0’Donnal and family, John and Bert Whetten and their families.

We landed at Colonia Dublan.  I was the night watchman at the Farnsworth and Romney store for about one year.  I then hired a 200 acre farm.  Our crops were alfalfa, wheat, and beans.  I farmed there for a number of years.

We had another daughter Ethel born January 22, 1922 in Colonia Garcia.

While working with Lester B. Farnsworth in 1922 at Garcia he acquired 140 head of cattle. The men of the town of Garcia together purchased the Jacobson cattle, with the UT brand. These cattle were located on the ranch near the Dublan Lakes. They were paid for with lumber from the Garcia mill. Later he moved these cattle to the North Valley Ranch near Chuhuichupa, where he also moved his family. There he also farmed, raising corn, oats and potatoes.

February 18, 1925 a daughter, Maurene, was born in Chuhuichupa.

In the autumn of 1926, because of illness of his daugher Ethel, he and Edna with their family moved to Douglas, Arizona to give medical care to
Ethel.

Douglas was born while there, February 18, 1927.

In 1928, Rob sold his cattle that he had on the North Valley Ranch. He invested the money with the Farnsworth and Romney Mercantile Company. They owned a store in Sabinal, a rich silver mine on the Corralitos Ranch. They sent Robert there to run the store. His family was in Colonia Juarez where Elvin, Marva and Carl were enrolled in the Juarez Stake Academy.

Later Rob was transferred to the store in Juarez, owned by the same Mercantile Company.

In 1931 he sold his equity in the Mercantile business for cattle. He moved his cattle and his family back to Chuhuichupa.

In 1932 he rented his cattle out and moved to Mesa, Arizona. Later he sold his cattle and bought a home near the Arizona Temple in Mesa.

Robert passed away October 2, 1958 at his home, 240 Wood Lane, Mesa, Arizona.

Ellen Beecroft Farnsworth, daughter

Stalwarts South of the Border,

Nelle Spilsbury Hatch pg 27

Joseph Charles Bentley

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Joseph Charles Bentley

1859-1942

Joseph Charles Bentley, son of Richard Bentley and Elizabeth Price, was born August 31, 1859 in Salt Lake City.  He was the youngest child in a family of six.  His parents were English converts who had emigrated to Utah in 1852.

The fall after Joseph’s birth, his father was called on a mission to England where he labored for four years.  During his absence his wife struggled bravely to support her family, the oldest a girl of twelve.  They lived in a little adobe house on North Temple Street.

Shortly after Richard Bentley’s return from England he was again called by President Brigham Young to take his family and move to St. George, in the extreme southwestern part of the territory of Utah.  This move was a great trial to Elizabeth Bentley, but she was willing to go with her husband wherever the Church might call.  Apostle Orson Pratt had been called home from St. George, so it was arranged that he and Richard Bentley would exchange homes.

Thus it was within the red sandstone hills of St. George, with the Virgin River flowing by, that Joseph grew to manhood.  He began his meager schooling under Richard Horne.  At the age of 15 he accepted a position of office boy for Robert C. Lund, who was the St. George operator of the Desert Telegraph.  Young Joseph learned telegraphy and eventually took over the managership of the office.  Later he was transferred to Silver Reef, a mining camp northeast of St. George, where he worked until he received his call for a mission. 

 At the age of 20, Joseph was called on a mission to England, where he labored as mission secretary in London.  Upon his return home two years later he secured a position with the firm of Wooley, Lund and Judd, who operated a general store, Wells-Fargo Express Agency, and a telegraph office in St. George.

One day Sister Julia Jill Ivins asked Joseph if he would teacher daughter Margaret (or Maggie) telegraphy.  An agreement was made to do this for the sum of $30 dollars a month.  The young man found Maggie an apt student and a charming young lady, and he often walked her home after the lesson.  That fall Maggie took a position as teacher Pine Valley, about 35 miles north of St. George.  She frequently visited the telegraph office after school and was allowed to send messages to the young operator at St. George.  This romance culminated the following summer in their marriage in the St. George Temple, June 30, 1886.

In 1892, Joseph Charles Bentley moved his wife and three small children to Mexico.  The Mexican Mission had been founded by the Church some six years earlier, and the Chihuahua colonies were developing into thriving little communities.  Settling the picturesque little town of Colonia Juarez, he purchased a quarter of a block near the center of town, on which were two small frame houses, some grapes, and a few fruit trees.  In four of five years he constructed a fine, two-story home of red brick.

Joseph went into business with Anson B. Call and Dennison E. Harris.  The firm of Call, Harris and Bentley engaged in cattle raising, farming and merchandising.  He also started a co-op cannery for canning local fruits and vegetables.  He was assisted in this plant by the Harris brothers, Franklin S. and J. Emer.  Another co-op in which he was interested was the Juarez Tanning and Manufacturing Company, which engaged in the making of harnesses, saddles, and other leather goods.

