A
man of Faith, Integrity, Discipline and Obedience
Alexander
Findlay Macdonald lived nearly 78 years in three countries, approximately
one-third of his life span respectively in Scotland, the United States, and
Mexico. He was one of thousands of Scots who left their homeland in the 1800s
to settle far-flung lands around the globe. However, he was different from most
of his countrymen - - because religion and his desire to serve God was the
motive for his emigration.
Scottish Highland Heritage
Alexander
(also known as Sandy) was born on September 15, 1825 in the Scottish hamlet of
Camas-Luinie (spelled Camusluinie in older records and pronounced
"commus-lynee") located in one of the remotest spots of the
Highlands. Camas-Luinie lies in the northern district of Glenelchaig in the
parish of Kintail in the western portion of Ross-shire, near the west coast of
Scotland where the Isle of Skye comes within a mile of the mainland.
Kintail
was (and still is) populated largely by Macraes, and was the ancestral homeland
of this clan. Three of Alexander Macdonald's four grandparents
were Macraes, and his Macrae ancestors had lived in Kintail and surrounding
regions since the 1400s. His Macdonald ancestors came to Kintail in the 1700s,
probably from the Lochaber district in Inverness-shire some 30 or 40 miles to
the southeast.
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| Eilean Donan Castle |
His
people were poor, and although he descended from some distinguished lines both locally and nationally (his ancestors included Ranald Macdonald, Good John of Islay, and Somerled), his immediate family members were
farmers, tailors, and illegal whisky distillers. His father was Duncan
Macdonald, born in the Kintail hamlet of Carr, located on a hillside
overlooking the ancient and storied Eilean Donan Castle, one of the most
photographed castles in Scotland. About 1820, an epidemic in Carr caused most
of its inhabitants to evacuate the village, and Duncan went with his older
brother Farquhar over the mountain to Camas-Luinie, a village of Macraes, where
they both married Macrae brides. Duncan married Margaret Macrae sometime in the
early 1820s, and their first child Alexander Findlay was born there, followed
two years later by a daughter Isabella.
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| Camas-Luinie, Kintail Parish, Ross & Cromarty, Scotland |
Move to Perth
Duncan
and Margaret were desperately poor, and their ancestral Highland home offered
no hope of improvement. So in 1829, the couple with their two small children
moved to the Scottish city of Perth, about 35 miles north of the capital of
Edinburgh. Relatives had preceded them and probably helped them get settled.
Duncan found work operating a beetling mill (part of Scotland's textile
industry) at Ruthven Mill two miles outside of Perth. The family made their
home in the mill itself, and there in 1831 Margaret gave birth to twin
daughters, Ann and Margaret, who both died soon after birth.
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| Perth |
The
Macdonald family later moved to the center of Perth living in a narrow alley
named Cutlog Vennel where Alexander and Isabella grew up. Duncan and Margaret
apparently had ambitions for their dark-haired, dark-eyed son, and saw that he
received a good education at King James VI Hospital School. The city dwellers
of lowland Scotland looked down on the Highlanders flocking to the cities, and
considered them uncivilized bumpkins. Alexander grew very tall and strong, and
he and his father spent many hours punching and tussling so Alexander could
learn to defend himself against those who thought themselves his betters.
After
finishing his schooling, Alexander received training as a ship's carpenter and
worked in the ship building industry in Perth. Though not as large as the
Glasgow shipyards, Perth's location on the River Tay with easy access to the
North Sea created a thriving ship industry. Alexander sailed on the maiden
voyages of new vessels, making repairs and adjustments as needed. Some time in
this era, he attended the University of Edinburgh, although he did not receive
a degree. This was a remarkable achievement for someone from his lowly station
in the class structure of British society. Alexander's education would serve
him well throughout his life.
Life Changing Decision – Becoming a
Member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
The
defining experience of Alexander F. Macdonald's life was his meeting
missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormons.
In November of 1846, Alexander and his ship mate, David Ireland, were paying
court to two sisters, the daughters of John and Christina Graham of Perth, and John
Graham had invited the missionaries to his home on one of the evenings
Alexander was visiting. Although not known to be a religious seeker before this
time, Alexander was struck by the missionary's message of a modern prophet in
America who had visions and translated scriptures from golden plates engraved
by ancient prophets in pre-Columbian America and buried for centuries.
He
wrote later that he was immediately
convinced of the truth of the missionary's words, and sought to join the church
through baptism. Although Alexander was 21 and legally an adult, Alexander's father Duncan
fiercely opposed his son's desires, and the missionaries advised him to wait.
Always impatient and man of action, Alexander waited as long as he could and
finally insisted on baptism in the River Tay on January 2, 1847. The
missionaries asked him how his father would respond, and Alexander replied he
would surely receive a beating. Alarmed, the missionaries cautioned him to not
to strike his father no matter what happened.
A somber Alexander trudged through the
streets of Perth, soaking wet from his baptism, entered the family home, and
announced what he had done. His outraged father began raining blows on him, and
since his six-foot-four-inch son did not return his punches, Duncan thought he
was going too light. So he increased the strength and intensity of his blows,
and still Alexander stood impassive, his arms hanging to his sides. Duncan
finally stopped only because he was too exhausted to continue, and muttered
angrily, "I hope that's enough."
It was indeed enough, for although
Alexander had not struck his father, his anger had mounted mightily during the
barrage. He left the house that night and immediately left on a voyage to the
Maritime provinces of Canada where he sought out Mormons in Newcastle, New
Brunswick. By the time he returned, tempers of both father and son had cooled,
and Alexander became active in the local branch of the LDS Church in Perth. To
his delight, Elizabeth Graham, the young woman he had been courting and in
whose home he had met the missionaries, had also joined the LDS Church. Her father also had expelled her from their home and she had gone to
Edinburgh to live with a Mormon family.
