Naoma Haynie's life in Colonia Pacheco, , Mexico

"When I lived in Pacheco it was a little agricultural town with ranching, farming and lumbering being the principal means of support. Everyone had horses and cattle. We used some of our cows for milk especially when the grass was green and plentiful. Then is the time when we would make cheese and butter and had plenty of good milk to drink. We nearly always had enough for cottage cheese and ice cream. I remember the whipped cream for the pies and cakes and for other deserts. My mother would store the butter in crocks or barrels covered with cold salt water to have through the winter. When the river froze thick ice my father and brothers would cut ice for ice cream and store it in sawdust to keep all winter and spring.

The horses were very necessary for all our work. We rode them for transportation and to look after the cattle. They pulled the wagons and skidded the logs and did all the work on the farms and gardens such as plowing, harrowing, cultivating and furrowing. They became loved and useful pets and we depended on them for many things. My mother, Eva Mae Haynie, rode a horse all around to the ranches and settlements to deliver babies as a midwife and to take care of the sick. Some of the older native remember her and mention that she even traveled in the night to help anyone that needed help. She delivered many babies kneeling down on the floor to attend to mother and baby.

My father, Esaias Haynie, ran a sawmill and freighted lumber down to Pierson and brought back supplies. He was very good at training teams to pull and trained his skidding teams to skid the logs expertly nearly by themselves. He trained a pair of little mules that became famous for their pulling ability. Once when he came down to Dublan to the mill for a load of flour one of the men was sitting on the porch and began making fun of his mules saying, "Why don't you get you a good team off horses instead of those sorry little mules." Dad answered that his little mules could out pull anything that the man had. The man then challenged him to see if those little mules could start and pull a Rail Road boxcar that was sitting on the siding near the mill. Daddy promptly unhitched the mules and took the reach chain and hooked up his mules to the boxcar. Before starting he looked back and caught the man trying to climb up to put on the brake of the car. When caught at it he laughed and went back to the mill porch. A number of men had gathered by this time to watch the contest. Dad spoke to the mules and they tightened up the chain then his voice out an urgent command and the mules began to scratch the hard ground and stretch down and pull first on side then swinging to the other and soon the car began to move. In no time they had it rolling. Dad pulled them up and carried the chain until it stopped. He untied the chain and returned the mules to the wagon. They weren't even sweating. It was all in the day's work for them. I thought it was a thrilling trip to ride with Dad on the wagon loaded with lumber down to Pierson to take the lumber. On the way back I remember that the soda crackers we had really tasted good.

My father like most of the people in Pacheco raised a very good garden. I remember huge cabbages and how my father used to hill up the celery to make it white. My mother loved sauerkraut and would put it down in barrels to cure in its own juice and salt. The garden supplied all kinds of vegetables that we bottled and dried for year round use. I remember the yummy potatoes and gravy and the tender venison steaks. We always had plenty of venison and beef jerky to pound up to make the gravy. We raised carrots, peas, beets, radishes, turnips and corn on the cob. I remember we ate what we raised and had plenty left over to share with anyone who needed it. No one ever went away from our home hungry. As soon as our guests arrived my mother would start to plan and prepare to feed them. Sharing and helping one another was just our way of life. We all lived as one happy family; the gospel was effective in our lives. We had family prayer and the blessing on the food and our secret prayers. We lived close to our Heavenly Father and to each other.

My sister Clara and I would exchange sleepovers back and forth with Marza and Maurine Lunt. Our cousins would often come to stay with us. Our home was a gathering place for all of the young people for Sunday afternoon for ice cream and pie and for enchilada suppers, and just good times. Roy Johnson wrote that every town should have a Brother and Sister Haynie to look after the young people and help them have a good time. Eva played the organ for us to sing the old songs that we loved. Our big front room was a gathering place for all and on cold winter evenings the fire in the fireplace warmed our hearts and cheered all that came.

