The decade of 1910 to 1920 was a troubled one in Mexican history. The thirty-year dictatorship of President Porfirio Diaz began in 1876. Diaz divided up the lands of Mexico and gave them to his friends. By the 1910 “re-election” of Diaz his friends owned all of Mexico. All laws enacted were to benefit the rich landowners. The laws of 1856, 1883 and 1905 methodically stole land from Mexican free ranchers and the communal ejidos. The peasants lost all rights. The rumblings of political disturbance became louder until open revolution was the result. The first incident was on December 24^th [1910] when the railroad bridges between San Pedro and Ciudad Juárez were burned.  This situation was brought to a head in 1911 with a popular revolt led by Francisco I. Madero from Casas Grandes.

Orson states in his history that: "In 1910 before Madero became President he was put into prison by President Díaz and upon his release continued his propaganda against the Government as run by President Díaz. Little bands of rebels were making it very uncomfortable for the Federal Authorities. I went up to El Paso at this time and while walking down a strange alley I came face to face with my old friend Abraham Gonzalez. He said, "Why Mr. Brown, there isn't anybody I'd rather see than you. I want you to meet Madero who is in hiding in a back room of an upstairs building here.

I went up there and was introduced to Francisco I. Madero and several other patriots. Madero gave me a copy of their proposed operations. I discussed with them at some length the object of their uprising against the government and became converted that their cause was just. After reading the copy of their proposed ideals of government I went back the next day and had another conference with them. Mr. Gonzales told me he was afraid of complications with our Mormon Colonists and afraid too, that the U.S. Government might intervene in case of any trouble with the colonists. Notice was sent out to all military leaders not to molest in any way our people.

When I returned to the colonies the chief political head of Galeana called me to his office at Casas Grandes. I was still head of the armed forced of the Colonies and he said to me, "I have called you down here to tell you we want 100 armed Mormons to come down here to Casas Grandes to help defend this municipality."

At a meeting previous to this call from the Chief of the District, I explained to the Colonists the situation, as I understood it. We decided to remain as neutral as possible. And when I told the Chief of our resolution he railed out, "I'll show you what neutrality is. If you don't furnish me a hundred men when the revolution is over I'll get an order of expulsion and drive you out of the country."

I replied, "When this revolution is over you may be the one driven out of the country."

"A few days later someone saw a big herd of cattle coming from the west toward Cases Grandes. It was reported that the rebels were coming. The Chief climbed on the top of a roof and saw that the rebels were coming. It so scared him that he had to be helped down the ladder and he smelled so strong that they had to change his pants. He took the next train out and died three days from shock and fright.

Another Chief took his place and he too called me to Casas Grandes and also threatened me that if we didn't furnish armed men to help defend the Federal Government and her interests we would be driven from the country. In about two weeks time the rebels over powered the Garrison at Casas Grandes and took the Chief to Chihuahua City where he was shot. Then Madero and his aides crossed the Rio Grande River from El Paso and established their headquarters about three miles up the river from Ciudad Juárez.

Ciudad Juárez was occupied by about 3,000 Federal soldiers. One morning three or four men slipped along the canal bank and opened fire on the Federal advance guard. Running down the east bank of the river I saw a Madero soldier by the name of Vaca. He was wearing a red shirt. He with 3 o 4 others scattered along the bank of the river. The advance guards of the Federals were in an old brick kiln about a hundred yards away. As a soldier came around the corner of the brick kiln Vaca shot him, another came and he was shot, a third and he shot him too. Then the rebels came streaming down the riverbank shooting and going on into the town of Ciudad Juárez shooting as they went.

The rebels would pass back and forth from the riverbanks to the town, use up their cartridges, go back for more, or to eat, and return again. The battle had been going about 48 hours when Madero's second, Juan Sanches Ascona, and myself went down to the river and upon a balcony we were watching the rebels closing in on the Federal Garrison. At about 10:00 a.m. with field glasses I said to Ascona, "There goes up the white flag on the Federal Military Headquarters."

And I saw the man shot down from the pole for they had been fooled before. Soon another man hoisted the flag as we heard the bugle sound of surrender from the Federal Garrison. When I told Ascena he shed tears and thanked God for this surrender. We immediately got in touch with Madero and told him the good news. We all went over to Juárez together and made the customs house Madero's headquarters.

Then the Federal commander came into the Customs House, General Pascal Orozco. The    of the Madero troops demanded that the Commander and his aides be turned over to him to be executed, but Madero and some of his aides slipped the Commander and his party below Juárez to the Rio Grande River to let them wade across to El Paso, Texas.  And this was the beginning of the collapse of the Federal Government over all of Mexico."

In this first battle Madero won easily. He crushed a Federal Army at Ciudad Juárez then marched on to Mexico City. General Pascal Orozco as commander of all rebel forces in Chihuahua demanded that all Federal troops be withdrawn from the State of Chihuahua, leaving him in supreme command. Madero then, with his aides, went to Mexico City and took charge of the Federal Government.  It was a triumphal march in which all cities, including Mexico City, capitulated without a fight.

