PAGE 439 to 453 PACIFIC HISTORICAL REVIEW - November 1965

Cultural Encystment as a Cause of the Mormon Exodus from Mexico in 1912

(encystment - (en-sist'ment) n. enclosing or becoming enclosed in a cyst, capsule, or sac.)

By BLAINE CARMON HARDY

The author is assistant Professor of History of Education in Brigham Young University.

The PHENOMENON of racial and national solidarity among immigrants is well established and has been the subject of considerable study.' Intense feelings of ethnic pride and trans­ported loyalties seem to be the rule more often than the exception with first-generation immigrants. Lowry Nelson observed that such feelings have obtained among Mormon groups in Canada and other alien settings.2 A study of the journals and writings of Mormon settlers in Mexico in the late nineteenth century suggests that, here too, racial, political, and religious attitudes marked the Mormon colonists and set them apart from their adopted Mexican environment. It is the contention of this article that the unwillingness of most Mormon colonists to compromise their traditional loyalties contributed to an uncomfortable cultural isolation and abetted the causes leading to their forced exodus in 1912.

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1. 'See, for example, the observations of Samuel Noah Eisenstadt, The Absorption of Immigrants (London, 1954); D. V. Glass, L’Assimilation Culturelle des Immigrants (Paris 1950) and W. D. Borrie, The Cultural Integration of Immigrants (Paris, 1959), 270-287. Studies of this kind date back at least to the treatments of Thomas and Florian Znaniecki, The Polish Peasantt in Europe and America (2 vols.: New York, and Henry Pratt Fairchild, Immigration, a World Movement and its American Significance (rev. ed.: New York, 1930).

2. The Mormon Village; A Pattern and Technique of Land Settlement (Salt Lake City, 1952). 40, 260 et passim. Ephraim Edward Erickscn has explained the strong tendency toward isolation among nineteenth century Mormons as the product of a moral and theological dualism which demanded a policy of social separatism. The Psychological and Ethical Aspects of Mormon Group Life (Chicago, 1922), 39 ff. For published materials of general historical and sociological interest dealing with the southwest borderlands area, one should first consult Charles C. Cumberland’s The United States-Mexican Sociology, XXV (June, 1960)

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Mormon interest in Mexico began in the mid-1870's. A religious concern for Mexico's vast number of Indians linked with a need for adequate lands to accommodate the enlarging fold of the church resulted in a missionary and exploratory expedition in 1876.3 Other missions to Mexico having the dual objective of making converts and scouting out new localities for colonization continued into the early 1880's, including an adventurous visit to the hostile Yaqui Indians of southwestern Sonora.4 Aside from the establishment of a small contingent of missionaries in Mexico City, however, few converts and no permanent Mormon settlements resulted from these early inquiries.

The missionaries who began laboring in Mexico City in 1879 soon met discouragement and opposition. Under the leadership of Apostle Moses Thatcher the small group struggled against Protestant and Catholic hostility and, what was worse, apathy on the part of their few proselytes. It soon became apparent that, if their work was to

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3 Daniel W. Jones, Forty Years Among the Indians (Salt Lake City, 1890). 212-303. Other original accounts may be found in Anthony W. Ivins, Diary I (microfilm of original non-paginated MSS, Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, California), entries from Sept, 1875, through May, 1876. The journals are not consistently paginated throughout. To avoid confusion, all citations are by date of entry only. This practice also applies to the more complete B.Y.U. edition noted below. Ivins' writings and diaries are of particular importance to this study because, from 1895 until 1907, he was the leading spirit and chief ecclesiastical authority among all Mexico Mormons. Even after his elevation to the apostleship in 1907, Ivins continued to take a direct interest in the affairs of Mormon colonists south of the border.

Also see Mariam Stewart, "The Story of James Z. Stewart" (microfilm of typewritten MS, Utah State University Library, Logan, Utah), 10-16; James H. McClintock, Mormon Settlement in Arizona: A Record of Peaceful Conquest of the Desert (Phoenix, 1921), 137-140; and Brigham H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (6 vols.; Salt Lake City, 1930), V, 475-477.

4 Llewellyn Harris in a letter to The Desert News, Jan. 18, 1882, p. 803; Lycurgus A. Wilson, "The Mexican Mission," Deseret Weekly, Aug. 1, 1891, p. 161; James Henry Martineau, "Settlements in Arizona" (handwritten MS, Bancroft Library, University of California. 1885), 7-8. Also Benjamin Franklin Johnson, My Life’s Review (Independence, Missouri, 1957), 284-285; Andrew Jenson, Church Chronology (2nd ed.; Salt Lake City, 1899), 98; Thomas Cottam Romney, The Mormon Colonies in Mexico (Salt Lake City, 1938), 42-43, 53. For accounts dealing with the mission to the Yaquis, see Johnson, My Life's Review, 287-296; Romney, The Mormon Colonies in Mexico, 53-54; Wilson, "The Mexican Mission," 161-163; the brief extract from Heber J. Grant's diary which constitutes Rachel Grant Taylor's "Journey to Mexico-1884," Improvement Era, XLV (Nov. 1942) pgs ­696-698; and the even shorter sketch written from Hilton S. Ray's verbal accounts in the journals of John Mills Whittaker (typewritten copy of original MSS, University of Utah. Sa1t Lake City, Utah), III, 36.

