Pioneers to the North

Pioneers to the North

Elder Bradley Lunt Hill

Written originally in Spanish for the Mexico Area of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and published on July 1, 2015 on the Mexico Area Web Page in observance of Pioneer Day. The following is a translation prepared by the author on July 20, 2015 for the benefit of relatives and other interested readers. Some adjustments were made in the translated text for the sake of clarity.

See original article, with photographs: http://sud.org.mx/bc/content/Mexico/PDF/Hx%20Mx/PionerosAlNorte.pdf

See also Page 8 of the July 2015 Liahona, Mexico Area Pages: http://sud.org.mx/bc/content/Mexico/PDF/Julio2015v01web.pdf  

 Photos are of Gertrudis Guarneros Barrera Haws, with her children, Lizzie and Alma, and of  Major William Wallace Haws
Critique, Comment & Correction are welcome!

It was the afternoon of May 2, 1887 when 44 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints boarded a train on the Mexican Central Railway and began their trip of approximately 900 miles toward San Jose Station in the state of Chihuahua. Traveling among them was Elder Erastus Snow of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, as well as Helaman Pratt, recently released a president of the Mexican Mission. The others were adults and minors from Mexico City and the states of Mexico and Morelos. At this time there is no complete passenger list, but it is known that one was Simon Zuniga, a counselor in the presidency of the Coahuixtla Branch, and one of the few elders among the native saints with Church leadership experience.

The mission of this select group of Mexican pioneers was to collaborate with members from the United States in the colonization of Galeana, an arid but fertile border region that was sparsely populated and underdeveloped owing to the conflicts between the Apaches and the Mexican populace.¹ The Mexican government at the time supported northern colonizing efforts and had even paid the train fare for the 42 native Mexicans. For the same reason, the government had granted colonizing permissions to the foreign (US) Mormons under favorable terms, in order to domesticate northeastern Chihuahua.²

The Mormon colonists from the United States were fleeing from the persecution that the Church was experiencing in those days, and they had previous experience in colonizing isolated and inhospitable territory, such as the American Great Basin. Some of them, like William Wallace Haws and his daughters, represented the second and third generations of Church members. His father had been one of the founders of Provo at the foot of the Wasatch Mountains. William Wallace himself had been a pioneer from the age of thirteen, first in the flight from Illinois in 1847, and later in the colonization of Arizona in 1879.³ At the age of 52, William Wallace found himself a pioneer for the third time: this time in the border colonies of Mexico, which were for him unknown and unsettled.

Colonia Juarez was the second Mormon colony in Mexico, founded in the early part of 1886. Colonia Diaz, to the north, had been established previously, and the colonies of Pacheco and Cave Valley were in the early stages when the Mexican pioneers arrived. Even though the founders of Colonia Juarez had been together as a company for over a year, they were barely into their fifth month at their current location. Owing to a surveying error, they had previously built and developed a successful community on the banks of the Piedras Verdes River, but on someone else’s land. They had been obligated to abandon the fruits of their labors and move downstream, a few miles to the north. Because of this inconvenience, the relocated saints were living in improvised shelters under poor conditions.⁴

For their part, the Mexican saints had not left their homes under duress. They had left by choice, leaving their homes in the care of family members and following the invitation of their leaders to assist in the colonization. They sought the opportunity to share with their northern brethren and sisters, and participate in the Gospel culture that had evolved during the 57 years since the establishment of the Church in New York in 1830.

In contrast, the Church in central Mexico began in 1879. The travelers with most experience in the Church would potentially have had a mere eight years as members. The leaders of the Church and particularly of the Mexican Mission held the hope that this integrating experience would strengthen the new members’ faith and understanding of life within the Church.  They were going to a supposed Zion.

When they arrived as San Jose Station, near what is today Villa Ahumada, the English-speaking colonists picked them up and transported them in wagons for the last 150 miles to Colonia Juarez. Major William Wallace Haws was one of those who transported the group.⁵

The newly arrived brothers and sisters were well received by the northerners, especially by the former missionaries they had known during their time of service over the past eight years.⁶ They were assigned land for farming, even though not all were farmers, and they were instructed in agricultural methods very different from those with which they were familiar in their southern lands. Several of them preferred to work for better-established families in the different colonies. For example, Simon Zuniga worked in a tannery.⁷

Some of the 42 Mexican pioneers adapted well to the new life, but the majority began to feel that their future did not lie in Galeana, but rather in the communities of their birth and the branches where they had been baptized; thus, they decided to go home. They formed traveling companies and, only weeks after arriving, began their return to the south. Some were openly displeased with the conditions they had discovered in the colonies.⁸ It should be made clear, however, that the decision to not continue as colonists did not necessarily mean a decision to distance themselves from the restored Church, as they demonstrated by their subsequent service.