When Madero launched his revolution most of the Mexican people joined with Madero against the Díaz Federales. Still others [Amelio Campas]  joined with General José Inez Salazar and Alaniz  who operated in the Casas Grandes area independently of Madero.  Nearly 4,500 Anglo Mormons lived in eight or more colonies in Chihuahua and Sonora. Nearly 10% of all Americans in Mexico were Mormons.

Francisco I. Madero, as the leader of the revolutionary forces, had a platform to take the land away from the rich and divide it among the peons or poorer classes. This platform swept him into power.

On March 1910, Anson B. Call was passing through Casas Grandes. He was called into the political office of the Díaz Federales and told that preparations for an expected attack from the revolutionaries was under way and would he give the Federales a list of all the naturalized citizens among the colonists, as they were required to fight. Knowing their desire to remain neutral in the Revolution Anson went immediately to Colonia Juárez where Stake Presidency councilor Junius S. Romney advised him to leave the country at once to avoid being forced to give this information. In less than an hour, he and Bishop Joseph C. Bentley, also a naturalized citizen of Mexico, set out for the U.S. Before they reached La Ascencion they met the Madero army going to attack Casas Grandes.

After a six week absence Anson returned to a very unsettled colony. After the attack on Casas Grandes by Madero's army [March 5, 1911], there were numerous skirmishes, sometimes one side winning, sometimes the other.

President Díaz and his cabinet and all other officials had left the country. A Provisional President was in charge pending an election. He remained as such for several months until an election was held in October 1911 that Madero won overwhelmingly.  Francisco I. Madero was then officially installed as President, Pinas Suarez as Vice President.  However, his followers became quickly impatient and still full of rebellion. The land reforms were delayed unnecessarily and fueled their greed.  Madero's friends, particularly Pascual Orozco, continued the revolution, and another struggle flared up, now also against Madero.

"At the December [1911] Conference held in Dublán, the ward and stake leaders of the Colonies made a strategic decision that in order to protect the colonists they would purchase, as secretly as possible, high-powered rifles and ammunition. They unanimously decided that Orson P. Brown should be detailed to do this business. He was able to purchase thirty long-range rifles and 25,000 rounds of assorted ammunition. Through a leak of information this shipment was apprehended by secret service men and confiscated.

With the critical need of arms for protection, a second and more successful attempt was made. These weapons were finally delivered into the hands of President Junius Romney." (Turley, Page 101)

On March 14, [?] U.S. President Taft placed an embargo on the shipment of arms into Mexico. This antagonized the rebels against the Americans as they were in need of horses, saddles, and arms to continue their revolt against Madero.

Orozco and his allies took this opportunity to assume that all chattel property owned by the Mormon colonists was subject to confiscation without compensation.  They charged the Mormons were responsible for the U.S. embargo on firearms into Mexico. Anthony Ivins and Senator Reed Smoot had used their influence to halt the importation of arms to the colonies. (See Ivins Journal, 2 April 1912; and Alexander, Mormonism in Transition, 206).

In April, [?] President Madero sent his General Huerta, who crushed rebel leader Pascual Orozco first at Tuvison then at Barkimba. These defeats sent the rebel force into the Casas Grandes area, central to the Mormon colonies. Since the rebel forces realized their cause was hopeless they preferred intervention on the part of the United States rather than the administration of Madero whom they considered a traitor. To bring about intervention of the U.S., the rebels planned to disarm the Americans in the Mormon colonies then attack them in force thus forcing the U.S. to intervene.

On February 6, 1912, José Inez Salazar, who served under Orozco, instructed his rebels not to molest the Mormons while on the same day, in his presence, they were slaughtering Mormon cattle and robbing Mormon merchants of their goods.

Reported assurances were given to the Mormon colonists that their lives and property would be respected and owing to their neutral position, their firearms would be left in their possession. Both sides kept this promise for about six months, but the revolutionists, being short of arms and suffering one defeat after another, finally demanded the arms of the colonists. Although the colonists had decided to remain neutral Orson P. Brown was sent to El Paso, Texas by the Juárez Stake Presidency to request help from the Church in securing arms for their protection.  In El Paso, Orson met an old friend Abram Gonzales, rebel governor of Chihuahua. Gonzales introduced Orson to Madero. Madero gave Brown letters to rebel officers asking them to respect the lives and property of the Mormon colonists.

On Friday, July 24, 1912, Inez Salazar ordered Stake President Junius Romney and Henry Eyring Bowman to meet him in Casas Grandes. At that meeting Salazar withdrew all guarantees previously made, life and property would no longer be protected.  All firearms and ammunition were to be surrendered to Salazar or their women and children would be ravaged and the Mormons would be considered an enemy to be attacked and annihilated. This ultimatum placed the Saints in a perilous position. Two thousand soldiers were waiting nearby for orders to kill. On Sunday, July 26, 1912, Romney was accompanied to Colonia Dublán, then to Colonia Juárez, the men brought their guns and ammunition to the bandstand where they were listed and counted by Bishop Bentley before turning them over to the rebel commander. It was decided to make a show of complying while at the same time to send the women and children to El Paso, Texas on Sunday, July 28, 1912.