In church affairs he was equally active.  Soon after his arrival in Mexico he had been asked to assist Bishop George W. Sevey with his tithing records and was soon appointed Ward Clerk.  In 1895, when the Juarez Stake was organized with Anthony W. Ivins as President, Joseph C. Bentley became the Stake Clerk.  Then three years later he was made Bishop of the Colonia Juarez Ward, serving in that capacity some 18 years. 

In the fall of 1894, Gladys Woodmansee, a cousin of Maggie Ivins Bentley, came down to the colonies on a visit.  Years before, at the time of her marriage, Maggie had told her husband she believed in the principle of plural marriage and that if ever he decided to take another wife she would like it to be her cousin Gladys.  As Joseph C. Bentley had long admired this young lady and she was agreeable to the union, the time seemed opportune.  Accordingly to ceremony was performed by one of the Apostles who was visiting in the colonies at the time.  As the Manifesto of 1890 applied only to the United States, there were no legal barriers to the marriage.

In 1897 Joseph Charles Bentley became a naturalized Mexican citizen, intending to make the land of his adoption his permanent home.

For years Bishop Joseph Charles Bentley had watched his interest the development of a certain red-haired lass, who was the daughter of one of his Counselors, Ernest L. Taylor.  As the girl blossomed into young womanhood, Bishop Bentley, being a firm believer in the doctrine of plural marriage, sought her hand.  At first she was rather unappreciative of his attentions, but after a rather persistent courtship he was successful.  On September 23, 1901, Mary Maud Taylor, then but a girl of 16, became the third wife of Joseph C. Bentley.

Of course separate homes were maintained for each of the three wives.  The family relationships of the Bentley’s were very harmonious.  However, Bishop Bentley’s church duties took him away from home so much that the burden of raising and training the children fell largely upon the wives.  On several occasions on or the other had the heart-rending experience of witnessing her child’s last breath and laying it out for burial while her husband was in Salt Lake City for conference or off on some missionary journey. 

There were pleasant times, too.  Each summer for many years Joseph Bentley made it a practice to take his families into the mountains for an outing, usually at North Creek above Chuhuichupa.  In the midst of tall pines and with an abundance of fish and game, a good time was enjoyed by all.

Gladys had poor heath and died in March 1906.  Her five children came to live with Maggie, and it was a very busy home for the next few years.

In 1910 Joseph C. Bentley organized a Board of Trade for the purpose of securing a better market for colony products.  The colonies were producing fruit of unusual quality as well as canned goods and leather products.  It was thought that by combing the produce of the various members it would be possible to ship in carload lots to more distant markets.  An invitation was received from President Diaz to bring an exhibit to Mexico City.  After arriving there Bishop Bentley was cordially received by the fair officials, allotted space for his exhibit, supplied with flags and bunting for decoration, and given the services of several men to unload and handle the produce.  He then proceeded to erect a pyramid of colony cheeses as high as the ceiling, a huge stack of canned goods, and extensive displays of apples, peaches, flour, candy, saddles, and harnesses.

At the close of the exposition, a banquet was served to President Diaz and his cabinet, using colony produce.  Afterward each minister was given a few samples to take home.  The remaining produce was sold at a good price.  This exposition opened up a thriving market for colony produce in Mexico City.

Before his return home, Bishop Bentley was granted a personal interview with President Porfirio Diaz, who state that he greatly admired the Mormon people because they set an example of a higher standard of living and morality which would benefit his people.

The decade of 1911-1920 was a troubled one in Mexican history.  The 30-year dictatorship of President Porfirio Diaz, which had given Mexico peach and financial stability and encouraged foreign colonization and investment of foreign capital, was rough to an end by a popular revolt led by the crusading Francisco I. Madero, who in turn was succeeded by half a dozen other presidents in kaleidoscopic succession.  The most colorful figure during this period was Francisco “Pancho” Villa, rebel, patriot, and bandit, but a man of his word and one who had great regard for the Mormon people.

Reported assurances were given to the Mormon colonists that their lives and property would be respected, and, owning to their neutral position, their firearms would be left in their possession. This promise was kept by both sides for about six months, but the Revolutionists, being short of arms and suffering one defeat after another, finally demanded the arms of the colonists.

On Saturday, July 26, 1912, the men of Colonia Juarez brought their guns and ammunition to the bandstand, where they were listed and counted by Bishop Bentley before turning them over to the rebel commander.  Being left with no means of defending their families, the brethren placed their wives and children on the train and sent them out to El Paso, Texas. Numbered among the exiles were Maggie and Maud Bentley and their families.