October 9th was a very special day for our family and for the entire town because it was my parents wedding anniversary and they would sponsor a big celebration complete with rodeo, horse races, deep pit barbecue and everything that goes with it. The morning began with the long awaited horse races. For months A'Delbert Cluff would prepare his beautiful horseBabe and the Lunts were preparing their horse Johnny and my brother Dean had his horse Pete ready and sharpened up. I don't remember the winners or the losers but it was all in good fellowship. Then came the tilting of the rings. Down the street two big poles were set in the ground with a cross bar at about ten feet high. The rings were hung on strings across the bar and swung and turned in the breeze. The riders with tilting sticks would run down the stretch and try to spear a ring as they passed under the rings. They took turns until all of the rings had been tilted. The rider with the most rings took the first prize.

The sweetheart race was a favorite among the many events. The sweethearts would wait at one end of the track while the cowboys waited at the other with their horses ready to saddle. At the shot of the gun the cowboys were to saddle their horses and race down and swing up their sweethearts behind them and race back to the starting line. My brother Dean and my sister Clara liked to compete in this race. Clara was an athletic little girl with hair so white that they called her Cotton. She could really swing up on Dean's strong arm while the horse was turning around without stopping. Her white hair was not hard to spot coming down to the finish line.

The dinner was served with old-fashioned barbecue and beans. The beef was killed and prepared two days before to cool out and be ready for the next day to be quartered, flavored and sewed up in their hide to be placed in the hole which had been fired with plenty of oak wood hours before. The whole beef was placed on the hot coals and the hole was quickly covered with a tin and plenty of dirt to keep in the steam and the heat. Without air there could be no flame and the meat would cook under pressure for twenty- four hours until it was taken out. It would be juicy and tender enough to fall off the bones. The taste and the aroma were wonderful. The dutch ovens of beans would also be placed in the hole along with the beef so that they would come out cooked and flavored with molasses and salt and pepper. There was usually too much food and the rest was sent home with the different families. Then came the rodeo with all of the young men eager to show their riding ability and the older men tried to show the younger men that they could still beat them at roping. Part of the old rodeo corral and chute gates are still standing in their place in Pacheco, testimony of the good times of those days.

My memories of Pacheco are not of the hard struggle of the pioneers of that time, because times were hard and money was scarce. My memories are of love, peace and brotherhood, of family friends and neighbors living close by and loving each other, and making a wonderful life for all of us who lived in Pacheco.

With fond memories, Naoma Haynie Bowman

TEMPLE HILL IN COLONIA PACHECO

As we come into the Pacheco valley going to the ranch we get a view of the Pacaheco river and the ledges that come up from the river to form Temple Hill. Usually my minds eye not only sees the beautiful scene of Temple Hill and the river running at it's base but I seem to see the many images of the past that make up the history of that historic site. I feel that I should record that fascinating story concerning Temple Hill.

January 15th 1885, John Campbell and Alexander F. McDonald left Christopher Layton at Corralitos and they road up the San Diego Trail and on west about 15 miles to the Corrales Basin.arriving about noon of the third day 1/18/1885. They intended to go on over the range into Sonora. Upon arriving they prepared a meal under a cedar tree, among the willows, on the east side of the creek. After dinner, President Macdonald lay down in the shade of the cedar tree and went to sleep, while John Campbell went scouting around the valley. Upon His return President MacDonald said, "this is the place we have gone far enough, we will return to Corrallitos". (Salt Lake Record)

Sister Lucy McDonald Bluth said that her father, Alexander F. McDonald, Had a dream at that time and envisioned a small Temple on that Hill.

Saturday 18th 1885 at Turley's camp, a party was organized as follows: Francis M. Lyman, as president of the company, Apostle Teasdale as Captain and recorder,G.C. Williams captain of the guard, Isaac Turley comissary, Alonso Farnsworth and Edmond Richardson, Cooks , M. M. Sanders and Israel Call Packers, Af McDonald and Jesse N. Smith as Committee. Passing up the Piedras Verdes river they camped at Cave Valley July 23rd. At noon the next day, we killed three deer in the Corrales Basin and camped on bluff on the west side of the valley, where we hoisted the American Flag at half mast for the 24th of July 1885, ten men and eighteen animals were in the party.

Ten years later at Casas Grandes Apostle Francis M. Lyman met A. L. Farnsworth and told him to go and locate the ground where he Lyman had hoisted the Flag, and mark the tree the Flag was on and write the names of the ten men on it and ask the people to perceive it. I did this. (A. L. Farnsworth Salt Lake record.)

