Tag Archives: Mormon Colonies in Mexico

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

August Christian Fredrick Bluth

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August Bluth

August Bluth

August Christian Fredrick Bluth

(1842-1930)

August Christian Fredrick Bluth was born on August 24, 1842, in Stockholm, Sweden, to Johannes Christian Fredrick Bluth and Wilhelmina Liding.  His father died three months before August, the youngest of eight children, was born.

As most of the older children were grown and married when he was yet a small boy, August was very close to his mother, and was a great comfort to her after her husband’s death. He lived with his mother in their small island home by the sea.

At the age of six he made his own fishing net. He would put it in the in see at night and in the morning empty is catch and will bucket which he took to a small store in trade for other foods needed at home. He also fished hook and line to help support his mother.

With only three months of formal schooling, August could be considered self educated. Yet in latter years he helped his children with her studies in algebra, geometry, history and geography. As a child, he went each day to a Lutheran minister; for daily readings of the Bible, he came to know it well, and memorized a great many passages. He had a fine singing voice and saying in that Lutheran choir when he was ten. Years later he sang in Mormon choirs. Men and boys liked to sit by him during rehearsals for he was a great help to them.

When he was 12 he started an eight-year training program for a diploma in carpentry. He graduated with high honors in May, 1862, at the age of 19 and went to work building houses and doing fine finishing carpentry.

On May 10, 1867, he married Hannah Hammerstrom in St. Jacobs church in Stockholm. A son, Fredrick Zacharias, was born to them on September 6, 1868. His wife ran a small store in front of their home while he worked at his trade. Hannah died June 14, 1875. After her death he closed the store.

One evening when he was returning home from work he saw a crowd of people listening to some Mormon Elders preaching on the street corner. He listened, and was impressed with her message, which seemed to be what he had been seeking for years. The Elders came to his home and he was soon converted to Mormonism. He in turn converted his oldest brother, John, and five members of his family. With new hope he had something to live for. He met Josephine Alberta Rose and converted her. They were both baptized, and were married February 17, 1876.

With his wife and son Frederick, now eight, August came to Utah in the company of other Saints and settled in Ogden, Utah. On August 19, 1877, a daughter Tyra Josephine, was born. Work being scarce in Ogden, the family moved to Brigham City, and later to Evanston, Wyoming.

They Latter-day Saints were living in The United Order at this time and most of August’s income went to help in this great cause.  A son, Bernard August, was born on December 8, 1878. On August 14, 1878, Tyra Josephine died, and in the same year, September 3, his wife Josephine died. In 1879 Bernard died. These losses were almost more than August could endure.

On October 9, 1879 he married Johanna Johannsson who had come to America from Sweden.  Six children were born to them, Johanna August, Rosia Elvira, Rosemilda, Ranghilda, Oscar Emmanuel, Jared William, and Carl Emil.  Two of these children died in Ogden.  When his son Fredrick was nineteen he obtained employment in an Ogden co-op store.  Delivering goods in a wagon, the horse ran away; Fred fell from the wagon and was dragged..  He died June 1, 1887, and was buried in the Ogden cemetery.

When leaders of the Church advised August to live plural marriage, he said he would try to comply. On August 14, 1887, he married Sophia Anderson, who had, by a previous marriage in Sweden, a six-year-old son, Fred. On June 8, 1889, he married hold the Ossmen. By this time persecution had become so bitter that all who were living plural marriage were advised to go to Mexico.

August, with his families, arrived in Deming, New Mexico on May 15, 1889. Here for his children had diptheria. On June 1, Jared died. They continued on to Colonia Dublan by wagon and arrived June 24, 1889 with three children: Hilda, Oscar, and Emil. Dublan was a barren flat with only for Mormon families living there: The Carltons, Whipples, Fosters, and Lakes.  The Bluth family lived in a tent with a bowery. Because of bad weather and many hardships, August developed bronchitis and was very ill. A bed was made on the floor of the tent for Hilda Josephine when she gave birth to a baby, Ellen Josephine, born March 5, 1890.

Food was very scarce and pioneer life was extremely rugged. As conditions improved, August made adobes and in time was able to build a two-room home for his families. In September, 1893 Hulda gave birth to a son, Earl Lawrence. Hulda died and in less than a month Earl Lawrence also died. Grief-stricken, August made the coffins.