5 Journals of Moses Thatcher, 1866-1881 (6 vols.; microfilm of originals. Utah State Historical Society, Salt Lake City), II, 18 and IV, 62; Anthony W. Ivins, all Of Diary II; Andrew Jensen "Moses Thatcher," The Historical Record, VI (Aug., 1889), pgs 244-256

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realize success in any measure, the attractive image of some Mormon stalwarts prospering on Mexican soil would be immensely helpful. Colonization would serve at once as an example of Mormon character while providing a means of placing converts in a new en­vironment away from the distracting effects of Mexico's non-Mormon society. These considerations led Thatcher to subscribe to the conclusion drawn by Daniel W. Jones before him, lvins had said, "We were united in one idea, and that was before any great work could be done in this country it would be necessary to colonize among the people."6

Thatcher returned to Salt Lake City in February 1880, with the expectation of obtaining, consent and assistance for a colonizing project from the leadership of the church. The response was disappointing. Thatcher's plan was rejected as premature. Colonization in Mexico was judged to be of little moment compared to greater anxieties then confronting the saints in "Zion." 7 Homes and entire communities were being threatened by the anti-polygamy crusade. Many were fleeing to obscure retreats in Montana, Colorado, Nevada, and Arizona.8 The alternatives considered were few. George Q. Cannon, Utah's territorial delegate to Washington, was quoted in the New York City Sun as saying Mormons "cannot move to any part of the territory of the United States, and they may be compelled either to abandon one feature of their religion or to fight." 9 Colonization in Mexico would have to wait for a resolution of the crisis at home.

For a half-decade the church doggedly struggled for survival against unmitigated implementation of anti-polygamy legislations.10 It seemed

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6 Jones, 283; Journals of Moses Thatcher, 111, 43-44.

7 Journals of Moses Thatcher, III, 101-124.

8 Edward Milo Webb, His Ancestors and Descendants," compiled by a daughter, Irene Adell Webb Merrell (mimeographed ?,IS, Brigham Young University Library, Provo, Utah), 12; Levi Mathers Savage, "Family History Journal" (mimeographed MS, Brigham Young University Library, Provo, Utah), 36-37; All manuscript material cited hereafter are found in the Brigham Young University Library will be followed by the initials B.Y.U. Also see Journals of John Mills Whittaker' (typewritten cpoy of original MSS, University of Utah Library, Salt Lake City, Utah), III, 35 et passim; Juanita Brooks, Dudley Leavitt, Pioneer to Southern Utah (1942), 93; Pearl Udall Nelson, Arizona Pioneer Mormon David King Udall: His Story and His Family 1851-1938 (Tucson, 1959), 106.

9 "Uneasiness at Salt Lake," The Sun, Aug. 13. 1879. This organ is not paginated.

10 See Roberts' Comprehensive History of the Church, IV,. 210-229. Other excellent statements are: Richard D. Poll, "The Political Reconstruction of Utah Territory, 18666-1890," Pacific Hist­orical Review, XXVII (May, 1958), 111-127; Robert Joseph Dwyer, The Gentile Comes to Utah; a study in religious and social conflict (I862-1890) (Washington, ­D.C., 1941); and Leonard J. Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints 1830-1900. (Cambridge, Mass., 1958), 235-236. 353-379.

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impossible that, after nearly forty years of peace in the wilderness Mormonism's most hallowed features should now be threatened by a hostile "gentile" environment. But events were fast transforming the Mormon dream of an independent commonwealth into history.

By the mid-1880's hardships had attained such proportion that relief of some kind had to be found. Even before receiving instructions from Salt Lake City, Christopher Layton, president of the St. Joseph Stake in Arizona, advised a few men under his jurisdiction, in 1884,

to take their families and seek new homes in Mexico where they would be safe from capture by United States marshals.11 John D. Taylor, president of the Mormon Church, soon followed Layton's lead and recommended that lands in Mexico be acquired for the of Latter-day Saint polygamists and their families.12 An area was located in the Casas Grandes Valley of Chihuahua and word was spread that a haven was now available for those who sought respite from the persecution at "home."

Before lands were purchased, wagons and hundreds of people began to flood across the border. By the middle of May, 1885, nearly four hundred prospective colonists could be seen waiting on the banks of Casas Grandes River, marking time, hoping that a land would soon be made by church authorities.14 Arrangements failed and the spring turned to summer. Many were forced to pay heavy and return to the border because of customs violations. Others accused the Mexicans of the region with looting the mail and of their meager possessions.15 With no source of income and without land to plant, the migrants were soon reduced to abject poverty.

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11 James Henry Martineau, "History of the Mormon Colonies in Mexico," (unpublished MS), No. 7, p. 2; Andrew Jenson, "Juarez Stake" (typewritten, non-paginated MS, Church Historian's Office, Salt Lake City, Utah); "Autobiographies of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Franklin Moffett." XV: Miscellaneous Mormon Diaries (typewritten and mimeographed MSS, B.Y.U.), 2.

12 "Jenson, "Juaréz Stake", Joseph Fielding Smith, Life of Joseph F. Smith, Sixth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City, 1938). 261; Brigham H. Roberts, The Life of John Taylor, Third President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City, 1892), 381.