Thinking the remaining colonists were unarmed the soldiers became more and more offensive. There was continual raiding of the colonies by uncontrollable rebel bandits.

Under cover of night Colonia Juárez bishop, Joseph C. Bentley and Alonzo Taylor went to Felipe Chávez, the chief government officer in Colonia Juárez, and also to several other Mexicans charging them to preserve the colony during the Mormon's absence. They placed Chávez in charge of their property and gave him two letters, one addressed tot he federal and the other to the rebels, to explain his stewardship to whoever should occupy the settlement. When a few of the Mormons returned to Mexico they found that the Mexicans had honored their stewardship.

Early in July of 1912 Orson was called away to Thatcher, AZ due to the serious illness of his mother, Phoebe. While there President Ivins sends him a telegram instructing him to return immediately to El Paso.

Orson Pratt Brown was appointed to the committee headed by Henry Eyring Bowman to arrange transportation for the refugee Mormon women and children. To make matters worse, accusations of, embezzlement, defamation, and mismanagement flew back and forth between Ivins and Henry E. Bowman, the manager of the Union Mercantile co-op in Chihuahua. Letters from Bowman to Ivins, and from Ivins to his business associates, reveal the strained relations. The first dispute arose over the claims of the Mexican Northwestern Railway that had transported Mormons out of Mexico. Henry E. Bowman had acted as the Church’s agent. Unbeknownst to Bowman, Ivins had already made an agreement with the railroad company to pay $6,000. Bowman agreed to a higher price: $7,500 in gold. Eventually, the US Congress paid the bill, but Ivins had earned Bowman’s enmity by questioning the legitimacy of his negotiations during the exodus crisis. See Letters Ivins Collection dated 31 December 1912 through 15 January 1913.

The people of El Paso, be it said to their everlasting credit received those refugees with open arms. The equipment available from the railroad consisted mostly of boxcars. The colonists were able to bring only a very small part of their personal belongings. In three days, 2,500 women, children and old men arrived and were boarded at a large lumberyard east of El Paso and on the outskirts of the city. Bathroom and kitchen facilities were soon installed by the city aids.

Treated kindly by El Paso's citizen, some families waited weeks in the lumberyard to see if they would be able to return to their homes. The church leaders advised them to seek temporary residence in the U. S. until the government in Mexico was more stable. Finally, with the U.S. government paying relocation costs, hundreds of Mormons opted to resettle in the United States.

After the families left the colonies the men sadly watched the revolutionaries run a train of boxcars down the tracks in front of the Union Mercantile, and with 500 (thirty or forty) armed men for protection, carried out all the merchandise, filling the cars. The revolutionaries then ran the train south stopping at every town allowing the local people to help themselves. All the merchandise of the Union Mercantile was lost and was never recovered.

After some difficulty and delay the arms Orson P. Brown had been sent to El Paso to buy arrived in the colonies. They were released to Oscar Bluth, Ira Pratt, and others. The colonists had pledged neutrality and now with the importation of arms a serious controversy was created. Those individuals involved had their integrity and loyalty questioned by both sides for duplicity and roguery

The climax of the exodus came when an armed force of men surrounded the colony. Cannons were mounted on flat cars and leveled on the colony. Finally, advised by the Stake Presidency, all the men left during the night by horseback. (Stalwarts page 81) The men and boy refugees still in the colonies were all mounted and had a couple of provision wagons and a considerable number of pack animals. As agreed two weeks before, approximately 242 men met at the "Stairs," a place in the mountains. They took 700 - 1,000 head of horses. Samuel McClellan was sent to Colonia Juárez with a message from Stake President Junius Romney (sent from the Stairs) urging all the men to quickly join him at the Stairs. Though Bentley disagreed with the decision he followed Romney's orders. Karl E. Young states that Orson Pratt Brown served as a guide for this backcountry expedition of 235 men on August 7 to 10^th to the U.S. They began traveling overland. Four days travel brought them to the border to Dog Springs, New Mexico where a small guard of soldiers was stationed. Then they moved on to Hachita, New Mexico where U.S. government inspectors registered all of their horses and these were put to pasture and the men scattered to their families. Two more days were required to reach El Paso.

On the very day of their arrival in El Paso the Stake Presidency, Stake High Council, and Bishoprics met with Anthony W. Ivins, a heated discussion arose about what they should do next, their action in leaving their homes in Mexico and what future course they should take. There was heated discussion among the brethren as to the wisdom and necessity of the Exodus. President Junius Romney stoutly defended his action and stated that he would never return to Mexico unless called to do so by the General Authorities. Bishop Bentley said that in his opinion there had been no need either for their families or the men to leave and that as far as he and his families were concerned they had left solely in obedience to the counsel of the Stake Presidency A.W. Ivins and Junius Romney.