Apostle Francis M. Lyman asked Edward Stevenson, who was one of the seven presidents of the Seventy, to dedicate the ground at that spot and to preserve a record of it. A.L.Farnsworth went with him and located the spot. (A. L. Farnsworth Salt Lake record.) November 5th 1892 Apostle Teasdale said, "Pay your tithes in full and love your neighbor as yourself. Put your selves in a position to win God's favor and I see no reason why we cannot have a Temple in Pacheco. (Salt Lake record) Oct. 4th 1896 Patriarch Henry Lunt prophesied , "The time will come when we will build a Temple here in Pacheco, when thousands of missionaries will be wanted . There is more virtue in a peck of potatoes for a widow than in a long prayer.

Since those early days that beautiful place has been known as Temple hill. Hilven Cluff told me the following: "When I was in the Aaronic Priesthood our Bishop Marion Wilson told us to gather all of the bronze we could find around the old sawmill cites, Which we did. Then Bishop Wilson, being a Blacksmith, melted down the bronze and made a bronze plaque with the names on it. We all went up on Temple Hill and built a monument out of rock and cement and bolted the plaque on it. The monument is still there but the plaque is gone and only the bolts remain to be seen".

LaVerne Cluff Price painted a beautiful painting of a view of Temple Hill with the River glistening in the foreground. I had seen it many times in her home. When those in charge of selecting pictures for the Temple in Colonia Juarez, announced what they wanted for the Temple, LaVerne submitted her painting to see if it might be selected for the Temple. The lady took a picture of the painting to take to Salt Lake to be approved but when she got the film developed the picture did not turn out. LaVerne had a photo of the painting so the Lady took that to Salt Lake for approval. Calvin and LaVerne wanted the painting to have a fitting frame for the painting so they selected one that they decided would be appropriate and replaced the frame. When Brother Hill came down to place the paintings he brought samples of the frame he wanted on the painting. When he saw the painting he found that the frame was exactly like the sample he had brought.

When they were looking at the painting brother Hill asked LaVerne to tell him the story of the painting. She answered that she wanted her father to tell him the story of Temple hill. Hilven then related the story of the monument as above and them went on to relate the following: "When I was Branch President in Pacheco we were concerned about doing missionary work. My counselor, Brother Montes and I started visiting the people to tell them about the Gospel. Brother Montes' wife was not a member yet so we went to visit her. We began to tell her about the Gospel but she seemed agitated and said that on her way home she had seen a man on a white horse. They inquired where, and she said that she had come home through the lane over the hill. The man had been sitting on a white horse over on the hill. The Husband could not understand that because he didn't know anyone around the country that owned a white horse. The next day Brother Montes went to the hill and searched over the hill carefully but could find no horse tracks.

About a week later some full time missionaries came to Pacheco to work and they were sent to visit Sister Montes. While they were giving her the lesson they showed her a picture of Joseph Smith, while telling of the first vision. Sister Montes, excitedly exclaimed, "That is the man I saw on a white horse the other day".

When Hilven had finished telling this story to Brother Hill, He smiled and took him and Laverne and showed them the picture that was going to hang opposite the painting of Temple Hill. To their surprise it was the painting of Joseph Smith sitting on a white horse on a hill overlooking Nauvoo as he was seeing it in vision as it was to become. Today in the Colonia Juarez Temple in the west part of the foyer these two paintings hang opposite each other. The exact replica of Temple Hill and the painting of Joseph Smith sitting on a white horse on a hill over looking Nauvoo the beautiful.

LaVerne added this to her story: "One day Sister Jarvis was looking out her west window that looks out across Temple Hill and saw a man sitting on a white horse on the hill".

Well!! Temple Hill is there today with its monument marking the spot where, before the turn of the 19th century, it was dedicated to be a place of refuge for the gathering of the Latter Day Saints in Mexico.

http://www.dublan.net/History/Personal/Bowman/Keith_and_Naoma/Temple_Hill_in_Pacheco.html contributed Feb. 9, 2001 by S. Keith Bowman

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