13 "Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, The Life Story Of a Mormon Pioneer 1834-1906 (Salt Lake City, 1953), 303; Andrew Jenson, Church Chronology (2nd ed .; Salt Lake City, 1899), 117. It was at about this same time that Mormons began to consider Canada as another possible refuge. See The Deseret Weekly, June 22, 1889, p. 809; and Roberts, Comprehensive History of the Church, VI, 274-276.

14 "Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 303-318; Romney, The Mormon Colonies in Mexico, 55-57; Nelle Spillsbury Hatch, Colonia Juárez, An Intimate Account of a Mor­mon Village (Salt Lake City, 1954), 1-8.

15 Ibid., 308-312; Levi Mathers Savage, "Family History Journal" (mimeographed MS, B.Y.U.), 39-40; The Deseret News, Dec. 21,1887, p. 769.

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Wagon boxes and dugouts served as homes.16 Miles P. Romney, who went about with only rawhide sandals strapped to his feet for shoes, made his home from four posts bounded by walls of burlap sack and sagebrush.17 Sickness and flaring tempers plagued the camp. As the seasons came and matured, hope was transformed to resentment and faith to discouragement. Even at this early period of their Mexican residence, the settlers manifested a suspicion toward the new environment. Fearful of extradition agreements between Mexico and the United States, it was determined that, for the time being, the migrants should remain as obscure as possible. The church-owned newspaper in Salt Lake City, The Deseret News, assured its non-Mormon readers that the church contemplated no large removal to Mexico or anywhere else.18 All the men intending to remain in Mexico were asked to sign a restrictive agreement prohibiting the sale to "outsiders" of any property which might be purchased. Women were instructed to impart no information to strangers and all were to refuse invitations to dances or outside social mingling of any kind.19

Then, in late November, 1885, Apostle George Teasdale successfully negotiated the purchase of more than 100,000 acres of land on the Piedras Verdes River, and the weary colonists began the settlement of Colonia Juárez.20

Even then, it was discovered in the spring of 1886 that an error had been made in establishing the correct boundaries of the purchase and their settlement had to be abandoned.21 Once again another site, two miles further north in a narrow and rocky canyon of the Piedras Verdes, was colonized.22 The soil was poor and the prospect for obtaining sufficient water for irrigation was worse. But with renewed hope, crops were planted, homes were built, and the permanent settlement of Colonia Juárez was commenced. With the establishment on an enduring basis of Colonia Juárez in 1886, other Mormon communities began to appear.

By 1900 there

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16 Ibid.. 318.

17 Thomas Cottam Romney, Life story of Miles P. Romney (Independence, Missouri, 1948), 181.

18 The Mormons' Are Not Gone Yet," Feb. 4. 1885. p. 40; ibid., Dec. 1, 1886, p. 128.

19 James Henry Martineau, "History of the Mormon Colonies in Mexico," No. 4. pp. ­8, 19-20, 35.

20 Jenson, "Juárez Stake."

21 Hatch, Colonia Juárez, 23-24; Romney, Life Story of Miles P. Romney. 191-192.

22 Ibid.

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were a total of six colonies in Chihuahua and two in Sonora. And before the 1912 "Exodus," the number of settlers amounted to nearly four thousand.23 The church and the Mexican Colonization and Agricultural Company, a church-owned co-operative, immediately began coordinating and directing most of the colonists' work.24 With the fear of imprisonment now eliminated, these pioneers were ready and anxious to build up the "Kingdom" in Mexico.

The first years were difficult. Living conditions were often about as primitive and humble as one could imagine. Tents, wagon boxes, dugouts, and rude "hicals" (Jacales), made from the tall, thorny Ocotillo plant, were common as sheltcr.25 Sometimes the migrants' diet consisted of no more than "redroot, pigweed, and alfalfa' with an occasional meal of deer or turkey.26 Women found the need to weave and fashion clothes from crude fiber an unending task. Baskets, hats, and shoes were made from straw and corn husks. For things made of cloth they "had to go back to spindle swift and real (reel)." 27 Some­times the women were unable to care for their families from sheer want of anything to work with. Price W. Nelson, a presiding elder among the mountain colonists, said that nearly everyone there was destitute and hungry. He himself went barefoot to church. "My pants had been patched so much" he said, that "it seemed as though there wasn't any room for any more, so I put on two pair, turning one backward so the holes wouldn't match."28 Epidemics of scarlet fever, diphtheria, typhoid, malaria, and smallpox struck every one of the

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23 The "Plateau" colonies of Chihuahua were Juárez, Dublán, and Diaz. Three smaller communities were located in the Sierra Madre Mountains. These were named Pacheco, Garcia, and Chuichupa. Oaxaca and Morelos were the two Sonoran settlements. See Romney, The Mormon Colonies in Mexico, 74--127. Also "Journal History of the Church" (multi-volume MSS constituted from typescript and news clippings, Church Historian's Office, Salt Lake City, Utah), April 30, 1902.

24 Andrew Jenson, "Juárez Stake," and the same author's "Juárez Stake Wards" (type­written, non-paginated MS, Church Historian's Office, Salt Lake City, Utah). ALIO see the Certificate of Incorporation of the Mexican Colonization and Agricultural Company, No. 8774 (office of the Secretary of State, Denver, Colorado), June 19, 1888.

