THE LIFE STORY OF HILVEN CLUFF

THE LIFE STORY OF HILVEN CLUFF

“THE LIFE STORY OF HILVEN CLUFF”

March 29, 1921 – Sept. 17, 2000

Compiled by his daughter LaVerne Cluff Price

(This history was taken from LaVerne’s tape recordings with Hilven telling the stories himself or from the journals of Hilven, Helen and LaVerne Price)

Hilven Cluff is the son of Heber M. Cluff and Amanda Rebecca Mortensen, the sixth in a family of 11 children, they are Verl, Halver J., LaRee, Darvin, Loyd, Hilven, Erma, Viva, Zola, Lanar, and Lorel.

Hilven’s paternal grandparents are Heber M. Cluff Sr. and Sarah Ann Weech, and his maternal grandparents are Morten Peder Mortensen and Karen Katrina Olsen.

“Colonia Pacheco, Chihuahua Mexico”

(From Hilven Cluffs’ Journals and Tapes)

“Journal”

January 4, 1980

“I have always had the idea that no one would be particularly interested in the things I do and have done in my lifetime. Perhaps I have been wrong and some of my children or those who come after, will be interested to know some of the things I have done and the experiences I have had. I still Love Pacheco and the mountains and look back with fond memories on many of the wonderful, happy days of my youth.

I was born the 29th of March 1921, in Colonia Pacheco, Chihuahua Mexico. The Mormon people were forced to leave the Colonies in 1912, because of the Mexican revolution. I was born when the revolution was just about played out, although I remember groups of soldiers passing through town in search of other groups of the opposition who were still hiding out in the mountains.

One time two groups had a little battle not far from town; down the river at a place we called Middleton. At this time there were no native Mexicans living in the mountains. There were just a few Mormon families, the wild animals and the Indians.

There were just a few homes left standing. They had all been burned or torn down during the revolution. The people who came back, were back to zero. They had to start all over again. The rule was, produce what you needed, with whatever you had or go without. This was the environment I grew up in.

When I got big enough, I worked right alongside my mother, father, brothers and sisters, to produce what we needed to take care of our needs.

The house I was born in was just a small lumber house in the upper part of town, near the old tin roofed barns, formerly used by Dair Lebarron, to care for his sheep. At the time I can remember them, they were unused and vacant, except one time, some fellow used them to store some silver ore that he hauled from Sonora on pack mules.

“THE JARVIS TWINS”

When we lived there, I was very small, crawling or just learning to walk. I don’t remember anything about this incident. My Father and Mother, later told me about it. Sister Jarvis died giving birth to two twin boys. My mother took care of them when I was still a nursing babe, and I had to share my dinner basket with Ervin. Mother cared for Ervin, and someone else cared for Isaac, the other twin, until Brother Jarvis finally was able to make arrangements with relatives in El Paso, to care for them.

“SANTA CLAUS”

When my sister Verl was our teacher, and I was in her primary class, it was just the little tots. She always liked to make the kids happy and had good lessons and she did things for them to let them have a good time.

At Christmas time she planned a party. It wasn’t in the house; she took us up on the edge of the hill in the pasture. There were big Juniper trees around and Pine trees and Johnny Jump up bushes. We had a good time!

She told us about Santa Claus. Pretty soon down over the hill, we heard a cowbell just a ringing away, and Verl said, “I’ll bet Santa Claus is coming”. So sure enough, we heard someone down there yelling “Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! And Santa Claus came up over the hill with a pack on his back. He had a bunch of white whiskers; he’d dance around with the kids and have a good time.

Then he opened up the pack and gave each one a paper sack with goodies in it. They had, I don’t remember all they had, probably an orange and apple, some candy and popcorn and maybe a few peanuts, and Oh, Boy, we really had a feast!

While Santa Claus was dancing around and talking to the kids, something kind of rang a bell; I thought maybe, I know that voice. It was changed, but I kind of knew that voice, so when I got home I looked in my Dad’s closet and sure enough there was the army coat he had on, with the Santa Claus whiskers stuck to it. I thought probably Santa Claus had some helpers.

“CHRISTMAS MEMORIES”

At Christmas time we’d all go out and get a Christmas tree. We didn’t have boughten Christmas decorations. Mom and my sisters would get colored pieces of paper and make paper-chains while we were sitting around in the evenings. We’d pop popcorn and thread them for decorations too. We made Carmel popcorn and popcorn balls for decorations on the tree also.

I remember I wanted a ball real bad and no way to get one. My Mom knew it, so she got a piece of inner tube and cut it in strips and wound it around and around. Then she wound some cloth around for cushioning, and put a tough cloth covering on it and then did the square stitch on it. Boy, when you hit it with a stick, it would really go. We played “Anti-I-Over” and that ball lasted a long time.

The girls had no way of getting dolls. So Mother made some dolls, putting dresses on them and painted their faces and put hair on them. She made them so well that she’d use them from year to year. The paint would wear off, so she’d paint new faces on and fix them up for another Christmas.

We’d hang our stockings up, and in the morning they were filled with oranges, apples, peanuts and candy. The big people each had a plate with their name on it and they’d each have the same thing on their plate.

One Christmas time, my older sisters made some dolls and painted faces on them, and then hung them in the Plum-willow patch on the willows to dry. One day Darvin and I went out to the Plum-willow patch and there were all their dolls. They’d put them out for the paint to dry, and we had stumbled on their hiding place.

In the evenings, we liked to sit around the fire and talk and sing. We had a special frying pan with a long handle on it, and Uncle Delbert would sit back and parch corn (special white corn). We’d put salt and butter on it while it was hot and really enjoy it. We would also grind some corn into “Pinole”, and then we’d mix in sugar with a little milk. The dry “Pinole” was good. I’d put some in my saddlebags and a little meat and that was all you’d need.

At Christmas, we sang songs and told stories and played games. They’d tell about the Christmas stories, about the Savior being born and the Shepherds, reading it out of the Scriptures, then my Dad would tell lots of experiences.

When Dad would come home and he was tired, he’d lie down in front of the fire and the two little boys, Lorel and Lanar, would pretend he was a big bear. They’d run over by him, pretend the bear was going to eat them and run away from the bear. Dad had a pretty good bear-snore too.

“MOLASSES”

Another thing we made was Molasses candy. We didn’t have sugar. We’d cook the Molasses, till it got to a certain elastic point, and then we’d butter our fingers and stretch it back and forth. Two people would get it and pull it back and forth until it was ready to lie on a buttered pan.

Another way we did it was to cook it, then put a spoon of soda in it and put peanuts in it and stir till we couldn’t stir it anymore. Then we’d pour it onto a buttered pan. Boy, it was sure good!

We raised our own cane and made our own molasses. That’s the only sweet thing the town’s people had. They’d take sugarcane to the Molasses-mill in separate piles. The mill had rollers to squeeze it. They’d put a burro on the long pole and he’d go around and around. They would strain the cane juice and put it in a double boiler and put it on the vat, under which they built a fire. Then heat it till all the moisture was boiled off, and when it would make a string when held up, it was ready to make candy with.

We’d spread it on our hotcakes and our bread. We didn’t have sugar. The first sugar I saw was made in square lumps. Mother sure had to hide it though. It was the best candy you ever saw.

We lived in a lumber house on the west side of town and I remember, ……?…….. had a wolf, he had caught and had chained up there by his house. I remember we were sure scared he’d get off that chain and get us as we went by.

“HEBER DEDICATES HIS FAMILY TO THE LORD”

Ervin Jarvis was my nursing twin. Mother had taken him to nurse when just a baby and was nursing me. That’s why he got bigger than I did. Ha! Ha! Mother had a garden up on another block, at a little house we were getting ready to move into. She was raising vegetables. On this particular day, she was up there in the garden and Irvin and I, Erma and Darvin were at home, alone.

It was in the afternoon, hardly cloudy at all, when Daddy Heber got on his horse and was on his way over to Corrales to see Brother Lunt. On the way there he got the feeling that something was wrong, said he felt like his family was in danger. He stopped and said a prayer, then continued on to do his business, when the feeling came again, so strong, that he said another prayer, and dedicated his family to the Lord.

No sooner had he done this, than he saw a big ball of fire, traveling north from the south. However he continued on towards Corrales, when a man came on a horse that was all sweaty, saying, "You’re needed at home”! Daddy hurried home to find that lighting had struck his house and the fireball had come down the chimney and burnt the wood around the nails in the table. Darvin was out in the front yard, his head all bloody where a shingle had cut his head.

Mother came running, grabbed up Darvin and ran into the house. Erma was the baby in the buggy and she had turned blue. Daddy gave her a blessing and Ervin and Hilven were under the bed and came crawling out when Mother came in. All had received a severe electric shock. The electric charge was so intense and hot that the wood on a little table over by the fireplace was burned around each nail on the tabletop.

Dad was forever grateful to “Father in Heaven” for protecting his family and grateful for the power of the priesthood. I was so small I don’t remember any of this. Later, the family moved down into a large brick building, formerly owned by Bishop Steiner, before the exodus in 1912 and currently owned by the Joel or Leland Marineau family.

“WE MOVED TO ANOTHER HOUSE”

We moved to a new lumber house about 3 blocks away. We lived there for a number of years. It had a big Weeping Willow tree off to one side, out front. We spent many an hour swinging in a swing hung from one of the large limbs.

Mother had a baby buggy. Erma was the baby. One day I coaxed Mother to let me take her out to the road in the buggy and wheel her up and down. I was so small that I could barely reach the buggy handle. We got along fine for a little while, then, I decided to pick up the pace a little more. Then I stubbed my toe and fell, but I didn’t turn loose of the buggy handles and pulled the back side clear to the ground, dumping little Erma out on the ground. She began to cry bloody-murder. Boy, was I scared! I picked her up and dusted her off and did everything I could think of so she wouldn’t cry, but it didn’t work, and mother came running to see what was the matter. You bet I got a good scotch blessing!

My sister Verl had gone to Colonia Juarez to go to school. Dad and I went down there and I stayed with Verl because we didn’t have any place to sleep. In the night I had to go to the bathroom, and there wasn’t any bathroom. So she got me a can and showed me how to use it. I was really embarrassed, but I had to go! I remember that.

“PIONEER SITUATIONS”

In those early days, the “Lobo” (wolf) had his head in the door pretty regular. We were living in Pioneer situations. There were no stores; there was no work, and no money. We had to produce just what we lived on. That was a pretty good incentive to dig in and do something!

We were probably what they considered, poor people, but we didn’t know it. So we were just as happy as anybody else. We raised our own corn, beans and squash and made our own molasses for sweet. There was no sugar or anything to be had, no stores in which to buy it. One year, my Dad raised a good crop of potatoes, and then had to haul them in a team and wagon clear to Chihuahua (city), to sell them. He brought back things that I had never seen before, bananas, rice, sego and flour. I’d never seen white flour before.

“MY FIRST PAIR OF SHOES”

Clothing was scarce and hard to obtain. I remember well the first pair of shoes I ever had, when I was well on the way to becoming a young man, at least I thought so. My father obtained the contract to put the road up Water Canyon for the mill Lester Farnsworth was installing, just above the falls, or the jump-up, as we called it, in Water Canyon to the west of Pacheco.

At this time there was very little or no money in circulation and the men were paid in merchandise or an order on the store. At this time, my father bought me a pair of yellow leather shoes from the Dublan Shoe Factory. I remember how proud and happy I was to have a pair of shoes. However when I put them on, I felt like I had put my feet into a prison and robbed them of their freedom. I had a thick sole of tough hide on the bottom of my feet, just like that of a Grizzly-bear that had never worn shoes. It took me a long time to get used to wearing shoes. I used them only for dress occasions. (Till he passed away, Dad always bought his shoes a couple of sizes to big.)

During those tough times, I remember my one and only pair of bib overalls would become so stiff, and dirty that finally mother would make me go to bed while she washed them out or she would do it at night after I had gone to bed and in the morning I would have to pull on still damp overalls, if they had not had time to dry in front of the fire- place where Mother had hung them up to dry.

“GOOD MEMORIES OF HOME”

We had a little ol’ red mill tied to an apple-tree, out back. All of our bread had to go through that mill. We got to hate that little ol’ mill, the way we had to crank it. But it cranked out our cornbread and cereal.

My Mom found more ways to use corn, ground cornmeal; she’d make cookies, bread and cereal and we parched corn, and ground that and made “Pinole”. We ate the corn parched with salt and butter on it. We raised quite a lot of squash and we’d have a good squash pumpkin pie every once-in-a-while. We had chickens, and butter. We had milk-cows, so we made butter and cheese.

My mother and I were the gardeners. Mother was usually the one to take the responsibility of the vegetable garden. We had vegetables, in the winter; we’d dig a pit and put sand over the vegetables. They’d stay nice and fresh, nearly all winter long.

We raised cabbage and made sour-kraut. The cabbage wasn’t fresh but it was still cabbage. We’d kill a beef once in awhile and dry the meat. I turned out to be a pretty good hunter. I’d go and get a deer and we’d make jerky out of the meat.

Father and the older boys spent their time at caring for the cattle and in the field with the farm work. As I grew older, I shared in the farm work and caring for the cattle and horses. I love the ranching part of our work and in being in the mountains, out on the range with the turkey, the deer and wild animals, part of our existence depended on the wild game we could bring in, and as time went on I became one of the best hunters in our family and Mother depended on me to supply wild game for our table.

In spite of our many jobs and work that had to be done, Mother and Father found time to spend with their family and to spend some time with each of their children.

My father, when I was still quite small, would take me up behind him on his horse when he went out to look after the cattle. I remember one time he took me with him when he went to ride up Strawberry Canyon. After sometime, I became tired and sleepy. Father still needed to go farther, so he let me off and told me to sit by a big Juniper tree and wait for him to come back. When father came back a few hours later, he found me asleep in the crotch of the Juniper tree some twenty feet above the ground where I had climbed to escape the imaginary wild animals that might come to eat me.

In the spring of the year, my Dad would always go turkey hunting. I got to go with him. My Mother turned out to be a pretty good turkey hunter too. She would go with me every-once-in-a-while. She was a pretty good sport. Oh, it wasn’t all work. We had good times too, but we knew where our grub came from, because we had to produce it.

My father ran cattle on the rangelands around Pacheco, mostly on the Mesa de Avena, also in Scotts Canyon and Water Canyon. The wolves and lions and wild animals were plentiful and always took a terrible toll on the cattle and horses. We were lucky to preserve 50% of the increase of calves and colts on account of the depredations of the wolves and lions. Often it was much less.”

In the rainy season of the year we rounded up a number of the best “milkers” of range cattle and made cheese and butter for a month or two for winter use.

Life is a school of learning; I have obtained most of my education in the University of “Hard Knocks”! In my youth in Colonia Pacheco; in our pioneer condition we learned that, indeed we eat our bread by the sweat of our brow! We learned to live close to nature, close to our Heavenly Father and appreciate the blessings he abundantly bestows on those who are willing to work.

“SPRINGTIME & PLANTING”

Instead of going to the corner grocery store, which in those days, for us, did not exist, we hooked up the team of horses to the walking plow and followed it hour after hour and day after day to turn over the ground to get ready for planting. After plowing it had to be harrowed to break up the lumps and clods to prepare a good seed bed and conserve the moisture in a dry farming situation. Then in the springtime when the earth began to warm up we prepared to place the seed in the ground with the hope and faith that it would sprout and grow.

I well remember the many long, tiresome days I followed a walking plow, pulled by a team of horses or mules. Oh the times when returning in the evening from a day of plowing in the field, soo tired that even eating was too much of a chore, and would prefer lying down to rest and going to sleep instead of eating.

I remember long dusty days of following the harrow. Sometimes I could ride one of the horses instead of walking behind the harrow. I remember one day of sticking my toe through a metal ring on the hames of the harness, as I was harrowing and riding one of the horses. (In my younger years I had no shoes to wear and always went barefoot.) This day I could not extract my toe from the ring on the hames of the harness and had to ride home that way and get my Dad to help me get it out.

After plowing and harrowing time came “planting time,” one day in the spring of the year as I was harrowing I saw a procession of townsfolk passing, which was an unusual occurrence as we lived on the so called “Stevens Ranch,” North of Pacheco, and not very many people passed that way in those days. I found out later that someone had shot and killed Frank Nations, down at Middleton.

Frank Nations was a lone bachelor cowboy who had appeared in Pacheco, some said, on the dodge from some action north of the border. He had come to Pacheco and formed friendships with the Haynie family and others and had set up a little ranch and cattle operation and built a small cabin at Middleton on the Piedras Verdes River north of Pacheco. Some Mexican fellows from the so called “Williams Ranch” were envious of Frank being where he was and decided to kill him in order to have the use of the land themselves.

In the daytime when Frank was riding the range these fellows came and poisoned the dog, removed a piece of the chinking from between the logs of the cabin at a location near the head of Frank’s bed. In the night, when Frank was asleep, they came and quietly removed the chinking from between the logs, and put a revolver through the crack and shot Frank in the head and killed him. My brother Darvin later told me that upon an occasion, when these fellows were a little high on “Mescal” he heard one of them boast of having done the dastardly deed.

At planting time, we had to improvise a way to get the seed into the ground quickly and conserve the moisture present, so the plant could continue to grow until the rains came at the beginning of the rainy season which usually began in the latter part of June or the first of July. My father’s older brothers and Uncle Adelbert improvised a “planting machine”. They took a 2” x 12” x 14” plank, made of reinforced hole in one end and another about 6 or 8 feet from the other end in which they installed a pipe with the back part open on the bottom side so it could serve as a rooter to open up the earth to a desirable depth and deposit the seed in the ground by dropping the seed through the pipe.

Now when the team was hitched to the running gear with the improvised planter plank with the rooter affixed, when the team moved forward the rooter opened up the furrow into the ground into which the seed was dropped and deposited at a desirable depth in the moist soil and the tail of the plank as it dragged on the ground served to cover the furrow and conserve the moisture.

It became my job to sit on the plank facing backward with a bucketful of corn-seed in between my knees and drop the seed through the tube as the team guided by my father or one of my brothers, moved back and forth, up and down the length of the field planting the corn. At the end of the field, I would have to jump off the plank and lift it up and carry it around, as the team turned around ready to plant the next row.

The rows were spaced by following the wagon tracks of the previous row, with one of the wagon wheels. Thus we planted the corn, hour after hour, day after dusty day, week after week until the corn was all planted. Then as the corn sprouted and grew, the weeds also came along, then came the long days of cultivating the corn and hoeing the weeds. To speed up the hoeing process we improvised a horse-drawn hoe called in Spanish “Escardilla”, which consisted of a metal blade with handles and a tongue attached to which a horse was hitched. As the horse pulled it down the lane between the two rows of corn, I followed behind and controlled the blade by means of the handles and controlled the horse at the same time by means of reins attached to the horses bridle-bit on either side of the hames of the harness and extended back to me and around my neck and shoulders.

When the corn was ripe and ready to harvest we cut the corn stalk down with a sickle and tied them in bundles called “shocks” until time to shuck out the ears of corn and haul the fodder into be used to feed the cattle and horses and the corn to be stored in the bins to be ground into corn meal, and used for bread and cereal which was our main staff of life in those days.

“MY FIRST DEER”

In the fall of the year after the weather became cold, we had a hankering for a venison steak and sometimes because the deer were plentiful, we would lay in a supply of winter meat, mostly in the form of jerky (dried strips of meat), or cured and smoked. One fall day in late October or early November, I saddled up my favorite little Bay saddle horse. I shoved my Dad’s 30:40 Winchester rifle in the saddlebag and climbed aboard and headed in the direction of Scott’s Peak with the idea of bringing in some winter meat. I was still pretty young for such a venture on my own, but due to my upbringing, I felt capable and well at home with my faithful mount between my knees and I felt not alone in the mountains I loved.

I knew of a certain ridge that ran in an easterly direction from Scott’s Peak where deer were almost certain to be found. As I neared the spot I had in mind, I reined my horse around, so I would be riding upwind and slowed him down to a creeping walk so as not to give any more warning of my presence than absolutely necessary.

Suddenly, In spite of my precautions, up ahead I saw a flash of movement. I saw, as I swiftly dismounted and slid the rifle from the boot, a deer; yes two deer, silently moving off toward my left. They were moving at a rather rapid pace, in a slinking posture, not yet sure of the location of the danger from which they must flee. I had pictured in my mind’s eye a big fat buck standing broadside, but here I had an entirely different situation.

My meat was rapidly moving out of range and soon to disappear over the brink of the ridge. Raising the heavy rifle, my young arms struggling to steady it, I swiftly settled the young buck in the sights and pressed the trigger. It felt like I’d been kicked in the chest by a mule and swatted to the side of the head at the same time. The young buck suddenly tilted down on the backside and as he frantically stilted down the hill, I could see I had shot off both back legs at the hocks. A few frantic leaps took him into the brush and over the brink of the ridge. I followed as fast as I possibly could, but never caught sight of him again.

I followed the blood trail for a ways, but it finally gave out. I searched and circled, but to no avail. Finally, I decided to go back to the ranch for our dog. It was a long way and a hard ride, but I couldn’t leave a wounded deer. I had to finish the job.

When I returned with “Shep” our dog, I put him on the trail of the deer and he took it eagerly. So swift did he trail, I could not keep up, but presently I heard him bark in the bottom of the canyon. The deer had gone to the bottom of the canyon, but found it too difficult to climb out, and as I arrived, Shep had him by the back leg holding him.

To make a long story short, to save ammunition, I took out my pocketknife and grabbed him by the horn to slit his throat. At this point, Shep turned loose and the deer took me on and I had my hands full. Finally with Shep’s help, I won the tussle. I dressed the deer, threw him on my horse, and headed back for the ranch with my first deer.

(Recorded Nov. 7, 1982 from Hilven’s Journal)

“THIS DEER STORY IS TRUE”

By Hilven Cluff

Recorded in 1999 (From a tape)

“Well when I was a young shaver, we lived down on the Stevens Ranch, and I liked to ride horses and I liked to go out in the mountains. I didn’t like to herd sheep. My Dad had a bunch of sheep. He had a herder, but one day he didn’t come, so he sent me with the sheep. He used to pasture them on the Mesa “La Vena”. We’d go down below the Stevens Ranch and cross the river and go up a ridge and off on the North side of that ridge there were some real pretty canyons that had good feed in. So that is where I took the sheep, over on the edge of the canyon.

I took me a book to entertain myself and I would ride along and stop and read the book and let the sheep graze and then I’d go catch up with them then I’d stop and read awhile. I got over on the edge of the canyon and I saw one of the sheep over on the edge looking down. I could tell by the way it was looking that it could see something down there. So I got off my horse, put my book down and got my little 22 rifle off the horse and slipped over to the edge where I could peek over and see what was down there. And there was a great big pretty Buck deer! It was in the fall of the year, and the ol’ deer was just as fat as could be and he was standing there looking up at that sheep.

We usually tried to get some deer meat to help us through the winter. “I thought here’s a good chance, that big ol Buck standing there, big and fat. So I leveled down on him, I knew where I had to hit him with that little ol 22’, I’d shoot just behind the leg where the heart and the lungs are. There’s a spot on him about that big, if you can hit inside of that, why just as sure as sure why you can bring him down. So I leveled down on that little ol place behind his front leg and let him have it.

He kinda humped up a little bit and whirled and gave a jump and there was thick brush there and he was inside the brush and I couldn’t see. I thought well maybe I hit him and maybe I didn’t, but while I was sitting there thinking about it, he walked out, down just a little bit further, and so I leveled down on him again and let him have it and he humped up and whirled and went into the brush again. I thought “Dog Gone”, is the lead hanging up in this thing or what’s happening”? I’m sure all the time when I shoot, I hit what I’m shooting at.” I opened it up and looked down in the barrel, and no, there wasn’t any lead in there. I threw another bullet in there and looked up and there he was, down just a little bit farther, he walked out of the brush and stood there. I leveled down on him again and he kinda humped up and jumped and went into the brush again!!

I threw another bullet in there and was wondering what I was going to do, and about that time here he came, a tearing out down on the other side of the brush on a run and I pulled down on him and that time he fell. I went down there and looked at him and he only had one bullet hole in him. I wondered, “What the deuce, something’s wrong!” So I walked up through the brush and I had three more great big ol deer laying right in line up through that brush, and I thought that I was shooting at the same deer all that time! Man Alive!!!

I went home and got my brother and we came back with a packhorse and we packed them all over to the ranch and we made them up into jerky, and we had good ol’ fat deer jerky all winter long!”

“I FOUND OUT I WAS THE MOST FAMOUS LIAR IN THE COUNTRY”

“No one believed this story about the deer!”

“One time Howard Schmidt was Bishop of the Juarez ward and he took Dave Johnson and a few other guys and went up to the Colorado ranch. That was a ranch house that was on the Negro ranch where I was taking care of Uncle D.S.’s cattle. They camped out there and went hunting, and that night I remember I was over to the Colorado and I went down to their camp. They were making supper and they were making Chile Rellenos and they gave me one and it was kind of hot, I remember that!

They were telling stories around the campfire so I had to chip in and I told them this story about the deer. Old Dave he kind of grinned at me like “You’re a pretty good story teller”. I said No, that’s true, that’s a fact, that really happened. But when I got back to Colonia Juarez he’d spread it around and I found out that I was the most famous liar in the country. Every time I’d meet him, he’d grin at me, “How about that deer story?” But you could hardly have been more surprised than I was, about those deer!!

My Dad did that one time, only it wasn’t quite as bad as mine. He saw a big ol’ Buck up on the side of the hill that was lying down. He got off his horse and took a good bead on him, he had a 30/30 and shot the old deer and the deer jumped up and so he shot him again and that time he fell down, so he went up there and he had two of them laying there. One of them had never got up, and the other jumped up when he shot the one, so he shot him, so he was lying there beside the one he had already shot. He was sure surprised!”

“FINDING BAT CAVE AT MIDDLETON”

“Mother and Father taught and encouraged their children to read the scriptures and say our prayers and attend all our church meetings. I remember when I was in Primary in our “Trail Builder Class” Rafael Jarvis was our teacher. I imagine he had been recruited in order to try and control a rather enthusiastic, and overly energetic bunch of boys.

He would promise to take us on hikes and trips of adventure periodically if we complied with certain requirements of study and good behavior. I especially remember the one North of Pacheco to a place we called Middleton and the 20 ft. swimming hole!

Early one spring morning, our class met as prearranged at a designated meeting place with our lunches and packs eagerly anticipating a day of high adventure. Our class members were Evan and Max Haynie, Lenoard Allen, Lyman Wilson, myself and our teacher Rafael Jarvis. It was our plan to follow the river, exploring all the caves, have a good swim in the 20-foot hole, do some fishing and return home in the evening.

At this time, Frank Nations, a sandy haired, lone cowboy with a reddish beard and mustache lived alone in a log cabin on a bluff in the bend of the Piedras Verdes River at Middleton. In mid-morning after following the river north for several miles, we passed near Frank’s cabin on our way to explore some caves to the east in some bluffs.

We found several small caves, which we entered and explored. One was so small we had to crawl on our hands and knees and in places wiggle along on our stomachs. Suddenly, we heard a buzzing and humming sound as of many bees taking flight. We hastily beat a retreat expecting every minute to be stung by the bees, which were flying and buzzing all around us.

In this narrowly confined space we were scrambling and jostling and kicking each other in the face in our hasty retreat. We envisioned a swarm of maddened hornets or bees inflicting upon us their terrible stings, when much to our relief, upon bolting forth, from the cave we found we had disturbed a swarm of large flies that had taken up residence in the cave. Instead of bee-stings, we had self-inflicted cuts and bruises where we had kicked each other in the face and bumped our heads on the roof of the cave in our mad scramble to get free of the imagined danger.

We explored several small nooks and crannies and caves and after expending much energy and having much excitement, we threw ourselves down in the mouth of a cave to rest and eat our lunch. As we were thus employed, as youth sometimes are wont to do, I picked up a stone and threw it into a narrow opening at the back of the cave, but instead it gave off a dull thud, or a hollow sound. Our interest was aroused and we began to throw rocks with more force within the opening at the back of the cave, with the result that the thud was more pronounced and the sound of hollowness was also more pronounced, as if the rocks were striking something soft within the cavity.

Upon closer investigation, it looked as though the cave at the back, over a long period of time, had almost completely sealed itself off with soft material that had fallen from the ceiling of the cave or had been piled there by the wind and we envisioned the cave continuing back into the mountain. We tried to remove the accumulated dirt with our hands and sticks to enlarge the small opening, but finding we made little progress, we began to cast about for a way to make more progress.

We decided to send two of the boys down the mountain to Frank Nation’s cabin for a pick or shovel. When they returned, we began with renewed energy and excitement to enlarge the hole that began to look like a passageway into a larger cave. We worked industriously for sometime until we had a passageway into what appeared to be a larger opening beyond. It was very dark and spooky, so we found and lit a pitch pine torch and one by one began to introduce ourselves through the opening and more spacious opening beyond.

After crawling and struggling through the narrow passageway we had opened, we found that we were within a larger cave where we could stand up with ease and we began to hold aloft our torches and explore the interior of this larger cave.

We saw before us a large dark pile or mound of material with many rocks, which we had thrown through the small opening, imbedded in its side. It appeared to be 10 or 12 feet wide at the bottom, tapering up to a point. With the light of our flickering, smoky torches, we drew close to inspect the mound. It was a soft material and gave of a peculiar odor. Guano! Guano! This is bat manure said our teacher. There is another mound and another. The cave was full of mounds of bat manure.

Suddenly, the air was full of the swishing of thousands of wings as the frightened bats began flying in all directions. Our torches were extinguished and the cave was plunged into blackness and we all had the same idea at the same time and that was to get the heck out of there as fast as we could. There was only one problem, the exit was only large enough to admit one at a time to crawl through on his belly so we in our desperate haste to get out of this place, had a kicking good time scrambling through the opening into the light of the outer cave.

This was the discovery of what became known as the “Bat Cave”. Subsequently, many wagon loads and truckloads of Guano or Bat manure was taken from the cave to fertilize the trees and crops of various colonists.

After our adventuring in the caves in which we also found various Indian relics, like pottery, arrowheads, a broken bow, a woven grass basket etc. to add to miniature museum kept in the S.W. tower of the Church house, we delivered the shovel at Franks cabin and went for a refreshing plunge in the 20ft. hole.

Our day had hardly taken note of the rapid passing of time, before we realized the sun was setting in the West and a full moon was peeping over the hills in the East and we still had a good six or seven miles to hike to get home and that over barely discernable trails, through the dimly lit forest, but we were young and adventurous and were having the time of our lives.

As we marched along the trail the full moon mounted higher in the treetops casting spooky shadows along our path, Suddenly off to the left and slightly behind us came the spine tingling howl of a Mexican Lobo (wolf), and you can imagine how our hair stood up a little and our footsteps quickened as our teacher gave back the answer in the quavering Lobo call.

The wolf would howl and our teacher would answer. Soon it became apparent that the wolf was coming closer, much closer! In a little open space, with the full moon shining down. The teacher beckoned us off the trail behind a large dead fire blacked pine. Almost as soon as our teacher had positioned himself behind the pine tree, there came the blood-curdling howl of the wolf as he came down the trail now approaching the tree from the opposite side. I saw the flash of moonlight on metal as our teacher drew a revolver from beneath his coat and made ready to defend our position.

Suddenly a bright flame of fire lanced from the muzzle of the revolver and the Boom! of the shot was thrown back by the nearby ledges and we heard the frightened whine of the wolf as he plunged from the trail into the surrounding underbrush. As the echo of the shot in the night rolled back from the surrounding hills, we stood rooted in our tracks with a tingling of excitement and fear racing up and down our spine. After a moment our teacher turned and said, come on boys, he has gone. After a moments hesitation we boldly stepped forth and followed our teacher down the trail.

You can bet we made short work of the distance from there to home, thus ended the day of high adventure of the day of the discovery of Bat Cave at Middleton.”

“FAMILY OUTINGS”

“One time our whole family went to Middleton on an outing, down the “Piedras Verdes” River about five miles below the Steven’s Ranch where we were living at this time. We took a team and wagon and drove a cow so all the kids could have milk. We took our bedding and our grub down there and set up the camp. We had a big tarp and we stayed out several days, just having fun.

One day Darvin went out hunting and wounded a deer, but he couldn’t get it, so he came back to camp and got our dog. We had a black-cross shepherd dog. He sure was a smart dog, and he could trail deer that had been wounded and it didn’t take very long for him to catch up with them. He would trail them faster than you could run.

We put him on the trail and pretty soon we heard him bark way down the canyon. We went down there and when we were close to the bottom of the canyon, we could see where he’d caught up to the deer and he’d held on to it and drug it. The ol’ deer would fight him off and he’d run a little ways and hang on him again, trying to drag the deer back. Of course the deer was frightened and was trying to get away and he jumped off, down on a ledge below. The dog didn’t want to tackle that one so he stayed up where he was. When we got down there, the deer was on one ledge and the dog on another. So I think Darvin shot the deer again and got him off the ledge and took him back to camp.”

“LEARNING TO CALL TURKEY”

“We had a lot of fun. We’d go out camping every-once-in-awhile. Mother and Dad would go with us. I remember one afternoon, when it was raining and drizzling. We could hear the turkeys gobbling down the other side of a swimming hole, where we’d always go swimming; we called it the Stevens Hole. Dad got his shotgun and Mother and some of the kids tagged along. We all wanted to see Dad call up the turkey.

We got up on the ridge, the other side of the Stevens Hole and sat down, and started calling and here the turkey came. I don’t know what happened, somebody moved, they couldn’t sit still I guess. The turkey got clear up to us and then they scattered and Dad jumped up and tried to shoot one but he didn’t get one. There were too many kids around and they couldn’t sit still.

Daddy taught me how to call up turkey. He used a bone that we’d take out of the wing of a chicken, for a turkey caller. I got so I could call just with my mouth. It’s broken now, it won’t work no more. ha! ha!. It used to work pretty good. I’ve called turkey up that way when I didn’t have a bone. I nearly always carried a bone around in my pocket too. I’ve got one in my jacket now.

I nearly always carried a turkey caller and a box of matches and a pocketknife. When I was out on the range, I had a little sack with parched corn and some dried meat in it. Boy, you can go all week on that if you don’t have anything else. Oh, it was fun! In those days the mountains were just unspoiled, nobody living there in the mountains, except just the Mormon people in town.

All the ranges on all sides were open, grass clear up to the horse’s stirrup, deer and turkey all over the place. No Pine trees had even been cut, it was beautiful, and the clear streams of water, there had been no sawdust put in the streams yet.”

“TOWN EASTER OUTING”

“The whole town on Easter, nearly every year, would hook up their horses to their wagons and we’d go down to Middleton and have a “Dia de Campo”. We’d play games, and Brother Johnson would put on a great big ol’ iron pot of Mulligan Stew. We’d eat and play games and play “horse-shoes”. They would always take a big tarp, and would get some men around the outside of that tarp and put some kids on it and flip them up in the air and let them fall on the tarp. Paul Haynie had a little dog he called “Jack”. When the kids would get through, they put ol’ Jack on there. They would throw him up in the air and his ol’ tail would go whirling around and around. We really got a kick out of ol’ Jack!

In the evening, sometimes they’d go down there and stay overnight. One time they went down the river below Middleton, and camped down there and the men got their fishing hooks and lines and went down to the river and Boy! they’d flip those big ol’ Bass out of there just as fast as they could put a worm on their hook. And the kids that were behind them were taking the fish off and taking them up to camp, so they could start frying them. Big ol’ “Fat Bass” about that big. (A foot long). They were really good!

The town would have lots of fun together. There weren’t very many families, but they would all hook up their horses to their wagons and put their bedding and their grub in and away they would go. The men would fish in the river and the women would fry up the fish.”

“DANCES AND PROGRAMS”

“We had some real good dances. People would come from all over to go to the dances. The young people nearly always furnished the music for the dances and their own entertainment. They put on some really neat programs too. They would load up all the wagons and cover everybody with quilts and go to Garcia for a dance. The dance was only held till 10:00 o’clock, and then they would head back for home. They really enjoyed riding to and from the dance; the wagon-ride was part of the fun! The guys would hold hands with the pretty girls.

We had celebrations in Colonia Pacheco and everyone from the other Colonies would come up to the big Barbecue and they always had a big dance for the celebrations. That was before the electric lights. We had Kerosene lamps, except one time. Halver and I decided to have electric lights. So we bought the bulbs and wire, and then rigged up a generator. We were putting on a show and we had principle parts in it.

The generator would speed up and slow down. When it would speed up, we would get real anxious, because we were on the stage and were afraid it would speed up and burn out the lights!

That’s exactly what happened. It started speeding up and we, being on the stage, couldn’t fix it, so the bulbs went Boom, Boom, Boom! We finished with flashlights people brought.

When the young people got old enough that their parents would want their children to go to the Academy in Colonia Juarez, the mountain colonies started dwindling.”

“THE MOLASSES MILL AND CALVES”

“They built a molasses mill up the lane, on the right-hand side, just as you’re going over the hill from Pacheco to Corrales. Then everybody would raise cane. Ha! Ha! That was their sweets. They’d all haul it into the molasses mill and stack it in different stacks.

They had a guy over there that would take care of the cooking of the molasses. They had a mill that ground it out, and a mule or a horse on big long pole that would go around and it would turn these cylinders. You’d shove the cane through there, and it would squeeze the juice out, and it would run down into a big barrel. When they got the barrel full, they’d put it in the big vat and cook it. We liked to go over there, and they had a little tin can, and we’d drink that juice. We would lie on the “pumic pile” and eat cane, man that was good! We liked that molasses mill. That’s why I got in trouble.

They sent me out to herd the calves. So I just drove them on up the lane. Then I went over to play on the “pumic pile” and drink cane juice. Ol’ Evan and Max Haynie showed up and so we were really having a good time. Before I knew it, it was just about sundown and I didn’t know where the calves were. Boy, I knew I had a little batch of “willow tea” (spanking) waiting for me at home, if I didn’t get those calves. So I headed for the hills. I thought, well, the calves had probably gone clear around, because they could go around that pasture and come down another lane and go back down where the cows were.

I thought, well, I’d better run see if I can’t get those cows before the calves get to them. So I went up on that mesa between Scott Canyon and Water Canyon. We had a bell on one of the cows, so I listened for the bell. I couldn’t hear anything, and it was getting kind-of dark. It was kind of cloudy and drizzling, a dark ugly afternoon, and I was standing there and I saw some deer jump out and come a-running around the side of the hill just below me. I was standing there and here come a whole bunch of wolves after the deer, and I thought they were after me. I stood there and I tried to yell and I tried to move and I was frozen there and I couldn’t make a sound. I guess that’s what saved me, because if I’d moved, why they’d been able to see me.

They weren’t after me but I thought they were. They went on around the hill after the deer and boy, my feet grew wings and I flew off that mountain. Willow tea or no, I was going home!

