James Andrew Jesperson
1883-1970
James Andrew Jesperson came with his parents, James Peter Jesperson and Emma Ida Johnson, to the colonies in 1896 at the age of 13. Although the first colonists arrived a number of years before his family, James, my father, was indeed one of the true pioneers of the Mormon Colonies in Mexico. He lived in all the colonies of Chihuahua at one time or another because his father James Peter had one of the worst cases of pioneer fever the West had ever known. He finally settled in Colonia Chuhuichupa because his sons were old enough to have a voice in the matter of moving. When his father left Richfield for the colonies, Great-grandfather Christian Jesperson told him that if he ever found a place where he was certain he would stay to let them know and they would come join him. Grandfather was their only child and they wanted to be near him. After his sons refused to move any more, Grandfather decided this was the time to send for his parents.
Great-grandfather Christian Jesperson and Great-grandmother Ane Marie Johansen arrived in Casas Grandes in 1898 on the Noroeste train from El Paso. It was an exciting time for all the family to go down from the mountains to Casas Grandes to meet their grandparents. A new wagon was unloaded from the train and assembled and all their belongings loaded into it. There was a stove, brass beds, a sewing machine, plow and harnesses and many items with which to start life again on a new frontier. As soon as the wagon was loaded they drove over to the cooperative mercantile store in Colonia Dublan. Many necessary items like flour, sugar, and spices were not yet available in “Chupie” (Chuhuichupa) so these things were purchased in large enough quantities to last three or four months.
Grandfather James Peter Jesperson owned a block of four acres on the northwest corner of “Chupie.” Great-grandfather bought two acres to the north. They were closer to the church house. Grandfather Jesperson also owned 40 acres of farm land in the fenced off property of the valley. The fence belonged to the community but each family owned their own land within the fence. No one could own more than 40 acres in this area. The fence kept out the animals which were turned loose to graze around the town lots. After the harvest the animals were put inside the fence. Some of the families owned large cattle ranches in the mountain areas.
Christian and Ane Marie Jesperson took great pride in their vegetable garden. They both spent long hours during the growing season weeding, watering and tending their gardens. They soon had the reputation for the best crops in town. They are both buried in “Chupie.” Great-grandfather died before the Exodus, from a horse kick, and Great-grandmother died after the Exodus. She returned to “Chupie” with her son and his family in 1922.
When my father, James Andrew Jesperson, was 15 years old he went with Erick Jorgensen and his 15-year-old son, Hyrum, to Nogales, Arizona. Brother Jorgensen had contracted to make 16 miles of railroad bed from Nogales into Mexico. They had a hand scraper pulled by horses. They started work at 7:00 a.m. every morning, working six days a week, 10 hours a day. Father worked for two pesos a day, or one dollar and meals. There was thick dust moving through the air and dust was on everything. They had to shoo flies with one hand while eating with the other. He worked a month here and then went to Douglas, Arizona to a freighting job. They hauled freight from Douglas to a mining town in Mexico. His sister Ida was married to John Whetten and living in a camp halfway between Douglas and the mining town. John was also hauling freight. They would drive into Douglas, load the wagons, drive back to camp, stay overnight, then drive out to the mining town and back during the day. Father remembered this camp as a pleasant place under cottonwood trees and by a pretty stream. When the job was finished, Father went back to “Chupie” on horseback, traveling with Bert Whetten who had been working there also. Brother Whetten stopped at his home in Garcia and Father went on alone to “Chupie.” He was now 16 and with the money he earned he bought the lot next to Grandfather’s.
The only high school in the colonies was in Colonia Juarez and Father was anxious to get back in school. It was springtime so Father spent the summer working El Paso, Texas building a railroad bridge.
About this time there is a big economic boom around “Chupie” because of the sawmill industry. William Greene’s Gold-Silver company was building a town around them mother sawmill at Madera. The town mushroomed with the needs of the company and its employees. They were building offices, hospital and homes for the workers. Madera was up in the forest country about 30 miles from the railroad stop at Temosachic. After school was out father got a job bringing supplies by wagon from Temosachic to Madera. He made three trips a week hauling flour, vegetables, tools and other items to the growing town. After this job it was back to school again and the following summer he went back to the same company as a “pony express” rider.
