Tag Archives: Juarez Stake Academy

Guy C. Wilson

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Guy C. Wilson

1964-1942

The paternal ancestors of Guy C. Wilson are to be traced back in English and Scottish history.  The first to come to North American colonies arrived in Boston around 1640.  Guy C. Wilson’s grandfather, for whom he was named, was born in Chittendon County, Vermont, in 1801.  It was this forbearer who, with his father and brothers, joined the Mormon Church and linked their lives with its dramatic early days.

Guy’s grandfather and namesake, with his wife Elizabeth and their family, left Nauvoo with others of the Saints in 1846.  The rigors of the western journey proved too severe and Guy died on 17 September of that same year.  Elizabeth and her 18-year old son Lycurgus, took charge of family affairs and pressed on to the Salt Lake Valley.  There, three years later, when Lycurgus was 21, he married 14-year old Lois Ann Stevens.  This occurred on November 29, 1849.  The couple was called to help settle Sanpete Valley where they assisted in establishing what is now Fairview, Utah.  And it was in Fairview, as the fourth of their eight children, that young Guy Carlton, bearing the name of his grandfather, was born April 19, 1864.

Guy Carlton Wilson’s eldest brother, Lycurgus Arnold, would, like Guy, later become with other members of his large polygamous family, residents of the Mormon Colonies in Mexico.  Two of Guy’s sisters, Ellen Adelia and Mary Mehitable, became the polygamous wives of Philip Harrison Hurst, another Mexican colonist.  Yet another sister married Andrew Peterson of Colonia Juarez. An both of Guy’s parents would later move to the colonies where they died and were buried.

In his youth, Guy received a strict Mormon upbringing.  Unless given permission to do otherwise, he was expected to be home by dark, to report to his parents on every evening’s activity away from home, and to be faithful in his religious duties. Early on, he became attached to the habit of personal prayer, fully convinced that his prayers were always heard and answered.  On one occasion as a boy, however, while searching for a lost cow, he thought he would employ the Lord in his errand.  He knelt down and fervently pleaded that he might locate the animal after crossing the next little hill.  Arising from his prayer, he was certain he would walk straight over the hill and see the cow immediately.  Instead, it was nowhere in sight.  Had God failed him? No.  The boy’s mind reasoned out an explanation that served him well the rest of his life.  “Had the Lord answered that prayer,” he said, “I would have kept Him busy all my life placing things or changing situations to suit my convenience, instead of learning the basic lesson that “the Lord helps those who help themselves.” 

He displayed a zeal for learning and was always an avid reader.  His studious manner earned him an unusual respect from his boyhood peers.  The story is told that at one time he was with a group of friends, sitting around the stove in a Fairview store, listening to a group of laborers that had recently returned from observing mining operations at Bingham.  The men told how they saw water lifted from one side of the canyon to a higher level at the other side by means of a long, specially constructed pipe.  Young Guy protested that this was impossible because, without a pump, water could not be made to rise above its source.  A heated argument followed, with men scoffing at the “know-it-all” kids.”  The other boys insisted, however, that if Guy said it was impossible, so it was.  It finally reached the point that both sides were willing to wager money on their opinions.  One of the boys had recently been orphaned and had inherited a team of matching grays.  He boldly stated, “If you say so, Guy, I’ll bet my team.” That ended the argument and those contending Guy Wilson was wrong, walked away.

Guy’s mother acted for years as both postmistress and telegraph operator in Fairview.  As a boy, Guy learned morse code and often helped his mother with the transmission and receipt of messages.  Inasmuch as these were the years when law enforcement authorities and Mormon polygamists were often engaged in a game of cat and mouse, young Guy, because of the central location and use of the telegraph of both sides, was often witness to the dramatic events of those days.  Sometimes Church leaders or their emissaries would arrive in person, unannounced.  One such occasion was long remembered by Guy.  Porter Rockwell arrived in the middle of a winter’s night.  After sending his telegraph message, he gladly accepted a plate of supper from the Wilson family.  As he sat eating before the open fire, Guy’s curiosity got the better of him, and asked: “Brother Rockwell, how many men have you killed in your life?”  Without a moment’s hesitation, Rockwell replied: ”Well, son, I reckon I never killed a single man that didn’t need killing.”

Recognizing their son’s zeal and special aptitude for learning, his parents fitted up a room with chairs and a blackboard in which Guy regularly met with friends with whom he studied and tutored.  An older brother and sister had already gone on to normal school and were teaching the elementary grades in Pleasant Grove, Utah.  In 1883, at the age of 19, Guy followed them and, in 1884, was himself employed as an elementary school teacher in the same community.  Ever hungry for additional education, in the autumn of 185, at the age of 21, he left Pleasant Grove and enrolled in the Brigham Young Academy.

The year that marked his first experience as a formal school instructor was important for another reason.  In September, 1884, he and Elvira Elizabeth Hartsborg were married in Salt Lake City by Daniel H. Wells.  They saw that first year in Pleasant Grove through together and lived in Provo, Utah, while Guy attended the Brigham Young Academy in 1885.  The next year Guy was called to serve in the Southern States Mission, with Elizabeth remaining in Fairview. Most of the time was spent in Kentucky and West Virginia.  In later years he told him he told his children many tales of the primitive conditions he observed while living in the hill country of those two states.

After being released and returning to Fairview in 1888, Guy and Elizabeth moved to Salt Lake City where he attended normal school in the old Social Hall.  In the fall of 1889, he accepted the position of principal of the district and returned to Fairview.  For the next two years he oversaw Fairview’s schools and served as Counselor to Bishop James C. Peterson.  Then, feeling the need for yet more schooling, he and Elizabeth moved to Provo where he could take additional course work in a variety of subjects.  While there he distinguished himself as an outstanding player on the school’s baseball team.  He also participated on the debating team and took part in dramatics.  He was selected to be “Class Orator” for the Class of 1893.

Guy returned to Fairview as principal of the school district and as a Counselor in the Bishopric.  His schooling and maturity, however, acted to point his interests in new and other directions.  He began reading law and involving himself in local political affairs.  Before long he was elected to the city council, then to the office of Justice of the Peace and, finally as prosecuting attorney.  After adding to these achievements by being elected county commissioner, he resigned his post as school principal and successfully obtained the state Democratic Party’s nomination for the office of State Auditor.  This was in 1895.

By this time Guy and Elizabeth had been married 11 years.  They had prospered.  They had an attractive home, a good team and buggy, and were respected citizens in their community.  Since there was no bank in Fairview at the time, Guy kept his earnings in a box in his bedroom dresser.  He was astonished at how rapidly his savings accumulated.  His and Elizabeth’s needs were modest.  Life seemed abundant in all regards, except for one:  Guy “ached” for children, especially a son.

Then occurred an important coincidence of events.  Anthony W. Ivins was set apart in 1895 to preside over the Mormon colonies in northern Mexico.  Ivins, as a young man, had been one of those who accompanied Daniel W. Jones in his exploring and proselytizing journey into Mexico in the 1870’s.  Like Guy, he had married and gone on a mission in the 1880’s.  He then returned to St. George, and like Guy, had prospered and become active in politics.  By the mid-1890’s he was being considered as the Democratic Party’s nominee for the state’s first race for governorship. 

After visiting the colonies and surveying their needs, Ivins returned to Salt Lake City to confer with Church Authorities at the time of the April general conference in 1896.  Among the most important of his recommendations to Church leaders was the imperative need for an improved school system in the colonies.  Altogether too little had been done in this regard during the 10 years since the colonies had been established.  Specifically, he asked that the Church subsidize a school system that would accommodate the colonists who were there and the hundreds of others who arrived from north of the border each year.  Secondly, he wanted the best young educator that could be found anywhere in the Church to be called on a mission to preside over that system and bring it to a level of excellence that the toiling Saints in Mexico deserved.  The authorities agreed to both requests.  While the Church readily concurred to underwrite an important school system in Mexico, there was uncertainty as to who should be chosen to oversee it.  President Ivins was told to consult Karl G. Maeser, the director the Brigham Young Academy in Provo.  After describing the kind of person required, Dr. Maeser immediately told Ivins, “Guy C. Wilson is your man.”  The result was an invitation to Guy to meet with President George Q. Cannon in his Salt Lake City office.