I got there and lo and behold the corral was full of cows and my Dad and brothers and Uncle Delbert were milking them, and the calves hadn’t got with them. Boy, I was sure glad. I learned a lesson that day. “Tend to your business”!!

“TOO YOUNG TO GO TO SCHOOL”

“I told my Dad that I was too young, I didn’t know nothin’, I couldn’t go to school.” Verl was my teacher. They had school on the stage, in the church house, and had a heater set up there and benches on the stage. That was her classroom. There were two windows on the North side and a door on the East side, and steps to go down, because it was higher than the rest of the floors in the building. At recess, she’d march all the kids out in a line and they’d stand in line, until she told them they were excused, and then they could go and play.

I don’t know what I’d been doing, but I guess I wasn’t a very good boy so she kept me in at recess. When she went out to excuse the kids, why I opened the window and jumped out and headed for home. The window was only about three or four feet off from the ground, and I opened it up and jumped out and headed up the country. Some kids came around the corner and saw me running. They told Verl, “He’s a running home!” So she came after me. My little ol’ legs were a do’in all they could, but they couldn’t outrun Verl. She caught me and took me back.

That night, when she was telling my Dad about it, my Dad said: “Well it’s a good thing she caught you, because I was a-watch’n too”! Finally they taught me enough to go to school!

As I became older, I gradually came to like school a little more and realized that I had much to learn. As I grew up a little more my parents gave me more little chores and I began to accept more responsibility and helped to keep things going.”

“FAMILY PRAYER”

“We always had our family prayers twice daily, kneeling together before breakfast and again in the evening, before evening meal. Our Mother taught us early about our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and helped us to say our prayers morning and night and any time we had a need. We took our turns, also, at family prayer. Our father blessed us with a priesthood blessing any time we were sick or had any other kind of problem, when we needed our Heavenly Father’s help.”

“I WANTED TO BE WITH THE BIG GUYS”

“Genivieve Whetten was from Juarez and came up Pacheco to teach school. I was smaller than most of those other guys, but I always wanted to be with the big guys, so a lot of the time they got me to pull the chestnuts out of the fire for them. Genivieve, was a good teacher, but she was kind of strict and she made us tow the line. She put Otho Haynie in the office to kind of chastise him for not behaving. She had a stick in there that she’d use to rap them over the head every once-in-a-while, so he had a pocketknife, and he cut notches all around the stick, so that when he got rapped over the head the stick would fly in a dozen pieces. Sure enough, when he came out of there, why she gave him a rap with that stick and it went in a dozen pieces all over the room.

Just before they went out to recess, ol’ Valnie Johnson, who was the kind of a guy that was always thinking up some practical joke, some of them didn’t turn out too practical. He came up and gave me a handful of shotgun shells, and whispered in my ear and said. “When we go out to recess, and you pass the stove, open it and shove these in!” Geniveve would go out and excuse us and then she would come back and get her book and sit there by the stove and read, where it was good and warm. So when we passed by, I opened the door of the stove and threw those in. She excused us and went back in and started to read and… BOOM! It blew the door open on the stove and blew ashes and suet all over the room. They didn’t tell on me. She couldn’t find out who did it.

(LaVerne) “I bet it scared her.” (Hilven) “Yes, I think she about had a nervous breakdown!”

(LaVerne) “Did the other boys get in trouble?” (Hilven) “Well she gave them all the trouble she knew how to give them, but they didn’t tell on me.” (LaVerne) “Did she know?” (Hilven) “Yes, I think she suspicioned what happened. She was a good sport though!

“THEY TIED THE TEACHER TO THE TREE”

Genevieve (Whetten Hatch) was a good teacher and she was a good sport. She’d take us on a hike every once-in-awhile. One day she told us if we got all our lessons caught up and all be prepared form noon on, why she’d take us on a little hike. So we got busy and did everything we were supposed to, and we went up Scott Canyon. You know where Scott Canyon is? The first canyon up above town is Water Canyon, when you go right straight up the main street, the first canyon on the right is Water Canyon, About two miles farther another canyon comes down in the same direction and that’s the one we call Scott Canyon.

We told her we wanted to go up Scott Canyon. There’s some real pretty places up in there, some little flats with a lot of grass and flowers and brush, a lot of Sycamore trees and its real pretty with a stream coming down the canyon. We decided to go up there and eat our lunch on this flat where the Sycamore trees were.

We got up there and in those days Haynie’s ran their cattle up Scott Canyon and Otho and Dean would ride and go up the canyon and check for the cattle. There were a lot of wolves and wild animals too in those days. In fact you would hear the wolves howl every morning and night. We got up there on this flat, and Dean Haynie came down the canyon, he’d been checking on his cattle and he’d shot a big ol’ wolf, and he had the wolf tied behind his saddle, he came down there and we all looked at the wolf. Then he went on home.

After lunch we played around and had a good time, then the big boys got a notion they were going to tie the teacher up and leave her there and let the wolves eat her. After the girls had all gone down the canyon there, the boys roped her and tied her up to a tree and left her there so they wouldn’t have to have school. Of course when the girls found out, why they went back and untied her. But she was a good sport, she took it in a good spirit and I guess the boys would have gone back and untied her anyway. They wanted to make her think they were going to leave her there for the wolves.

Oh some of those guys, you couldn’t tell what they were going to do. There was Darvin Cluff, Otho Haynie, Valnie Johnson. They were kinda rough characters sometimes. We got to picking locks. We’d make keys and pick all the locks. We got turned in for that. Irene Martineau turned us in to the Commisario and we had to go work on the roads for picking locks. We thought we were just having a good time.

Otho and Dean were Naomi and Clara’s brothers. Their father and mother were Eva and Eess Haynie, I guess his name was Esias, but we called him Eess. Glenn was a brother and Max and Evan was his kids and we used to run around together. And Paul Haynie was a brother to them too. Paul, Esias, and Glenn were all brothers. They all lived in Pacheco. After my sister Verl and Paul got married, they built a little house there and lived there for quite a while. Then Ether Haynie lived there for a while. He started to build a rock house, but never finished it.

In the Haynie family, at that time, there was Eess and Glenn, and Paul and Ether. And ol’ “Slick” (Otho), we used to call him. He was a little odd, but he always thought he was tough. He was a little like Derril, when they’d get in a fight, why it didn’t matter if they killed him, he’d still hang in there and fight. So they kinda picked on him and made him kinda that way. Valney and Manny Anderson and Darvin Cluff used to run around together and ol’ “Slick” always wanted to tag around and be with them.

So they went up to my Dad’s place, he had a lumber house up on main-street there, and ol’ Slick came up there. He’d borrowed a shotgun from Brother Johnson, a four hundred and ten. He saw Darvin, Manny and Valney coming and started around the corner of the house and “Slick” told them “stop”! And they didn’t stop, so he shot them! I don’t know if he intended to, but he did. Uncle Delbert was digging Beebe’s out of Darvin for quite awhile. He was just far enough away that they didn’t go in very deep, but it sure got him, it was small shot.

When Otho went to high school he still had that chip on his shoulder all the time and ol’ Greer Skousen was a big, husky son-of-a-gun. He was the biggest, toughest quy in school and didn’t get along too good. He liked to lord it over the other kids.

“SCHOOL WITH OUR TEACHER PAUL KEELER”

“Oh, my school was kind of rough I guess. Paul Keeler was our teacher for a long time there. I guess they got somebody up there that they thought could handle those kids that was giving the teacher trouble. He was quite an athletic guy, and he was a good teacher. But we’d give him fits all the time. He’d find snakes in his desk and tacks on his chair, and frogs in his lunch box!

One time he kept ol’ Leonord Allen and me in after school to make some work up. He said we had to make that work up or we couldn’t pass the grade on one of the tests, he was giving us. We had school in the upstairs of the Church-house. They had a big stove down in the main hall that was made out of a big boiler. You could shove that thing full of wood and heat that big ol’ hall and then they had a little hole by the stovepipe up where it came up past our room, then the heat would come from the stovepipe into our room.

It was kind of cold and our teacher “Paul” went down to put some more wood in the stove. While he was down there, ol’ “Puddin” (Leonard Allen) went down the stairs and took out and when Paul came back, why he looked at me and looked around and “Puddin” wasn’t there, he looked out the window and saw him going down through the country.

So he took down those stairs, he was a good foot racer too, but “Puddin” had a head start on him. He went down through those lots and Paul would go over the fence and “Puddin” would go under them. He chased him clear down past where Mom and I used to live, up in that pasture and it got real brushy with oak trees and then “Puddin” lost him. Paul couldn’t find him. I was sitting there in the window watching it all and when Paul got back, I was gone. Ha! Ha! So that’s the kind of school days we had. Oh we had good times and bad times.”

“GOOD TURKEY HUNTS WITH MOM”

“My Mom was always a good sport. She knew I liked to hunt turkey and deer. Whenever she needed some meat for the family, why she’d tell me to go and get some meat. So I’d go and get some meat. I turned out to be one of the best hunters in the family. One time when the turkeys were gobbling, I ask her, “Mom, let’s go turkey hunting.” “ She said Ok.”

It was in the evening and we didn’t have any saddle horses up, and didn’t want to take time to get any, in fact we didn’t have time if we were going to get out where the turkeys were and camp out. We packed up one of the workhorses, put some bedding and grub on it, and took our gun and hiked up Scott Canyon. We led the horse and went clear up to the forks of the canyon where the spring was. It was starting to get dark then, so we made our camp and had our supper and then went to bed.

Real early I got up and got ready to go turkey hunting, and my Mom says “Oh you go turkey hunting, I’ll stay in bed this morning”. So I took off and went up on the hill where I could hear the turkey gobbling. It was a deep canyon, and I had to crawl clear up over that canyon, onto the ridge where the turkeys were. When I got up there, I thought “Well Mom you was smart, this is kind of rough turkey hunting country.”

That turkey shut up, he didn’t gobble anymore, and I heard another one down the canyon, and I thought, “We’ll I’ll go down there, see what I can do, and I went down where the turkey was gobbling. He was kind of down in the canyon, and there was a bench going around the side-hill, so I got down on that bench and the turkey was still down below me. There, I sat down in a place where, when the turkey came up over the edge of the bench I would be right close to him and he wouldn’t be able to see me until he got close to me. So I started chirping and here came the old gobbler, I could tell it was two gobblers. One of them had a gruff voice and the other one was a little more squeaky, it was a young turkey and an old turkey, and they came up there.

I had to move my shotgun a little bit, because they were coming just a little bit off to one side, and I wanted to move it before they got there. So I moved it, and just about the time I moved it, he stuck his head up over the Johnny Jump-up bushes and he must of seen me, because he dropped his feathers and his old head stuck up and about that time I let him have it! I jumped up and threw another shell in the gun, and ran over to the edge, and the other turkey was taking off into the air. He was already in the air, and I shot him, and he fell about halfway down the hill, just about to the bottom of the canyon. So I had me two turkey and they were too heavy to carry back to camp so, I hung them in a Juniper tree, by the side of the trail, where we had to go, to go home.

I went back to camp and Mother was fixing breakfast, and we ate breakfast. I told her, “Oh, the turkeys were just too smart for the Turkey-hunter.” So I gave her a hard-luck story about how the turkeys got away. We were packing up, putting our bedding and stuff on the horse and getting ready to go home. All of a sudden she came up behind me and started pounding me on the back and then she picked up a big bloody feather on my back and held it up and said, “ You big squibber!” So we went home and picked up the turkey on the way home. Oh my sweet Mother! She has always been such a good sport.”

“ANOTHER TURKEY HUNT”

“Mother went with me one time to hunt wild turkey over on the rim of Strawberry Canyon. We left the ranch very early a horseback and soon came within a short distance where the turkeys were gobbling. We tied up our horses and on foot were endeavoring to get to a good location from which we could call the turkey up to us.

All of a sudden we unexpectedly found ourselves surrounded by turkey that appeared almost as if by magic from a little cove. Mother became so excited she kept shoving me toward the turkey, exclaiming excitedly, “Shoot them!, Shoot them!” By the time Mother calmed down enough to let me alone so I could attend to the shooting business, the turkey was all gone and we stood there laughing at each other for having become so excited we couldn’t attend to the part of being good turkey hunters, which we were sure we were!”

“THE WHITE WOLF”

“Wild animals were plentiful throughout the mountains, rather too plentiful I might say and some of them such as the wolf, the lion, the coyote, the bobcat or Lynx cat were considered especially destructive of our cattle, horses and poultry. In our struggle for survival, they were considered our enemy.

When we rode the range we always went armed and prepared. Even at milking time we very often took the 30:30 rifle and stood it against the log corral where it would be handy and more than once my brothers or Dad had occasion to use it to keep the coyotes or Bobcats from carrying off the chickens right before our eyes.

I liked to put out traps to trap some wild animals. We had a lot of Bobcats and coyotes and skunks and fox around. They were always eating the calves, the pigs and the chickens, so I decided to clean out some of the predators that were close to the ranch. I set out a trap line. I was just a kid going to school. I’d get up sometimes early in the morning before school and go around the trap line. Sometimes I didn’t have time, and I’d have to wait till after school and go around the trap line.

One day I didn’t have time to go in the morning so when I got out of school, I saddled up my horse and went around the trap line. One of the traps, way over in the back of the pasture, had a white wolf in it. It was the only white wolf I’d ever seen and boy was it mean! It had chewed all the limbs off the little tree I had the trap tied to and there was a Pine tree to one side that it could get to and it had taken all the bark off the side of that tree.

I had a little twenty-two with me, but bullets were kind of hard to get. So I decided, well I had a little short rope with me, I thought, well I’ll rope him and choke him, and save my bullet. I got my rope and the old wolf he backed him up as far as the chain would let him back. Then when I threw the rope, he dove at me, and I just barely got out of the way. He just about got me by the leg. I thought, well I better use my bullet. So I shot the wolf and tied him on back of my saddle and headed for the ranch. By the time I got home the ol’ wolf was all stiff, when I let him off the horse he was real stiff and that gave me an idea!

My Mom was up to Relief Society in town, and I knew when she came home down the trail and I knew the first thing she’d do, she’d open the her bedroom door on the side where the trail was, and go in there and change her clothes. So I took ol’ mister wolf and propped him up at the bottom of her bed, so that when she opened the door that ol’ wolf would be looking right in her face. Then I got back in the closet there to see the fun.

I heard Mom coming along a-humming a little song. She opened the door and squealed a little bit, and looked at that wolf, and thought, well that can’t be so. About that time I snickered, Boy! she made a dive for me and I headed out of there! I knew I’d better not let her catch me. She said, you rascal, you almost scared the wits out of me! As I made my get away, she laughingly called “You’ll pay for this, now get that monster out of my room”. So I waited till she calmed down a little bit and then I went and got the wolf out of her room.”

“WOLVES, LION, CAYOTE, BOBCAT AND OTHER WILD ANIMALS”

“In my youth, I dedicated part of my time in the winter months, to the control of the over- abundant predators, which in our pioneer situation; we considered to be our enemies, because of the depredations waged on the horses, cattle and poultry, on which we depended for part of our livelihood. In the cold part of the year, when I was going to school, I would set out a trap line along the river and over a considerable territory in the pasture and range where we ran our cattle. I would have to run my trap line very early in the morning before going to school. I also had chores to do, so I had to get out of it early in order not to be late for school. Sometimes I wouldn’t have time to cover all the trap line in the morning so I would finish it up after I got out of school.

One morning as I went to check on some traps I had set around the carcass of one of our work horses that had died. I had a huge mountain Lobo (wolf) in the trap. I had set traps all around the carcass and old Mr. Wolf had most of them on his feet and back which he had acquired in his mad fight to liberate himself. He had completely worn himself out in his battle with the traps and sat there completely dejected and beaten. Certainly he must have been the proud King of the pack and to see him now in his vanquished and humiliating condition was almost heart-rending, but when I thought of the many lives of the cattle and colts taken by his nightly depredations, I found it hard to sympathize with him in his present situation.

I approached cautiously to make certain he was securely entrapped. One look was sufficient to assure me he wouldn’t be going anywhere and then I swiftly ran to advise my father and brothers, who were still milking the cows and attending to the morning chores in the corral nearby.

It was now in the later part of August and the nights were moist and chill and the dew was heavy on the tall green grass and little wisps of foggy clouds were rising from the ground as the morning rays of the sun began to warm the atmosphere. This was for me, the most beautiful time of the year. Everything in nature was bright and green; flowers and grass were everywhere, the cattle and horses fat, slick and shiny. The roasting ears were ready, the garden vegetables bursting with life. The Blackberries purpling on the vine, the colts in the pasture, kicking up their heels, to a country boy’s eyes this presented a satisfying ranch-like scene.

Then I remembered the wolf, I must tell Dad and my brother Darvin. They had now finished the milking and had taken it to the house. At this time of the year when the cattle were in good shape and the grass was plentiful and green, we usually gathered in some of the best milkers of the range cows to milk, to make cheese and butter for our winter use.

The milk had been taken care of and Dad and my brother Darvin agreed to go and help me with the wolf. Darvin took his 30/30 rifle and his lariat, and we all three went on foot to bring in the wolf, as it was close by. As we approached, the huge Lobo was still sitting there in his dejected position and he refused to so much as look at us. He seemingly refused to recognize our presence.

My brother said, “Why waste a bullet on him?” “I’ll rope and choke him.” As he flipped his rope, in the cowboy catch, the wolf’s head turned sharply, his teeth flashed as he opened and shut his huge jaws in a lightening movement. My brother’s lariat suddenly became two lariats, sheared as cleanly as though it had been caught in a mowing machine.

“Blast your dirty hide”, growled my brother, “I’ll show you!” He quickly formed another loop and made a swift cast, but with the very same results. He now had four pieces of lariat instead of one.

Ropes and bullets were scarce items of everyday use in those times and my brother mumbled something to that effect as he jacked in a shell and laid Mr. Wolf over with a blast of his 30/30 rifle.

That was one of the largest wolves I ever saw in the mountains. My Dad, my brother and I, had all we could do to carry him to the ranch house. My Dad could barely reach the nose and the tail was trailing on the ground. Wolves were plentiful in the mountains in the days of my youth. Their “wolfly” serenades were daily ocourrances in the hills surrounding the ranch house. We had a hard time protecting the cattle and horses from their depredations, usually the animals were protected by putting them in the corrals and barns at night. Out on the range the Lobos took a terrible toll on the cattle, however the cows learned to help protect each other from the wild animals.

A bawl for help from a cow would bring every cow and bull within hearing distance, on the run, and they would quickly form a circle, heads out with the calves and young cattle in the center and run into anything that tried to enter that circle. (What Dad didn’t put down, but told me, was that these cows had horns and was prepared to use them for defense.) (He also said that he had noticed that cows are so domesticated now that they don’t pay any attention to another cow or calf in trouble.)”

“HORSEBACK TO THE GAVILAN”

“There was a bunch of young gals that ran around together. I think it was Beth Martineau, and Anna Gilbert and Ernestine Whetten and Erma Cluff, my sister. They got Brother Martineau to go with them. They planned a trip to go over on the Gavilan horseback and camp out.

So Joel Martineau was a good sport and went with them. They went over to the Gavilan. When they got just about down to the ranch house, I guess Erma wanted to show off a little bit. She was riding a racing horse of Uncle Adelberts, and she liked to run. So she started to run, and the mare opened up and took down through the country, wide open. There was a fence that turned and the horse couldn’t stop fast enough so she tried to jump it and her feet hit the top of the fence and went end over teakettle. Erma went off, over her head and landed pretty hard which knocked her out and made her kind of goofy. She was kinda that way all afternoon.

They went up the canyon on the Gavilan and made their camp. Set up their tents and fixed their bedding. Erma said she would come too ever so often and ask, “Did I have a good reason to come off the horse”? She couldn’t remember any of what happened, and would pray to Heavenly Father that she wouldn’t stay blank, but be able to remember things and He did.

Of course I couldn’t stand to let those gals leave town without knowing what was going on. So I got me a horse and trailed them! I followed their tracks and went up the river and by the time I got there it was dark. They heard some wolves up on the side of the hill and some calves bellowing. Yeah, it was me; I was entertaining them. And I don’t know, kids get crazy ideas, I rode clear back to town, in the night, got ol’ Max Haynie and we saddled up and went back over there, in the night!

Well, we took a different trail off in the river up above, where they went in and it was so dark we couldn’t see where the trail went, going down the canyon. We made the wrong crossing one time and our horses went clear under! We got wet clear up to the neck. Ha! Ha! We got down to where their camp was, and we were sure glad they had a fire! We kinda dried out around the campfire.

We found out that Brother Martineau had been struck by the lightning that day and it knocked him down and he was kind of feeling bad. The girls didn’t know what to do, and he wasn’t too bad off. We thought he was pretty bad off. So we stayed there that night, there wasn’t too much of the night left.

The next morning we ate our breakfast and fixed up to go back home. While they were messing around there, the girls decided they had a little bit of sugar left, so they decided to make some candy for us boys, and they put Pine-gum in it. Oh it was beautiful stuff, but Boy! when we sunk a tooth into that, we just expected some good ol’ candy and it was that Pine-gum, and we couldn’t eat it! So we threw them all in the river! We made them pay! We took a picture of them out there and they looked like drowned rats. That wasn’t enough, we had to get in there and dunk them. Oh, we had a good time!”

“MY FRIENDS AND I DECIDED TO RUN AWAY FROM HOME”

We would run around with Evan and Max Haynie and ol’ Leonard Allen, we called him “Puddin”. I don’t know what led us to calling him “Puddin”, but we called him “Puddin”. He was a little bit odd and we’d play tricks on him all the time too. Sometimes we got to be quite buddy-buddy, and we got to thinking about how our Dads was kinda rough on us and was working us to hard, so we decided we were going to go away! To show how dumb kids are, we didn’t have any grub, only what little bit we could slip out.

We went out in the garden and got a few vegetables, a squash or two, then went up in the pasture and got ol’ pony, we didn’t have any saddles, and we slipped out an old blanket or two. I was riding a little white horse that we called “King”, who I thought was the fastest horse in the country, and he probably was, he could really run! One time I had gone over to Sonora with my brother Darvin, we went over there to get some traps, I thought it was real beautiful country. There were a lot of deer and turkey, at that time there were still some wild Indians in the mountains too, over towards the Sonora side. But that’s where we wanted to go; we wanted to head off into the wild country where they wouldn’t find us. So we got on our horses and took off late in the afternoon and went up “Water Canyon”, there was an old torn down house up there up the canyon from where they used to have the old Sawmill, and we made it that far that night and we camped in that house. The next morning we got our horses and we packed up everything and headed on West over the continental divide and dropped off in towards Sonora and got down to North Creek.

We got to North Creek a little after noon, so we camped again there and fixed our lunch. While we were camped there why, Leonard Allen’s Dad came and caught up with us. When I saw him coming, I headed for my horse, and I got on ol’ King, I knew he couldn’t catch me. That old nag he had couldn’t catch ol’ King so I got on him and he got his boy and whipped the tar out of him and got Max and whipped him, and he told me “You come back here, and I said, I’m not coming back! He said, I’ll catch you, and I said, “You can’t catch me on this horse! I made him promise that he wouldn’t whip me before I’d come back. So we gathered up our stuff and we headed for home.

We were way over there, not quite ready to drop off into Sonora, but it was wild country. All we had was just a few vegetables and a squash or two and our bedding. We had a 22 and about 5 or 6 bullets. Ha! Ha! Stupid kids! When I got back home, Mom and Dad didn’t say anything to me, they didn’t even bawl me out. I felt good about that! I don’t know, kids get crazy ideas in their heads. Darvin ran away too when he was a young kid, my Dad caught him and whipped his tail with a quirt all the way home. He headed out towards Chupe down to the San Juan de Dios, he was going down the river.

“THEY DECIDED WE WANTED A VACATION FROM SCHOOL!”

They (the older boys) decided they wanted a vacation from school so they set out some traps down in Johnson’s pasture and caught a skunk. So they took this skunk up to the school-house, and underneath the stage floor there were some doors in there, where you could get back under the floor of the stage where the school-room was. So they turned that skunk loose under there and threw rocks at him, until he smelled things all up, Boy! We had to have a vacation; we couldn’t stand it in that school-house for quit awhile! Whew! Ha! Ha!

(Hilven’s favorite sport was baseball and he usually did the pitching! He liked to hunt and seldom came home without a deer or turkey!”)

“SOME PLEASANT BOYHOOD MEMORIES”

“I recall with pleasure my boyhood days and my boyhood pals and teachers both in school and primary. I started to school in Colonia Pacheco in the red brick church house that also served as school and recreation center. My oldest sister Verl Cluff was my first teacher in Col. Pacheco where I completed my elementary schooling except for two years at Colonia Juarez. Other teachers that I remember were Geniveve Hatch and her sister Fleeta Hatch, Wilmirth Whetten who taught me in the fourth and fifth grades when we moved to Col. Juarez. Then after we returned to Col. Pacheco, I remember Edward Johnson, Lester Skousen was my favorite grade school teacher and Paul Keeler.

After completing my training in Grade school I attended the Juarez Stake Academy at Colonia Juarez, where I took an active part in baseball, basketball and the rest of the recreational program. I enjoyed the operettas produced by the leading rolls in my Junior and Senior years. I was fortunate enough to be awarded letters in basketball in my sophomore, junior and senior years. I had the great honor of being elected to the office of Student Body President in my senior year where I had the responsibility of directing the recreational activities of the student-body.

I graduated from the J.S.A. in the school year of 1942-43. Some of the teachers I remember most were: Bryant R. Clark, Superintendent of schools, J. Floyd Walser who taught Spanish, Agriculture, and Athletics; also Moroni L. Abegg, Ralph B. Keeler, Nell S. Hatch., Edwin McClellan, Viva Bluth and Ben Taylor.

Many of my boyhood memories are closely associated with two of my Primary teachers Irene B. Martineau who strove diligently to inspire us with a desire for the finer, the Spiritual, the intellectual things of life and the building of a well-rounded character through participation in the spiritual and recreational programs of the church. Then there was Rafael Jarvis who was one of my Primary teachers and explorer leader.

Many were the hikes and trips of exploration, which we took. In the neighborhood of Colonia Pacheco are many ancient ruins and caves, which were inhabited anciently by the Indians. We visited these caves and ruins on our trips of exploration and over a period of time built up quite a collection of Indian relics such as bows and arrows, stone axes, pottery, grass ropes, and baskets and grains, all of which we labeled telling the location where found, the date, by whom found and some of the circumstances and conditions under which they were found. This collection was kept in the old belfry tower of the church house, which was eventually destroyed by fire when the church burned down the 3rd of March of 1945.

At times, while on cave exploring trips on the Piedras Verdes River, we would stop for lunch at the ranch of Frank Nations, a bachelor cowboy who ran cattle on the Mesa Avena. He was later shot by Mexican robbers while in bed and his little ranch house ransacked and his possessions stolen. (Later, Dad (Hilven) told me that when he was farming the Frank Nations place and he and Klint put a new roof on that cabin.) While on “The Cousins Trail Ride” I took a picture of this same cabin, not knowing about this previous bit of information. When I showed Dad the picture I had taken, Dad divulged this information to me. I was amazed. What a beautiful piece of country to live in!)

“Some of the happiest memories I have are of my carefree boyhood days in the Sierras which I learned to love with a love akin to that of a wild thing of the forest who is at peace and at home in natures wonderland. I loved the out of doors and took every opportunity to explore the mysteries of the streams and forests with its many birds, fish, insects and animal life. I learned to understand the sounds of the forest and to read the stories left in the soft earth of all the wild life as it is sallied forth in quest of food or adventure.

Because of my interest and study of natures printed stories, I became an expert tracker, which at many times enabled me to search out strayed animals and more than one robber learned a healthy respect for my ability to trail them to their lair and produce the stolen goods!

Animals of all kinds were plentiful in the forests near my home, especially after moving to the old Stevens Ranch below town where we lived most of the time I was growing up. Many of the animals were enemies to man at least because of their predatory nature many times robbed the early settlers of their very means of livelihood. My mother obtained a few chickens upon which she depended to keep the family in eggs, but the wily coyote and a family of very cunning and persistent lynx cats supposed that she had provided them with a very special treat to which they proceeded to help themselves every time the opportunity presented itself.

To guard against these raids, the henhouse was built up on stilts or long legs so the chickens when in the henhouse would be up out of the reach of the predators and meticulous care was taken to see that none of the chickens roosted in the trees and that the henhouse door was securely fastened every night. Still the precious hens continued to disappear and mother’s persistent efforts to replenish the henhouse, by setting every hen inclined to a motherly disposition, failed to keep pace with the rate of disappearance of hens from the henhouse.

At last war was declared in earnest against all furry creatures, regardless of motive or intent, who invaded the domains of man. A convenient and favorite Cedar tree where the chickens were inclined to roost was surrounded by a string of steel traps and two old hens, labeled expendable, were allowed to roost therein. On the following morning as we sallied forth we found Papa Lynx cat, with his foot in a trap, thus paying for his ill-gotten suppers. This strategy was continued until the entire family of Lynx cats came to their end.”

“THE CALF AND “The Big ol’ Guy” IN GARCIA”

(A Story my Dad “Heber” told me)

I can’t remember this guys name, seems like somebody wrote it down. These kids in Garcia, were young guys always huntin’ some excitement. This one big ol’ guy was kinda slow, talked slow and his thinking was kinda slow. They pulled tricks on him once in a while, just because he was a big ol’ guy, he’d take it good, he was a good natured kid.

But they decided they wanted to break a calf to pull a cart, like the oxen did in the Pioneer days, so they hooked up this calf and they didn’t have another calf to hook up with him so they talked this kid into getting in the other side. They hooked him up and put the yoke around his neck, and started the ol’ calf down the street, and it went pretty good for a little ways, they both pulled pretty good together, pretty soon the calf balked and didn’t want to go any further!

One of the guys got around behind and cranked his tail, and the ol’ calf took off running down through the country and this guy trying to keep up with him. I don’t know if he was still on his hands and knees or not, hands and feet. But he was dragging him along. Finally they got excited, thought they was going to drag this poor guy to death and they were trying to get the calf stopped, finally they got him stopped, they went around to unhook this boy out of the neck yoke and he said, ”Unhook that calf, I’ll stand!” Ha! Ha! I remember my Dad telling me that. I think some of those boys were John Whetten, (Jay’s Dad), my Dad (Heber Cluff) and some of the Farnsworth boys and maybe one of the Beecrofts.

“GARCIA, PACHECO, CHUPE”

“PEOPLE & EVENTS IN THE DAYS OF BERT WHETTEN, HEBER CLUFF, D.S. BROWN & DAVE BROWN

LaVerne: “Who all lived in Garcia? Hilven, “Oh, there quite a bunch of them in Garcia at one time, the Beecrofts and Farnsworths, the Whettens and the Cluffs. At one time they had a good ward in Garcia, and Pacheco too.

They had more people in Pacheco than they have, probably in Colonia Juarez now. They had a lot of people in Colonia Pacheco. Some of the leaders of the church lived there. Bruce R. McConkie’s grandfather lived there, and the apostles were down there. Two of the apostles spent a lot of time there, hoping to find some land to colonize on. They built that great big ol’ church house, two stories high. They burnt all the brick, made all the brick for it.

There were the Staleys, the Blacks, the Stevens, the Johnsons, the Kartchners, Martineaus, and Bishop Steiner. That big ol’ house where Martineaus used to live was the Steiner’s house. They all had big brick homes. All the homes in town were made out of the bricks they’d made. (The Steiner house is the same house our family lived in 1946, that was called the Haynie house or Joel Martineau home. It caught on fire and burned down when we were in Hermosillo.)

They fixed up the roads. They had a telephone line from Mata Ortiz, clear up through the Colonies. They built that road up the San Diego Canyon, that Rock Candy Mountain Canyon, they built that road up there. After the sawmill moved into Mata Ortiz, it was run by one of the richest guys in the world. At one time his was one of the biggest sawmills in the world. He was going to build a railroad up through the mountains to take out all the timber with the train to run that sawmill with. That grade goes almost to “Little park” and then it quits. But they had a sawmill at the top of the hill too, just as soon as you top out on top of the hill.

When I was a little kid there was still these blue insulators on some of those pine trees going across the Mesa Avena, and one of them was on a pine tree just as you come out of that canyon just to the top of the mountain. And there were some from our ranch house there at “Stevens” going up through the pasture, I remember them. During the Mexican Revolution the Mexican’s took all the wire off from it and they’ve never had a telephone up there since. There were lots of people there; the Pratts, the Neigleys, the Williams, I remember those houses we called them by the Whipple’s place, or McConkie Hollow or Cox Hollow.

There were Mormons living down at Pratt’s ranch and William’s ranch and Cave Valley and Hop Valley, all of those were Mormon places, but Pacheco was the biggest one. They came to Pacheco from the other places to go to Church. Hop Valley came over to Pacheco. Garcia was quite big but it never did get as big as Pacheco.

Chupe was a pretty good size place and they had a great big valley there and had quite a lot of people in Chupe. Uncle D. S. was up there at one time and they had a ranch out at North Valley. Then the other Brown family, Dave Brown, they would go to Chico and get on the train. Chico was closer to getting them out of the mountains than it was to going down on the roads, so they shipped a lot of their merchandise and stuff up on the train and freighted over to Chupe.

Uncle Bert Whetten was up there. He was a young fellow. Flaye Peterson and some of those other guys that went into the cattle business big, would go down into Sonora and buy up several thousand head of steers and take them up around Chupe, there was nobody there and it was all open country, there was good graze and good grass. So they’d pasture them out and ship them out and make good money on them.

Uncle DS had a place over there pretty close to the “Espinazo del Diablo”, “The Devils Backbone”. He said there was a big ol’ canyon there, they could put a thousand head of steers down there in the fall, and they were down there where it would stay green all winter long, with a good temperature and good climate. They’d bring those ol’ steers out fat in the spring!

“THE TIOPA MINE”

Uncle Bert Whetten was helping drive a big bunch of cattle out. They had a big place on the “Mesa Blanca” where they liked to stop overnight, because they could drive them into a place there and there were ledges all around, it was big flat topped Mesa. There was only this one place where you could get in there and so they put their camp in this place and they wouldn’t have to night herd them.

He said they were there one night, camped with a herd of cattle and a Native man came and wanted to camp with them and he and Uncle Bert got to talking and he told Uncle Bert that when he was a young fellow the Apache Indians captured him and took and kept him with them until he was a young man, and said that he was with the Indians that killed the Spaniards and covered up the “Tiopa Mine”. He said, “I wasn’t big enough to take part in it but I took care of the horses while the Indians took care of the Spaniards.” He said “It’s a one day ride straight north of here, where we are now!”, and that throws it right down in the country where my Dad (Heber Cluff) saw it.

The “Tiopa Mine” was one of the richest gold mines in Mexico. That gold would come out of there almost pure. They had a church there and had the Catholic Priests there, that’s how they got these Indians enslaved and made them work. Make them go to church and make them go to the mines and work.

These slave Indians had some relatives that were “broncos” out in the mountains and they got together and decided what they were going to do to the Spaniards and that’s what they did. They came in on them and wiped them out, covered up the mine and covered up the cave, where they had been stashing the gold bars. They’d smelt out the gold bars until they got enough for a shipment. They’d haul it out on pack mules and take it down, and come out of the “Chupe” river, right over the Blue Mountain and right down through ”Garcia”, through “Hop Valley”, come down through “Colonia Juarez” to “Casas Grandes.”

On Uncle D.S.‘s ranch out there, I found a place where the old Spanish trail went right up over the hill and you could see it. They worked those trails just like we work our roads now. They didn’t go around the hills, they went right straight over them, and they’d pick a good place and go right over them. They shipped that stuff to Spain. My Dad said, when he was a kid in Garcia, they could still see that old Spanish trail coming over the Blue Mountain and down through Garcia.

Then when he had his dream about going over to that mine; he said in his dream, he was sitting on his horse over on the south side of the Blue Mountain, looking off towards the “Chupe” river, and he followed the trail on his horse and went down into the “Chupe” river and crossed it and went up on the Mesa there where the mine was. He said the mine had been covered up but he could see a sunken place that had sunk down, and then he went around into a canyon there.

He said the cave was sealed up, but he knew what was in the cave; he saw what was in the cave. There were these gold bars they’d been smelting out. He says he doesn’t know why, and he never thought of treasures or anything, or even thinking about going over there and getting it, and even after he saw it, and he never did, until I got over there and got to messing around and running cattle there. We got to talking about it and he told me how it was, and so I got him to go over there, and we’ve never been back. I guess it is still there.

President Bowman was telling a story about some Vaqueros that was getting some cattle out of that country. One of these guys was chasing a critter and it ran right past a cave, and this cave had some Apparejos and guns in there, the old guy stopped long enough to reach down and get one of the guns, I think, and he took right on after the critter, and he said he tried to go back to it and he could never go back to that cave.”

“HELEN TELLS ABOUT THEIR COURTING DAYS”

1939-1942

“One year Hilven boarded with Aunt Laveeta. Marza and Maureen Lunt boarded there also. The year I went home sick, he boarded with Aunt Wilmirth. When Hilven came home that summer, I got to know him better.”

“Ernestine stayed for the summer. She’d suggest, “Let’s go out on dates together”. If Hilven was there she’d get him, if not she’d get somebody else. I went with Howard Kotchner. We had a lot of fun.”

“Then I went to Colonia Juarez for my sophomore year, I lived with Aunt Wilmirth. LaSelle Taylor and Arletta were going together, so they soon had me going with Leland Robinson, we got to having lots of fun. Somebody told Hilven that the way to make me jealous, was to date Ella Whetten Anderson, and that brought me around. Ella and I were like sisters. Anyway Hilven got me back, and he brought us a turkey and Aunt Wimirth Whetten said, “Well, you have to cook the turkey your boyfriend brought”, so I guess she told us how to do it.”

“I got Hilven away from Ella. Then I went again with Leland Robinson, we rode horseback up to Colonia Pacheco. So I went with Leland till school got out and Ernestine came home for the summer. Hilven started dating Ernestine and I was left with just writing letters to Leland, as he had gone on a mission and here was my sister and Hilven having lots of fun right in our house! I thought it was a dirty trick!”

“Ernestine went with some young girls to the Gavilan to have a campout. They had Brother Joel Martineau as their chaperone. While they were on this campout lightning struck him and really scared the girls. Erma, Hilven’s sister, got knocked off her horse and it knocked her goofy. She was unconscious for a little while. They decided they’d better come back home. Hilven and one of his friends checked them out to see how they were doing. They had tracked them down.”

“They must have been there a couple of nights. The girls made the guys some candy and they put some Pine-gum in it. When they got back home, Ernestine had to go back to work in El Paso and we missed her. So I settled down and tried to get Hilven.”