His wife, Sophia, and her son Fred had come from Ogden into Mexico with Albert and Sarah Farnsworth. On March 23, 1893 Sophia gave birth to a son, Oliver Ferdinand.  Later Sophia and her husband worked at the Corralitos ranch; then he helped build the Jackson flour mill near Old Casas Grandes.  August would walk several miles to work Monday morning, stay until Saturday evening, then walk home again. His salary was 50 centavos a day. Later he helped build the Lewis Cardon, the Rueben Farnsworth, and the Mike Larson homes in Colonia Dublan, and also the Relief Society building and the Mexican Branch church.

Known for his fine workmanship, August for many years made coffins for people in Dublan and Juarez.

In 1910, because of the Mexican Revolution, he moved his family to Tucson, Arizona, where his brother-in-law, Heber Farr, had bought several hundred acres of land. Together they formed a company. In Tucson the Bluths lived in the Rillito Ranch, which later was called Binghamton. He left his 20-acre farm that he had purchased in Colonia Dublan with a married son, Oscar. Sophia, and her son Fred, also stayed in Mexico. When living in Tucson he received word that his stepson, Fred, had drowned on August 5, 1891, while crossing the Casas Grandes River; his horse had stepped into deep water. Fred’s body was not found until a week later.

In January 1915, August moved back to Colonia Dublan. He built a cozy little home across the street from Bishop A. B. Call’s home where his grandchildren loved to visit him. He raised fruit and kept bees, selling honey and honeycomb to the townspeople. He enjoyed making doll furniture for his grandchildren. As his health began to fail, he needed more care and moved from his little home to be near Ellen. He died March 25, 1930, at the age of 87. Joanna died February 12, 1937, and Sophia on August 13, 1938. Life was never easy for those pioneers, but they were always valiant during hardships, and they love their home in Mexico.

Ellen Josephine Bluth Jones, daughter

Pg 51 Stalwarts South of the Border Nelle Spilsbury Hatch

Apache Indians Massacre Members of the Thompson Family

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In 1891 when Helaman Pratt moved his family back to the Colonies in the lower valley, he leased his ranch to Hans A. Thompson, a Scandinavian, who moved there with his wife, Karren, two sons, Hyrum, age 18 and Elmer age 14, and a granddaughter, Annie, age 6.

The ranch was about 10 miles from Pacheco in the Piedras Verde Rio area.

Mr. Thompson had only left the previous day for Pacheco where he was working on the thresher. The morning of September 19, 1892 promise to be a fine one at the Thompson ranch, as ominous clouds had not yet risen above the horizon. In the absence of the father, who was working on the thresher (of which he was part owner) at Pacheco, his two sons, Hyrum and Elmer, started early to the fields, carrying a bucket a feed for the pigs as they went. As little Annie skipped back to the house with empty pails, her screams of terror alert the boys to the presence of Indians on the ranch. As Hyrum turned to look, a bullet passed through his body but he did not fall. Thinking to protect his mother, Elmer ran toward the house for the Winchester gun, calling back to Hyrum that the pistol was on the saddle in the barn.  Just then two more shots were fired, one killing Hyrum who fell behind the pigpen, the other entering Elmer’s body in the left chest and passing out below the shoulder about three-fourths of an inch from his spine.

Though still able to stand, Elmer fell into a week ticket thinking thus to avoid a second bullet. When Indian, coming from behind the haystacks to loot the barn of saddles and harness straps, failed to see Elmer, he crept into the chicken coop from where he watched the proceedings. When the Indians broke open the kitchen door where Mrs. Thompson and Annie had barricaded themselves, they ran into the yard in full view of Elmer.

Bathed in his own blood and almost paralyzed with horror of seeing in Indian shoot his mother through the body and left arm and then crush her head with a rock, Elmer might have fainted except for his concern over Annie.  Her savage captor amused himself by her frantic efforts to escape and protect her grandmother. When flailing him with her sunbonnet and attempting to scratch his face was not enough amusement, he turned her loose, then tripped her as she ran past by throwing a harness strap over her head and holding it to both ends as she fell he struck her with his scabbard until she began to fight. This horseplay was halted by a call which took the tormentor into the house and Elmer had a chance to beckon Annie into the chicken coop with him. Lying by the door, armed with rocks, he determined to protect her as best he could.

The Indians looted the house of everything, even taking two suits of temple clothes. They entered the feather ticks, and 1000 pounds of flour in order to use the sacks to hold the loot. Like ants they hurried back and forth carrying the plunder to be strapped onto pack animals. They also took a new wagon cover, two saddles, and cut the harnesses for straps. They found considerable money hidden in one of the trunks.  When Annie’s captor returned from the house he brought some cheese, which he threw to his companion, and began looking for the child. When she was not to be found and Elmer had also disappeared from where he had fallen, the Indians left hastily, driving 15 valuable ranch horses with them.

