LDS COLONISTS/ MEXICO
1912,1913, those who kept the faith
and peace after their families were evacuated in the summer of 1912.
See notes at end of article.
Fwc…
This ______day of ____ of 1913, personally appeared before me, Welcome Chapman, a Notary Public in and for the County of Valencia, State of New Mexico, the following persons known to me personally, to wit: Lester B. Farnsworth, John A Whetten, Ernest L. Farnsworth, James E. Whetten, J. C. Frank O’Donnal, Charles W. Whetten, Stephen August Farnsworth and Charles N. Martineau, who make affidavit that following is a true and correct report of the happenings during a series of trips which they, in company with James B. Darton, Charles Keeler, John Beecroft, Ernest Nielsen, John B. Bingham and Orin F. Farnsworth, made to Colonia Garcia, Chihuahua, Mexico, in an effort to save the property of the residents of that place after they had been driven from their homes to the United States.
August 21, 1912About August 21st, 1912, Lester B. Farnsworth, John C. Beecroft, Charles Keeler, J. B. Darton, and Ernest Nielsen, left El Paso as a Committee to visit and report on the conditions at Colonia Garcia.
August 22, 1912 Reached Colonia Juarez.
August 24, 1912 August 24th we had succeeded in securing one small Mexican sore-backed horse from a friendly Mexican in Juarez to carry a little bedding and provisions, and began our journey of thirty-five miles mountain road to Garcia. Camped August 24th at “Booker’s Camp” at top of San Diego canyon. While climbing mountain met family of J. W. Stevens coming from Colonia Pacheco, where the husband and father had been killed by two Mexicans, to Colonia Juarez.
August 25, 1912 August 25th we secured at Strawberry from Benito Sembrano, a mule belonging to John Beecroft and a buckboard of L. E. Booker’s. Sembrano also furnished us an old harness, so we hitched the horse and mule to the buckboard and continued the journey. On rounding the point at the junction of Strawberry and Soldier canyon, we saw six armed Mexicans behind the bank of the creek, but as they displayed a white flag, we approached and found them to be under the leadership of Benibno Tarin, who explained that they were in route to Pearson to accept amnesty of Jose de la Luz Blanco, who was in charge of the Federal forces. In Hop Valley we saw approaching from the direction of Colonia Pacheco a Mexican with a wagonload of furniture. On seeing us he went quickly to his house, reaching the door just before we did. He called to the family inside and as we approached the house, we saw the woman hand him a pistol and belt of cartridges as he entered the house. We called to him in a friendly way, and seeing we were unarmed, he came to the door and talked with us. He admitted that he had taken the furniture from the homes in the “Mormon” Colony of Pacheco. The only firearm we had on this trip was a pistol concealed on the person of one of our party.
Reached Colonia Garcia the evening of August 25th drenched with rain. Curious to know the condition of the homes in the Colony, we scattered on entering the North end of the town and entered and inspected each house as we came to it till we reached the center of town. We had seen no one or any signs of life, but on reaching the home of Elizabeth Macdonald, we decided not to enter till morning, but go and prepare supper at the home of Elmer Farnsworth and renew our investigation in the morning. We had noticed some horses near the home of Mrs. Macdonald and thought first to go and gather them in with the idea that they were loose stuff, but we then observed a light in the place and realized some one was in the house, so we waited till the morning of the 26th.
August 26, 1912 Two of our party then went down and found that there were four men and some women and children occupying the place. These were informed that Ernest Nielsen was in charge of the property and he asked them to evacuate the place and occupy a deserted house in the outskirts of town. Nielsen remained to see that they did not take anything from the place which belonged to it, but the Mexicans packed up and removed from the place nearly everything in it, and as they were armed with large knives and were very menacing, he was afraid to interpose an objection.
August 27 – 29, 1912 The 27th, 28th, and 29th were spent riding the range to discover what cattle were left, clearing the fields of cattle and fixing fences to preserve what crops were left, completing the inspection of the town and investigating the site of our reservoir in the canyon above town, which had gone out during our absence, much to our surprise and disappointment. The fact that the watermark below the place where the dam had stood was practically the same as above, led us to conclude that the dam had not been removed gradually by washing, but had gone in a body or been suddenly removed. A friendly Mexican by name _________ who helped us later to remove our cattle, told us that he had heard Red Wing forces admit that, they had blown the dam out with dynamite.
