Edson Darius Porter
of the Mormon Colonies in Mexico
(1859-1933)
Edson Darius Porter was born on April 12, 1859 in Provo, Utah, the son of Chauncy Warriner Porter and Lydia Ann Cook.
As early as 1854, members of his father’s family had established what was to become the town of Porterville, Morgan County, Utah. Other family members soon came to this beautiful little valley to make their homes. It was from here that Edson left to help his brother, Warriner Al Porter, settle in Orderville where the United Order was in practice. Here in Orderville he met Catherine Aurelia Carling, daughter of Isaac Van Wagoner Carling and Asenath Elizabeth Browning. They were married in the St. George Temple in June 1880. This young couple continued to live in Orderville where Edson worked at the leather tannery. He joined the Order into which he turned a yoke of oxen, valued at $40 each.
In Orderville, Edson served the Church in the capacity of both Secretary and Second Assistant of the Sunday School from October 12, 1884, until October 18, 1885, as First Assistant in the Sunday School. From October 18, 1885, to September 18, 1887, he served as Sunday School Superintendent.
The Order was dissolved in 1885. It was on February 19, 1886, following the counsel of the President of the Church, that Edson took Catherine’s sister, Phoebe Malinda, as a plural wife. He bought land south of the town of Orderville and built a home for his two families. Here they enclosed 20 acres of land and planted fruit trees and grapes. He continued with his leather work with the help of his wives, making chaps, harnesses, leather jackets, etc., until they were able to pay for their new home.
There were only about 2 years of peaceful living in this new location as the government commenced persecution of all those who were living in polygamy. Edson, as did most men, went “underground” for six months to avoid imprisonment. In 1888, after two years of uncertainty and trial, word was received from President Wilford Woodruff that all who wished could move their families into Mexico where land had been purchased and permission had been granted by the Mexican Government for the establishment of Mormon colonies.
From Catherine’s own story comes the following account:
It was on September 4, 1890 that we bade Father, Mother, brothers, sisters, friends and home goodbye. We bought a tent, a good camp outfit, two almost new wagons, two of the best teams in the country, and an extra horse in case we might need one. Our brother Isaac, and sister, Eliza, where were not married, took a team and accompanied us the first day and night of our journey. He had his accordion with him and played sweet music which we shall always remember.
I will describe more fully our camping outfit. We had our bedsprings fixed in the wagons. As there was not room for all of us to sleep in the wagons, we pitched the tent at night. We had camp chairs. There was a cupboard built in the back of the wagon; the door could be let down to make a table. Our baking was done in a dutch oven. Everything was arranged as comfortably as possible for the long journey.
Brother Willard Carrol and family accompanied us to Mexico. They had grown sons and a daughter, one of his sons Thomas Carrol, drove one of our teams. We appreciated their company.
My children that were living were Arvena, aged nine; Delilah aged six; Geneva, aged four; Clara, aged two; Zenos, aged four and Jesse, aged two. We passed through miles and miles of plain country. In places we had to dig deep into the earth to find water four our stock, this made our journey long and dreary at times. There were times when we would find natural rock tanks filled with water from recent rains.
We had an exciting crossing over the Gilla[Gila]River. It was swollen so high we felt fortunate to get across, and we thanked our Heavenly Father for helping us cross safely. We continued on through great stretches of unsettled country — country where the cattlemen had bored down into the earth 700 feet to get water for their cattle. We had to buy all the water we used for ourselves and our animals from there until we reached Colonia Diaz, Mexico.
We were traveling in a stranger’s land. We came on to guards stationed along the way to tell us what to do. When we finally arrived at Colonia Diaz, we had been on the road seven weeks. We stayed here 10 weeks then we moved on up the country another 50 miles to Casa[s] Grandes Valley where Bishop Winslow Farr, Fred G. Williams and Anson B. Call had laid out a mile-square town, Colonia Dublan.
We obtained land on the West side of the river in San Jose. The Dublan ward was organized with Winslow Farr as bishop.
In Dublan Edson serviced as the First Assistant in the Sunday School, from August 16, 1891 until January 21, 1894.
“Edson,” said Catherine, “was appointed president of the MIA. We found that we could not do justice to our callings, however, on account of living so far away. So much of the time we couldn’t cross the river because of high water.”
From Clara, daughter of Catherine, we get this incident:
I remember how the river came up; water was so high no one could cross it. We had to stay home a lot, for there were no bridges to cross. One time when we went to Sunday School, the river was so we could cross it. I think there were nine of us in the three seated buggy; Zenos, my oldest brother was running the team — a pair of black ponies. When we went home after Sunday School the river had risen some, but we couldn’t tell how much. We drove in and got right in the middle of the stream where the horses stopped. The water was way up on the sides. They looked back as if to say, “We can’t go any farther.” The water was running into the buggy and almost over our laps. There was a Mexican man standing on the bank watching. He got on his horse and went to tell our father that his children were in the river and couldn’t get out. He brought Father back with him. The Mexican had a long rope which he tied to the saddle horn and wrote out in the stream. He tied the other end of the rope to the buggy tongue, and went ahead and pulled us out. We were a happy bunch of with kids when we got across the river.