Alexander's First Mission
In
1850, Alexander was called on a full-time church mission and he set out on a preaching
tour through the cities of eastern Scotland. During one of his visits to Perth,
he and Elizabeth Graham (by then back in her family's home) became engaged, and
a while later they were married. During this period, Duncan Macdonald, and
Alexander's sister Isabella joined the Church, as did most of Elizabeth
Graham's family.
Mission
authorities transferred Alexander and Elizabeth to Liverpool, England, the
headquarters of the British Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, where Alexander's abilities were recognized and his missionary duties
increased when he was called to be president of the Liverpool Conference...
Immigration to America and Utah
In
early 1854, Alexander, age 28, and Elizabeth Macdonald left Liverpool in a
company of several hundred other European Mormons and sailed to the United
States, arriving at the port of New Orleans and took a river steamboat up the
Mississippi River to a staging area in Kansas. There they joined a wagon train
and arrived in Salt Lake City on October 1, 1854. Alexander's father Duncan
Macdonald accompanied them as did Elizabeth's mother and sister. (Margaret
Macrae Macdonald had died in Glasgow in 1853, and John Graham had died earlier
in Perth. Margaret Macdonald never joined the LDS Church.)
They
rented rooms to live in, and Alexander immediately joined the religious and
intellectual life of the city. He had already met many of the leaders and
members of the Church in Scotland and England and was by no means a stranger.
Along with others, he helped organize the Universal Scientific Society with the
goal of holding educational, intellectual, and fine arts events.
During
the first several years of their marriage, Elizabeth had suffered repeated
miscarriages, and in England she had begun to despair of ever having children.
However, she received a Priesthood blessing in Liverpool promising her
children. In February of 1855, four months after their arrival in America,
Elizabeth gave birth to a son, Alexander Findlay Macdonald, Jr. He was the
first of eleven sons Elizabeth would eventually bear.
Springville, Utah
Soon
after arriving in Utah, Alexander obtained employment in Springville, Utah,
about 60 miles south of Salt Lake City. After the baby's birth, the family
moved there, and the family made their home there for six or seven years.
Alexander's abilities propelled him to positions of prominence, and he was
elected mayor of the town and chosen a Counselor to Bishop Aaron Johnson.
The
family built a home, his father, Duncan, married the widow Ann Leslie Thompson,
also a Scottish immigrant, and the family appeared to settle into a peaceful
pioneer existence. Alexander started a Springville branch of the Universal
Scientific Society and gave lectures on history, current events, and the
Indians. He also produced and acted in plays.
Clash with a Federal Army
However,
this quiet life did not continue. Rumors had circulated in the East that the
Mormons were a subversive lot, dominated by a sinister cabal of leaders headed
by Brigham Young. An army was dispatched to Utah to put down the alleged Mormon
rebellion, and Utah was thrown into turmoil. By 1858, Johnston's Army had
arrived and established Camp Floyd west of Utah Lake. In 1859, a federal judge
opened court in the county seat at Provo, and Alexander Macdonald was called in
to serve on a grand jury. However, that was just a ruse to deceive him, and as
soon as he arrived at the court he was arrested along with a few other men. All
those involved knew there was nothing to charge him with, and that the
authorities merely wanted to intimidate him into implicating Brigham Young,
their real goal, in several crimes. However, the federal authorities picked the
wrong man in A. F. Macdonald. Although
they kept him under armed guards 24 hours a day, most of the time with a cocked
pistol held against his temple, Alexander resisted their efforts to lie or
betray his leader. He knew that Brigham Young was not guilty of any crime other
than espousing and leading an unusual and unpopular religion. Still they
kept A. F. Macdonald imprisoned, and finally after a month, fearing the
incensed citizenry of Utah Valley would rescue Macdonald by force, the
authorities decided to transfer him to Camp Floyd. They tied him straddled to a
cannon and hauled him for several days to the army headquarters. Army diarist
Albert Tracy records:
“Of
our convoy of prisoners, one McDonald, stood not less than six feet three, and
towered above the guard like a giant. . . . He strode with an air of
martyr-like defiance, and seemed to be high in favor with the lookers on. The
remaining prisoners were downcast, or, perhaps, dogged of manner, and seemed
less confident.”
Clearly,
Alexander was not threatened although he was treated cruelly by his 7th
Regiment captors. Thomas Ackley, another
military officer recorded in his journal how Alexander Macdonald,
sleeping in the guard house hall, exhausted after the long march from Provo,
was nearly murdered by an imprisoned soldier. Walking into the room with his
ball and chain, “One of these fellows
let his iron ball drop, . . . intending for it to strike the Mormon in the
head, and would have killed him had it not been that he threw up his arm to
save himself, but broke his arm.” (The diarist later identifies the injured man
as Alexander Macdonald who was denied medical treatment for his broken arm.)
Ackley
later expressed amusement at observing Macdonald and other prisoners working “.
. . with large sacks of sand tied to them, others with large logs of wood
strapped to their backs for punishment. . . . .”
Later
Alexander was confined to small adobe room, barely large enough for him to
stand, and with only a small pile of straw as bathroom facilities. A frantic
Elizabeth tried to visit him and bring him bedding and food, but she was turned
away. One of the officers had Macdonald brought to his quarters at night to
secretly teach him the doctrines of Mormonism. Alexander later told his wife
that the young captain believed the teachings but feared that joining the
church would jeopardize his military career. Eventually the Army was
embarrassed into releasing A.F. Macdonald and he returned to his wife and sons
in Springville.
The Macdonalds and Polygamy
It
was in Springville that Alexander and Elizabeth Macdonald entered the practice
of plural marriage, when in 1856 Alexander married Sarah Johnson, a beautiful
and refined Englishwoman. Later her relatives forcibly took her away to Nevada
and forced her into a relationship there. She died young after giving birth to
two children who also died. Very little is known about her except that she was tall, blonde, beautiful, and was born in 1839 in Liverpool, England. .