President Joseph F. Smith, who had succeeded Lorenzo Snow, closed the Juárez Stake and released its members from their obligations in Mexico. They were free to resettle wherever they could.

In spite of this apparent finality, Apostle Anthony W. Ivins and Bishop Joseph C. Bentley, both of whom were tied emotionally and economically to the Mormon colonies in Mexico, talked often about the possibility of going back. Finally, Bentley and a few others did return, resettling in Colonia Juárez, Colonia Dublán, and Colonia Chuichupa. (Tullis, page95-96)

In Tucson, Julia Call heard one of the church leaders say that if anyone returned to Mexico they were going against counsel of the First Presidency.  President A.W. Ivins answered that the Presidency did not counsel anyone to go back, nor were they counseling them not to go back, but he wrote, "If you go back, and will assist in preserving the people's property there, you go with our blessing. They may rob you of all you possess and put you to every test the adversary of all righteousness can imagine, but they shall not have power to take your life."

Within about two weeks after the Exodus some sixty men including Bishop Joseph C. Bentley. Earnest and Alonzo Taylor, John W. Wilson, Daniel Skousen, and John Hatch were ready to return to their homes in Colonia Juárez. Upon reaching there Bishop Bentley found everything just as he had left it, his faithful hired man, Cornelio Reyes, having remained true to this trust. As conditions remained quiet for several weeks, a number of families returned to Colonia Juárez.  Among these families were those of Maggie and Maud Bentley. Anson B. Call and Orin N. Romney also returned to Colonia Dublán, finding things better than they had hoped. By June 1913, Anson B. Call had saved enough money to send for his family and they again joined him in Dublán. 

By this time many others had returned. Minor troubles continued. Robberies occurred first from the Villistas and then the Carranzistas, and the go-betweens known as the "Red Flaggers."  There were at times three political parties in power during one month in Casas Grandes.

On August 1, 1912, fifty men, heavily armed, rode into Juárez in an angry mood.  Cavada had been sent to Juaréz to watch the passes north of town to prevent Blanco from surprising the rebels stationed at San Diego.

Colonel Escobar was sent by General Inez Salazar into Colonia Juárez, They entered to town shouting, shooting, and looting. Their assignment was to keep the Mormons from joining General Blanco. Orders were that no Mormon was to leave the colony.  On August 3, 1912, a rebel guard came into Colonia Juárez shouting the news that Blanco was seen headed for Colonia Juárez.  The Salazar rebels were very frightened, they packed up their bags and took every horse they could find.

Some men chose to stay their ground in the colonies, Alma P. Spilsbury, Byron MacDonald, Albert Christian Wagner, Hannah J. Spencer and her sons.

August 1912, word arrived in Colonia Morelos that the Mexican Revolution was heating up. Blanco was the leader of the local rebels and Inez Salazar was headed for Morelos. Bands of soldiers began arriving in and around Colonia Morelos, first one faction and then another. All demanded food for themselves and their horses. They also needed arms and ammunition. The colonists stood firm to remain neutral but finally it was necessary for all to pack up and leave on short notice. The colonists received word from President A.W. Ivins that they should leave the colonies at once and escape to safety north of the border to the U.S. On the last Sunday in August, the Morelos Saints met for the last time in public assembly.  The next morning their wagons began streaming toward the U.S. border. All the hopes and accumulations of twelve years were hidden in the ground or packed into the wagons.

On 11 September 1912 Inez Salazar and Antonio Rojas arrived in Colonia Morelos. They destroyed the houses, killed the cattle, and wrought havoc.  The homes and properties left in Morelos were ransacked by Mexican soldiers almost everyone of the deserted homes in Colonia Morelos. Animals were slaughtered with most of their carcasses left to rot in the streets.

Reports in August by General Sanjinez and others advised the Mormons not to return.

On September 6, 1912, Stake President Junius Romney interviewed rebel leader General Huerta in Ciudad Juárez. He assured Romney he would have a strong garrison stationed at Las Palomas and Ascencion to make it safe for the colonists to return. Romney suggested the garrisons be stationed at Colonia Juárez and Colonia Dublán to prevent looting and further incidents.

September 15, 1912, Charles E. McClellan returned from a tour of inspection of the colonies and said he found them normal.

September 18, 1912, Albert Thurber returned from Colonia Dublán with conflicting reports that the rebels were still looting and making violent threats.

The Mormon colonists in general sincerely believed the mission to Mexico was divinely sanctioned. For that reason, they believed it should be continued at all costs. The church authorities believed the colonists had done all in their power to execute that mission. On October 12, 1912, the First Presidency of the Church issued an apologetic message to all the colonists granting to them an honorable release from that mission.