After being told what it was the authorities wished him to do, and given him time to consider it, Guy decided to accept and so informed President Cannon of his willingness.  However, Guy had previously made preparations to spend the 1896-1897 academic year studying law at the University of Michigan and thus would be unable to go to the colonies until the autumn of 1897.  President Cannon and Ivins both found this to be an acceptable delay.  As it turned out, Guy did not go to Michigan but spent the year studying at Brigham Young University in Provo.  When the agreed upon time arrived, he was given a formal missionary call, complete with the laying on of hands and papers, dated August 31, 1897, signed by the First Presidency of the Church, appointing Guy as head of the school system in the Mormon colonies in Mexico.    Before leaving President Cannon’s office Guy was also told that his calling involved more than presiding over schools.  He was expected to seek out and marry a suitable mate or mates in addition to his present wife.  President Ivins, was informed, had been given authority to solemnize polygamous or “celestial marriages.”  President Cannon assured Guy that the Lord did not want him to be forever childless.  We cannot be entirely sure how Elizabeth responded to this second part of Guy’s calling.  But she chose to stay in Utah when he left for Mexico in the autumn of 1897.  Ant it has been said that she seemed “crushed and rebellious.”

Upon arriving in Colonia Juarez, Guy was introduced to the colonists and their leaders by Karl G. Maeser who made it a point to be present at the time.  Guy, who was almost universally referred to thereafter as “Brother Wilson” or “Professor Wilson” took quarters in the home of Hanna S. Taylor.  Student were invited to visit with him in the Taylor home and, before long, it became one of the favorite locations for young people in Colonia Juarez to meet and socialize.

Making friends with the students and listening to their problems was but a part of the responsibilities Professor Wilson had undertaken. Nevertheless, it was an important part of illustrated one of his best known strength: his capacity for relating to and communicating with others.  It was not just that he was warm and magnetic in his personality.  He also had the ability to quickly elucidate an issue and then, with uncanny skill, bring contentious personalities to a common understanding.  Whether in the classroom or in church or civic gatherings, his remarkable gift for clear exposition and precipitating consensus marked him throughout his life.

A school building being constructed in Colonia Juarez and an addition was already being built when Professor Wilson assumed his responsibilities in the autumn of 1897.  He immediately set about reorganizing tutorial “reader system” used by his predecessor Dennison E. Harris, into a ladder of eight separate grades.  He added an additional teacher and saw 15 students graduate from the eighth grade in the spring of 1898.  More importantly, after making a tour of the colonies and examining their schooling efforts, he concluded that a program for teacher training must be implemented so that local talent could be used to enrich the educational experience of young people in every colony.  The result was the creation of a normal training center in the Juarez school.  In addition to this, each year he added a new grade level of instruction so that, by 1901, six students were graduated and certified to teach in the elementary schools of the Stake.   

In the summer of 1898 he went north to Salt Lake City where he reported to the First Presidency on his progress in turning the colony schools into an integrated system of graded, quality instruction.  Church leaders expressed their approval.  Then President Cannon asked how he was coming in connection with the rest of what he had been urged to do.  Professor Wilson’s reply was, “I’m waiting for her grow up.”  “Good,” said President Cannon, “Then, make it two.”

After his visit to Salt Lake City, Professor Wilson took his wife Elzabeth and spent the next three months attending summer school at the University of Chicago.  When finished he left Elizabeth in Fairview again and returned to the colonies.  He brought with him, as anew members of the faculty, Miss Ella Larson who had specialized in teaching training and dramatics and was a graduate of the Cook County Schools in Chicago and Miss Pearl Thurber, whose training was in music and elementary school and education.  This same school year also saw the completion of new, larger school buildings.  There were now five large, well equipped classrooms, a principal’s office and a library, topped with an attractive belfry. 

Everyone was astonished to see how quickly the new building was filled with a growing student body.  The faculty rapidly expanded to ten teachers.  A movement was soon afoot to erect yet another larger structure.  At a crowded town meeting called to discuss the problem, President Ivins donated five acres of his land for the project and pledges were made by other citizens totaling $12,000.  When matching Church and Stake funds were made available, a beginning on the academy building was possible.  Ground was broken on December 12, 1903, and the new structure opened its doors for use in September 1905.  By 1908, four-year diplomas were being given in high school and normal school, and three-year certificates in domestic science and domestic art.  Students came from all the colonies, many of them living during the school year with families in Colonia Juarez.  As the school grew, three other buildings were added to the school’s physical plant.  With the Academy providing high school education for students from all the colonies, some of whom were trained to return and oversee elementary instruction in their own communicates, the Juarez Stake Academy had become the mother institution for the entire system.

One of the things that is most surprising in the work of the school during these early years was the breadth of its curriculum.  Courses were taught in physics, mathematics, music, bookkeeping, English literature, history, elocution, woodwork, agriculture, Spanish and, for prospective teachers, education philosophy and child psychology.  There were athletic programs that fielded lively teams for both boys and girls.  Student performance of dramas, musicals and operas provided enjoyment for the entire community.  A tasteful but entertaining school paper was published.  In 1903, largely to the work of Charles E. McClellan, a museum was begun.  A brass band, complete with uniforms, a string orchestra, and special choirs were trained.  In all of this one sees the broad educational outlook of Guy C. Wilson.  The quality of work in the schools along with the rising level of culture in the Mormon communities, owed an immense debt to his initiative and vision.      

During these years, Elizabeth sometimes spent Christmas vacations or other brief periods with her husband in the colonies.  Professor Wilson, always anxious to obtain more schooling, had taken her with him while attending summer school at Columbia University in New York City in 1899.  But there seemed to be no indication that tshe was willing to permanently move to Mexico and make a home there.  This reluctance, combined with the childlessness of the marriage and the urgings of President George Q. Cannon, led Professor Wilson to enter “the principle.” We have noted his response to President Cannon in 1898 that he was waiting for a prospective bride “to grow up.”  This suggests he may already have been thinking about young Agnes Melissa Stevens.

The family of David Alma Stevens had arrived in the colonies from New Mexico in 1890.  Before moving to Mexico, David had been among the pioneers of the Hole-in-the Rock expedition of 1879 and 1880.  Later he was involved in the La Plata shootings that were part of the New Mexico range wars.  Though seriously wounded, David had survived and eventually relocated in Colonia Dublan with his wife, Agnes Sariah, and their four children.  The oldest of these was Agnes Melissa who had been born in Fruitland, New Mexico, on September 2, 1883.  Melissa was 14 years old and in the 7th grade when Guy C. Wilson first arrived in 1897.  She was among his students for the next five years and was asked in 1901, even before completing her normal training and receiving her diploma, to teach the 3rd grade in Colonia Juarez.  In the spring of 1902, being 18 years of age, and after a discreet courtship, Melissa was married to Guy C. Wilson as his second living wife.  The ceremony was performed in Professor Wilson’s upstairs office in the old Academy building by President Anthony W. Ivins. 

It will re recalled that President Cannon had at one time suggested to Professor Wilson, regarding the taking of additional wives, that he “make it two.”  The year following his marriage to Melissa Stevens, on 13 May 1903, President Ivins sealed his own daughter, Anna Lowrie Ivins, to Professor Wilson.  A year older than Melissa, Anna had come to the colonies with her rather when he was appointed President of the Stake in 1895.  She had also been one of Professor Wilson’s students.  She and Melissa had been especially close friends during the years previous to their marriages.  In the years they spent as sister wives to Guy C. Wilson their love for each other only deepened.  If Elizabeth withdrew somewhat in her relationship with her husband, the harmony and affection that existed between Melissa and Anna, including among the happiest examples of Mormon polygamy had produced.

The years that followed were in many ways the most rewarding of Guy C. Wilson’s life. Children began to arrive eventually numbering 14 between the two families.  Along with the warmth of his domestic circumstances, his days were brightened by the presence in the colonies of his mother and father, two sisters and a brother, as well as the parents of his young wives.  His talents were being used not only in connection with the administration of the school system, but as a Counselor to his father-in-law, Anthony W. Ivins, in the Stake Presidency.  Finally, he was seeing the results of his labor at the Academy.  Not only had the enrollment grown, but the quality of programs being offered was on a par with the best available at those grade levels anywhere in the United States.  By 1912, for Guy C. Wilson, prospects for the future never seemed better.

The Mexican Revolution of 1910 swept over the colonies.  Although no Mormons lost their lives at the hands of soldiers, there was considerable annoyance with pilfering.  With the demand that colonists give up their guns, Church Authorities feared there would be no way to adequately defend themselves and that injuries would certainly follow.  The result was the well-known Exodus of late July 1912.  Both Melissa and Anna, with their children, were sent by train to El Paso for safety.  Eventually Melissa and her children went to a ranch belonging to her rather, David Alma Stevens, just south of the border in Zaragosa, near the Rio Grande River.  Anna was sent to live with her parents in Salt Lake City.  With both families taken care of, Professor Wilson was given a year’s sabbatical leave by the Church and decided to spend it in post-graduate study with John Dewey, Edward Thorndike and others at Columbia University.  His service at the Juarez Stake Academy was at an end and a new phase of life had begun.  

Upon return from New York City in 1913, Professor Wilson established and oversaw the first seminary program in the Mormon Church.  This was done at Granite High School in Salt Lake City.  This was pioneering of a different kind again, and the fruits of his planting are known to every LDS family in North America today.  In 1915 he became President of the LDS University.  This was a four-year high school and business college.  During his 10 years in that position, buildings were added and in 1920, the curriculum was enlarged to embrace two years of college work.  Also, with B. Cecil Gates, he founded the McCune School of Music.  