Called to Provo, Utah – Manage Tithing
Office, City Councilman,
Provo Tabernacle, Provo Canyon Road
Church
leaders had taken notice of the young Scottish convert, and Brigham Young
called Alexander to move to Provo in the early 1860s to manage the Church's
tithing office there. (This set the pattern for the remainder of Alexander's
life in which calls from his leaders directed all his activities.) Tithing was paid largely in kind in the form of potatoes, grain, butter, milk, eggs, hay, cattle,
horses, and other goods. Storing, preserving, and distributing these goods was
no small task and Alexander proved himself an able manager.
The Saints of Provo
had been working on building a Tabernacle for over a decade, but the project
languished and an impatient Brigham Young assigned Alexander Macdonald to take
charge of completing the Provo Tabernacle - which was soon finished and dedicated under
his direction. Alexander spoke often in
the new meetinghouse.
He owned a drug store and had a farm on the shores of Utah Lake in what
is now Orem. He built one of the finest homes in town on 100 South between 100
and 200 East, led in building the Provo Canyon Road and a bridge over the Provo
River. He also helped start the Provo Woolen Mills. He was an officer in the
Provo School of the Prophets, initiated a beekeepers’ association, and worked
on a number of other business and community projects. He was also elected a City Councilman and served ten years as Postman.
In
1864 Alexander married two more wives, both Scottish-Agnes Aird and Elizabeth
Atkinson (always called "Lizzie" in the family)-and in 1870 he
married his last (5th) wife, Fannie Van
Cott, daughter of LDS general authority, John Van Cott, and cousin of
Apostles Parley P. Pratt and Orson Pratt. Fannie, a telegraph operator, was 20 years old at the time of their marriage and AF was 45 years old. Fannie initially lived with AF and his fist wife, Elizabeth Graham. They ran a large home in Provo, similar today to a motel, where traveling church authorities stayed. Their first child, John Van Cott Macdonald, died as an infant while they were living in Provo.
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| Fannie Van Cott is Alexander's 5th wifeWe come through her line - daughter Lucy |
Macdonald Home Raided
In
1870, U.S. soldiers stationed west of Provo, raided the Macdonald home and
vandalized it because Alexander would not sell them alcohol he carried in his
store on Center Street. Alexander stocked liquor for medical treatments and
knew the soldiers were buying it for recreational purposes. The soldiers found
liquor elsewhere and, got drunk, then decided to take revenge on Macdonald, who
was absent from the home. They terrorized his wives and children and sacked the
entire lower floor, breaking out all doors and windows and scattering bedding,
dishes, and furniture in the street. The so-called “Provo Raid” enraged the
citizens and embarrassed the military authorities. Alexander accepted their
apologies and reparations.
Four
of Elizabeth Graham Macdonald's younger sons died in Provo and were buried in
the Provo Cemetery where Alexander placed a large obelisk to mark their graves.
Elizabeth's eleventh and youngest son died in Nephi, Utah, while the family was
traveling to St. George, and he was also buried in the family plot in Provo.
Agnes Aird Macdonald and Elizabeth Atkinson Macdonald both gave birth to
daughters who died as infants in Provo. By 1872, Alexander Macdonald had
fathered 18 children and by the time the family was finally settled in St.
George in 1872, eleven healthy children filled the Macdonald households.
Springville, Utah
On 20 May 1857 the 51st quorum of Seventy was organized at Springville, Utah with AF Macdonald, Noah T. Guyman, Lorenzo Johnson, Spicer W. Crandall, Abraham Day and Hamilton H Kerns as presidents. AF was a surveyor of the area and he served as mayor of Springville and as a Stake President.
Called to move to St. George – Stake
Presidency, Mayor, build Temple
In
the early 1870s, Brigham Young called Alexander Macdonald to move to St. George to manage the construction of the St. George Temple and to take charge of the
tithing office in far southwest Utah. Construction had just begun
on the large temple, and most of the Church's tithes were flowing there to
support this huge building effort. Alexander moved his large family to St.
George in stages, and bought homes and property in Middleton, Utah, next to St.
George. He built Fannie her first home in Middleton.
In
Utah's Dixie, Alexander Macdonald's was called to the Stake Presidency and was
elected mayor of the city. He, his wives, and his older sons worked vigorously
to build the temple and to improve their own personal situations, and Alexander
was involved in many civic and commercial projects. However, Alexander retained
his property in Provo and told Brigham Young he wished to return there to live
when the temple was completed. Brigham agreed.
The
Macdonald family prospered in St. George, and his older sons grew to young
manhood. His aged father, Duncan Maccdonald, who had loved his son and followed him to
America, died in St. George on September 12, 1876. Duncan's widow, Ann Leslie
Thompson Macdonald, moved back to Springville to her children.
In St. George six
more children were born, four of whom died there as infants or toddlers.
Alexander
anticipated the completion of the St. George temple in early 1877 so he could
move back to Provo - - But Brigham Young had other plans in mind, and during the
dedication services of Temple, the Church president announced from the pulpit
that A.F. Macdonald and two of his sons were called to Scotland on a mission.
The family took the news in stride, and the wives set about to support
themselves and the missionaries. All were committed to hard work, and no end to
it was in sight.
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| St. George Temple |
Alexander
did not forget the purpose of the temple, however, and he gathered family records and performed some of the
first ordinances in the St. George Temple, some of first vicarious endowments for the
deceased in that temple.
Called on a Mission to Scotland
In
1877, A. F. Macdonald left with his sons Alec (Alexander F., Jr.) and Aaron for
Scotland, traveling eastward by train, an improvement over the ox-drawn wagon
Alexander had driven 23 years earlier.
