History of John Taylor LeSueur by John Kent LeSueur

History of John Taylor LeSueur by John Kent LeSueur

History of John Taylor LeSueur

Written by John Kent LeSueur “Pioneer Men of Arizona”

(copied from John and Caroline LeSueur Family-1975)

In Arizona’s wonderful history, there are many great and outstanding individuals that are widely known for their noble achievements. They have done a great deal to help Arizona develop and grow, but there are many lesser people who have helped greatly also. Without the many developers of business who helped our economy and civic leaders who contributed so much, Arizona would not have progressed nearly so rapidly. One such man, a relative of mine, was an extensive business man as well as a leader in his community. He was also one of the first settlers of Mesa.

John Taylor LeSueur, son of John LeSueur and Caroline LeGresley, was born in St. Helier, Jersey, one of the Channel Islands of Europe, December 4, 1852. His parents and their ancestors had resided on these islands, originally coming from Normandy and the mainland of France, for many generations. Being converted by Mormon missionaries, his family emigrated to America to join the main body of the Church in Utah when John was only two. The first few years in Utah found John’s family moving several times in different communities around Salt Lake in order that his father might find better work as a farmer and carpenter. In 1862, when John was just 10, his father took sick and died, leaving his wife to care for their four daughters and two young sons. Before he had died, John’s father had settled more permanently in the town of Bountiful and had become more prosperous with a farm he had obtained there. For this reason, and because they were so thrifty and economical, the LeSueur family got by quite well.

John and his younger brother helped a great deal by keeping up the farm somewhat and by working for other people. During this time of his boyhood as his family was passing through Salt Lake City, John witnessed the first legal hanging in Utah. He writes that this was the first and last time that he ever accepted an invitation to see a hanging.

Although they were getting along quite well in Bountiful, prospects looked better in Idaho, so John’s able mother moved her family to Montpelier near Bear Lake. They had a small farm and some hay land to obtain feed for their teams and cows during the long winter seasons. John and Will worked hard for boys of their age in raising crops, putting up hay, and hauling poles and firewood from the mountains. On one occasion, the two boys made a trip over the mountains to Logan to get some grain that was owed to them. On their way home, they met Brigham Young traveling swiftly along the road. He stopped and talked with them for a few minutes; then he was off again as fast as he had come.

During the summers of John’s sixteenth and seventeenth years, he was employed driving oxen on a freight wagon for a company that shipped grain. Also, during this time, he drove a freight wagon for the Union Pacific Railroad which was then being constructed through Wyoming. When he was 18, he stayed home and helped around his own farm as well as working some of the time for his neighbors. When he was 19, John worked during the summer for a saw mill in Wyoming. The following winter he shoveled snow on the Union Pacific in eastern Wyoming, as their trains were being blocked continually with enormous blizzards and snow storms. This was the first Winter that he had not returned home to Montpelier to attend school. When summer came, John worked for a company chopping railroad ties.

Early in November 1872, John returned home and obtained a job as a director in a cooperative store. He was 20 at the time he got this job and worked steadily for the next three years; in which time, he also was a partner with his brother Will in a cattle business. It was during this time, too, that John married Geneva Casto.

In 1876, John’s brother-in-law, Charles Mallory, and his family left Montpelier with a number of others and moved to Arizona, settling in the Salt River Valley and opening up a large farming district on the Mesa desert. Soon after, some of John’s other friends and relatives in Montpelier decided to go to Mesa and persuaded John to join them. The company, consisting of the following families, started out on 3 October 1878: Hyrum S. Phelps, Charles C. Dana, George C. Dana, John Hibbert, Roswell Dana, John Davis, Charles Warner, John T. And William F. LeSueur and two or three single men employed as teamsters and herdsmen, and a Paiute Indian boy.

After a long and tiresome journey of three months and eight days, they arrived in Mesa in good condition. There was plenty of work in store for the new settlers in taming the desert. They set to work tilling the soil, digging wells, and building shelters. John and Will together finished building the first adobe house in Mesa, which incidentally , is still standing today on the corner of 1st Avenue and Sirrine. The death of their sister, Caroline Mallory, shows somewhat the hardships of the time. Two weeks later her infant daughter passed away. This was the first and second deaths in Mesa.

After remaining in Mesa a year, John and his brother William, along with two other brothers-in-law, moved over to St. Johns in Apache County. Making temporary quarters, John went to work on the Santa Fe Railroad, which was then being constructed through Northern Arizona rfrom Albuquerque, New Mexico to California. For three years he worked in connection with the railroad, hauling freight part of the time and working in a commissary part of the time. On one occasion, when John and another man were hauling freight in Canyon Diablo, they were held up by three robbers. The culprits ran down a mountain side when they saw three other men arriving on the scene. The five good guys then chased the three bad guys and after a few shots were exchanged, the culprits were subdued.