In 1926 he was succeeded by Feramorz Y. Fox and accepted an appointment as head of all the Church’s schools and seminaries.  He continued at this until 1930 when he became Dean of the Divison of Religious Education at Brigham Young University.  In addition to writing Church educational manuals, and sitting on numerous boards and committees, Professor Wilson was able to give considerable time to the classroom —- always his greatest professional love.  If there was a particular objective that characterized his work, it was the desire to harmonize secular and scientific knowledge with the teachings of the Church.  He was in adapting theology to the problems of everyday life and his passion for clear and correct exposition was exceeded only by a personal interest in the lives of his students.

By the late 1930’s his health began to decline.  He was able to continue teaching through the autumn quarter of 1941 when, at the closing meeting of one of his classes, he was reported to say:”I have taught my last class.”  This must have been a most difficult moment.  Although he had traveled a long road, he made enormous contributions to the educational systems of the Church in both Mexico and the United States, had trained in classrooms in the finest universities of the land, and had raised two wonderful families with two happy, supporting companions, he was first and last a teacher. It was there that he had used his first to enrich the lives of so many others.

When he died on January 27, 1942 it was entirely appropriate that his funeral was one of the first functions held in the new Joseph F. Smith Memorial building, constructed to house the Division of Religion over which he had presided.  It was also appropriate that at his request, the song sung by a BYU quartet was, “The Teacher’s Work is Done.”

Elizabeth spent her declining years in Salt Lake City, surviving until September 27, 1951.  Melissa moved to Provo in 1926 until after Guy’s death.  She then relocated in California, living at the home of her son, Guy C. Wilson, Jr. She was with her daughter Elizabeth, in La Jolla, California, when she died on March 21, 1965.  Anna continued to make her home in Salt Lake City and passed away on October 30, 1967.  Their children have distinguished themselves in business, education, and other professions.  More than his children, however, there are thousands whose heritage includes the magic of time in a schoolroom with Professor Guy C. Wilson.  The high level of cultural activity and taste, as well as the unusual amount of achievement associated with those who trace their roots to the pre-Exodus period of the Mexican colonies, must be at least partly credited to the influence of this remarkable man.       

B. Carmon Hardy

Stalwarts South of the Border Nelle Spilsbury Hatch, page 781

Alma Platte Spilsbury

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Alma Platte Spilsbury

(1850 – 1920)

Alma Platte Spilsbury parents, George and Fannie Smith Spilsbury, except in the Gospel in England in 1842. 

As soon possible they were married, they emigrated to Nauvoo in order to see and, if possible, talk to the man who had seen God, who had talked with Jesus Christ, and who was visited by angels and ancient prophets. Seated in the unfinished temple and Nauvoo, they recognize the Prophet of once though they had never seen him or even a picture of him. “He was his bold a lion, yet meek as a lamb, and his eyes pierce to my very soul,” wrote George later in his journal. They mourned with the Saints when the prophet and his brother were martyred and were present in the Grove when “the mantle of the Prophet” fell upon Brigham Young.

They evacuated Nauvoo at the time of the Exodus, and moved to St. Louis, then to St. Joseph, Missouri, in order to earn money to buy wagons, teams, seed and other necessities for settling in a faraway land. During that time, four little girls were born to them, each in turn dying. Belmont, their fifth child and first son, was born August 5, 1850, on the banks of the Platte River somewhere in Nebraska. When he was eight days old, the wagon in which she was born and was riding overturned in the Platte River in the oxen in their haste to slake their burning thirst rushed into the river. The mother was rescued at once, but by the time Edward Hunter, whose company they were traveling, had found the baby lodged against the stump, he seemed lifeless. Detecting a flicker of life, Hunter asked for the privilege of blessing given him a name. “Name him Alma,” his father said anxiously, “for the Book of Mormon Prophet.”  “And I’ll add Platte to it,” said Bishop Hunter, “to commemorate his ducking.”

The family arrived in Salt Lake City on October 3, 1850, where the first eight years of Alma’s childhood were spent. His father replied the trade of mason to keep his ever-growing family supplied with necessities. Alma was 18 years of age when his father settled in Toquerville, in southern Utah, having spent one summer in Springville when Johnston’s army entered Salt Lake City, three years in Draper, four years in Grafton and four years in Rockville. Being the oldest son, Alma stood guard when Indians menaced, went with parties in search of stolen property, and help build their homes and provide for the family. Schooling during that time was incidental and possible only when other matters were not pressing.

On June 22, 1869, he married Sarah Ann Higbee, when he was but 19 years of age. His first daughter, Fanny Ann, was born September 1, 1870. On December 11, 1879, Sarah Ann died at the birth of their fifth child. She was survived by three children: Fannie Ann, David Moroni, and John Summers (Alma Platte Jr., and Ella having previously passed away).  Immediately following this bereavement, Alma accepted a call to the Northern States Mission, leaving the care of his children to his mother. He left in April 1880, but in the cold, damp climate of the Great Lakes area he developed a cough that soon turned serious, and in July he was released.

On October 6, 1880, he married Mary Jane Redd of New Harmony, Utah, a girl he met when he stayed overnight with the Redd family on his way from his mission. With her he began a new life for himself and his motherless children in the old Spilsbury home in Toquerville. Mary Jane’s Katie Pearl was born and Sarah Ann’s Johnny died while they lived there.

March 2, 1883, he married Margaret Jane Smith is Cedar City, Utah, who had been preconditioned for his proposal by seeing him in a dream and being told distinctly, “This is the men you are going to marry.”  Because of persecutions assailing those who entered the world marriage, he was advised by Apostle Erastus Snow to marry her in the St. George Temple and move his family at once to Arizona. In preparation for the movie fitted himself with for wagons, five teams, some loose horses, a race horse and a cow and left for Arizona, arriving the first of May. They settled in Mesa, then a struggling hamlet of a dozen families. With his extra horse he bought 40 acres of land from Fred Mullins, and moved his two wives into the one room Adobe house already built, and set about improving the property. Mary Jane second baby girl, Sarah Ann, was born June 2, 1883, and nine months later, March 3, 1884, Janey’s first girl, Estella May, was born before another room was added to the one-room adobe.

Eluding the U.S. Marshals, who were soon on the trail, was the beginning of dangerous times for this family. Although Alma believed in “facing the music,” going underground was so distasteful to him, he accepted a call to explore northern Sonora in company with Heber J .Grant and party, headed by Brigham Young, Jr. They spent four months hunting land suitable for colonization.

On his return he was arrested and stood trial in federal court in Phoenix in the spring of 1885, and was among the first to plead guilty as a test case. Others before him had pled “not guilty,” and had been sentenced to three months in eastern penitentiaries plus a fine. The “guilty” plea was made in hopes it would lessen the penalty. Pleading guilty also seemed more honest Alma, so he disregarded the advice of his lawyer. The result was a six-month sentence in the state penitentiary at Yuma, Arizona.

His prison term began April 1885, and lasted until October of the same year. Mary Jane’s third child and first son, Lemuel Hardison, was but a month old. Making friends with his jailers and gaining special privileges that mitigated the daily rituals and scorching heat was characteristic of Alma’s tactics in a hostile situation.

Serving his penitentiary term gave no relief to the persecution and when the chance came to choose between giving up part of the family were going into exile, he chose the latter. Leaving Mary Jane to liquidate his business, he took Janey with Estella May and Ernest Moroni (George Phillip having died at age two) and went with a company of Saints to Mexico. Janye’s fourth child, Carmelita, was born in Dublan shortly after they arrived.  They settled in Colonia Juarez, and their Mary Jane followed in November 1891, with her six children: Katie, Sarah, Lemuel, Nellie Keziah, Della Redd and Ruby Vilate. His oldest daughter, Fannie, had married Isaac Dana and remained in Mesa. He gave up valuable property for the sake of living peacefully with his family.

Life in Mexico was a series of living on ranches in the summer time and in Colonia Juarez ares for school in the winter. Eight years were spent in the Strawberry Valley 25 miles northwest of Colonia Juarez, where he raise corn and potatoes, made cheese for sale and cared for the T-five (Church) cattle on a profit-sharing basis. Four years were spent on the Palo Quemado Ranch it miles south of Colonia Juarez which he used as a base for his lumber hauling. Loads of lumber were delivered each week, and still he spent the night at home. In 1905, he moved his families to Chuhuichupa for three years the farm, dairy and raise cattle. The highlight of living in this secluded hamlet 90 miles southwest of Colonia Juarez was the visit of his aged and revered father, George Spilsbury, who weathered the hard trip in order to give his grandchildren a Patriarchal Blessing.