In
Scotland, Alexander was made President of the Glasgow Conference, and he
attacked his work vigorously as he did every task. In later years, Andrew
Duthie, a Scottish convert of that era who had settled with the Macdonalds in
the Mexican colonies, commented that when Alexander and his two stalwart sons
arrived, the Scottish saints were somewhat awe-struck by the towering
threesome. “They looked like the gods!” he told Colonia Juarez resident W.
Ernest Young.
Alec
paid a visit to his father's home area of Kintail and became acquainted with
relatives there. Alexander himself spent several weeks there in August 1877,
visiting and recording over 100 pages of invaluable genealogical data of
hundreds of names and families of his relatives, data that formed the
foundation of subsequent family genealogical research. Aaron Macdonald's journals paint a vivid
picture of their missionary experiences in Scotland, including visits to their
Aird, Graham, Macdonald, and Macrae relations.
On
his return from this mission, he was in charge of 170 emigrating Saints sailing
aboard the steamship Wyoming. This tired company arrived in Salt Lake City on
June 11, 1879. (see letter from AF at the end of this document)
Called to Lead Settlement in Arizona –
Surveyor, Stake President, Mayor
Alec
McDonald (A.F.'s eldest son preferred this spelling of his surname) returned
from the mission after a year, and Alexander and Aaron returned the summer of
1879. They planned their return to Provo when they got back to Utah. However,
Brigham Young had died while they were away, and senior Apostle John Taylor now
was the President of the Church. Not long after Alexander reported his mission to President
Taylor, he was surprised to learn that he, Alexander, was called to go to
Arizona to assume leadership of the settlement there known as the Salt River
Mission (Maricopa), present day Mesa, a few miles east of Phoenix.
Ever
obedient, Alexander took his families and began the move to Arizona. His wife Lizzie wrote that she and her daughters moved to Arizona in a covered wagon. It was a two to three month trip from St. George, Utah to Mesa, Arizona. Elizabeth and the two little girls settled in the little community of Jonesville, located three miles north of Mesa.
Alexander
arrived in December 1879 to find the colony with an array of problems among
themselves and with the local Indians. Within hours of arriving in the Mesa area,
several Indian chiefs visited the new Mormon leader with complaints which
Alexander later learned had merit and needed attention. Alexander was always very interested in the Indians he encountered after he immigrated from Scotland to the American West. He had studied them and their cultures when he lived in Utah, and he continued that interest in Arizona. He did not neglect their spiritual welfare and called several people to labor as missionaries among the Indian people in Arizona, including his wife, Elizabeth Atkinson Macdonald.
He was called to serve as the first Stake President of the Maricopa Stake, and also was elected in 1883 as the first Mayor, where he provided the leadership to incorporate and form the first city charter. Fannie was the first town's postmistress.
As
always, he plunged in to solve the problems and carry out the myriad activities
required to develop raw land into a productive settlement and a rough frontier
culture into some semblance of spiritual and cultural refinement. As he had done in Springville, Provo, and
St. George, A.F. Macdonald set about surveying roads, canals, and ditches, and
overseeing the construction projects. He built many buildings-houses, schools, churches,
stores, barns. The street named BASELINE was his "baseline" measurement in surveying in the Valley of the Sun. The Macdonald family home was located a little south and west of the Mesa Temple, and the street "Macdonald" in downtown Mesa is named after him.
Only one child was born in Mesa, Lucy
Lavinia, to his wife Fannie Van Cott. Tragedy struck again however, when in
1883 an epidemic of small pox swept through the Mormon settlement and killed
Alexander and Fannie's son John V. Macdonald, age 11. The next summer,
24-year-old Aaron J. Macdonald, perhaps one of A.F.'s most promising children,
died also, leaving his young widow and infant son. Alexander and his wives
pressed on in their duties. (Lucy Lavinia married Oscar E. Bluth).
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| Fannie Van Cott Macdonald with Lucy (top), Fannie and Byron |
Called to Colonize Northern Mexico –
Negotiator with the Mexican President, Mexican Mission Counselor
As part of A.F. Macdonald's leadership responsibilities after arriving in Arizona, he was instructed by the Church leaders to begin explorations for Mormon colony sites in northern Mexico. Brigham Young had always looked to the far north (Canada) and the far south (Mexico) as logical and natural extensions of Mormon settlement.
Alexander traveled often to Sonora and Chihuahua, the bordering Mexican states with exploring expeditions – and in 1884 it became urgent that Mexican Colonies be formed. The United States government had become progressively more determined to eradicate Mormon polygamy, and the federal marshals in Arizona were particularly diligent. A.F. Macdonald and other LDS leaders spent much of their time in federal custody or hiding to avoid arrest. They felt their marriage practices were their religious responsibilities and deemed federal opposition to be religious persecution. God had commanded them to practice plural marriage, and they felt it their duty to oppose the government. Church efforts to maintain the legality of plural marriage had preoccupied the leaders during the preceding decades.
Called by President John Taylor to Find
Land in Mexico for Mormon Refugees
Shortly after the birth of his daughter Lucy (24 November 1884), A.F. Macdonald left Mesa, by Church assignment, to find a place
in Mexico to settle the hundreds of Mormons refugees fleeing the polygamy
prosecutions.
He made three trips into northern Sonora, the third of these in
November and December of 1884, with a group headed by apostles Brigham Young,
Jr., and Heber J. Grant. There were twenty-four people in the group, one other
stake president (Christopher Layton) besides himself, and representatives from all of the frontier
towns in Arizona. They went as far south as the mouth of the Yaqui River, made
friends with the Yaqui Indians, and were invited to settle on some of their
lands. Because the Yaquis were at that time at war with the government of
Mexico, the Mormons were accused by the press of collaborating with the Yaquis
against Mexico. Colonization there at that time had to be abandoned. Copies of
the Book of Mormon, however, were later sent to the Yaquis through missionaries
and some Yaquis were baptized.