August 30, 1912 We discovered that we had a good many of our cattle still remaining on the range, so we decided on the 30th to send Charles W. Whetten and Ernest Nielsen to Colonia Pacheco to see what was being accomplished by the Pacheco boys, who had gone to their Colony on a similar mission. At Corrales they were informed by an aged Mexican, who was friendly, that the Pacheco boys had all left in fear of their lives and that a body or rebels were then at Gavalan and would be over that night in search of the Colonists on whom the old man said they intended to wreak vengeance, under the pretext that they had been responsible for the death of the Mexicans who had attacked and killed Stevens. The old man with tears in his eyes plead with the boys that they leave the country, least they loose their lives.
We found that practically all the contents of the houses had been either removed or destroyed and many cattle were in the fields and had done considerable damage to the crops, especially the corn, but the oats had been little damaged, as the ground was so wet the cattle would no go onto it. We drove the cattle out of the fields and fixed the fences. On the return of the boys from Pacheco we concluded we could do no better than to return to Juarez and send some on to El Paso to report conditions, since it seemed dangerous to remain there, and we thought perhaps that we might be able to slip back in a little later and get the cattle out of the country.
We tried to get the Mexicans to let us have an animal to work, down, but they were very “crusty” at first and refused. Finally we decided to try to make friends with them before leaving by making a deal with them to stay and guard the town and the crops. They took kindly to this suggestion and then offered us a mule to work below. Fearing that some plan might have been layed to intercept us, we decided to wait till after night to make the start. When we reached Hop Valley we found the creek very much swollen, but attempted to ford it. The current took our only roll of bedding off the buckboard in spite of us, and we ran down the bank in hopes of recovering it farther down stream. Suddenly we discovered that we had run right into a camp of the rebels. Several raised up quickly, startled by our unexpected approach. Each man had his horse picketed by his bed. As soon as could collect our thoughts we slipped back out of sight and continued our journey without farther efforts to recover our bedding.
We reached Colonia Juarez the next day in safely. Here we left Charles W. Whetten and Ernest Nielsen, while the other three went the next day by rail to El Paso to report conditions to the Colonists. A meeting of the Colonists from Garcia was at once called in El Paso and sustained to return and endeavor to bring out anything they could in the way of cattle, etc. This committee consisted of Lester B. Farnsworth, Chairman, Ernest L. Farnsworth, John A Whetten, John C. Beecroft and Charles N. Martineau. This committee was in charge of the work and were accompanied to the Colonies by J. C. Frank O’Donnal. They left El Paso about September 5th and at Colonia Juarez employed O’Donnal, Charles Whetten and Nielsen to assist in making the effort to round up and bring out the people’s cattle. Trinidad Saens at Juarez agreed to let us take four head of horses, if we could find them on the range. This man showed us his kindly attitude by telling us he would not hold us responsible for the horses if the Red Flaggers took them from us. He said we had suffered such a severe loss at their hands.
September 9, 1912 Two or three days were spent at Colonia Juarez in preparation for the trip. Our outfits consisted of one small Mexican horse or mule, each with some old Mexican saddles for a part and a quilt each for the balance. On September 9th we reached the fort of San Diego canyon and the 10th reached Colonia Garcia. The Mexicans we had entrusted with the care of the town and crops had done us a good part. They had fixed the fences and kept the cattle out of the fields. We hired some of these Mexicans and spent three days gathering cattle. We held them in the corrals and in one of the fields. We had gathered between six and seven hundred head of cattle. We cut out about fifty head of the best and concluded to conceal them in the hills in hopes things would settle and we would not need to sell them for the stock price, being paid for the cattle.
September 13, 1912 September 13th we sent Charles W. Whetten down to Corrales to notify Heaton Lunt and the other Pacheco boys that we would be ready to drive soon and to ascertain whether they wished to drive together with us. When he reached Lunt’s place in Corrales, Heaton was not there, but the Mexicans said he had gone out in the fields and would be back soon. Whetten waited till nearly sundown and as Lunt did not return he left word for the Mexicans to tell the Pacheco boys to send word when they would be ready to start. Just above Corrales Whetten saw three men together in the fields. He passed along the road without interfering with them, but soon he saw one of them mount his horse and follow him. When the Mexican overtook him, he asked Whetten what he was doing in the country. Whetten told him he just came over from Garcia, where he and his friends were gathering their cattle, on a little business. The Mexican told him that we had better leave things alone and get out of the country, or we would be killed. Whetten asked him who would kill us and he said the hills were full of people who would kill us and we had no business in there. The Mexican then returned to his companions and Whetten hurried on to Garcia. That night at 12 o’clock, S. M Johnson waked us in Garcia and informed us that A. M. Tenney, Jr. had just sent a runner from Pearson to notify us that intervention was threatened by the United States and for us to abandon everything and get to the railroad as quickly as possible, so it was concluded on September 14th, to send Lester B. Farnsworth and John A. Whetten ahead to verify this report, Whetten to return from the top of the mountain after telephoning down from there, and Farnsworth to proceed to Pearson and arrange for the delivery of the cattle.