Believing that his life was in danger from the rebel leader, Cavada, who had been making threats, President Junius Romney of the Juarez Stake fled into the mountains, leaving word for the rest of the brethren to join him there. It was sometime before theywere able to do this, however, as the rebels forbade anyone to leave town.  Finally scouts came in with the news that a federal army was approaching, whereupon the rebels left.  Although there was now apparently no further reason for leaving, Bishop Bentley said that in obedience to the Stake President he was going inot the mountains to join him and advised other the other brethren to do likewise. 

On the following day a vote was taken and it was decided that the men of the colonies would proceed overland to the United States and join their families in El Paso.  Before leaving, reliable Mexicans were placed in charge of their homes and property.  The refugees were all mounted and had a couple of provision wagons and a considerable number of pack animals.  Four days’ travel brought them to the border, and two more were required to reach El Paso.

On the very day of their arrival, the Stake Presidency, High Council, and Bishoprics met with Anthony W. Ivins to discuss their action in leaving their homes in Mexico and what future course they should take.  There was heated discussion among the brethren as to the wisdom and necessity of the Exodus.  President Romney stoutly defended his action and stated that he would never return to Mexico unless called to do so by the General Authorities.  Bishop Joseph Charles Bentley said that in his opinion there had been no need either for their families or the men to leave and that as far as he and his families were concerned they had left solely in obedience to the counsel of the Stake President.

After a series of meetings, it was decided that all Stake and Ward authorities who did not desire to return to the Mexican colonies would be honorably released, and more than 500 free railroad passes were given to refugees who desired transportation to other parts of the United States.  Within about two weeks after the Exodus, some 60 men, including Bishop Joseph C. Bentley, Ernest and Alonzo Taylor, John W. Wilson, Daniel Skousen, and John Hatch, were ready to return to their homes in Colonia Juarez.  Upon reaching there, Bishop Bentley found everything just as he had left it, his faithful hired man, Cornelio Reyes, having remained true to his trust.  As conditions remained quiet for several weeks, a number of families returned to Colonia Juarez. Among them were those of Maggie and Maud Bentley.

The colonists were not molested for more than a year.  Then in April 1914 came the startling news that American troops had stormed and captured Veracruz.  Feelings ran high on both sides of the border and it appeared that war between the United States and Mexico was imminent. 

Some irresponsible parties sent an exaggerated report to President Joseph F. Smith in Salt Lake City, telling him that all the Mormon colonists in Mexico were in grave danger.  Acting on this advice, President Smith promptly called the settlers out; however, by September the war scare had subsided, and the Bentley families returned to their homes, where they remained during the balance of the Revolutionary period.

As Bishop Bentley was the only presiding officer of the Juarez Stake to return to the colonies, he was directed by the General Authorities at Salt Lake City to take over and close the tithing records of the various Wards which had been disorganized and to exercise general supervision over all the Saints who had returned to Mexico.  In 1915 he went to Salt Lake City to attend April Conference.  On April 10, after sessions had concluded, he called at the office of the First Presidency.  President Josph F. Smith and his two Counselors, Anthon H. Lund and Charles W. Penrose, placed their hands on his head while President Lund pronounced a blessing.  Then President Smith proposed that they set Bishop Joseph Charles Bentley apart as President of the Juarez Stake.  President Penrose acted as mouth.

Upon returning to Mexico, Bishop Bentley had the unusual distinction of serving both as Bishop and as Sake President for a little over a year until Apostle Ivins came down in May 1916 and released him from the Bishopric, at the same time setting apart John T. Whetten and Arwell L. Pierce as Counselors to assist him in the Stake Presidency.

Taking the lead in community as well as church affairs, President Bentley made two trips to Mexico City to obtain government confirmation of the land titles of the colonist.  He also continued to operate a general store in Colonia Juarez, for a time in partnership with John W. and Guy C. Wilson and, after the Exodus, alone.  However, the store was looted so many times by rebel bands that the venture was finally abandoned.

One day during the Revolution, Bishop Joseph Charles Bentley and several others paid a visit to General Villa, who was camped at Casas Grandes.  They requested a written order which would protect their work horses from seizure by rebel foragers.  Villa obligingly wrote out the order and gave copies to Bishop Bentley and Bishop Anson B. Call of Colonia Dublan.  Villa then remarked that his men were badly in need of bedding and he would like to buy some.  Bishop Bentley replied that his store in Colonia Juarez was only a grocery, but that he would see what he could do.  After returning to Colonia Juarez, Bishop Joesph C. Bentley gathered up a collection of surplus bedding from the townspeople and presented it to Villa as a gift.

During General Pershing’s campaign in Mexico (March 1916 – February 1917) he made his headquarters in Colonia Dublan and was very friendly toward the Mormon colonists.  After receiving orders to abandon the search for Villa, Pershing tried to persuade President Bentley to leave Mexico with the army and even offered the use of his own private car.  However, President Bentley felt that the colonists were in no danger and there was no reason to leave the country.