In 1883, John was employed by David K. Udall, who was President and Superintendent of the St. Johns Cooperative Store. David K. Udall turned out to be one of John’s closest friends, and often a partner in business. David K. Udall was the father of Judges Levi and Jesse and the grandfather of Representative Morris and Secretary of the Interior, Stewart Udall. For fifteen years, John worked as a salesman and manager for the store. The store was doing a fairly good business most of the time and paid good dividends. Besides, it was a great help to the community in furnishing employment, freighting, and extending credit to the people. John also invested extensively in the sheep business; at first with two partners and later on, by himself. He also bought out the St. Johns Drug Store and made considerable profits in some mail route contracts. Under mortgage foreclosure, John became owner of the St. Johns Herald for two or three years. It proved to be a good investment, and he sold out at a figure that yielded a profit over the investment and interest which was remarkable, as a county newspaper was usually unprofitable then.

During his residence in St. Johns, John was appointed or elected to many political offices, including the following: Justice of Peace, County Treasurer, Probate Judge, County School Superintendant, member of the legislature, and territorial Prison Commissioner.

During his 25 years in St. Johns, John made some business trips East, and a number of pleasure trips with his wife to Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming. The most memorable trip was made by the family to the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893.

In 1900, John’s second oldest son, Frank, was summoned by the sheriff to join a posse, being collected to follow and arrest, if possible a gang of five outlaws passing through the country. Frank joined the posse and the next day, he and another young man were ambushed and killed about 25 miles from St. Johns.The outlaws escaped at the time, but it was reported later some of them had been killed by officers in other parts of the country.

In the Spring of 1905, L.R.Gibbons made a proposition to John, to join him in a general mercantile business in Mesa. A great development and growth was expected as soon as the Roosevelt Reservoir was completed. John and his son, James, invested in the business, and Gibbons returned alone to run the newly formed firm of LeSueur, Gibbons, & Co.

Although the LeSueurs remained in St. Johns, the business proved profitable from the start. John had only intended this new business as a side investment, but later in 1905, he received a call to be the President of Maricopa Stake in Mesa, the head of the L.D.S. Church in that area. He then moved to Mesa and joined in the business there, which grew and flourished. L.R.Gibbons withdrew from the firm to return to St. Johns about 1912. James took over the dry goods business, and John carried the grocery line.

John built a new store building and carried on very successfully a wholesale and retail grocery business for several years.

During 1918, 1919, 1920, there was a boom in the valley, brought on principally by the great advance in the market for Pima Long Staple Cotton being grown in Arizona. It advanced to a dollar a pound, an inflation in price that could not possible be maintained long. John writes that real estate also inflated unreasonably, rising to $500 and $600 per acre for ordinary farm land. This was the cause of much speculation and borrowing for down payments on land and mortgaging the land bought for the balance to make up the inflated value with interest. Among the number engaging in this ‘wildcat’ speculation were some of John’s sons and friends. They borrowed money from the banks to make down payments, often with John’s signature on their notes. The boom ended quickly in Fall of 1920, and the cotton declined to almost nothing beyond the cost of picking and ginning. The great depression was all over the country. Real estate was down again; down so low in value that those purchasers had no equity in their land and had to turn it back to the original owner, and, of course, lose all payments they had made. John had to pay several of the notes he had signed for others as security and as an accommodation to them. He was losing in his own investments, and those other notes depleted his fortune to almost nothing.

In addition to his own losses and those he paid for his friends, he also lost a great deal in trying to protect in interests of the stockholders and depositors of a bank in which he was a large stockholder and also a director. The bank remained in bad conditions, even after much money had been paid out in order to sustain it. John urged the other directors to turn it over to a more substantial bank, and when they would not, he sold out and severed his connections with the bank. The bank closed-up a year later. During the depression and afterwards, John lost, in all, about $200,000 due to no fault of his own.

John was not only instrumental in developing business in Mesa, he was also active in civic affairs. He served as a member of the building and finance committee to build the Mesa High School. At one time when he was away in California, John was placed on two tickets that were fighting each other in electing a city council; and, of, course, he was unanimously elected. The council chose him as mayor. John also served on the Board of Directors of the Southside Gas and Electric Company, which installed the first gas plant and electrified Mesa, Tempe and Chandler. In all his years of extensive business and civic activities, John was active in Church affairs too, including the Treasurer of the building committee of the Arizona Temple.

After his wife’s death in 1927, John sold his store and cleared up his financial affairs and debts. In general, he spent the rest of his life traveling a lot, visiting his family and friends all over the West. John died at the age of 93, on November 29, 1945 in Mesa and was buried beside his wife.

John T. LeSueur was kind, considerate and fair in all his dealings. He was respected everywhere he went for his honesty and integrity. He used his ingenuity in all the many and varied activities of his long and fruitful life. John Taylor LeSueur was an outstanding Arizonan and a truly great American.

This history was written by John Kent LeSueur – material in the biography was obtained mainly from the “Memoirs of John T. LeSueur.” Other information was obtained from the record of his funeral services and from an interview with Mrs. Waldo Y. LeSueur.