When we went in to gather these cattle each man carried a pistol of some sort, but we had no rifles. We carried our pistols concealed and only for our personal protection—supposing that the rebels knew nothing of our having them.
September 15, 1912 Whetten returned about 10 P. M. the same night, and September 15th we began to move the cattle toward Pearson, Whetten in charge. John A. Whetten, Frank O’Donnal, John C. Beecroft and Ernest L. Farnsworth with four hired Mexicans started out with the herd, while Charles W. Whetten and Ernest Nielsen stayed behind to assist Charles H. Martineau to pack his supply wagon.
When the boys with the herd had reached a point two miles from Garcia, they were met by Benigne Turin and three armed companions who demanded their pistols and told them they had been infomed by a friend in Colonia Juarez that each one of them carried one. Ignacio Rascon, supposed to have been our friend had come into our room before we had left Juarez and had seen our guns. As he was the only one having seen them we concluded he gave the information out. Ernest L. Farnsworth and the Mexicans continued on with the herd while the rest remained to parley with the four armed Mexicans. As we engaged in rather a heated discussion, in which we refused to surrender our pistols, Panfilo Garcia, one of the rebels, rode out from the group to a distance of about fifty yards, dismounted and took his rifle from the scabbard. We saw that they had the “drop on us” so Whetten suggested to Tarin that we move on toward the herd and discuss the matter as we went. We overtook Ernest Farnsworth at China Flat just before entering Hop Valley. As we had traveled along, we had discussed many phases of conditions, including the actions of these rebels in having accepted amnesty at the hands of the Government and pretending to be federals, when in the Valley and being in reality rebels when in the mountains.
Tarin told us that he would not precipitate a fight with us, but that his men, who were in wait for us at Hop Valley, would and that we would never get out with the cattle, as they would waylay us and scatter them that night in Strawberry canyon. He told us the hour that Whetten arrived at Garcia the night before, and the wait for Lester B. Farnsworth in Soldier Canyon, on his return. As Whetten had avoided Hop Valley and entered the road only a short distance from Garcia, it was apparent that the rebels had been watching our every movement, both night and day with their guards right about our town. We concluded we had best compromise with them, so as to be able to continue with the cattle, so after they had promised to permit us to do so, if we would deliver our weapons, they spread out a blanket on the ground and all dismounted. Beecroft and Farnsworth handed their guns to Whetten and continued to move the cattle forward. We placed our guns and cartridges on the blanket and Tarin began counting the cartridges. We asked him now to write the receipt and guarantee to permit us to remove our cattle,--both of which he had promised to give. He then said he could not give us the receipt and guarantee, but his captain would do so later. John A. Whetten then seized two guns, one in each hand and O’Donnal the other. The Mexicans then saw that resistance was useless, so Tarin said he would give us a receipt, but wanted to exchange it for the captain’s receipt later. This we consented to. We then compromised by agreeing to give them the three guns there and one, which the boys in rear had. Whetten returned by a trail to get the other gun and missed the boys who came up while O’Donnal and the Mexicans were still talking. The fourth gun was then delivered.
At Hop Valley we found a number of cows and calves belonging to Ernest L. Farnsworth in the possession of the Mexicans there, who had been milking them. We turned them into the herd, but Abram Olivas came into the herd and cut out one of the calves in question, and when Ernest Nielsen tried to drive it back into the herd, Olivas became enraged and seized two large stones in his hands and threatened to kill Nielsen. Olivas carried a pistol, but made no attempt to use it. Whetten rose up and told Nielsen to go on with the cattle and leave him to settle the matter with the Mexicans. He gave the same instructions to O’Donnal, who was also in an altercation with the Mexicans over the same affair. Whetten allowed Olivas to retain possession of the calf and released the cow from the herd to avoid trouble of a serious nature.