In March, 1919, President Joseph Charles Bentley, in company with Burt Whetten and Albert Tietjen, set out to visit some of the missionaries who were laboring in the villages to the south.  They were traveling in a light buggy drawn by a team of mules.  Between El Valle and Namiquipa they encountered some of Villa’s men and were taken into custody.  They were transferred from place to place and held prisoner for three days before they finally gained an audience with Villa.  In talking with the general, they learned that he had once lived with a Mormon family in Sonora and knew considerable about the Mormon people.

Villa said, “Many times I might have entirely cleaned up on all of you Mormons and destroyed the colonies, but I have never had any desire at all to do you any harm.  I would like to help ou, and I will help ou all that I can, but during times of trouble there is no guarantee of safety.  You gentlemen better return to your homes and stay there until we bet these things settled.  That will be the time for you to do the thing that you are doing now.

Villa then gave the brethren a written pass in case they were stopped again by any of his men.  However, their troubles were not yet over.  As they approached the nearly deserted town of Namiquipa, they were seized by a group of Rurales, who mistook them for American spies.  Here they were held prisoner for nine days before they succeeded in convincing their captors of trhe peacefulness of their mission.  Finally they were released and allowed to return home, taking with them two missionaries who had been laboring in Namiquipa.

As Stake President, Joseph C. Bentley was also Chairman of the Stake Board of Education, which supervised the Juarez Stake Academy.  On his trips to Salt Lake City to April Conference he would hire teachers for the coming school year.  After being released from the Stake Presidency, he continued to serve as bookkeeper for the school, paying the teachers’ salaries and managing the bookstore for several years.

Joseph Charles Bentley served as Stake President of the Juarez Stake until September 8, 1929, when he was succeeded by Ralph B. Keeler.  However, as the incoming Stake Presidency were all new at their jobs and unfamiliar with the keeping of Stake records, Bishop Bentley was once more sustained as Stake Clerk, which position he held until 1930 when he was made a Patriarch.

During his residence of nearly a half century in Mexico, Joseph Charles Bentley suffered many bereavements, losing nine children and two wives.  Gladys Woodmansee Bentley died February 21, 1906 and thus escaped the trials of the Revolutionary period.  Margaret Ivins Bentley passed away January 11, 1928.

Though small of stature, Joseph Charles Bentley had a distinguished appearance and a charming personality.  He was dark complexioned and habitually wore a small goatee, which he kept well-trimmed.  His resemblance to President Madero sometimes caused him to be mistaken for the Mexican President. On one occasion, as Brother Bentley got off a train, he was greeted by the martial strains of a brass band, and he had considerable difficulty convincing the assemblage that he was not the President of the Republic.

On Saturday, March 7, 1942, Joseph Charles Bentley seemed about as well as usual.  He asked his wife, Maud, to make him some oatmeal cookies, and he nibbled on them with pleasure throughout the day.  In the afternoon he had his hair cut and beard trimmed.  He retired about 10:00 p.m., after listening to the news broadcast on the radio.  About 11:40 p.m., Maud Bentley awakened to find him in a violent attack of nausea and unconscious.  He died within in a few minutes and was buried in the Colonia Juarez cemetery among the loved ones who had preceded him.

Funeral services were held for him Sunday afternoon, March 9, 1942.  There wasn’t time to notify his absent family members.  Prominent leaders in the colonies, including Orson P. Brown, Wilford M. Farnsworth, Bishop Anson B. Call, Moroni L. Abegg, President Claudius Bowman and Bishop Ernest I. Hatch all paid tribute to his integrity and faithfulness and his unfailing and great leadership to the people in the colonies.

Many letters and expressions of love, sympathy and admiration for him were received by his wife Maud from such Church leaders as Elder Marion G. Romney, President Franklin S. Harris, President Ralph B. and Gertude Keeler, Aunt Mamie Chamberlain, Taylor and Louise Abegg, as well as other family members and friends.  Truly he was a great and faithful leader gone to a great reward.

During his 50-year stay in Mexico he had many opportunities to move across the border to the United States but felt he had been advised to go to Mexico by Church Authorities in the first place, so felt that was where his duty lay.  So he remained true and faithful to his responsibilities.

Isaura Bentley Abegg, daughter

Stalwarts South of the Border,

by Nelle Spilsbury Hatch,  page 31

William Rufus Rogers Stowell

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William Rufus Rogers Stowell

1822 – 1901

William Rufus Rogers Stowell was born in Solon, Oneida County, New York on September 23, 1822.  He in his early life experienced the stirring events that centered around the vision and subsequent activities of Joseph Smith.

His father, Augustus Stowell, became fairly wealthy.  He was a practicing lawyer, owned 260 acres of farmland and many head of blooded horses, all of which brought him a good income.

