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Samuel Walter Jarvis

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Samuel Walter Jarvis

(1855-1923)

Samuel Walter Jarvis, third son and fifth child of George and Ann Prior Jarvis, was born in London, England, on April 18, 1855.  When he was less than three years of age, his parents emigrated to America, staying in Boston, Massachusetts, until means could be obtained to enable the family to join the Saints in Utah.

In his 6th year he walked much of the distance across the plains carrying his two-quart brass bucket, as each member of his family was responsible for some article of their few prized possessions.

At the October conference of 1861, his father answered President Young’s call for volunteers to settle the Dixie country.  This is said to have been one of the hardest pioneer settlements to develop.  Here it was that Samuel grew up under adverse circumstances, learning early to work and take responsibility.  Clothing was scant and food meager, and he helped provide it by killing rabbits and shooting wild ducks and geese in season along the Virgin River.  At times his trousers were made of wagon covers, and he often reversed them to get maximum wear.  He delighted to tell of one pair his mother made from buckskin.  Early one morning while shooting ducks, he had to wade into the river to retrieve them.  Soon his pants were much too long.  Boy-like, he cut them off, and soon cropped off a second piece.  By the time he reached home, the trousers had dried and the buckskin had shrunk until they were skintight and far too short, much to his mother’s consternation.

With practically no formal schooling, his knowledge came principally by observation and hard knocks.  He was fortunate, however, in that he parents used correct English, and he learned how to express himself clearly and fluently, as well as obtaining a meager knowledge of the three “R’s,” which stood him in good stead throughout his life.

He had contact with the Ute and Paiute Indians, and learned their customers and some of their language.  This helped him in his dealings with the Arizona Indians and with Mexicans in later years.  For a season in young manhood, he worked for George Q. Cannon in Salt Lake City.  While living with this family, he advanced rapidly in knowledge of the Gospel.

On December 4, 1877, he married Frances Godfrey Defriez, an English girl, in the St. George Temple.  Shortly after their marriage they were called as pioneers to help in the establishment of settlements in northern Arizona.   Consequently their first tow children were born in Snowflake.  They later lived in Taylor and Nutrio Ozo (now spelled Nutrioso).

In the early spring of 1885, with their family of three boys, Samuel Walter, Jr., George Josiah, and William Heber, they answered a request to cast their lot with a company of Saints seeking refuge from the officers of the law and hoping to establish homes in Mexico.  By prearrangement those leaving were to meet in Luna Valley, some miles distant from Snowflake, and travel all together by way of Silver City and Deming, New Mexico, where they were able to replenish their food supply and otherwise outfit themselves for the journey,.  Here also they caught up with a company captained by Lot Smith.  After experiencing such things as ten inches of snow on the mountain roads of Arizona, tracking and recovering stolen horses, a near skirmish with bandits, prairie fires, and trouble with natives, they finally arrived at “Mormon Camp” near Ascension, Mexico.  Ascension was at that time the custom house, or official port of entry. Here the immigrants camped on the Casas Grandes River under some cottonwood trees while legal negotiations were underway for obtaining land. These negotiations took many months to complete. Meanwhile, the men rented land from the native farmers or share cropped where possible in order to raise food for the coming winter. Within weeks of their arrival, on May 2, 1885, a daughter, Frances was born to Samuel W. and Frances G. D. Jarvis.

After an early harvest of corn, beans, and a good quantity of other foodstuffs, they joined an organized company which moved up the river to what was known as “Old Stink Town,” where a dam was built on the Piedras Verdes River.  A ditch was dug to irrigate what is now known as Cuahtemoc, which is presently owned by Mexican farmers, they yielded very good crops. A stockade was built in which meetings in religious worship were held.

Dugouts along the river helped house the company. Meanwhile a town was laid out, and holes were dug for planting shade trees along the sidewalks. During one Sunday service, Apostle Erastus Snow, standing on the platform extended his right hand over his left shoulder, declared, “There are those under the sound of my voice who will live to see the day when this (the territory embraced by the half-circle) will become one of the brightest stars in the galaxy of stars.” (This can be interpreted but one way i.e., starting at Mazatlan and ending at Veracruz, draw an arc across the Republic of Mexico and see what happens.)

