Mary Elma Wilson Haynie is the great-grand daughter of Capt. James Brown and his wife Martha Stephens.  She was born 8 November 1871, in Harrisville, Utah to Stephen F. Wilson and Sarah Jane Brown. Mary married Patrick Calhoun Haynie as his second wife on 6 April 1887 in the St George Temple, together they raised ten children.  Patrick died 5 September 1934, some 34 years before her death in 1968.

Following is an Article written by Mitzi Zipf, which was printed in the 3 November 1966 issue of the Sun Valley Spur [Arizona], prior to her 95^th birthday.  Additional notes are given in [ ], by her great-grandson Rue Lynn Galbraith, grandson of Glen Calhoun Haynie.:

            "A dear little wisp of woman, Mrs. Mary E. Haynie, who lives on South Udall [Mesa, Arizona] with her daughter Elma, will be 95 years old Tuesday.

            She is frail of body now, but is frail neither in mind or spirit. Hers personified is the rugged frontier life of a wife and mother of 10 children, nine of whom are still living.

            She has withstood the rigors of early childhood winters spent in her native Harrisville, Weber County, Utah, and the rigors of a smallpox epidemic which took her mother when she was only seven, leaving her in charge of two brothers as well as her crippled father.

            She has withstood the rigors of the early days in Pima, Arizona, where she met her husband, Patrick and the trip by wagon to St. George, Utah, where she and her husband were married in the St. George Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

            Later, there was the long trip to the Mormon colonies in Mexico where she bore and reared her 10 children, with many other American Mormons, in peace and comparative prosperity, until the Mexican revolution of 1912. Then they fled for their lives, leaving behind all they had accumulated in worldly goods.

            Mary has lived a long widowhood, consoled only by memories of other days, the love of her children and faith in her God and her church.

            Her fortitude and strengthen of mind and will came, no doubt, from her father, Stephen Fairchild Wilson. He lived a long and happy life, but always with a cross to bear. One leg was considerably shorter then the other, was withered. From the time of the onset of the “fever” until his death, there was an open sore on the leg which constantly had to have care.

            The crippled leg was the result of the fever and severe medicine which was administered to him. This was not a casual incident, since similar results from too strong medication, especially among the pioneers crossing the plains, was a familiar occurrence.

            Stephen crossed the plains when he was 12 years old, driving an ox team across the country from his birthplace in the Midwest. He was born in [Charleston] Coles County, Illinois, in 1837. His family were early converts to the Mormon faith, following the faithful, they lived in Kirtland, Ohio and Nauvoo, Illinois, then onto “the Place” Salt Lake City. Family history tells of his hearing of the martyrdom of Joseph Smith when a wee lad of 6, and the crossing of the Mississippi River in winter – on ice, as the saints left their beloved Nauvoo.

            It was a long journey across the plains for the lad with a crippled leg, but he made it. Not being too strong physically and with the handicap of a cane or crutch, Stephen turned to the things of the mind instead of the body. He absorbed all the “book learning” he could get, and learned to play the fiddle. Both stood him in good stead in later years. He was much in demand as a school teacher and as a musician to play for dances and other musical events.

            After Mary’s mother’s death [Sarah Jane Brown, 17 January 1877] her father was called by the LDS Church to colonize, teach and organize a school in Arizona. He sold all his worldly possessions except his ox team and wagon and his violin. The necessities of life such as food and clothing with his violin, along with three youngsters were packed in the wagon and off they went to Arizona to make their home.

            Eventually, the motherless family arrived in Pima, Arizona, where Mary’s father set up the school and taught. There she learned how to play the organ by her father. Frontier life was rugged, especially in a motherless home.

            When Mary was 15 and half, her father betrothed her to Patrick Calhoun Haynie. Patrick’s eye had been caught by the young lass when she and her father, she at the organ and he on the violin, played for community dances Patrick managed.  

            Only 15 and a Half! Today we think it a terrible age for a young girl to wed. They are truly not grown but still children. Not so, on the frontier. Necessity was the guiding force. Patrick and Mary were married in the St. George Temple on April 6, 1887, and Mary said goodbye to her childhood. Being a frugal man and seeing greater opportunity, Patrick took his growing family to Colonia Morelos, Sonora, Mexico, about 60 miles below the border from Douglas, Arizona.