25 "The journal of Henry Eyring, 1835-1902" (typewritten MS, B.Y.U.), 64'. "The Story of Lorenzo Snow Huish" (typewritten MS in the possession of hiabcl -rodd. Salt Lake City, Utah), 40.

26 Thomas C. Romney, A Divinity Shapes Our Ends As Seen in My Life Story (pub­lished by the author. 1953), 46-48.

27 "Life of Henry Lunt and Family together with a portion of his diary" (typed Ms. B.Y.U.), 19.

28 Price W. Nelson. "Experience of Price It'. Nelson," Treasures of Pioneer History. Kate D. Carter (12 Vols.; Salt Lake City, 1952-1958). 111, 219.

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small communities.29 These were the conditions which would later cause Lycurgus A. Wilson to remark that "when the history of the first two years of settlement of the Mormon people in Mexico shall be written, it will form one of the most interesting of leaves in the annals of hardship and patient endurance."30

Gradually, however, the colonists improved their conditions. Un­failing labor and an optimism born of religious conviction soon began to bear fruit. Originally intending, to accomplish, only a healthy self-­sufficiency, Mormon enterprise soon provided returns from a market which extended well beyond the society of the eight small colonies. By the early 1890's, income from agricultural and industrial produce was so gratifying that some of the colonists organized committees to ad­vertise and promote the sale of their goods.31 The results were reward­ing. The settlements became centers of extensive commercial and agricultural dealing year round. By 1896 the American consul in Chihuahua could report that traders and ranchers flocked "to the Mor­mon stores from all directions, coming with their pack trains and their mule and ox teams from hundreds Of miles to lay in provisions and other supplies."32

With economic success, the Mormons seemed justified in their be­lief that Latter-day Saint colonies in Mexico could be credited to providential intent. Church authorities often alluded to Mormon doctrine which had long envisioned all of North and South America as properly constituting the Kingdom of God in the New World.33 In 1890, Book of Mormon prophecies were cited, in response to the first Pan-American Congress of 1889, to prove that it is "a foregone conclusion that Central America will soon be brought under one

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29 "Diary of Winslow Farr, 1856-1899" (typewritten MS, B.Y.U.), 140; "The Story Of Lorenzo Snow Huish" (typewritten MS in the possession of Mabel Todd, Salt Lake city, Utah). 38; The Deseret Weekly, Oct. 21, 1893, pp 567.

30 "Mormons in Mexico," The Deseret Weekly, Oct. 10, 1891, p. 481.

31 Ibid., Dec. 23, 1893, 27.

32 Louis At. Buford, "Mormon Colonists in Mexico," United States Consular Re­ports, No. 190 (July. 1896), P. 406.

33 See, e.g., Joseph Smith's statements in his autobiographical History of the Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints (7 vols., 2nd ed.; Salt Lake City, 1948-1959. VI, 195-209, 275-277; Brigham Young in Journal of Discourses, by President Brigham Young, His Counselors and the Twelve Apostles, ed. George D. Watt el at. (26 vols.; Liverpool, 1854-1886), XVIII (1877), 355-356; President John W. Taylor's remarks as recorded in The Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 294; and The Deseret News, April 1, 1885. P. 191.

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general government." 34 All of this seemed fully confirmed when in 1905 the president of the church, Joseph F. Smith, told the colonists at a Juarez Stake conference that Mormons were to be established throughout the breadth of the land." The Lord had conspired their forced immigration to Mexico "in order that the work might spread." 35

Increasing prosperity and an assurance in the providential char­acter of their work combined to breed a kind of confidence which was sometimes transformed into a thoroughgoing, ethnocentrism. This was most conspicuous in their relationships with the surrounding Mexicans. Generally, feelings were cordial during the early years when there was little disparity of wealth between Mexican and Mor­mon.36 But as time passed and the circumstances of the Mormons im­proved, the natives came to begrudge the invaders their fortunes. The colonists, in turn, viewed the Mexican as lazy and primitive. In the words of Edward M. Webb, Mexicans were a people eternally content to live on "tortillas which they patted into thin cakes, some­times on their bare knee, and baked on a hot rock or tin." 37 Thomas Cottam Romney, when moved from one of the colonies to a ranch purchased by his father, expressed what must have been the common sentiment by complaining at having to live in "a Mexican adobe structure with dirt roof and dirt floor and no furniture except of the rudest sort. Worst of all our neighbors for miles around were Mexicans." 38 Then , of course , there were the unavoidable incidents which

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34 ‘The Deseret Weekly, Jan. 18, 1890, p. 122; Also see the Patriarchal Blessing given Anthony W. Ivins regarding his second mission to Mexico in 1882-1884. Anthony Ivins, Journal 1, May 20,1884.

35 Journal of Anthony W. Ivins as typed, prepared, and supplemented by Stanley S. Ivins (microfilm of typewritten MS, B.Y.U.), Sept. 16, 1905. This is a typewritten and more complete edition of the Ivins MSS. It has the advantage of clarity and completeness. The Huntington film is valuable. of course, because it makes the original Ivins notes and memorandum books, though incomplete, available to the researcher. The B.Y.U. film will be cited like the Huntington film, by date of entry following Ivins’ name and with B.Y.U. in parentheses.