From Phoebe’s story we get the following account:
In Dublan we plan to send our children to school, but as my boys [Kate’s older children were girls] were not old enough to trust with the team and flood times, Edson told me I had better drive them over. I said, “I don’t want to drive over and back twice a day.” He said I could spend the day visiting. I asked if he would get the teachers, Brother A. B. Call’s, consent for me to go to school also, I would do it. Edson spoke to them about it, and they said I could go. So I drove the team over to school and back every day while Kate took care of my baby girl and her small children.
We again quote from Catherine:
Dublan grew so rapidly that it was soon the largest Ward in the Stake. At one time there were 1200 members. On account of having a new canal built, which was badly needed, people began to leave for other locations. It was wonderful climate, never very cold in the winter, nor very hot in the summer. Had there been plenty of water for crops, it would have been wonderful country. My eldest son, Edson, was born in Dublan, June 10, 1892. Also Asenath Ann was born to Phoebe.
It was decided the Catherine and her family should go to Juarez, a distance of about 17 miles from the ranch in San Jose. Edson had agreed to go there to make shoes for Henry Eyring’s store. In Juarez in that education would be available for the older girls. Phoebe and her family remained on the ranch. Mexicans were hired to help operate the place. In Juarez, a son, LeGrand, was born to Catherine on August 4, 1894. He lived only 14 months. She became to Juarez also for the birth of her son, Francis Milo, July 16, 1893.
Jesse and Phoebe relate and interesting incident which occurred at this time:
Father was writing it three-year-old filly hunting cows that were on the Helaman Pratt ranch, about 17 miles beyond Colonia Juarez -Juarez being 18 miles from our ranch in San Jose. As he rode up the mountainside he saw what he thought was a post… It turned out to be a mountain lion. It gave a bloodcurdling scream badly frightening Edson. As the lion started to head Father off, he made the cold jump over a deep canyon about six feet wide. Here came the lion after him as he made for the house on the Pratt ranch. He and the mayor got safely into a building, but the lion screamed and watched the house until almost daybreak before it went away.
Just after sunset… Mother called us boys to her side and we knelt in prayer, for she had said she knew our father was in danger. I felt then that the Lord had answered our prayer. I can see even now how we ran to see Father when he came home. He told us how Aunt Kate had called her family together in Juarez just as the sun had started to set, even as we had done. Tears came into Father’s and Mother’s and our eyes as he told us how both his families and prayed for his safety just the time when he was in such danger.
Phoebe and her sons worked the ranch with the age of Mexican helpers. Jesse recalls:
That fall we had a wonderful crop of corn. We had 50 or so Mexicans shucking corn in the fields, and a few of them were a little tricky. After the crop was hauled out of the field, they would go gleaning and seem to find a great amount of corn as they had hidden it inside places. Mother decided to take us boys to look for the places where they had hidden the court. While we were hunting she found a good pair of woolen pants that had been taken off when the day was warm. Mother washed them well and made a fine coat and pants for me. I was proud of my new suit, and when I went to Juarez to visit Aunt Kate the first thing I told to all was that my suit was made from a pair of Mexican pants mother had found.
After two years in Juarez, Edson and Catherine and their children moved back to San Jose and the farm. Here it was that Amelia and Winnie he were born. Mary was born July 22, 1896, and Winnie, August 7, 1898. During this time in San Jose(it must be kept in mind that San Jose was rather like a suburb of Dublan, hence the two names seem to be used interchangeably), the following children were born to Phoebe: Jonathan, September 20, 1895; Homer, August 29, 1897; and Nathan Edward, August 28, 1899.
In the spring of 1899, Edson was called by the President of the Stake Anthony W. Ivins, to go to Colonia Diaz for colonization purposes. Again he took with him Catherine and her family. He did not want to give the farm in San Jose; so once more he left Phoebe and the sons to operate it. Catherine and Edson stayed at Diaz 19 months. He established a tannery there. Justina was born December 20, 1900. She lived only three weeks.
Return to Dublan, Catherine gave birth to Evan Cook, December 29, 1902 and Margaret Irene on July 5, 1905. To Phoebe were born Eliza Rozena, October 16, 1901, who lived for three years; Ellen Moneta, December 2, 1903; Wilford, June 17, 1906, who lived for one year; Vearl, December 12, 1908, who lived only three weeks. What a trial it must have been to see so many of their children taken in death before they reach maturity.