A short distance farther up the creek Beecroft in heading some cattle, which broke from the here and went over the ridge, ran right into eighteen armed rebels secreted in a wash in the edge of the timber and watching what had been going on. At Strawberry, we were confronted by the captain and his men, after night. The captain said he would give us a receipt in place of the one Tarin had given and asked to see that receipt. When the receipt was handed him, he tore it into and said we would have to go down to the Old Spilsbury ranch if we wanted a receipt. Whetten snatched one part of the receipt back and insisted that he write the receipt at once in a nearby ranch-house, where the Mexicans were known to be friendly. In the San Diego canyon we met Lester B. Farnsworth returning.
At Pearson we left Lester B. Farnsworth, John C. Beecroft and Charles N. Martineau to care for the cattle till the burned bridges at Aroyo Seco could be repaired and the cattle shipped. The rest of us accompanied also by Stephen A. Farnsworth, John Bingham, James E. Whetten and Orin Farnsworth, lately arrived from El Paso, returned to Garcia to attempt the shipment of another herd. Each man was equiped with a lasso rope of one-fourth inch American cord rope style.
September 19, 1912 The new start for Garcia was made about September 19th, 1912. The same day we left Pearson for Garcia, S. N. Johnson and a young McNeil left Colonia Juarez for Pacheco. Heaton Lunt and other Pacheco boys went with us to the top of San Diego canyon and then we separated—they going toward Corrales. Johnson and McNeil climbed the mountain ahead of us and preceded the other Pacheco boys. The night of September 19th,we camped on Strawberry Mesa.
September 20, 1912 The morning of the 20th, when we had passed Hop Valley, we decided to scatter and go in different directions, and thoroughly scour our horse range north of Garcia in search of horses. Just as John A. and James N. Whetten were separating, after all the rest were scattered, S. H. Johnson overtook them on the mesa north of Garcia. He was considerably exercised over what he discovered the night before. As he approached Corrales after night, he could see from the mountainside, campfires all through the Valley, bearing witness of the presence of many rebels. He came down in the vicinity of Lunt’s place in Corrales, where friendly Mexicans lived, left McNeil to hold the horses in a wash near the place and then he crept up to the window of the house. The house was filled with Red Flaggers at supper and as Johnson listened he could hear that the “Mormons” were the subject of discussion. He could not hear distinctly what was said, but waited till the rebels finished and went out to bed. He then made his presence known to the inmates of the house, who were very much frightened to learn that we were in the mountains.
They told him that the rebels were angry and were after us. That they were going to Garcia the next day to capture us, and that our lives were in danger. They prepared supper for Johnson and McNeil, who after eating passed the remainder of the night in the cornfields at a safe distance from town. In the morning they came directly to notify us of our danger and after we had discussed the matter, it was thought best for Johnson and McNeil to hurry back on the road and intercept Lunt and associates while the Whettens should take steps to get the Garcia boys together and we should all meet as soon as possible at Cherry Creek corral west of Garcia, and in the neighborhood of the “blue mountain.”
The Mexicans to whom we had entrusted the care of our fields proved trustworthy and one of them plead with us before leaving town to tell him where we were going, so he might come and let us know how matters progressed. We did not feel to tell him where we were going, so he appointed a place where he would meet us daily and keep us posted as to conditions. This he did faithfully to our great advantage. When Pacheco boys joined us they desired to all throw in together and work under one hand. John A. Whetten was chosen to take the lead.
After about four days spent in hiding at this camp, we learned that the main rebel force had evacuated the Colonies and gone South, so we came out at once and began quickly to get our cattle together. After gathering cattle for two or three days, we heard nothing from our boys who had been left with the cattle at Pearson, and we were to have been at Garcia to help us by the time we could get the cattle rounded up. The friendly Mexicans in town also told us that the rebels had reported having defeated Blanco and captured Pearson again, and also of having destroyed the railroad. We therefore decided to send a runner to the top of the mountain to find out the true situation and return with word that night.
Ernest L. Farnsworth was selected for this mission and reached the telephone without interference. He found conditions below to be encouraging, but as he returned and passed down through Soldier’s canyon, he was suddenly startled and surprised to hear a shot form a side canyon not far distant. The ball struck the ledge some distance above him and had evidently been fired to attract his attention. He looked back and saw a Red Flagger running toward him and waving his gun at him to stop. Farnsworth sized up the situation and thinking the least the Mexican would do if he were captured would be to strip him of his entire outfit, he dashed toward a point ahead, thinking he could get around it before the Mexican could shoot him. The Mexican then fired at him—the ball passing uncomfortably near. As he climbed Strawberry hill, he stopped a few moments to rest and the Mexican took another shot at him.