Without a doubt, the trek home by foot and wagon was much more arduous than the train ride that had brought them in the first place, and progress was slow. There was suffering along the homeward journey, similar to that of the pioneers who forty years earlier had crossed the plains of what today is the United States of America. Of those who abandoned the colonizing expedition, the first to arrive in central Mexico did so before August of the same year, 1887. Others, like the Zuniga group, were on the trail for nearly a year.⁹

The return of the colonists caused a stir for the branches in Mexico and Morelos. On one hand, the complaints of the colonists who felt let down, and the accompanying rumors that they engendered, contributed to the discord that already existed among the members.¹⁰ On the other hand, the branches of the Mexican Mission were now recuperating some of their strongest members during difficult times. Brother Zuniga. For example, returned to serve in the Coahuixtla Branch, and thus helped maintain his family and the branch members in the faith during the imminent absence of US missionaries.¹¹ In June of 1889 the Church withdrew the mission from central Mexico because of political problems the Church was having with the United States government. In 1902, a year after the reopening of the Mexican Mission, Zuniga was called as president of the Cuautla Branch.¹²

Not all of the southern contingency decided to renounce the project in Chihuahua. About 25% of the Mexicans who arrived in the colonies stayed there for at least a while longer. This group consisted of three families, all with the surname Paez. They retained the original vision of living among their brothers in the faith and sharing the blessings derived therefrom. The oldest within this group was Gertrudis Guarneros Barrera, widow of Buenaventura Paez, 31 years of age, from Iztacalco, Mexico City. She had traveled with her children and some of the children of Petra Bolanos, the deceased first wife of Buenaventura. Among her stepchildren there were at least a son and a daughter old enough to work and help with the care of the minor children.

In 1888, there was an event in the life of Gertrudis that strongly united her with the colonial community. Not much is known about their courtship, but that year she married William Wallace Haws, who provided a home for her in the new Colonia Pacheco.¹³ Gertrudis lived in Colonia Pacheco and Colonia Juarez, even after the death of her husband, until just before the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), when she finally returned to her branch near the canals of Iztacalco. She continued faithful to her testimony and faithful in her service to the Church.¹⁴

Gertrudis and William had three children, but only one, Elizabeth, “Lizzie”, reached adulthood and was married. Lizzie and her husband, Jose Quezado, spent their married life in the colonies.¹⁵ One of the sons of Gertrudis and Buenaventura, Miguel Paez Guarneros, reached adulthood and emigrated to the United States.¹⁶

Simon Paez of Atlautla was Gertrudis’s brother in law, Buenaventura’s younger brother. With his wife, Juana Bautista and their daughter, Juanita, he spent around five years in the colonies before returning to Atlautla, where he would later serve as branch president.¹⁷ In 1905, the family returned to the colonies for a while, later emigrating to the United States.¹⁸

Jose Paez was a young man of about 15 years when he bid farewell to his mother in Atlautla to join the body of pioneers.¹⁹ It is not known who his traveling companions were in the group, but a romance developed and he married Simona Paez Bolanos during his time as a colonist. Simona was a stepdaughter of Gertrudis. The first child from the marriage died in infancy, but not before receiving a name from her parents: Colonia.²⁰ Jose worked briefly for Helaman Pratt in 1888.²¹ The young couple stayed in the colonies long enough for Simona to learn English before returning to central Mexico.²² 

Jose and Simona finally returned to settle in Iztacalco, where she became very well known for her activity in the Church and for her support to the missionaries. During the Revolution she visited San Marcos with some local missionaries, to share her faith and give encouragement to that congregation.  She spoke with them of her time in the colonies of Chihuahua and bore testimony of her good impression of the “American Mormons”.²³ 

For the majority of the Mexican participants, the excursion to the colonies was a comparatively brief episode, though significant in their spiritual development. Some were strengthened; others apparently remained frustrated. For lack of documentation, many of the details of the expedition and its participants are unknown; nonetheless, with the efforts of historians and the cooperation of the descendants of these saints, more details will come to light in the future, giving us a better understanding of the earthly and spiritual consequences of the journey. The Hand of God in this experiment of the northward pioneers will be revealed more clearly; in the meantime, they all merit honor and praise for what they attempted to do. The pioneers chose to participate in the experiment; even though at midstream each family had to choose whether to carry on or to return home, some were blessed for their decisions, regardless.

Many of the Paez and Zuniga descendants and their extended families continue active in the Church and consider it a blessing to belong to the posterity of the northward pioneers. The Church no longer calls members to a geographic Zion, given that Zion is comprised of the pure in heart, wherever they are, whether it be the Sierra Madre Range, the slopes of Popocatepetl Volcano, the Mayan jungle, or some urban area.²⁴ All the members of the Church today may sing with one voice:

“For the strength of the hills we bless thee,

Our God, our Fathers’ God”.²⁵

 NOTES

^{1.        Jane – Dale Lloyd, El Progreso de Modernización Capitalista en el Noroeste de Chihuahua (1880-1910), (México D.F.; Universidad Iberoamericana, 1987), 45, 65 y Thomas Cottam Romney, The Mormon Colonies in Mexico (Salt Lake City, Deseret Book, 1938), 60.}

^{2.        Horace H. Cummings, president of the Mexicana Mission, cited in Deseret Evening News, Salt Lake City, 13 May, 1887. Journal History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Church Archives.}