Because of the ill health of his wife and baby girl, the family was advised by Apostle Erastus Snow to return to St. George for an extended visit to their parents. He took his eldest son, Sam, along and they traveled by wagon by way of Lordsburg, New Mexico and Mesa, Arizona, crossing the Colorado at Johnson’s ferry, then on to St. George. They arrived just before Christmas, 1886.

Early in the journey, his wife was thrown from the spring seat and run over by both wheels, which pressed over her body from right shoulder to left hip. She was driving the team down a sliding, sandy bank, while he and Sam walked. He realized the seriousness of the situation, and in humble prayer told the Lord that He could have the expected child if he would spare the life of his wife.  During the remainder of the trip she was confined to her bed in the wagon box. On May 4th 1887, a baby girl, Amelia, was born, and died quite suddenly in September. They resigned themselves to the loss, knowing she was a promised child.

Sam and his son spent the summer months hauling wood for the Silver Reef Mining Company.  In October 1887, taking grandmother Baker, who was blind, with them, they began their trip to Mexico, traveling by way of Lee’s ferry and arriving at Colonia Juarez shortly before Christmas. Apostle George Teasdale was by this time in charge of the colonies and called Sam to help settle the mountain colonies. They were the sixth family to settle at Corrales.  The other families were: Franklin Spencer, Eddie Durfee, William Wallace Haws, Merit Howard Stahle, and James Palmer. While the Jarvis family lived there, three more children were born: Grace, Nephi, and Clementine. He was Sunday School Superintendent, and meetings were held in his two-room log house.

In a few years Colonia Pacheco, a few miles distant, grew to be the central mountain colony. A frame meetinghouse had been erected and surrounded with a high log fort as a safety precaution against invading Indians. In the same building a school was begun.  There had been only short terms held in private homes until then. In early summer of 1894, he bought Brother Moffett’s place and moved his family from Corrales to Pacheco, at which place his son Lehi was born. The few animals they brought with them to Mexico had by this time increased to a good-sized heard and quite a band of horses. Caring for these and farming took up most of father’s time. Most of the cows, except those milked for home consumption, were loose on the range and brought in only during the rainy season, when the whole country was a waving meadow of grama grass.  At this time, the calves were branded and butter and cheese made in abundance. The butter was put into molds, preserved in a barrel of brine, and kept for winter use. Cheese and potatoes were hauled to Chihuahua City or Deming, New Mexico, in exchange for cloth, sugar, salt, shoes, nails, leather, and other necessities.

Samuel was a great scout, and when the colonists’ animals were stolen he tracked them down. He was also a leader in time of Indian trouble. He was fearless, courageous, brave, and daring. He was a man of great faith, yet humble, prayerful, and blessed with intuition and spiritual inspiration, which made him equal to any situation.

He was often asked to give readings, make a stump speech for various celebrations, or take parts in plays. He was a leader in direct public work such as road, canal, or dam building. He was never idle, working daily even on stormy days, when he mended harnesses, repaired shoes, shelled corn, sorted potatoes, or made hair ropes. If ever there came a leisure moment, it was spent in reading and study. In this way he gained understanding of the scriptures and familiarized himself with the Spanish language. He loved sports, and was quite a wrestler and foot racer.  Ever mindful of greater opportunities for his family, in November, 1896, he moved to Colonia Juarez, where schools and social conditions were more desirable for growing children. This move made possible the purchase of a reed organ from Annie Williams, which gave added pleasure to Grandma Baker who, though blind, had been a music teacher and played beautifully from memory. While living in Juarez, two more sons, Joseph D. and Benjamin Charles, were born. At this time he took railroad contracts, the first being in the states of Durango and Coahuila, where he employed native laborers. It was during this time the young man, Manrique Gonzalez, was hired. He proved to be desirable help and was given a home with the Jarvises, where he helped care for the horses. They finish the contract after being gone the greater part of the year, then returned to Juarez, bringing Manrique with them. Manrique found a home with Patriarch Stowell, attended school, and afterward joined the Church.