When Farnsworth returned and reported, we decided to start with the cattle. During the day, John A. and James E. Whetten had gone into the Colony, thinking there were no rebels there and had unexpectedly met captain Pedro Pallan. He said he had come over to see what we were doing in there so long. We told him we wanted to start below with our cattle the next morning and asked him if we might do so and if we would likely be able to get through and he said he did not know whether his men would let us through or not. He refused to give us any kind of writing or passport.
The next morning we made an early start with a herd numbering about six hundred, including Pacheco’s cattle. The man we had left in charge at Garcia, Jose________, volunteered to accompany us with the herd. An old gentleman by the name of Juan Martinez, who lived above Hop Valley had also offered to assist us this time, when we should get the cattle gathered. So when we were ready to start, James E. Whetten went over a trail to get Martinez and join the party at Hop Valley. Captain Pallan remained in Garcia till the herd had left and then overtook them just as they were entering Hop Valley. He seemed out of sorts and demanded to know where our missing man was, and was informed that he would soon be there. He then ordered Jose_______to return to Garcia and said that he did not leave us he would get in serious trouble. The Mexican refused to be dictated to by Pallan and continued his journey with us.
At Hop Valley friendly Mexicans told us we could never get past, as the rebels were going to hold us up at Strawberry. On Strawberry Mesa we stopped for dinner, and as J. A. Whetten rode around the herd toward the front, he saw a number of rebels, who had dismounted and were creeping with guns in hand down toward camp through the brush. They took position behind some brush a short distance from us and this came captain Pallan approached us. He was in very unpleasant mood and demanded to know where the man was who had brought a message to us the day before and had refused to be halted by his men. We had very uncomfortable feelings, a we thought over the situation that seemed to confront us, and recalled that to the limb of a tree only a short distance from us, we had all noticed a plentiful supply of freshly made raw-hide thongs, which we could see no particular pacific(specific) use.
We concluded that the best thing to do was to appoint a spokesman, so James H. Whetten was appointed to answer the irritated man in an effort to pacify him. He told Pallan who the man was and he replied that his men demanded this man. We refused to surrender him and Whetten continued to parley with the leader of the “Reds”, explaining that the man did not speak Spanish and had brought no message from the Federals, as the captain claimed. Whetten asked the captain what he would have done under similar circumstances, making the strongest appeal he possibly could to him and explaining to him how the Latter-Day-Saints had left their homes and all they had on earth simply to avoid the necessity of killing any of them and to avoid international complications. They had never taken sides with either party and to demonstrate their neutrality and love of peace, they had gone to the United States to await the return of peace in and about their homes, and now when we were only returning to try to gather a little of our legitimate belongings, for the support of our helpless and homeless families, they would despoil even that.
The captain admitted that we had acted well under the trying conditions, in which we had been placed and said we might proceed with the cattle as far as he was concerned and he would try to pacify his men with regard to the actions of Farnsworth in refusing to be halted. We naturally felt very much relieved at being so far successful as to be permitted to proceed without a clash, as we had nothing with which to make a defense, except a few pistols concealed upon our persons and they were under cover with rifles and we were in the open. We could not of course consent to surrender one of our number to them even though we should have to make the best fight possible. We did not feel certain, however, what the result of his conference with his men would be. We passed on with our herd through Strawberry and into Soldier canyon and had begun to breathe easier in the belief they had concluded to let us go in peace, when Padilla again overtook the men with our rear division of the cattle.
James E. Whetten was with this division and Captain informed him the only conditions under with his men would consent to permit us to proceed was if we would give them three of the best horses and saddles we had. Whetten argued with him for some time without avail and finally sent ahead for John A. Whetten, who was in charge of the outfit. They then tried hard to dissuade the captain but kept the herd gradually moving up the canyon, thinking perhaps they could get up out of the canyon where they would stand a better show without encountering any more rebels. Seeing that they continued to move along and held out against his demands, Pallan grew insistent that he could not return to his men without anything, as they had insisted on his making this second visit and demand to atone for his former leniency.