When the savages had gone, the children began the trip to the G. C. Williams’ ranch for help, but Elmer soon faded from loss of blood. The little girl ran to the stream and cupping her hands, carried water until he revived. She left him under a tree and ran alone with her dog. Soon she met a horseman, Sullivan C. Richardson, who heard the story, took her to the Williams’ ranch and hurried to Cave Valley to give the alarm.

The news had quickly spread.  Kind friends from Cave Valley, four miles away, took care of the dead and administered to Elmer. A posse of men went in pursuit of the Indians, but was not able to catch up to them. Following the strategy every man carried a gun, even to church.

The following is told by Sullivan C. Richardson:

“I left her (Annie) at Williams’ ranch and hurried to Cave Valley to give the alarm. While brother Heaton got in touch with Hans Thompson at Pacheco, I and brothers Robert Vance, P.S. and John Williams, N.H.Perry and James Mortensen went with team and wagon and on horseback to the Pratt ranch.  On the way we found Elmer under the shade of the pines where he had fallen during his attempt to reach Williams’ ranch. He was made as comfortable as possible on a coat in the wagon and afterwards, with the care of brother Mortenson and the blessings of the Lord, got well. We went on to the ranch and then to Cave Valley with Elmer and the bodies of his mother and brother.  There Bob Vance and I hurried on to Dry Valley. Some may realize my joy and thankfulness, when, from the timbers across the valley, I saw Eliza come to the door of the cabin—all right and unaware of any trouble.”

That night coffins and burial clothes were made for the dead bodies. One sister who helped, wrote: “For years after, whenever I closed my eyes, I could see those awful scenes at Thompson’s ranch, and that woman’s bashed in head, and feel my fears when I thought the Indians were upon us and would take our children.”

The next day at sundown, the bodies of sister Thompson and her son, Hyrum, faithful members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, were interred side-by-side at Cave Valley.

 

Taken from the book Heartbeats of Colonia Diaz from the compilation Pacheco History and Stories by Sylvia Lunt Heywood.

Laura Ann Hardy Mecham

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Laura Ann Hardy Mecham

(1865–1933)

Laura Ann Hardy Mecham, the fourth child of ten children born to Josiah Guile Hardy and his second wife, Ann Denston, was born November 26, 1865 in Mountain Dell Salt Lake County, Utah.

She married February 13, 1881, to G.O. Noble, to whom was born a daughter, Laura Maude. Due to the severe persecution of polygamous families, he chose to abandon Laura, his second wife.  The divorce became effective in 1889.  Then she married Lucian Mormon Mecham in the St. George Temple.  The daughter Maude died at the age of two years and was buried in St. George.

At this period of time many people from Utah were looking south for new fields to colonize as well as for freedom from religious persecution. The Josiah Guile Hardy family joined the stream of pioneers looking to Mexico and new opportunities. Lucian and Lara joined with them and, in 1891, traveling by team and wagon across Arizona and into New Mexico, crossing at Columbus into the land to be their new home. Colonia Pacheco was the birthplace of their last three children. Their first child was born in St. George and, as an infant, endured the difficult trip.

Pioneer life was hard and privations many. Lucian found farming the small acreage in this remote mountainous settlement very difficult with his handicap from birth of club feet, and especially following a freighting accident where his feet were crushed and bones broken. As a couple, they resorted to itinerant merchandising from colony to colony, selling books and dry goods that the colonists could purchase or barter for. This brought but a meager income. Then they tried operating a restaurant in Chihuahua City as a source of income.

Many are the loads of lumber freighted down the San Diego dugway, with Laura accompanying Lucian to help him with his handicap. He was as handy as any of the other freighters in hitching and managing the teams. Her hand was apt around the campfire and with the nosebags and harnesses.  Many children and adults alike delighted at Christmas time to find a new pair of buckskin gloves in their stocking which had been made by Laura’s talented and never tiring fingers. Her children more beautiful homemade dresses, suits and other peril as a result of her talent and ambition.

Finding living difficult and means scarce, Lucian and Laura heard of opportunities for freighting from Cananea to Naco in Sonora, so they, along with others from both the Sonora and Chihuahua colonies, headed that way. Living in tents and freighting with six horse teams and heavy wagons was not an easy life. During all those ventures away from home the children—Theodosia, Lucian, and two adopted children Pearl and Edgar Hallett—were left in Grandmother Hardy’s care.  As a dutiful daughter Laura had assumed much of the responsibility for her mother’s care, along with that of her feeble-minded sister, Mary, her father having passed away in Colonia Pacheco in 1894, three years after their arrival.