Again we quote from Catherine’s record:
During the time of the Mexican Revolution we passed through some thrilling and exciting experiences. One day a few weeks before we were driven from our home the Mexican rebels, a tent of them, surrounded our house on the farm at harvest time, and demanded that we let them into search our place. It was just noon and our menfolk were all ready to stop work for dinner. My daughter, Clara, was with me. She could speak Spanish; so she told them are men would soon be coming and they should wait until they arrived home. They said they would not wait. They went through all the rooms— turned up the bedding to see if they could find any arms and ammunition. Their search was in vain that time, and they soon left. They came several times in search of guns.
Phoebe report similar experiences: “The Mexicans wanted our menfolk to help them in the war, but our authorities had said for us to remain neutral. They said, ’Give us your guns, then.’ So our people gave them our guns, as Brother Henry Bowman, the merchant in Dublan had a lot of guns in his store. He told her men to give up their old guns and get new ones from his store; so they did.”
Phoebe further relates that after the main body of people had left the town, a few men stayed on to try to keep things in order. The Mexicans were very surprised to find that these men still had good guns and were both able and willing to protect themselves.
Catherine tells us:
It was on July 28, 1912, late in the afternoon that the Bishop sent a runner over for a place to tell us to be ready to leave on the next train that would take us to El Paso, Texas. We were to meet at 1:00 a.m. at the store where the train would take us on. We had to walk out of our home and leave everything we could not packed into two trunks— cows, horses, chickens, all our food and household things. I have tried to keep myself from grieving about all our losses, for worry and grief do not bring back that which is lost. Several of the wealthiest people I knew did not live long after they left Mexico.
Phoebe, Jesse and Juanita, Clara, Francis, Edward and Moneta were with the first group to leave on the train. A few days later Catherine, Evan, Irene and Winnie left together. Edson left on horseback with the other men of the community.
There was a ruling of the Mexican government that a certain percentage of the land occupied by the Mormon colonists had to be owned by Mexican citizens. Edson Porter, among others, took out Mexican citizenship. He became a Mexican citizen September 7, 1897 it was a blessing to the colonists in general, but for his family have proved to be rather expensive, for after the expulsion of the colonies, at the insistence of the United States, the Mexican Government made a compensatory payment to those people expelled. They were paid $.50 on the dollar of the value of the property which they were required to leave behind them. The property of Edson and his family was valued at $350,000, but because he was Mexican citizen he received no compensation.
The refugees were welcomed in the city of El Paso, Texas. The drying sheds of a lumber yard served as temporary housing for them. That first night 1000 people were camp there. More arrived, but gradually they moved out as decisions were made to pick up and continue with forced alternatives.
The Edson Porter families moved to Clearfield, Utah where already several of the children had located Clearfield, they moved to Holladay, Utah, then to Tooele, then to Clarkdale and Jerome, Arizona. Finally, in 1929, they took up residence in Mesa, Arizona— just three of them now. There were two small homes side by side, very near to the temple. Edson, Catherine, and Phoebe were all temple workers.
On December 10, 1933, Edson died very suddenly of the severe pain in the stomach.
Phoebe married Culver Kartchner, a fellow temple worker, July 28, 1943. She passed away March 14, 1945. It was not until her funeral that all her living children were together— Zenos, Jesse, Francis Milo, Nathan Edward, Ellen Moneta, and Alva Elmo. She was 76 years old.
Catherine continued as a temple ordinance worker until 1941 when she was released because of ill health, at the age of 76. She passed away November 1, 1957, at the age of 92. Edson, Phoebe and Catherine are all buried in the city cemetery, Mesa Arizona.
Edson had many acres of farmland in Mexico. He was also busy with his chosen trade—that leather tanning and making leather goods. There were times when he rented much of his land to a Japanese produce farmer in El Paso, Texas. This man had both Chinese and Japanese workmen with them. Edson’s relationship with these men was very, very, good. The family takes great pride in the story related by elder Matthew Cowley:
When I was in Japan a year ago we found a man who, before the war, was the second largest landowner in all Japan… He had 12 buildings on his property, four or five beautiful homes… hundreds of acres. Finally decided to give this land to the Mormon Church… When asked him why he offered it to the Mormons instead of others. He said, “There is a man here named Mr. Mogi and Mr. Mogi told him to give it to the Mormons. Many years ago he used to live in Mexico among Mormon people. He said, ‘I saw what those people can do, their spirit of cooperation, the way they lived, could, clean living, good habits and morals.’ That has remained with me all days my life. And so I said let’s find the Mormons.” Now we have 1700 acres of ground in Japan—all those beautiful buildings given to the church for nothing, because a man lived among the Mormons in Mexico, and the inspiration which came into his life from those Mormons never left him.
Ione A. Pack, granddaughter
Stalwarts South of the Border Nelle Spilsbury Hatch, pg 530