Inaccessibility to high school privileges for his growing family induced a move to the valleys, and he settled his families on fruit farms four miles up the river from Colonia Juarez. From here he moved them in to town and the first comfortable homes either had enjoyed.  Hardly were they settled when the political upheaval scattered the Mormon colonists all parts of the southwestern United States, and forced temporary abandonment of these newly-acquired homes. In the general Exodus came, Alma, by permission, remained in town alone, thinking he could save property and be instrumental in easing strained relations by doing so. By using tactics learned in the Yuma penitentiary, he made friends by being friendly. As a consequence, he never was harmed. Within a month Mary Jane’s family joined him. Janey and her children stayed in United States.

He was strictly honest. He never treated in a trade nor took unfair advantage in a deal. He never told a lie except once to save a favorite horse from rebels. No word of contempt could aptly express his aversion to the fellow who would tell you one thing while thinking another. He was a stickler for fundamentals. If the Gospel is true, its teachings were a correct guide. Family prayer is as regular as the morning and evening meal. Alma thank the Lord for what he had, asked him for what he needed. Mothers and each of the children took their turns praying.

He was as honest with the Lord as with his fellow man. He had little to tie, but such as there was, was carefully calculated and scrupulously paid every 10th load of hay, wood, or lumber was piled into the tithing yard. Attendance at Sacrament Meeting and the Sabbath Day was strictly observed. Saturday evening his teams were turned out. Sunday morning is liveliest team of mules was hitched to the light wagon, and into it was loaded all the family. The mules and rested until time to return from Sacrament Meeting. He was supposed to buggy rides, often indulged in on Sunday afternoons, because horses needed their rest, too.

He loved horses. Had life dealt him what he craves, he would have been a horse fancier. When he moved to Mexico, he was wealthy with blooded horses which were taken with him. They were the first to succumb to the rigors of a hard country. As one by one they died, he saw something as Hardy as himself to take their place, and found it in mules. It mattered not whether he drove one span or two or three, or had them hitched to one wagon were to; his teams made his living.

No tools of a craftsman could have had better care. Teams that stayed with him until the day’s work was done often spent 16 hours in the harness. Yet he never had one refused to do his bidding. He had no patience with one who abused a balky horse, maintaining that if the driver knew as much as the horse, no mistreatment would be necessary.

Special favors among his horses were legion, and would be hard to name. Any animal once broke to his ritual was a favorite. Sometimes it was hard to tell who’s law was deepest, the horse’s or its master’s. More than one of them saved his life at various times by split-second timing in response to his jerk on the line or his sudden command.  His pride in his team extended to the roads over which they took him. He took many a kink out of the crooked bit of road by plowing a more direct route from one point to another. He never failed to leave a road better than he found it. His pick and shovel were ever handy to remove an embedded boulder, dig down a wash, or fill in a chuckhole, and his children were always handy to throw out loose rocks.

In spite of his love of horseflesh, his children by no means took second place in favoritism every dollar was made the hardest way, no child was unwelcome. The last of his 28 causes much rejoicing as the first. This rejoicing was doubled when his wife, Mary Jane, gave birth to a pair of twin girls. His strategies then looked as if he claimed all the credit.  When his cuatas were still mere babes he took them to Mesa to show what his move to Mexico had netted him.  Yet even that was not allowed to eclipse another member of his family, nor allow any child to wish he had been born between. “This is the best child I’ve got,” he’d say as he patted the head of the child nearest him.

He want investors children. But more than closer fine things, he wanted them to be honest, diligent and trustworthy, and to learn the dignity of work. “What you are, you can take with you when you leave this world,” he often said. His love for his children went to a desire for them to be loyal to him and to show it as his forces did. To make it so, he instituted some hard and fast rules: how my son down on Sundays; in bed by 10 p.m. after parties, and by midnight after dances; no sleeping away from home. The hardest of all was: no dates without first getting his permission. “Do you think I’d allow anyone to take my mules from the corral without first asking my permission?” He would say. “And you think I love my mules more than I do my girls?” When times change, he change with them. His younger children heard only, “You’ve been taught correct principles, govern yourselves. But no late hours.” His children rarely forgot.

He was proud to be a member of the first High Council organized by Anthony W. Ivins. When cases were tried, he was invariably assigned to defend. This was because, as explained by President Ivins, Alma Spilsbury was a friend to the erring one. He lost older people on the downward slope of life and his were returned to finding some way to make life writer for them. Hearing of gala occasions in Utah where older people were honored, and attending such an occasion in Mesa, he turned to sell the idea to community leaders, who immediately planned and Old Folks’ Day, and placed him in charge of it. He went himself and by every person in town over 50 years of age of both races, and when the day arrived, he met all honored guests and chivalrously escorted them to their assigned places in the hall. They use corsage was placed on the oldest person present, thus making him the center of attention. As a jovial master of ceremonies Alma lead in the singing of old-time songs. Then, following a sumptuous banquet, all were in a mood to reminisce, and experiences were aired that provoked both tears and laughter until it was time to take them to their homes again.

This first successful Old Folks Day in Colonia Juarez was made into an annual affair, and it was a stake organization under his direction, with Miles A. Romney and Daniel Skousen as helpers.  After his death, Old Folks’ Day was held each year on his birthday, August 5, until in later years it lost its identity. Being in charge of such occasions supplemented his dread of growing old, but nothing could really hide the fact from him. Called “old man Spilsbury” for the first time was like a lash from a whip. His family writhed with him, but secretly enjoyed his quick retort: “Looky here, young man, when you can throw more mud out of the ditch in a day than I can, you can call me old.”  He never heard the words again.

Eulogies of the dead irked him. “Why couldn’t they have told that poor fellow all those nice things while he was alive?” Life and how was lived were more important to him than how he was buried. “All I ask is that the Lord will let me live as long as I am useful, and then let me die in the harness.” These words were literally fulfilled. In June 1920, following a load of wool on a lonely mountain road, his wagon overturned, killing him and his favorite horse. His body lay in the hot June sun for two days before he was found. He was laid to rest June 22, 1920, in the Colonia Juarez Cemetery.

He was survived by 16 of his 28 children, 14 of whom were born in Mexico, and his posterity numbers around 300 at this writing. Many of his numerous posterity are found in Stake in Ward leadership, also as Stake and full-time missionaries for the Church. Many grandchildren served in all branches of the armed forces during World War II, with but one casualty. There are apt craftsman to be found among his children and grandchildren. Professional men and women are numbered in the fields of medicine, art, science and music. In the field of education are teachers from elementary to university level, as well as principles of high schools. All of which proves, as in the life of Alma P. Spilsbury himself, that hardships and meager opportunities are no bar to achievement if proper incentive is supplied.

Nelle Spilsbury Hatch

Stalwarts South of the Border page 628 Nelle Spilsbury Hatch

Peter Cotton Wood

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Peter Cotton Wood

(1852 – 1929)

Daniel Wood, father of Peter Cotton Wood and founder of Woods Cross, Utah, was born October 16, 1800 in Dutchess County, New York.  He was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints February 20, 1833, in Ernestown, Canada by Brigham Young.  He stood persecutions with the Saints in Ohio, Missouri and Illinois, and was a guard of the temple at Nauvoo. 

He exchanged 260 acres of land for two wagons, a carriage and three cows in order to go west.  In recognition of his ability as an excellent farmer, Brigham Young requested he remain on the trail to raise crops for the emigrating Saints as they passed on their way to the Great Basin.

At the age of 48, he captained fifty wagons in the 2nd company, first division in Brigham Young’s company, leaving in the spring of 1848 and arriving in the Salt Lake Valley on September 20 of the same year.  There, he settled near the Woods Cross plot.

In 1850 he built a large two-story adobe house which for years was the only religious meeting house in Davis County.  Later he built the first public hall, complete with belfry and bell that rang for all public affairs.  It housed the first formal church organization.  The choir consisted of his own family, and he organized the first band, also made up of family members.  The Wood school was held here also, the teacher being paid by the hall owner and contributions.  This hall also served as a convenient recreation facility.  The crossing of the railroad through the Woods’s private cemetery provided the occasion for the name Woods Cross.  Family members record that Daniel and his brother argued about permitting this intrusion on their private cemetery and this was the real reason for the name.  Daniel wanted the proposed station or depot to be closer to the main road on the edge of the property.  When angry words were exchanged between the two brothers, the conductor jokingly called it “Woods Cross.”  It has kept its name since that time.  This private cemetery was dedicated August 27, 1859 by Daniel Wood; and a memorial erected by Daniel Wood’s posterity was dedicated by his great-grandson, Henry D. Moyle, First Counselor in the Church’s First Presidency, April 1, 1962.