The company was surveying land from Casas Grandes to Madera for a railroad that could close the gap from Chihuahua City to Madera and from Madera to Casas Grandes. They were sending out several surveying groups to survey two different lines. One line went east from Casas Grandes, making a big loop through the valley to Galeana on the south to El valle then to Namiquipa and from there to Temosachic. Father and three other Academy boys got jobs carrying mail. Two of them were Lee Memmott and Earl McClellan. Lee took the mail from Casas Grandes to Galeana. Earl rode all night from Galeana to El Valle. The next carrier took it from El Valle to Namiquipa. Every 10 miles a Mexican had a fresh horse ready. The company had set up small adobe station posts. Father took the mail the longest route from Namiquipa on, about 60 miles to Temosachic. He would ride all night and get in before noon the next day. Another writer took the mail on to Madera which completed the circuit. The other route the company was surveying went through San Diego by the San Miguel River. The mail job lasted only a month because the San Diego surveyors had finished and the company decided to run the railroad straight up through the mountains from Casas Grandes to San Diego and on to Madera.
In 1906, before the Revolution, a Mr. Pomroy of the same company hired father as a scout to lead a group of company men to hunt out the best timberland. In the party was an engineer to decide the most accessible heavy timber locations for the Madera sawmill. There was also a timber expert and a man to cook and pack the mules. The company had leased a large tract of land with timber rights. Large cement monuments were built on the corners to mark the property. Some of the monuments were from 75 to 100 miles apart. The group father was guiding would travel on the leased land until they ran out of supplies and then return for more.
The first place father took them became the first portable sawmill. This was called Chico and became a railroad stop in small town. From Chico he took them to the mountain south of “Chupie,” called the Candelaria Peaks. They started sawing there and workers made a road for the wagons to take the logs about 5 miles to “Chupie” where they started a third sawmill which gave added income to some of the colony men. From “Chupie” he took them to Mound Valley where the timber was high all around the valley. Here they located the fourth sawmill. West of Mound Valley, down across the head of the Gavilan River, they traveled next to the Big Blues covered with timber. They located sawmills on all the main places father took them.
He worked at the scouting job for five months then went back to the Juarez Academy for the last semester of 1907. This is where he met Flora May Williams. They were married September 6, 1908 just after father received a “Box B” letter calling them on a mission to Mexico City. Mother took a job teaching school in “Chupie” and Father went on his mission, which lasted two and a half years. Mother received $25 a month and food donations.
When Father returned from his mission he farmed his land and purchase cattle. The first year he planted vegetables because he knew the sawmill’s paid good prices for fresh produce. The first crop was a wagon load of turnips. He drove to Chico with the wagon bulging with his freshly harvested load and didn’t even have to get out of the wagon to sell it. At the sawmill they bought the whole wagon full for 80 pesos or 40 dollars. Father was certain he would be a rich man with the next season’s harvest, but then came the Revolution and the Exodus of the Mormons.
Father, along with Bishop Tom Sevey and Howard (Howd) Veater, was chosen to be one of the captains to lead the 30 to 40 men down out of the mountains to the border and safety. He was a young man for this job but with much experience for what he had to do. After the women and children had been sent out on the last train to the border, the younger men stayed behind with the hope of protecting the homes in fields and cattle. When the rebels came, the men were far outnumbered and from their lookout point on North Peak all they could do was watch their homes being plundered and burned and their animals killed and crops destroyed.
Father accumulated considerable wealth in his later years in spite of the fact that he had started over again several times in his life. The Exodus from Mexico left him destitute of properties. And the moved from Tucson to San Diego, California some 25 years later, for the sake of mother’s health forced him to sell during depression times. His love of the land and the pride of ownership and his early experience in the colonies gave him outstanding business acumen. When he died February 7, 1970, he left an income for each of his nine children the property that they could look to with pride. The fact that he wrote a letter to each of his children stating he would prefer the first priority on this income be given to sending his grandchildren on missions is a good indication of his values relating to the sharing of the Gospel.
Leanor Jesperson Brown, Granddaughter
Stalwart’s South of the Border, Nelle Spilsbury Hatch page 334