Almost immediately after the return from the railroad contract, Samuel Jarvis was called by Stake President Anthony W. Ivins to go to Sonora and help open up settlements there.  He took the older boys, but left the remainder of the family. In due time, after the Pioneer Canal was finished in Colonia Morelos, fields cleared and fenced, and cultivation began, he asked for release, not wanting to take Grandmother Baker there. President Ivins felt the time was not ripe for such a measure. The rest of the Jarvises were moved to Colonia Morelos. Samuel W., Jr. was married, and George is on a mission to the Central States. In Morelos, Samuel Sr. Set up a grocery store, which his wife managed while he spent the greater part of his time on the road freighting. All merchandise was purchased in Colonia Dublan, until Douglas, Arizona, came into being. In rainy seasons, with their washed out roads, high waters, and mud holes, it sometimes took two weeks to make the round-trip, which is double the usual time. This, together with attempting to farm and look after cattle, was taxing to both body and mind. Under these conditions their 12th child, Mary Esther, was born.

The fall of 1905 came what is known as the “Great Flood.”  After a week of continuous rain, the Bavispe River rose to unprecedented heights, destroying the dam and canal systems from both sides of the river and washing away and cutting up fertile fields, destroying all the crops. This act of nature forced practically every male member of Colonia Morelos to seek means of support elsewhere. A railroad line being extended from Naco to Nacozari offered a solution in the form of jobbing and freighting. Here it was that Samuel married his second wife, Pearl Dean Taylor. With his father-in-law, Edwin A..Taylor and family from Colonia Juarez, the two men ran a butcher shop that season in Nacozari.  Camped at Calabasa Flat, Pearl’s first son, Hyrum Taylor, was born.

When the railroad was completed, Samuel returned to Colonia Morelos and, with others, opened new fields north of town on the Batepito River where farming was resumed. In May, 1906, Pearl second son, Edwin Walter, was born in Colonia Morelos.  In the summer of 1907, Samuel made a trip to St. George, Utah, accompanied by his wife Pearl, their two young sons, and his daughters Frances and Grace to attend Will’s temple marriage and visit Samuel’s parents. He returned to Colonia Morelos in early October.

In the spring of 1908 he was given his release as a colonizer from President Ivins and moved his families to Colonia Dublan, where, on June 16, Pearl’s third son, Brigham Taylor, was born. Some months later Samuel purchased the Frank Wall terreno (large field) in Guadalupe, about 10 miles up the river from Dublan, where he again took up farming. Here their daughter Pearl was born on April 24, 1910. Prior to her birth, Samuel took a contract building a railroad, as the Noroeste was extending its road from the vicinity of Casas Grandes to Madero via Pearson and El Rucio.

Revolutionary movements were already brewing in Chihuahua, the effects of which brought about the Exodus from Mexico in 1912. At that time all the women and children of the Chihuahua colonies were taken to El Paso on freight cars. Finding themselves dependent on the United States government or other charities, many of the colonists accepted transportation arrangements by the Church and the railroads so they could go where they had relatives. The men came out overland on horseback, joining their families as soon as possible. Samuel Jarvis took his families and went to St. George, Utah for a season. Here, on October 15, 1915, Ernest Van Buren was born.  After attending October conference in Salt Lake City, Samuel returned to Mexico and brought teams and wagons out to Arizona. He stopped at Saint David, Arizona and traded a team and wagon for a 40-acre homestead near the Whetstone Mountains, southwest of Benson. This area was called Miramonte.  Here another shack was built to “prove” this property.

As life was rigorous and they had little to work with, being forced to relive pioneer experiences, food was plain and simple. In order to receive proper care, Pearl went to El Paso for the birth of Bessie Ann on March 15, 1916. After some six years of difficult living, helping to build dams on the San Pedro River, enlarging the Benson canal, clearing and bringing under cultivation new land and hoping to better his condition, Samuel exchanged his holdings in San Pedro Valley (Benson) for land under new irrigation system near Ysleta, Texas.  Only months after living there, Pearl was a victim of the influenza epidemic in the spring of 1919, leaving her small children to the care of Frances, Samuel’s first wife. The water in Ysleta was blamed for Samuel’s own failing health, so he moved his wife Frances and his young family back to Colonia Dublan, Mexico.  However, he never regained his health, and passed away after considerable suffering on February 7, 1923, leaving Frances and Lehi to care for the children. He was buried in the Dublan cemetery on February 9, 1923.