^{3.        Chloe Haws Lunt, A Sketch of the Life of William Wallace Haws (Duncan, Arizona, No date. Published informally for her family. A copy is in the possession of the author. Also available on many Interned sites.) 2, 4-5, 9-11. William Wallace Haws was military veteran, having served in the militia of Utah when the army of the United States threatened to the saints in Utah, 1857-58. His younger brother, George Washington Haws, participated in this campaign and also in the so-called "Blackhawk War" of 1865-1872 against the Ute Indians. See George Washington Haws History by Effie Mae Haws Garn and Laura Hardy Palmer, cited in William Wallace Haws: weaving lives together, by Chloe Haws Lunt, Wilbur Lunt and Marian Lunt, (Mesa, Cox Printing, 2006. Digitized by the Genealogical Society of Utah), 14.}

^{4.        Nellie Spilsbury Hatch, Colonia Juárez: an intimate account of A Mormon Village (United States, copyright Madelyn Hatch Knudsen, 1954, revised 2012 ), 17.}

^{5.        Chloe Haws Lunt, A Sketch of the Life of William Wallace Haws, 13.}

^{6.        Simón B. Zúñiga, From the House of Joseph to the Land of the Restoration (Denver, Bilingual Publications, 2010), 8.}

^{7.        Simón B. Zúñiga, op.cit., 8.}

^{8.        Journal of Henry Eyring , 1835-1902, July 1887, Church History Library.}

^{9.        Simón B. Zúñiga, ibidem, 8 y 24-28. José Zúñiga, the son of Simon, was one of the few Mexican witnesses of the big experiment of colonization who managed to leave his personal version of the experience. He was seven years old when it took the train northward. It is interesting to notice that the dream of returning to the colonies stayed with him, and after marrying in 1903, he left Morelos for the second time, this time with its wife, and set himself up in Dublán, where it was active in missionary work. After a period there and a stay in Arizona, he moved his family to Salt Lake City, where it met the prophet Joseph F. Smith and was very active in the Mormon community, 31.}

^{10.      Journal of Henry Eyring, 1835-1902, July 1887, Church History Library.}

^{11.      LaMond Tullis, Reapertura de la misión mexicana en 1901, (Artículo publicado en sud.org.mx, 5 de noviembre de 2012), 7. “A pesar de que los miembros se habían apartado de algunos de los principios de la Iglesia, todos los que (Ammon M. Tenney) conocía se mostraban deseosos de aprender y creer.” El mismo año de 1901, Simón Zúñiga fue llamado por Tenny como misionero de corto plazo para visitar y fortalecer a otras ramas. 10.}

^{12.      Simón B. Zúñiga, idem, 8.}

^{13.      William Wallace Haws, personal journal, 1 March, 1888, cited in Chloe Haws Lunt, “A Sketch of the Life of William Wallace Haws”, 24.}

^{14.      Chloe Haws Lunt, “A Sketch of the Life of William Wallace Haws”, 25.}

^{15.      Chloe Haws Lunt, “A Sketch of the Life of William Wallace Haws”, 25. The spelling of Quezado is approximate and varies in different places, because those who documented were not proficient in Spanish. Chloe Haws Lunt wrote "Quezedo".}

^{16.      Correspondence between the author and Jean Munger, great grandniece of Miguel Páez Guarneros, between May 2014 and April 2015.}

^{17.      Simón B. Zúñiga, idem, 12 y 35.}

^{18.      Border Crossings: From Mexico to U.S., 1895-1964, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.; Record Group: 85, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; Microfilm Roll: 28. Cited in Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah.}

^{19.      Letter that Horace Cummings wrote in Mexico City to Helaman Pratt in Colonia Juarez, 1 July, 1887; Correspondence, letters received, 1886 December-1902 September, MS 199, box 1, folder 3; Church History Library, Salt Lake City.}

^{20.      Interviews and correspondence by author with Josefina Lopez Garcia, Judith Páez Lopez and Sara Páez Lopez, descendants of Buenaventura Páez, between May 2014 and April 2015.}

^{21.      Helaman Pratt papers, Church History Library MS 199_b0001_f0007_.}

^{22.      Interviews and correspondence by author with Josefina Lopez Garcia, Judith Páez Lopez and Sara Páez Lopez, descendants of Buenaventura Páez, between May 2014 and April 2015.}

^{23.      Guadalupe Monroy, Historia de la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días de la rama San Marcos Hidalgo (Tula, 1934). See the events of 13 August, 1917. Church History Library. Also available in the Internet, https://dcms.lds.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE3234021 .}

^{24.      Doctrine and Covenants 97:21}

^{25.      The original Spanish article cites the last line of the 4th verse and the chorus from "Por tus dones loor cantamos", Hymn 19 in the Spanish hymnal, which is known in English as Hymn 35, "For the Strength of the Hills". The message of the English text does not express the same sentiment as does the Spanish version. The Evan Stephens version parallels the original poem by Felicia D. Hemans in many ways, though he adds in great measure the elements of persecution, and gathering to Utah. The Spanish text also mentions persecution, but seems to imply the notion that Zion is wherever we are, provided we are faithful, valiant and worthy.  This is the intended sentiment here.}