Later at a conference in St. David, Arizona,
because of the illness of apostle Brigham Young, Jr., Alexander was appointed
to take his place. There he met with Apostle Moses Thatcher, who notified the
Saints of the failure to find suitable lands in Sonora and told them that
explorations would continue in Chihuahua with Alexander in charge.
Pacheco - Temple Hill Vision (Dream)
From LDS Church records: "January 15, 1885 John Campbell and Alexander F. Macdonald left Christopher Layton at Corralitos and they rode up the San Diego Trail and on westward about 15 miles to the Corrales Basin - - arriving about noon on the 3rd day (Jan 18, 1885). They intended to go on over the range into Sonora, Mexico. Upon arriving they prepared a meal under a cedar tree, among the willows, on the east side of the creek. After dinner President Macdonald (43 years old) lay down in the shade of the cedar tree and went to sleep, while John Campbell went scouting around the valley. Upon Campbell's return President Macdonald said, "This is the place...we have gone far enough. We will return to Corralitos."
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| Temple Hill in the background with Pacheco River |
Lucy Macdonald Bluth said that her father had told the family that he had a dream and in vision had seen a small Temple on that hill. He knew that from that point the light of the gospel would be taken throughout Mexico with leadership from the Colonies. M.F. Trejo, a Mexican national and friend of AF Macdonald, was the man who translated the Book of Mormon into Spanish - and the promise of the Book of Mormon being taken to the Lamanites flourished - and continues going strong throughout our generations.
From LDS Church records: "Saturday, January 18, 1885 a party was organized with Francis M. Lyman as president of the company, Apostle Teasdale as Captain and Recorder - and GC Richardson captain of the guard. Isaac Turley was called as Comissary, Alonso Farnsworth and Edmond Richardson called as Cooks, MM Sanders and Israel Call as Packers - and AF Macdonald and Jesse N. Smith as Committee. Passing the Piedras Verdes river they camped at Cave Valley, July 23rd. At noon the next day we killed three deer in the Corrales Basin and camped on the bluff of the west side of the valley where we hoisted the American Flag at half-mast in honor of the 24th of July (Pioneer Day). Ten men and eighteen animals were in the party."
"Ten years later at Casas Grandes Apostle Francis M. Lyman met AL Farnsworth and told him to go and locate the ground where he, Lyman, had hoisted the Flag, and to mark the tree that the Flag was on and write the names of the ten men on it - - asking people to perceive it. I did this." (AL Farnsworth Salt Lake record) Apostle Lyman asked Edward Stevenson, one of the seven Presidents of the Seventy, to dedicate the ground at that spot and to preserve a record of it. The two men located the spot and did as they were assigned.
Settling in Colonia Juarez - Relocation - Miracle of Water
Alexander's patience and negotiating skills were finally rewarded with the purchase of 200,000 acres of land in the valleys near Casas Grandes and in the mountains to the southwest. The lands were secured and titles were established for “Colonia Diaz,” named for Porfirio Diaz, “Colonia Juarez,” named for Benito Juarez, and “Colonia Pacheco,” honoring their benefactor, the governor of Chihuahua.
At
first the families lived in dugouts, and there were many trials. Alexander F. Macdonald commenced to survey the new town site. After working the land, beginning to build homes, the colonists found that they had to relocate and start over again in an area where there was
not enough water. The stunning news that their town site was located two miles below the northern boundary of the San Diego Ranch and not on the lands which they had purchased! The legal owner stubbornly refused to sell or trade, although he was offered twice as much land in exchange, and the colonists had to pull-up-stakes, abandon their improvements, and move two miles north to the land to which they had title. There was hardly any access to water in this area and the saints were very concerned.
On New Year's day, 1887, a party of settlers drove up in their wagons and carriages to dedicate the new town site. The sun shone brightly, and the day was sufficiently warm that an outdoor meeting was not unpleasant. The services commenced at 11:00 a.m., with Elder Erastus Show, of the Council of the Twelve, conducting and Elder Moses Thatcher offered the dedicatory prayer. He petitioned the Lord that every hard feeling might be banished from the minds of the Saints. Miraculously, an earthquake came and
opened up springs and the river then had sufficient water for the community of
Colonia Juarez!
Alexander surveyed, engineered and supervised the construction of canals for water to be brought from the Piedras Verdes River, and an irrigation system for the town of Colonia Juarez. George W. Sevey and Miles P. Romney located the line for a new canal on the northeast side of the river. This ditch was three miles long and was completed within a few months. AF also surveyed the canal system that took water to the two Colonia Dublan Lakes. These systems are still in use today.
Alexander chose three
lots on the main street of Colonia Juarez and after liquidating his property in
Mesa, Arizona, he built comfortable homes on two of them for his wives, Agnes and
Fannie. He was the first to use concrete in building homes in Mexico. He sold the third lot to John C. Harper with the condition to build a
hotel on it.
Fannie records that she and her two children, Byron and Lucy, travelled by train in June of 1887 from Mesa, Arizona to El Paso, Texas - and from there into Mexico by team and wagon. Fannie was 35 years old. She was adept at making candies and raising vegetables which were sold to purchase needed commodities. She was also the postmistress in Colonia Juarez, running the mail our of her home.
Mexican Mission Presidency and Mexican
Colonization and Agricultural Company
The
colonization had two organizations, ecclesiastical and economic. The church
organization, officially the Mexican Mission, was headed by Elder George
Teasdale, one of the Twelve Apostles, with Alexander F. Macdonald as First Counselor,
and Henry Eyring as Second Counselor. The economic organization was called the
Mexican Colonization and Agricultural Company, headed by John Henry Smith, one
of the Apostles in Utah. A.F. Macdonald was named General Manager, and was the
director of land matters in Mexico.