Samuel Walter Jarvis, Jr., son, and Grace Fenn, daughter

Stalwarts South of the Border page 329

Manrique Gonzalez

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Manrique Gonzalez

(1880 – 1976)

 Manrique Gonzalez was born October 19, 1880.  His parents, Juan Francisco Gonzalez and Juliana Rodriquez Campos, lived in a small town in the northern part of the state of Coahuila named Nadores.

Manrique’s father was a school teacher in the surrounding farming districts.  He and his wife had 15 children, ten boys and five girls.  Manrique was the seventh child.  He left home when he was 14 years old, living first with an uncle in Torreon, Coahuila, Mexico and later in San Pedro close by, but keeping his whereabouts a secret for fear of being forced to return home.

At San Pedro he was employed by American railroad contractors and for the first time heard the word “Mormon.”  He became acquainted with David A. Stevens and wife and with Samuel Jarvis and his son George.  When he came to know the principles and beliefs that actuated the lives of these men, he as most favorably impressed.  He wanted to be like them, to do the things they did, which to him seemed perfect.  They didn’t use tobacco, tea, or coffee, neither did they drink liquor, and they kept the Sabbath day holy.  Even more important, they treated their workmen with consideration and kindness.  Life could offer nothing better than to allow him to remain always in their society.  Nothing gratified him more that to take his money to Mrs. Stevens to save for him.  When it had reached the fabulous sum of sixty pesos, he sent it home to his father.

When he moved with the contractors to Chihuahua where railroad grading was continued and the job was completed, he gladly accepted an invitation to move with the company to colonia Juarez where he took up residence with the Mormons.  From 1898 until the preset time (1966) he has remained a part of society in the colonies.  The only exception to this is the period he spent in the United States in search of higher education.  In Colonia Juarez he lived with first one family and then another, all the time working to learn the English language.  Despite his age and his adult growth, he entered Sarah Clayson’s Primary Department and took his first schooling in the language with little tots in the first grade.  He was kind to them and they responded well to the friendly young man who sat on an adult-sized chair brought in especially for him because the school benches were too small.  In five years he had mastered the essentials in elementary instruction and was given the customary certificate of graduation from the eighth grade in the spring of 1903.  He was then twenty-two years of age.

His progress in the study of religion was also rapid.  His eager questions about Mormonism were answered to his satisfaction.  On September 2, 1899, at the age of  18, he was baptized by John c. Harper and confirmed the following day as a member of the church by Anthony W. Ivins.  He later said, it was “the happiest day of my life.  I was no longer alone, I had brothers and sisters who cared for me and were interested in my welfare.  I felt bound to the community in every way.”

As soon as the hands that had confirmed him and bestowed upn him the Gift of the Holy Ghost had been lifted from his head, the venerable Patriarch, John Holt arose from his seat and walked solemnly to the stand.  In the hush that followed this pretentious action, he began to speak.  His first words were unintelligible, then all realized they were listening to one speaking in tongues. When he had finished, the congregation waited eagerly for interpretation. When it came, it concerned Manrique’s conversion and future:  that if he remained true to the covenants made in the waters of baptism his power and influence for good would be felt throughout the nation; that his baptism would open the door through which many of his people would pass; that he would be a saviour to his own family. “What surprised me,” said Manrique later, “was why interpretation was necessary. I understood every word of it.”