After being in Pacheco short time after the Cananea venture they headed for Cos station in Sonora which is halfway between Agua Prieta and Nacozari. Here they freighted between the end of the railroad and Nacozari, carrying merchandise to Nacozari and copper ore on the haul back. This continued until the completion of the railroad when they moved to Nacozari. The money spirit was high and prospecting was tempting, so a claim was taken up in the mine of the Pilares.  This was worked for some time and developed for sale. A fine prospect for a lucrative sale was promoted for $50,000 pesos (the peso was then worth $.50 to the dollar). But the idea of making the terms in American money and doubling the price upset the deal and the sale fell through. The property was never sold. All the labor, time and expense was lost. At that time $50,000 pesos would have been worth a fortune, like $1 million a day. Dame Luck never followed their path.

Lucian turned a stagecoach venture and build up a promising trade and a lucrative stage system, driving a four and six force “Royal Coach” from Nocozari to Moctezuma, adding other stages when needed with higher drivers. This ended in disaster when the many horses use in the stage system were to have been sold and delivered; but through the negligence of the person sent to deliver them, becoming drunk, some of the horses foundered and died and others were turned out of the corral and became lost. The financial loss was heavy.

The greatest event in Laura Mecham’s life came at this critical time when she was asked by a Doctor Keats, the company physician, to help him in the small and poorly equipped hospital which served both the employees and the public. Although she had enjoyed but a third grade education, she had not let her time pass in idleness and had developed greatly her reading ability and talent for learning. Doctor Keats was very willing to train her and give her needed assistance. She, being eager to learn, advanced happily became able to they just technical medical books, as her later years attested. Her training continued under Doctor Ayer, who was a retired army Doctor and very exacting, which was excellent training for her. In all, she served under many doctors and learned from each one during the years from 1903 to 1912. Then she left the hospital and moved to Douglas to be with and provide a home for her family that had been driven out of Mexico during the Revolution.

One great event happened while she was working in the hospital Nacozari when the explosion that nearly wrecked the town occurred. The train headed for the mine at Pilares, loaded with three cars of dynamite, caught fire. To save the town, Jesus Garcia, engineer, conducted it out of town before it exploded, losing his life and killing scores. The town bears the name of Nacozari de Garcia in his honor.  The explosion occurred over a mile from the hospital, but window panes were broken and plaster shaken from the ceiling, leaving the hospital in a disastrous condition to receive the dead and wounded that were rushed in.

In Douglas from 1912 to 1917, Laura operated a rooming house to make a home for the family. It was here that in 1913 Theodosia married Joseph P. Lewis from Colonia Morelos. Lucian married Kate Brown, the daughter of John Wesley Brown and Sarah Elizabeth Styles, converts from Alabama and recently from Colonia Chuhuichupa. After these marriages, Grandmother Hardy went to Orderville, Utah, to be with her son John Hardy. Lucian and Laura then moved back to the colonies as things had settled in Mexico by this time. For the first time Laura could enjoy the Elsie McClellan home, as she had previously stayed in Nacozari to help pay for the property and the family had lived in the home from 1910 to 1912.

Then commenced a number of mercantile ventures in the buying of property, the purchase of the Richardson home adjoining the two Brigham Stowell properties north of the main home, and in being the community doctor.  Laura began restoring properties, making them livable and attractive. She did much of her own freighting for the store from in Dublan and Pearson. She clerked, irrigated and helped in farming. Always her medicine cabinet was filled and hand satchel in readiness for emergencies. Winter or summer, heat or cold, day or night, on foot or horseback, in buggy, wagon, or car, it was all the same to her if someone sick demanded her attention. Many are the times that she went for days only with her “forty winks” for rest and a change of clothes.

During her period of service, she delivered and cared for, including the customary 10 day period following confinement, some 2200 babies. Most of them delivered in homes where often there were the most unsanitary conditions and the most meager and modest of circumstances. Yet, through it all, they were very few serious complications. There are literally thousands who call her blessed. She had a natural gift for healing and although she had no medical schooling or specialized training, her ability to diagnose and expertly treat sickness and emergencies are vouched for by hundreds, and your place in the hearts of the colonists and the Mexican people alike abides as an angel of mercy.

In 1925 she suffered a paralytic stroke, leaving her partially paralyzed and unable to carry on her normal activities. She then spent two years in Salt Lake City working in the temple, doing endowment work for hundreds. Through her life she had been a hard worker, doing the work of several persons, putting in longer hours than was wise, often working as though she were a man. In this she definitely was not observing the Word of Wisdom, as she was taxing her physical strength, and suffered another stroke in 1930, which left her bedridden until her death in 1933.  She spent her last years in Douglas and Chandler with Theodosia and Lucian, passing away January 29, 1933 in Douglas. She was buried in the Douglas cemetery.