Peter Cotton Wood, son of Daniel Wood, was born July 4, 1852 in Woods Cross, Davis County, Utah and went to school in Salt Lake City.  Born into a musical family, he became part of the first choir and also the first band in the small community and at a very early age composed musical numbers, writing both the words and the music for his compositions.  He also wrote poetry and arranged programs and took part in them.  Of all this, however, gardening was his first love.

At the age of 18, he was ordained a Seventy and went on a mission to Canada with his father, Daniel Wood.  He met and married Launa Pace in Utah about the year 1872.  They became parents of six children, every one of whom died within two weeks of a diphtheria epidemic. 

He acquired extensive acres of land and a herd of livestock but, when a call came to help settle Arizona, he sold it all and settled near where Snowflake is now located.  There he endured the hardships of pioneering on a remote frontier.  While at Snowflake he met and married Lucy Jane Flake and with her and the now childless Launa they soon had all the necessities and some of the comforts of life.  His love of gardening and seeing things grow, his joy in surrounding himself with the beauty and necessities from what they grew, soon produced a home that made them seem prosperous and kept them happy.  When the call came to take his families to Mexico, he gathered seed, roots, roses, and cuttings of choice flowers and trees, to take with him to the foreign land.

He joined a group of exiles leaving the United States for the same reason, and landed in Colonia Juarez on March 21, 1889.  He chose a lot in Colonia Juarez on the east bank of Piedras Verdes River. There he built a concrete home in which his families lived comfortably and happily. In the beginning, like most others, he had a hard time making ends meet.  But he worked hard and his wives were frugal and thrifty.  Together they made every possible use of what advantages were available.  His love of the soil and what he could make it produce induced him to building two points to conserve his water turns, and catch waste water.  With this water supply, he planted a garden, trees, and the plants, shrubs, and roses he had brought with him.  Soon his walls were covered with climbing berries, roses, honeysuckle, and other vines.  His street was lined with shade trees, his garden was filled with vegetables to supply his family needs and much to sell, and he had trees to give the people of the community.  The high quality of his vegetables proved what love for gardening can do.  

His green thumb service went beyond the people of Colonia Juarez.  He donated and planted the trees in the plaza in Casas Grandes and lined the street around it with shade trees, mostly poplar.  Peter built a lime kiln, made the lime that went into the walls of his own concrete homes, and helped build other homes in town as well.  The walls of some of these homes still stand today. 

Peter’s inherent love for music was passed onto his family, and with Launa’s beautiful voice he was soon able to create a Wood Orchestra patterned after his father’s Wood Band in Woods Cross where he played the flute.  He taught his daughter to chord on the organ for the tunes he made.  A son learned to play the guitar, another to play the harmonica and still another son to play his beloved flute.  He taught himself to play the violin after he was 50 years of age, and with these instruments tuned and spiritedly led him, the music he produced recalled his boyhood band and choir days in Woods Cross, even if it didn’t rival it.

Peter and his flute became legendary.  He played it for celebrations, programs, for parties, for his own comfort and amusement, and for all this dances.  Sometimes he had only the organ to accompany him.  Other times he had a guitar or violin or both.  But whether he played alone or with others, Peter and his flute were always there.  With the first tremolo that lifted from his flute, as his lips caressingly whispered into it, dancers were on the floor ready to take the tempo he set, to dance the schottische, the quadrille or a reel, as his musical spell dictated. No dance was complete without Peter and his flute.  In later life, he contrived a neck band to hold the harmonica in place, and while his lips and tongue coaxed music from its reeds, his fingers would simultaneously strum the guitar.  This one-man band made the same dance-inducing music as his flute, both of which paid tribute to his talent and his love of sharing it with others.

Peter and Launa were a part of the first choir and religiously attended the weekly rehearsals held by the conductor, John J. Walser.  They both capably participated in the concerts, cantatas and operas he produced.  In the early days, they trundled the baby to these functions in a wheelbarrow so that (Lucy) Jane could attend also.  They looked upon these walks of 10 blocks as an accepted part of life.

Peter’s home was always filled to capacity at Conference time, his yard and stable filled with wagons and teams, his table loaded with good food and a hearty welcome for all.  His wives, Launa and Jane, were excellent cooks.  They worked together beautifully because they loved each other.  Launa expended the love for her lost children on those of Jane.  She not only helped in raising them but became a second mother to them, which made a united and loving family.  Something went out of their lives when Launa sickened and died.  She felt so many vacant spots that only she could fill.  She was such an integral part of Peter’s musical life that his love for and interest in that art could easily have died, too.  Instead, he let her continue to live in the music he enjoyed and produced. 

Being the watermaster for years, Peter made the necessary rounds, took care of ditches, the head gates, and the water in them.  He could be seen walking or riding a horse with a shovel over his shoulder, checking to make sure there were no leaky headgates and that users both took and released water on time.  Water to him was so precious that not a drop should be wasted.  In this capacity, he represented the community in Casas Grandes.  Old-timers say that with him in this work there was never any trouble.  Besides this his team was always ready to take General Authorities into the mountains whenever it was necessary.   

Peter was a great friend to the Mexican people.  He used to say, “If you make one friend of an Indian, he will make you a hundred more. Or if you make one enemy, he’ll make you a hundred more enemies.”  It was the same, he said, with the Mexican people.

Peter was the town dentist for years, and never broke a tooth.  With no anesthesia to deaden the painful yank, he had methods all his own to not only quiet the fears of the sufferer but to get his mind on something besides the menacing forceps he often tried to hide.  “Just let Uncle Pete get a look at that fellow that kept you awake all night, while you just think of a white horse without a tail.” If that didn’t provoke a smile he had other antics that would.  Before the patient was aware of it, the forceps were firmly in place and the tooth was out.

Peter, like his father, was spiritual-minded and early formed the habit of taking his problems to the Lord.  He never failed to get his answer, often through dreams.  Many problems were solved through following instructions given in his dreams and important moves in his life were dictated by what he had seen or been told in a dream.  The following are typical:  While on his Mission in Arizona, he returned to his homesteads in Woods Cross to sell out.  He received an offer of $1500 cash but hesitated because the offer had come from a gentile.  In answer to an earnest inquiry of the Lord, he was told to deal with the man.  He did, receive his money, and returned to his mission.  On another occasion he was told by heavenly messenger, surrounded by a bright light, “Go straight for Mexico!”  This occurred after he had prayerfully asked for guidance, and after he had arranged to move to Beaver.  “Go by all means,” his Bishop said when he reported his dreams.  “And God bless you!”

On the way to Mexico, in company with John McNeil, he was shown in a dream a way to cross the swollen Gila River, in which a large ox appeared by his team and guided them moving from side to side so quickly that he seemed intelligent.  Next morning he told McNeil he was going up the river.  “There’s no crossing there,” said McNeil.  But Peter was impressed to go.  Soon an Indian was riding by their side leading him toward San Carlos on the other side of the river. He later led his team and wagon safely across, going from side to side of his team, guiding them as the ox had done in his dream.  McNeil followed and they soon were safely across and on their way. 

He was a hard working man yet he took time each day to read a newspaper, or something good, most often the scriptures.  And every day he played one or all of the instruments he loved.  He could pick out a tune on any instrument he picked up.

Fifteen of his descendants have spent more than 25 years as full-time missionaries to the Mexican people.  Two of his descendants have spent two years working in the Andes Mission.  One son filled three Stake Mission calls among the Spanish-speaking people in the colonies.  These are some of the results that have flowed from his dreams concerning where he should move his family.

He died November 9, 1929 in Colonia Dublan, and was buried in the eastern cemetery in Colonia Juarez.

One of the climbing roses he brought to the country is het blooming in the yards of his sons Enos and Lee.

Nelle Spilsbury Hatch Stalwarts South of the Border, page 793

Erastus Kruse Fillerup of the Mormon Colonies in Mexico.

Erastus Kruse Fillerup

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Erastus Kruse Fillerup

(1875 – 1910)

My father, Erastus Kruse Fillerup, son of Anders Peter and Caroline Rasmine (Rasmussen) Fillerup, was born in Lake View, Utah on February 16, 1875.

He was the fifth of nine children, six boys and three girls. His parents were immigrants from Denmark. He attended the Lake View Elementary School, then entered the Brigham Young Academy, graduating from that institution in 1895.

On May 31, he was set apart by Heber J. Grant and June 1 of that year he left for a mission to the southern states, where he served 2 and a half years, chiefly in Tennessee. He reported his mission at the church offices December 26, 1897, and was called by President Wilford Woodruff of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to teach in the elementary school of Colonia Diaz, Mexico, which was a church school. He was also instructed to remain in Mexico until he was called elsewhere.

Here he met Lucy Ann Johnson and on May 18, 1899, he married her in the Salt Lake Temple. Lacking the proper chaperone they were not allowed to travel the long distance from Diaz, Mexico to Salt Lake City together. Lucy was sent ahead with a Mrs. Galbraith to stay with his parents until he arrived for the wedding. They were the parents of six children, the youngest of whom, Drexel, was born five days after his father’s death.