“My junior year, I boarded with Aunt Lillie and Uncle Bert. They lived in Grandpa John T. Whetten’s home. I dated Hilven Cluff, his parents were living in Colonia Pacheco too. Between the high school and the ward activities, they really kept the young people busy. Hilven and I enjoyed high school operas, and we participated in a floorshow dancing class. Hilven tried to teach me how to drive that big old truck on the streets of Colonia Juarez. Hilven graduated in May 1942. I attended three years at the Juarez Stake Academy.”

“HILVEN PROPOSES MARRIAGE”

“The next summer in Colonia Pacheco, Hilven came and said “Shall we get married now?”, because the folks have to leave for Colonia Juarez. (They had decided to move to Colonia Juarez so the older children could attend High School, and they needed to move before school started, so his parents suggested we get married before they moved). I let him go home with a “NO” answer, because, I had wanted to get married November 1st which was my birthday.”

“Mom talked to me and said, “That’s not a good idea for him to be down at the ranch alone and you engaged”. So I had to go find him, only he wasn’t there. He’d got disgusted and went into the woods. So I told his folks and they sent someone out to find him, and he came back”.

“GETTING READY FOR OUR WEDDING”

Helen: “We only had that afternoon to get ready. Hilven didn’t have any money to go to the commissario to get the permit, so I said if you won’t ask Dad, I will. They went together to the commissario and got the permit.

“Mom and I started making cookies as fast as we could, so we could have cookies and punch for the dance. It had to be cookies, because we didn’t have time to make a cake.”

“The word got out that we were going to get married and having the ceremony and a dance at the church. We waited at the church until the commissario, Jose Maria Artelego came and married us, and then we had a dance. Hilven had asked his Uncle Delbert Cluff if he would play his violin for the dance, and so he and Hilven’s brother Halver, (Halver accompanied Adelbert on the piano,) furnished the music for the dance that night. We were married September 3, 1942, in the chapel in Colonia Pacheco, Chihuahua Mexico.”

The young people talked of shivareeing us. Aunt Alice Allred was right in agreement with them. When I asked Uncle Cohn (her husband) for advice, he told us to sleep at his house up in the attic and gave me the key to his house. So before the dance was over, we slipped out and hurried up to his place one block west of the chapel. After the dance was over we could hear the young people going past looking for us. We were happy for a safe hiding place.

The next morning Aunt Alice was really surprised to find we had slept right there in her house. Uncle Cohn sure had a good laugh. We went down to my parent’s house and ate breakfast with them, then went down to his parent’s house where we would be living. His family was packing and moved to Juarez that afternoon.

When we got married my father gave us two cows with their calves. Mom gave us three quilts, sheets, and pillow cases. Hilven made us a table with two benches and two stools.

Hilven finished harvesting the family crop and set out his traps for the winter catch. Sometimes I helped skin the animals. The coyote was the stinkenest animal to skin, the coon were the easiest.

“HILVEN & HELEN TELL ABOUT MARRIED LIFE”

“Hilven said: “Helen and I started our married life on the old Stevens Ranch North of Pacheco, the 3rd of Sept. 1942. (From Helen’s Journal she says: At the time of our marriage, Halver and Margaret and family lived in two rooms of the big Cluff home and LaRee and Melvin Turley and their three little children in two rooms. At Christmas time we got us a cute tree, but didn’t have decorations to put on it. LaRee had decorations, but no room for a tree, so she let us use her decorations. Melvin was building them a small house nearby.) Hilven said: “From 1942-1944 I spent a good part of my life as a farmer, trapper, Bronc-buster and schoolteacher.”

“OUR FIRST CHILD, ELLEN LAVERNE”

(Helen continues: “Our first child was born May 28, 1943 at the home of my parents. Hilven borrowed Uncle Halver’s pickup and went to Garcia and brought Ida Kartchner, a very good midwife, to help me. I felt very blessed to have her help. Our sweet daughter was born at 10:00 a.m. We named her Ellen LaVerne. We chose LaVerne, because it meant to us, we love her.”

“PLANS MADE TO GO TO THE MESA TEMPLE”

“When we got married the Second World War was on so we couldn’t go out to the Temple, but as soon as the Armistice was signed, my parents made plans to help us out to the Mesa Temple. Our fathers, Charles William Whetten and Heber M. Cluff Jr. were serving as counselors to Bishop Marion Wilson. As members of the Bishopric, the church paid their fare to Salt Lake and Mother Montez, Hilven and I and LaVerne would meet him in Mesa.”

“Mother, Hilven and I and our 17 month old baby LaVerne, traveled to Dublan in Dad’s pickup, got on the train and rode to the border at Ciudad Juarez. Crossing the border we stayed overnight at a friend’s house where my sister Ernestine was boarding. We took the bus to Aunt Ella and Uncle Bert Smith’s Ranch, going on to Mesa the next day. The 10th of October, 1943 we enjoyed the great privilege of going through the Arizona Temple, receiving our endowments, and being sealed together. This sealing was so special our baby didn’t cry or want us to take her, but put her little hand on top of ours while the baby tender held her and knelt at the alter with us.”

“I was so thrilled to enter the Temple and receive my endowments and have our little family sealed together. It was like we had been allowed to enter heaven for a day and I wouldn’t have been surprised if we had gotten to see Jesus! We went through a second session and enjoyed the privilege of being the couple at the alter, then we did sealings for ten couples.”

“WE MOVED TO CORRALES”

(Helen) “Soon after we returned home, Darvin came over and asked if we would move over in a little house on their property in Corrales (which was the old Omer Cluff place) as his wife, Mabel was alone when he worked up in the hills skidding logs. He also suggested Hilven come work at skidding logs too, so we moved over to Corrales and enjoyed living by Darvin and Mabel and family. They had just lost their baby boy, so Mabel was really lonely. Her girls were great to tend LaVerne.”

(Hilven) “We moved to Corrales on the Omer Cluff place, which my brother Darvin owned. Darvin and I worked at logging at the Leland Martineau sawmill at a little place South of Corrales. We were paying for our trucks by hauling logs for the sawmill. We had our own teams and equipment. At this time the Pacheco Church and schoolhouse burned down when Carling Whetten was teaching. (1945).”

“We then moved into the Charles Whetten Allred place in Pacheco (1945) for a short time. We were gong to buy the place, but times were tough and we couldn’t make the payments on my logging truck and had to turn it back. From 1942-1948, I skidded logs, drove my logging truck, farmed, raised chickens, broke broncs and went as hunting party guide, with my own remuda and pack outfit. Des Mangum would bring in the hunting parties from the U.S. and I would take them out into the mountains to hunt and trap wild animals, for 15 days, then I’d return them and receive another party.”

“OUR SECOND CHILD WAS A BABY BOY, KLINT HILVEN”

Helen continues: “Our second child was a sweet baby boy. We named him Klint Hilven. My sister, Ernestine, came from El Paso where she was working, to see our baby boy. I hemorrhaged at his birth so was a long time getting strong enough to return home to Corrales. This time Hilven went and ask Maggie Johnson if she could come help us. She was a midwife living in Pacheco. While I was still at my parent’s home, the Pacheco chapel burned down March 1, 1945.”

“My parents offered their front room for school to continue, also holding services there on Sunday until another building could be built. Melvin Turley was Bishop; he built a temporary small building on a lot across the street to the East of the original chapel. This small building was used as a meeting place until the chapel could be built.” (It never was rebuilt.)

“OUR SWEET DAUGHTER VONA WAS BORN JAN. 14, 1947”

(Helen) “My parents, Charles and Montez Whetten moved to Colonia Juarez and we moved into their home for two years. While there our daughter Vona was born on January 14, 1947. She brought great joy to our hearts. Brother and Sister Isaac Turley delivered our little daughter Vona.”

“WE MOVED TO CHUPE”

(Helen) “When Vona was about two months old, we moved to Chuichupa, living by Uncle Cliff and Aunt Ann. My sister Freda, was teaching school there and we enjoyed her visiting us often. Hilven worked at hauling lumber from the sawmill to Chupe to station Chico.

(Hilven) “I took a job as chauffer on a lumber hauling job for D.S. and Jasper Brown (1944) in Colonia Chuichupa and moved into a small house in Chupe close to my wife’s Uncle (Cliff) Whetten’s place. Freda Whetten, my wife’s sister, was teaching school in Col. Chuichupa at this time. The work was hard, the pay wasn’t much, I had an accident when the axle broke on a steep pull and my brakes failed. I managed, with the Lord’s help, to keep the truck upright on the narrow road. I lost the load into the canyon and a passenger broke her leg. It could have been much worse!

(Helen describes how a woman and her son, and her father insisted Hilven let them ride on his load. Hilven tried to talk them out of it, but finally let them. As he was going up a steep hill where the road was narrow and there was a drop straight down, the drive axel broke and when the motor stopped, the brakes wouldn’t hold. He said: “I had to swing the trailer into the bank. By the time the trailer bumped into the bank I only had one wheel of the truck on the road, the rest were out in the air. The load was tilting so steep that the woman fell off about 15 or 20 feet. It broke her leg. I packed her back up onto the road and soon someone came along and I sent her to Madera to the hospital. I tied the truck up to some trees, then I turned the load loose and let it go down the canyon so I could get the trailer off the road.” This was an awful experience. We soon decided to go back to Pacheco and put in a crop.”

“WE MOVED BACK TO COLONIA PACHECO”

(Hilven) “We moved from Corrales to the Charles Whetten Allred place in Pacheco for a short time. Times were tough and we couldn’t make the payments. So we moved into the old Martineau home.”

“IN COL. PACHECO WE MOVED INTO THE “JOEL MARTINEAU HOME”

(Helen said: “My parents had sold their home and moved to Juarez, so we moved into the Joel Martineau two story brick home which was directly North of the burned church. (Pre-exodus, it was Bishop Steiner’s home.)”

“In 1948, we bought 200 baby chickens. Grandma Amanda Cluff took care of them with hers for the first month. When we brought them to Pacheco, we put them in an abandoned house a block East of Joel Martineau’s home. We had to have our little children LaVerne, age five, and Klint, age three, watch the chickens when we turned them out to keep the coyotes from getting them. LaVerne told Klint she was afraid of the coyotes because they came close enough she could hit them with a rock, but Klint said don’t be afraid I’ll take care of you. I’ll hit them with a rock in my flipper and he hit it.”

“Hilven also had them go after our two milk cows about sundown each day. We had them in the upper clay banks field. I felt they were too young, but he had them do it and they got along okay. Some days Brother Harlem Johnson would give them a lift heading our cows towards home.”

“Klint had a little red wagon and one day his Dad had come home for something and tied his horse up at the fence in front of the house. Klint and LaVerne had been playing with the little wagon taking turns pulling each other. When Klint saw his Dad’s horse tied up, he got the bright idea to pull the wagon behind the horse. He got in the saddle and LaVerne handed him the rope that was tied to the wagon. She got in the wagon, but when the horse heard the rattle of the wagon behind him, he spooked and ran and the wagon tipped over and Klint fell off the horse. We were thankful they weren’t hurt, just bruised. LaVerne says she remembers they took turns riding on the horse and in the wagon, so I guess the horse didn’t get upset the first turn.”

We lived in this house about two years. After the crops were harvested in the fall, Hilven took hunters out. Des Mangum who lived in Douglas brought the hunters. Hilven took out four groups. They came every 15 days.”

“OUR SWEET DAUGHTER CHARLEEN WAS BORN IN COL. JUAREZ”

(Helen) “While living in the “Joel Martineau’ two-story home in Pacheco, we were expecting Charleen. She was due the last of January. Hilven had planned to take me to Juarez in January, to stay with his parents to be confined, with Dr. LeRoy Hatch to attend us.

One night the second week of December, my pains started. Hilven went and ask Sister Maggie Johnson if she could come help us. She also was a midwife and attended me when Klint was born. She came and brought my cousin Genevieve with her. Sister Johnson gave me a tea made of various spices. In half an hour the pains stopped. I was so relieved. I also felt that all was not well. We decided as soon as Christmas was over, I’d better go to Col. Juarez.

Hilven took me to Colonia Juarez to Grandma and Grandpa Heber Cluff’s home. When I arrived and Dr. Hatch checked me, he told his wife my baby was in the wrong position, and unless she turned around, she would be born breech.

Jan. 29, 1949, our sweet daughter Charleen was born. Dr. Hatch attended us. It was snowing or sleeting. Dr Hatch said,” sure hope my car has enough antifreeze in it.” Two weeks before she was born, the baby turned around and was born normally. I was very grateful to my Heavenly Father for this great blessing, and grateful to Grandpa and Grandma Cluff for taking care of us and to Dr. Hatch.

“Hilven couldn’t stay with us; he was out with a group of hunters. Hilven said it snowed two feet, then rained and had a terrible flood. He said, “We were out on the Gavilan where it dumps into Three Rivers. We were camped in the bend of the river on the highest place and we still had to move up the side of the hill.” I imagine at that point he would have much rather been home, nice and dry.

In Pacheco, “we enjoyed close neighbors; they were cousin Genevive Whetten and Floyd Johnson and their three children, Ivy Marie, Percy and Burton. They were the same age as our children. Leonard Anderson lived two blocks West of us. They had two children, Darleen and Ellen. We had many happy times together. Genevive was Relief Society President and I was her secretary. At this time the Relief Society worldwide was asked to contribute to building the Relief Society Building in Salt Lake City. We sent in our contributions. I sold eggs to Melvin Turley’s store to raise my contribution.”

“The Church maintained schools in all the Colonies until the year 19__?, then they closed out the schools in the three mountain colonies, Chuichupa, Garcia, and Pacheco. The Saints moved out of the mountains as they were able to in order to get their children into school. We were the last family to leave Pacheco.”

“LAVERNE WAS SENT TO COLONIA JUAREZ TO ATTEND SCHOOL”

(Helen) “We had to send LaVerne off to school. We got her a ride with Melvin Turley and family. She stayed with them for a few weeks then boarded with Leland and Irene Martineau. She talked her Grandma Amanda Cluff into letting her stay with her, so finished out the school year with them. The next year we decided to move to Colonia Juarez. We bought a lot from Grandpa Heber Cluff and built a big chicken coop first and bought 500 baby chicks.”

(Hilven) “It was necessary to put our first child, LaVerne in school so after her first year there with my parents, we moved to Col. Juarez. Alma Lunt helped us out with a loan to build a chicken coop and to buy a flock of biddies. We built a chicken coop on my Dad’s place in Col. Juarez 1950. We lived in part of the feed storage room and the chickens lived in the rest.”

(Helen) “Hilven stayed in Pacheco long enough to harvest his crop, then joined us. He had a team of mules and a two-wheel cart that he made trips down from Pacheco in. We laid the foundation for our home, but ran out of funds.”

“NOVEMBER 22, 1950 OUR SON RODNEY MARSHALL WAS BORN”

(Helen) “November 22, 1950, early in the morning while still dark, Hilven had to catch the mules and hook up the cart and take me to Grandpa and Grandma Charles Whettens. They lived about six blocks from us. Our little son Rodney Marshall was born. Dr. Hatch attended us. He had rope tied to the foot of the bed for me to pull on. As Rodney was born, he grabbed the rope and Dr. Hatch had to pry his little hand loose. He laughed and said guess we could say he was born with a lariat in his hands. Daddy said later he must have thought it was a violin string.”

“Mother Montez sure took good care of me and our baby. Rodney is our third baby that she has taken care of. LaVerne, Klint and Rodney were born in her home and she took such loving care of the baby and I. I will always be grateful to her.”

(Hilven) “We then had five little ones, LaVerne, Klint, Vona, Charleen and Rodney. I went to Utah to work for Jasper Brown on a mink farm 1951 and Helen took care of the little ones and the chickens. I returned at Christmas time, flat broke and discouraged. Some “Ruffies” had taken all my money away from me in Las Vegas, Nevada when I failed to make bus connections and had to lay over in Vegas.”

“Things were getting desperate. It was unhealthy for my family living in a dusty chicken coop. I went to Arizona in 1952 and obtained a job on the Max Schneph farm. He gave me a house to live in and my wife and family shortly joined me in Queen Creek, Arizona.”

“Things began to be better for us, the pay was for common farm labor, but we had learned to economize and we were able to live better and save a little. Our employers were good Latter Day Saint people and they were very good to us. I started work as an irrigator, but my past experience with machinery and people was an advantage. Every opportunity I had to help out, in the shop or on the tractors, I would do so, without neglecting my watering job.”

“Willingness to work and know how paid off. I was put to work, first in the shop and then given a foreman’s job supervising the whole operation. When Max Schnepf’s father-in-law, who was a farmer of large acreage and the Stake President, Donald Ellsworth, saw my working abilities he made arrangements with his son-in-law to transfer me to a position as general supervisor of the Donald Ellsworth Farms.”

“President Ellsworth was a very good boss. We learned to love him and his family very much. They were very good to us. I spent the next five years as general supervisor of the Donald Ellsworth Farms. I was also given charge of the East Mesa Stake Welfare project of several acres of sweet corn for canning. I also served as a Stake missionary and Ward Clerk of the Queen Creek Ward.”

“Helen and I enjoyed the privilege of often attending the Mesa Arizona Temple. Life was better for us. We saved money and bought a brand new Ford station wagon and paid for it in cash. I also bought a 2&½ ton Chevy truck to haul grain, which I later sold to President Ellsworth. We bought a washing machine and a few other household items without going into debt. Things were looking much better for us. Our Queen Creek days were mostly happy days, hard work, long hours, and a great responsibility, but nevertheless, happy days. It was here that two more little ones joined our family, Derril and Ivelen.”

“OUR SON DERRIL RENFREW WAS BORN”

(Helen) “On September 30, 1952 our precious little son Derril Renfrew was born. I had written and asked Aunt Christeen if she would come stay with our little family while I was in the hospital. I told her the date to arrive. As she could only stay four days, I was really anxious about the timing being right. After I had written her and she had accepted, I was impressed to have her come sooner. So I sent a letter right off asking her to be there September 29th. She arrived in the afternoon of the 29th and I showed her around and told her what she needed to know about the children.”

“Since Hilven was working and we didn’t have a vehicle, I had asked Aunt Zorene if she would drive me in to the hospital in Mesa. My doctor was Hilven’s cousin, Dr. Willard Skousen. His mother was Hilven’s mother (Amanda’s) sister. Before Hilven left for work at 6.00 a.m., I told him I felt a little strange and that it might happen today and sure enough at 8.00 o’clock a.m. the pains started. I called Aunt Zorene Whetten Shupe and she came over. The children wanted to ride in with us, so Christeen and children rode in to Mesa with us.”

“I got Aunt Zorene to stop at a store and I got the children some coloring books and crayons to help keep them busy while I was gone. They took me to the hospital and I checked in with the nurses. I asked if the doctor was there and they said yes. Derril was born at 12.00 noon.

“I was wishing I had told Aunt Zorene to stop at cousin Zora Chapman’s and rest until the baby arrived, as mine always come in four hours and they could have come back and seen the baby before gong back home. Because I didn’t suggest that, they went back home and Christeen didn’t get to visit with Zora. (Zora, Helen, and Christeen are Whettens and grew up together). It was so late when Hilven got off work that night that all the children were asleep and just he and Christeen came in to see us.”

“HILVEN TAKES MAX SCHNEPF AND UNCLE BERT WHETTEN TO THREE RIVERS”

(Helen) “In October Max and Hilven took a trip to Mexico, stopping at Colonia Juarez to pick up Uncle Bert Whetten who Hilven had written and gotten his consent to go with them as guide. They went to “Three Rivers” where they were met by Ramon Jaquez with horses and pack mules. They spent about a week exploring with a Geiger counter. Hilven really enjoyed this trip with Uncle Bert. Uncle Bert hadn’t been down in this part of the country since he was a kid. They didn’t find any treasure, but enjoyed the trip.”

“We only lived in this first house in town in Queen Creek for six months. When one of the hands moved away, we were told to move into a house on the Ellsworth farms, six miles out of town. When Max hired Hilven, he worked as an irrigator, but he soon discovered Hilven was a better mechanic than the man he had working as the mechanic, so Max moved Hilven to mechanic. He worked for Max for about two years.

Max’s father-in-law, Stake President Donald Ellsworth, was impressed with Hilven’s ability and dependability and hired him to run his other farms. There were four or five 40 acre fields with five pumps and he also ran the Church Welfare Farm for one year.”

“When we moved out to the Ellsworth farms, it was too far for our children to attend Queen Creek School unless we drove them to school each day. We couldn’t afford that. A new school was built closer to the farms, its’ name was “Combs School”. So we enrolled our children at “Combs School”. One of the teachers was Annie Johnson. She treated our children like they were her grandchildren. We loved her. She was born in Colonia Diaz, Chihuahua, Mexico and was a playmate of mother Amanda Mortensen Cluff.

“We enjoyed the advantages of living on the farm where Hilven worked. President Ellsworth let us milk one of his cows. Klint learned to milk (the cow) at an early age and to drive a tractor and pickup when he could just barely reach the gas peddle.”

“OUR DAUGHTER IVELEN WAS BORN”

(Helen) “In 1956, when we were expecting Ivelen, our seventh child, Hilven was serving as a Stake Missionary, in East Mesa Stake. Donald Ellsworth was our Stake President and Hilven was running his farm. We lived on his farm six miles East of Queen Creek. About a month before Ivelen was born, I felt she would arrive any day. Dr. Skousen also verified my feeling. I felt uneasy that she might arrive while her father was out making his missionary visits. My cousin Zora Chapman invited me to come and stay at her home in Mesa to be nearer the hospital.”

“I had been at her place two days, when I called home to see how our children were getting along. LaVerne reported all was going well. She had gotten up real early, had breakfast and washing done by 10.00 a.m. I was real proud of our eleven year-old daughter. The second day at cousin Zora’s home, Aunt Genivieve Hatch Whetten, came to visit and talked me into spending a couple of days with her. She was bottling Strawbery preserves. We enjoyed working with the strawberries till evening. Then surprise, my pains started. “

“I called Dr. Skousen, who was at home by then. Then called Hilven and he said he’d meet us at Dr. Skousen’s hospital in Mesa. By the time we all got to the hospital, the pains had quit. Dr. Skousen had Paulie Sloan there to help him that evening. She was our longtime midwife in Colonia Juarez. I was real happy and surprised to see her at the hospital.”

“The doctor said, “We’ll give you an injection and the pains will start again but if they wear off and stop, you can relax, she won’t be born for two weeks, and I’m going to Mexico. The pains just lasted 30 minutes and quit. So I decided to go home with Hilven and trust she’d wait two weeks and the doctor would be back from Mexico.’

“Sure enough, in two weeks, July 12th at 11:00 p.n. after Hilven had returned from his missionary visits, my pains started again and she was born at Mesa Osteopathic hospital, Mesa Arizona, with Doctor Skousen attending us. I was real proud of our baby, to think she would wait till her Daddy was home from his missionary visits to make her arrival. We were so happy to have a baby in our home again; we all about loved her to pieces. It was especially cute to see how much Derril loved his baby sister.”

“WE DECIDED TO MOVE BACK TO MEXICO” (1957)

(Hilven) “Things changed; President Ellsworth’s sons grew up and wanted to assume the farming operation, our children were growing up and I had a desire to raise them in the more church oriented, environment of the colonies, so we decided to move back to Mexico. President Ellsworth offered me a job managing some Church farms in Utah that he was responsible for, but I declined the offer as we had made up our minds to return to Mexico. “

“Our move back to Mexico in 1957 was a difficult move. We had no home in Mexico. We moved into a chicken coop, this time without chickens in it, on Dad Charley’s place in Col. Juarez and I went to Hermosillo Sonora to take a job for a Grant Ellsworth, a relative of Donald Ellsworth as general supervisor of large farming operation. He and his brothers operated out on the coast West of Hermosillo Sonora. This job was necessary in order to finish paying for and finish building a home we were buying in Col. Juarez.”

“A LONESOME HUSBAND’S LETTER”

Darling Sweetheart:

Here I am again, as homesick as ever if not more so. I arrived in Hermosillo about seven or eight o’clock last night. I tried to get a ride out to the farm, but was unable to do so. I went up to the place where the missionaries were staying and told them I had come to stay overnight with them if they would give me a place on the floor to roll out my sleeping bag, and of course they did, with a mattress in the bargain.”

I left early to see if I could catch a ride out to the farm. I went down to the service station where all the trucks usually stop when they are leaving town and caught a ride out to the Calle Duce, the place that I had to start walking the other time. But this time I was lucky enough to catch a ride with a fellow who was delivering a load of fuel at the farm, so I got a free ticket home.

Sweetheart, this gets harder to take every time. I just about get acquainted with the children again and start to understand their problems and then I have to break it off again.”

“Try and get Klint to build a pigpen so you can get a little pig for the boys to take care of. If he has time, he could clear up the yard and put up a clothesline for you. I wish I could do it myself or at least help them.

Tell Dad that we didn’t get to talk to Alma Jarvis about that pasture in Garcia and for him to follow it up, and see if we can make a deal to get it and get these cows from Brother Lunt. I think it is important that we get them and get a place to run them. If we can, it will be that much nearer to helping me get to come home and have something to do at home. I guess this is not much of a letter, but at least an attempt.

Darling, I Love you more than ever.Hilven

“I MOVED MY FAMILY TO HERMOSILLO SONORA”

1957-1958

(Helen) “Hilven got real lonesome so the next year he moved our family to Hermosillo for one year. LaVerne stayed with Hilven’s sister LaRee Turley that year. Hilven worked in Hermosillo for two years. We enjoyed the little branch in Hermosillo.”

(Hilven) “I decided to take my family to Hermosillo until the home was finished, so we moved to Hermosillo for the school year of 1957. The children knew no Spanish and they were a bunch of blue and brown eyed gringo curiosities. It was hard on them. In 1958 Helen and the children decided not to stay for another school year, so I moved them back to Col. Juarez, although our home was not yet entirely finished and I returned to my job in Hermosillo.

(Helen) “In 1959 Hilven moved our family into our home that Hilven had Halver fix for us. We bought it from George Turley. (Dad told me (LaVerne) that from Uncle Halvers place, from the bridge to the other side of Uncle Melvin’s, was all Dads’ property at first, and he gradually sold it off, and then bought the middle piece back.)

“Hilven started working for D.S. Brown. He worked on the Negro ranch and the Nogales ranch. Hilven was called as 2nd counselor in the Stake Sunday School and set apart May 12, 1968 by Don Bowman.”

“In 1961, LaVerne graduated from the Juarez Stake Academy and went with Dad (Charles W. Whetten) and Mom (Montez A. Whetten) to Mesa Arizona where they were living.”

“OUR SWEET LITTLE DAUGHTER REBECCA WAS BORN”

(Helen) “On September 24, 1962 our sweet little daughter Rebecca was born. We were living in Colonia Juarez. We had planned to go to Dr. E. LeRoy Hatch’s hospital in Nuevo Casas Grandes for her arrival. Dr Hatch was not practicing at this time, as he was President of the Mexican Mission in Mexico City.

September 24th, around 6:00 p.m., I told Hilven, action had commenced and we needed to start for Nuevo Casas Grandes. Hilven sent Klint over to Schmidt’s to unload a refrigerator. Before he returned I knew we didn’t have time to get to Casas.

Hilven hurried to ask Ernestine Hatch, who is a registered nurse, to come help us. Ada Fenn had come to give me an injection that the doctor had me take daily. I ask her if she’d stay and help us and she readily agreed. Hilven and Ernestine came right back and were there in time.

Rebecca was born around 8:00 p.m. with no problems and right in our own home. We were grateful all went well. I kept her crib in the front room that winter. Reah Hatch was expecting her baby about that same time. Both Becky and Lillian became best friends, and enjoyed visiting with each other and the activities together throughout their high-school years.

Rodney was learning how to play the violin, it seemed Becky grew up with a great love for music and she slept and played during his practicing, and as soon as she could climb on the piano bench, she began composing her own pieces. One day, one of our friends asked if she were taking lessons, because of pieces she’d heard her play. “I said, “Oh no, she’s made those up herself.”

“LION STORIES”

By Hilven Cluff

“THE TAIL AROUND MY NECK”

“I took a hunting party clear over on the Bavespi River. I was going to go clear over into the Nutria Mountains over cross the Bavespi River, over where the old Apaches had their hangout. I took old man Combs over there, he got kind of interested in trying to get some hunting parties in there. We got over there to a ranch on the Bevis River, and I was going to get those guys to go with me, back up into the Nutria Mountains, because I didn’t know that country in there and they did and it was next to their ranch.

When we got there when they were celebrating, one night, they had a big fiesta. Boy they had all kinds of good stuff to eat, tamales, they filled us up. I had a nine-milameter Lugar pistol, and they kind of liked it. They wanted me to shoot some Vivas. So I pulled it out and Boy! I just went BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!, like a machine gun, and they thought that was pretty good!

When we were over there and got that lion, that was when old Bunk Andersen went with me, he went along to kind of, I don’t know, he had been talking to Des Mangum, Des Mangum said the hunters had been complaining about the grub, old Bunk thought he was a good cook, so he got old Bunk to go over to do the cooking. He had a bottle on his saddle all the time, he pulled some of the darndest things you ever saw. He’d take us through the roughest cockeyed places with those big ol’ heavy packs on you know, and course he was supposed to be the guide because he claimed to know where we were going and the country and everything. So I just kinda hung back and let him take us where he wanted to.

He took us in some of the durndest, roughest places; he was going up a hill. We had one of the horses loaded down with the hunter’s most precious guns. Then we’d put a bed-pack on top of it, to kind of cushion it, and make it so if you hit into something, it wouldn’t hurt the guns. Those “dad-gum” rough places, where we were going, that horse bumped a tree and it kinda upset him, and started to roll and he rolled down that hill! Just before he went off from the bluff, he lodged in some trees, and I was saying to myself, don’t you kick, don’t you kick, till we got him tied where he wouldn’t go over the bluff. We got him unpacked and got him off of there. You know we had it packed so good, that it didn’t hurt the “dad- gum” guns. Boy! I thought those guys were sure going to be on us, messing up those high-powered guns. It was ol’ Bunks’ fault; he was taking us where he shouldn’t have taken us, with big pack-loads like that.

We went over there and made camp. The first thing I did was set some traps out. We took an old animal that could hardly walk, he was half dead anyway. I killed the animal and cut it up in pieces and put it on a pack-mule and strung it out in traps all through the country. We waited a couple of days and we went up there. One of the traps had been tripped, and there wasn’t anything in it, it jerked it back, I guess the Lion just got a toe in it or something in it and he pulled it loose and he got away. And the next trap had a lion in it, it wasn’t a very big lion compared to some I had got.

We got the ol’Lion, this time the hunters didn’t want to play with it, sometimes when I’d catch a Lion, why they’d want to play with them and make them look mean and take pictures with their video cameras, and mess around with it. They were going to take something back to show their wives how brave they were. We took it back to camp and before we skinned it, why we hung it up in the tree and took a picture of it. I had a little camera that I packed with me. Ol’ Bob Platt was with me, and he was sitting down on the ground and I got the old Lion’s tail and put it around my neck, and got one of the hunters to take a picture!

Ol’ Bunk run out of whisky, it wasn’t whisky, it was Tequila, made out of Maque, they had a place in Mata Ortiz where they made it. He sent one of the guys that was helping me with the packs, he sent him clear to Mata Ortiz to get him another bottle of Tequilla. Can you imagine how far this is; clear from over from the other side of the Bavespe River to Mata Ortiz on horseback! We went through Bear Canyon down past the Villa & Mendozas ranch past Elvino’s ranch. There’s a trail forks off there, one goes to three rivers and the other one goes on down through the country right straight towards the Bavespi river. It’s real rough country through there. But there’s a way through there.

One place down at the river, when you get off the river, it’s quite steep going down in and then it levels off a little bit, and there’s a real narrow canyon there, the trail goes through it. There isn’t anyplace else to go only right through that narrow place. It got so narrow that we couldn’t get our packhorses through it, so we’d have to unpack them and lead them through and pack them up on the other side.

Over on the other side is where this ranch was that old ¬¬¬Combs and I went to. We never did get over to the Nutria Mountains. I wanted to go in there and see what kind of country it was so I could take some hunters in there, but about that time, ol’ Des Mangum, decided he’d had enough hunting so he quit hunting, so I didn’t go and look anymore. He was the guy who got the parties in there.

Des advertised in these sports magazines. He’d make arrangements for the hunters and made a deal with Larry Campell over there in Douglas. He had one of these little Cesna Beachcrafts; he’d fly them down to a landing strip there on that mesa just out from Elvino’s place, just between Elvino’s and Mendoza’s. They leveled a place off there and made a landing strip there. He’d fly them into there, and I’d take the packhorses and pack mules and saddle horses and everything over there, and we’d pack out from there.”

“THE WOMEN TREED A LION”

“I was there at the Mendoza’s one afternoon, waiting for them to come in and they told me a story about a Lion that would keep coming down around the house there. He got to chasing the chickens right there in the yard and chasing the pigs and one day when the men were all gone, he came down and started chasing the chickens there in the yard and the women got out there and the dogs got after him and put him up a tree right there in the door-yard. They kept him there all day until the men came home and shot him out.

There was another one, I guess that this was an ol’ she-Lion, she lived around there and she raised a bunch of cubs and they were all used to the place, and they were used to hunting around there. They had a bunch of sheep; I think that was the attraction, the sheep and the pigs, easy to kill. They had the sheep in the corral, and the corral was just outside the house a little ways. They were in there just shooting the bull; they heard one of those sheep kinda grunt, like something was bothering it. They grabbed some flashlights and ran out there and the ol’ Lion had it down, out in the middle of the corral and he hadn’t killed it yet. But when they came there why he jumped over the fence and took off.

The next night he came and killed one and got it over the fence and drug it up on the side of the hill, and ate what he wanted and then buried it. Then they set a trap there and got the Lion. When I came back over there, (after the pack-in) why they had the ol’ Lion hide hanging up there.”

“I HAD A LION BY THE TAIL”

“I waited for those guys (hunters), the plane was supposed to come in and it got in kinda late in the afternoon. We packed out, and boy those guys had all kinds of camp outfit and they wanted to take everything. I really didn’t have enough packhorses to take everything, but they kept insisting so I packed one of the little mares that I had figured on riding and had her extra. She didn’t know how to handle a pack, but they had so much stuff that I loaded it up and I had some bear traps and stuff like that left over, so I packed them on this bay mare. They had a big ol’ electric flashlight and I tied that right on top.

It was so late in the evening that I didn’t want to leave, but they insisted. They wanted to go out someplace and camp, so we headed down that trail towards “Three Rivers”. We got down there quite a ways and it started to get dark and I knew we wouldn’t get to “Three Rivers”. There was no water on the mesa anyplace, so I decided to go off into the “Gavilan” river. There was no trail in there, we just had to pick our way down in there and it was pretty rough. We got down on one of those steep places and there were a lot of big rocks and that little ol’ mare didn’t know how to handle a pack very good, and stumbled and fell. She just went head over appetite down through there and that darned flashlight turned on and you could see that thing a going over and over down that hill. O Boy!, she finally landed up against a rock down there and stopped!

We went down there and I thought “well at least we’ve got some Lion bate”. So we unpacked her, and to get the pack off we had to turn her over and when we turned her over, she stood up! You know, she didn’t have a darn thing broke on her, just a lot of hair knocked off. So I just left the stuff there, I didn’t want to pack her up again, so I just left it laying there. She followed us down into the canyon and we made camp right on the “Gavilan” river.

I took the horses and the ramuda and put them up on the side hill, where there was good grass and there was a trail going up there. Right where the trail came down, there were some little ledges about ten or twelve feet high and we made our camp just a little ways from them. When I made my bed down, I made it right next to these ledges where this trail comes down. And the next morning when I got up and started down that trail there was a great big Lion track! It came down that trail right across the horse’s tracks, and across the ledges right above my head during the night!

We had an old pack animal that we had brought along to sacrifice for the Lion bait. We went up on the ridge, killed him and cut him up and loaded him on a pack mule and I went through the country putting out traps. If you know where to put them, why it’s easy to catch a Lion, because when they’re hunting in a district like that, they’ll come up the canyons and when they pass over into another canyon, they always go through these low passes. So I’d look for these low passes and I’d put traps in them.

I don’t remember how many traps we set out, four or five great big ol’ bear traps. I told them, “Well, we’ll have to wait a couple of days, until the scent kinda gets away, because they’re a little bit leary. They’re kinda like a housecat, they’re dumber than most other animals and easier to catch, but still when there’s a lot of human scent around, they don’t want to go up and mess with your bait”.

We went up and the first trap didn’t have anything in. The next trap, when we got to it, I’d always make a shute like a “V” out of poles, with one end of the poles interlaced, so that there would only be one way into the trap. Then I’d tie back in the back, the meat, good and solid, to the logs, so they’d have to pull on it, to mess around with it, to get anything off, so they couldn’t take it and drag it away. Then I’d set the trap out front so while they were messing with the meat, they’d have to step in the trap. I covered the trap. First I’d take horse manure and grind it up between my hands and let it fall until it filled the trap and then I’d sprinkle leaves and dirt on top of that, so they couldn’t see the trap.

When I got to the second trap, I could see the shute had been torn down, but I couldn’t see anything. There was a big log there, we rode up pretty close to it, and all of a sudden my little sorrel mule got a whiff of that Lion. That Lion stood up about that same time, and boy, my mule took down through the brush. I tell you, I didn’t have any steering wheel; I couldn’t do anything with her! She went down there for a hundred yards before I could get her stopped. Finally I tried to get her to go back up there, nothing do’in, she went about halfway and that’s as far as she’d go. I tied her up, and went back up there. The others were on horses and they didn’t seem to pay much attention to the Lion.

I had two hunters and a guy that helped me with the packs and so they wanted some pictures to take back to their wives to show them how brave they were. So we’d tease the ol’ Lion and Boy! when they lay back their ol’ ears and open their mouths, That’s really a fierce looking thing! We’d take their picture then if you’d really agitate him, he’d make a lunge at you, to try to get at you. The trap was tied to a good- sized pole, good and solid. It was caught way up on the Lion’s front leg, so it wouldn’t be in any danger of pulling loose. I thought it would be pretty safe, while we were messing with him and teasing him.

After they got through doing that, and that wasn’t interesting anymore, they said, “Well, why don’t you get hold of his tail?” “I said, you think I can’t?” “I’ll get a hold of his tail!” So, I told the guy that was with me, I told him to punch the Lion with the 30, 30 barrel and he’d grab that barrel and that guy would pull as hard as he could and he couldn’t pull that 30, 30 loose. He had it just over the sights, you know, and he couldn’t pull it loose. But while he was pulling on him, I told him, now when I get “hold” of that tail you grab the pole, and pull on it so he can’t pull the pole and turn around. He was a-punching him with the rifle and got him all entertained up there, so I grabbed his tail and pulled and he grabbed the pole and the Lion tried to turn around and it’s just like having a big horse on a rope. Boy, they’re strong! I sat on that tail so he couldn’t turn around! Those guys were taking a video of all this, after we got the ol’Lion tired out the hunters wanted to hold his tail, so they did and took some more pictures, holding the tail.