Of the five children born to Laura Mecham, three died in infancy, but Theodosia and Lucian where a comfort and joy to their parents. Lucian and Laura’s descendants now number more than 60. Among them are doctors, teachers, artisans, housewives, missionaries, and loyal, good citizens.

Lucian M. Mecham, Jr., son

Stalwarts South of the Border page 477

Daniel Skousen

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Daniel Skousen

1865 – 1940

Daniel Skousen was the sixth child and fourth son of James Niels Skousen and Sidsel Marie Pedersen.  James Niels Skousen was born September 30, 1828, in Herslev, Vejle, Denmark.  Sidsel Marie Pedersen was born August 23, 1826, in Leasby, Aarhus, Denmark.

 They heard the message of the Elders after they were married, believed and were baptized. He was one of the King’s Guards in Denmark. Soon after they joined the Church they began saving to move to America. They had four children born in Denmark before they accumulate enough funds to make the journey. The oldest child, a girl, Petria, and the third child, Parley Pratt, died in Denmark.

On April 17, 1865, Daniel was born in Draper, Utah. He had eight brothers and sisters and had to help his parents make a living in a new and strange land. He went to school but a few months each year and all the formal schooling he gained was during those few months in Draper. The work Daniel did was to herd cows and as with most boys, he found time to swim, play and lie in the sun. But he learned early in life, as did the other members of his family, to obey.  Sometimes he learned the hard way. His parents were very strict. His mother was especially strong willed, a characteristic passed on to Daniel. But also he inherited, among other things, wisdom and a desire to work.

The Church soon called the Skousen family to help settle Arizona. With all their belongings loaded into two wagons they started on this move. Dan drove the cows and loose stock. They settled in St. Joseph first and there they lived the United Order. After a short time it was discontinued. Then they moved to Springerville, took up farms and thought this would be their permanent home. Dan’s father had taken a plural wife who was also a woman from Denmark, so it wasn’t long until the law took him to prison. This left the responsibility of care of the family on Daniel and his brother Peter.

Daniel was a sober man but very attractive and a first-rate baseball player, checker player and wrestler. He enjoyed good sportsmanship. He was a sports fan and it stayed with him through life. Not only did he enjoy sports but he loved to dance and sing. The arts were always interesting to him. He was put on the spot many times in his social life and forced to stand up for what he knew was right. This was especially the case with the Word of Wisdom. Very often designing men would tempt him, almost with force, to go against what he thought was right. But he stood by his convictions and would talk his way out and leave the drunken companions with his explanations.

It seems that he seldom escorted only one lady friend alone. They usually went in groups. But all the time he had his eye on one special girl, Melvina Clay Greer. She was his favorite dancing partner. When his younger sister, Caroline, decided to go to St. George and be married, Daniel thought it a good idea to go along. He convinced Melvina to accompany him. The four of them made the trip by team and wagon to St. George where they were married for time and eternity on December 9, 1885.

It was soon learned that one of Dan’s father’s families would have to leave the country if his father were to remain out of jail. So Dan, with his young bride, took his mother and younger brother and sister to Mexico. Dan and Malley (Melvina) had no idea of staying in Mexico, since his brother Peter had also come to Mexico to make his home and could take care of his mother. But it wasn’t long until Dan decided to make his home in Mexico also.  The people were still living below the present town site and were sorely in need of lumber to build things. Brother Joseph Moffett and Dan went up on the mountain, sawed lumber by hand, to help build homes, furniture and other things. This was the first lumber sawed in the colonies.

Dan was a healthy, stalwart, robust young man, six feet tall. Never was he afraid of work. “Early to bed and early to rise” was his theme song, and a light scarcely ever found him in bed. He always enjoyed good health except in the last year of his life when he was stricken with terrible pain. After taking him to a specialist in El Paso, they operated and found him afflicted with cancer. He was bedridden for nine months, and his body wasted away with the disease.

Dan was a faithful member of the Church. He upheld authority both by deed and precept. He worked in the Sunday School Superintendency for years and was always punctual and depending. He instilled these qualities into his children. He was an honest tithe payer and always had family prayers.  The choir depended on his rich bass voice and he enjoyed singing at public gatherings. At all the old folks’ gatherings, which were held once a year, he was asked to render one or two vocal solos. He encouraged his children not to only improve their talents but also render service whenever possible.