Erastus Kruse took a very active part in all church organizations in the Ward and was a Counselor in the Bishopric for a time. He loved to take part in dramatics, and let the Ward choir.

In 1905 he was called to teach horticulture in the Juarez Stake Academy at Colonia Juarez, Mexico. There again, after but a short time he was called to the Bishopric, and work in the MIA Stake Board. As band and choir later, along with his other activities, he had meetings every night of the month but one.

Erastus was a friend to everybody and tried to influence those in his classes with the desire to get an education. To his students he used to say, “Set your aims high and work to reach them. There is no honor in reaching goals that require little or no effort.” He had a way of holding his students up to their best without preaching urging. It is said that none slept in his classes.

Death came to Erastus Kruse Fillerup on July 2, 1910, in the little town of Pearson, Mexico. He was doing construction work on a bridge and fell, being killed instantly. He was buried in Colonia Juarez. The Bishop, Joseph C. Bentley, made the remark that it would take ten men to replace them.

In 1912 in the Mormon colonists were forced to abandon their homes and possessions because of the Revolution, Lulu, with her six children, went to Tucson, Arizona where she stayed about a year. The next year she stayed about a year. The next two years she lived on the Provo bench, now Orem. Her children attended the Lake View Elementary school and BYU Training School. During this time her helpless poor and it was a struggle for providing care for a family. She moved to Ammon, Idaho to be near her parents and sisters, who homesteaded farms there. We went out on maternity cases into general nursing care for invalids and other work, getting fine service to her fellow sisters.

After six years she moved to Logan, Utah, where her children could have the opportunity for better schooling, and she secured steady work cooking for the fraternity houses. During the summer months she was employed by Deseret Livestock Company on their ranch in Evanston, Wyoming.

Later, on a trip to Cedar city to visit her daughter, Thelda, she met a man who was energetic and ambitious in his work. By trade he was a carpenter and built homes to rent and sell. He also did bricklaying and other work in the construction of houses. He was a widower and alone as she was. On April 19, 1931, Lulu married Martin Ray Tanner in Salt Lake City, Utah. For a time they lived in Cedar City; then they moved to Salt Lake City in 1946, where he managed apartment houses. Lulu, ever ambitious to be doing work, continued to work. For a while she sewed for the Deseret industries. She also worked as a pastry cook for the ZCMI cafeteria.

With Martin’s failing health, they moved to Mesa, Arizona, where they lived quietly and happily doing temple work and other activities in their church. Lulu passed away in 1969.

Irva Fillerup Huber, daughter

Stalwarts South of the Border, Nelle Spilsbury Hatch page 197

Thanks for Phil Stover for sharing this power point.

Erastus Fillerup powerpoint by Phil Stover (file will download when link is clicked).

James Andrew Jesperson

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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

Rita Skousen Johnson obituary

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Rita Skousen Johnson

June 9th 1913 – February 20th 2015

Rita Skousen Johnson was born on June 9th 1913 in Colonia Juarez.  She was the seventh of 12 children born to Daniel Skousen and Sarah Ann Spilsbury Skousen.   She was born at the “Old Mill” a mile south of the old elementary school.

After graduating from the Juarez Stake Academy in 1931, Rita attended Gila Junior College in Thatcher, Arizona where she graduated in 1934.  After Gila Junior College Rita attended B.Y.U graduating in the class of 1939.

Rita taught at the Juarez Stake Academy for 20 years.  She and Leroy served several missions including missions in Mexico City South, Mexico City Visitor’s Center, Saucillo Chihuahua, and Ecuador North.

She married Leroy Johnson on June 9th 1942 in the Mesa Temple.  She and Leroy were the parents of eight children.  Rita Maree (Johnson) Vance, Joan (Johnson) Jameson, Daniel Leroy Johnson, Linda Lee (Johnson) Payne, David Owen Johnson, Lester Floyd Johnson, Walter Lynn Johnson, and Greer Fay Johnson.

Alma LaRue Lunt

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Alma LaRue Lunt 1927 ~ 2010 Alma LaRue Lunt, born June 8, 1927 in Colonia Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, son of Clarence L. Lunt and LaVetta Cluff, passed from this life on 24 Nov 2010 from Mesothelioma Cancer. He is loved by many and will be greatly missed.He lived a full life of service to his Church, family, and friends. He served an LDS Mission to Mexico as a young man of 19 yr. and five Missions with his devoted wife in his later years. LaRue was called as Bishop in 1963 and as a Patriarch in 1974. He is survived by his sweetheart of 60 years, Carolyn Wagner Lunt and his five children: Ronald L. Lunt (DeAnn), Christine L. Jones (Tony), Vickie L. Andreason (Desslie), Sherrie L. Bender (Danny), Tricia L. Brown (Warren) and 22 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren. Preceded in death by parents, Clarence and LaVetta Cluff Lunt, sisters, Marza and Maurine and grandson Zachary L. Lunt. He was the fourth child of a family of nine children, Marza L. Hatch (Dr. E. LeRoy), Maurine L. Bowman (Donn), Ora L. Bluth (Gayle), twin, LaRee L. Bluth Shaw (the late Lynden Bluth, Dale), LuDean L. Cardon E.G. (Bob), Sylvia L. Heywood (Evans), C. Gary Lunt (Lorie) and R. Berkley Lunt (Sharon). A viewing will be held from 6:00-8:00 p.m. Monday, Nov. 29, 2010 at Redwood Memorial, 6500 S. Redwood Rd, West Jordan. Funeral services Tuesday, November 30, 2010 noon, preceded by viewing 10:00-11:30 a.m. Bennion Heights Stake Center, 3045 W. Bernina Dr. (3200 W. 5680 South) Taylorsville. Interment to follow at Redwood Memorial. Special Thanks to Dr. Patricia Legant and the loving, and caring CNS Hospice staff. – See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/saltlaketribune/obituary.aspx?n=alma-lunt&pid=146828692#sthash.yE03spqt.dpuf

Anthony W. Ivins

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Anthony W. Ivins

(1852 – 1934)

Born September 16, 1832 in Toms River New Jersey, Anthony Woodward Ivins was the only son of Israel and Anna Lowrie Ivins.  He and his parents were among the early pioneers to go to the Salt Lake Valley, arriving in 1853 when Anthony was but a year old. 

When he was seven, his parents were called to help settle Dixie, as St. George and surrounding towns were then called.  He had a half-brother, Will, and two half-sisters Edith and Maggie.  In St. George Tony had what schooling could be gained, went rabbit hunting with a boyhood friend, followed his father about as he surveyed lands in and around St. George, and had a happy well-adjusted youth.  It was there that he grew to manhood.

During these growing-up days he was at home on the range.  His father acquired a large tract of forest land extending into the White Mountains in Arizona and soon had it stocked with a good breed of cattle.  Tony did a lot of traveling to keep the hard within bounds.  He spent as long as nine months away from home, never sleeping during this time in a bed other than what he carried on a pack animal.  He had no food except what was cooked over a campfire.  He took as good care of his gun as of his horse, and with his gun always handy could drop a deer in split-second timing at a maximum distance.  He kept fishing tackle hand too and could easily angle enough trout for supper.  The venison he broiled and trout he fried and the camp biscuits he made earned him an enviable reputation as a cook.  His cattle-care travels took him into Apache land when they were on the warpath and constant vigilance was necessary to save both himself and his cattle.  He was glad when they sold that eastern area and he could continue his cowboying closer to home.

He made his cowboy days serve him in becoming acquainted with what kind of game could be found where and when best to hunt it, how to read the weather and interpret wildlife behavior.  He could read the stars, locate himself by night, and knew which peak in what mountains to use to orient himself.  It taught him resourcefulness too.  When his trousers wore thin and no others were available, he spread his canvas bedcover on the ground, ripped up his old worn-out pants, put them on it for a patter, and with his pocketknife cut out a pair of pants which when sewed together served the purpose, even if it was hard to tell whether he was going or coming.

Always in his bedroll, carefully wrapped but accessible, was his Book of Mormon from which in his leisure he methodically became acquainted with the forefathers of the friendly Piutes with whom he often visited.  He analyzed the greatness of Book of Mormon prophets, sought to emulate such characters as Nephi, Alma, Mosiah, Benjamin and Moroni, and to use them as patters for a lofty adult life.  Also, he carried books of history, tales of adventure and vicariously journeyed with explorers and mariners.  Later in his life, when receiving an honorary LL.D. degree from Utah State College, he referred to this as his means of becoming acquainted with all parts of the world.

When at home he was active in both church and civic functions.  He helped with programs, including drama in which he played leading roles.  One story told in later years was of taking the play East Lynn to nearby Nevada mining towns, and portraying the part of the betrayed husband whose wife had digressed in a moment of temptation.  His stern refusal to be swayed by her penitent plea for forgiveness moved one veteran miner in the audience to exclaim, “Oh, Tony, forgive her!”

