Stalwarts South of the Border

Compiled and edited by Nelle Spilsbury Hatch and B. Carmon Hardy

Book Description:

This enormous volume of over 800 pages contains the life sketches of those who lived in the Mormon colonies between their founding in 1885 and when they had to abandon them for a time in 1912 because of the Mexican Revolution. Nelle Spilsbury Hatch, a lifelong resident of Colonia Juarez, originally planned to collect biographical accounts of individuals she had personally known and who had a significant influence on her life, but soon she was encouraged to include as many of those who colonized northern Mexico as possible. Undoubtedly, histories of other colonists could have been added to this massive endeavor if they had been located in time.

As Mrs. Hatch’s eyesight and health began to fail, she turned the project over to B. Carmon Hardy, a historian, who also had an interest in and ties to the colonies. Under Dr. Hardy’s leadership, the volume was published in 1985, in time to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the first colonists arriving in Mexico.

The residents of the colonies located in Chihuahua and Sonora were overwhelmingly members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, thus regulations relating to things such as road and bridge repair, education and local tax collections were a part of each colony’s priesthood meeting agenda. Bishops acted in civil as well as ecclesiastical roles. The result was an atmosphere of exceptional peace. Alcohol and tobacco were almost nonexistent among the colonists. And except for the last year or so before the Exodus, residents commonly left their homes unlocked and their horses and wagons, when in town, unattended. In many ways, the precepts of Latter-day Saint doctrine were more nearly realized as a common way of life for those who lived in the colonies before the Exodus than at any other time or place in the Church’s history.

One feature during this time period that set the colonists apart more distinctly than any other was the practice of plural marriage. It was polygamy that chiefly accounted for their movement into Mexico. After the passage of harsh anti-polygamy laws by the United States government in the 1880s, men could maintain and live with their plural wives with far greater freedom in Mexico than was possible north of the border. The relative isolation of the colonies and relaxed attitudes by Mexican officials permitted the colonists to participate in polygamous family life to a greater degree, perhaps, than would have been possible anywhere else at the time.

In time, the practice of polygamy declined. First, Church President Wilford Woodruff issued the Manifesto in 1890 that declared no more plural marriages would be sanctioned in the United States. Then in 1904, President Joseph F. Smith extended that ban to new polygamous marriages throughout the world.

The colonists, for the most part, thrived while living in Mexico. Many were in a penniless condition when they arrived, but with grit, hard work, and their religious faith, they transformed the desert into “a land flowing with milk and honey.” They had brick homes with lovely yards and orchards, fronted by tree-lined streets. Organs, private libraries, and comfortable furniture were to be seen inside the houses, while modern farm machinery and purebred livestock were visible in the fields. Excellent schools and cultural events were also highlights of these communities.

My Opinion:

Arranged alphabetically, this collection of biographical sketches is not a book you are likely to want to read cover to cover, but it may serve as a good secondary source to add to the information you already have on a colonist. That said, since different people wrote and contributed the histories, they vary in length, content, and quality. Another major disappointment is how few of them are accounts about women.