            [To clarify, Patrick entered into plural marriage with the marriage to Mary. He married his first wife, Henrietta Parralee Cecelia Gage Bagwell on 25 March 1878 in Pueblo, Colorado. They were later sealed in the St George Temple on 23 September 1885. Because of the laws of the United States, which outlawed the practice of plural marriage, they moved to Mexico to be with other Latter-day Saints in the Mormon colonies. Their first home was in La Ascension, near the Mormon colony of Colonia Diaz, where they later moved. While in Colonia Diaz, Patrick was called on mission for the LDS Church to the Southern States.  Mary was pregnant with her third child when he left on 6 February 1896. She gave birth to her third child and second son, Glen Calhoun Haynie, on 23 April 1896. Henrietta gave birth to a son Lynn the day before he left.  After his return the families moved to Colonia Oaxaca, Morelos, and on the Las Varas Ranch.]

            Practicing his trade of blacksmithing, doing a bit of farming and ranching, Patrick lay by a little until in 1905, he had a fine ranch. Then the flood came to Oxaca. It took their home and all else with it. It was time to start again. By the time the [Mexican] revolution came in 1912, he owned a 10-mile square ranch then and now as Los Baros.

            When Mrs. Haynie heard the revolutionaries coming, she stopped for nothing. She bundled up her children into the wagon and started for the border. She was not alone. A whole colony of people landed in Douglas, in Cochise County, [Arizona], with little or no food, little of no money, less clothing than one could imagine.

            The city fathers in Douglas didn’t welcome their arrival too enthusiastically, but they could not let women and children starve, nor could they let them go without shelter.  Quickly, so the story goes, the Mormons were housed in inadequate tents on land which has become the 15^th Street Park in Douglas. The fleeing Mormons stopped there because of an adequate water supply.

            “But it wasn’t but a few days,” Mrs. Haynie had written in her memoirs, “until the men had jobs in the smelter or farming and were absorbed into the community or moved to other Arizona communities whence they came originally.”

            The Haynies remained in Douglas. [Henrietta’s family moved to California]. After the children grew up – 10 in all, five boys and five girls – they stayed in Douglas until 1928 when they came to Mesa to work in the Arizona Temple of the LDS Church. Mr. Haynie died several years ago. [5 September 1934]  Until this year [1966], all her 10 children were living, but the death of a son [Esaias, 29 January 1966 at Aztec, NM] left nine. There are 216 descendents now [1966] and “more coming along,” she said.  There are 95 grandchildren, the remainder divided between great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren. [Now in 2006, her descendants now are in the 5^th and 6^th generations and most likely into the seventh generations]

            For all her 95 years, Mrs. Haynie still goes to church and Sunday school unless she is ill or the weather is too bad for her to get out. Her eldest daughter [First born child] Elma, looks after her. Close by lives another daughter, Mrs. Beluah Haynie Huish, the others are scattered. They are Glen "Coon" Calhoun Haynie. in Orem, Utah, Ether and Robert and Mrs. May Hubert [Maybird] in Douglas, Arizona, Paul, Bisbee, Arizona, Winnie Mortensen and Edna Snelgrove, both of Salt Lake City, Utah.

            Mrs. Huish is the vital force in planning things for her birthday. She is not planning an open house this year. “Mother is too frail. But she will have lots of cards, and I know her many relatives and friends will drop in even if we don’t make a formal occasion of it. And I expect some of the younger children will want to hear her sing.”

            We were still, and heard this dear little old lady in a voice surprisingly true and strong, sing us verses from some of her favorite Hymns. It was if a door to the past had swung open for a few seconds, and I had a glimpse of a frail, shy little girl, sitting sedately beside her father as they played and sang to entertain their friends, so long, long ago.
 

 
Austin Wilson(1876-1952) Mary Elma Wilson Haynie, Elbert Wilson (1901-?) in 1952

Right Click mouse on image - then click on view image - to see enlarged photo

            Mary Elma Wilson Haynie died just 3 months shy of her 97^th birthday on 29 Aug 1968, in Mesa, Arizona. She is buried next to her husband, Patrick Calhoun in the Douglas City Cemetery. Her name and memory is still honored by the many generations which she stands at the head of as a true Matriarch. 

Sources:

Copyright 2001 www.OrsonPrattBrown.org