They didn’t want to ruin the hide, they wanted to mount it, so I roped the Lion and choked him so it wouldn’t leave any bullet holes in him or anything. Then they wanted to take a picture “a hold” of the Lion and acting like he was still alive. One had “a hold” of his tail and we had “a hold” of his head; I held it one way, and the hunter had “held the Lions head the other way, on both sides of his head. While he was a messing around there, I reached down and grabbed that ol’ Lions head and shoved it around like it was going to bite him. He thought the danged ol’ Lion had come alive again, and he jumped back, turned loose of that thing, then he saw what I had done, and he says, O don’t take that, don’t take that! (With the camera) He didn’t want his wife to see how really brave he was!

They had a lot of fun. We got two Lions on that trip. Got another great big ol’ Lion. I think it was probably that one that came right down past my bed. He was a big Lion. I bet his track was ever bit as big as my hand!”

“FROM HERMOSILLO BACK TO COLONIA JUAREZ”

1959

The house on the farm at Santa Marta, where the family had been with me during the summer, was a very lonely place for me without my family around. With our home mostly finished and paid for in the latter part of 1959 and the first part of 1960. I left the employ of the Ellsworth’s and got a job working for my wife’s Uncle .S. Brown, helping him with his fruit orchards, farming and cattle operation at Colonia Juarez, so I could be with my family.

I spent the next sixteen years as main flunky and Ranch Forman of the D.S. Brown cattle operation. Uncle D.S. (David Samuel) was a very good boss to work for. He was very good to us. At first I helped with the fruit orchards in Col. Juarez. I gradually became more involved in the Ranch work. He had a home Ranch at Col. Juarez, then he rented some land on the Bosque de Chihuahua on a deal he made with Pat Keenan. He put a couple of three Hundred head of young heifers on the Negro Ranch, west of Chuichuapa in the mountains.

He sent me up there to take care of them while they were going into production. When they were grown, he bought the Nogales Ranch near Berendo on the Mexico U.S. Border. The rancho Nogales had some cattle on it at the time of purchase, we took the cattle from the Negro Ranch and some from the Juarez Ranch to finish stocking up the Nogales Ranch.

The Nogales was a large ranch. At one time we had around 3000 head of cattle on it. At first it was just one big pasture for the cattle and one for the saddle horses. At round up time it was a lot of hard riding to round up the cattle, with long drives to a corral. It had six windmills but mostly dirt tanks to hold the water.

At times we would rope in the Boss’s family and mine to help on the round ups. Even the gals made fair to middl’in ranch hands. I suppose my daughter Vona still remembers the roundup when she drew a sorrel mule as a saddle mount. The morning after the first day of round up, she came into the kitchen for chuck. Aunt Ellis asked her how she was stacking up. She said, “I feel like I have something dragging.”

On that round up she acquired the name of “Esa de la Mula”, the one on the mule. Vonnie, the boss’ daughter was a good sport, and a lot of help on the round up and in the branding corral. To make branding faster, we cut the calves off the cows, into a separate corral. We would throw them down and hold them without tying them, for the branding marking, vaccinating process. One would set on the shoulders, holding back on the front leg and another would spread the back legs by holding to one and bracing a foot against the other while sitting flat on the ground in back of the critter. Vonnie was helping to hold the calves down while we branded them. It was her job to take care of the back legs.

One time she sat down in a nice green, fresh cow pie. As the cowboys sized up the situation they all yelled, “Don’t you move until we get this critter taken care of”! Like a good sport she obediently sat out the process in a nice juicy green cow pie, then she went scooting around the corral on her backside to dry up the paint job.

Uncle D.S. mapped out a plan of improvements and set me to work improving the ranch. We fenced it into smaller pastures, built cement holding tanks with watering troughs inside corrals at each windmill, also with a small holding pasture for caring for animals that needed attention, also a loading chute, at most of the corrals for loading cattle. This made it much easier and handy to care for the cattle. The round ups were much easier. All we had to do was to shut the gates of the corral and wait for the cattle to accumulate, as the water was inside of the corrals. Also the doctoring of the cattle was much easier.

A cowboy watching at the water hole could spot the cattle that needed attention, as they entered the corral for water, he could shut the gate, run the animal into a smaller corral, doctor it and then leave it with a few head in the holding pasture for future attention if it needed more attention.

With the help of a crew of men, I built large cement holding tanks and water troughs inside the corrals also holding pastures at all of the windmills. I also assembled and put up three additional windmills on wells that were drilled at the Venado, the Arenal and Buffalo, including corrals, water troughs and holding pasture.

My brother Darvin and I cleared the brush off and plowed up and leveled large pieces of farmland that Uncle D.S. bought at Fernandez Leal. In the summer time Helen and the family would spend some time with me both at Fernandes Leal and Rancho Nogales. About this time, Uncle D.S. bought a road grader at the Palo Hueco Ranch across the border. I went over and brought it to the Rancho Nogales. I smoothed out all the roads, from the Nogales ranch to Fernando Leal, put in a cement bridge across the Palotado Wash and graded all the streets in the small Pueblito of Fernandez Leal.

Uncle D.S. set up some fattening pens at Fernandez Leal and would ship fat cattle to Cd. Juarez. He eventually put in some fruit trees, but finally sold the farm to the Jones boys of Colonia Dublan.

“HILVEN HURT HIS BACK”

I was on the little Palomino horse and we got off in the Flat, he was from a thoroughbred mare and they’d let him go a little bit too long, for training him. He was a five year old and they’re supposed to break them when they’re three, and they get a little bit ornerier the older they get. They had three cowboys out there, supposed to be good bronc busters, so Uncle D.S. told me, “put them to breaking those colts!” They had several of them. They broke all of them but this one, and they put him in the corral and boy he was a bear. I never saw anything that had such action as that one. Mean!! They were sacking him out, you know to get him used to having the sack thrown on him and kinda gentle him down.

He hit that sack with his front feet and as it went by, he hit it with his back feet and sailed it clean out of the corral. Oh, man he had the action! Finally they gave up on him. They wouldn’t ride him. He’d buck too, every time they’d ride him. Uncle D.S. said, “Well, tell them they’ve got to break him!” So I told them and they quit. They wouldn’t do it.

Ol’ Benjamin Castillo, he was just a little feller, but he was a good bronc-buster, so I turned the darn horse over to him, to see what he could do with him. He rode him a few times and he came back and said, “No, no, I’m not going to ride him, he bucks every time! I told Uncle D. S. and he said, “Aw, if you break him, I’ll give him to you.” I took him on, and sometimes he’d behave pretty good and sometimes he’d get the idea all of a sudden and just come undone. I was riding alone one day, on him, going down to the “Sorio” windmill, just riding along, I had my slicker back of my saddle, he came undone and he bucked and bucked and my hat came off so he stomped on that and caught it in his mouth and bit and pawed it and my slicker came off and he did the same thing with that, so I decided I’d better stay up there on top of him!

He was pounding me bad, he’d learned how to buck and he was just stout enough, that every time that he’d hit, he’d just jar your teeth loose. He kinda loosened me up in the saddle and one time when I was coming down, he was coming up, and I felt something bust. But I stayed with him, I didn’t give up and it ruptured about two or three disks in my back.

But I rode him! That was one time when I turned my quirt around and I started working him over and I knocked him down to his knees. When he got up, I did it again. I straightened him out and I ran him clear across that flat, clear over to the “Revocaldo”, back to the “Sorio”, and that was a long ol’ run. When he got back there he was just staggering, just ready to keel over. I walked him around a little while, and straightened him out, rode him back to the ranch, but he ruined me. That’s why they put me in the hospital in El Paso. Those disks had ruptured. But, you know that son-of-a-gun turned out to be the best little ol’ horse. After that he never bucked again!

After that, I sent him up to the Negro ranch and the cowboys would use him as a saddle horse. He got to be a good roping horse, and there was this guy from down in Quotemoc and he didn’t know how to treat a horse in the mountains. He didn’t know how to judge how much they could take. And this horse was so spirited that you never had to use a quirt or a spur on him, he would just go and go and go, up hill and down hill and that guy rode him one day and put him over those big ol’ high mountains and when he came back and turned him loose he just laid down and died.

Oh, I felt bad about that, those crazy guys! Ol’ Doe Romney did that one time when they went up there, they just don’t know how to judge those horses in the mountains. They get one that’s willing, why they just give them too much!

Calvin: “All heart, they just ride them to death.” Hilven: “They rode them to death.” Calvin: “They don’t know when to quit! That’s why you need to ride a mule.”

Hilven: “Yaw, they need one of those mules, you need a quirt in both hands and spurs on both feet. Ha! Ha!.” Calvin: “Grandpa (Hilven) had a mule, and boy that sucker could just flat out run. I wondered why he wouldn’t let anybody else ride him. One day the cowboys came in with a jag of cows that was go’in everywhere and I run over and jumped on Grandpa’s mule and “zoom” like a “rocket”! That sucker ran like a horse!” Hilven: “It’s a wonder you didn’t get piled! That’s why I didn’t let anybody else ride him.” Calvin: “You didn’t let anybody ride him, because you didn’t want anybody to know how good he was!” Hilven: Yeah, he was a good mule! I had two of them and one of them had a real easy gate, it was one of those running walks. He was trotting with his back feet and walking with his front feet and he could go almost as fast as a horse could gallop. I didn’t let everybody ride that one either. Ha! Ha! Ha!

“I had another one they called Orejas de Oro. Boy, there didn’t anybody want to ride her! Ol’Golden Ears. She had a habit. You couldn’t touch her around the head or the ears, she’d just dodge and knock you down, and if you were riding her along, and you were going under a limb and you happened to put your hand down on her neck, she’d pile you. If you’d put your hand down on her like that, she’d buck. Old Golden Ears!

“I had a little ol’ Blue Mule; he was a good mule too. You could ride him all day and all night and he’s still go’in. But you take your saddle off, and get on him after you’d ridden him, he’d pile you! Klint found that out. Klint climbed on him, and that ol’ mule gave a big ol’ bray and opened up his mouth about that wide and sent Klint over his head. I was just going into the door and I heard that ol’ mule give a squall and I looked around and Klint was up by his ears and the next time he went right over his head. That was at the Colorado.

(Hilven to LaVerne) That sorrel I had, had a bad habit too, he’d hang back and I guess you found that out, you pulled on him and he whirled an whirled and broke your tail bone. It was alright if you didn’t pull on him, if you could get him to lead without pulling on him, he was alright. When you pulled on him, he’d pull back.”

“HILVEN AND KLINT AT THE NEGRO’S COLORADO RANCH”

This Colorado ranch was away from all the traffic around there and there was quite a lot of turkey and deer; we liked to go over there every once in awhile. In fact we had to go over there and check on the place, and check on the cattle. We had the cattle over the mountain, but sometimes they would get on over in here, the fence wasn’t too good between the places. Klint and I were up there one time.

We were at the ranch house there and I went in to get supper. I told Klint to take the mules; he’d been riding a big blue mule that we had. I told him to take the mules and put them up on the side hill where the grass was better. I started in the house and was standing in the door looking in and I heard a big beller out of that mule and I looked around and Klint was just a sailing over that ol’mules’ head. That mule had his mouth open just about this big. I forgot to tell Klint that he couldn’t ride that mule bareback. So he pulled the saddle and runs and jumps on him bare back and the ol’ mule unloaded him.

The next day we went riding up the canyon. ol’ Klint always liked to fish, every chance he got why he had a fishing line ready and went down to the creek to fish. After we’d ridden all day we were headed back down to the ranch house, Klint was coming along behind me. I wasn’t paying much attention to what he was doing but while he was riding along why he fixed his fishing hook and line and when he crossed the creek he threw the hook over next to the bank and I heard him holler and I looked around and he was just jerking a big ol’ fish out of the water. He got that fish while he was crossing the creek on the mule.

The next day I went up in the pasture to look for the horses to bring them down. It had been raining and kinda drizzling during the night and it was kinda still drizzling and dark. When I got up in the pasture, I had a slicker over my head and I was going up a trail with the slicker over my head, and I followed the trail along. I threw the slicker back over my head to take a look up to see if I could look around and there was a big ol Buck look-in’ right at me! He was wondering what that funny animal was that was coming up the trail. He wasn’t scared he was just standing there looking, and when I threw that slicker back and looked at him, we was eye to eye. I don’t know who was the most scared him or me. HA! HA!.

“THE NEGRO RANCH”

As a bonus, in appreciation for my hard work and the goodness of a great big loving heart, Uncle D.S. gave me a hundred head of young heifers at $50.00 dollars per head and a right to the lease on the Negro Ranch when he moved his cattle out of the mountains. (Hilven paid Uncle D.S. for the improvements on the Negro i.e.: Wire, corrals, and what other improvements he’d made. The Bosque would not give Uncle D. S. credit for these improvements, when he moved his cattle out of the mountains.)

I hired a cowboy to take care of my cattle and continued to lease the Negro Ranch, but continued to work for Uncle D.S. on the Rancho Nogales.

My family and I, especially the boys, Calvin (my son-in-law) and LaVerne liked to spend some time at the Negro Ranch whenever we had an opportunity. It was beautiful mountain country, with good fishing and hunting. It was here that Klint got his first turkey gobbler. I called the gobbler up to us and Klint shot him. He was a proud hunter that day!

The Pumas and mountain Lion would occasionally kill a calf, although they preferred the white tailed deer that were rather plentiful. One day the cowboy found where a Lion had killed a deer and covered it up in a secluded spot in a little cave on a steep side hill. He went to the ranch and waited till late in the afternoon, then returned with his rifle and set up a surveillance of the Lions cache. He waited quietly in a secluded spot until the evening shadows began to lengthen out along the side hill.

Suddenly he heard a small pebble roll. He tensed and became very alert for any sign or movement. Suddenly, as if by magic a Lion appeared at the side of the cache and began to carefully uncover his evening meal. With a dead aim to the heart the cowboy laid him low. He went rolling and flouncing to the bottom of the little cove and lay still.

The cowboy sat still in his secluded spot to make sure there would be no further movement from the Lion. Suddenly and as if by magic another Lion stood in the place recently occupied by his mate. With deadly aim the cowboy sent him to accompany the one still form of his mate at the bottom of the canyon.

These Mexican cowboys are fond of Lion meat. With the help of his boy the meat was cut into thin strips, dried in the sun with a sprinkling of salt and stored away for the winter’s provisions.

The deer and turkey were plentiful; also the lions and wolves were a problem. The Mexican government turned the land of “The Bosques de Chihuahua” into an Agrarian Ejido and I was compelled to move off the land.

Uncle D.S. loaned me a pasture on the Nogales Ranch to put my cattle on until I was able to find a place to lease. We drove the cattle over-land from the Negro Ranch to the Nogales Ranch and put them in the pasture at the Arenal windmill. After a season on the Nogales I was able to lease a place over in the “Espuela” Mountains and moved my cattle over there. This was a bad move. The place was a jumble of cliffs and had broken up canyons without sufficient water and had feed but plenty of lions and bear. The first season we never saved one calf. The next season we moved out and leased a place in Mata Ortiz on the Ejido. This turned out to be as bad or worse. I leased a place in the mountains from the Villa family and moved my cattle back into the mountains.

The next few years were one move after another, one lease after another, mostly from bad to worse, because of a leasing situation and moving around so much. The cattle didn’t do well. I lost a lot of cattle to thieves because of not being able to be with the cattle and depending on hired labor. Finally I quit working for Uncle D.S. and moved to Pacheco where I bought a small place that wasn’t large enough to accommodate all of the cattle.

“BENJAMIN AND THE BOBCAT”

We had a string of cowboys and we had to go clear over on the other side of the (Nogales) ranch so we could start gathering the cattle on the far side of the ranch and bring them back to the dipping vat at the central corral. And ol’ Benjamin was riding a little ol’ bronc, he hadn’t been ridden very much, he jumped a Bobcat, the Bobcat took off and ran into one of these patches of Cat-Claw. The cowboys circled around it so he couldn’t get out, and Benjamin rode his little ol’ horse up there, looking down trying to find the Bob-Cat in the brush and the ol’ horse wouldn’t mind him very good and he got up and got too close into the brush and the cat reached up and went “Kiiiirrowww” and grabbed that horse and that ol’ horse threw ol’ Benjamin right out in the Cat-Claw bramble and unloaded him right out where that cat was. Ha! Ha! Ha!

“I ASKED HEAVENLY FATHER WHAT HE WANTED ME TO DO"

“I’d worked so much out on the ranch and away from the family so much that I really hadn’t had an opportunity to get real acquainted with the kids only when they went out to the ranch in the summertime and I was away so much of the time that they didn’t give me a job in the church either, I guess they could have done, because I was always at church, but it seemed like they didn’t.

I kinda felt like I hadn’t participated as much I ought to in the church, and I like to do something, so out on the ranch one night before I went to bed (I’d been thinking it over for quite awhile), I’d decided to tell the Lord that I was ready to do whatever he wanted me to do and go wherever he wanted me to go. And so I told him that night and I got a strong impression that I was supposed to go to Pacheco, and I didn’t know why, I didn’t know what there was in Pacheco for me, but it wouldn’t go away. I thought about it for several days and it went on for weeks and it just kept coming back to me. Finally I told my boss, Uncle D.S. that I felt like I needed to go to Pacheco and he kinda passed it off kinda light. He said, “Ah, if you go up there they’ll kill you.” “I said, well I don’t know about that”. But I felt that I ought to go, so after while I quit my job and went to Pacheco. I didn’t know why, nor anything about what I was supposed to do up there but the impression stayed with me.

On the way up there, by “Poverty Flat” I ran into my brother, Darvin and and his wife Alicia. They were coming down to get a load of wood on their pickup; we stopped and started to talk. Darvin said “I hear you’re figuring on going up to Pacheco to live”. I said “Yes, I’ve been thinking about it pretty strong, and he said, “Would you like to buy a pasture?” I said, “Well, I’ll need one if I’m going up there”. He said, “Alicia and I were going to go up there, so I bought my Dad’s old pasture and you can have it if you want it. I’ll trade it to you”. I says “OK”. Then he said, “You want thirty head of heifers to go with it? There’s already thirty head of heifers on it”. I said “Yea, I’ll take the heifers too”.

I’d just sold some cattle so I had some money, so I gave him a down payment on it right there. So I went on up Pacheco, and went up into town. I ran into Mel Anderson, and we got to talking and he said the same thing. He said “I heard you were going to come to Pacheco?” I said, “Yeah, I’ve been thinking about it”. He said, “Do you want a house”? I told him, “Well If I was coming to Pacheco I would need a house”. He said, Well I’ll sell you your father-in-laws old house”. (Charley Whetten’s old place) I said, “Oh that would be fine, I’d like that!”

He said “If you need a farm to go with it, I’ll sell you his old farm too”. So we made a deal on the house and the farm. I hadn’t been in Pacheco one day and I was fixed up ready to go to work. I know it wasn’t my doing. That kinda convinced me that the Lord wanted me there, so I started fixing up the old house that had been torn down a little bit. They’d taken some lumber out of it and while I was fixing on it I got sick and was unable to work.

I was just laying there one morning, hadn’t even got out of bed and some good neighbors came to my rescue, Concho and Efrina Soto came down to see me and ask me what was the matter? I told him, “Oh I was kind of under the weather.” Concho said: “Oh I’ll go get you a shot.” So he went and got his old dull needle and gave me a shot and got me back on my feet again. They were surely good neighbors!

At that time they didn’t even have a branch (The Church of JESUS CHRIST of latter-day Saints) there. They had a presiding Elder come and they had meetings once in a while. Most of the people had moved away. There were just a few members there.”

I sold off the extra cattle and changed my operation to suit the smaller acreage, which was part farmland and part pastureland. I bought some dairy cows, planted some of the best farmland into permanent pasture for the dairy herd, and settled down to a small dairy, farming and ranching operation.

At this time most of the family had grown up and gotten ready to fly the coop. Becky and Ivelen were still in the Academy and Rodney and Derril were on missions in Mexico. Rodney was in Mexico City and Derril was in Veracruz. LaVerne had married Calvin Price and they were living in Phoenix, Arizona. Klint had married Sylvia Whiting and was living in Snowflake, Arizona; also Vona (had married Kelly Vining) and Charleen had married (Kiko Bowman) and so we had just two little chicks, Ivelen and Becky, at home. Then Ivelen graduated and there was just one little chick, Becky at home.

“COLONIA PACHECO, OUR HOME AGAIN”

1976 – 1988

(Hilven) “I had gone to Pacheco and was trying to hold down the place by myself and fix it up a little bit then Helen came to keep me company and Becky stayed at Aunt Berthas. This was hard on Becky and Helen both, wanting to do the impossible and be at both places at the same time. Our Pacheco days were both happy and sad. I wanted to be in the mountains with my work and the cattle and Helen longed to be with the children.

When I was called to be Branch President of the Pacheco Branch, Helen served as Branch Relief Society President. We spent the next twelve years in Pacheco working at farming and ranching, trying to build up the Pacheco Branch. We had our ups and downs. We did not accomplish all we would have liked to do, but we hope we did some little good.

We worked hard to visit and encourage all of the members who belonged to our Branch. We were assigned to be responsible for all of the members in this mountain region and we tried to visit them periodically. We had members in Pacheco, Stevens Ranch, Williams Ranch (Ejido Zaregoza), (El Oro,), El Gavilan and Hop Valley (Ejido Hernandez). We would make the rounds and visit them periodically. It covered a territory roughly of fifty square miles of rough mountain roads and trails. Sometimes we went in the pickup; sometimes on horseback.”

“THE GOSPEL CHARIOT”

Hilven called to be Branch President

(LaVerne) “If the times overlap or are out of sequence, it’s because Dad wrote the same incident in different journals. I tried to leave it as written, because different insights are given of each incident in each writing.”

(Hilven) “Howard Schmidt was the Bishop of the Juarez Ward and the Pacheco organization had been under his care for quite a while. While we were still living in Colonia Juarez, they fitted Mom and I up with an old truck and we would go up there nearly every Sunday to make a trip around through William’s Ranch and back to Pacheco and we would hold two meetings and then go back to Juarez. We called that old pickup “the Gospel Chariot” and it ran more on faith than anything else. So we knew all of these people and they knew us. We had been working with them for quite a while.”

“When Howard and his counselors came up there, they called me outside and we went out by that big old oak tree in front of the house and he said: “We want to call you as the Branch President.” He said: “We want you to know that this is by inspiration.” So I was called as the Branch President and I spent close to 12 years as the Branch President.”

(Helen) “In Feb. 1974, when Rebecca and Ivelen were in high school, Hilven wanted to return to Colonia Pacheco and live. So we did and he bought fields on either side of the home, fields that both our fathers had owned at different times. He planted permanent grass “Alta Fesque” and “Clover”, and got dairy cows and we made cheese and butter and raised a garden. All of our children and grandchildren loved to come to Colonia Pacheco during school vacations and enjoy the mountain air and delicious drinking water from our well by the house and trekking around in the mountains. We enjoyed great family reunions there.”

“Hilven was put in as Branch President of the Pacheco Branch and I was set apart as Relief Society President and served for 14 years, also as Branch pianist and Primary teacher.”

“Hilven was ordained an Elder by Claudius Bowman and ordained a Seventy by Milton R. Hunter. He was ordained a High-Priest by Joel De La Cruz.”

“PACHECO INDEPENDENT BRANCH”

1976-1988

Later on the Branch was made an independent branch under the direction of the Juarez Stake Presidency and they put us in charge of all of the members in all of the mountain country all around Pacheco. We had members in Cave Valley, in William’s Ranch, in the Oro, down on the Gavilan, and over at Hop Valley. Mom and I would go and visit them periodically and try to encourage them. Most of them were so far away that they couldn’t come to church. They didn’t have any transportation so they couldn’t get to church. So we decided to take the church to them!

Through the Stake we ordered some Primary manuals, some Relief Society manuals, and things for the Young Women and Young Men’s Program and we would go to the families that had these young men or young women or the Primary kids in their families and we would give them these manuals and instruct them how to carry on the program. Then we told them that we would come around periodically and receive their reports. They could report and we would put it on the record as them having participated so they did that. They changed their attitude right away. They were enthused about it and the kids were enthused about it and they would give us our reports and we would report it on our records that they had participated. Then they started paying their tithing and their fast offerings.

“THE ORO/WILLIAMS RANCH”

Over on the Oro there were only two families—one family and part of another family. They were so enthused that they started holding a little Sunday school. They had a little Sunday school class. They didn’t have any priesthood so we didn’t authorize them to have Sacrament Meeting, but they could hold a Sunday school class and they did. Soon they had more nonmembers attending than they had members. They liked that!

A man we called “Tocho” married one of the Gonzales girls and he worked for the sawmill over there on the Oro. When they left there they went down to Casas Grandes where the ward was organized. They had been participating, they had been reading the scriptures and paying their tithing and fast offerings. They were enthusiastic about the gospel and they went right to work down there. It wasn’t very long until he was called to be a Bishop and she went into the Relief Society Presidency. Another man from Williams Ranch was also called to be a Bishop and he ended up being the Stake Patriarch.

“THE GAVILAN”

We visited Elvin Whetten’s family on the Gavilan and we held Sacrament services with them. We got them to reading the scriptures and the girls would give the lessons to their mother and vice versa. They were participating just like they were going to church and they felt good about it. When they went to Juarez they went right in with the ward and felt at home. Sometimes we had to ride horse back when the roads were muddy, but we felt that our efforts were well paid for. I think that they enjoyed it because they went right into the church activities.

By working hard and encouraging the members, our activities, Sacrament attendance, fast offerings and tithing reports and number of membership, qualified us for the building of a chapel. The Church built a small, beautiful chapel, enclosed in a nice wire mesh fence, with a basketball court and a small light plant in back. It had a heating unit, a baptismal font, a main hall that could be divided into classrooms, ladies and gent’s bathrooms, a kitchen and office, an electric organ and a piano. The members were very happy with their beautiful little chapel. We planted a lawn and some ornamental trees and shrubs.

During this period, we helped the town put in a town water system with running water in the homes and chapel. We brought the water from a spring up “Water Canyon”. We built a (pila), or water holding tank at the upper part of town and piped the water down the two main streets and to the chapel. I dug most of the trenches with my tractor with a ripper and an improvised trenching devise I built myself out of old scrap iron and a piece of a grader or bulldozer blade. It worked really well!

We bought a little apple orchard of about a hundred trees in the upper part of town. We surely enjoyed having apples to bottle, to dry, to sell and give away. We acquired a little more farm and pasture land to where we could run forty or fifty head of dairy and beef cattle. It was a small place but a very good place. It was well cared for and became the envy of the neighborhood, so much so that our Agrarian neighbors cooked up a crooked scheme with the help of some crooked politicians, to take it away from us.

“PROMTINGS OF THE HOLY GHOST”

OR

“THE STILL SMALL VOICE”

I was riding my horse “Bolly” and had gone over to the pasture to get my mule. I was going down the fence line. I found the mule, and something told me, “You’d better not go after the mule, because you’ll get knocked off when you go through that brush and get hurt!” I was just like you, I started to argue that I had done this many times and I would be careful. So I went on and got down there where the mule was and it told me again, “Don’t chase that mule!” And I thought I’d just ease right through the corner there.

I got the rope ready and rode the horse to the corner and got where I thought the corner was and the gate was open and she went out. Then she headed back on a hard run towards the mare, so I thought I’d better stop her right there before she got too far. The mule got off to one side a little bit and I tried to follow her in this direction to head her off. When I was watching the mule off to the side, I didn’t see what was coming ahead of me. When I looked back, there was a big limb in the road directly ahead. It hit me right in the chest. I fell off my horse, and landed on a rock and broke two ribs.

I thought I was dead for a while. I couldn’t get up and I couldn’t breathe. “Bolly” (my horse) ran off a little ways and stopped. After I lay there a while, I figured I wasn’t going to die, but I didn’t know if I could move or not so I tried to move, tried to turn over. Each time I did, something would hit me so hard that I just stayed there awhile.

Pretty soon I thought, “Nobody knows where I am, so I’d better do something to get home.” So I just gritted my teeth and started to move, to crawl to my horse. He would snort and back off, so I realized I had to stand up in order to get to him. So I stood up and went over there. I didn’t know if I could walk home after breaking my ribs. Every move I made was just like shoving a knife through me. I got on “Bolly” and started down towards home. After that I found I couldn’t lie down, it felt like I would choke, so I sat up to the table for about three weeks.

If I had obeyed, why I wouldn’t have had to suffer! But the Lord lets us do what we want. He lets us disobey and go ahead and suffer. I know that when I landed on that rock, I hit it where my left kidney is and I probably wouldn’t have to be on Dialysis now. I learned a pretty good lesson that time. They say that the third time is the charm, if you don’t learn the first and second time, why you better learn the third time!

“TROUBLE WITH THE AGRARIANS”

(Helen) “In 1987 the Ejido invaded our fields. Actually three Ejidos combined efforts to take our land. We found for our land, until our funds were exhausted. We then sold our land and home to the Mafia. So May of 1988 we left everything and went to Charleen’s home in Dublan where we waited for Calvin and LaVerne to come get us and take us to their home in Laveen, Arizona.”

(Hilven) We were having trouble with the Agrarians trying to take our land. We spent a lot of time and money in the courts and out of the courts. Finally the case came to a trial and we won the case. It was decided in our favor and we got the judge’s decision on it and he wrote it out and we had a copy of it, but the Agrarians also had a bunch of false papers so it didn’t make any difference. We couldn’t get them off of our lands and they were still threatening us.

While I was in the Branch Presidency even though I didn’t feel very capable I could feel that the Lord was helping me and telling me what to do so I did what he asked me to do and we had success. A lot of times when the Stake Presidency came up they would give me instructions that they had received about what we were supposed to be doing and I told him “Yes, I know. I have already been doing it”. So if we will listen, the Lord tells us what we need to know!

The same thing happened in the mission field. We would get impressions about what to do and we would do it and we found out later that that was the best thing we could have done to help the people.

The next few years were sad, dangerous and exciting, just like a novel out of a Wild West magazine. Maybe I will write it down someday. We made a good fight, politically and otherwise for the next two years. Finally things got so bad, we were broke financially. They had us invaded, put their cattle in our pastures and fields that were planted and had torn down our fences. Finally we received a very strong impression to get out. I knew very well what it meant when I got that feeling!

Well it finally got so bad with the Agrarians threatening to kill Mom and I. They had stolen all of our guns, or they thought they had. They thought they had us so we couldn’t even defend ourselves and they were some of those bad guys on the Ejido. They were planting drugs on the Ejido and some of these guys were using drugs.

One day a guy came to me and told me that they planned to kill us. I didn’t know hardly what to do. Mom and I had been doing all we could up there and we felt like the Lord would protect us so we hadn’t paid much attention to it until that fellow told me that, and then I got a strong impression to leave. About one day after that I got a real strong impression that we better get out! Some of these boys had already killed some girls. I was really uneasy about it. I got the impression I’d better get out!

They had been stashing marijuana on Mel Anderson’s place and hauling it in by the truck loads and dumping it on Chato Bluth’s place and so these guys decided that rather than to be incriminated they would rather get out. So Chato sold out. He sold his place over at Corrales and Mel Anderson was thinking of doing the same thing. In fact he had seen a buyer and made arrangements to sell his place.

I went over to talk to him and he told me that he had made arrangements with this guy to buy and he asked me why I didn’t go and see him. So I went to Casas Grandes and talked to him and he said yes he would buy the place. He gave me a price that wasn’t very encouraging.

He said; I’ll give you so much, just like she sits, take it or leave it. Don’t take anything, but your personal items and I want it turned over to my men by tomorrow evening. We left it just like she sat. Houses, barns, cattle, horses, farm, tractors, truck, household furnishings, dishes, beds, piano even pictures on the walls and spreads on the beds, even the dog and cat!

I would only be getting just what my cattle were worth out of the place and the rest of it I would just be giving it away, but the impression was so strong that we decided from one day to the next to get out. We just loaded up our personal effects and before we got through he was there with his man to receive the place. So we just took what we could take. We left the bedding on the beds and the pictures hanging on the walls and the books in the bookcases and everything just like it was. We just took our personal things, our clothing, and a few odds and ends of tools and that was it!

The spirit said move, so we moved, right now. I mean, from one day to the next. We got up and pulled out. I made a deal with a guy to take my place, at a give away price. We just picked up and turned our backs on everything we had spent years of our life acquiring, improving and building, because the spirit said now is the time to move out. So we did. I have since had the confirmation that our being obedient to this prompting is the reason we are still around!

The fellow we turned our place over too, had a big gun and could operate in a more persuasive way than I could. I had the legal valid titles on the land. The agrarian deal was crooked from the word go! This fellow just told them to get off or else, and they got off!

Helen and I were never of a fighting disposition, although we could put up a good fight in defense of what was right, if we had an even chance. We never had a sense of fear during the whole episode but we were terribly out-numbered. We decided working for the Lord was a more profitable and satisfying way of spending our life than fighting our neighbors, so we volunteered to go on a mission for the church.

We didn’t have a place to go. We went down to Charleen’s and Kiko’s in Dublan and we stayed there for a few days and called Calvin and LaVerne and they came and took us home to their place in Laveen Arizona. (Calvin took Dad and Mom to our Credit Union and opened an account in their names and deposited their money in their account, putting Kelly Vining, Derril Cluff and LaVerne Price’s names on their account also. We took Dad to get a hearing aid made for his ear and some batteries for it, also some glasses and clothes, and a watch for each of them.

“THE LORD HELPED US GO ON A MISSION”

1988

(From a tape)

(Hilven) “President Keith Bowman said: “Why don’t you guys go on a mission”? I told him I don’t have anything to go with and what little bit I have wouldn’t last us very long. He said: “Oh, we can probably get you some help.” Erma and Rey Whetten found out that we wanted to go so they helped us a little bit and Vonnie & Kelly Whetten helped us. So we sent in our papers and we were sent to the Mexico City Visitors Center. We went down there and spent a good year and a half almost. They had a mix up on our entry date so we were cut short about a couple of months. They had plans for someone to come in and take our place before we should have been ready to go, but we enjoyed it and we had a lot of wonderful experiences!”

“CALLED TO SERVE IN THE MEXICO CITY VISITORS CENTER”

(Taken from Hilven’s Journal)

August 24, 1988

“Mom and I were called on a mission to serve in the Mexico City Visitors Center of the Mexico City Temple. We feel humble and grateful for the privilege to serve as guides and hope we will be able to learn the script and have the spirit of the Lord with us to help those who visit to feel the sacredness of the place and the importance of learning about Heavenly Fathers’ plan for all his children to be able to make the progress necessary while in this life that we will be able to merit the blessings by being faithful, keeping the commandments, receiving the saving ordinances, so we can return with our families, to live with Heavenly Father in the highest glory and continue to progress forever.

Kelly and Vona and Charleen and Kieth LaRae accompanied us in Kelly’s van to Chihuahua City and put us aboard flight 223 on the Jet Plane “Aeromexico” for Mexico City. We stopped at Monterey for thirty minutes, then continued on to Mexico City International Airport, where we were met by President and Sister Ynostroza, President of the Mexico City Visitors Center. They are a sweet congenial, Spanish American couple from California. We loved them at first sight!

They helped us get settled in a room in the dormitory #1, room 101. We probably will be able to get an apartment when we get through with our two-week missionary training course under Pres. Carl Fenn.

Aug. 25, 1988. We have been in training, with a group of 90 or 91 missionaries for the last few days, even more since we arrived in fact. We have to be on the run most of the time to keep up with them. It’s wonderful to see such a fine lot of native Mexican missionaries enthusiastically preparing to serve the Lord and their fellowmen. It looks like about a third of them are lady missionaries. I never saw a finer group of young people in my life. I have learned to appreciate and love them very much. I am seeing the scriptures fulfilled right before my eyes. “And they shall become a white and delightsome people” and they surely are just that.

We were privileged to go through the Mexico City Temple yesterday for the first time. We were asked to be the couple at the altar. We went through with the missionary group. What a wonderful sight to see such a special group of lovely young missionaries in the House of the Lord!

President Carl Fenn told us today that our study course would be over this next Monday and we could move to our apartment and report to President Ynostroza at the Visitors Center.

Sept. 12, 1988. We moved out of the dormitory into our apartment. Erenstine and Walter Walser, who are here working in the Temple, took us to the street market to get some vegetables and groceries, then took us to a large shopping mall called “El Gigante” where we bought the rest of the things we needed to start keeping house again. While at the dorms, we ate our meals at the common kitchen with the rest of the missionaries.

We worked this past week in the Visitors Center with Pres. Ynostroza and his lovely wife and a half a dozen lovely lady missionaries. They are the flowers of Mexico. We have tried to learn the script to conduct the tours through the Visitors Center. Many people come each day to go through the Center. Helen and I have each had the opportunity of conducting tours through the Visitors Center. It is really quite a new and thrilling experience. It is very impressive, especially for people who do not understand the plan of Salvation our Father in Heaven has for his children.

Oct. 2, 1988. We have been here in Mexico City a little over a month now. We are beginning to feel a little more comfortable in our work now, however nearly every day brings new and interesting experience. I never have considered myself as an extrovert, or an outgoing person who mingles easily with other people. I love the Lord and I love His work and I Love the Lamanite people, but it has required a great deal of conscious effort on my part to welcome and teach and mingle with three or four hundred people everyday for eight or nine hours, quite a change for a half wild mountain boy! Thank goodness it’s getting easier. If it wasn’t for my testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel and my desire to help our Heavenly Fathers’ children learn of our Fathers’ plan for us, I am sure it would be much harder for me to do this kind of work.

Knowing what I know, I consider it a great privilege and blessing to be able to contribute my little bit to help our Fathers’ work progress in this great dispensation of the Fullness of Time. We are living in a great period of time when I am sure we will see great things happen to hasten this great work along. I hope I can be a contributing factor.

Yesterday President and Sister Ynostroza had other business to attend to, so they left the operation of the Visitors Center entirely up to Helen and I. We had a busy but very satisfying day in which 418 people went through the Visitors Center.

Today was fast Sunday, the first Sunday of Oct. 1988; we attended Sacrament Services at the Zoram Ward. They didn’t have anyone to play the piano so Mom offered to play for them. She also played last Sunday; she probably got herself a permanent job. We enjoyed the service very much. They are a sweet, humble people with a great spirit and strong testimonies. 284 people went through the Visitors Center today.

We met a very interesting couple today, Engrique Ruiz Salas and his wife, Maria Espenoza Villalobos. He is the Stake President of the Chapultepec Stake. He served part of this mission with our son Klint as a companion. His wife is from Chihuahua. She served her mission in Mexico City. She remembers our son Rodney as he served in the Mexico City Mission at the same time. We had an enjoyable visit with them. They are wonderful people and they knew a number of our dear friends from the Mormon Colonies in Chihuahua.