His
responsibilities required that he travel often to Utah and Mexico City, and
other places. Also, when the Juarez Stake was organized on 8 December 1895, Alexander was called as the first Stake Patriarch, serving under Anthony W. Ivins as Stake President.
With prolonged absences, his wives and families carried on their
homes without him, yet when he did make an appearance in one of his homes, he
naturally assumed the role of husband and father, in short, the patriarch. This
created tensions because the families were used to operating without him, and
it sometimes resulted in strained family relationships.
By this time, most of his children from
Elizabeth, Agnes, and Lizzie were grown or nearly so, and were scattered
throughout Utah and Arizona. His wife Fannie, however, was much younger, and
was still bearing children. She had
A.F.'s last child, Flora Hermosa, in Mexico in 1888.
Stilling
longing to live in Provo, Utah, Alexander felt he had sacrificed all his
personal desires to answer the call of those he believed to be true prophets
and apostles of Jesus Christ. He was not merely colonizing the great American
West, a grand enough concept in itself, rather he was building the very Kingdom
of God on the earth as he felt The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
to be.
He
was deeply wounded, therefore, to learn that some of his fellow colonists in
Mexico had sent a letter to Church leaders in Salt Lake City complaining about
his work in Mexico regarding land distribution and other issues. They went so
far as to request he be removed from office. Three apostles (Brigham Young,
Jr., John Henry Smith, and Francis M. Lyman) were sent to investigate the
matter, and all three reported that Macdonald had made difficult decisions,
but, in their estimation, he had made the right decisions.
Moving to Colonia Garcia
Macdonald
was vindicated, but he was also hurt, and partly because of his feelings and partly
because Colonia Garcia needed settlers, he moved there at age 70. His wife Agnes went with him, but Fannie
Van Cott would not follow him, and because she wanted her children to be well educated, she stayed in Colonia Juarez where her
children could attend the Juarez Stake
Academy.
Colonia
Garcia was a remote settlement up in a mountain valley, and he built a simple
log cabin to live in. He still owned that simple cabin when he died. One
wonders if he every contemplated the irony of his life-he had the skills to
acquire wealth which he had demonstrated over and over. In Provo, St. George,
and Mesa he still owned beautiful homes, farms, orchards, stores, and other
holdings where he could live in comfort and security. Yet he felt he was living
for a higher cause, and when his son Wallace wrote him that he was now old and
could move back to Mesa and live comfortably, Alexander fairly thundered his
response that he was doing as he had been called to do by his Priesthood
leaders, and he was not ready or willing to retire.
A Leader in Every Way
Alexander was always on the cutting edge of the Mormon frontier,
laboring to bring order and progress under primitive conditions. He worked in
the western American deserts to build cities, temples, churches, houses, forts,
mills, farms, stores, factories, roads, bridges, dams, canals, orchards, and
companies. He brought the refining
influence of education, the arts, and intellectual pursuits to pioneer
settlements. He delivered lectures on English history, beekeeping, mechanics,
and the American Indians. He participated in plays, debates, and dances. He
promoted and organized parades, pageants, and celebrations. He negotiated
disputes between farmers and ranchers, between Indians and whites, and between
Americans and Mexican landowners and government officials. He traveled
thousands of miles every year to perform his duties and to attend conferences,
board meetings, and government sessions.
He
continued through the last decade of the nineteenth century to buy new tracts
of lands for future Mormon settlements. He traveled often to Utah and Arizona
on Church business. He attended the
dedication of the great Salt Lake temple in April 1893, and was part of a
sacred prayer circle with the Church's First Presidency, Quorum of the Twelve
Apostles, and other general authorities and invited leaders.
Temple Work
He engaged in a prodigious amount of temple
work for his ancestors and relatives, and is considered one of the great early
genealogists of the Church when little or no Church assistance was available in
gathering names and conducting genealogical research.
Agnes Aird Macdonald Murdered
On
February 23, 1898, while Alexander was away on a conference trip, a trusted
employee, a young Mexican boy that the family had taken in, burglarized their
home in Colonia Garcia and murdered his wife Agnes Aird, age 59. He was shocked and returned immediately.
Agnes's son James was living in Garcia, and her other two sons, Wallace and
George, came from Arizona to hunt down her killer. They were warned by an
Apostle to give up their search or they would lose their lives. Much folklore
arose over the death of Agnes Macdonald, but the facts have been carefully
researched and are now largely known, but he final fate of her murderer, Teófilo
Parra, is however still unclear. With Agnes's deaths, Elizabeth “Lizzie”
Atkinson Macdonald left her home near Mesa, Arizona, and went to Garcia to be
with her husband. She also cared for the four children of her daughter
Elizabeth when she died in 1902.
Called to Serve as Stake Patriarch
In
1895, LDS Church authorities organized the Mexican Mission into the Juarez
Stake. Anthony W. Ivins, an able man from St. George, was called to be
president, with Henry Eyring and Helaman Pratt as counselors. Alexander F.
Macdonald, then over 70 years of age, was ordained a Patriarch and also called
as president of the High Priests Quorum, fitting duties indeed for a proven and
seasoned veteran. Both AF and Ivins held the Sealing Power to perform marriages outside of the temple. He wanted his daughter, Lucy,
to travel with him as his scribe, but her mother, Fannie, put her foot down and
would not allow her to leave her education.
He continued on the board of directors of the Mexican Colonization and
Agricultural Company, and made frequent trips to Utah for meetings and temple
work. He also traveled about the colonies in Mexico giving patriarchal
blessings.
In 1902 Joseph F. Smith, then President of the Mormon Church, was visiting the Macdonald home in Colonia Garcia. A.F. Macdonald provided his comfortable red velvet house slippers to the visiting president, and young Marguerite (granddaughter, and daughter of Bessie) was unhappy at seeing someone else with her Grandpa's slippers on, scolded President Smith, saying, "Off trodes shun," which translated means, "Take off Grandpa's shoes!"