36 For evidence of this early amity, see The Deseret News, Sept. 21,1887, p.574: The Deseret Weekly, May 24. 1890, pp. 722-723; ibid., Oct. 24, 1891, P. 589. Also Daniel W. Jones, Forty Years Among the Indians, 393-394; “Autobiographies of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Franklin Moffet,” XV: Miscellaneous Mormon Diaries (typewritten and mimeographed, MSS, B.Y.U in parenthesis. 4.

37 Edward Milo Webb. His Ancestors and Descendants," compiled by a daughter, Irene Adell Webb Merrell (mimeographed MS, B.Y.U.), 26.

38 A Divinity Shapes Our Ends, 49. These seem not to have been different feelings of other visitors from the United States. See. e.g.. the remarks of the American Protestant observer. William F. Cloud, in his Church and State and State or Mexican Politics from Cortez to Diaz, under X Rays (Kansas City, 1896). 242 et passim.

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would be cited and remembered as evidence of the Mexicans' barbar­ity. Thievery was common and efforts to resist theft or other crimes sometimes resulted in violence and even murder.39

The factor of greatest importance, however, in estranging the two peoples was Mormon racial theory. Inferior lands, governments, and races were believed to be the products of apostasy from the gospel at some earlier historical epoch. Some nations and racial groups had plunged to a greater depth in their error than others, but all were in a state of degeneracy. This spiritual depravity was frequently evinced by the imprecation of a darkened skin. The Indians were viewed as heirs to a curse placed upon their fathers near the time when, ac­cording to the Book of Mormon, the New World had been peopled by emigrants from Palestine.40 Intermarriage with the Mexican peo­ple, then, could only bring, contamination by the earlier malediction.

Even before the migration to Mexico had begun, Apostle Brigham Young, Jr., had warned members of the church living in Arizona "that the blood of Cain was more predominant in these Mexicans than that of Israel." For this reason he "condemned the mixing" of Mormons with "outsiders."41 Later, after the establishment of the colonies in Mexico, attitudes remained the same. During, a visit to a small Mexican village in 1896, Anthony W. Ivins was startled by the poor conditions of buildings, domestic animals, and the people them­selves. "I looked at them and thought the people, the chickens, and dogs are all alike, degenerate, ignorant, debased."42 The Mormons, on the other hand, considered themselves as constituted from the most choice of man's many blood lines. Predominantly of Nordic lineage, the colonists were intensely proud of their racial heritage. And most felt like Thomas Cottam Romney, who viewed democracy and other of western man's greatest possessions as primarily An-lo-Saxon achievements.43

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39 "'Diary of Winslow Farr 1856-1899" (typewritten MS, B.Y.U.), 141: Pearl Houtz Stock, "Death of Agnes," Treasures of Pioneer History, III, 221-222; The Deseret Weekly, Dec. 7, 1895, p. 794; Andrew Jenson, "Juárez Stake Wards."

40 See in the Book of Mormon, I Nephi 12:23; II Nephi 5:21; Jacob 3:5. Also Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City, 1948), Sec. 49:24.

41 Quoted from the Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 288; Also James H. McClintock, Mormon Settlement in Arizona: a Record of Peaceful Conquest of the Desert (Phoenix, 1921), 2, 182,189.

42 Journal I, April 22, 1896.

43 The Mormon Colonies in Mexico, 265. Also James Henry Martineau, "History of Mormon Colonies in Mexico," No. 1, P. 14.

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Consequently, there was little interest on the part of the colonists to share their lives and fortunes with their neighbors. The settlers genuinely believed themselves to be racially superior. They were socially exclusive. Authorities and parents frowned on intermarriage and a kind of informal segregation was perpetrated at school and church. There seems to have been little interest even in proselyting among the natives. It was not until 1891 that the first Mexican of the region was baptized, and subsequent conversions followed very slowly.44

The problem of racial sensitivity was compounded by a virulent Mormon strain of American nationalism. Notwithstanding that the church had suffered what it considered to be deep injuries at the hands of the United States government and the colonists themselves had been driven into Mexico because of governmental policies, still they were deeply patriotic.45 Mormonism, in the words of one writer, has always been "as native to the United States as Indian corn and the buffalo nickel." 46

Throughout the entire period before the 1912 Exodus, the colonists proudly identified with their American past. Hardly any were inter­ested in obtaining Mexican citizenship.47 In July of 1885, while still looking for land on which they might settle, one exploring party boldly climbed a tall pine tree and attached to it a large American flag.48 Before they had even the legal assurance of land ownership, while still huddling in temporary camps along the Casas Grandes River, they had not hesitated to "ride out" and fire their guns to celebrate the 4th of July.49 Most felt like Anthony W. Ivins, who, on a visit to the San Bernardino Ranch in Sonora, said, "it makes me homesick to think that I am so near the U.S. and still in a foreign country."50 Later, during a visit to Mexico City, Ivins wrote to his cousin, Heber

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44 "Diary of James Henry Martineau," XI: Miscellaneous Mormon Diaries (type-written and mimeographed MSS, B.Y.U.), 35.

45 In spite of periodic controversies, from its New England beginnings to the decline of its Rocky Mountain kingdom at the close of the nineteenth century, Mormonism displayed a close sympathy with the general gait and direction of American life. The colonists' nationalism, like their racial views, was born of religious conviction. See the Book of Mormon, I Nephi 13:12; 11 Nephi 1:7; 10:11-12; Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 101:76-80; and Joseph Smith, History of the Church, VI, 206-209, 275-277.