Jessie Judd was a counselor to President Ruiz until he was called as a mission president to Spain. We also met another interesting person the other day, I have forgotten his name, yes I do remember, his name is Ajai Anand. He has lived in India and probably is of that race of people but he talks very good English and Spanish. He is a branch president in the mission where John J. Whetten and his wife Louise are serving. I mentioned that my wife was Helen Whetten Cluff. He pulled out his recommend for the Temple and said, do you know this Whetten? It was John J. Whetten. I said that is my wife’s cousin. I suppose the world is not so big after all, if you are in the service of the Lord.

“Three of our grandsons served missions while we were serving ours, Demar Bowman, Derek Bowman and Paul Price.”

Nov. 18, 1988

The visitor center is open and ready for work again. The technicians from Salt Lake put in some new projectors and made several changes, which I’m sorry to say didn’t improve things very much. In fact, it made things worse in some respects. Before the changes we were able to send out a guided tour every 20 minutes, after the changes we were only able to send a tour at 18 and 47 minute intervals, which makes the waiting period too long for people who come with limited time to spend in the Visitors center. The technicians were supposed to return sometime in Dec. or Jan. to finish the installations. Maybe when they come they can make some corrections or changes to make it better.

We have more or less settled into the routine at the Visitors center. We work from 9:30 in the morning until 7:30 or 8:00 in the evening, every day of the week except Monday, which is preparation day. It gives us a chance to wash clothes and buy groceries etc. and get ready for another week.

Dec 31, 1988.

The month has gone rather rapidly. Work in the visitor’s center some days, are rather slow, other days are rather busy, almost hectic. Saturday and Sunday are the busiest days of the week. Sometimes we have choirs as singing groups, come from different wards or stakes to sing for a couple of hours in the evening, mostly on Sundays. The singing groups seem to attract quite a lot of attention. The attendance at the center increased considerably, although a high percentage of the increases are members of the church. However some of them bring investigators.

During the Christmas Holidays the Temple-grounds and Visitors Center was lighted up with tiny Christmas lights on the trees and shrubbery for the first time, also a Nativity Scene was installed on the front lawn between the Temple and Visitors Center which attracted quite a lot of attention.

I would like to see an organized plan implemented in the Stakes to encourage the members of the different Stakes to bring their fellowshipped investigators through the center on a planned rotational basis and plan to have the missionaries teach them shortly after their visit to the center. I believe if this could be encouraged and worked out in the Stakes we would have a consistently higher number of visitors at the center, a higher number of baptisms and a lower rate loss of new members into inactivity, because they would be fellowshipped by members of the wards and Stakes where they live, come to the Visitors Center with the members who are fellowshipping them, receive the extra boost they need for conversion and then go into the wards and Stakes where they will be better known and better fellowshipped and put to work and encouraged to go to the Temple, which will give a lower rate of loss into inactivity.

Feb. 3, 1989

We had a special group visit us at the Visitors Center today. About a month ago a young fellow came into the center and while I was talking to him he said that he wasn’t a member of our Church, but he had the opportunity of visiting the Temple and going through it before it was dedicated and he had come away with a good feeling and had been favorably impressed. He said he was a member of the Catholic Seminary group and being as they were studying about different religions in Mexico; they would like to pay us a visit as a group of 60 Seminary students and take the tour through the Visitors Center. Of course, I told them they would be very welcome any time they would like to come. We set the date for Feb. 3, at 4:00 o’clock.

The Seminary group arrived at about 4:10 this afternoon, and we were all excited and glad to welcome them. They were a very fine looking group of young men. All young men, except for the two Priests as Instructors and three lady Instructors were Nuns. I couldn’t tell just what they were, but it was a very fine impressive group of young Seminary students of the Catholic Church.

It happened to be my turn to conduct the tour so I had the privilege of accompanying this fine group of Seminary Students. During the tour they conducted themselves very well and were polite and apparently reverent. It was very interesting to see their reactions, to the different teaching as they went through the tour. Their facial expressions seemed to say, Well I didn’t know that was the case, I don’t know whether I agree with that or not, but it sounds pretty good to me. I watched the facial expressions of the teachers also. They seemed to say “Wow!! What are we exposing these students too! It sounds pretty convincing. I hope we are not giving the students something that will be bad for them. Then they would look like, that sounds pretty far fetched and then their expressions would change to; that sounds really good, can that really be true?

Anyway I really enjoyed looking at the different facial expressions, and imagining what they were thinking. They seemed generally very favorably impressed. The teachings they were receiving were not entirely in accord with what they believed and had been taught. I got the feeling that they were very favorably impressed.

As I gave the instructions in the Temple room, I amplified or added a few interesting details about Solomon’s Temple and the baptismal font and the construction of the Salt Lake Temple, which they seemed to appreciate, as I heard at times a few favorable comments or exclamations, especially when I said that the Salt Lake Temple was one of the first Temples the Mormons had built in these the Latter-days in obedience to the Lord’s instructions to his prophets.

It was constructed of Granite Stone shaped to measurement, the material of which had been hauled from a considerable distance by the pioneers in the days of their poverty; hauled on wagon drawn by oxen, the building of which took about 40 years. When I said this last, I heard several say, “Mire!!! No Mas!!! They seemed very much impressed at the showing of the interior and functions of the Mexico City Temple and the film of Christ in America.

At the end of the film, I expressed our appreciation for their visit and invited them to return anytime they desired and that they were welcome to return and bring their friends or relatives if they so desired. I again thanked them for their visit and then invited them to see an additional film if they so desired. I said we regret that we are not able to accommodate you as a whole group in one room but we had two smaller theater rooms where we could divide the group in two parts.

They accepted the invitation and we put them in the two theater rooms and showed them “Our Heavenly Father’s Plan”. At the end of the film we invited them to assemble in the reception room in front of the statue of Christ, as the President of the Visitors Center desired to express his appreciation for their visit. I ran up quickly and told President Ynostroza what I had told them so he would be ready. We were already more or less in agreement what we were going to do.

We decided to give them two pamphlet tracts, “Quienes son los Mormones: and “Que Piensan los Mormones de Cristo”. We added a number of the Liahonas from the store of Liahonas that have been left over from different publications.

President Ynostroza expressed his appreciation for their visit to the Center, that we considered them as our brothers and sisters and hoped we had given them something of value. As they filed out, the Sister missionaries passed the literature to them and shook hands with everyone as they filed by. They seemed very pleased and satisfied with their visit. One of the Sister instructors of the group asked me, as she shook my hand in parting, how do you pay for all of this? Are there some rich people in the United States who pay for this? I said, “no Hermana, the members of the church pay their tithing to the Lord, and as this is the Lord’s work, he takes the expenses out of the tithing fund.”

We were happy for their visit. We hope that with the help of the Lord, we have planted some good seeds.

Aug. 15, 1989

Time marches onward. If we are not alert we can get left behind. Our work in the Visitors Center, here in Mexico City, is much the same from day to day. Usually the first part of the week we have less visitors than at the latter part of the week. Sometimes there are exceptions and we will get an excursion from somewhere in Mexico, where a large group will come to the Temple and some times they will also bring investigators. From time to time we will get groups who come as religious study groups or school children from different schools or groups of government employees from different delegations from within the city. I am continually amazed at the number of people who come looking for something which is lacking in their lives. I have the feeling that the Lord is directing large numbers of spiritually sincere people, to come where they can find the truth and the plan of Salvation, provided for all our Heavenly Father’s children who are willing to be taught.

Many, many people, comment on the sweet, peaceful, calm feeling they have during their visit to the Center, which to me, indicates they are being receptive to the spirit of the Lord.

Before we left the Visitors Center in Mexico City, I got a letter from President Bowman and he said the guys that were going to kill you have killed each other! I also got the confirmation that if we had not heeded the promptings that we received and got out of Pacheco that we would never have lived to fulfill our missions. So when you tell the Lord you are ready to work and want to go where He wants you to go and do what He wants you to do, he will give you a job. We had about 19 years of it and we enjoyed most of it.

(From another of Hilven’s Journals 12-6-89)

“Since we came on our mission, starting shortly after our arrival here, I have been doing extraction work in my spare moments. When Sister Anderson was here, Helen and I did some work on a backlog of cards here in the Stake center. We would compare the A cards with the B cards and then correct the most right one according to what was on the microfilm from which it was taken.

We did extraction also from the films on the microfilm reader, but mostly I have worked with what are called hard copies. Hard copies are sheets of paper with the data of birth and baptism or marriage photo copied from the microfilms in order to enable the extraction to be done at home without the use of the microfilm reader. The copies I have done have been mostly from the 17 & 18 hundreds in the states of Chiapas and Mayarite. They were written in very small handwriting and I suspect I got the privilege of extracting them because no one else wanted to tackle them.

I had a pair of eyeglasses that magnified, also a magnifying glass and even thus equipped, I had a difficult time deciphering the small writing. To make it more difficult it was not all written by the same scribe. I would just get used to one scribe when they would switch to another. And at times when the priest went to a certain place to baptize an infant, they would give him a bottle of firewater and then I really had a hard time reading his writing.

I have extracted seven or eight packets, mostly baptism and some marriages. The last one had 2333 cards. I imagine I have extracted 8 thousand names. Later I found the exact no. 7406.

Omer Farnsworth, my cousin, is Uncle Byron Farnsworth and Aunt Maud’s son; is over the Genealogy work here in Mexico. He said they don’t have any more hard copies at present, so maybe my extraction work is over for awhile.

“ALAMO & HIKO NEVADA”

Feb. 1990 – June 1990

After Helen and I finished our mission in the visitor’s center in Mexico City we went to Arizona to spend some time with our children, visit with them and get reacquainted with our grandchildren. Klint took us up to Utah to see his son Shane Kacy off on his mission, then we went down to Alamo Nevada to spend some time with Charleen and Kiko and family.

Kiko got me a job with Jay Wright out on his cattle ranch in Hiko. Helen and I moved out there and lived in a house trailer. My job was feeding cattle, irrigating, mowing hay, seeing that the cattle in different pastures had water and generally taking care of the place and making some improvements and looking after the place, caring for the cattle. We moved into a trailer-home on Jay’s ranch, where I worked for the next six months. It was hard work, especially for a recently released missionary. I had quite a time getting back into shape again. Part of the work was feeding cattle kept in corrals on the ranch. The lifting of the heavy bales of hay was hard on my injured back. It was never the same after the operation I’d had years before, causing the damage done while riding a bucking bronco that I was breaking. In this case, I was on the breaking end of the deal. It broke three of the disks in my spinal column and did other damage.

Kiko’s father S. Kieth Bowman was called as the district president over 17 branches in the Mexico Chihuahua mission and he gave me an invitation to be his counselor and come down and give him a hand in taking care of the branches in the “Distrito de la Sierra”.

I have always liked the missionary work and enjoy sharing the gospel with other people, Helen also. I accepted the invitation and began making preparations to move back to Mexico into the mission field.

“GOING ON ANOTHER MISSION”

“PARRAL”

August 15, 1990 - August 15, 1992

Being as our work was to be in the mountains and with the 17 different branches, Helen and I decided to buy a pickup with a camper unit on it, so we could move around from place to place as needed without the bother and expense of renting a place to stay. It turned out really well; we were like a turtle with his house on his back. We had our home with us wherever we wanted to stop.

(Hilven quit his job in Hiko, and came to Phoenix where Calvin found a Red truck with a camper on it for sale in the newspaper, so they bought it for the camper on it, for $600.00 dollars. Then they found a good used 86’ Toyota pickup at the Credit Union and bought it for $3,000. They put the camper from the little red truck on the Toyota pickup and sold the red pickup to Kelly Vining. Klint came down and found a little gas refrigerator and installed it and got everything working for them. They bought supplies and headed for Colonia Dublan arriving at President Bowman's on the 2nd of August 1990.)

“When we arrived in Dublan, President Bowman called the mission President, Marco Antonio Flores Pais and told him we were there and ready to start work. President Flores told us to go to Chihuahua City to be set apart, and also advised President Bowman that instead of us working with him in the Distrito de La Sierra, he was sure the Lord had heard his prayers and sent us to work with and eventually preside over the Distrito de Parral, which consisted of the Jimenez branch and Cd. Jimenez, Parral 1, Parral 11 and Juarez branch in Cd. Parral, San Francisco del Oro in the mining community of Sn. Fco., Del Oro, and 2 or three other dependent branches of Valle de Allende, Ojitos Durango and eventually Valle de Zaragoza and Guachochi.

On arriving in Chihuahua City at the mission offices, we were called and set apart to work; Helen to work with the Primary and Relief Society as General President over the District and I to work as a special envoy of the mission President to get acquainted with the people and the branches.

We worked the first six months getting acquainted and then I was called as District President of the Parral District in the Mexico Chihuahua Mission. The work here has been interesting, inspirational, at times difficult and trying, but it has been a time of learning and of living close to the Lord in order to be able to accomplish the tremendous task of caring for the spiritual needs of the people in all of their branches.

“I have found that if we do our part the Lord can use us to help in carrying forward his work. That in spite of our inabilities and weaknesses He can and does make up the difference, so that the work can go forward.”

My sweet companion and wife has been a constant help and support, our love for and understanding of each other has grown stronger and more beautiful with the passing of the years. The third of September of this year, we will be celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary. I can hardly believe it. Time passes so swiftly. I’d like to live another 50 years, with the experience I’ve had. I’m sure I could do a better job of it.

Maybe that’s the way it’s supposed to work. With experience things should get better and I’m sure it will if we put into operation the plan of our Heavenly Father and keep His commandments. I’m looking forward to doing just that and enjoying the sweet companionship of my wife and children.

The District President over a district in the mission field has the same responsibility as a Stake President does over a stake, only he doesn’t have the trained help like they do in the stakes so it comes to be quite a hard job for a District President to carry on all of the functions of the different auxiliaries in all of the branches. We had seven branches and they were scattered all over the mountains. Mom and I had this camper that we had bought especially for us to use during the mission and we lived in this camper. We would go around and visit the different branches. We would give encouragement to the leaders.

Mom would give music lessons to some of the students in the different branches where they had pianos. There were three branches that had nice pianos, but no one in the branch could play the piano. So Mom began to teach the ones that were interested in it. Sister Anderson and Sister Wells had worked out a simplified form of teaching piano lessons so that students could learn to play the songs. Mom had ten students in Parral and some in some of the other branches. She had one or two in Jimenez. They had two branches in Parral and she taught students in both branches that had the pianos. It wasn’t very long until the students got enough know how and enough confidence that they started playing at least one hymn. After awhile when they got the confidence they would play it for the sacrament service. Gradually we got some students playing for the sacrament services. Some of them were really talented. They picked it up fast.

Every month we would hold a meeting with all of the branch presidencies and periodically we would have one with all of the district leadership. Mom was called to be the Relief Society President and she also helped the Primary and Young Women’s Program. Most of the places where we worked they had not had these programs in their church services. They had no Primary and no activities for the Young Men and Young Women and consequently they didn’t have any young leadership coming up. We didn’t have very much priesthood to work with so we went real strong on the Primary, the Young Men, and the Young Women’s Program. Mom got the Relief Society to function again and she used the Book of Remembrance to get their attention and help them to get enthusiastic.

We worked two years in the Parral District. We got acquainted with the people and we learned to love the people. Before we left there Mom had several of them that were playing for the sacrament services.

“WRITTEN AT PARRAL CHIHUAHUA MEXICO”

August 11, 1992”

By Hilven Cluff

We hope we have helped to plan some good gospel seeds that will grow and bear fruit in times to come, although we have not attained some of the goals we had set. We are thankful for the good people we have met and worked with and the friendships we have formed with the members and leaders of the “Distrito de Parral”.

We have moved around from one branch to another. We have visited the members in their homes and ranchitos in the mountains. We have located and used many good camping spots en route to the outlying branches and ranchos. We have visited lonesome and lonely members far out in their mountain retreats. We have visited the Tarahumara members in their little mountain hideouts. We have learned to love and appreciate these good people in their different situations in life.

We camped a week in La Mesa Navarro and the neighboring ranchitos. We visited the members in Ojitos Durango and Guachochi many times.

Recently we went with a Bishop David A. Brown and 12 scouts and 5 leaders from St. Johns Arizona to visit the little Tarahumara group in their mountain retreat in Pakuirachi, near the Cienega de Narogachi. They had decided to help finish up the little Indian School as a service project.

As we were watching an early morning basketball match between the local Elders (missionaries) and a team of the local branch presidencies, Presidente Miguel Agustin Telles Castanos (Pdte of Rama Parral 1), said he had received a call from Chihuahua City about a group of scouts and a bishop who knew my son Klint and my nephew in Arizona but that was about all he told me. Later in the morning, Ysenia, daughter of Oscar and Manuela Saks, came and said they had a call from the mission office in Chih. City and they wanted to talk to me, so I accompanied her to their home and we put through a call to the main office in Chihuahua City.

I was informed that a Bishop Brown and a group of 12 scouts and 5 leaders were in Chihuahua City and had failed to make connections with an Abram Morales who was to meet them in Chih., and guide them to Pahuirachi, where they were to help finish up a little school building where the Tarahumara children are to receive schooling under the tutorship of their leader, Abram Morales.

Their problem was how to get there without a guide. Being as I had been there before and this little group of Tarahumara members were part of my responsibility as District President, I volunteered to be their quide. We were to meet at the chapel in AltaVista in Paral in 4 hours, and I would go with them, which we did.

Helen decided to accompany me so we readied our camper and was on our way about 7:00 o’clock in the evening. They had 3 Vans, loaded to the hilt. With our camper out in lead we made quite a procession. We gassed up at a gas station on the perimeter of Parral City and after three or four hours of travel we stopped for the night on a mesa West of Baeza at a favorite camping spot that Helen and I used on our trips to Guachochi. There was a lone pine tree at the side of the road overlooking a beautiful mountain valley; we called it the “Pine Tree Camp”.

The scout leaders insisted they put up tents and a good thing, for it gave a good soaking rain in the night. The next morning, the 5th of Aug. 1992, after a “Boy Scout” breakfast of ham and eggs, they pulled down their tents, packed the vans, and were on their way.

The road from Baeza to Guachochi is just a dirt road. The rainstorms and the heavy traffic doesn’t make for smooth sailing. From Guachochi to Rochiachi and from Rochiachi to Norogachi and from Norogachi to Pahuarichi the road gets progressively worse and the river crossings and steep grades and bog holes make things increasingly more entertaining!

I’m sure these people wondered where the road disappeared too. One of the vans kept lagging behind. It was having a hard time digesting this Mexico “Nova” gasoline, which they had filled up with in Guachochi because that was the only gas available. On the last river crossing, before climbing out onto the mesa before La Cienega de Nocogachi, the van bogged down in the gravel and quicksand and they had to call on all hands and the cook to push it out.

After getting out of the river it wouldn’t pull the steep grade, so they had a pushing good time to inch it to the top of the steep grade. We no more than got to the top of the hill and started out onto the mesa and the bottom dropped out of the road. Two vans got stuck in the soupy mud and the other blew out a tire and no spare, so they decided to call it a day and made camp at the side of the road.

They were now about a mile from their destination so things were not so bad, as long as they kept up their good spirits and chalked it all up to Boy Scout experience. They soon had a large tarp stretched for the kitchen and the other tents set up to make a nice looking camp. The Bishop’s van that blew the tire had a fifteen-inch rim and the other vans had 17 and ½ rims. They said the Bishop had been driving that van for 3 years and had never checked to see if it had a spare.

They may have stretched things a little bit, just the same, we were a hundred miles from nowhere and without a spare. I told the Bishop, “I didn’t think Boy Scouts did those kinds of things”. Boy Scouts should always “Be Prepared”! One of the leaders and I went to a ranch house down the road about a mile and a-half, to see if we could get a tube and a boot to fix the tire. We were unable to get anything so we decided to take the spare from my pick-up, which had a 15-inch rim and mount it on Bishop Dave Brown’s rim. There was a fellow there that had a logging truck with an air compressor and a hose that he used to fill his tires with air.

I gave him a gallon of motor oil for his truck and a quart to another fellow who had a pickup truck and they jumped in and helped us change the tire and mount it on the other rim. It was no job at all to blow it up with the air compressor on his truck. In almost the time it would take to say “Jack Robinson” we had it ready to go and were headed back to camp. In no time at all we had it on the van and ready to roll again and everyone was happy and in high spirits, even though we still had one van stuck in the mud clear up to the axels. Everybody said, “Let her sit till morning and then we’ll get her out”. So they did just that.

Next morning bright and early, some Good Samaritan neighbor from down the road aways, having become aware of our being stuck in the mud; was there with a pickup and a chain to help us get out. We cut a big long, green pry-pole which we inserted under the end of the axle and with a large rock as a fulcrum and 10 husky Scouts on the end of the pole; the van came up out of the mud, as if by magic. With rocks, we soon had a rock- paved road in position and with a pull from the pickup; we soon had the van on solid ground again.

The Bishop, the previous evening had sent word to the family at Pahuirachi to be there the following morning with a couple of pack burros to take some beans and tools and other articles down to their ranch and to the little schoolhouse. The people were there bright and early with the burros and after all had eaten breakfast, they loaded the burros and all went down to see the little schoolhouse and to see the ranch in the canyon.

The boys killed several rattlesnakes and Bishop Brown and some of the others bought some woven grass baskets and some beautiful Tarahumara decorated, artistically constructed belts and sashes that the Tarahumara wear around their waists. Brad Peterson, one of the Scout Supervisors put on a rope making demonstration for the Tarahumara men-folk and left with them, the rope-making machine along with a quantity of material for rope making.

Between the group of Boy Scouts and leaders they made up a large kit of tools and implements and left them with the Tarahumara to help them in their work and for finishing the construction of the little school. Being so much time had been lost it was deemed necessary to return immediately to Colonia Dublan to meet schedules of other things they had planned. Also the uncertainty of road conditions made it imperative that no time be lost, so they bade goodbye to the Tarahumara friends, broke camp and would soon have been on their way if it hadn’t been for getting another van stuck in the mud before they could get back on the more solid road. Owing to the fact that they were now considering themselves experts at getting out of the mud, they soon had the van out and on the road ready to roll.

They had planned on taking the shorter route from Narogachi to Creel, but on arriving at Narogachi, they found the river impassable and a large truck stuck in the quicksand. They had also been obliged to push a car out of the road and fix a passageway around it in order to get up the hill. As the saying goes “When it rains it pours”! If they were looking for pioneer experience it was supplied to them in abundance. Still they were not out of the woods. They were unable to get the necessary material, namely a tube and a boot to fix the Bishop’s tire, but were assured that they would be able to do so at Rochiachi. So after eating lunch in Norogachi they were soon on their way to Rochiachi where they were able to get a patch on the rip in the tire and with a new tube installed they were ready to roll on their way to Creel.

We left them at Rochiachi and wished them good luck and God speed. We headed back to Parral and they went on to Creel and then on home. The story is probably one to be continued. We anxiously await the next issue. Following is a list of the scouts and their leaders who took part in this wild episode.

Theron Hall. P.O. Box 99 St Johns AZ,Brian Collinwood P.O.Box 671 St Johns

Ron Dimbatt P.O. Box 831 St Johns 85936 Chris Morris P.O. Box 956

Brad and Adam Petersen P.O. Box 2873Andy Hall P.O. Box 99

Jason Mautton P.O. Box 1041 Douglas and Roy O Chlarson P.O. Bx 2727

Cody Maenche P.O. Box 502 Craig Kennedy P.O. Box 1132

Nathan Jarvis P.O. Box 1813 Ben Heap P.O. Box 294

David A. Brown (Bishop) P.O. Box 1890Russ Burdick P.O. Box 294

Brad Jarvis P.O. Box 2472All from St Johns ..Area code 85936

……………………………………..

Charles Whetten Family Reunion & 50th Wedding Anniversary of Hilven & Helen

(Taken from Mothers Journal)

“When we were released from the Parral Mission on August 15 1992, we returned to Laveen to our daughter LaVerne and Calvin Prices home. Calvin and LaVerne sponsored a Charles William Whetten reunion upon our return and we enjoyed a most wonderful reunion. They invited all my brother and sister’s families and Hilven’s brothers and sister’s families and capped the reunion celebrating our 50th Wedding Anniversary with a special program, put on by our children and grandchildren. It was such a joyous occasion. We had 102 present.

LaVerne asked Hilven and Helen’s brothers and sisters, children and grandchildren to write some of their memories of Helen and Hilven for their 50th anniversary book. I am including these memories.

”MEMORIES OF HILVEN & HELEN”

by LaRee & Melvin Turley”

(LaRee is Hilvens’ sister)

When we were married in 1938 and moved to Pacheco in 1939, Helen was an active, responsible young lady in the Mutual Improvement Association. Her family was very active in the Ward and in the community. It seems that we always thought of Hilven and Helen as inseparable.

Hilven at that time was Grandpa (Heber) Cluff’s right hand man, capable of doing anything that needed doing, such as driving or repairing the truck, breaking a bronco horse or driving the team on the wagon or in the field plowing or cultivating. He had good horse sense about whatever there was to do. He was also a Nimrod, a skillful hunter of deer and turkey as well as predators.

Later after I (Melvin) was made Bishop, after Charles and Montez moved away, Halver was sustained as one of my counselors and Hilven was sustained as Ward Clerk until the Ward was dissolved in 1953. I depended on him for a great deal more than his clerical duties, for the last few years he was the only assistant I had and he was willing and capable of doing whatever needed to be done. He continued to be a driving force behind holding the Pacheco Branch together and working for the best good of its members as well as helping the people financially for several years.

I am sure that those years of experience have prepared Hilven and Helen for the wonderful service they are now doing in the mission field. We admire them both very much!

“TO HILVEN & HELEN ON THEIR GOLDEN WEDDING ANNIVERSARY”

By Viva & Carl Whetten

(Viva is Hilvens’ sister)

“As I think back to my childhood, I remember of going with Hilven one morning to check the traps he had set to catch wild animals, coyotes, wolves, bobcats, fox, etc. This morning as we were wading through the tall wet grass, up on the hill above the corral and a little west of it, a “Kill Deer”, (a small bird) flew out from among the tall grass and brush, then pretended that she was hurt or dying. Hilven told me to watch it and then try to pick it up. As I got close to it she would fly away a little farther pretend again that she was hurt. Then Hilven told me that they do that to try to lead one away from their nest so their little birds or the eggs, if they have not yet hatched wouldn’t be hurt or disturbed. That made such an impression on me that I have always remembered it.

I remember Hilven as a good bronco rider in rodeos held in Colonia Pacheco. He would also ride bucking cattle, steers, bulls and cows and was very good at it. He would also break horses to ride.

Hilven was a good hunter and would often bring deer and wild turkey for the family to eat. Freshly fried venison for breakfast was at treat.

It also stands out in my memory that Hilven was pretty rebellious about going to church on Sundays and how upset and worried Dad would get as he tried to persuade him to do what he should. I also remember Hilven running away and going over to Sonora or somewhere that direction and Daddy going with pack mules and on horseback to try to find him and bring him back.

I remember Hilven as a pretty interesting storyteller who can hold one spellbound as he tells of hunting trips and escapades of his younger years.

When I think about Helen, I remember her playing the piano faithfully for junior dances and other dances. She never tired it seemed and was always willing to do it so we could have a good time dancing. It was interesting to me how she could play by ear and always find the right keys for every tune. I remember Helen also having a beautiful alto voice. She sang well in groups for special numbers in programs, church meetings etc. and was always willing to do it.

I remember Helen as a good friend when we were going to grade school in Colonia Pacheco. She could always be counted on to help out and do good things for people. We haven’t lived around Hilven and Helen in their married years so I don’t have many memories of their later years except that Helen is a good letter writer and Hilven is not!

Carl has one incident that stands out in his mind concerning Helen and Hilven, he said, “It seems like Hilven and Helen were living in Corrales when I was teaching school in Colonia Pacheco. Helen became aware that their second child had waited long enough to make his appearance into this world. Helen had come to her parent’s home in Pacheco for the delivery, and I believe Sister Maggie Johnson was still in town and she was always involved on occasions as this was. Hilven was logging in the mountains and Melvin Turley had a Model A. Ford. I was assigned to go find Hilven in Melvin’s Model A. Ford, which I did. We got back just a few minutes before the arrival of their new son Klint. This was an exciting time for all of us, especially for Hilven as he met his first son!

Carl also said, “I liked to dance with Helen when we were growing up. One Christmas dance in Colonia Juarez I was dancing with Helen and she told me about a new girl at the dance. Helen said, she is the neatest girl, you just have to meet her, her name is Viva Cluff”. I never met Viva at that dance, she seemed too involved with another boy, but when I did meet her I discovered what Helen had told me was true, she is a most special girl!” (They were married later.)

Sorry our memories are poor, but we know you are both special people and you have accomplished a lot of wonderful things in your life, including many church callings and raising a wonderful family. We want to wish you much joy and happiness as you celebrate this milestone in your lives. May you have many more happy years together.

“FROM VERL HAYNIE”

(Hilvens’ sister)

Dear Hilven and Helen we wish for you a happy 5oth Wedding Anniversary and many more.

We appreciate your love for the gospel and the time you have spent doing missionary work – Mexico. I’m sure it has been a great help to the people you have worked with bringing much happiness into many lives and blessings that will last through the years.

Hilven, I can’t remember very much about the younger yeas of your growing up, as you were a little guy when I went to Virden N.M. and attended school in the 8th grade. When I returned they ask me to teach lst and 2nd grades in Pacheco. That summer I spent many hours at the home of Irene Martineau, learning how to be a teacher. She was a professional teacher and I learned much.

Then came the time to teach my students. I enjoyed it very much. You must have been good students and learned fast. I’ll never forget the day Bro. S. Mecham, School Supervisor from Col. Juarez, visited our school and said all my students were up to par with the other schools in the Colonies. This made us all happy and we tried to work harder.

You will have to tell me other things you remember about those days. As I think back you were always happy, ready to smile and laugh and had a special twinkle in your eyes if you were into mischief.”

“ERNESTINE WALSER”

(Helen’s sister)

Helen has always been a beacon of light to me. So gentle, humble, patient and willing to make do or do without, so others could have the best. When we were children we used to wash dishes and sing. I don’t remember ever having to do dishes alone; mostly we would sing “You Are My Sunshine”.

Hilven and Maxie Haynie – (I Think) came down to the Gavilan where 4 of us girls and Bro. Martineau were camping out. They were just in time to help us out. We had lost our horses, was out of food and Bro. Martineau had been struck by lightening the day before. They were our “Knights in Honor”.

Dear Calvin and LaVerne.

I received your nice letter some time ago and it was so good to hear from you.

I’m so happy the Charles Whetten Family is having a Family Reunion, also that they are celebrating Hilven and Helen’s Golden Wedding Anniversary at the same time. It will be a very special occasion, and in a very special place. I love the mountains so very much. I was raised in them that’s why I love them so very, very much.

I regret so very much that I won’t be able to be there with you in person, to enjoy all of the fun and excitement I know you’ll have together, but I’ll sure be there in thought and spirit every minute of the time, you can bet on that, and I sure hope that when all of you get together you will have such an enjoyable and worth-while time that you will want to continue to have the Charles Whetten Reunion each year in the future. I don’t know of a better way of showing one’s love and appreciation to parents, than to have a reunion in their honor.

I wish all of you much happiness in your great celebration. Have a wonderful time, I’ll be thinking of you.

I love all of you very dearly. Uncle Adelbert Cluff

“TO HILVEN & HELEN”

By Lorel Cluff (Hilven’s youngest brother)

There are so many incidents in my childhood that I could tell about that it’s hard to describe which one to relate. At the time of this event, I was in about the 7th grade.

The family had been living in Colonia Pacheco for the summer months. Most of our things had been moved to Pacheco but the milk cow had been left in Colonia Juarez. I was assigned the chore of going to Casas Grandes to get supplies for Dad’s store and I was going to get the cow.

Upon arriving in Juarez, we spent the night with Bunt Jarvis, one of Hilven’s friends.

Hilven was telling Bunt about me going to drive the cow back to Pacheco on foot. Due to Bunt’s tender heart, he wouldn’t allow this and insisted on loaning me a horse, but a horse was all he had, no saddle or bridle.

So, the next morning, I threw a piece of canvas (which later was to serve as a bed) over the horse’s back and a nose loop on the horse and started out driving the cow back to Pacheco. The plan was, for mother and Hilven to go on to Casas Grandes to get the provisions and then to catch up with me and then we’d all spend the night at the spring at the foot of the mountain.

I arrived at the spring in late afternoon. I was really glad to get there because I was so thirsty and tired from driving the cow all day. Neither the horse, the cow nor I, had had any water to drink all that hot day. The cow kept trying to turn around and go back to Juarez and I had to force her to keep going forward. I had expected to see Mother and Hilven by the time I reached the spring, but there was no sign of them.

I hobbled the horse and let the cow graze. She was tired and I knew that she wouldn’t go far. I began to get a little anxious as the evening wore on and as night was approaching and Mother and Hilven still hadn’t arrived. Darkness set in and I decided there was nothing else to do but try to bed down for the night.

Normally, I enjoy the night sounds, the whippoorwill calling, the hawk diving for the bugs, ect. But that night, I was a little afraid. I wrapped myself in the canvas that I had used to ride on the horse and settled down the best I could. I lay there for a long time but finally fell asleep. I had been asleep for about an hour, when suddenly something awakened me.

When I had “gone to bed”, I had left my clothes on, but had taken off my shoes. In the distance, I could hear the horse hobbling down the road. Somehow, he had gotten off the rope from around his neck and was on his way home. The uppermost thing in my mind was to get that horse. So I jumped out of my makeshift bed and without taking the time to put on my shoes, I started running after the horse. The real problem was how to get ahead of the horse without spooking him and making him go all the faster. I followed as close as I could without spooking the horse.

My chance came to get ahead of him when he came to the first curve, about half a mile below the spring. As the horse entered the cut, I cut across the bank above him and hurrying as fast as I could, being barefoot and going through rocks and cactus, I dropped back down into the road ahead of the horse. Then, I stopped and caught my breath for a minute, not knowing for sure if I had gotten ahead of the horse or not.

I listened and couldn’t hear him going down the road, so I started back into the cut hoping to meet the horse. Much to my relief, I met the horse coming through the cut. As soon as I saw him, I started talking to him, hoping I wouldn’t scare him. At first, he snorted and spooked away a little, but as I kept talking to him he let me walk up to him. I took off my belt and slipped it over his neck. I stooped down and unhobbled him and we started back to the spring. When we got back, I made sure this time that he was tied and hobbled securely!

I crawled back into the canvas. About 1:30 in the morning, here came Mother and Hilven, was I glad to see them! The next morning, we ate a make-do breakfast of crackers and cheese. Hilven helped me round up the cow and he and Mother left in the truck for Pacheco and I started the cow up the mountain for home.

Lorel Cluff

“DEAR HILVEN & HELEN”

(Written by sister-in-law Margaret Cluff, married to Hilven’s brother Halver))

August 14, 1992

Dear Hilven and Helen:

I’m excited about your fiftieth wedding Anniversary. You beat us! We had been married forty years when Halver was released from his Stake mission and commenced his second mission on the other side of the veil.

I’m thrilled that you Hilven and Helen are enduring to the end through your missions. You are setting an excellent example for other couples in the relationship. When ye are in the service of your fellowmen ye are in the service of your God. Says King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon.

Love to you and yours.

Lovingly yours, Margaret

“TO HELEN & HILVEN”

From Christeen Whetten Gilman

(Helen’s oldest sister)

Lavon Charles Gilman and Christeen Iva Whetten Romney were married 11 of Jan. 1953. They set up residence a 395 Filer Ave. West Twin Falls, Idaho. Lavon was delivering Mobile Gas and oil servicing all of Magic Valley stations and farms from Thousand Springs, 50 miles west of Twin Falls to Glens ferry, 60 miles North of Twin Falls. This home was blessed with a sweet daughter, March 1, 1954. She was named Nancy Alice Gilman for her paternal grandmother. When Nancy was 1 year old, she had an ear infection, which caused her parents to leave her home with Grandmother Nancy Alice and Aunt Hazel while her parents went to Mexico on vacation.

(From here on it will be in first person.)

“My father Charles William Whetten had promised to take LaVon on a wild Turkey hunt. Of course, I had to go too. He even met us in Queen Creek, AZ to calm LaVon’s anxiety about crossing the border into old Mexico. It happened to be at the time when Hilven and Helen and family were living in Queen Creek. This made it a real nice time for LaVon to get acquainted with my sister Helen’s family.

After a good night’s rest and a good meal we went on down to Colonia Juarez. With Papa’s wisdom and know-how, we crossed the border without any difficulty. It was a little different traveling from Berendo on toward Colonia Juarez. There were no paved roads, not even graded, just a single road through Mesquite bushes and sand and rocks and mud holes. Papa kept encouraging LaVon by telling him the road was better from Dublan to Juarez but it really wasn’t. It had been graded, which only made it rockier, not blacktopped yet. Aunt Montez was waiting for us and we were glad to get into a nice warm bed that night.

Next morning, bright and early, Papa came in and sang his good morning song. “Oh it’s nice to get up in the morning. But it’s nicer to lie in bed.”

Montez served us a delicious breakfast. We loaded our pickup with food, bedding, and camping equipment to go to the Alamito ranch where we parked the camper. Uncle Bert outfitted us with 4 saddle horses and a pack mule. We traveled horse back over the pass by Square-top mountain and on toward Nigger Head Mountain, arriving just before dark. We made camp and went to sleep. Next morning LaVon arose early because he could hear those turkeys gobbling. He thought he could get one before the rest of us got up. But alas, that was the tricky part. He could hear them but never could get within sight of one. So, my Papa said, “After breakfast we’ll all go out and I’ll show you how to get a wild turkey”, and he did. LaVon got his turkey and we got two more on the way back to camp.

The next day as everyone was scurrying around to get packed and back over the mountain, the old mule Papa was packing with our equipment gave him a nasty kick on the leg. While Papa was hopping around on one leg, LaVon was dazed and amazed that Papa didn’t say one swear word. It was fortunate that Papa’s leg was not broken and we were able to get back to Juarez safely.”

(Ten Years Later)

LaVon and Christeen Co-owners and operators of the Econowash Laundry (coin operated) from 1959 to 1969. LaVon would not leave the laundry unattended. While Christeen was Relief Society President of the Fourth ward for 14 months she was released to be at the side of her husband in his business. From here on it will be in the first person.

“I did up to 10 and 12 package laundries a day, except Sundays. This consisted of washing, drying, folding, and packing in bags or baskets. People from out of town; such as Jackpot, Jerome, Burley, and Rupert, would drop off their laundry while they went shopping or taking care of other business, then picked it up when heading for home.