Old Age and Ill Health
Lizzie
continued to live in Colonia Garcia while Fannie maintained a home in Colonia
Juarez. Through the 1890s, Alexander's health began to decline. In the early spring of 1903 he and Lizzie went to El Paso to seek medical help, with Agnes Ayrd's son, Jim Macdonald, driving the wagon. The doctors diagnosed him with advanced Bright's disease, a condition that kidney and urinary tract
failure. The
doctors told him there was nothing they could do, that they could only put him
in the hospital to await death. He decided he would go home to Colonia Garcia
to die, and got on the train with Lizzie. By the time they got to the station
in Nuevo Casas Grandes (the main train station used by the Mormon colonists)
Alexander was nearly comatose. Lizzie
helped him off the train and kind strangers helped get him to the home of the
Elldredge family, editor of the El Progresso newspaper and kind Americans living in the area. They put him to bed, and after
recovering partial consciousness for a few moments, the honorable old Scotsman
died. It was 21 March 1903.
Lizzie
immediately contacted Church authorities in Colonia Dublan, the Mormon town
only two miles away, where his daughter Lucy Macdonald Bluth lived. They came and took the remains to Colonia Dublan where
they dressed him appropriately and held the funeral the following day. Helaman Pratt, a member of the stake presidency living in Colonia Dublán took care of the funeral plans. ACF was buried in the
Colonia Dublan Cemetery, although he never lived there. He had expressed his desire to
be taken to Provo for burial, so the Young brothers who dug his grave, bricked
the sides so that the casket could be retrieved later. His body was never taken to
Provo and still remains to this day in Dublan Cemetery.
Elizabeth
“Lizzie” Atkinson stayed in the log cabin home in Colonia Garcia with her four
grandchildren until the Exodus of 1912 when she went to Lehi, Arizona, where
she died ten years later on February 4, 1922. She was buried in Mesa City
Cemetery. She had four daughters, two of whom died as infants, and one who died
as a young mother of four. Her sons grew
to adulthood, but all save one died before she did.
After AF's death, Lizzie returned to Colonia Garcia and remained there for approximately 9 more years. In 1912 when the Mexican Revolution broke out they were forced to quickly leave Mexico with very few belongings. Lizzie, thinking she would only be gone a short time, buried AF's journals and records in a trunk in a shallow dry well, thinking that the family would return to claim them at a later date. Some family members have tried to locate them, but with no success.
Fannie Van Cott stayed in her home in Colonia Juarez where she raised her three surviving children of the five she bore. She wanted her children to be well educated and she supported herself by running the post office. In September 1921 Fannie moved to Colonia Dublan after her youngest daughter Flora (who was married to Loren Taylor) died, leaving 3 young children. Fannie cared for these grandchildren until Loren was married to a widow, LaVetta Cluff Lunt (mother of LaRee Lunt Bluth and Ora Lunt Bluth). After Loren remarried Fannie moved in with her daughter Lucy and Lucy's husband Oscar Emmanuel Bluth. Fannie died at 80 years oldl on the 21st of December 1930 and was buried next to her husband and daughter, Flora, in the Colonia Dublan cemetery.
Alexander
Findlay Macdonald was the father of 26 children, 14 of whom grew to adulthood.
Two of the 14 (Heber and George) had children but no grandchildren, so their
lines have died out. The posterity of the twelve other children was estimated
to number around 5,000 people as of the year 2008.
Alexander F. Macdonald's Wives and Children
A.F. Macdonald married five women, and had children with four of them:
Elizabeth Graham married 20 May 1851 in Scotland (11 sons)
Sarah Johnson married 20 Jan 1856 in Springville, Utah (no children) (she left)
Agnes Aird married 20 Oct 1864 in Salt Lake City (6 children)
Elizabeth (lizzie) Atkinson married 20 Oct 1864 in Salt Lake City (4 children)
Fannie Van Cott married 1 Aug 1870 in Salt Lake City (5 children)
The following charts give a summary of the children of A.F. Macdonald from each of his wives.