Young William did not become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ when the rest of the family embraced that faith in 1831, but waited until 1834.  By that time the Saints had built the temple in Kirtland, had partially abandoned the town and were gathering to Missouri.  In fact, that year saw “Zions Camp” make its historic march to Missouri for the relief of the Saints there.  Rumors of calamities and persecutions following the Saints reached the ears of the Stowell family and had a peculiar effect upon William’s father.  It caused him to wonder if the Saints were not doing something to bring the persecutions upon themselves, and if perhaps they didn’t merit some of it.  When ambassadors were sent to this vicinity to collect means to help the Missouri Saints, he became bitter and refused to give them aid.  He was convinced the Saints were planning a rebellion against the government, as they were being accused, and, as a patriot, he wanted nothing to do with a people that was disloyal.  So belligerent was he on this issue that he finally withdrew from the Church and became intolerant and finally forbade his wife and children to have further contract with the Saints.

William’s mother endured his pressure for eight years, at the end of which time she sued him for divorce and moved into a home prepared for her by William.  In the ensuing proceedings, where the mother contested her rights for justice in the courts, young William was forced to testify against his father, a task that was a trial indeed.  But he knew that she was taking the right stand and, painful or not, he had to defend her against his father. The delicacy of what he had to do drove him every day to his knees where he sought guidance from his Heavenly Father.  He gained half his father’s property for his mother, and the children were allowed to stay with whichever parent they chose.  They all stayed with the mother.

This brought a distinct change in William’s life. He stayed with his mother until September, when with but ten dollars in his pocket, he started out on foot and alone for Nauvoo, Illinois, where the Saints were then settling.  Fortunately, he fell in with an outfit which, for his help in exchange for a ride with them, carried him to Chicago.  From there he took a bout to Pewaukee, Wisconsin where his sister lived.  Here he stayed for two weeks working as a carpenter and joiner in a gristmill and could have stayed in on indefinitely.  But Nauvoo was his destination and he was very anxious to see the temple and meet the Prophet.  He recognized both when he arrived.

He received a Patriarchal Blessing from Hyrum Smith and was closely enough associated with the Prophet to hear many of him famous utterances.  He was at the meeting when Joseph Smith declared himself a candidate for the Presidency of the United States and became well-acquainted with his platform.  When missionaries were chosen to go in all directions to campaign for him, he was chosen as one of them.  The powerful document written by Joseph Smith setting forth his views was looked upon by William as a masterpiece of vision and understanding of the needs of a free people.  With it in his possession, and being set apart along with the Twelve Apostles and a large corps of Elders at the April conference in 1844, he set out to proselyte for the Prophet Joseph.  He left in May with Elder William Parshall after having been ordained a Seventy.  New York was their destination.  They walked, except for a short distance along the Ohio River, approximately 1,000 miles.

By the first of June they reached his old home town.  Only eight months had passed since he had left.  He was glad to find his mother and family were ready for baptism and gladly performed the ordinance for them.  So much had happened in those eight months.  His old home had lots its charm, and when he found that his mother and sisters were ready to migrated, he was anxious to Nauvoo.

The martyrdom of the Prophet occurred before he had been in New York three days.  This released him from his mission, and with a heart filled with sorrow he turned to the task of helping his family move.  There was much to do in a short time:  the gathering of crops; trading and selling property; and getting outfits ready to leave while the season was favorable for traveling.  They made no secret of their destination when they finally set out, for “Nauvoo” was printed on their wagon cover.

After arriving he married Hannah Topham, a girl with whom he had become enamored before he left, on Christmas day, 1844.  Lorenzo Snow performed the ceremony.  William continued to care for his mother and sisters even after he moved into a home of his own.  He did all he could to push the work on the temple, now nearing completion, as well as carry on his farm work.  He succeeded in gathering most of his crops even though many lost theirs through burnings by mobs.  All could see that the time was fast approaching when they would have to leave their beautiful city in the hands of their enemies.  And soon, preparations for an exodus began.

William Rufus Rogers Stowell was one of the first 100 men chosen to be scouts for the evacuation.  They built roads and bridges and mapped out ways to travel.  They also took work wherever they found it, in order to obtain supplies for the Saints.  He cut timber and fitted wagons for others while doing what he could to prepare his own outfit.

By February the exodus began, and for the first two weeks he worked continuously, ferrying Saints across the Mississippi River.  In a fall of snow three inches deep, he and his company of Saints moved nine miles to the bend in Sugar Creek and made camp.  There Brigham Young caught up with them and began organizing for the westward trip. William proved a savior to the weak and infirm, for the suffering was intense.  Women walked all the way, caring for families at night with no protection other than their wagons.  This group of 400 wagons took until April to reach Garden Grove.  There they made camp, put in crops, dug wells, and built houses.  So industrious were they in preparing a way station for those who should come later that it was not but a few days until the place looked like it had been settled for years.  Some of the Saints remained here to keep the crops growing and to help those who were yet to come.  In the spring of 1847 William moved on to Council Bluffs.  There he stayed until the summer of 1850, raising crops and preparing for their final trek to Salt Lake Valley where they arrived in September, 1850.