46 William Mulder, "The Mormons in American History," Bulletin of the University of Utah, IV (Jan., 1957), 8.

47 Not until 1931 did the church formally encourage colonists to become Mexican citizens. Jenson, "Juárez Stake."

48 Journal of Jesse Nathaniel Smith, 315.

49 Martineau, "History of the Mormon Colonies in Mexico," No. 4, p. 18.

50 Anthony W. Ivins, Journal 1, May 2, 1896.

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J. Grant, in Utah that he would gladly submit to United States mili­tary service during the War of 1898 for "service in the army, any­thing in a free government would be preferable to life in Mexico."51 Eunice S. Harris, like an exile, lamented that her boys were born in Mexico and "there grew to manhood before they again saw our own American flag."52 And Miles P. Romney, when asked to gave the ora­tion at the celebration of the September uprising,, in 1810 of Miguel Hidalgo, said: "I could get some enthusiasm for the 4th of July but not for the 16th of September."53 Some actually chose to return, pre­ferring hazardous circumstances in the United States to conditions in Mexico.54

But for the many who remained, every opportunity was taken to stay in touch with affairs in the United States. The heavy bulk of their reading material came from American newspapers and journals. English was spoken at home, at church, and in school; few troubled themselves to learn the Spanish tongue. Authorities from Salt Lake City made formal visits to church conferences in the colonies three or four times each year. And several colonists nearly always traveled north to attend the biannual general gathering, of the church in Salt Lake City held each April and October. Everything possible was done to refresh the distant settlers on nourishment from the parental vine north of the border. But this seems only to have emphasized a feeling on the part of many that they had been pushed beyond the edge of things. Theirs was a distant and trying existence. Not a few, like Ann Lunt, regarded Mexico as no more than "a wild state and iso­lated from civilization." 55

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51 Ibid., Journal II, March 5, 1898.

52 "Autobiographical Sketch of Eunice Stewart Harris" (typewritten MS, B.Y.U.), 29.

53 Quoted from Thomas Cottam Romney, Life Story Of Miles P. Romney, 216, also 234, 293, 306-307. In addition see the "Autobiographical Sketch of Eunice Stewart Harris," 31, 45; "Autobiographies of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Franklin Moffett,', XV: Miscellaneous Mormon Diaries (typewritten and mimeographed MSS, B.Y.U.), 4; "Diary of James Henry Martineau," 36-37; The Deseret Weekly, June 21,1890, pp. 857-858.

54 Grace Foutz Boulter, "History of Bishop Jacob Foutz, Sr., and Family" (microfilm of typewritten MS., B.Y.U.), 27.

55 "Life of Henry Lunt and Family together with a portion of his diary" (typewritten MS, B.Y.U.), 18. Elder Antoine R. Ivins, son of Anthony IV. Ivins, and now one of the general authorities of the church, told recently how as a boy in Mexico he was promised in a blessing that he would become a Mexican statesman: "but I just did not want to be a Mexican citizen, and I did not want to be a Mexican statesman. So I am not holding Patriarch Stowell responsible for the failure." General Conference Report, Salt Lake City, 1961), 28. Keeping young people in the colonies and orienting their attentions away from the United States toward Mexican occupation continues to be a problem. See the editor's conclusion in Hatch, Colonia Juárez, p. xii; Romney, The Mormon Colonies in Mexico, 300 ff.; LeRona McDonald Wilson, "The Differential Development Among Anglos and Mexicans in the Mormon Colonies of Northwest Mexico (unpublished Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 1959),110-112.

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As the years passed and many of the perverse features of the environment began to yield to their labor, the colonists grew to accept their lot and some, even, to like it.51 Particularly after the turn of the century, when the long years of patience and perseverance be- ii to a bring reward, many took pride in their mission and accomplishments. The streets of the colonies were free from profanity, doors could con­fidently be left unlocked. There was no liquor and very little tobacco consumed, and the tithing returns were reputed to be among the highest in the church. There is little surprise that observers both within and outside the Mormon order viewed with admiration the beauty of the colonies and the excellence of their social organizations But this very success, perhaps, contributed still more to an enclosed and self-assured view. President J. Golden Kimball, when visiting the colonies in 1900, predicted a continuation of growth and prosperity for the saints in Mexico.58 It was even rumored by some that a temple would be built among them.511 Success and fortune seemed to abound on every side. Outlying farms displayed modern American homes. Sewing machines, house organs, attractive furniture, and modern equipment were prized possessions of almost every family.60 Rey L. Pratt, serving as president of the mission in Mexico City in 1911, could say even at that late date, "prospects were never brighter for the spread of the gospel in this land, and we look forward to a bright and prosperous future for the Mexican Mission."61 It was not that the Mormons were deaf to revolutionary rumblings in the later years for they were quite aware of the spirit of discontent

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56 "Autobiographical Sketch of Eunice Stewart Harris," 47-48; "Edward Milo Webb, His Ancestors and Descendant,." 26.

57 United States Consul Charles W. Kindrick described the colonies in 1899 as meet ing the eye of the traveler like "a green garden in the wilderness.. . ." "The Mormons in Mexico," The American Monthly Review of Reviews, XIX June, 1899), 704-705. And Apostle Hyrum M. Smith, after a visit to the colonies in 1903, could say that "The social conditions there were well nigh perfect" (Romney, A Divinity Shapes our Ends,110).

