Orson Pratt Brown - Life, Times, Family

"The founders of Colonia Garcia were Alonzo Lafayette Farnsworth and his wife [Mary Ann Staker Farnsworth] and children who arrived in what is known as Round Valley on March 1, 1894. [Alonzo also was married to (2) Christiane Dorthea Nielsen Bertelsen on 9 Mar 1874 in Salt Lake City, S-Lk, Ut and (3) Ida Henrietta Tietjen on 8 Apr 1875 in Salt Lake, Salt Lake, Ut. Alonzo died on 16 May 1931 at Colonia Garcia, Chihuahua, Mexico.]

The valley as the name implies, forms almost a complete circle and when the first colonists arrived it was a veritable paradise of waving grass and beautiful flowers. Surrounding the valley was a forest of pines, whose trappings of green formed a beautiful background to the variegated colors of the encircled meadow. The valley contains about 1,300 acres of the choicest land imaginable, but its altitude of more than seven thousand feet brings early and late frosts that frequently threaten and occasionally cut down the harvest before it has reached maturity.

By December of 1895, a sufficeint number of settlers had arrived in the valley to justify the organizing of a branch of the L.D.S. Chruch. This was attended to by Elder Francis M. Lyman of the Council of the Twelve, with the assistance of President Ivins. Present also was Edward Stevenson of the First Council of Seventy, whose home was in Salt Lake City. John T. Whetten was selected as presiding elder and Alonzo L. Farnsworth and Brigham H. Bingham were to act as counsellors. On January 5, 1896, the following year the Sunday School was organized with Orson Cluff as superindtedent, and the Relief Society with Agnes Ayrd Macdonald as president (O.P. Brown's third mother-in law), while Hyrum Cluff was called to the leadership of the Mutual Improvement Association.

The houses were built chiefly of logs and adobes, both of which were cheap and very serviceable.

On February 7, 1898, President Anthony Woodward Ivins and Alexander Findlay Macdonald visited Telesforo Garcia in Mexico City and negotiated for the transfer of the Garcia lands to the Mexican Colonization and Agricultural Company. Garcia allowed the forty-three colonists a small bounty on their colonization papers amounting to 123.23. The balance due on the land at this time amounted to $1,987.50, which was paid to Mr. Garcia by President Ivins, representing the Mexican Colonization and Agricultural Company.

On March 9, 1898, Apostles John Henry Smith and John W. Taylor visited Colonia Garcia and organized it into a ward. John T. Whetten was sustained as the Bishop and the counsellors selected were Vance Shaffer and James A. Macdonald.

In addition to farming the people engaged in the cattle, lumber, and shingle business. The lumber and shingles not used for home consumption were freighted in wagons to the colonies below the mountains or were delivered at Pearson, a railroad station near Colonia Juarez, to be shipped out of the country. This was a hard life owing to the mountainous character of the road and the exposure to all kinds of weather. The distance from Colonia Garcia to Colonia Juarez was thirty-five miles while Colonia Dublan lay sixteen miles beyond. In the event of the lumber being taken to Colonia Diaz a further haul of about fifty or sixty miles must be made.

Another distressing and expensive feature of the life lived in these mountain colonies was the freighting of all the flour and other merchandise consumed by the settlers, from the valley below up the steep winding canyon road to the top of the Sierras and thence on to its destination over a road that today would seem impassable. The women shared with the men many of the hardships of the mountain life, in most instances with a patience and fortitude seldom witnessed in men. As I contemplate their life of toil and struggle and their deprivation of even the bare necessities in the home I am led to glorify the name of woman." T.C. Romney

COLONIA GARCIA

By Whom: Alonzo L. Farnsworth and Mary Ann Staker Farnsworth family	Notes: also called "Round Valley"
around 1,300 acres
	Altitude of 7,000 feet
Date: February 7, 1898
Date: 1895, December (Stalwarts, January 6, 1895)	Began as a Branch of the Pacheco Ward
Date: 1898 March 9, served for 17 years	Notes: Ward organized by John Henry Smith and John W. Taylor with Colonia Chuhuichupa and Hop Valley as a branches
Date: February 23, 1898
Date: 1912

	Colonia Garcia around 1985

Pages 110-111 Main text from "The Mormon Colonies in Mexico" with additions in brackets, photos, bold, made as noted by Lucy Brown Archer.

Colonia Garcia, Chihuahua, Mexico

ORSON PRATT BROWN FAMILY UPDATES

ORSON PRATT BROWN 1863-1946

ORSON'S JOURNALS AND BIOGRAPHIES

ORSON PRATT BROWN'S PARENTS
- Captain James Brown 1801-1863

- Phebe Abbott Brown Fife 1831-1915

- Colonel William Nicol Fife - Stepfather 1831-1915

ORSON'S GRANDPARENTS

ORSON PRATT BROWN'S 5 WIVES

ORSON PRATT BROWN'S 35 CHILDREN

ORSON'S SIBLINGS from MOTHER PHEBE

ORSON'S 28 SIBLINGS from JAMES BROWN

ORSON'S 17 SIBLINGS from STEPFATHER FIFE

ORSON PRATT BROWN'S IN-LAWS

INDEX OF MORMON COLONIES IN MEXICO

INDEX OF MORMON MEXICAN MISSION

INDEX TO POLYGAMY IN UTAH, ARIZONA, MEXICO

INDEX TO MEX. REVOLUTION & THE MORMON EXODUS

INDEX OF SURNAMES

MAPS OF THE MEXICAN COLONIES

BROWN FAMILY MAYFLOWER CONNECTION 1620

BROWN's in AMERICAN REVOLUTION 1775-1783

BROWN's in AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 1861-1865

BROWN's in WARS AFTER 1865

GO TO TOP OF PAGE