William spent the winter in Salt Lake City, then moved to Provo and took up a 25 acre farm.  His wife then became dissatisfied and sued for divorce.  He granted it and married Cynthia Park the following autumn.

During the next few years he was kept busy settling Indian difficulties and doing military duty of one nature or another.  His burdens were increased when he adopted the six orphaned children of his brother and sister.  When he finally settled in Ogden, he made his growing family and their care his first concern.

During the Utah War, William Rufus Rogers Stowell was made an adjutant in Major Taylor’s battalion of infantry.  He was ordered to the front in October 1857, and not until spring was he to see his home or any of his family.  His first reconnoiter up Echo Canyon was a fateful one for, in proceeding up Ham’s Fork for the purpose of getting as close to enemy headquarters as possible, they ran into a detachment of U.S. soldiers who took him and his major prisoners. He remained in custody all winter, part of the time in irons, and was twice the victim of an intended poisoning.  Once he tried to escape, but found the hazards of getting through the snow and over the mountain to safety were too much, so he gave himself up and submitted to solitary confinement as punishment. 

The suffering William Rufus Rogers Stowell endured was harsh, but in a way his capture proved a blessing for it kept the army from entering the valley before the Saints had time to defend themselves.  As soon as he was captured, he made three attempts to destroy a little book he carried containing important instructions from General Wells.  On his first attempt to drop it, a voice spoke to him, saying plainly telling him not to drop the book because it would do more good than harm.  Unable to understand why he should be advised to do anything so foolish, he determined to disregard the warning and dropped it anyway.  But the voice spoke more distinctly the second time telling him not to destroy it and repeating that it would do him more good than harm.  Still thinking it was foolishness to listen to such advice, he made a third attempt, thinking he would drop it quickly before the voice could stop him.  But the voice was quicker than he, and again he was told not to destroy the book.

When he was searched, the book was among the first things discovered.  After reading the instructions it contained, the officers sent for him.  He was so discouraged that his feet dragged as he went to their tent.  But again a voice whispered to him, telling him to take no thought of what he would say “for it would be given him in that hour what eh should speak.”  This brought peace and comfort to his mind and he entered the officer’s tent calm and unafraid.

Words poured from his mouth telling them how impossible it was to enter the valley without great loss of life; the Echo Canyon was not only fortified but that great stones were piled in strategic points ready to be dropped on them; that other valleys were equally well-guarded; that there must be 30,000 Mormons in the hills determined that they would never again surrender to a hostile force.  All of this greatly astonished the colonel.  William followed his remarks with this statement: “You have the major and myself in your power.  You can kill us if you are so disposed, but we are only two, and there are plenty left.”

This interview added indecision to the deliberations of the troops’ officers.  Some were sure they could never make it through.  Others were for pushing boldly on.  They finally decided to go into winter quarters and wait to see what developments the spring brought.  That hesitation, followed by the arrival of General Johnston who saw their desperate plight and seconded the decision, was the act that saved the Saints from being forced to use violence to protect themselves.  All winter the U.S. soldiers endured half-rations, bitter cold and untold discomforts while waiting for spring and something to ease the situation. 

When peace was finally established through the medium of Colonel Thomas Kane, William was released and allowed to go to Salt Lake City ahead of the army and find his family.  For eight months he had had no word of them, though they had been kept more or less aware of his condition.  He found they had moved south with the great body of Saints, when they determined to abandon their city, and they were now in Payson and Salem living with friends.  Both his wives had had babies while he was gone and had suffered many hardships.  With only the help of the children, they had loaded their belongings into a wagon drawn by a team of steers, and had made the move south with the body of the Saints.  William himself was looking emaciated and half-crippled from carrying irons on his foot.  But looking over his winter’s experience, he felt he had been an instrument in the hand of the Lord in preserving the Saints.

William Rufus Rogers Stowell bought land, stocked it with sheep and horses, and broke land with his plow and planted lucerne and corn.  Everything he did prospered. His property increased in value when the railroad was completed in 1869, and he raised more farm crops since everything was so in demand for workers on the railroad.  By 1884, he was considered by himself and those around him as a thrifty well-to-do farmer. 