Dan worked wherever he could to earn a living for his family and for his mother, as his father did not come to Mexico to live but remained in Arizona. He found work in Galeana on a thresher at harvest time and as foreman of a big hacienda owned by Don Luis Terrazas in San Diego. Wherever he went, he made a good name for himself through his honest, fair and well-done work. His employer soon found out that they could trust him and could depend on what he said.

Daniel met was several severe accidents is almost cost him his life. One of these was while freighting down the San Diego Canyon. Two span of horses drawing a big wagon loaded with lumber were coming down the steep grade when the brake block broke turning the load loose. They were nearing a bend in the road and Dan knew they were going too fast to make it, so he climbed out onto the tongue of the wagon and dropped to the ground, hoping the load would pass over him and leave him unharmed. All would have been well, but the tongue chain caught his foot and threw it under the wheel crushing his foot and ankle. Brigham Pierce, living nearby, hearing the noise, came to see the cause. Seeing Dan badly hurt, he was going to take him to his home but Dan, being a lover of animals, asked him to please go cut the teams loose first. He could hear them struggling far down the hill. Dan was confined to his bed for four months. Blood poisoning set in and Dr. Lake did all he could for him but to no avail. One day Edmond Richardson came in. Seeing the pain Dan was in, he turned and walked out, returning soon with a drug. This brought relief and with the administration of other strong drugs he was soon up and around on crutches.

His dependability was proverbial. When a Sunday school representative came from Selig city, desiring to go to Pacheco, he could find no one who was able to take him. He then inquired where Dan Skousen was. Dan was plowing but when the request came he unhitched his team from the plow put on his light buggy and took Brother Stoddard and started to Pacheco.

He was Counselor to Bishop John J. Walser and people were yet taking plural wives. President Anthony W. Ivins, a close friend, asked him why he didn’t do likewise. Dan was slow to act but when he decided to join the ranks, he already had one picked out: a lively girl, Sarah Ann Spilsbury, who had been helping Dan and Malley in their home. They were married by an Apostle.

In 1901 he bought a gristmill from William R. R. Stowell.  Don Luis Terrazas advanced him the money. By this time Dan Skousen’s name was as good as his bond, he could borrow money or have credit anytime he wanted. He also took a contract with Brother Stowell to build a dam for Luis Terrazas up on Tapiacitas.  The dam held for many years. Dan built a 14 room house for his family and was always reaching out for more property. He leased a large tract of farming land south of the Colonia Juarez purchase and he bought a 300 acre farm called the “Ojo,” north of old Casas Grandes.

Dan had the ability to get along with Mexicans. He was willing to help show them how to plant and irrigate their land and how to harvest the crops. He worked on committees to visit the governor and often went to Mexico City on legal matters. He was known as “Don Daniel” by his native friends. Especially was this manifest during the Revolution. The coming and going of different factions was a difficult situation and it was his policy, as recommended by the Church, to be neutral. Very often he was called in to settle disputes for them. At the time Poncho Villa was in Casas Grandes, when leaders of the Stake and others had gone to get him to return some of their horses, Villa sent them on their way with threats. Dan also called upon him. And although Villa was very disturbed, without raising his voice or losing control of himself, Dan convinced Poncho Villa of their need and soon Villa gave him an order for some of the horses to be returned.

At the time of the Exodus, when most colonists left the country, Dan Skousen and his wife, Sarah, were among the first to return. Brother Ivins, former Juarez Stake President, said, “If I had a mill full of wheat like brother Skousen, I would go back.”

Dan’s material wealth, was almost depleted by the end of the Revolution; but they couldn’t take his land, only what he raised on it. He still had faith in future crops. Many of the rebel leaders ate at his table. He believed “it is better to feed them than to fight them,” but often it wasn’t all voluntary. During the Revolution he never knew when he went to bed at night what would find in his spacious yard the next morning. He trusted in the Lord and taught his family to have the same faith and prayer. He was held for ransom many times, with guns held at his head if he didn’t give over all his money or his guns. He was threatened with having his hay, mill and home burned, but with that same reasoning power, “that a soft word turneth away wrath,” he evaded many possible catastrophes. Many a person, Mexican and Anglo alike, came seeking help, either for themselves or for their family, eating either money or protection until opposing forces left. But it must be said to the honor of the Revolutionaries, that while on the ranch, soldier and leader alike, they were courteous to the womenfolk. At times, however, the women would cut the ropes from around the horses neck, put a child on its back and give therefore suspect, sitting the writer on the run for the tall cornfields or plum thickets to hide until the rebels and gone away.