Nancy learned to help with the chores, checked the lint on the dryers every day. She was her Daddy’s assistant, handing him tools while repairing a machine, running errands etc. while going to school. She decided it was time they had a baby sister, or baby brother. After having 3 miscarriages I gave up the idea. Nancy didn’t. She began to pray to Heavenly Father about the matter. Her prayers were answered in the affirmative. A beautiful baby boy was born the 12 of March 1964 to brighten our home. As I was home from the laundry to care for my baby boy named Randy, my husband’s sister took my place at the laundry. LaVon said he would buy the paint if I would paint the inside of the house. This he did and I did. Finishing in time to have our Charles William Whetten reunion in June.

Papa and Montez came from Mesa, AZ. Walter and Ernestine and Alesia from Lander Wyoming, Orville and Freda, Russell, Karen, Marie, and Tonya from New Castle, CA. Charles and Rose, Rosie, Charleen, Eddie, Carolyn from Tyrone, NM. Helen and Ivelen from Colonia Juarez, Mexico.

Everyone brought their sleeping bags or cots and slept on the back lawn. We had a family program with Orville and Charles Alma helping with the singing and guitar accompaniment. Rosie and Charleen were excellent baby sitters. I never saw my baby only to change his diaper. One day we went to Shoshone Falls Park, where we played Volleyball, took pictures, hiked and had a picnic.

I decided to take Randy to school in Colonia Juarez, where I still have many relatives and friends. My dear sister Helen and husband Hilven invited me to live in their 4-bedroom home with them, since all they had left at home was their two youngest, Ivelen and Becky. Derril was on a mission to Yucatan.

In the meantime we headed back north of the border, stayed overnight with my cousins Norman and Zora in Mesa, AZ. Then we went to Disneyland, CA. for a day and a night and on home. It was a surprise when a letter came saying Randy was not accepted, without any explanation, so I entered him in our Lincoln school here. When Helen took Ivelen and Becky to Juarez to school and we were not there, she went straight to Mr. Spillsbury to find out why. He said, “We do not take students to baby-sit them.” Helen said, “Christeen is coming with him.” Mr. Spillsburry said, “Oh well that is alright then.” Helen called me on the phone and I took Randy out of school Sept. 17, 1973. Don’t know to this day why it started so late that year.

At Christmas time, Randy and I went to Tyrone to Charles Alma and Rose for Christmas Holidays. Nancy came down from Twin Falls to be with us. Russell went as far as Los Vegas then went back home and Nancy drove to Mesa and stayed overnight with Zora then on to Tyrone. I was sick and couldn’t eat anything on Christmas Day. Charles Alma took me over to the clinic in Silver City to Dr. Dye from 9 a.m. till closing time, gave me all kinds of tests but couldn’t find the cause. They sent me to the hospital for x-rays Friday, and found nothing. I went to the hospital again Saturday morning for more x-rays, took turns going the rounds, found nothing. Went home for lunch then back again. The x-ray did show a tumor on the small intestine. They said we don’t know if it’s malignant without an operation.

Charles Alma took Randy to Colonia Juarez and brought Hilven back out with him. He and I had been taking turns lying on the cot in front of the heating stove. Hilven had leg pains and I had stomach pains. Dr. Dye sent me to Las Cruses for a liver scan so Charles Alma took Hilven to a Chiropractor, while I was having my x-rays. The Chiropractor was out of town and my x-rays were all right so we returned to Tyrone.

Charles Alma persuaded Hilven to see Dr. Dye, who told Hilven he had a crushed disc and would have to have an operation. He immediately called the Dr. in El Paso, who he knew could do this. Zola and Charleen took Hilven to El Paso where he had his operation on Saturday. I was admitted to the hospital in Silver City on Monday for blood transfusions, and was operated on Wednesday. It was malignant, so the Doctor removed six inches of intestines on the 8th of Jan. 1974. I recuperated at my dear brother’s home in Tyrone.

Hilven had a wedding to go to, so Calvin and LaVerne took him in their camper to Mesa, AZ. I went back to Colonia Juarez for the rest of the school year.

Hilven and Helen moved to Pacheco, taking Becky with them, also Randy. I took Ivelen, Mary Lou and her son Robert Whetten with me to the U.S.A. Ivelen went to Montez and Roy Harris in Fillmore, Ut. Mary Lou and Robert went on with me to Merlyn and Marzel Brown’s home in Orem Ut. After visiting a few days with Aunt Ann and cousin Irene Brown, I drove on home to Twin Falls alone. I left Randy with Helen and Hilven for a good reason. I knew they would love him and care for him as one of their own. This is when Randy learned to speak Spanish. His playmates next-door Samie and Rickie Artelejo didn’t speak English. Hilven got Randy out to Calvin’s around the last of July. Calvin put Randy on the airplane, destination Twin Falls, Idaho.

Randy and I went to Colonia Juarez Sept. 1974 for the next school year. Helen arranged for me to take her, Ivelen and Becky to Chihuahua City to meet Derril when he came home from his mission. We arrived early and were so excited waiting for him to arrive. It was one happy reunion and a little surprised was Derril to see Aunt Christeen. After giving his mission report in Sacrament meeting, he went with Helen to Pacheco to help Hilven with the cattle etc.

One day Derril was pruning the beautiful shade tree in front of the house when he slipped and fell to the ground. Hilven was near by and saw him fall. With the help of neighbors, they got him on a stretcher and took him to Dr. Hatch in Casas Grandes. Dr. Hatch recommended they take him to El Paso, or Chihuahua City. He was operated on in Chih. City, but the spinal cord was severed. Helen asked Stake President Call to have a special fast for Derril. Derril was home for a few days when Calvin and LaVerne came to take him to the Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix. Derril is one special spirit with the right attitude, also his wife Randi Sue.

For five years, I took Randy to Mexico to school, keeping house for Helen’s two girls, Ivelen and Becky and my son Randy until Ivelen graduated from high school.

“CHARLEEN”

(daughter)

Dear Mom and Dad. I could fill a whole book about things I like to do with you. I’ve decided it doesn’t matter what you do when you are with the ones you love, it is fun!

My favorite memories of when I was a child are when we would go camping together it was high adventure. One I especially remember is our trip over the mountain to Hermosillo when we got rained on in the big cloudburst. I slept through the whole thing; I woke up next morning horrified, because I thought I wet my pants. I was really relieved to find out it was rainwater that ran through our bed and soaked us. My children love to hear about the tornado and the flood we were in at Queen Creek A.Z.

We are especially grateful for the seven years we lived in Mexico and were near you. I liked taking kids to Pacheco where there was no TV and no telephones. We would read stories at night by flashlight as we all snuggled in our sleeping bags. I remember the sweet carrots from the garden and the fresh lettuce we would eat for breakfast with our cereal.

Justin still moans the fact that we no longer get to eat Grandma and Grandpa’s cheese.

We have happy memories of the few short months we could have you here in Nevada. I loved being able to run up to Hiko and visit. Our family home evenings together there are a treasure.

Your lives of love and sacrifice for me have been a big encouragement for me in my life. When I’m going through hard times I think of you and it gives me courage to go on.

I’m especially grateful for the testimony of Jesus Christ you have helped me obtain.

Love Ya! Char

“MY MEMORIES OF VISITS IN THE OLD HOME IN COLONIA PACHECO”

Vona Vining (daughter)

My mother was always very helpful. I remember her always trying to teach her maids to play the piano during a break from work. Often she would try to teach them English or share the gospel by reading stories from the Ensign or other uplifting books and magazines while watching the cheese.

Mom had a great deal of faith. I remember her praying for a sick cow once. It had swallowed a piece of bailing wire. I think her faith and prayers kept the cow alive for 2 weeks. It wasn’t until she relented and said, “Thy will be done,” that the cow finally died.

I remember an experience while Ivelen and our kids and I were visiting with Mom and Dad one summer. Our husbands had gone back home and we were left to enjoy the cooler weather in Mexico for a couple of weeks.

The morning chores done and lunch over with, we were settling into a more quiet afternoon routine. I was sitting at the sewing machine in the dining room and stopping to glance ever so often out the windows at Dad plowing in a small field north of the house.

All of a sudden lightening struck with and ear-piercing bang at the opposite end of the field where Dad had been just a few minutes before. It was a natural instinct to want to hit the floor. I saw dust shoot up 15 or 20 feet into the air.

I was most astounded and concerned and went running out of the house to check on Dad. That was too close for comfort!

The rain clouds were still far off in the distance. On reaching Dad he said he had just finished thinking he wasn’t ready to go to the other side yet, he had a lot of repenting to do, but mother was righteous! Then the lightening came striking through the air past him. The force was so strong his hair stood on end and it nearly knocked him off the tractor.

He thought for sure his nose was going to bleed. By now he was on the ground obviously shaken and glad to be walking away, content to let that be enough plowing for the day. Actually we were quite anxious to get out of the field. I was very thankful he was OK and got a good laugh out of his thinking!

I remember Kelly and I spending a few afternoons in the room in the attic reading. I read the excellent book “On the Wings Of Faith.” It tells about President Benson when he was a general authority being sent to England after the war to check up on the saints and see to their food, clothes and spiritual needs. I was very impressed with it and after reading the book I felt for sure that one day Bro. Benson would become the prophet of the church.

Many an afternoon the rain would begin to patter on the tin roof and we were very much lulled by it. We read to our hearts content often ending in a pleasant afternoon nap.

Another good memory was the aroma in the air from baking homemade bread. Also, at least one afternoon of our stay was spent picking blackberries in the backyard and making a couple of delicious blackberry pies. They sure smelled great while baking and even more delicious to eat.

For some reason the food was always more appetizing in the mountains at Mom’s place. We always put on a few extra pounds before we left. My green-thumb husband brought home a “start” from Mom and Dad’s blackberry bush and Kelly’s done well to transplant a whole row in our own backyard in Laveen. We eat blackberries every year and think of Mom and Dad and Pacheco.

Mom would always plan a picnic or two in the field by the clay banks or by the river. We always enjoyed an evening gathering around Dad eating popcorn and listening as he told of his hunting adventures. Some of the grandkids would share their newly learned piano pieces or songs with them.

The kids enjoyed the round swing, sleeping in tents, trips to the local Tenichi for gum, soda pop and Mazapans, and watching the new family of baby piglets. They also spent a good deal of time rock hunting, swimming or wading in the river, hiking and riding horses and even tried a couple of squeezes in a cow-milking adventure. Of course there were afternoons spent sliding down the clay banks and trying their hand at making pottery.

There were a lot of afternoon rainstorms and sometimes a flashflood to investigate. Plenty of room for kids to roam and beautiful scenery and pine-trees in any direction you looked. We have fond memories of the old home in Pacheco except for a few “spidies” and mice! That always got a squeal from all of us, and the kids will tell you all about it.

“DEAR MOM & DAD”

August 19, 1992

Rodney Cluff Family

This is Rod, and my memories of you, my beloved parents. I want to thank you from the bottom and top of my heart for all you have been and done for me. I love you very much and thanks so much for all the good life you have given us, your children.

My very first memories were on the farm in Queen Creek. Dad always had a cow for us to milk and Dad taught Klint to milk the cow and I would watch. Klint later would have me hold the cow’s tail so she couldn’t swat him while he was milking. At first, while I was watching Klint milk the cow, she must have thought I was a dog because she charged me with her horns and chased me through the fence. Lucky for me I got through the boards in the fence before she hit it with her horns. I felt I had just escaped with my life, but Klint got a good laugh out of it. After that I had horrible dreams that a bull or cow was chasing me. The worst thing about the dream was that I would just lie there kicking in bed and I couldn’t run. But I would always wake up before the cow or bull got to me.

(Queen Creek AZ) I remember when there was a tornado that took the roof of a neighbor’s house and while we were safe. A big flood came and Dad drove us to safety down the flooded highway. He later used the big caterpillar to make a big dirt border that seemed about 10 feet tall all around the farmyard to protect us from the next flood. Every year Dad would take the whole family to the White Mountains camping. It was so fun playing in the rivers and camping out and I remember when a skunk came into our camp one night and Dad carried me out of the tent to the car to safety while he and Klint went after the skunk with their guns.

Dad was the farm manager and we grew cotton. One year Dad decided to hire some Mexicans to pick cotton and us kids got to work in the field picking cotton also. I don’t think that lasted long because I remember the next year Dad was picking cotton with a big cotton picker tractor and he would have me stomp in the cotton trailer to pack the cotton down, and every time Dad would come with the cotton picker full of cotton, I would have to jump out of the trailer or get buried when he dumped the cotton in.

I remember when Dad bought a brand new station wagon car. And we would ride to church in our new car. It was so nice. Mom and Dad taught us to pay our tithing and I remember giving the clerk at the church’s door my tithing and the receipt he gave me was a prized possession.

Mom and Dad taught us to say our prayers at night when we went to bed, to kneel and thank our Heavenly Father for all the blessings he has given us and ask his help in our life. When I was 5 years old, sucking my thumb was a habit Mom and Dad told me I had to stop. Mom, especially would get after me for sucking my thumb. Until one day I told her that I couldn’t stop sucking it. That was when she told me to ask Heavenly Father in my prayers at night to help me stop sucking my thumb. So I did. That night when I went to bed, I remember vividly asking Heavenly Father to help me stop sucking my thumb. I think there was some incentive Mom gave me also, because she said if I didn’t stop, she would have Dad give me a few lashes with his belt. Well, that was plenty of incentive. So I prayed real hard that Heavenly Father would help me, so I wouldn’t get a whipping. The next day I noticed that I didn’t have any desire to suck my thumb anymore, and I told Mom that Heavenly Father helped me quit. So I learned young that Heavenly Father really answers prayers.

Later we moved to a house in a date orchard and I remember Klint helping Dad fix the cooler on top of the house. I also remember the time the crop-duster crashed into the power lines and how Dad rushed in a vehicle to go help pull him out of the burning plane. The story he told us was that the man was a Mormon and was saved by his garments, when he got burned all over except where the garments were.

When I was about 6 years old we moved to Old Mexico. We went mostly on dirt roads and it was a long journey. After crossing the line we had to help push the truck through a big, big, puddle and Dad drove and drove on the winding road until it got dark. Dad stopped the car and did some coyote calls, so we could hear the coyotes howl back. We felt we were in real wild country. Then we came to a river where we had to wait for some big truck to pull us across and it seemed like the car literally floated across.

I remember the time when we were first living in our adobe house that Dad took Klint and me to work on some property that Dad hoped to buy in Colonia Garcia in the mountains. We camped out near the pines and made a lean-to next to some ruins. Dad would have Klint and I do some of the cooking. We cooked rice pudding and beans. It tasted so good, except when you were eating around the camp-fire, some flying bugs that looked just like beans would sometimes fly into your bowl of beans and I was always wondering if I would eat one of those bugs by mistake. I watched my beans the best I could by the campfire light so when a bug flew into my beans, I would immediately throw him out. We stayed several weeks. It seems before Dad discovered he couldn’t farm that beautiful Garcia land. I do remember getting homesick to see Mom.

It was soon after that; Dad got a job in faraway Hermosillo, for Brother Ellsworth. We missed him so much. Mom would get letters from Dad and read them to us then go into the bedroom to cry. She missed him so much! We were a lot of kids for Mom to handle by herself, but it seemed to us, that she did a marvelous job. This didn’t last long, because Dad came home after school was out and loaded us all up in our pickup that Dad had traded our station wagon for, with Doe Romney, because we had to have a Mexican vehicle in Mexico. The pickup was yellow or orange Studebaker. Dad was a good welder and welded some bars and made us a nice camper and covered it with heavy canvas to keep out the rain on the road, and if we thought the road down to Mexico was long, the road to Hermosillo Sonora, through the mountains seemed like it would never end!

We passed through beautiful country. I remember the fog on the high mountain passes, where we could hardly see the road ahead of us, and it seemed such a disaster for us to be out in the middle of nowhere. Dad was and excellent mechanic and able to make anything run. I can’t remember if he got a ride to get a part or jimmied the truck motor, but we were able to continue our trip. We finally made it to the highway that goes between the United States and Hermosillo and I remember standing up toward the front of the camper, where a canvas-flap would let me look out to see where we were going and I got my eyes full of bugs that filled the night air, as I watched us going down the highway toward our new home.

“Memories in Thermopile”

In Hermosillo, Dad rented us a house near a school where we would be going. It was so hot we could hardly stand it, even at night, but Dad bought us a portable cooler, which helped. Klint was daring enough to sleep outside where it was cooler, but we worried that scorpions would bite him.

We started school in the Mexican public school across and down the street a bit. Dad went back to work on the farm, which was halfway between Hermosillo and the ocean. He would come home on weekends, which was better than being away a whole year. Mom got along. I remember she got an “Albanil” to come and put some bolts in the walls over the front window so she could hang a curtain. One day my brother and I found a paper airplane some Mexican kid had thrown and lost in our front yard. I unfolded it and figured out how it was made and so we had lots of fun making and flying paper airplanes after that.

Mom taught me some honesty about this time. When Mom took me to register in school, I picked up the Principal’s pencil on his desk and when we got home, we discovered that I still had it in my hand, so Mom promptly took me back to school and had me apologize to the Principal and return the pencil. She also taught me how to tell time when we lived at this house. She got me curious, so I asked her to teach me how to tell time. I was real happy that she took the time to teach me how to tell what time it was.

About halfway through the school year, Dad moved us to another house farther away from the school. Dad was always so talented and handy at doing anything. He bought some wood and made us a nice table and some benches for us kids to sit on at the table. He would take us to church. We didn’t understand anything, but it wasn’t long before we learned how to read Spanish, even if we couldn’t understand a word we read.

Mom and Dad would invite the American missionaries to our house. They were so nice to us and so full of enthusiasm. One of the Elders, I think Elder Banke gave all of us kids our own copy of the Book of Mormon, with his picture and his testimony in it. It was about that time that we got a letter from a cousin who was living in South America, on a mission with his parents who wrote hat he had read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover. When Mom read us the letter she encouraged us to read our Book of Mormons. I took it to heart and thought that if my cousin who was my age, had done it I could too. So that year I read the Book of Mormon cover to cover.

I had problems at school with the kids hitting me real hard on the head, so I finally convinced Mom not to force me to go to school. But I did learn my times tables real well at this school, because the teacher would have competitions at the board and I didn’t want to get up there and not know my times tables. One other thing I remember was all the bad airs the Mexican boys would let in the classroom to stink up the air, and they would call me “Gringo, Pata Salada.” That was about all the Spanish I learned at that school. Other Spanish words I learned were “banana” when we went to the store, and “tortillas” when Mom would send me several blocks to buy fresh tortillas.

I turned 8 years old when we were living in Hermosillo, so one Saturday we went with the branch members and the missionaries to Kino Bay. Dad took his pickup, and let us ride with the members in the back of a big truck to the Bay. Mom and Dad taught me well and I remember that I was getting baptized to be a member of the true church of Jesus Christ, and that by doing so, I would make a covenant to keep His commandments from then on. I was dressed in white and we had an ocean-side baptismal service and Dad took me out into the ocean and said the prayer and ducked me under when a wave came in. It was a great experience.

It wasn’t long before school was over and we moved out to the farm with Dad. We fixed up the farmhouse, washed the walls, and planted a nice lawn, and when the grass started coming up, so did the stickers, so Mom would get me out there to pull them up. We had a lot of time on our hands and roamed the desert near the farmhouse. Derril and I found a small cactus we called the “singing cactus” because you could flip the long thorns and they would vibrate at different pitches. We wanted it, so we took it home and planted it behind the house. We got scolded by Mom the next day, when we found out that Dad had tripped over it when he was coming home late at night.

I remember several home evenings we had out on the farm where we would get Dad to tell us stories of his hunter days and adventures. Dad was always such a good storyteller. Then he would break out his guitar and Mom and Dad would sing songs to us kids. It was great to be back together again. LaVerne, my oldest sister was left behind in Colonia Juarez, but we were happy when she was able to come visit us once, while living in Hermosillo.

Another thing that Dad would do for us was to take us for our weekly bath in the ditch at one of the farm pumps, where there was a pretty good swimming hole. It was so much fun! We would swim until it got dark. Then he would drive us back to the farmhouse. Invariably I had too much fun, because I would drink too much water and with it air, while I was swimming, because I liked to swim underwater a lot. So back home, Mom would have me lay on my stomach to help me get the air out of my stomach and my stomach-ache would go away.

The end of the summer came and Dad and Mom decided to move back to Colonia Juarez. We loaded up the camper bars and put the canvas over it and loaded our belongings and another long road was ahead of us. This time we went down the coast and up over the Durango mountains and then up to Chihuahua. It was a longer way and there were torrents of rain, but the road was better.

Back in Colonia Juarez, Dad and Uncle Halver, Dad’s brother, who lived next door, would spend a lot of time talking and Dad decided to try to make a start on a farm called the Corralitos, about a couple of hours north of Dublan. He put his all into this farm, but the ground had too much salitre and clay and we finally had to give it up. It was here that I really learned the meaning of work. Dad got some pigs and put Derril and I to tending them and later we picked pigweeds to feed them while they were having their young ones in the pigpens. Dad borrowed money from Uncle DS and so we had a couple of John Deer tractors and two pumps.

Dad initiated me into irrigation work one day when he left me with a ditch full of water and a shovel with instruction to break the ditch to water each space between borders of a Bermuda grass field. When I found I couldn’t dam up the breaks in the ditch in order to water the next section of field, it was quite traumatic for me. But when Dad returned he seemed to think I did ok. We spent a lot of time building the ditches with a ditch maker that Dad invented, that he would pull behind the tractor while my brother Klint and I rode the ditch maker. I breathed a lot of dirt that summer.

Dad planted wheat, Bermuda grass, beans, and a real nice family garden. I remember how proud we were of Dad’s garden. He had us out there in that garden helping take care of it, and when the tomatoes came on, we had to pick off the giant green worms that would go after the tomatoes. Best of all was the big field of sweet corn that Dad planted on the other side of the farmhouse. We ate corn on the cob until we had the runs, but we never regretted eating it, because it was so good. The flies around the farmhouse were so bad; we couldn’t wait until we could get out into the field away from them.

Dad had two horses. Mine was the workhorse that had great big feet. Dad gave us the horses because we couldn’t keep the cow off the bean patch, most of the time we just rode them bareback with a rope for a bridle. It was fun to race my brother Derril and his horse with my big-footed workhorse.

At harvest time Dad was able to get a wheat harvester, and we had so much wheat it seemed, but Dad was unable to make enough to pay the bills. The harvest of the Bermuda grass was a real trial. Dad had me hold down the lever that kept the cutter off the ground until I felt my hand would just break, then the tractor would quit working and Dad’s trial would begin. That’s when I learned a lot of swear words. Dad couldn’t get the tractor started so he would swear up and down, first in English, then in Spanish! Finally he’d somehow get that thing working again. We would haul the hay in and we made great big haystacks that were fun to play on. Later Dad got a bailer and we put it next to the stack of hay and bailed our hay.

Mom would work with the kids in the kitchen, but sometimes the girls would go out in the evening in the fields with us. It was one such evening that Charleen was crossing the ditch and was bitten by a rattlesnake. We somehow got her home to the farmhouse, and Dad was debating cutting open the wound with his knife. I think Mom couldn’t bear to see him cut on his own daughter. We didn’t know if she was going to live or die. It seemed like such a disaster!

Dad decided to take her to Colonia Juarez to Doctor Hatch. I went along to hold a belt we put on her leg to help slow down the poison, because if it got to her heart we thought she would die. I would hold it tight for a while and then let it loose a few seconds to let some blood get to her leg so it wouldn’t die, then I would tighten the tourniquet up again. We finally made the long journey to Colonia Juarez and the doctor’s care, but her leg swole up so big we thought it might pop.

Dad finally had to give up our farm so he had me drive the Case Tractor to Colonia Juarez. I really hadn’t driven that much, so it was scary. I was stopped by a policeman in Old Casas, but he let me go and Dad or Klint caught up with me before the dug-way, where I was so scared the brakes would give way on the way down. Somehow we made it. I also rode one of the horses the 60 miles from the farm to Colonia Juarez. It took all day, and my bottom was so sore. When I got home I felt I could hardly stand it. I also drove the old Johnny Popper we called the old John Deer to Colonia Juarez.

The last night we moved the last of our farm equipment off the farm, it rained one of those “last days” lightning storms. We took our pigs to Colonia Juarez and put them in the barn for a while, then Dad sold them and bought a motorcycle for Klint and I to ride back and forth from the farm in New Casas where Dad got a job managing a cotton farm for Uncle DS Brown. At that farm, Dad had some pipes, so irrigating was a lot easier than when I first irrigated at the Corralitos farm. We did get pipes at the Corralitos however, and we learned to make dams in the ditches to irrigate with. At first, we made them out of dirt, and then we got a board and canvas to make our dams with.

Dad made a pretty nice cotton farm for Uncle DS at the New Casas Farm, but then Uncle DS rented some land in the mountains to put his cattle on and so soon Dad became a rancher. It was such beautiful mountain country, the Rio Negro Ranch. Over the mountain in the next canyon was the Colorado part of the ranch. It was even prettier, almost like heaven. You could go along the river and throw in a fishing line and pull out a fish. Klint did it quite a few times. That’s where I learned to fish. All you had to do was throw the line in with a worm on it and almost immediately a fish would hit. It was so much fun pulling those fish out one after the other. And eating them was even better.

On spring break Dad had taken us camping, just us boys, up behind Square Top, near Colonia Juarez where we catch some fish and he showed us how to cook them. Yum, they were delicious! It was there that Dad taught me how to make a campfire. You had to gather enough wood to make coals to cook on.

When we weren’t on the farm or ranch, we were in school in Colonia Juarez. Dad would come home on weekends so we didn’t get to see too much of him during the school year except on weekends. But he and Mom would always get us up and we would walk to church. Sunday evenings we would have family home evenings. Dad would always bear his testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel and we would sing hymns together as a family.

In 6th grade, Brother Romney who was also our bishop, started violin class at school and I signed up for it and Mom and Dad bought me one of the Indian violins that Brother Romney had on sale at the high school “Academy” bookstore. I had gotten into some trouble with my brother and our neighbor friend, Kim Marineau, throwing rocks at a Mexican boy who was passing by in the river behind our barn and Dad gave it to me with his famous whipping belt. We had gone the rounds like he trains his horses, and it made me into a humble, hard working man.

Brother Romney told my Mom that it would keep me out of trouble if I would practice my violin 8 hours a day. I took his suggestion to heart, and so that summer, I practiced what seemed like 8 hours every day and took lessons from Brother Turley’s daughter who learned the violin in the States. The last month of the summer however, Dad took me to help Uncle Darvin on a ranch he and Uncle Darvin had just rented way up in the mountains somewhere further down the river from the El Rio Negro ranch. Dad was convinced it was on that ranch or near it that my Grandpa (Heber) Cluff had seen in a vision where some ancient Indians and Spaniards hid some gold in a cave.

Uncle Darvin had just married a real nice Mexican girl from Pacheco and I think this was pretty much their first home. We had to reach it on horseback from a mountain road that we took as far as we could. The ranch house was a shingled log house. The weather was so nice and it was located near the big Rio Negro, so I really enjoyed being there. Uncle Darvin is a very quiet spoken man, rather old to have married this nice young girl, but she loved him and they were happy. Tia Alicia’s cooking was great and she was always so good natured and happy all the time. We would go out riding to look for Dad’s cattle that we had moved up there from the Corralitos farm. We were having problems with Mexicans stealing the cattle. I don’t think I was much help, because in the round up I don’t think I found any cows, but I enjoyed roaming the hills and dreaming about my newfound skill of learning to play the violin. My great grandfather (John Thomas) Whetten was a violinist and I wanted to be a good violinist too.

Dad worked the Rio Negro about three years and would take us boys up there during the summer months, at least two summers that I remember. It seems that Klint graduated and went on his mission and Derril and I helped Dad the last summer. Dad would get us up early saying, it was time to get up and go get the horses. We would run up the mountain and catch the horses and mules, get breakfast and then ride the hills all day looking for the cattle. I have never ridden a horse so much in my life, most of the time I rode a she-mule named Dora. Dad’s sharp eyes could find the cattle among the far-off trees, but Derril and I pretty much just tried to keep up, and try to ignore our burning bottoms, dead sore from all that riding. We finally found the cattle and drove them up over the mountain to the Colorado River cabin. We loved it here, except when Derril and I started arguing and Dad would lay into us with his belt. He had to train us at least as good as his horses!

At the Colorado cabin, while Dad was shoeing his mule, which he had to throw down and tie up to do, Derril and I decided to go up the mountain to see what was on top. To our surprise there was an abandoned sawmill up there. We explored the ghost town and then went on up to the top of the mountain, which looked like the highest mountain in all the mountains to us. We really enjoyed that adventure!

Dad later took Derril and I up a logging road and we camped out of our truck along-side the logging road and would go out looking for cattle. We camped up on top of the pass the first night and I’ve never been in a lighting storm that seemed like they were falling all around us like as if we were in the middle of a great war. The thunder was deafening and the rain came down in torrents. Dad had covered the back of the truck with the canvas, very well, and we made it through the night safe and dry. The next camp was near a logging camp where I got a sore throat and asked to stay at camp. I remember gargling with salt water every few minutes all day long and it seemed to have cured my sore throat by evening.

During this period of time, since it was such a long mountain road, Dad would come home from the ranch every three months. Then Uncle DS lost the lease on the mountain ranch and so he bought a couple of ranches in the desert out by the line and the cattle were moved there. One spring break Dad took Derril and I to work on the desert ranch somewhere east of Ascension. The wind was blowing all the time it seemed, but it wasn’t too hot. During the round up, we camped near this windmill and took a skinny-dip in the water tank. It was so nice and refreshing. When we got the cattle in the corral, Derril and I helped Dad tackle the heifers and bull-calves, to spray them, brand them and notch their ears. Dad always seemed to enjoy seeing us work hard and we always felt good about a good days work.

Then Uncle DS got the ranch out by the Berrendo line crossing and Uncle DS let Dad put his cattle on the western hills pasture. Dad worked there for many years. We would help him on Spring breaks and at least one summer that I remember. Dad helped Uncle DS grade the dirt road to Janos and Dad and Uncle Darvin built a drum bridge through one big wash. We always enjoyed traveling on Dad’s road to the ranch, because it was so nice. I remember one Christmas we helped Dad dig post holes for the southern fence-line of the ranch and helped him build windmill towers and cement tanks. It seemed that Dad could do anything, almost impossible things like putting the windmills on top of the 30-foot towers. It seems that he built about 4 or 5 of these windmills, one or two of them in a pasture West of Colonia Juarez, up by “Tea Cup” mountain.

There was one other time that Dad took us boys camping up behind “Flat Top” mountain. It was beautiful country up there. This time we went turkey hunting. We made camp in this canyon and walked the hills looking for deer, but I don’t remember finding any. That evening Dad took us up on the side of the canyon to hide and wait for the turkey to come down and fly into the tall trees in the bottom of the canyon. We each had a rifle and Dad would chirp his turkey chirp and the turkey finally came wandering down the hill and went right past us and flew into the tops of the trees. Dad told us to put them in our sights and aim carefully and he gave the word. Blam, bang, boom, and we shot at the turkeys, feathers flew and the turkey also, and we didn’t get one single hit, but it was fun anyway.

One time Klint and I went with Dad hunting deer out on the ranch by Berrendo. We went up the canyon on the big mountain behind the ranch house. We went as far as we could in the pickup then got out and walked up the canyon, each of us with a firearm. Dad is a fast hiker and he was gone. He was after the deer, because soon we heard a shot and we knew Dad had a deer. When we caught up to where we heard the gunshot, Dad had shot a deer and it lay dead up on the hillside. I didn’t think that we had hiked all that far until we slit the deer’s throat, put a pole between it’s tied feet and with Klint in the front and me in the rear we had to carry that heavy deer all the way back to the pickup, but I do remember how good that deer tasted when we finally got to eat some of it, especially good since we were the hunters.

I have to take my hat off to Mom for having to go so many years with Dad away from home for such long stretches, but I never heard her complain, even though she would have to go to Casas on the bus to buy some groceries at times. When Dad would come home he would buy us big sacks of beans, potatoes and it seems we always had drums full of wheat and beans that we had raised on the Corralitos and New Casas farms. Mom would bake us a lot of homemade bread and in the summer we would help ourselves to bottled applesauce and whatever else Mom could get in bulk for bottling.

We borrowed this one apple peeler that could really peel, at which I got pretty proficient. During the school year, I would surely enjoy all that applesauce we bottled. I would come home from school and pull the pitcher of milk from the fridge that we got from our cow that Dad always had for us to milk in the barn. I would then go in the back room and pull out a jar of apple sauce, and then to the bread can and pull out a loaf of bread and what a snack I would have! We always ate good and plenty.

I am also very grateful to Mom for all her efforts to buy me a better violin, my violin teacher Brother DeWitt wanted us to buy. One school year, Mom cooked for the Longhurst boys the most delicious lunch meals I’ve eaten in my whole life. She let us eat with them to give them company. I don’t know how she made any money from it, because Derril and I ate with them, and probably ate a lot of the profits, but between Mom and Grandma Montez Whetten they paid for my beautiful violin and we sure enjoyed those restaurant-like meals Mom made!

I didn’t like to attend Wednesday night Mutual because a lot of the time it was wasted time with the teacher just shooting the bull with the boys who never treated me very much like a friend, but Mom always insisted I go for duty to the church. She also encouraged me to go to the dances that the school and church held and would invariably show up for one dance with me. She and also Dad, when he was in town, would always attend the band, choir, and other musical activities I was involved in and she and Dad always seemed to love the music we, their children, would make.

Graduation day finally arrived and I went to Phoenix to work for the summer, but I was offered a temporary position helping Brother Rulon Romney tutor the band kids that fall. I earned enough that fall to attend Ricks College in the spring. Then in the summer of 1970, I went home to tutor again during the summer months. But Brother Spillsbury wasn’t in full accord with the idea and towards the end of the summer he changed the locks on the music room, I was having a hard time getting the kids to come to their lessons anyway, so I got a ride to the Whetten reunion at the Brown’s ranch and from there I got a ride to Phoenix where Calvin helped me earn my bus fare to Ricks College for the fall semester.

I was thankful to Mom for getting with the Stake President Brother Call and Brother Romney and she scraped some money together from the people whose kids I gave lessons to and sent me some money for my tuition. I found jobs at school and studied hard and by November I had decided to go on my mission, which Dad agreed to finance. I got my interviews and submitted my mission application and was in the Mission home by January.

Mom and Dad wrote me throughout my mission which was very encouraging and I’m so thankful to Dad for paying my way so I could fulfill the wonderful two years of my life in the Mexico Mission. I served in San Marcos, Hildalgo, Mexico City, Acapulco, Guadalajara, Iguala, Morelos and Pachuca, Hildalgo. Mom met me at the airport in Chihuahua City after my mission and we came home with the Longhursts because their son Marvin served in my mission the same time I did.

After my mission I lived at home for about five months helping run errands for Dad. He had bought the Pacheco property that included the clay banks and soon after moved up there to live. He sold some of his cattle and retired from working for Uncle DS. He had paid the debt he had incurred with Uncle DS back from the days of the Corralitos farm and made enough money from the sale of his cattle to buy the Pacheco property and he also bought a new Mexican Chevy pickup that he let me use to run his errands. Dad had cautioned me to not drive too fast, especially over the mountain roads. I thought I was going slow enough, but I guess my heavy foot together with the heavy heifers I took to Pacheco one time broke a back shock absorber which Dad wasn’t too happy about.

I brought back some Pacheco clay and took it to the Academy to see what could be done with it. Brother Maurice Bowman taught me how to make some beautiful pots with it, but they would always crack when drying. I finally got one to dry without cracking by putting in some red sand I got from the sand banks east of Dublan, and we burned it successfully. I still have that pot. I took the clay to Brother Gerhardt Schill, the science teacher, to see why the clay wouldn’t dry without cracking. He tested it with an acid and found it had too much calcium in it. I later took it to Phoenix and had it tested by a brick factory and an assay laboratory. The clay did have calcium in it, but not enough to use to make cement out of it. The brick factory said the clay was useless, so I never did find any good use for it.

During this time of researching the clay, I mentioned it to my Uncle Halver next door and he told me about a CINVA-RAM machine invented in Columbia, South America for making bricks by pressing them with a hand worked press. The Reader’s Digest article said they were available in Mexico City. When I told my Dad, he gave me $3,000 pesos to go to Mexico City to buy the machine. I had been praying about a girl I had met on my mission and I felt the Lord had indicated to me that she was the right girl, but that I would need to get to know her. So, I felt this was the answer to my prayer to be able to do that. So off I went to Mexico City. Queta’s parents let me stay at her house while I roamed Mexico City trying to find that CINVA-RAM.

Queta was a secretary working for the Stake President Lozano, and I asked her to see if she could locate the machine for me. She did, and it wasn’t available in Mexico City, but they made it in the United States. Later, back in the States I was able to order it and obtain one, which I shipped to Pacheco to Dad. I never got enough time off work to go down and try it out and I don’t think Dad ever did either and the Mafia finally got it I suppose when Dad sold them the Pacheco land. But it was that machine and Dad’s help that helped me get my wife. Mom wasn’t too happy about me marrying a Mexican girl, but Dad felt I had chosen a special girl. I think they both agree now that I did. I give all the credit to Dad and the Lord!

Many years have come and gone, but my memories remain, and my thankfulness to Dad and Mom for all they have been to me, my wife and kids, the times we were able to go to Pacheco to visit them will always be fond memories. It was always a great hope of our family that we could live in Pacheco with Dad and Mom. Those days have come and gone, as also the land of our dreams in Pacheco, but our love remains for you, Mom and Dad for all your love and enthusiasm for life and the great experiences you have given us, your children!

Love, your son, Rod

“MOTHER & DAD”

by daughter: Ivelen Cluff Brannum

One of my most carefree memories that I treasure was a visit to Pacheco. Dad drove the truck on top of the hill next to the box canyon. We parked there for a time. I took some good books and trailed down to where I found a little ditch with running water. Right next to the ditch was a large flat rock, where I laid down and read. I must have dozed off, when Dad found me he said he walked all over the hillside, calling for me and I didn’t ever hear him. We walked back up through the pines to the pickup and were on our way.

“POWER OF PRIESTHOOD BLESSING”

by daughter: Ivelen Cluff Branum

One summer, I remember being at the Fernandez Farm with Dad. Mom was in the states for some reason. I remember Dad coming in and asking me to pack the chuck-boxes as we were going to go to the mountains. I can remember looking at those chuck-boxes and feeling the responsibility, yet faith Dad had in me to do this new kind of assignment without Mom’s help. We arrived in Pacheco late that evening. We slept outside on the front porch in our bedrolls. Dad must have just purchased it as all the rooms were closed up except the front room.

There was a small gas stove on which I was going to make some pancakes. I had the batter made and was trying to make some syrup like I’d seen Mom do. It wasn’t working; Mom had browned her sugar first.