When barely 23 years of age, Ivins was chosen to be one of the party under the leadership of Daniel W. Jones to carry the book of Mormon into Mexico and explore the country for sites suitable for Mormon colonization.  Meliton G. Trejo, during the years 1874 to 1875, had translated nearly 100 pages of selected passages from the Book of Mormon into Spanish.  With this and other tracts, the Jones expedition started south from Kanab, Utah in the autumn of 1875.  They crossed the border at El Paso and penetrated as far south as Chihuahua City.  The party then traveled west to the Sierra Madre Mountains, then worked their way north to the border area again.  Among other locations, they passed through the Casas Grandes Valley where Mormon colonies would later be established.

After returning to Utah in mid-1876 and reporting their findings to Brigham Young, Ivins married his childhood sweetheart, Elizabeth Ashby Snow, a daughter of Apostle Erastus Snow who had long presided as an ecclesiastical leader in the St. George area.  The couple eventually became the parents of eight children.  Every indication is that theirs was a lifelong, happy relationship.  Shortly after the marriage, Ivins was called on another exploring-missionary venture to the Navajo and Pueblo tribes of Arizona and New Mexico.  On this occasion, his companion was Erastus Beaman Snow.  Well known for his mastery of the Spanish language, it is sometimes forgotten that Ivins also acquired partial fluency in Navajo and Piute.  This particular mission was completed in less than a year.

In 1882, at the April conference of the Church, Ivins was again called as a missionary.  This time was called again to go to Mexico City.  The Mexican Mission had been opened by Apostle Moses Thatcher in 1879.  Thatcher returned to the United States in 1881, leaving August H.F. Wilcken in charge.  Ivins, now learning his 30th year, arrived and immediately undertook the challenging task of converting and baptizing all he could.  During 1883 and 1884, he oversaw the mission himself.  The challenges were enormous.  The people seemed so lethargic and indifferent.  Not only the Catholic Church but Protestant groups in and around Mexico City opposed their work.  Sometimes Elders, in their zeal, fell athwart the law and Ivins had to secure their release.  More difficult than anything was the loneliness he felt for home and family.  During the spring of 1883, he wrote his wife of how much he wished he could be back “upon the barren top of Sugar Loaf with the July sun beating down upon me, contemplating dry, dusty St. George.”

Ivins returned from his mission in Mexico in April, 1884.  Almost immediately he found himself caught up in a variety of activities while improving his growing properties.  His involvement in the cattle business was especially remunerative, particularly in connection with his management of the Mojave Land and Cattle Company and the Kaibab Cattle Company with their ranches in southern Utah and northern Arizona.  He also purchased a valuable strip of land along the Santa Clara River.  In 1888 he was also favored as a political leader.  At one time or another he held the offices of constable, city attorney, assessor and tax collector, prosecuting attorney, mayor, and representative to the state legislature. Ivins obtained the first grant given by the government to the Shebit (Shivwits) Indians and acted as Indian agent to them for two years.   In 1895 he was a delegate to the state constitutional convention in Salt Lake City and was considered a leading candidate for the Democratic Party’s nomination to be the state’s first governor.  It would be difficult to paint a more promising future than that facing Anthony W. Ivins in the mid-1890’s. 

Then, in late August, 1895, he was notified that the First Presidency of the Church was calling him to succeed Apostle George Teasdale as President of the Mexican Mission. More than sacrifice in things political and economic would be involved.  Ivins had friends and family in the St. George area that reached back 30 years.  His aged parents lived there.  All of this would have to be set aside.  Beyond this, he had spent time in Mexico before and had not acquired a large affection for the land and its institutions.  A considerable adjustment in his plans for the future would be required.  It tells us much about the man’s commitments that he accepted the call and, with hardly a murmur, made arrangements to relocate in Mexico for an indefinite period of time.   

On Sunday December 8, 1895, the Juarez Stake of Zion was organized and Ivins was introduced to the settlers as their new Stake President.  He chose Henry Eyring and Helaman Pratt as his First and Second Counselors, respectively.  Ivins then set out, with Apostle Francis M. Lyman and Edward Stevenson of the First Seven Presidents of Seventies, to visit the colonies and take measure of his new responsibilities.  He also purchased the home that had been built by his father-in-law Erastus Snow, in Colonia Juarez and had it enlarged to meet the needs of his own family.  This involved the addition of a red brick to the adobe used in the original structure and the construction of a bedroom, dining room and office in the back.  When a frame kitchen and brick cellar were added to that, the house ran into the hill.  On the bank of the east canal, behind the and above the house, he built a cistern and brought water through pipes into the house, the first one in the town to enjoy that luxury.

As Stake President, Ivins automatically inherited the job of vice-president and general manager of the Mexican Colonization and Agriculture Company, the firm that had been incorporated by the Church to oversee the purchase of lands and location of colonists in Mexico. This meant that he was almost constantly dealing with legal problems.  His buckboard was seen frequently on the road from colony to colony and to Casas Grandes, the district municipality 10 miles distant. He was able to clear land titles and helped when land payments were in default.  In the process of all this he became not only an acquaintance but a friend of leading men in the Republic. The expert skill he had acquired with the language as a missionary proved very useful.  He spent time in the offices of President Porfirio Diaz, Chihuahua Governor Miguel Ahumada and Sonora Governor Luis Torres.  In all cases, formal business attitudes relaxed into warm friendliness.  He also became a friend of the Polish soldier of fortune, Emilio Kosterlitzky.  Kosterlitzky was not only in charge of the feared Rurales of northern Mexico, a troop of rough frontier police, but exercised considerable influence in connection with land sales, especially in Sonora.

Difficulty arose early in 1898 concerning payments for the lands on which Colonia Oaxaca was located. President Ivins met with Kosterlintzky from whom the lands had been purchased.  At the outset, no agreement could be reached. Ivins was able to assure Kosterlintzky, however, that the Mormons could be trusted to fulfill their contracts. After a trip to Salt Lake City where church’s financial backing was obtained, he returned to Sonora and consummated the arrangement, stating the colonists’ lands while impressing Kosterlintzky with his own honor.  Kosterlintzky held such regard for Ivins and the colonists that he once offered to kill anyone the Mormons found troublesome.

President Ivins took the lead in getting the new Sonoran colony of Morelos established.  He personally spearheaded exploration of the site which was located northwest and down the Bavispe River from Colonia Oaxaca. It was he who negotiated the terms of the land purchase from Colin Cameron, the Arizona resident who owned the site. I oversaw the survey of the area and directed where water should be taken from the river for the purpose of your getting land. He not only helps with laying out the town but took charge of recording the deeds and completing all legal arrangements in Hermosillo.

It is not generally known that President Ivins often advance his own funds to individuals in need, particularly when land or property were threatened by default. On one occasion he helped the entire community in this way. This had to do with the so-called Garcia lands on which Colonia Chuhuichupa was located.  Ivins advanced what was needed to cover payments that had fallen behind and then went to Mexico City and paid off all remaining indebtedness. The role of the Stake President, as developed under President Ivins, went far beyond purely ecclesiastical functions.

Within the colonies, there was virtually no secular government apart from that provided by the colonists themselves. There were no city councils, mayors, courts or policeman. Provisions for the services provided by such offices felt entirely to the Church.  Thus, regulations relating to irrigation, garbage, stray animals, police and fire protection, education and entertainment all were matters directed by the priesthood in the various Wards.

This meant that Ivins was ultimately brought into deliberations concerning these things throughout the Stake.  Redivisions of lands, financial disputes between brethren, domestic quarrels, relationships between Mormons and Mexican authorities constituted more of his agenda than anything else. Water concessions were divided with the San Diego lands, 6 miles below Colonia Juarez, it was President Ivins who suggested a dynamo be installed to produce electricity from the natural fall of the water. The Mormon communities became the first in their part of the country to enjoyable electricity and telephone service.

The Ivins family not lived on the western side of the Piedras Verdes River long before they realize the great inconvenience of having the town divided when the river was a flood stage finally, when the town had been separated by raging river for three days and the swinging bridge been torn from its moorings, Ivins invited Samuel E. McClellan to put his skills as a builder to work and do something about it. President Ivins promised that men and means would be supplied to whatever extent McClellan required. Work on the wagon bridge then commenced and the pillars built under McClellan’s direction are still doing service today for the steel and concrete bridge that connects the highway running through Colonia Juarez.