Our friend, Juan Martinez, then made an appeal to him taking our part manfully, but finally told us it was no use, we must do something to satisfy the demands of Pallan’s men, as they were following us and the captain dared not return again to them with nothing even if he felt so disposed. Pallan finally accepted the two best saddles we had and a new slicker. When we had turned these over to him, we again proceeded, but he engaged James. E. Whetten in conversation. Whetten again reviewed our treatment of them and the sacrifices we had made and asked Pallan to name one single instance in which our people had done them an injury. The Captain mentioned the Stevens killing, in which both of his assailants had been killed, but Whetten convinced him that we were in no way to blame for their death.
In the somewhat lengthy conversation which ensued, Whetten so far succeeded in affecting the feelings of the captain with a recital of the sufferings of our people and our desires to benefit his people, that Pallan with tears running down his face confessed his changed attitude and told Whetten that we might consider him our friend and if bothered by an one else, might appeal to him. He confessed that when they had surrounded us on the mesa, their plans had been to demand the surrender of the man who had run the gauntlet the day before, but they did not expect we would yield. Then they expected to demand everything we had and if we refused, as they thought we would, they would use this as a pretext for opening fire on us.
Whetten asked Pallan where we would be able to find him in case of need, to which Pallan replied in rather an evasive way, saying they would be somewhere near. It had been considerable of a mystery to us how they had known our movements in every detail without our encountering them along the road, so Whetten urged the necessity of knowing where to locate him in case of need, and finally Pallan told him that they had been assigned the duty of keeping track of all who entered and left that mountain country, and they maintained their camp on a very high mesa between Soldier canyon and Strawberry, overlooking all the surrounding country.
We reached the top of the San Diego canyon and camped there for the night. While about the campfire, Juan Martinez discovered a pistol in the pocket of O’Donnal, who had been delegated to watch Pallan during his threatening attitude and he was loud in his praise of our action in surrendering our saddles and slicker, when we had him in our power. He thought this ample proof of our peaceable attitude.
The next day we descended the mountain. We appealed to the Federal Commander at Pearson for a permit to ship our cattle and our treatment at his hands was little ahead of that received from the rebels. He said we should have procured a pass in the mountains before starting, not-with-standing he knew the country was held and over-run by Red Flaggers. We then applied to the civil authorities at Casas Grandes for a pass and were informed that we needed none. We finally shipped without it.
After consultation as to the advisability of returning to make farther efforts, we concluded the risk to life would not justify…
We, the LaVor Cluff family, found the 9 pages of this story in papers belonging to LaVor’s father, Eddie Leroy Cluff, and decided to bring them out of storage, and make them available to descendents of the brave, great people who lived this history, told herein. LaVor’s mother, Minerva Alice Bingham Cluff and her oldest child, Eddie Leroy Cluff Jr., were in the group of families evacuated from Mexico, the Mormon Colonies, in the summer of 1912. LaVor was born in Pima, Arizona, 9th of Dec., 1912, so he was a natural born American, of which fact his family members are all thankful. This has been typed into computer history by Florence W. Cluff, wife of LaVor, and done so in May 2008, in Paulden, Arizona. | We, the LaVor Cluff family, found the 9 pages of this story in papers belonging to LaVor’s father, Eddie Leroy Cluff, and decided to bring them out of storage, and make them available to descendants of the brave, great people who lived this history, told herein. LaVor’s mother, Minerva Alice Bingham Cluff and her oldest child, Eddie Leroy Cluff Jr., were in the group of families evacuated from Mexico, the Mormon Colonies, in the summer of 1912. LaVor was born in Pima, Arizona, 9th of Dec., 1912, so he was a natural born American, of which fact his family members are all thankful. This has been typed into computer history by Florence W. Cluff, wife of LaVor, and done so in May 2008, in Paulden, Arizona.
The digital copy was graciously provided for readers and members of the Wiki by Patrice Fairbanks.
This is a photograph of her paternal grandparents, Eddie L. Cluff & Minerva Alice Bingham. She was the first "white" child born in Colonia Garcia during colonial times. He is the son of Heber Manassah Cluff & Sarah Ann Weech. She is the daughter of Brigham Heber Bingham & Mary Alice Lomax.
Patrice's father is Alvin LaVor Cluff. Her grandmother was pregnant with him when they left Mexico during the Revolution. He was born in Pima, AZ and they went back to Juarez when he was about 3 yrs. old |
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