Dan was a devoted husband and father and very much the head of his family. He sired 14 daughters and seven sons. Seven of these 21 children died in their tender years. Three of them filled honorable missions. All the living children obtain their education in the Juarez Stake Academy and graduated, many with honors. One became a registered nurse and returned to Colonia Juarez and was an angel of mercy to her hometown. They have all fill positions of leadership in their Wards and Stakes. Three children obtained their degrees from college and many of them have taught school, two of them in the Academy.

Dan was an active member of the High Council for many years and on the board of education. He was proud of each of his children and never missed an opportunity to attend cultural events sponsored by the school. Sports were his love and when his boys took an active part he was always one of the fans.

His love of animals and his ability to get them to respond to his desires because of his kind treatment was phenomenal. He always had a favorite horse that he would ride. And scarcely ever did one see him without his shovel. He could irrigate probably more profitably than anyone else, and water was at a premium in those days. So Dan, his horse and his shovel were a common sight on the streets of Colonia Juarez.

He lived in Colonia Juarez 54 ½ years. He was well thought of by businessmen of the area and in the border cities as well. He enjoyed the respect of many and left the example of his stalwart characteristics to his posterity.

Sarah S. Skousen, wife

Stalwarts South of the Border Nelle Spilsbury Hatch page 610

Hazel Mecham Skousen

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Hazel Mecham Skousen, 83, passed away February 21, 2001 in Orem, Utah.

She was born in Logan, Utah on July 20, 1917 to Lucian M. Mecham Jr. and Sarah Katherine (Katie) Brown Mecham. The family moved to Colonia Juarez, Mexico when Hazel was an infant, and it was there she spent her childhood years and received her early schooling. The family’s next move was to Chandler, Arizona. It was there Hazel finished her schooling and met and married her husband, Karl M Skousen in the Mesa Arizona LDS Temple on September 18, 1934. They moved to Provo, Utah in 1940 and have called the Provo-Orem-Spanish Fork area home since then, even though they have lived in other areas of the country for short periods of time while Hazel’s husband was furthering his education and acquiring additional experience in his profession. Together they have visited all 50 states as well as other countries. Hazel was preceded in death by her parents, three brothers, Melvin, Gerald and Arthur, a son-in-law, David M. Reay, and two great-granddaughters.

She is survived by her husband, two sisters, Veda M. (Bernard) Stewart of Hayward, CA, Katherine (Newell) Barney of Queen Creek, AZ, three sisters-in-law, Ethel M. Dressler of Seal Beach, CA, Naoma Mecham of QueenCreek, AZ, and Alma M. Norris of Talpa, TX. She is also survived by her three children, Vonda Lee S. Reay of San Leandro, CA, Karyle S. (Verd) Rogers of Mesa, AZ, and K. Fred (Julie) Skousen of Provo, 15 grandchildren and 14 spouses, three great-grandchildren and their spouses, 54 additional great-grandchildren, and one great-great-granddaughter and numerous nieces and nephews.

Funeral services will be held Monday, February 26, 2001, at 9 a.m. in the Suncrest 9th Ward Chapel, 130 North 400 West in Orem. Interment will be in the East Lawn Memorial Hills Cemetery. Services are under the direction of Sundberg-Olpin Mortuary.

In lieu of flowers please send donations to the Hazel and Karl M Skousen Accounting Scholarship at BYU Hawaii in care of K. Fred Skousen at Brigham Young University in Provo.

 

Karl M Skousen

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Karl M Skousen 1915 ~ 2009 Karl M Skousen, 93, passed away peacefully on Oct. 9, 2009, at his daughter’s home in Gilbert, Arizona.Karl was born in Colonia Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, on December 23, 1915 to James Niels and Emma Fredrika Mortensen Skousen. He was reared in Chandler, AZ, graduating from Chandler High School in 1933. Karl married Hazel Mecham on September 18, 1934. They had two daughters and one son from their happy marriage. After graduating from Brigham Young University in 1944, Karl accepted a commission as an Ensign in U.S. Navy. Upon his release from the service, he settled his family in Utah County. He spent half his professional life in the automobile business, at one time owning Skousen Buick Company in Spanish Fork, Utah. In 1958, he became an accounting professor at BYU, having practiced as a CPA for several years. He then earned a PhD at Michigan State University and taught on the accounting faculty at BYU for the next 23 years. Many students benefitted from his excellent teaching and personal counseling. Karl was always an active member of the LDS Church, serving in many leadership positions, including as a High Councilor and Bishop. Karl and Hazel also served as full-time missionaries for the LDS Church in the Spain Seville Mission. He is survived by two brothers and three sisters as well as by his three children: Vonda S. Reay, Karyle (Verd) Rogers, and K. Fred (Julie) Skousen and a posterity of over 150 descendants. He was preceded in death by his sweetheart, Hazel. Funeral services will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at the Suncrest 5th Ward (130 N. 400 W., Orem, Utah). Funeral services were held previously in Arizona. Interment will be at the East Lawn Memorial Hills Cemetery, Provo. – See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/deseretnews/obituary.aspx?n=karl-skousen&pid=134320967#sthash.XtQrOt4N.dpuf