Then the polygamy raids began.  Laws were passed making all who had more than one wife subject to arrest, fine and imprisonment.  William went into hiding to escape arrest.  First he hid in the Logan Temple where he did temple ordinance work for his family.  When he ran out of names and data he had himself called on a mission in the East where he again visited all his relatives in the state of New York.  While there he gathered genealogy, hoping that by the time he returned the trouble would be over.  But it continued to rage, so he went on a second mission, this time to California.  Then he resorted to hideouts in the mountains, dodging in at favorable times to help with the farm work, or give courage to his family.  Gradually he came under suspicion as his home and his approach was watched, and he could see the game he was playing could go on no longer.  Anyway he was weary of hiding and, in company with his son Brigham, also on the dodge, he went to Mexico.  They arrived in Colonia Juarez in February 1889. There they found a critical situation for want of bread and butter.  They expense of shipping it from the United States made it prohibitive.  The availability of hand-ground corn was unpredictable.  The little flour mill operating in Galeana was entirely inadequate.  It took from four days to a week standing in line for their turn.  The grade of flour was little better than the cornmeal they could make.  Naturally every newcomer was hopefully received as they searched for a potential miller.

Whether or not William Rufus Rogers Stowell looked like a “flour” man is not known.  But before he was in town an hour, he was approached by his wife’s cousin, William C. McClellan, with a proposition.  “Come with me,” he said without further preliminaries.  “I’ll show you a natural mill site, a place where the right man can establish an industry that not only will make him a substantial living, but will make him a savior to a bread-hungry community.”  They went to a point on the Piedras Verdes River but a few rods distant from the first rock house built in Old Town.

In a few terse sentences McClellan demonstrated how a mill placed at this point of the river could be operated by making use of the canal that had but recently carried water to their farms on the old townsite.  All it needed was a rock runway down which the water could run to turn the water will of the mill at its base.

William Rufus Rogers Stowell decided it was a practical idea and felt his search for a home was over.

Making a start was as simple as that.  A little time spent in looking the country over, talking with Bishop Sevey and other leading men, enjoying the hospitality of friends and relatives, and his fast-formed plan was ready for action.  He bought his machinery when he returned to Utah and hired Peter N. Skousen to haul it in.  By the first of June he was back in Colonia Juarez with his family.  He disposed of his property in Ogden, had made trips necessary to complete negotiations at the border for emigration, had his plans all made to begin operations on his mill and a home underway for his family.

In late November the machinery was installed.  Before Christmas, they were grinding corn and flour.  It took only ten months for this 76 year-old human dynamo to complete a project done in the hardest way. Most importantly, the people now enjoyed flour from the first gristmill in the country.  What greater sense of power than to watch those large grinders set in motion by the cascade of water as it catapulted down the runway and hurled the great wheel into action. What music could lull and soothe as the hum of those huge grinders as they munched the golden kernels, crushing and passing the on to ever finer rollers, sifting and separating till the velvety whiteness was emitted from yawning hoppers into gaping sacks.  What greater feeling of security than to see the sacks piled for home consumption, and to know that at last they had annihilated the proverbial wolf and now had breadstuff in plenteous quantities for their families?

That two-story adobe building became the vortex of a thriving business center, the symbol of a new agricultural life.  Farmers raised more and better wheat to exchange for flour.  Contented customers returning for service year after year soon made the mill’s storage capacity inadequate, and an adobe annex fronting the western entrance was added.  William’s keen insight into business management and his meticulous attention to detail was characteristic of his everyday habits. He was an archenemy of waste, and careful attention to detail was his weapon for fighting that evil.  “Shake it over the bran pile,” was a reproof some unthinking customer would hear while shaking his emptied flour sack in the open air.  Turning his chickens loose to clean up the waste grain when horses scattered their rations in his yard or keeping pigs fattened on over-full sack leakages all were means to eliminate waste and keep his premises clean.  His daily trips back and forth from home to his mill always included a careful check on the dam, headgate, water supply, canal cleaning or possible repairs on his way.  And his inspection of the running gears in his mill was a daily task.

When past the three-quarter century mark, wisdom forbade his continuing the strenuous life.  He first employed a miller, to whm he later sold the mill and the business.  In December 1895, he was ordained a Patriarch, and served in that capacity for the rest of his life.  His last days were spent in Colonia Juarez, where he passed away May 30, 1901. 

Nelle Spilsbury Hatch

Stalwarts South of the Border, page 651

A biographical sketch written by James Little is found here.   This biography includes William Rufus Rogers Stowell’s Patriarchal Blessing given to him by Hyrum Smith.

Hyrum Jerome Judd

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Hyrum Jerome Judd

1847-1898

Hyrum Jerome Judd was born February 7, 1847, at Kanesville, Hancock County, Iowa, a few months before his father was released from military duty with the Mormon Battalion.

His father, Hyrum Judd orphaned at the age of 16, went to work for Lucious H. Fuller in Warsaw, Illinois, where he met and married Lisania Fuller, in 1844.  Hyrum Jerome was two years old when he crossed the plains with his parents and baby sister, arriving in Salt Lake city in the fall of 1849.  They settled in Farmington, Utah, until 1857, when his father was called to help settle southern Utah at Santa Clara, Washington County.