Some male members of the exiled Mormons returned to their homes feeling assured their families were safe in the United States. Relations continued to deteriorate as more and more rebel leaders entered the fray and the just cause was lost in the scramble.  The rebel guards who were instructed to protect the Mormon property joined the looters in robbing the stores and homes.

On February 4, 1913, Joseph C. Bentley's party passed through Colonia Dublán enroute to Colonia Juárez. He reported that a few men were working their farms,

Some colonists, among others the Lillywhite and Huber families , returned to see what could be salvaged. Before long numbers of colonists were planting wheat again in fields beside the river. Marauders continued to harass them. Some livestock, especially the horses, were taken up into the canyons where they could be hidden. More threatening were the actual abductions of some of the men. On more than one occasion colonists were held prisoner and told they would be executed.

Historians divide over the issues that motivated the leaders of the anti-Madero revolt. The origins of the Orozco revolt are located in the antecedent revolt of Emilio Vasquez Gómez, the brother of the Francsico Gómez, the provision vice-president. The order to demobilize the revolutionary forces before reforms were completed and the replacement of radical E. Vasquez Gómez with moderate José Pino Suarez in the 1910 election turned Emilio against Madero. Orozco intially supported Vasquez, but broke with him in March 1912. Sympathetic historians argue that Orozco sought deeper reforms. Others conclude that Orozco sought power.  General Inez Salazar, a genuinely radical Chihuahuan cauldillio, felt that Madero had reneged on the social reforms promised in the Plan of San Luis Potosi. Salazar merged his forces with Orozco’s Colorados, or “Red Flaggers,” in March 1912. Madero’s victory was short-lived. On February 19, 1913, Gen. Victorio Huerta arrested Madero and forced him to resign.  On February 22, Madero was presumed assassinated on orders from Huerta. Madero failed not because Mexico was too immature for democracy, but because people whom he trusted had killed him and restored the dictatorship. The Constitutionalists, Villa, Zapata, Obregón, and Carranza marched on Mexico City. Their hatred of Huerta united them; each would claim the mantle of the revolution in his own way.

On April 30, 1914, the U.S. Army’s Fifth Infantry Brigade, under the command of Brig. Gen. Frederick Funston, arrived at Vera Cruz.  The brigade assumed occupation duty from the marines and also organized a military government to restore order to the city.  President Huerta never officially recognized the U.S. occupiers, but he made no serious attempts to resist their power.

Venustiano Carranza and Pancho Villa united Madero's followers and fought against the dictator Huerta, finally taking Mexico City away from Huerta and forcing him to leave the country in July 15, 1914 for Spain. With a contingent of several thousand men, Villa formed a military band known as the Division of the North and operated in the mountains of northern Mexico.

However, the struggle for power continued with Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata fighting against Carranza. The struggle continued even after 1917, when Mexico adopted its current Constitution. Carranza was killed in 1920 during a revolt led by Alvaro Obregón, who later became President.)

Bentley reported that there were 60 people living in Colonia Dublán in early 1914, and by September 1914 there were enough colonists to warrant beginning a school again with Ernest Young as principal, two women teachers, and 69 students.

During this period key Mormon leaders experienced what Michael Walzer has called the “ideology of transition.” This is a period when a nascent ideology meets “the human needs that arise whenever traditional controls give way and the hierarchical status and corporate privileges are called into question.” By expelling the colonists, Orozco’s Colorados had essentially liberated Pratt and Ivins. Their minds soared to the more rarefied air of eschatology and nation making. In March 1913 Mexican Mission President, Rey L. Pratt, writing from Mexico’s Federal District, entered the discussion. In the Improvement Era, a Church periodical, Pratt reviewed Book of Mormon prophecies related to the fall and redemption of the Lamanites and linked them to the struggle in Mexico. [34] He told of 20-30,000 Indians living on haciendas comprised of 15 million acres, of laborers paid low wages then charged a 500% mark-up in company stores, of debt peonage, and of the dreaded threat of military conscription or worse: deportation to plantations in the Yucatan. Pratt identified the disturbances in Mexico as a social upheaval: “The present revolution . . . has as its basic cause the world-old desire for freedom, the desire of the oppressed to throw off the yoke of the oppressor.”

The colonists were not molested for more than a year. Then in April 1914 came the startling news that American troops had stormed and captured Veracruz. Feelings ran high on both sides of the border and it appeared that war between the U.S. and Mexico was imminent. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson landed Marines at Veracruz, and many Mexicans feared that he would order the sacking of Mexico City 1914. Conditions became so bad that Anson B. Call took his families back to the U.S. Someone sent an report to Church President Joseph F. Smith [his counselors were Anthon H. Lund and Charles W. Penrose] telling him that all the Mormon colonists in Mexico were in grave danger. Acting on this advice, President Smith promptly called the settlers out of Mexico for a second evacuation.