58 Journal of Anthony W. Ivins, Feb. 24, 1900 (B.Y.U.).

59 Martineau, "History of the Mormon Colonies in Mexico," No. 6, pp. 16, 36, 41-42.

60 "Life of Henry Lunt and Family, together with a portion of his diary," 19-20; "Journal History of the Church" (multi-volume MSS constituted from typescript and news clippings, Church Historian's Office, Salt Lake City, Utah), April 30, 1902; Stanley S. Ivins, "Letter from Mexico, Impressions of a Mormon," Utah Historical Quarterly, XXVI (April, 1958), 178-179.

61 "History of the Mexican Mission." Improvement Era, XV (April. 1912), 498.

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which surrounded them.62 But the letters and journals of that period seem to reflect an attitude of indifferent confidence. They had been preserved before and surely the Lord would not fail them now. More­over, Mexico had a history of periodic uprisings. This one, like many others, would undoubtedly wear itself out.63 There were other signs of happy days ahead. In the words of Eunice S. Harris, "Mexico was now in its brightest and most prosperous days since the estab­lishment of the Mormon Colonies."64 EIlen E. B. McLaws on a farm in Sonora wrote in 1912: "This place is growing and improving all the time. Our wheat fields are lovely now. Financial prospects were never better in our lives I guess."65 And Thomas Cottam Romney was speak­ing, for more than himself when he said of these later years that it seemed "we had about all we could wish for." 66

The colonists might have obtained protection and respect from at least a part of the combatants in the area had they taken a stand in behalf of one or another of the warring parties. But, in keeping with their isolationist tradition, they refused to identify with either rebel or loyalist and pursued a policy of strict neutrality.67 Rather than se­curing friends in both camps, as they had hoped, such a practice only confirmed their image as a body of disinterested aliens. To be politi­cally indifferent and socially exclusive suggested to the Mexican that economic gain alone could account for the Mormon-Americans' residence in Mexico.

The crisis was precipitated when, in the hot turbulent days of July, 1912, Inez Salazar, at the head of a troop of rebels, demanded all the guns and ammunition the colonists possessed. Threats and insults had been brooked before but now the Mormons would be left defenseless

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62 Journal of Anthony W. Ivins, April 10, 1911 (B.Y.U.); "Life of Henry Lunt and Family together with a portion of his diary," 19-20.

63 Paul Henning to J. Leo Fairbanks, April 20, 1912 (Bundle No. 4, Paul Henning MSS, B.Y.U.).

64 "Autobiographical Sketch of Eunice Stewart Harris," 45.

65 "Biographical Sketches of John W. McLaws, Ellen Elsie Bradshaw McLaws, Mary Ellen Owens Bradshaw, Horace Burr Owens, Sally Ann Layne Owens" (typewritten MS, B.Y.U.), 24.

66 Romney, A Divinity Shapes Our Ends, 147.

67 It would be incorrect to attribute the colonists' policy of neutrality entirely to their own preference. The United States State Department had advised church authorities to counsel the colonists against taking sides in the revolution. Believing that the Diaz government could not long endure, U.S. government officials suggested that Mormons merely "sit tight" and try only to defend their homes. Journal of Anthony W. Ivins, April 10, 1911, and April 5, 1912 (B.Y.U.).

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and at the mercy of even the smallest band of roving, marauders. After a hurried conference between Anthony W. Ivins and Junius Rom­ney, it was decided that, on a given signal, all the colonists should flee their homes and strike for the United States border.68 Sunday, July 28, 1912, was the day decided upon. Thinking their absence would be only temporary, women and children, early in the morning, began streaming north by wagon, train, and horseback. The men soon followed and gathered with their huddling families at El Paso and various other points along the New Mexico and Arizona lines. Within a few days nearly every one of the Mormon communities were without inhabitants. The United States government appropriated food, clothing, and facilities for them.69 Soon many were journeying, to join relatives living in various cities throughout the United States.

The exodus proved to be very costly. Furniture, farm implements, books, and nearly all that was treasured by the colonists were doomed to be burned and destroyed by raiding factions of Mexican revolu­tionaries. Crops were razed to the ground. Livestock was appropriated and wantonly slaughtered. Many of the colonists shot their own dogs and other favored animals rather than leave them to the treachery of Mexican soldiers. The journey to El Paso and other border cities was itself an ordeal of hardship. Women and children were packed into the cars like cattle and at least one death occurred when a wagon attempting to make a swift escape from Colonia Morelos in Sonora overturned, dislodging its passengers.70

In the autumn of 1912 and later in 1915, some of the settlers re­turned to see what could be salvaged. Most found little more than weeds and ashes. The majority decided to leave their Mexican homes and start again somewhere in the United States. This met the ap­proval of President Joseph F. Smith who told the colonists they "were at liberty to go where they chose and might consider their mission in Mexico at an end." "The few who returned valiantly sought to re­new the productivity of the soil and re-establish their co-operative in­dustries. But only two of the original eight colonies have survived

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68 Andrew Jenson, "Juárez Stake," and the same author's "Juárez Stake Wards"; jour­nal of Anthony %V. Ivins. July 8,1912 (B.Y.U).