Here he lived his boyhood days in a nice little home his father built and he helped get the young orchard planted and growing nicely, except for the need of more water. A new dam was built on the Virgin River with a canal carrying water to the new townsite. This project was finished on Christmas Eve, of 1861.  The day the ditch was finished the rain began to fall and continued for more than a month; clothing and bedding couldn’t get dried.  The dugouts and other shelter gave poor protection, even with all the pots and pans employed to catch the dripping water.  Food molded, fires were hard to keep burning and harder to start if they went out.  It was a month of misery and suffering for all.  Then came the big flood, in the dark of night in January, 1862.  They were forced to flee to higher ground with what belongings they could take with them, while their home and land were washed away.

The family then moved to Meadow Valley and were busily engaged in the dairy business, when his father received another call to help settle the community of Eagle Valley, Nevada, in 1865. Hyrum Jerome Judd married Sharon Boyce, daughter of Benjamin and Susanna Content Boyce, April 28, 1866 in the Salt Lake Temple (Note Salt Lake temple wasn’t finished until 1893).  While living there, five, children were born to them: John Jerome in 1866; Susan Content in 1871; Lisania in 1872, Hyrum 1870; and Arza Hugh who died in infancy, in 1874. During this time Jerome worked on the Salt Lake Temple.  They moved to Panguitch, Utah where his father had settled.  Here Benjamin Boyce was born in 1876.  Jerome helped his father fence land near Lake Panguitch, where fishing was good.  Ira Leroy was born in 1877 in Salt Lake City. 

Hyrum Jerome Judd followed his father into northern Arizona in 1877 in company with his sister Jane and her husband Joe Knight, with all of their household goods and livestock, traveling slowly in order to find the best route for water and grass.  His father left a letter for him in a split stick at Black Falls.  They made a fine crossing of the Colorado River and up over Lee’s Backbone, the worst piece of road a wagon was ever taken over.  They arrived at Sunset, Arizona, in early 1878, the most desolate place he had ever seen.  He and his father joined the United Order and helped establish Sunset, Brigham City and Joseph City, all three camps practicing the United Order.

Joe Knight decided against joining and went across the river with the Kartchner’s and other families to a little community called Obed.  Joe became ill and Jerome brought him into Sunset for better care, but he died where she joined the Order and later married Israel Call.  The Judd’s, along with the families of William C. McClellan, Levi Savage, James McNeil, Joe James, Israel Call, Hubert Burkle, Freehoff Neilson and Samuel Garnes stayed with the Order, while others came and went.  Jerome and Hubert Burkle had charge of the range cattle and horses of the Order, and the Judd family made all the cheese at Mormon Lake near Flagstaff.  His father was Presiding Elder there.  Wilford Woodruff Judd was born to them at Sunset 1880.   

There Hyrum Jerome Judd took a second wife, who was Sarah Garn.  They were married in the St. George Temple on October 18, 1880.  Their first child, Paralee America was born October 6, 1881 at Sunset.  The United Order disbanded in 1882 and he moved to several different places in Arizona and New Mexico, taking some land in Smithsville (Pima) where Elizabeth was born to Susan in 1883. Lois Dianna and Ann were also born to Susan at Ramah, New Mexico in 1884 and 1886. Lois Dianna lived only a few months.  Mary Aliza (Mae) was born in 1886 to Sarah at Ramah.

Jerome moved his families to Mexico in 1887, settling in Colonia Juarez.  There he lived with his families for several years, making a living for their support by freighting and serving as cook on long cattle drives.  They made several drives to Fort Apache, Arizona.  Susan’s last child, Heleman, was born in Colonia Juarez in 1890.  To Sarah were born Don Carlos on October 7, 1887, Samuel Garn on October 8, 1890 in Colonia Juarez, and Lucinda Jane (Jenny) October 26, 1892.

Colonia Chuhuichupa was settled in 1894 and Jerome moved his families there where he engaged in farming and cattle raising.  Edgar Riley was born to Sarah in Chuhuichupa on January 13, 1898.  Jerome’s health was not good, so he went back to Colonia Juarez where he could get better medical care.  Sarah spent part of her time taking care of him there.  He received his Patriarchal Blessing from William R.R. Stowell on August 12, 1898 and died of cancer of the throat August 30, at the age of 51 years.  He was laid to rest in the east cemetery at Colonia Juarez beside his father who had preceded him in death by two years.  He was survived by two wives and 15 children.

Compiled by Earnestine Hatch from material furnished by Elva Judd Stevens, and a family history written from memory by Daniel Judd, son of Hyrum Judd and brother of Hyrum Jerome Judd.

Stalwarts South of the Border, Nelle Spilsbury Hatch, page 380