In October, 1903, Professor Guy C. Wilson, in a characteristically discerning decision, asked Manrique to accept position at the Juarez Academy as a Spanish teacher. To fortify Manrique’s extreme lack of self-confidence, Professor Wilson promised to remain in the room to help should annoying situations arise, and bolster Manrique with his support until he grew more self-assure.  On this condition Manrique accepted. He had little formal study in the Spanish language, but because it was his native tongue, he learned quickly. In the first year he learn the fundamentals along with the other students. He also took lessons on the side. By teaching and studying together, he felt that he learned far more than he taught. He graduated from the institution in 1910 at the age of 28.

For seven years he held his place as a faculty member, taking class after class of students through De Torno’s Spanish Grammar, leading them into supplementary reading fields, drilling them on the rules to govern correct speech, and encouraging them to make use of the language in conversation groups he organize. He knew that free discussion and constant use of Spanish was the shortest road to fluency it was also his best means of learning English, and both he and the classes he taught discovered that studying two languages made each a supplement to the other.

The prediction uttered the day of his confirmation was literally fulfilled. Through him, several members of his family followed him to the colonies and life was changed for them as it had in for him. He was the first Mexican citizen to graduate from the Academy, but not the last. He was but the example that led dozens of others to follow in his steps in the years that followed.

By 1912 when the Madero Revolution broke up the Juarez Stake, he had a wife and five children. With these and little else he entered the Agricultural College in Logan, Utah, where two more children were born, and by his own efforts, coupled with encouragement from professors and friends, earned the credentials to head an experimental agricultural station. When he failed to achieve this ambition, he took position in the U.S. Department of Agriculture in New Mexico, that position he held for six years. During that time he worked for the United States government, he developed by patient experimentation and hours of hard work, the New Mexico Pinto Bean.

At the height of his career, his family life broke up and he was released from his influential position through discrimination against his religion. He returned to his native land and settled in Colonia Dublan with the words of A.W. Ivins ringing in his ears: “Manrique,” he said, “would you like to be rich and happy? “Well,” he continued when Manrique nodded vigorously, “it’s in your hands.”  In his hands! That was all he had besides what he had learned through study and experience. But with those he went to work.

He married Regina Del Palacio about 1920 and began a happy married life. In the course ofd raising six children he preached by example what he called the Gospel of Righteous Farming. First on rented lands, later on his own acres, he demonstrated correct methods of raising alfalfa, wheat and other grains and finally with orchards he used scientific methods that raised standards in farming.

Within a few years his financial standing was an enviable one. In 1966, at the age of 85 he is a contented, retired farmer living in Colonia Dublan, Chihuahua, enjoying the fruits of his labors in a comfortable and well furnished home, and is respected and esteemed by all who know him.

But only he knows how far it is from the life of a peon to the prominence of an agricultural expert, or what has gone into the fulfilling of the promise made him by Patriarch Holt, or the pride he takes in his numerous posterity. A son, Ernesto, is an eminent physician. A grandson, Carlos, appeared in “I Believe,” a column of the Improvement Era.  And there are auxiliary leaders and priesthood quorum directors and church workers sprinkled through his descendents. One grandson, Miguel, recently serving in the northern Mexican mission (1966) with his companion were having little success in the city of Zacatecas.  Other missionaries before them had failed to make successful contact, much less perform a single baptism. Returning to their room one night, Miguel said, “There must be someone in this big city ready for baptism, let’s pray about it.”  Accordingly they both knelt in first one and then the other humbly prayed for guidance to that one individual. It was 10 p.m. before their Ernest please had come to an end. Then Miguel said, “let’s go right now and find him tonight.” And in spite of the lateness of the hour they knocked on the door of the most pretentious house they could find. The doors open by the lady of the house and heard housecoat, and already for bed. “We have a message for you,” said Miguel when she met them. “Come in,” she said, and led them to a reception room. “But first,” she said, “I will call my husband to hear your message, too.”  He soon appeared in robe and slippers, having already retired. Before they could give all of the message she said, “wait! My children was hear this, too.”  Soon, tousleheaded and sleepy-eyed, they were in the room. The message was given. In six days the entire family was ready for baptism. The man, being politically influential, gained other investigators and within a few weeks a branch of 30 souls was organized.  Manrique’s determination and zeal still lives on.

Nelle Spilsbury Hatch

Stalwarts South Of the Border page 212