A lady came in and said my Dad was hurt. I ran out and Dad was on the ground white and groaning in pain. He had tried to make his way back to the house from the outhouse and could go no further. He said, “I don’t think I’m going to make it.” I was so frightened, I ran to get help. I could only think of getting Sister Jane Jarvis. She was across the hill and river at Corales. I ran, crossing through fences and over stones at the river, crying and praying, “Heavenly Father, please help my Dad!” I arrived with one braid completely unraveled and must have looked a sight. I delivered my message and ran back. The way was rougher for an older lady so it seemed like ages till she arrived with her black medicine bag.

The native man had packed everything and loaded up the pickup. Dad was in the bed of the pickup and a native man was going to drive him to town to a doctor. The only thing that we used out of Sister Jarvis’s bag was the consecrated oil. Brother Soto gave Dad a blessing that he would be okay until we could reach a doctor’s care.

We made the bumpy trip down the mountain. I was uneasy with this new driver, not the same trust I had in Dad’s driving. But I was in back with Dad and we needed this good man’s help!

I recall arriving at our home in Col. Juarez. Dad was feeling so much better. He felt so good he sat up and was sitting on the tailgate and said I feel just fine. He decided he would just as well let the man go and we went on into the house. No sooner than we entered the front room, the pain started up again. It seemed sharper than before. Dad told me to run get the man. He was at the first house just as you come into the edge of town from the graveyard. We ran back and loaded Dad back into the pickup. We made a mad dash to Casas Grandes, where we reached the much-needed help from Doctor Hatch. Later, Dad was resting at the hospital. Dad gave me some money to go get us a torta and some pop. We had left with no breakfast.

Back in Col. Juarez, I made a place for both of us to sleep, on the living room floor and on our foam mats. I felt pretty responsible for Dad and felt a need to be close by. I woke him up to give him his medicine. By the time Mom got home, I felt like I was handling things just fine without her, although I’m sure it didn’t take long to be glad to turn things back over to her.

The most important thing I feel I learned, was witnessing the blessing and power of the priesthood. Dad was blessed on the trip down the mountain to Col. Juarez. He felt good enough he didn’t think he needed the Doctor. But the blessing was to comfort and help him to get to the aid of the Doctor, and then we needed to carry on through with the plan. I was probably a sophomore in High School at the time.

“A MEMORABLE & UNIQUE EXPERIENCE”

By daughter: Ivelen Cluff Branum

At the rancho Nogales, I had a memorable and unique experience that could well qualify for the Wild Kingdom Show.

I was riding Zero I believe, a good trusty horse that the “kids” got to ride. Only problem was, I couldn’t get him to go very fast, unless I worked harder than he was. So this roundup I was quite behind the others. Dad had decided to wait-up and see if he could find me. When I came plodding along on my horse, I saw Dad and he carefully motioned to come closer. There we watched a most interesting sight.

There were two rattlers doing a snake dance. They would raise almost ¾ of their bodies up high into the air, moving back and forth as they went up. Their bodies pressed against each other for support. It looked like they were kissing as they flashed their tongues at each other and fell to the ground, only to repeat the whole process again. We stayed and watched for quite some time, then went on our way, leaving them undisturbed.

It was fascinating. I recall this memory with fondness. I’m grateful for a Dad who appreciates nature and it’s ways and took the time to share it together.

Through his example Dad taught respect for all living creatures. I know Dad shuddered one Christmas when Charleen or Vona got a large plastic-like snake. (A joke, I believe from cousin Kathleen Brown.) I put it up to him; he said he just couldn’t take the thought of it. If a snake was close to the house there was no doubt what he would do. He would shoot it. For example, one afternoon, there was a commotion where the peacocks were all lined up staring at something outside the fence of the cowboy’s house. He had a wife and young children. When someone went over to check it out, there was a huge rattler. It seemed there was a debate going on as how to kill it. The cowboys thought to use a rope and beat it, but then it could grab on, or use a shovel to cut its head off, but it could twist around if not careful. As I recall, Dad’s method was to shoot it and then cut the head off with a shovel and bury the head.

Yet out on the trail I remember him voicing President Brigham Young’s thoughts to ride around them if they were not presenting any real threat to you.

“TO MOTHER & DAD”

Love, Becky Cluff Dorn

(daughter)

One of my earliest memories of Christmas is when Ivelen and I were still at home and Derril had just come back from a semester of college. Mom and Dad weren’t home at this time and consequently none of the traditional Christmas baking had been done. Derril decided he could take care of this department. I guess he had had some experience baking at college, so he proceeded to make the biggest batch of oatmeal cookies I had ever seen.

He put in a couple of four-quart kettles full of sugar, a couple of boxes of rolled oats, and all the rest of the ingredients in a big pressure cooker. He had to mix the dough in the pressure cooker because nothing else was big enough. I remember Ivelen couldn’t stomach watching Derril make such a big batch of cookies and she went in the other room to sweep the floor and tidy up the living room instead. I thought it was great though and I was more than willing to help. That year Derril, Ivelen and I also went up to the mountains in the old Studabaker truck to get a Christmas tree. I think Mom and Dad arrived home Christmas Eve and we had everything ready.

I have a lot of memories of helping Dad in Pacheco. I remember Ivelen, her friend Phoebe, and I went up to the house shortly after Dad bought it.

Then the first summer that we lived there Randy Gilman and I got to carry water up from the well across the road to give to the milk cows. It seemed like those cows could slurp up that water just as fast as we could carry it to them. After all our hard work they would just swallow once and the water was gone!

I enjoyed helping Dad plant corn in the field across the river and behind the house next door. He would go along with the hoe and dig a hole and my job was to drop the kernels of corn in the hole.

A funny experience happened to me one summer when I was helping Dad plant corn in the fields. This time Randy Gilman and I were given the duty of sitting on the back of the tractor and dropping corn at a steady pace through a funnel that channeled the corn to the ground behind the plow. On this particular day we had spilled half a bag of corn before reaching the field. Dad didn’t want to waste any seed, so Randy and I got to pick up every last kernel.

Finally we reached the field and began planting. Things went along fine for a while, and then all of a sudden the bolt that connected the tractor and the plow together broke. Randy and I were sitting on a board on top of the plow and the bolt that failed happened to be on my side. I had been holding a bucket of corn with one hand and dropping the corn down the funnel with the other. When the bolt broke I tumbled off the plow and rolled down a little hill with my bucket of corn still on my arm and didn’t spill a kernel because no matter what happened I didn’t want to pick up another spilled kernel of corn that day!

“WITH LOVE, ME. DEMAR BOWMAN”

(grandson)

My favorite place is Pacheco. The summers we spent there are favorite memories. Milking cows, grinding wheat and corn for cereal, helping with the cheese. Playing in the fields and the river was great fun and we can’t forget the clay banks.

It is hard to pick a favorite memory, however, I think my favorite thing was just being together with everybody and listening to Grandpa’s stories and conversation with the families. The fireplace and the gas lanterns just seemed to make it special.

Grandma and Grandpa, thanks so much for everything!

“LOVE, TONYA”

(Granddaughter)

I remember when you lived in Hiko and we went to visit you and we talked and did lots of things. I remember when my Mom and I went up there and did a quilt with you. When we sat down and listened to the tape about the Logan Temple and how it was built. I was so fun just being there. I am so glad you went on a mission and I am so proud too.

“LOVE, CODY” (BOWMAN)

(Grandson)

I remember when we went to Hiko and visited you and I helped you with that baby colt. We went swimming in that irrigation ditch and we ate hamburgers and played red light, green light.

“IVY MARIE ALLEN”

(granddaughter)

I remember the last time we were at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. The night before Thanksgiving, Uncle Klint and our family were the only ones at Grandpa and Grandpa’s house. So that night Grandma went to a neighbor’s house to kill a turkey for thanksgiving. When she returned home I remember plucking the feathers of the turkey with Grandpa. The feathers were so small and fuzzy; they were quite hard to pull out. Anyway we were almost done when I started getting real sleepy, so I went to bed and Grandpa finished it up. Then the next day the Cluffs (Uncle Rodney, Aunt Queta, Eddie, Tony, Brenda, Francis and Kim) came with a store-bought turkey. Grandma ended up canning the whole turkey we plucked the night before.

“MATHEW CHARLES ALLEN”

(Grandson)

Every morning I kind of had a contest with myself to see if I could beat Grandpa out of bed and get ready to go out and do the chores. Some days I would get up slowly and beat him and other days I got up fast and didn’t beat him. He had been out for about 20 minutes one day, I got up normally and hurried into the kitchen, but as I walked through Grandpa came in. I bugged how I beat him the third time this week. We went out and he started milking cows. After that we got the cows out to graze for the day. After I did my chores Grandpa saddled Bally and I went out to ride and look around. By the end of the day it was time to take my bath. I had to drop- some wood to keep warm after the bath. After I took my bath and got my bedtime clothes on I was tired and said good night to Grandma and Grandpa and went to sleep to get ready for the next day all over again.

“LOVE, ALISA ALLEN”

(Granddaughter)

I remember swinging in Grandpa and Grandma’s swing. Its good memories.

“TO GRANDMA & GRANDPA CLUFF FROM BRENDA CLUFF”

(Granddaughter)

When I was about eight or ten years of age, I remember going to Grandma and Grandpa’s house. I think it was a family reunion. Everyone was riding the donkey and the horse that Grandpa had. You could say I was hogging the horse, because I kept riding it and wouldn’t let anyone ride unless they would ride behind me. I don’t remember if it was the horse or the donkey, Kim and I rode, but everyone wasn’t around. Kim and I were riding in the pasture. We went through the little patch of trees Grandpa had, then there was a slope that went down to the stream, that went through Grandpa’s pasture. You see the stream separated Grandpa’s pasture from the rest of the forest. Kim and I never noticed the fence that went through this part of the stream. We also noticed we couldn’t get under the fence to get to the other side.

We were in the water and could see Grandpa’s house, so we decided to get out of the water and go up the slope again. When we were back in the pasture we noticed everyone was gone so we decided to go on this path that led down to the stream. We didn’t know then that we would find ourselves on the other side of the fence. We went down this neat little clean path. You could look up and see the trees that we went through a minute ago. We were getting close to the stream when a noise coming from the trees distracted us. Kim got scared and said we should go back; this was my decision, whether or not to go back. I didn’t want to take my chances so we turned and went back to the house, this time we saw everyone in a van coming back from somewhere.

I also remember Tony taking me on the horse around all the houses in Pacheco and stopping by to see the old house that we used to live in. We got to see the old church that we went to. I can remember all the old memories that day, which became our last time to ever see Pacheco. I can still see Grandma washing clothes and at the corral, Grandpa taking the cow to be milked with Tony by his side. I can still see Tony and I helping Grandma pick strawberries by eating them. We were such good helpers when it came to stirring the butter. All the memories are still in my heart even though we can’t go up to Pacheco

“GRANDMA AND THE SNAKE”

Happy 50th Wedding Anniversary to Grandma and Grandpa Cluff

By granddaughter: Yvonne Price Flannery

Grandma seemed to be able to cope with almost anything, besides every time you need a man around they’re never there.

Once Becky and Grandma were sitting in the living room, Becky on the couch with the window behind her and if you looked out it you could see the front yard with the swing hanging down from the tree there.

I had just walked out the side door and was walking towards the front porch, and as I rounded the corner of the house, there on the porch in front of the window was a big rattlesnake looking through the window.

I cautiously backed up with my heart in my throat, and ran back through the side door into the living room. I looked toward the window and there was the snake just watching Becky do whatever she was doing. I screamed, “There’s a snake watching Becky in the window!” They both jumped up and looked at it. Then the next thing I know there was Grandma with a shovel chopping off the snakes’ head. What a Lady!

“GRANDPA”

We’ve all heard a few of Grandpa’s stories and I was thinking, “Grandpa kind of reminds me of Clancy in the movie, “The Man From Snowy River”, a legend in his own time! You would say, “Wow!” too, if you saw him on a horse going after some wayward critter! He rides like lightening!

“TO GRANDMA & GRANDPA CLUFF”

By Brittney Vining

(Granddaughter)

Here are some memories of things I used to do at Grandpa and Grandma’s house in Pacheco. We looked for pretty rocks, Grandma took us to pick berries and then we made pies for desert. Dad would take us for walks in the forest, while we would look for rocks. When we came home we would crack them to see if they had sparklies inside them.

Another thing I remember, was Grandma took our family to get berries. The berries were in the bottom of this canyon with pine trees all across the top. We shared baskets and she showed us which ones were ripe. We would get so far in the bush to get the berries we would have to ask for help, because the stickers were all in our clothes. When our baskets were all filled, we went straight home and cleaned ourselves and the berries so we could make pies for dinner. Grandma showed us how to put them in the pan and make it even. She gave us dough strips to make a crisscross pattern on top of the berry filled pie. Then we made little ruffles all around the edge of the pan and hooked the strips to the ruffles. I don’t remember exactly how good it was, but it was a lot of fun.

Grandma and Grandpa, I love you and hope to visit with you again.

Love, Brittney

“TO GRANDMA & GRANDPA FROM MICHELLE VINING”

(Granddaughter)

Well there are lots of wonderful memories I have of Mexico. I miss it so much now that I can’t go back. I guess I didn’t really appreciate it then as I do now. When I think of Mexico, I first think of the beautiful green fields where the cows used to roam.

I remember one of my favorite things to do was, to go and get water out of the well. I was always amazed at how cold the water was right out of the bucket. I would carry the bucket into the house to filter out all of the little pieces of wood that had fallen in. One of the funniest things I remember, (but wasn’t so funny then), was when it came time to churn the butter. As soon as we would see Grandma getting ready to fill the bucket with cream, all of us kids would get as far away from that kitchen as we could. But it seemed, no matter how far you would go she always caught you!

One of the things I remember most, was that every single morning that I got up, Grandma was already up and going. There was that big tin tub sitting on top of the stove with Grandma sitting right by it with her whole arm enveloped in the milk, (or soon to be cheese). All of us kids just couldn’t wait for her to finish, so we could eat the left over curds, boy were they squeely!

Gosh there’s just so many things, like washing our clothes on that funny board and then hanging them out to dry, or helping Grandma pick the vegetables and strawberries. I remember how we used to love to go down to the clay banks and get a whole bunch of mud and bring it back to made pottery. Boy, was that a lot of fun!

There was this game that we used to play while swinging on the swing in the front yard. We would try and see how many times in a row, one could get high enough to touch that branch way up in the tree with their feet.

Then there was Grandpa’s cows, I was used to going out there and watching Grandpa milk the cows, and after he was done, he would let us come in and try to milk them. It was so much fun! I can remember going out to feed the pigs. Boy, were they ever squeelers!

One of my favorite things I just absolutely loved to do, (and miss so much) is riding the horses, except the mule of course. Boy, if you ever got last pick that was what you were stuck with, and since I was very young and didn’t get much choice anyway, that’s what I usually got stuck with. And I’m sure that everyone can remember as plain as I do that if you were to get on the back of him, boy could he whip that tail right on my bare legs that is! Did that ever hurt.

I just want to tell you Grandma and Grandpa, how much I loved and enjoyed going to Pacheco to see you. Thanks for the wonderful memories.

Love Ya! Michelle

“TO GRANDPA & GRANDMA CLUFF”

From granddaughter: Lori Vining Crook

One of the favorite activities to do when at Grandma’s was going to play in the river. We would take cans down and try to catch the little fish. We would scrounge around for the tadpoles. We would chase baby frogs along the bank because (they were so cute)! We enjoyed splashing, swimming, and laughing in the water.

On one occasion, I had to use the bathroom (as all little kids do), so I walked and walked around looking for a good place. When I was finally far enough away from the family, I found three boulders neatly put together, to form a nice little toilet seat. Just as I was preparing to do my thing, lo and behold, there was a snake coiled up right there! Boy, I don’t think I’ve ever jumped as high as I did that day, and from then on I always waited until I was home to use the bathroom.

“TO GRANPA & GRANDMA CLUFF”

From Grandson: Shaun Vining

In Mexico, I remembered every morning, Brittney and I would go outside and help Grandpa feed the animals and watch cows being milked, and Julie would be making butter. Lori and Mom would help Grandma make bread and hot cereal. I always loved Mexico because it always seemed to be so beautiful.

I Love you, Grandpa and Grandma Cluff!

Love, Shaun

“TO HILVEN & HELEN”

From Freda Whetten Thayne

Helen’s youngest sister

Dear Helen and Hilven:

Your daughter LaVerne suggested that each of the family write something for your 50th Wedding Anniversary celebration to be held in conjunction with the Charles W. Whetten reunion in August.

My thoughts run back to our childhood days in Colonia Garcia and Colonia Pacheco. I would have a hard time writing about what you thought about and how you felt, so I’ll stick to writing about some of my thoughts and feelings.

I remember a lot of families helping us build the log house we lived in, out across the valley in Garcia. Some nights we would be so frightened when the folks were gone and we could hear the timber wolves howl and bark at each other. I liked that home and it was in a pretty setting on the edge of the forest of pine trees.

One night, Dad and a group of men were standing outside by the house talking. It was almost dark and I wrapped a sheet around me and thought I would sneak around the opposite side of the house and scare them. Well, I only got part way around the house and our cattle dog saw me and not recognizing my “get up” chased me back inside. As I jumped inside the door his front pays hit the screen and he was barking and growling. My heart almost left my body!

I remember riding the horse across the valley to town to go to grade school, which was also the Garcia Ward Chapel. The dances were such great family activity, everyone went and the children could either dance around or go to sleep on the nice long benches.

We moved several times while living in Colonia Garcia. When it was time to move to a different house each of us kids knew what items we were responsible for moving. We really got that “moving” down to an organized science!

The one home, we slept upstairs in a kinda loft. I remember how very, very difficult it was to part with the nice warm covers at about 4:00 a.m. when Dad would shake us a little and say “time to get out of that tall grass”! Our job was to let the calves in, one at a time, while Dad and the hired men milked the cows.

“WE HAD CHICKEN POX AND CHASED THE SCHOOL KIDS”

When I was in about the third grade, we all got the “Chicken Pox” or some other contagious childhood disease. The other children in town were told not to get by those little Whetten kids because they had something terrible! Sometimes we’d sneak down to the back barn by the street when school was either starting or letting out and follow behind the kids, they’d see us coming and run to distance themselves from us. We’d laugh and think it was great fun! (Well we should have been appreciated and thanked by the teacher and parents for helping out so much with their punctuality!)

I liked the almost wrap-around porch at our home in Pacheco. I liked the large Oak tree in the front yard and the front porch swing. Couldn’t figure out why guests and visitors were so interested in the big Oak tree on the north side of the house that came up through the porch floor and out the roof. It was just part of the house to me.

One night after a big dance in Pacheco, a truck of Garcia people broke down not to far out of town and they all walked back to our house to spend the night. As I recall Aunt Montez fed them hot cakes the next morning for breakfast. (Probably 20 to 25 people)

Some of my fondest memories of delicious food was the chicken Aunt Montez would fix with butter and cream in the cooker. The fluffy light baking powder biscuits; the tender great tasting fried venison put inside a hotcake! Also the great mince meat pies! That reminds me of LaSell Taylor and Leland Robinson coming each year at Christmas time to go hunting. One year it was leap year. The guys were supposed to take pies and the girls get the dates. Dolly Anderson spent all day at our house trying to get up enough courage to ask Leland for a date. She finally did about 6 p.m. I struggled with asking LaSell and thought I had died and gone to heaven when he said “Yes”. We were so much younger than they were and the boys our age were pretty disgusted at us at the dance. We didn’t care, we loved it!

During the school days, we used to dance during recess (each person that could play the piano taking turns playing). We also enjoyed playing “Andy I Over” outside. The chapel was about 3 stories high so it took a lot of “ump” to get the ball over.

One time Dad and Aunt Montez went to El Paso, Texas and left Charles Alma and I alone at the house. I must have been about 12 years old. Anyway, one day the big tall Mexican that used to work for Dad came to the house drunk and demanded to come inside and get some cheese. I grabbed the rifle and held it towards his stomach and told him if he took one more step to get inside, I would pull the trigger. (It makes me shudder to think about it now, but I remember how determined I was). The Lord must have been watching over us at the time, to keep such a terrible thing from happening. He turned and left us alone.

Charles Alma and I were given money for each squirrel we shot in the rock pile across the wash from the grainery. (Because of the corn they ate.) We each had 22 rifles and we got pretty good at it. Dad would harvest the corn in the fall and tie it up in “shocks” around in the yard, later shucking it out and putting it in the grainery for animal feed in the winter.

“FREDA TELLS ABOUT MONTEZ AND THE TURKEYS IN THE CORN”

Jarvis’s lived next door and they had turkeys. Sometimes the turkeys would get out of their pens and come over and get into the corn. One day Aunt Montez looked out the kitchen window and saw the whole flock devouring the corn. She ran out shooing them and waving her hands, she picked up a stick and threw it into the middle of them and one of the big gobblers flopped over on the ground! She said “My Gosh, I’ve killed one of Jarvis’s turkeys! She ran over to it, picking it up she began bouncing it up and down on it’s limp leg, trying to revive it.

Not seeing or feeling any results she let it fall back on the ground and went back into the house very frustrated….. it wasn’t until then that she was aware of the Cordada and his men, who had been camping out by the corral, who had been watching her and they were really laughing. After getting back into the house she looked back out the kitchen window and saw the gobbler jump up, shake his head and run towards home!

“A HONEY JOB HELPS US ON ANOTHER MISSION”

Calvin helped us get a job with Mac McCann and we extracted 17 drums of honey for him. With the money we got supplies and re-entered the mission field, January 30, 1993.)

MOUNTAIN DISTRICT MISSION

DISTRICTO DE LA SIERRA

January 30, 1993

(Hilven) “We were released from the Parral District and we no more than got released when they called us to work in the Mountain District, “Distrito De La Sierra”. We did the same thing in the Mountain District that we had done over in the Parral District. The Mountain District was more strung out and we had seven branches there also, but we didn’t have nearly as much help and leadership as we did in Parral so it was more of a trial for us and a lot more work.

Before we left the Mountain District we also had some of the students playing for the sacrament services. We had some of the branches organized where they were functioning with the complete program: the Primary, the Relief Society, the Young Women and the Young Men’s Program. (With) Some of them we still didn’t make the grade. They didn’t have enough people to fill the positions to carry on the full program, but we encouraged them to teach their children at home. We found out that even though we didn’t feel like we were qualified, if we were ready to work, the Lord always helped us do what we needed to do. We learned to love the people!

“FACE TO FACE” WITH A BEAR”

(Lorel Cluff came over to visit with his brother Hilven

after their sister Verl’s funeral and were swapping stories)

(Lorel): “Remember that time you took me and we went over to North Creek, looking for that mare that Charlie Whetten had given me. We saddled up and didn’t take anything with us, a bedroll or anything! I think we had a little tin can that we tied to the saddle so we could boil some “Yervanese”. I remember we had one. That afternoon when we got over there, we were riding down into North Creek and there were a bunch of cattle feeding out along the bottom of the canyon there, kinda little level spot. There were a whole bunch of deer feeding right in amongst the cows, you know. So we lay down on the side of our horse, along his neck and let our horses ease down in there you know, we got right down almost amongst those animals and finally they got scent of us and they just disappeared, but we were almost as close as you (to Calvin across the table) and those ol’ deer was just a feeding right there with them!”

“That night we got down to the bottom of that canyon, like I said, we didn’t have our bedrolls or anything, we rolled a couple of big ol’ logs up about 10 feet apart and set them on fire and laid our saddle blankets down and the saddle and used our saddle blankets for a cushion and saddle for a pillow and that’s the way we slept all night!”

“Next morning, Hilven gave me my choice, he said, “You can either fix breakfast or go find the horses.” I said, “ Well, what am I going to fix, there’s nothing to fix, you know, nothing to cook with and nothing to cook or nothing to eat!” I thought that was a pretty impossible chore, so I said, “I’ll just go find the horses.”

“I didn’t know whether to go up canyon or down canyon, I didn’t have any idea where those horses were. Hilven said, “You’d better take the shotgun, we had a big ol’ heavy shotgun with us there, “you might see something!” I didn’t want to carry that big ol’ heavy thing along; I was just going to look for the horses! So I didn’t take the gun.”

“I headed off down the canyon, it was right down in the very bottom of that canyon and it was still pitch dark and I’d stop every-once-in-a-while and see if I could hear those horses stompin’ around, we’d hobbled them you know, but they had wandered. But finally I got at least a mile away from camp and I hadn’t heard anything from the horses, it was just now starting to get the crack of dawn, and you probably seen those little “Manzanita” bushes with the little red berries on them.”

“I was walkin’ between a bunch of those, there was a semblance of a trail there; all of a sudden one of those bushes over there about 10 feet away, started moving a little bit. That was kind of strange, I thought well maybe an ol’ cow hid her calf there you know and that calf was getting scared because I was so close to it. Then the bushes started movin’ again, and I stopped and was looking over there to see what that was, and about that time an ol’ bear stood up, he looked at me and I was looking at him and that bear would look at me and I was look at him and you know something had to give! Ha! Ha!! (Calvin: “You know it!” and Dad is laughing!”)

“I started a-stepping backwards, about six feet behind me there was a bank that dropped off, and a stream of water. I slid down that bank and ducked my head and took off for camp as hard as I could run! I think I run the whole mile and I didn’t get a bit tired! Ha! Ha!”

(Hilven) “He came a running into camp and he had a rock in each hand, he was panting so hard he could hardly talk, he said, uh, uh, I seen a bear!!” (Lorel) “That’s exactly what I said, he described it perfectly. I was winded, scared and white as a ghost I think. (Calvin) “Out there with nothing but a rock!” (Lorel) “Hilven said, Oh come on, let’s go see if we can find him! He grabbed a gun and we headed out down there and all we found was the tracks! He probably run as hard as I did, in the other direction. But that’s quite an experience to meet a bear off that close face to face down in the ol’ canyon at the crack of dawn! (Calvin: “O Man!”)”

(Hilven) “The trail went right through a bunch of these big ol’ “Shumack” bushes. You know that get those tassels on them. He was going along that cockeyed trail there and the bear was probably out there eating those berries.” (Lorel) “He was eating those berries I’m sure!” “Well after all that, I went up the canyon about a hundred yards and found the horses!” Ha! Ha! Ha!”

(Lorel) “Then we looked all over those mountains and couldn’t find that horse I was looking for. We went down to the Villa Ranch and they had a bunch of horses in the corral there and that horse was one of them!” That ol’ horse had never been broken, he was wild you know. We roped that thing and we fought that stupid horse all the way back to Pacheco. He wore us and our horses out and it out, it just would not go! Hilven would drag him and I’d beat him and push him. I don’t remember if we ever did get him to Pacheco, did we Hilven?” (Hilven): “Yes, I think we did.”

(Hilven) “Do you remember how hungry we got that time? We got hungry enough we tried to eat a parrot and we couldn’t eat him!” (Lorel) “We made some “Yervanise” tea, I remember that, but I don’t remember what we used for sugar or if we used any.” (Hilven) “No, we didn’t have any sugar or anything, somebody had made a camp there and they’d thrown one of those rusty cans out there and I cleaned it up and made some Yervanese tea and we drank it. (Lorel) “I thought you might have had a piece of Peloncio in your saddle-bags or something like that and that’s what we used for sugar.”

(Hilven) “I know we were getting plenty hungry before we got something to eat though!” (Lorel) “I don’t know what we were thinking of going of on a trip like that, no better prepared than we were!!”

“JUST REMEMBERING”

By Hilven Cluff

July 4, 1992

“CALLINGS IN THE CHURCH

TEACHERS AND SCHOOLS ATTENDED”

1. 1st grade at Pacheco by teacher….Verl Cluff (my sister)

Other grades: ….Genevieve & Fleeta Hatch in Col.Pacheco

Edward Johnson, Paul Keeler, Lester Skousen in Col.Pacheco

Wilmerth Skousen in Colonia Juarez

2. High School at J.S.A. in Col. Juarez

Nell S. Hatch, Rita Skousen, Vivian S. Bluth, Moroni Abeg, Bryant R. Clark, Floyd Walser, Edwin McClellan, Ben Taylor, Ernest W. Young, Ralph B. Keeler.

I attended 1 year at Douglas High School in Douglas Arizona. I don’t recall any of the teacher’s names. The rest of my schooling was in the school of HARD KNOCKS under professors “EXPERIENCE” and “TRIAL & ERROR”.

3. CALLINGS IN THE CHURCH:

Deacon, Teacher, Priest, Elder, Seventy, High Priest.

President of the Young Men in Col. Pacheco, Scout Master in Col. Pacheco. Ward Clerk (Pacheco and Queen Creek), Stake Missionary (Queen Creek, Colonia Juaez, Colonia Pacheco, and Laveen Ward, Phoenix AZ.) Stake Sunday School Superintendency (1st Counselor) in Col. Juarez Stake, Gospel Doctrine Teacher (Pacheco), Presiding Elder at Williams Ranch and Pacheco Units 2 years. Branch President in Col. Pacheco 10 years, Guide and Assistant Visitor Center Director in Mexico City for 1 and ½ years. Missionary and District President in the Parral District, Mission Mexico Chihuahua for 2 years. Missionary, District President in the Paral District, Mexico Chih. Mission. Visiting High Councilor in the Distrito de la Sierra, District President in the Distrito de la Sierra. Stake Missionary in the Phoenix Stake, Laveen Ward.

“JOBS AND PLACES I HAVE WORKED”

•Farming, Trapping, Teaching School at Pacheco

1942 – 1943- 1944

•Hunters Guide At Pacheco………”Bronc Buster”

1946 – 1948 1942 - 1944

•Trucker, Logging, at Corrales, Mound Valley.

1944 – 1946

•Mink Tender at Midvale Ut……. And Chickens in Col. Juarez

1951 1950

•Cotton & Potato Farming at Queen Creek Arizona

1952 – 1957

•Cotton & Wheat Farming at Hermosillo Sonora

1957 - 1960

•Cattle Ranch Forman at the “Nogales” ranch, and at the “Negro” ranch Chihuahua, Mexico…………………. and at Hiko, Nevada U.S.A.

1960 – 1976 1990

•Dairyman, Rancher, Farmer at Col. Pacheco.

1976 - 1988

•Missionary, Guide Assistant, Visitor Center Director by Mexico City Temple.

Aug. 24, 1988 – Jan. 4, 1990

•Ranch Hand – Hiko Nevada

6 mo. In 1990

•Missionary, District President in the Parral District, Mexico Chih. Mission.

Aug. 15, 1990 – Aug. 15, 1992

•Visiting High Counselor in the Distrito de la Sierra, District President in the Distrito de la Sierra.

Jan. 1993 – 1996

*Stake Missionary in Phoenix Stake, Laveen Ward

1998 –Oct. 2000

………………………………………..

“BE PREPARED!”

“Physically, mentally, emotionally & spiritually”

(In one of our tape sessions, I asked Dad what he would tell us his children about being prepared and this was his advice;)

(Hilven) “Well, we have different circumstances than they did in the early Pioneer days. Now days you can just go to the grocery store and get what you want.

We went to a lot of trouble to be able to have a little garden. Mom and I lived up on that hill (at their house in Colonia Pacheco) where there wasn’t any water, couldn’t get any water, unless you pumped it. So we went about a mile and half up the country and put in a pipeline from the spring, there wasn’t very much water but if you kept that little trickle agoin’ you could water a heck of a lot of ground with it.

We picked out all the rocks out of the back yard and I got the ol’ tractor back there and dug out some more rocks, and got a place big enough to plant a little garden. We planted the kind of vegetables we liked and the kind that we wanted to store. Along the fences we planted potatoes, they took up quite a bit of room but we had quite a bit of fence space, so we just planted a couple of rows along the fences. We’d eat on the potatoes when they got big enough to eat until it was time to harvest them and still we had a sack or so left over for the winter.

We had carrots, and rutabagas and turnips and squash and string beans. Mom would put up the string beans in bottles, she’d bottle some of the squash too. The hard-shelled varieties are the ones that keep the longest. When we were down on the ranch, we’d plant them out in the field, we’d just water them a little bit to get them up and then after that, the rains would take care of them.

The Mexicans down there, when they plant their corn they mix a little bit of squash seeds in with the corn and they plant the squash right down in the corn hole and they raise wagon loads of that hard-shelled Mexican squash. That’s a good idea too, they always have squash and corn. Most of them raise beans and a few potatoes, not very many of them have vegetable gardens. They always have some green Chile.

The church manual says to store the kind of food that we usually eat and put a few on your shelf and when you take them off why replace them with a new can so they don’t get old. You size them up every once-in-awhile to see what you’ve got and what you need to replace. That’s what we did too. We bottled our fruit, we bottled some of our vegetables, some of our squash. We always kept a sack of beans and plenty of corn, potatoes and squash.

We found out that we could even keep in the garden a lot of the vegetables, just cover them up a little deeper and it didn’t freeze them, so they were real fresh when we got them out of the garden. That’s a good place to store them. We didn’t even dig them up, the ones that wanted to grow a little bit, you cover them up, and that discourages them from growing. Cover them up with straw and then put dirt up on top of them down the rows and they would keep right in the garden.

We always had cheese, butter, eggs our vegetables our milk and kept a few chickens until the coyotes got off with all of them. They like chickens pretty well! They’re not a bit bashful about coming around and picking them up either. One time, I was milking down there and I heard a chicken squawk and I looked down there and the ol’ coyote was just picking him up and running up through the country, right there before my eyes, they got the last chicken just like they did here!

President Kimball said we need to plant a garden. It not only helps us to have a vegetable and food supply that we don’t have to run to the grocery store for, but it helps the kids learn how to produce it. That’s how I learned how to raise a garden. My Mom took me out there, I helped her hoe up the ground and clean it up, make the rows, put the seed in and water it and we took care of it. I learned how to take care of a garden. It’s interesting! Then you get a salt shaker and go out there enjoy yourself any time you want to! (Chuckle, Chuckle).

I think that it’s very important to follow our leaders counsel, they’ve counseled us to be prepared, to plant a garden, to get our years supply, to renew it periodically to replace it with new stuff. If you learn how to do it, it works! We got in a bind one time and we lived almost a year on our food supply. I’ve known of other people that’s done the same thing. Mom, even though we had a well right in the front yard, she always had some water stored too because the counsel was, to store it. If we had to pick up and go someplace, we couldn’t have packed the well with us, but we could grab the water and the food, so be prepared!

(LaVerne asked Dad) “So you helped Grandma do the garden and then you were sent to get some meat for the winter.” (Hilven) “Yeah, I turned out to be one of the best hunters in the family, because whenever Mother needed some meat, why she’d tell me they needed some meat. I just got in the habit in the fall of the year when the deer were fat, I’d go out and bring in a few deer and we’d make jerky out of the meat so it would keep. They didn’t have very many bottles in those days and pressure cookers were something that wasn’t very well known. They did pressure some of the stuff, squash and things like that, that need to be pressure-cooked.”

Dried meat is a good way to store meat, just put it in a sack, we used flour sacks. The bugs and the flies and stuff couldn’t get to it, it could get air in there so it didn’t mold and didn’t get too much moisture to spoil it and we just hung it up on the rafters in the store- room. Mother did the same way with apples and pears and things that she dried. We’d put them in a sack and hang them up, we had rows of sacks of different things that were hanging from the ceiling and whenever you wanted some. We’d even go in there and snitch some to put in our pockets. (Chuckle, Chuckle!) Of course we had cows and we milked the cows in the fall of the year when the grass would get good and the cattle were in good shape, why we’d bring in a bunch of them and make cheese and butter for the winter and store it.

The butter we’d put down in a salt brine. It wasn’t too good a tasting by the time spring came along, but it was still butter! It got kinda strong, you’d wash the salt water off the outside of it. It didn’t penetrate very deep, but the butter kinda got old tasting, it didn’t taste like fresh butter, but it was a whole lot better than nothin’!

The vegetables, we usually had vegetables out of the garden. We’d plant squash out in the field and around the garden plot where there was plenty of room for them to grow and down to the ranch, we had a room where we’d put the vegetables in moist sand and they kept pretty good! The potatoes, we didn’t cover them up, they’ll keep better if you don’t put anything over them, only just straw to keep them from freezing. So we learned, if you didn’t produce it, you didn’t have it.

To make jerky, you just cut up the meat in thin strips and put the salt on it that you want too, and hang it over. We used ropes, wire will kinda stain it, and give it a little bit of a rusty place where you hang it over, but if you move it and move it around a little bit why you can even use it on wire, but these small nylon ropes would be good to hang it over these things. If you have flies, you put it in a room you could cover it up with netting. Of course you have to keep the netting far enough away where they can’t reach through and snitch.

We did the same thing with the fruits that we dried. We’d cut them up into little pieces and put them up on the roof on a sheet of tin. The tin would gather heat and it would dry quite fast, you’d have to turn them over every once-in-awhile, about every day until they got dried and then we’d put them in sacks and hang them up.

The Mexican people peel and then cut their squash in strings too. They just go around and around cutting little strips off and then they’d hang them and let it dry. They do their fish the same way. The Chile, they precook it and take the outside skin off from it and hang it up and let it dry too. That’s the way they store their stuff, a lot of it dried.

I went to a guy’s place when we were in Parral. His brother had a farm down on the river and he raised Chile to sell and made a commercial business of it. There was a good market for dried Chile. They’d wait just before it started turning ripe, then they’d pick it. They had a little kind of a furnace like thing built, where they’d build a fire and they would scatter these sacks of Chile on top of the tin and turn them with a rake, they had a wooden rack they turned them with, and let them toast a little on all sides. Then they would take them out and put them on screens.

They had great big screen that the Chile couldn’t fall through but they could get air all around them, and that’s where they’d let them finish drying on those. When they got dry, why they would sack them up and sell them. That was real good! I went over there and watched them. So where there’s a will there’s a way! I wouldn’t like to be in the shoes of some of those members in La Junta that have to go to the store before breakfast every morning. If bad times came, they would just be hurt! That’s all. There wouldn’t be any place to go to buy anything even if they had the money!

Another thing we did, everybody in Pacheco, we couldn’t go to the store, there wasn’t any store, nobody had any money anyway so everybody was in the same boat, we all had to produce what we wanted to eat. Sweets were something that we all like to have but nobody had unless we produced it so everybody got to planting cane. They’d plant a patch of cane and then they set up a molasses mill over there and everybody would take their cane over and grind it out, squash the juice out of the stocks and put it in a vat a double boiler so it wouldn’t scorch, then they’d boil it down till it got all the water off from it and then put it in their containers. We made enough molasses to last us all winter every year until we could raise another crop.

We had molasses candy pulls, molasses cakes that Mom used to make, we didn’t know what sugar was. So that’s a good way to make your sweets, if you have a place to plant a little bit of cane. You can raise “cane” whenever you want to. Ha! Ha!

Oh, my sisters would get up a candy pull every once-in-awhile, and then of course we got in on it. They would cook big batches of that, they’d put big batches of molasses on and then cook it until it got where it kinda set up when you’d drop it in some cold water then they’d take it out and make it into a big long rope and then two people would get on either end and stretch it. That was to put the air back in it and it gradually turn white and they’d pull it and until they couldn’t get it to stretch it anymore and then they’d lay it out on a board and let it finish setting up and then they’d take a knife and whack it and break it.