In August of 1914, a "Red Flagger" named Parra, with his son did much robbing and plundering. They said they were Villistas when Villa's troops were in command, and Carranzistas when Carranza was in power. With about twenty men and women they camped at the Relief Society building in Colonia Dublán.  Every day their women went to the Farnsworth and Romney store with orders to give them money.  Anson B. Call, as bookkeeper, many times paid them, but most of the time they took merchandise. Once Parra ordered Anson to unlock the store and then took what he wanted, throwing the rest on the floor. He left without paying for any of it. Not long after this, Parra and his son were executed by command of Villa.

Obregón had declared war on Villa on the 19^th of November 1914, pitting he and the Constitutionalist's chief Carranza against conventionists Villa and Zapata. On the first of November 1915, Obregón decisively defeated the Division del Norte at Agua Prieta.

In December of 1914, Samuel J. Robinson returned to Colonia Dublán they found the town full of Pancho Villa's men. On December 24 armed men tried to search the Robinson home when their demands were denied the bandits burned the house to the ground. The Robinson's were able to escape and find refuge in the home of Bishop Call.

It became evident that U.S. foreign policy favored Carranza rather than Pancho Villa and that the U.S. had permitted Carranza's forces to slip behind Villa on U.S. territory and deal him a devastating blow. The United States and six Latin American nations officially recognized the Carranza government on October 19,1915, a direct insult to Pancho Villa and his followers, who had earlier parted ways with Carranza. Villa, attempted to unify Chihuahuans against Carranza.

April 12, 1915 — Six men are indicted for helping Mexican General José Inez                          Salazar escape from an Albuquerque jail. The alleged conspirators were district attorney Manuel Vigil, game warden Trinidad C. de Baca, two deputies  and the famous lawman Elfego Baca, who served as Salazar's attorney.

Another rebel bandit, Tomas Perez, at another time, also ordered Anson B. Call to unlock the store.  Inside, Perez asked Anson if he knew who had reported to Villa that Parra and his son were "Red Flaggers", and who was responsible for their being killed. Anson assured him he did not know. Perez said it had been report that a Mexican, an American and a Mormon had reported to Villa.  Perez reported that he knew it was Anson. Perez placed Anson under arrest. They walked him to his house to get his mule. Anson was place in jail in Casas Grandes. Mr. Galindo, a friend of Anson's told the rebels that Anson was innocent. They finally allowed him to go to raise money to save his life.  Upon Anson's arrival at Dublán President Bentley sent men from house to house collecting money, this was given to the men and they left him in peace. By September the war scare had subsided and the Bentley families returned to their homes where they remained during the balance of the Revolutionary period.

By 1915 enough people had returned that the Dublán Ward was again organized.

In September 20, 1915 General Francisco Villa went to Colonia Dublán with the remnants of his army, approximately 15,000 men. General Alvaro Obregón had defeated him at a battle in Celaya.  They remained in Dublán for twenty-two days. His object was to go overland to Sonora and attack the port of entry at Agua Prieta. Villa therefore took possession of the Mexican Central Railroad and landed in Dublán with nineteen trainloads of troops and equipment.  Freight cars by the hundreds, on the tops of which rode the soldiers. In the cars were loaded horses, cannons, and ammunition, provisions, etc.   Improvised hammocks, lashed to the cars contained camp followers, the wives, children, dogs, hogs, monkeys, parrots, songbirds, and all kinds of domestic pets. There were in all more than ten thousand persons and about eight thousand horses.  This vast multitude of people could have filled every vacant house in the colony.  Thousands of soldiers pitched their tents on all the sidewalks of the town. The weather was beautiful and camps were set along the ditches running with water. Be it said to Villa's credit that not a house was broken into, Villa maintained discipline.

One night a terrible explosion occurred. The Mexican soldiers had piled some boxes with dynamite and rockets too close to a campfire.  Mangled men and  horses of every description were seen strewn for a block in all directions. Limbs, arms, legs, and hands, were scattered in every direction. The headless trunk of a man was found beside the well of Oscar E. Bluth, a block away. The tithing office was badly damaged and the granary was completely destroyed.  Fifty-five men and eleven horses had been killed.

After the unsuccessful campaign in Sonora, the defeated and enraged Villa troops straggled back in small dejected groups, infuriated at the American government for their recognition of the opposite forces and swearing vengeance on all Americans and their sympathizers.  But General Diaz had promised protection to all the colonists. In a junta he persuaded half the Villa men to accept the offer of amnesty from Carranza and took the train to El Paso. The remainder restated their allegiance to Villa and prepared to go to the mountains. But before they left they took what vengeance they could against any and all Americans.

After the battles at Agua Prieta and Ciudad Juárez, Orson P. Brown became inspector of cattle for Villa until he had a disagreement with the rebel leader. Villa became so enraged that he put a noose on Brown's neck and was ready to hang him, had it not been for Brown's wife Mattie pleading for his life, but Villa relented and let him go.