Samuel Keith Bowman

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Samuel Keith Bowman

Samuel Keith Bowman born November 22, 1921, in Colonia Dublan, Chihuahua, Mexico, the 5th child of Claudious Bowman and Jennie Stark Robinson, passed from this life on May 24, 2010 in Orem, Utah.

He lived a life full of service to his church, family and friends.  In his church service he served in many capacities to include service as a missionary in the Mexican mission as well as service in the Aaronic Priesthood Organization, Stake Missionary, High Councilor, Branch President, Bishop, and District President to the Tarahumara mountain territory under the Chihuahua Mexico Mission Presidency. He served as sealer in the Colonia Juárez México Temple and as a Patriarch in the Colonia Dublán, Chihuahua Stake for 15 years and most recently for 2 years in the Queen Creek, Arizona Stake.  He has served selflessly, tirelessly and lovingly and touched the lives of many people.

He is survived by his sweetheart of 64 years Mary Naoma Haynie and his nine children and their spouses, Keith LaRae Bowman and Charleen Cluff, Mary Eva Bowman Kvamme and James Douglas Kvamme, Naoma Susann Bowman Wagner and James Spencer Wagner, Samuel Kent Bowman and Marian Louise Stevens, Nancy Jenene Bowman, Patrick Tracy Bowman and Cathy Bonner, Karl Henry Bowman and Shauna Momberger, Claudia Ann Bowman Nelson and David Wayne Nelson and Anthony Esaias Bowman and Rosalee Ann Egbert.  Survived also by 35 grandchildren and 47 great grandchildren.  He is survived by his brothers Bardell Robinson Bowman, Donn Seymour Bowman and Maurice Dwight Bowman.  He is very loved and respected and his guidance will be missed. 

Funeral services will be held Saturday, May 29, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. at 56 East 600 North, Lindon, Utah. Viewings will be held Friday, May 28, 2010 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Olpin Family Mortuary, 494 South 300 East, Pleasant Grove and from 8:30 to 9:45 a.m. prior to services on Saturday.  Interment will be in the Lindon City Cemetery 550 North 200 East, Lindon. 

Moroni Taylor Abegg

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Moroni Taylor Abegg

July 16, 2003, Moroni Taylor Abegg, our noble and valiant patriarch, peacefully passed away in the arms of his sweetheart Patricia following complications from cancer.

Taylor was born on July 4, 1923 in Colonia Dublan, Chih., Mexico to Moroni Lehi Abegg and Rinda Taylor. After graduating from Juarez Stake Academy in 1941, Taylor attended BYU where he was voted freshman president and preferred man. There he met Patricia Flora Ann Terry and married in the Salt Lake Temple May 27, 1944. Taylor served in the US Army during World War II and Reserves for 10 years.

After completing his Doctorate at the U of U in Fuel Technology and Physical Chemistry, he worked for Lawrence Livermore Labs in CA. Five years later, he moved his family to Albuq., NM and worked for Sandia Labs for 11 years where he was responsible for 14 patents. He then moved to Salt Lake City, UT.

LDS callings included: Stake High Councilor, Bishop and Counselor, Stake President and Regional Representative. He served selflessly and was steadfast in his testimony of Jesus Christ.

Survived by his wife Patricia of 59 years and eight children: Patricia (Daron) Ockey, Pamela Nemelka, Wendy (Mark) Ciccetti, Rinda (Rafe) Black, M. Taylor (Marie) Abegg II, Sherman (Joy) Abegg, Marjorie (Scott) Cartwright and Norman (Melissa) Abegg; 40 grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren and his sister Hannah Louise (John) Clarke.

Funeral services will be held Monday, July 21, 2003 at 12 Noon at the Ensign 5th Ward, 580 18th Ave., Salt Lake City. Viewing held Sunday evening from 6 – 8 p.m. at the Larkin Mortuary, 260 E. So. Temple and Monday at the Ward 10:30-11:45 a.m. Interment, Salt Lake City Cemetery.