69 Ibid. Also see the "Hearings of the Subcommittee on Foreign Relations" as reported in the Investigation of Mexican Affairs, 66 Cong., 2 sess., 1919, Sen. Doc. 285, II, 2730­-2731.

70 Martineau, "History of the Mormon Colonies in Mexico," No. 8, pp. 9-11; No. 15, p.47; Romney, The Mormon Colonies in Mexico, 182-200.

71 "The Mexican Trouble-Loyalty to the Constitution." Improvement Era, XVI (Dec. 1912), 95.

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to the present time. And Mormon enterprise in Mexico today, a half-century after the exodus, is but a shadow of its former appear­ance and renown.

Mormon writers have often interpreted the abandonment of their homes in Mexico as resulting, from the selfish and envious tempera­ment of the native populatioon.72 This view is not without truth. One non-Mormon has described how Mexicans living near the colonies had openly asserted that they were no longer going to live in poverty while Americans enjoyed comfort and luxury on Mexican soil.73 Ann Lunt was expressing more than simple bias in saying that the uprising was but a hostile and selfish display on the part of the covetous anti-American element surrounding them." 74

One cannot avoid suspecting, however, that at least some of the abrasiveness in Mormon-Mexican relations could have been avoided had the Mormons more consciously sought acceptance into Mexican society. While their religious precepts made many forms of social in­tercourse nearly impossible, they could have become Mexican citi­zens and thereby have eliminated, in a formal sense at least, the stigma of "foreigner." For many, their stay in Mexico was hopefully only temporary. Like the west coast Chinese "sojourners" in Rose Hum Lee's study, the Mormons held fiercely to their own nationalist origin, expecting someday to return to their native homeland.75 Those who did view Mexico as a permanent residence felt like Frederika Bremer, a Norwegian immigrant to the United States, who in 1850 proclaimed, "What a Glorious new Scandinavia might not Minnesota become!"70 But even without forfeiting their racial and nationalist sentiments, the colonists might wisely have given greater attention to Mexican affairs. Failing here they had no one but themselves to blame when,

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72 See Hatch's account of the Toribio-Sosa episode, Colonia Juárez, 167-177; also Romney's The Mormon Colonies in Mexico, 214-220. Hubert Howe Bancroft had earlier remarked on the Mexican's "native jealousy of foreigners, whose energy and ability are too marked not to be acknowledged and bitterly felt," History of Mexico, VI, 1861-1987, XVI: The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft (San Francisco, 1888), 628. More recently Samuel Ramos has said that even today, "the most striking aspect of Mexican character, at first sight, is distrust," Profile of Man and Culture in Mexico, trans. Peter G. Earle (Austin, 1962), 64.

73 "Testimony of Captain S. H. Veater," "Investigation of Mexican Affairs, 66 Cong., 2 sess., 1919, Sen. Doc. 285,1, 1480-1481.

74 "Life of Henry Lunt and Family together with a portion of his diary," 19-20.

75 The Chinese in the United States (Hong Kong, 1960), 81.

76 Quoted from Carlton Chester Qualey, Norwegian Settlement in the United States (Northfield, Minn., 1938), 97.

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in the words of Anthony W. Ivins, the revolution swept over them without warning." 77

Historical judgments are both difficult and dangerous. But, as Croesus bent the words of the oracle, so the Mormons seem to have interpreted contemporary events in ways that proved prejudicial to themselves. To begin with, the failure to accommodate the vision and plans of Moses Thatcher regarding colonization in Mexico may be seen as a portent of later cultural preoccupation among those Mormons who finally did make their homes in the southern republic. This is not to say church authorities were entirely mistaken in their policy. After all, there was little more at the time than presumption to recommend Jones' and Thatcher's contentions. Mexico already had the reputation of being a graveyard for rash and ill-considered colonization schemes. However, had the move to colonize in Mexico been made at the time Thatcher proposed it--in early 1880--the forced emigration of so many Mormons to Mexico during the sub­sequent decade might not have been fraught with so much hardship, embarrassment, and delay. By tenaciously adhering to what might be called coat-collar diplomacy, by refusing either to compromise or squarely face the storm, Mormon leaders forced many of the faithful into a trying and unwanted exile in Mexico.78

The irony of the situation derives, of course, from the "Exodus" of 1912 which witnessed many of those who had fled as fugitives to Mex­ico now returning as fugitives to the United States, to the protection of hands they had once evaded. The painful ordeal of 1912, at the least, might have been mitigated had the Mormons inclined toward a more engaging and less isolated type of existence. But, as it was, having sacrificed so much in search of independence outside the United States, they were now required to flee even their Mexican homes, relinquish their properties, return to the more lenient rule of government north of the border and to a Mormonism which had, by this time, changed as well. The Mormon colonists of pre-revolution­ary Mexico present the spectacle of a people whose religious tenets had combined with the effect of immigrant "encystment" to precipi­tate a trauma of dislocation and tragedy.

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77 Mexico After the War," Improvement Era, XXI (June, 1918), 715.

78 I refer to President John Taylor's last speech in the Salt Lake Tabernacle in 1886 before he himself went into hiding: "There is a terrible storm coming, and what will we do, we will turn up our coat collars, await for what comes, and trust in the God of Israel." Journal of John Mills Whittaker (typewritten copy of original MSS, University of Utah Library, Salt Lake City, Utah), I, 44-45.