On  Sunday December 26, 1915 the wind blew a hurricane all day long. Fires broke out in different parts of the colony. The Villa soldiers not wanting to leave anything behind to fall into the hands of the enemy, hauled eight large cannons along side of the Farnsworth Store, where they loaded them with dynamite, plugged up the mouths, and ignited them. What a tremendous explosion. Pieces flew hundreds of feet into the air. Parts of the cannons weighing hundreds of pounds few up then landed, sometimes half burying themselves when they hit the ground.

A feeling of despondency settled on the colony. At night people gathered in groups of six to eight families in one home for protection against the renegades who were robbing and plundering the homes at gunpoint.  Anson B. Call's home was looted and he was shot but the bullet only grazed his head.

Villa, feeling betrayed by the U.S., felt a need to take vengeance against the U.S. and at the same time draw the U.S. into the revolution. In one instance, Villa’s irregulars assassinated seventeen U.S. citizens aboard a train traveling from Chihuahua City to the Cusi Mine at Santa Isabel, Chihuahua. Although this act infuriated the American public, it was the Villistas’ next attack, the raid on Columbus, New Mexico, that caused the U.S. government to seek retribution. Villa led his men through the Sierra Madre mountains to cross into New Mexico with 484 men. On March 9, 1916, they attacked the small town of Columbus, New Mexico, killing 24 Americans, burning homes and businesses and shooting up the town. .  According to War Department reports, ten American officers and soldiers from the local Fort Furlong were killed, two officers and five soldiers wounded, eight civilians killed, and two wounded.  The Mexican irregulars’ losses numbered approximately one hundred killed, with seven wounded and captured. Villa set fire to the town and was finally chased out by a garrison of U.S. troops into Las Palomas where the Villistas were severely defeated.

Pancho Villa’s raid on Columbus, New Mexico prompted the United States to organize an expedition in retaliation.  While the army prepared for the expedition, Secretary of State Robert Lansing negotiated with Mexican President Venustiano Carranza to allow the United States to enter Mexico without interference. Carranza reluctantly agreed to allow the Americans across the border to deploy their Punitive Expedition as long as they strayed no further than the state of Chihuahua. Seven days after the Columbus raid the U.S. government sent General John J. Pershing into Mexico on March 17, 1916 he arrived and camped just north of Colonia Dublán eventually building the troop strength to 6,675 men.

Americans used the railroad, horse-drawn wagons, mules, and primitive Dodge trucks, which habitually broke down to move in supplies. Moving supplies by truck was no easy feat because roads depicted on available maps turned out to be nothing but trails that were impassable during wet weather. As a result, engineers had to rebuild many of the roads. The army’s telegraph lines needed constant attention as the Mexicans made a sport of cutting the wires. Pershing soon learned that Carranza had little interest in cooperating with the efforts to capture Villa. After almost two weeks of pursuing aimless leads and fighting a few minor skirmishes, a squadron of the Seventh U.S. Cavalry fought five hundred Villistas at San Geronimo.  There were no American losses, but several of the bandits were wounded.

The commander of the First Aero Squadron, Benjamin Fouloius, happily reported to  Brig. General Funston that the “squadron rendered efficient service in reconnaissance, surveillance, and in maintaining communications with the troops away from the base camp.”

Eight LDS scouts guided Pershing’s troops. David Brown, Orson Brown, and Lemuel Spilsbury in particular provided valuable scouting and intelligence reports to Pershing’s Headquarters.  On April 13, 1916, a detachment of troops from Carranza’s army attacked the American troops at Parral.  Brown was at Parral. Upon receiving reinforcements, they drove back the Mexicans.  One American soldier was killed, and one was wounded.  The Mexicans suffered fourteen killed.  Pershing kept his men at Dublán and sent out scouting parties and detachments to locate Villa without success.

At the town of Carrizal, troops from the Mexican National Army attacked two troops of the Tenth Cavalry on a scouting mission on June 21.  Seven enlisted men were killed, and even more were wounded.  Villa’s forces captured twenty-three enlisted men and one civilian interpreter, Lemuel Spilsbury.  The prisoners were sent to Chihuahua City but were released a short time later. Spilsbury may have prevented an all out war against Mexico when he employed his language skills to save 21 U.S. troops from execution after the fight at Carrizal.

Carranzista General Pablo Gonzalez was executing everyone and laying waste to Morelos.  The Zapatista high command shifted its headquarters to the foot of the Popo volcano and launched a counter-offensive. The Zapatista raids were so potent that Gonzalez withdrew from Morelos in November 1916.

Tensions between the United States and Mexico were at a breaking point.  Not since the Mexican-American War of 1846–1848 had the two countries come so close to all-out war.  Neither country was prepared, and neither wanted war.  The War Department recognized that a force of at least 200,000 was needed to invade Mexico and that Carranza did not have the troops to ward off an American invasion.  To avoid further incidents like Carrizal, Funston ordered Pershing to cease sending out long-range patrols. It was becoming increasingly obvious that Carranza’s de facto government openly disliked the American presence in Mexico.  Maj. Gen. Hugh Scott and Funston met with Carranza’s military chief, Alvaro Obregón, at El Paso and agreed to gradually withdraw Pershing’s forces if Carranza would control Villa.