At the first meeting held after his arrival to consider educational matters, Ivins proposed in the largest but centralized program for Colonia Juarez as the education center for the entire Stake.  In April, 1896, he asked the First Presidency of the Church for financial support for the plan and for an educator who could synchronize and oversee the schools of the colonies. The First Presidency pledged their assistance. And, through Dr. Karl G. Maeser, President of Brigham Young Academy, Ivins was placed in contact with Guy C. Wilson, then a student at the Academy in Provo. Arrangements were made for Wilson to assume his responsibilities in Colonia Juarez in September, 1897. When by 1904, the influx of students overwhelm the school space available in Colonia Juarez, President Ivins donated five acres of his own land in the town on which to construct a larger Academy building. By the autumn 1905, the academy, then a four-year accredited high school, opened its doors in a new double story building surrounded by spacious a campus. This was a large step forward for the entire Stake. Five of President Ivins’s own children graduated from this institution.

Ivins also provided an example of what can be done with one’s own home and surroundings. During the first 10 years of the colonies’ existence, too many of the houses had remained in an unimproved condition. Even fences were often primitive and near collapse. Ivins feel the shard with imported fruit and ornamental trees. Choice shrubs, fronted by a heart-shaped lawn surrounded by hybrid tea roses and dahlias, inspired everyone in Stake to imitate his efforts. Inside his home, he covered the floors and carpets, and in every room and wallpapered every wall. His own office was furnished in natural cedar. A veranda was supported by massive pillars and banisters. The inside of the house was trimmed with fancy, intricate woodwork. His blooded horses, Jersey cows and imported chickens were housed in attractive barns and outbuildings.

Another aspect of Ivins work in Mexico had to do with the performance of plural marriages. After President Woodruff’s 1890 Manifesto, Church authorities felt it best that such polygamist contracts as occurred should, when possible, be performed outside United States. The Mexican colonies had been used as locations for such ceremonies even before President Ivins arrived in 1895. With authority given him by the First Presidency, he was sometimes called upon the seal couples in such relationships. Although he himself never took a plural wife, he may have occasionally felt uncomfortable with his role in such things, faithfully executed his charge in these matters. It must be pointed out that he was most circumspect in requiring that any couple requesting this privilege present him with appropriate papers indicating that they had received prior approval from authorities in Salt Lake City. It should also be remembered that the monogamous marriages he performed far outnumbered the polygamist sealings he performed. And with President Joseph F. Smith directed that no plural marriages were to take place anywhere in the world after 1904, Ivins strictly adhered to the new policy.

For those a new President Ivins, perhaps nothing so characterized him as his love of nature. The sensitivities he acquired as a cowboy never left him. One of the ways he found to share his feelings with his family was to take them on an outing for two weeks each year. Usually, they went to North Valley, a picturesque fishing center a few miles north of Colonia Chuhuichupa. When he had his killer deer or massive fish, he put his gun and tackle away, no matter how many good shots presented themselves or how well the fish were biting. Killing for the sake of killing was to him unsportsmanlike and his family was taught his creed. The conference was usually held in Chuhuichupa Ward at the time of these vacations in the colonists of the region enjoyed close contact with the Stake President and his family on these occasions.

Ivins love for the outdoors also found expression in his many talks before Church audiences. Initially, and in later years, he wrote articles, chiefly in Church magazines, incorporated his outdoor experiences. One series was entitled “Traveling our Forgotten Trails.” These pieces included accounts of the route followed by the Mormon Battalion, experiences of the U.S. Army in Mexico during the trouble with Poncho Villa, and other essays having their setting in Mexico. The subject of one of the articles was especially popular with audiences as a theme in Ivins’s many sermons. This was a story of a mother mockingbird known to the Ivins family during their time in Colonia Juarez. The birds sang beautifully for them every summer. But during a sudden hailstorm, she allowed the life to be beaten out of her body rather than expose the brood she covered to the murderous hailstones. The lessons of fidelity and love that were drawn from this experience were seldom lost on those who heard it.

Another article dealt with the sequel to the tragic Thompson massacre, an event to touch the hearts of everyone in the colonies. A band of Apaches attacked a family of Mormons and Pratt ranch in the mountains in 1892. The mother and one of her sons were killed, the renegade escaping with their loot. Eight years later members of the band were cited and shot near Colonia Pacheco. President Ivins was in Pacheco at the time and examine the bodies of the dead Indians. From the workmanship on their moccasins and quivers, as well as a birthmark on the face of one of the Indians, he was convinced that it was none other than the “Apache Kid,” the notorious leader of the band believed to be responsible for the Thompson massacre. The article was titled “Retribution.”  The article was titled “Retribution” because, in Ivins’s words, “He killed Mormons and by Mormons was killed.”

They are sowing turn-of-the-century saw the colonists grow both in numbers and prosperity. The same year saw the Mormon colonies acquire a reputation throughout the Church is one of the most faithful bodies of the Saints to be found anywhere. The level of their tithes and offerings were among the highest in the Church. There was much for which Ivins could feel pride. After spending so much time there, he must have also felt a growing attachment to Mexican society. Certainly, the bonds that developed between himself and the Mormons residing in Mexico were strong affectionate. Yet, he and Elizabeth both longed for returned to life in the United States. It was doubtful, however, that he anticipated what it was that would bring about the return.

In 1907, while attending the general conference of the Church in Salt Lake City, he sat busily taking notes, as was his habit, in one of the many small notebooks he kept. As the names of the general authorities were presented for approval by the membership of the Church, he proceeded to write their names as they were called. Then, suddenly, he realized he had written his own name as one of those submitted as a member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles.  It was proposed that he take the place of Elder George Teasdale who had died.  It will be recalled that it was Apostle Teasdale that he succeeded as the presiding officer over the Saints in Mexico in 1895.  Ivins was ordained to the new position before returning to the colonies. He had served for 12 years as President of the Juarez Stake.

After making preparations to leave the colonies, including assistance with the selection of Junius Romney as his successor, Ivins and his family relocated to Salt Lake City where they resided for the rest of their lives. Despite his responsibilities in connection with the Apostleship, special ties with the colonies continued. One of his daughters had become the plural wife of Guy C. Wilson and was yet living there. There were also investments in properties and mines that he had made while in Mexico. Leaders in Salt Lake City looked to Ivins for advice concerning the colonies and, for the balance of his life, he made frequent visits to them.

With the coming of the Mexican Revolution in 1910 he gave especially close attention to affairs in the colonies. When roving bands of soldiers began to abuse the Mormons, he told the Saints: “I have seen this coming for years, and no one can say how long it will last. But my advice is to stay perfectly neutral… You may be despoiled and robbed, but if you stay close to the Lord, take part with neither side, I promise that if you will lose your lives.” Although there were some trying times and close encounters in the period before the 1912 Exodus, no colonists died at the hand of a soldier.

When the evacuation of the colonists actually took place, Ivins was in Ciudad Juarez to meet the first trainload of women, children, and aged men, and stayed until the last evacuees arrived. He helped negotiate with the City of El Paso for food for the homeless and with Fort Bliss for use of tents as a more adequate shelter than the lumber sheds in which they were temporarily house. When it looked unfavorable for a return to their homes in Mexico, he was partly responsible for obtaining free rail passage in the United States for all who cared to relocate elsewhere. He continued to visit and encourage those who did return to the colonies. And, he was instrumental in affecting the reorganization of the Stake, placing Joseph C. Bentley in charge and setting apart new Bishops in Colonia Juarez and Colonia Dublan.

As a General Authority, he worked in a variety of capacities including President of Utah Savings and Trust Company, President of the Board of Trustees for Utah State Agricultural College, and was a member of the National Boy Scout Committee. He was also chosen as an official spokesman for the Church on issues of the day when such matters called for a Church response. In March, 1921, Ivins became second counselor to President Heber J. Grant.  The two were first cousins and had long maintained a close friendship. Now they work together almost daily. In 1925 Ivins was named First Counselor. Through it all, he continued to find time for his broad range of interests, from archaeology and Indians to hunting, fishing and history. He seemed to have been universally admired by all who knew him.

President Ivins died suddenly on September 23, 1934. He had celebrated his 82nd birthday but a week earlier. As Ann Hinckley and Mary Fitzgerald of the Utah State Historical Society have mentioned, in addition to his funeral in the tabernacle, the Piute Indian tribe honored him with a special memorial of their own. Perhaps no better summary of life can be found than an Indian beadwork message sent to him in 1932: “Tony Ivins, he no cheat.”

His beloved companion was united with him in death 18 months later on March 22, 1936.

Carmon Hardy and Nelle Spilsbury Hatch

Stalwarts South of the Border page 310

Hyrum Albert Cluff

Hyrum Albert Cluff

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Hyrum Albert CluffHyrum Albert Cluff

(1866 – 1913)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My tithing for the year 1905 was $74.50.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stalwarts South of the Border page 113.

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

Ernest Isaac Hatch

Ernest Isaac Hatch

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Ernest Isaac Hatch

1878 – 1952

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nelle Spilsbury Hatch

Stalwarts South of the Border, page 241