Children of Elizabeth Graham Macdonald
| NAME | BIRTH | PLACE | DEATH | PLACE | AGE |
| Alexander F., Jr. | 12 Feb 1855 | Salt Lake City, Utah | 5 Feb 1916 | Goldfield, Nevada | 60 |
| Graham Duncan | 3 Jul 1856 | Springville, Utah | 27 Feb 1908 | Kanab, Utah | 51 |
| Joseph Booth | 23 Dec 1857 | Springville, Utah | 16 Jan 1942 | St. George, Utah | 84 |
| Aaron Johnson | 12 Jul 1859 | Springville, Utah | 5 Jul 1884 | Mesa, Arizona | 24 |
| Samuel Whitney | 16 Nov 1860 | Springville, Utah | 20 Oct 1868 | Provo, Utah | 7 |
| Israel Hope | 25 Sep 1862 | Springville, Utah | 3 Apr 1865 | Provo, Utah | 2 |
| Heber Chase | 4 Jul 1864 | Provo, Utah | 12 Jul 1903 | Prescott, Arizona | 39 |
| Macrae | 4 Feb 1866 | Provo, Utah | 1902 | Kanab, Utah | 36 |
| Brigham Alma | 19 Feb 1868 | Provo, Utah | 16 Apr 1869 | Provo, Utah | 1 |
| Smith | 12 Jan 1870 | Provo, Utah | 12 Jan 1870 | Provo, Utah | 0 |
| Abraham Owen | 3 Apr 1871 | Provo, Utah | 1 Nov 1872 | Nephi, Utah | 1 |
Children of Agnes Aird Macdonald
| NAME | BIRTH | PLACE | DEATH | PLACE | AGE |
| Wallace Aird | 4 Sep 1865 | Provo, Utah | 3 Jul 1952 | San Diego, Calif. | 86 |
| Agnes | 19 Feb 1868 | Provo, Utah | 6 Sep 1869 | Provo, Utah | 1 |
| George Aird | 9 Feb 1870 | Provo, Utah | 12 Nov 1931 | Phoenix, Arizona | 61 |
| James Alexander | 29 Nov 1871 | Provo, Utah | 17 Dec 1940 | Mesa, Arizona | 69 |
| Arthur Aird (twin) | 19 Sep 1873 | St. George, Utah | 2 Nov 1873 | St. George, Utah | 6 wks |
| Flora (twin) | 19 Sep 1873 | St. George, Utah | 19 Sep 1873 | St. George, Utah | 0 |
Children of Elizabeth Atkinson Macdonald
| NAME | BIRTH | PLACE | DEATH | PLACE | AGE |
| Margaret Atkinson | 29 Oct 1865 | Provo, Utah | 14 Jun 1935 | Mesa, Arizona | 69 |
| Annetta | 24 Jun 1867 | Provo, Utah | 7 Jun 1868 | Provo, Utah | 1 |
| Elizabeth Graham | 27 Aug 1874 | St. George, Utah | 23 Oct 1904 | Colonia Morelos, Sonora, Mexico | 30 |
| Maude Atkinson | 27 Aug 1876 | St. George, Utah | 5 Jul 1878 | St. George, Utah | 2 |
Children of Fannie Van Cott Macdonald
| NAME | BIRTH | PLACE | DEATH | PLACE | AGE |
| John Van Cott | 3 Mar 1872 | Provo, Utah | Aug 1883 | Mesa, Arizona | 11 |
| Scott Van Cott | 1 Dec 1874 | St. George, Utah | 1 Feb 1875 | St. George, Utah | 2 mos. |
| Byron Van Cott | 14 Sep 1877 | St. George, Utah | 20 Jun 1953 | El Paso, Texas | 75 |
| Lucy Lavinia | 24 Nov 1884 | Mesa, Arizona | 22 Jul 1949 | Phoenix, Arizona | 64 |
| Flora Hermosa | 22 Apr 1888 | Colonia Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico | 12 Sep 1921 | Colonia. Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico | 33 |
Queenstown
Sunday morning, 8 o'clock.
President William Budge,
Dear Brother,--As you are aware we left the Mersey on Saturday afternoon, May 24th, the weather being all that could be desired. The sea was dead smooth, and everything else going right; the Saints all felt in the best of spirits. Everybody enjoyed the walk on the upper deck of the Wyoming for a short time, and then came the call for dinner. So far as I could judge ample justice was done to this meal by both young and old; but in answer to a question I put to one of the stewards I received the reply, "I don't think, Sir, we shall have so many to dinner tomorrow." It did not take me long to arrive at the conclusion that the steward meant that many would be absent from the table through seasickness.
The ship is traveling well. There is a strong headwind against us, but the vessel is well down in the water, and her splendid machinery is driving us along very steadily. Up to present time (3:30) there is not the slightest sign of seasickness. Old and young are in good spirits, and all feel pleased that the Lord has opened the way of their emancipation from Babylon.
About 4 o'clock, just after the purser had got the tickets all satisfactorily checked, the president of the company (A. [Alexander] F. Macdonald) called the Saints below and intimated that it was necessary they should meet together to perfect the organization of the company. The meeting was opened by singing and prayer. This over, President [Alexander] Macdonald addressed the company, remarking that as they were now fairly started on their voyage, it was necessary to prepare for what was before them. He then expressed the pleasure he felt at meeting so many of the Saints under the present circumstances, and went on to counsel them to bear with one another on the journey, to help those who were sick, and otherwise to put any matters in order which might require attention. He then stated that he had that morning, at a meeting of the elders held shortly before the vessel sailed, been unanimously appointed president of the company, with Brother Jacob Scharrer as his first and brother Joseph E. Cowley as his second counselor and Elder J. Bull, Jr., as chaplain. The whole of the above was put to the meeting and unanimously sustained. Arrangements were then made as to the time when meetings should be held, and as an adjunct to these, Brother S. [Samuel] L. Adams was appointed chorister, with power to elect others to assist him in the singing. Brother William J. B. Carter was elected as captain of the guard, with power to call others to assist him when necessary. Brother J. [Joseph] E. Cowley briefly addressed the Saints, counseling them to follow the instructions of the president. President Macdonald stated that Brother John Irvine had been appointed to act as clerk to the company, and concluded by explaining that Elder Orson Pratt would have liked to have been present at the departure of the Saints that morning, but owing to his being so busily engaged at present he had to forego that pleasure. However, Elder Pratt had instructed President Budge to tell the Saints from him that while the Lord had promised to preserve them, which he most assuredly would do, all his promises were conditional that unless they lived in a right way before the Lord, they were not entitled to be the recipients of the blessings promised. The meeting then concluded. Benediction by Elder W. J. B. Carter.
8 p.m. The Saints were called together for prayers, and shortly afterwards nearly all had retired. Weather still fine. Strong head wind, but no sea.
Sunday Morning, 5 o'clock. All well. Only one or two slight cases of sickness.
8 a.m. Arrived off Queenstown. Morning fine, and all the people seem hearty and busy at breakfast. Not only is there no sickness on board, but the appearance of the weather seems to indicate that this state of things will continue some time longer. All well.
A. [Alexander] F. Macdonald, President,Jacob Scharrer, Counselor,J. [Joseph] E. Cowley, Counselor,John Irvine, Clerk. [p.343]
BIB: McDonald, Alexander F. [Letter], Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star 41:22, (June 2, 1879) p. 343. (CHL)