Another feature of the camp at Colonia Dublán were the numerous Mexican prostitutes who followed the troops.  To prevent the men from leaving camp, Pershing had the prostitutes rounded up and placed under guard in a specially created barbed-wire stockade.

On January 18, 1917, General Funston informed Pershing “that it was the intention of the Government to withdraw from Mexico at an early date.”  Pershing “recommended that the date of the beginning of the movement from Colonia Dublán, Mexico, be no later than January 28, 1917, the withdrawal to be entirely by marching, and the command to assemble at Palomas, Chihuahua, and march across the border together.”  The recommendation was approved, and the Punitive Expedition officially ended on the afternoon of February 5, 1917. They had stayed almost a year.

The Mormon colonists and the local Mexicans were alarmed at what would follow as retribution from the rebels once the army left. Many of the Mormons followed the army out of Mexico, including Anson B. Call and his family. Only 200 remained in Colonia Dublán.

Hostilities in Mexico continued well after the Americans left. On March 11, 1917, Carranza was officially elected the new president of Mexico but continued to fight off overthrow attempts by Villa and Emiliano Zapata.  On April 10, 1919, Carranza had Zapata assassinated.  A year later Carranza himself was assassinated after fleeing Mexico City during a rebellion.  Pancho Villa met a similar fate on July 20, 1923.

In the background of these events Pratt spoke at the Fall 1916 Church General Conference. It was the most eloquent public expression on the meaning of revolution ever issued by a Mormon leader. The revolution must continue, Pratt averred. The people thirsted for political representation and for land.  Madero would have realized these dreams, but counter-revolutionaries Orozco and Huerta, “bought off by the millions of the privileged and wealthy classes,” had temporarily squashed Mexican aspirations.  Unlike Ivins, Pratt had little faith in Mexico’s new president: “General Carranza is . . . an aristocrat, one of the privileged classes of Mexico, and he is a man who cannot inspire in the Mexican people any confidence.”

Pratt retained hope in the programs of Villa and Zapata. He impressed his audience with the resolve of the peasant soldiers. On the slope of a Puebla volcano ragged Zapatistas had told Pratt: “. . . we . . . shall inherit something besides the misery that we have had to live in, and we never again will lay down our arms until there is established for the humble class of Mexico liberty.”

Pratt’s discourse was Mormon, religious, and revolutionary in a language in the making: a road sign pointing to the future.” Pratt braided together the mission of the Church, violent revolution, and tolerance for Mexico in his conclusion. He spoke directly to Mormon colonial hardships: “[The revolutionaries] may have committed against us depredations, and if it were only a political issue, if it were only a national issue, if we were only Americans, we might have resentment toward them. But we have received the word of the Lord that they are our brethren.”  Pratt had broken the barriers of Americanism. He prayed that darkness would be dispelled, the light of a new age would shine, and that “when the clouds of war rolled by . . . the servants of the Lord will be permitted to come again and carry the gospel to their brethren and to their sisters who are yet in darkness.”

Mormon General Authorities Rey L. Pratt and Anthony W. Ivins supported the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1917. They accepted revolutionary violence as a necessary if not desired component in national development and the realization of human rights. During the 1920’s they recognized the authority of the state to institutionalize the results of Mexico’s violent years.  Their contribution was unique. Two high-borne LDS leaders had articulated a “liberation theology” as part of Mormon ecumenical message at a time when Utah was undergoing the transition from a communitarian theocracy to a Wall Street dependency.

And so began the rebuilding of the Mormon Colonies in Mexico.

Around 1926 Orson Pratt Brown moved his fifth wife, Angela Gabaldón, and their four children from Ciudad Juárez to Namiquipa, then on to Colonia Dublán, where he spent the rest of his life to March 10, 1946.

 

Mexican Presidents:

Porfirio Diaz

Francisco I. Madero

Victoriano Huerta

Venustiano Carranza

Alvaro Obregón

Plutarco Elías Calles 

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Excerpts:

See Main Bibliography for full information.

"Mormons in Mexico", See Bibliography: F. LaMond Tullis

"Stalwarts South of the Border," See Bibliography: Hatch/Hardy.

http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/fall_1997_mexican_punitive_expedition_1.html

http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/winter_1997_mexican_punitive_expedition_2.html

"The United States Armed Forces and the Mexican Punitive Expedition: Part 1& 2" by Mitchell Yockelson

http://www.johnpratt.com/ruth/histories/achsah/achsah.html

"My Life's Story", by Achsah Stout McOmber

http://ppl.nhmccd.edu/~craigl/speeches/princeton.html

“They Are Our Brothers”: High Mormon Officials Response To The Mexican Revolution, 1910-1917"  by Craig Livingston, Princeton University, 24 June 1999

Copyright 2001 www.OrsonPrattBrown.org