Another kind they made they called molasses peanut brittle. They’d cook it down until it was about the same texture as the other stuff that they stretched, when you’d take a little bit and drop it in water and it’d harden up a little bit then they’d put a teaspoonful of baking soda in it and whip it up real fast and pour it out in a platter with peanuts in it, and that was good too, and just before it really set up, why they’d mark squares in it so when you wanted to you could break them off. It was real good. That was molasses candy peanut brittle.

My mother never did waste anything, she always used things up, if the milk was sour, she’d make cottage cheese out of it or acederro. If the tomatoes didn’t ripen, she’d make green tomato preserves. I liked it, but when Helen and I got married, we planted our tomatoes too late and hardly any of them got ripe. We pulled the vines with the tomatoes and everything on it and sometimes a lot of them will ripen up if you do that, but not many ripened up, so we tried to make it all up into green tomato preserves. Boy! We had five gallon buckets of preserves. We ate preserves, tomato preserves, until I couldn’t stand the looks of it! Ha! Ha! Oh Brother!

We raised beans but we didn’t have the modern machinery to thrash them out, so we would just pull the beans and stack them in small piles so they could dry, pods and stalks until they got dry. Then we’d haul them in by the house someplace and put down a big tarp and either beat them out with sticks or run horses over them and thrash them out. Then we’d take the chaff and everything off from them and everything that we could with the pitchfork and let the beans fall back on the tarp. After the big stuff was off why, we’d gather them up and put them in container and take them out and when the wind blew why, we’d just pour them from one container to another till the wind blew all the trash out of them, then we’d just sack them up and store them. But if you buy beans to keep, buy the mountain beans because they won’t get the bugs in them. The cycle is so short that they don’t have the time to go the full cycle and they won’t get weevil in them.

Up in La Junta I raised a pretty good crop of beans and I had them stored in a little room down to a neighbors place, they started to getting bugs in them so Mom (Helen) and I went down there and treated about a ton or more, maybe two tons for bugs. All we did was, we’d get a five gallon plastic bucket with a lid on it. We put a teaspoonful of cooking oil in each bucket and then just roll it on the floor until the beans were coated with a fine film of cooking oil then we’d sack them up again and the bugs wouldn’t bother them, and if they had already had bugs in them why they were killed. So that’s an easy and economical way, if you want to store beans and they haven’t been raised in the mountains, that’s the way you can do it.

Another thing my Mom (Amanda) would do every fall. She knew what all the herbs were good for and she would take me out and we’d go around the hills and up the canyons and gather up the herbs. We’d gather them up and tie them in bundles and take them home and let them dry and we had herbs for medicine all winter long. There was a wild pea vine that we’d dig the root up and cut it up and pound it a little bit and let it dry, and that was good for kids that wet the bed. She had a remedy for everything, we didn’t like some of them but whenever we needed them we got them.

Yarrow was awfully bitter, pennyroyal was another one, and I can’t remember all the things she used them for. We had wild peppermint and spearmint and yervanese that was good for the stomach disorders. Yarrow, I can’t remember what she’d give it to us for, but we had to drink it once in a-while, it’s the most bitter stuff you ever tasted, it’d durnsure kill or cure! Ha! Ha! But there’s good books on herbs and they’ll tell you what they’re good for, and if you learn what they are, why you can make up your own drug store, you don’t have to run to the store and buy them.” “So if you haven’t got it, you han’t got it!” (Chuckle, Chuckle.)

“THE ART PRESENTATION FOR THE COLONIA JUAREZ TEMPLE”

February 16, 1999

By LaVerne Cluff Price

“I feel to include this, because the story of “The Man On The White Horse” was told to me by Dad (Hilven) and he said it happened while he was branch president in Colonia Pacheco.”

When Sister Skidmore called me, and told me that my painting “Temple Hill in Colonia Pacheco,” had been accepted and could we be in Colonia Juarez on the week of the 16th, as they wanted me to make the presentation to Brother Gregg Hill personally on the Colonia Juarez Temple lawn. We were very happy and a little concerned that we would be able to get the painting across the line without any problems.

We had been given instructions about the picture frame Brother Hill wanted. So we went to a picture frame store and found what we thought he wanted; I told the manager of the store that the frame was going to Old Mexico to be put in a temple. I had given each of my children one of my paintings and this one belonged to our son Paul and so I had asked him if he would let it go, to be put in the Colonia Juarez temple. He said yes, if I would paint him another one. The store manager called and said it was ready, so Calvin met Paul at the store, and Paul paid two hundred and fifty dollars for this gold frame. When they brought it into the house, I saw that this store manager had carefully packaged this gold frame, suitable for shipping! Wow! I thought, he went the extra mile to make sure it was in good condition when it arrived to be put in the temple! I was touched in my heart, by his concern and thoughtfulness!

But as we all looked at it all packaged up, we all looked at each other and said nope, it wouldn’t go across the line like that without problems! So we took the painting out of all that nice packaging and put the painting behind the drivers seat in our crew-cab truck and put a blanket over it and said a prayer and drove it across, no problem, got to the second checking station and the officer looked right at it, and I had the distinct impression that he didn’t see anything there. Calvin and I know Heavenly Father answered our prayers and it arrived safely, with no problems!

At noon on the 16th, of February, Sister Skidmore called me and asked if we could come up to the temple to make the presentation which would take place on the lawn by the temple. I felt that Dad would want to be at the presentation so I said, “Daddy, (Hilven Cluff), go get your glad-duds on and come with Calvin and I to present my painting to Brother Hill up on the lawn of the temple.” When I said this to him, he got all choked up and he started crying, bless his heart! He went in the bedroom and put his suit on and we got the painting and some Olla Cave paintings and put them in the truck and headed up the hill.

Sister Bon Adell Skidmore and her husband Dick had been called on a mission to help with the Ciudad Juarez Temple, but since it wasn’t ready, they had been sent to Colonia Juarez to help locate among other things, some local pieces of art from local artists, which would be appropriate to go in the Colonia Juarez Temple. They looked at various artists paintings in the local vicinity and had called me in Phoenix to ask me if I had any paintings that would be suitable to put in the temple. I told her about a painting that I had given my son; that would be suitable. She ask me to see if I could bring it down to Colonia Juarez next trip. So I asked Paul if he could give it up for this purpose and he said yes, so we took it to our home in Colonia Juarez.

They fell in love with it and we sat looking at the painting sitting across the room and we were all teary eyed when I was finished telling the true story of Ermalinda Montes seeing “The Man On The White Horse” on temple hill in Colonia Pacheco. Dad told me, that two missionaries were sent that year, at the time when Ermalinda saw the man on the white horse on temple hill. I thought, Wow! Missionaries don’t get sent to Colonia Pacheco very often, but they were there at this time!

Brother Skidmore took a picture of the painting, saying they had to send a photo to the First Presidency of the church to be approved, however the photo didn’t turn out, so they called and ask me to send a photo of it to the First Presidency. I only had a copy of a photo but I sent it anyway.

Sister Skidmore told me to bring my other paintings to show Brother Hill also. So we carried all the paintings over by the sidewalk and stood them up. Then Sister Skidmore went to find Brother Hill. While she was gone, Brother Hill walks across the lawn towards me and taking a corner molding out of his pocket, ask me if I was LaVerne Price? I said yes, then he walked over to the painting of temple hill and said, I wanted this same frame molding on the painting! And wonders of wonders, it was the same! I said to myself more than to him, Wow, Heavenly Father sure takes care of his own!

I had personally not cared for the frame because I felt it was too bright a gold and the Antique gold frame I had looked better on it. But looking at it on the lawn I felt that the picture came alive again. I had threatened to Antique the frame he wanted on it and was really glad my husband hadn’t let me! Brother Hill said he had used that same frame in a temple in Germany. I asked him if this is what he thought looked best, and he said “yes this would look very well. “This is definitely temple quality”! He then said, that the first Presidency couldn’t tell with a color copy, so they had left it up to him to decide.

He looked at my other paintings of the Olla Cave and asked where the cave was located and how long would it take to go there, he’d like to go see it, if he had enough time. Calvin and I both laughed and told him it was a half a days travel over rough roads even though it was only thirty-five miles away. He didn’t have enough time to do that.

Then sister Lidia Quesada de Talavera, (sister to the famous Mata Ortiz pottery maker, Juan Quesada), came walking towards us with the pot she had made. When she pulled it out of the plastic sack we could see it was beautifully done. It was bone white with intricate, fine lines she had drawn. (I found out later that she did showings and was quite well known for her pottery.)

Brother Phillip Taylor interpreted for her and Brother Hill, while she explained that every pot has a message or story. All the delicate lines intertwined, without running into each other, creating a continuous movement around the pot, a unity of movement. She told how she felt that some of the symbols made her think of sisters coming into the gospel and joining with the other Relief Society sisters.

Brother Hill told her he did not want to offend her, but that he wanted to put a simple floral arrangement in the pot, that he would be sensitive to see that it complimented it. He said they could not have an object of art in the temple just for the object itself. She said she would not be offended, that she did not feel worthy to have her pot in the temple. She said she hoped it didn’t have too much black in it, as that was one of the instructions for her pot. He said he would like to take a pot back with him. Sister Talavera said she had made two pots and chosen this one. (She had been the Relief Society President in her ward, and her husband Rito Talavera was now the Bishop of one of the wards in Nuevo Casas Grandes.)

‘THE STORY OF THE MAN ON THE WHITE HORSE”

Sister Skidmore then told Brother Hill she would like to tell him of a very special story that happened at “Temple Hill in Colonia Pacheco”, of “The man on the White Horse”. She started to tell the story we had related to her, when I asked if my father could relate it as he had first hand knowledge of it, that he was the Branch President at that time and knew what happened. She indicated that would be good and so Dad stepped forward and told this story:

“One day Sister Ermalinda Chanez de Montes was walking home, down the lane behind “Temple. Hill”, when she saw this man on a big white horse. He was wearing strange clothing, a cape and a tall hat and was looking down at the ground, as if looking for something. She watched him for a few minutes, wondering who he could be. Not wanting to bother him, she went around another way. When she got home on the Dan Jarvis property, she told her husband what she had seen. He didn’t believe her, but told her he would check it out the next morning. It had recently rained and he knew that the hoof-prints would still be there, if it were really so.

The next morning he looked and he couldn’t find any hoof-prints, so he didn’t believe his wife. She didn’t get discouraged about it though. Her husband was a member of our church but she wasn’t. Dad said, “We got some missionaries about that time and so we sent them over to teach her the discussions. When the missionaries were showing her the Book of Mormon, she saw a picture of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and excitedly exclaimed over and over, “That’s the man I saw on the White Horse!” She finished taking the discussions and her husband, Gustavo, baptized her April 9, 1977.

After Hilven finished relating this story, Brother Hill said, but this happened a long time ago, right? I said, no, Dad said this happened in 1975. Then Brother Hill started walking toward the temple and then stopped and came back and said, “Would you like to come with me? and led us into the Temple! It was a dream come true, a secret wish of my heart to be invited into the Temple! Inside we took off our shoes and he showed us this room, and on the chairs and in between chairs, there were these most beautiful paintings.

He beckoned to me and went to the middle of the room, where he pulled out this painting of Joseph Smith sitting upon this white horse, on a hill overlooking the city of Nauvoo, with the river winding around it. As I was looking at it the tears started to flow and I sensed someone had come up beside me. I turned and it was Dad and I noticed it was having the same effect on him. Then Brother Hill brought my painting of “Temple Hill” in Pacheco and set it across from it and the tears really fell. It was such a spiritual thing that we felt, that it was hard to come back down to earth so to speak, and listen and comprehend all the many other beautiful arts that Brother Hill wanted to show us. I felt I was in the clouds, this feeling was so special. I felt it staying strong within me for three days. I reflected that Heavenly Father wanted me to have this good feeling to help sustain me and lift me in the trials to come. I thank You, Father, from the depths of my heart!

Next he led us into the Celestial room, where we saw a man who had drawn a pattern on the carpet, and was getting ready to use shears to cut this special art form into the carpet

Brother Hill had us look up at the ceiling, and explained that this man was using that same pattern on the carpet. Then he explained that they had a man who had studied gold leafing in Europe, come and do the gold leafing on the ceiling. He said that he was very good at what he did. It was beautiful! He then showed us the windows, how each design in the window had a jewel in the center, and when the sun-light hit the prisms of the jewel it would paint rainbow colors all over the Celestial room. But I thought the most glorious thing in the room was this gorgeous, huge chandelier, with its pin-points of lights reflected in the beautiful glass crystals attached to it!

He then showed us some tables. He said he had them custom-made especially for this temple, as was almost every special piece in the temple. He took us into the sealing room, where he showed us two Venetian mirrors that would hang at either end of the Celestial room. He had two ladies painting the edges white, as they came with a black trim. We were shown the altar made of Calcutta marble, from Calcutta India. Behind it was a huge mirror, of which he said the frame was hand-painted gilded gold. There were two of these beautiful mirrors to go in the sealing room.

He turned and showed us the chairs for that room, which were custom-made, as he could not find items that would fit the Spanish and Colonial theme of this temple.

We then put on our shoes and he showed us the Baptistery, where I felt people were already there, and waiting for their work to be done and it hadn’t even been dedicated yet! It was a very awe inspiring room with the font and the oxen below all lit up. He showed us the special Spanish-looking chairs that had been made for the witnesses to sit on. We then went into the foyer, where toward the back are some glass doors with designs crafted on them by glass-smiths, taken from some pictures he had. They had a circle in the center of the design. The same design as was on the windows of the celestial room windows, only they have a jewel in the center of each circle.

Later at the dedication, when I was sitting in the auditorium, the spirit whispered to me that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ do visit and walk the halls of the Holy Temples. It was so strong that I knew that it is true, they do!

“THE HISTORY BEHIND THE PAINTING OF “TEMPLE HILL” IN “COLONIA PACHECO”

In the year 1885, the brethren of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, under the direction of President John Taylor, went into renewed action in their search for land in the mountains in Chihuahua Mexico, as a place of refuge for the families who were being persecuted because of the passing of the Edmunds-Tucker Bill banning polygamy, in March of 1882. This bill meant that any polygamist man and their families on U.S. soil would be vulnerable. In 1884 Church leaders finally concluded they must look to foreign soil for refuge.

Following Church policy of appointing a member or members of the general authorities to supervise each colonization project, President John Taylor called the following six apostles (who served at various times) to serve in the Mexico project. Brigham Young Jr., Erastus Snow; Moses Thatcher, Francis M. Lyman, George Teasdale, and President John W. Taylor. George Teasdale as Land purchasing Agent, and Chaplin, was delegated to supervise and direct the establishment of the Mexican Colonies in these first days. They were assisted by the Land Purchasing Committee, appointed by President John Taylor namely, Alexander Findlay MacDonald, Christopher Layton, Jesse N. Smith, and Lot Smith.

Apostle Francis M. Lyman organized a company of ten men as follows. Francis Lyman as President, Apostle George Teasdale as Chaplin and recorder, George C. Williams as Captain of the Guard, Israel Call and Martin Sanders as packers, Charles E. Richardson as cook, Isaac Turley as commissary man. A.F. MacDonald and Brother Edmond (according to Naomi Bowmans Life History) or Alonzo Farnsworth as supervisors of the horses, and J.N. Smith as nurse and health inspector. They had been promised a body of soldiers to protect the party, but they didn’t show up, so they decided to go on without them, their guide deserting them their second day out.

They climbed the rugged mountains, and going to Strawberry, Cave Valley and reached the Corrales Basin on July 24, 1885. They celebrated Pioneer Day, flying the United States Flag at half-mast as a Brother Sanders was ill. (Taken from the book, “History of the Mormon Colonies in Mexico”, by C.F.Turley and A.T.Turley).

(LaVerne) “Now I continue with the story as was told to me by my father Hilven Cluff, which evidently was common knowledge to all the mountain colonists.

He said, “One evening in the bend of the river, they camped across from “Temple Hill”. The next morning, one of the group, prophesied that some day there would be a temple built upon this hill.” This area was to become known as Colonia Corrales and Colonia Pacheco. (I read, where A. F. McDonald was lying asleep there at the bend of the river and he saw in vision a temple there on “Temple Hill”. The article was written by his daughter.)

Hilven Cluff said that Colonia Pacheco before the Exodus had as much or more people in it than Colonia Juarez or Colonia Dublan. The apostle’s prophecy was passed down from generation to generation. As John Whetten put it, “When I was a barefoot boy in Colonia Chuichupa, we knew that there was going to be a temple on “Temple Hill” in Col. Pacheco!” Patriarch Lunt is reported to have also foretold of a temple being built on “Temple Hill” in Pacheco.

During the Exodus in 1912, when the mountain colonists left, they took their

records as far as “The Stairs”, where they buried them, with every intention of returning to get them. However they were never retrieved, so that part of the history is lost to us. After the Exodus, and when the people felt it was safe to return to Colonia Pacheco, Heber M. Cluff Jr. and Amanda Mortensen came back and raised their family there.

“THE MONUMENT ON TEMPLE HILL”

When their son Hilven Cluff reached the age of a deacon, his deacon’s quorum consisting of Max Haynie, Evan Haynie, Lenoard Allen, Lyman Wilson and Hilven Cluff went around gathering all the bronze they could find. Their teacher, Rafael Jarvis took them over to Brother Wilson’s blacksmith shop, where he made a mold in the sand in which to pour the bronze.

After it was poured and set, Brother Wilson took some tools he had and chiseled the information about this special hill and also the names of the deacon’s quorum, whose project it was. (Calvin Price said he remembered the plague as having the boys names on it.) It could be that the names of the ten men were on it, we don’t know and these people aren’t available to ask.) They then built a monument on the hill as close to the spot where the tree was that was destroyed by fire that the apostles had written their names on. However the bronze plaque, which the class mounted on the monument, is now missing. In the Sylvia Lunt Heywood’s book “Pacheco History” there is a picture of the monument with the plaque on it. (We wish we could get the original, so it could be enlarged and maybe we could see the information on it! Jim Jarvis wants to put another plaque on the monument and would like the information that was on it originally.)

Dad, & Mother (Hilven & Helen) both told me (LaVerne) that around 1980, Brother Dan Jarvis told them, he wanted to know if this prophecy was true or just a rumor. He said he went to Salt Lake City, to the Church archives and found where it was recorded that there would be a temple in Colonia Pacheco on the hill, which has become known as “Temple Hill”. In March of 1999, LaVerne called Dan and Jane to see who this apostle was that made the prophecy, and Dan said he never went to Salt Lake to find out. Needless to say LaVerne was really disappointed, but continued to ask questions, and Sister Jane Jarvis told her the following two incidents.

“Jane said, one day she asked Heavenly Father if the prophecy was true, and if it were possible to let her know if it was. As she was gazing out the window, she saw and heard a big bolt of lightning hit “Temple Hill”. She felt it was a direct answer to her prayer. She said there weren’t any clouds in the sky!”

One day both Jane and Dan were looking towards “Temple Hill”, and they say they both saw “The man on the white horse”, just above the ledges on “Temple Hill”. When I asked them what type and color of clothing he was wearing, they both said they only remember seeing that he had all white clothing on, and no hat. Dan said, just to make sure, he went all around Pacheco asking if anyone knew of anyone having a white horse, such as the one they had seen. No one knew of anyone having a white horse. Dad (Hilven) also said another lady who was Catholic had also seen the man on the white horse. With each sighting, it is said that it is cloudy and sort of misty.

“I will let you draw your own conclusions. But I, among others, believe that the Lord has reserved this special spot we call “Temple Hill” in Colonia Pacheco for his own special purposes.”

“DADS LAST TRAIL-RIDE “LION HUNT” WITH HIS TWO GRANDSONS

PAUL AND DAVID, CALVIN & LAVERNE”

(LaVerne) “In March of 2000, Dad (Hilven), Calvin, and I (LaVerne) went to Colonia Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, where we were to meet with our sons David and Paul. The excitement was high. The boys didn’t want their Mother along, but I had felt Dad (Hilven) would need me so I went anyway, besides, my husband wanted his camp cook to come along. Dad was always eager to go, as these trips were too far apart for him as it was. These trips were the shining light that Hilven looked forward to, on his dark days. He didn’t like his Dialysis-life, but if he had to be on Dialysis he would rather be on Peritoneal Dialysis, which unlike Hemo-Dialysis, allowed him the freedom to go on trips, even horseback riding into the wilds of his beloved mountains!

The guys spent the first day getting the papers on the horse trailer and then rounding up the horses, and in general getting everything ready to leave the next morning. It started to sprinkle and the forecast wasn’t very encouraging as we knew we would have to pull our cousins horse trailer through a river and a boggy, slick flat etc. to get to our designated camping spot, but no one wanted to cancel out, we were ready to go! So we loaded up the horses, hay and grain, the saddles and tack, the grub and bedding and a barrel filled with water and headed out on our high adventure, which we knew we’d get on our trips with Calvin!

We stopped in Nuevo Casas Grandes to get some of those good “Tortas” they make, for our lunch and headed out of town. We were being followed by Paul with David in his truck, which is comforting, because when your truck gets stuck, the other one can pull you out etc. We passed “Janos” and then turned off at our turn off place onto a dirt road and headed for the mountains. We really enjoyed looking at all the beautiful fields the Mennonites had planted, also their homes, barns and the men and boys going to work, or the women driving along in their buggies. They are an industrious people and we really enjoy their homemade cheese.

We turned off the good dirt road and headed across the wet, slippery flat, but Calvin drove right through, having had a lot of experience. When we got to the river, much to my surprise it wasn’t full and we drove right through the first part, but we knew there was a bad place still ahead. But Surprise! Surprise! Somebody had built a better road off to one side and we went right through with no problem, so we thought we had smooth sailing from then on to our camping place.

The light, continuing sprinkle of rain by this time had turned into a drizzle and unbeknown to us had turned the gradual grade we needed to go up, into slippery, gooey mess of a road. Calvin was pulling the horse trailer and was bound and determined to get to the top, but then the truck slithered off into a boggy place and no matter what we did, and we did a lot, putting rocks under the wheels, but to no avail. We were in to the hilt! So David and Paul drove their vehicle over to a bank where there were some trees that we could tie the horses to, and then they unloaded the horses and brought them over.

We made camp, David helping me get a fire going and some good hot grub made while Calvin and Paul set up a tent. Calvin and I, David and Paul slept in the tent, but Dad preferred as before, to sleep in the backseat of our crew cab truck. I helped him with his Dialysis and then we settled down for the night. The next thing I realized, a horse was loose and was munching grass right by my head. I scrunched back as far as I could to avoid being stepped on and tried to go back to sleep.

I got up and got a fire going and breakfast cooking while the guys were chasing up the horse that was running up and down the countryside. I helped Dad get his Dialysis started and he finished just as breakfast was ready. As we were eating we noticed that it had snowed there the day before. Then we hurried to get things gathered together so we could get our vehicles up the incline while the mud was still frozen. To make it easier some of us rode the horses to our next camping place. Riding the horses again was very nice. Dad enjoyed it so much he rode further away from us. I could surely appreciate the reason why.

We went around a little lake and up a grassy incline. It surely was a beautiful morning! The grass was high and swaying in the gentle breeze and that’s all you could see for miles around; we were in a world all our own. We rode over a little hill and saw the vehicles down below among a few Oak trees; this would be our camp for several days. Calvin and I set up our tent and Paul and David saddled their horses and tested out the walkie-talkies that Paul had brought, leaving one for us, they headed over the hill and down into the canyon with their bedrolls and camping equipment tied on the back of their saddles. They were planning on spending the night wherever they ended up.

Along about noon I got out our extra “Tortas” we had brought along to eat, Calvin always made sure we had good Mexican sodas to go with our meals, so Dad picked Uva and we got ours and settled down to enjoy our meal. But all of a sudden Dad was upchucking his lunch. (We didn’t realize it then, but looking back, that is when the cancer was starting to rear its ugly head, and was the start of months of fighting to keep his food down.) The rest of the day was uneventful and we enjoyed being in the great out of doors. We helped Dad do his Dialysis and had good night.

Next morning I made campfire breakfast, while Dad did his Dialysis and we all enjoyed it, then packed a lunch and saddled up our horses and started up the hill and down into the canyon.

We were riding down the old “Pulpit Canyon” road that the early pioneers built, but is no longer used as a road. It was really something to see the where the wagon wheels had left their tracks in the stones and also you could see the hoof prints of the horses that pulled the wagons up and down that pioneer road It was amazing! Here it was after all these years, history in stone. We rode on and about half way down, there was a monument that some boy scouts had built, a monument to the early pioneer road builders. We stopped and took some pictures of Daddy Hilven and Calvin on their horses.

We rode on down to the bottom of the canyon and there was a little ranch house. We turned up canyon and rode a ways and Dad didn’t look so good so I had Calvin help him off the horse and lay him against log to rest for a while. It was pretty there in the big cottonwood trees, with the wind rustling the leaves and the stream close by gurgling as it ran by. We ate a little lunch and did Dad’s Dialysis and then Calvin helped Dad get on the mule. He wanted to ride the mule that Calvin bought from Grandpa Kiko Bowman; he didn’t want to ride that rough-gaited white horse anymore. So he and Calvin traded horses and he was happier.

We then rode on up the canyon; soon we spotted the cowboy of the ranch coming toward us with his dog. Calvin tried to talk to him, and then we ask Dad to ask him if he’d seen our two sons or knew where they had camped. He said yes, their camp was up a canyon that didn’t have any water in it. He said he’d show us the way, “didn’t we want to get some water in our water bottle before we went?” He then got off his horse and filled up my water bottle in the running stream there by us. We then followed him up the right canyon where it forked.

After riding on and on we finally arrived at the campsite of David and Paul, but they weren’t there. So we got off our horses and tied them up and got out some foodstuffs to fix supper. Dad went over on a green, grassy bench where the sun was shining its last rays, to get warm. It seemed he could never get warm enough.

Pretty soon Paul and David came and we fixed some hot soup for Grandpa and we ate sandwiches, peanuts or corn-nuts and apples. We gave some to the cowboy and he ate them with apparent relish. We all gathered up our gear and headed out of the canyon to the top of the mountain and to our camp. It was a beautiful night with a full moon shining by the time we got to the top. David was in front and then LaVerne and Paul, Daddy Hilven and Calvin bringing up the rear.

When we had just reached the top and gone through the fence Dad said he had to get off his horse and immediately started throwing up, poor thing, and said he was all in. Paul immediately told Grandpa he’d go to the camp and get his truck and come back and get him. So Calvin stayed with Dad, and Paul, David and I rode on into camp.

We got Grandpa settled down in the truck and got his dialysis done and he seemed all right, but I was worried! The next morning I got breakfast and Paul, David and Calvin went to hunt a lion, but I stayed with Dad in camp. He’d had all the horseback riding he could handle. But during the day he told me he could stay at this place forever, it was so nice and quiet, the wind would rustle the leaves in the trees and the tall grass would wave, you could hear the horses grazing and stomping there feet. It made me feel better that we had brought him, because he was really enjoying the beautiful country that day, while he was reading his Louie L’Amour book!

In the afternoon while I was gathering wood for the evening campfire, he was gone, and I looked around and couldn’t see him and got concerned. Then all of a sudden I saw him across the ravine, dragging a big limb for the fire. But it was so big and it was all he could do to drag it over to the camp. Then the next thing I knew he was gone again, and I looked for him, dreading to see what I might see, and there he was up the hill, behind an Oak tree, lying on the ground. I rushed over there and he said he had seen the horse get tangled and had taken him to another tree to tie him up so he could feed where there was more grass and he just couldn’t go any further.

So I waited there with him for a while until he was rested, then helped him down the hill to camp and got him sitting in a folding chair by the campfire where he could watch me get a fire going and start getting supper ready. The sun was low in the sky and soon the men would be back and hungry. That’s one of the times we enjoy most, enjoying one another’s company and the stories that are told around the campfire, enjoying good camp food! Soon I had the food cooking and there they came riding in on their horses just as the sun had set. We were glad to see them back safe.

They said they had seen a lion but hadn’t caught it. Ha! Ha! We enjoyed each other’s company around the fire, eating good hot food. Then, we broke camp and packed all our gear in the truck and rode the horses over to the horse trailer that had been left over the hill. It was a most nostalgic night, riding our horses in the beautiful moonlight up over the hill, with foot tall grass waving gently in the breeze and dark blue mountains in the background, with those million points of lights hanging down from the heaven above, knowing that this is one of those moments in time you know you will treasure for the rest of your life!

We loaded up the horses and were on our way home with some really good memories under our hat. I’m so thankful that Daddy Hilven could go and it was extra special to be on a ride with his two grandsons, daughter and son-in-law Calvin.”

My Memories of our Dad Hilven & Mother Helen Cluff

By E. LaVerne C. Price

As a girl I had wonderful memories of Dad. I followed him around out in the field, as he plowed the ground. I remember him hitching up the plow to the horse and walking behind with the reins around his neck or shoulder. I would follow him and listen to him give instructions to the horse, and I loved the feel of the soft dirt between my toes and in my hands. It was early mornings when he would do this and I loved nature and the beautiful world I found myself in. At that time we lived in the Steiner/Martineau two-story home.

I would gather the eggs out in the Hen house and go on out to the corral where Dad had put a block of salt for the cattle to lick, and I remember I knelt down and took a lick to see what it tasted like.

One morning real early we heard the chickens screeching and cackling angrily and Dad grabbed his rifle and went out the front door and around the house past the rock garden on out towards the corral and the outside fence and then a shot. I had run out and found that he had missed the coyote that had grabbed the poor hen and then dropped her and run. I picked her up; she was crippled and put her back in the Hen house. But my brother and I were shocked to see our Dad out there in his underwear and thought it quite funny.

For about three months, Mother would send Klint and I down to Grandpa and Grandma’s ranch to bring back some milk. We really enjoyed our sojourn in the big woods. There were Red-bells and Bluebells and little White Daisies that I’ve never seen anywhere else, and I couldn’t resist picking hands full. Then I remember the graveyard and the gate, and then we would go on to Grandma’s where we were welcomed and given some milk to take home with us.

Sometimes we would explore on the way back. Actually Klint wanted to explore and assured me that he could find the way back home another way. So not wanting to go back alone, I went with him, but I was sure worried that we might not find the way, when suddenly he showed me that we had come in behind the corral and pasture where our barn and chicken house was. I was really relieved, then I believed him when he told me he could take me back home another way.

I have really good memories of Mother in the kitchen in Colonia Pacheco. She taught me how to cook a cereal on the stove called ‘Lumpy Dick” and all of us kids thought it was such a special treat. I think of it now and can’t say I’d like to eat it. Just flour, water and a little salt, a little like dumplings with a little milk. She taught me how to make “Chicharones’, frying (pig skins) in hot grease and salting them a little after they had drained. The best of all things I liked to help her with, was rolling hot donuts in sugar and putting them in the pantry to save for eating on special occasions.

I remember a Brother Combs boarding with us. Mother would set he and I to churning butter. She put cream in a bottle and put a lid on it and we would bounce it back and forth from one knee to the other and eventually the yellow butter pieces would appear. Then she showed me how to wash it with cold water, until all of the white part of the milk was gone and we had a pretty mound of butter to go with Mother’s hot bread. Oh how yummy it was!

One winter at Christmas time Brother Combs gave me a pair of “Galoshes” to wear out in the snow, I was so happy that now my feet wouldn’t get wet and I could play in the snow and really have some fun.

That same Christmas I woke up on Christmas morning and saw a little table and chairs painted a cream color (that Dad had made); and on the chair was a doll with yarn hair and a painted face with a cute little dress on her (that mother had made). I was the happiest little girl alive! I think I was four years old.

When I was five years old, my mother thought it was time to teach me how to play the organ. So she got a music book and taught me the notes and when I learned a piece she would play the duet part with me. I remember how wonderful it felt to play the organ with her.

I remember one time she made a fire out in the kitchen yard and put a tub with ashes and lye and pig fat and we stirred and stirred it until it hardened, then she cut it into pieces to wash our clothes with. She told me when she was a little girl, she was helping her mother like I was, and her mother had to run into the house for something and told her not to get too close to the soap tub. Well that’s exactly what happened and she fell in and her mother pulled her out, but it took a long time to get all that soap out of her ears. Sounds scary to me!

When I was five years old, my father thought I had sucked my thumb long enough. So he had me sit by him on the couch in the family room in the Steiner home, and he took out his pocket knife and took hold of my thumb that wasn’t cut off and said “do you want me to cut this thumb off like the other one so you won’t suck your thumb anymore?” I was horror stricken; of course I didn’t want my other thumb cut off. So I promised not to suck my thumb and I never broke my promise. His plan to get me to quit worked!

“HILVEN’S HIGH STEPPING MULES AND MY FIRST YEAR AT SCHOOL”

I will never forget when Dad took his mules and hitched them up to his two-wheel cart that had real tires on it and I took the lunch Mother had made for us. We said goodbye to Mother and went on the best ride I’ve ever been on, down the mountain stopping on the way to eat mother’s lunch. Food had never tasted so good I thought. We jumped in the cart and away we went on down until we came to a spring where water came out of the mountain and we stopped to let the horses drink and we did too. I remember thinking this was the most beautiful wonderful day, just me and my Dad on a wonderful trip. I knew I was to go to school when I got to Colonia Juarez, but I didn’t realize how homesick I was going to get. I stayed with Aunt LaRee and Uncle Melvin for two weeks. (Incidentally their home is the same home our family lived in when I went to high-school, and is what my grandchildren call the “Blue House” in Colonia Juarez, Chih. Mexico.

Mother had made arrangements with Aunt Irene and Leland Martineau to stay with them my first year at school. It was so different than home, that I would go down to Grandma Amanda Cluff’s house and find her working out in her garden in her side yard and talk with her, and she would show me her flowers. So I would go visit her quite often and soon I was begging “Grandma won’t you let me come and stay with you?” Children can be quite persistent when they are young and really want some and I guess I was relentless, because finally she told me YES, I could live with her! I was sooo Happy!!

Well Dad came down from the mountains and stayed with us at Grandma and Grandpa’s overnight and I guess I thought I was going to go home with him. Because when I got out of school and was walking back across the bridge, I saw his two-wheel cart going up the road. I ran as hard as my legs could take me and tried to catch him, but alas he disappeared and was gone! I was heartbroken, he had left me! I went home to Grandma’s crying and refused to eat or come out of my room to go to school for two days. Finally they must have convinced me, because I remember my days with them as one of the best years of my life, getting to know them and love them.”

“LAVERNE’S MEMORIES OF DAD AND RABBITS”

“In Queen Creek Dad would take Klint and I with him when he went out rabbit hunting. He had a spotlight on the pickup and would shine it this way and that and he would let us ride in the back as we went out across the flats where there were no roads. I loved the feel of the wind blowing in my hair and the excitement of this great adventure.

When we went back to Mexico, we enjoyed the times when he would take us out to the Corralitos ranch to spend the weekend. Sometimes we took turns cooking for Dad. I took my paints and painted a picture or two. I loved to look at the Pajarito Mountain when the rains would come and the sun was shining too, creating a really memorable scene. I cooked some Quesadillas and thought I had really made something great. I remember cooking rice, beans and potatoes. One time Dad brought in a rabbit he had shot and laid it down on the table and said we could have some meat for supper.

After he left, as I swept the floor and cleaned the kitchen, I kept my eyes on that rabbit wondering how to skin and clean a rabbit. I finally solved the problem by taking it outside to the trash barrel and putting it inside and shutting the lid. Then, I fixed just what I mentioned that I had made for supper and he never, not once, ask me where that rabbit was, but it was conspicuous by its absence. I always felt a little guilty about that.”

“CALVIN FELL IN LOVE WITH MEXICO AND MY FAMILY”

“When Calvin and I were newlyweds, we traveled to Mexico and Dad took him out to the Alamito and got some horses and took Calvin riding. This is the way Dad would break in all his early son-in-laws. He would take them up and down the mountains the hardest and steepest way, so they could show him what stuff they were made of. Anyway, this was their initiation into our family. Calvin came back as bright red as a lobster. I sure felt for him.

Calvin loved Mexico, he loved the mountains and we would go every year. One year we took Grandpa Heber and Grandma Amanda and Mother and Dad. We went up to the Estancia ranch and camped there. We set up our tents and cooked our food over the campfire. Dad came in for supper and when I served him chicken he wondered where I had got it. I told him it came in a can. He was sure surprised. It was really beautiful there, big mountains and a stream not far from our campsite. It was fun to be with my grandparents and Mom and Dad.”

“REMEMBERING GOOD TIMES WITH MOM & DAD”

“I remember that we lived for a time down at the Steven’s ranch, which was Grandpa Cluff’s ranch. I remember following him out to the garden we had planted, pulling up a carrot here and a turnip there and enjoying eating them together. I loved the creek that ran behind the house and on down through the pastures. I spent a lot of time exploring, playing in the water, building mud houses and picking flowers. I can’t remember where in time that we lived there. There was a water wheel that was where the creek was, that ran behind the house, this I thought was pretty interesting.

Over the years we enjoyed the good times Dad showed us, helping us to find good camping spots in the foothills at Uncle D.S.’s ranch the “Nogales” where Dad was foreman. One time when we were there for a Whetten reunion, Dad hurt his leg in the roping event. It sure hurt us to see him in so much pain, when we were there to have a good time together.

When we went to Colonia Pacheco for vacation, he would help the children get the horses saddled, so they could enjoy horseback riding. We all enjoyed the stories he would tell in the evening with a good fire going in the fireplace, and they would always ask him to gobble like a turkey, which he could do real well, and tell stories about turkey and deer hunting.

When they went on their missions I always looked forward to the annual Christmas visit home (in Laveen, AZ) and our big family home evenings and they enjoyed them too. They would then buy the things they would need and return to their mission area.

After living five years in their little camper, two years in Parral and three years in La Junta, traveling weekly to visit seven branches, Mom and Dad expected to be released from the Distrito de la Sierra, Chih. Mexico. The week of Feb. 25, 1996, they planned to attend a Missionary conference under the direction of Sam Cluff, Dad’s nephew, who was the Mission President at that time. Mother called and suggested we come spend the week of the conference with them and enjoy being together.”

“WE WENT TO OUR HOME IN MEXICO TO VISIT WITH MOM AND DAD”

“We arrived in Col. Juarez at midnight and mother got up and came in to give us a big hug and was so happy to see us and it felt so good to be loved by her again! She helped us put things away, as we brought them in from the truck.

The next morning as we ate breakfast, mother put on a Church history tape. It was so good we were sad when she turned it off and said we’d listen to it the next morning at breakfast.

We all worked outside, Dad and Calvin dug holes for the trees and ditches to put drip irrigation hose in. Mother and Dad had planted and grown pinto beans in the mountains and brought what they couldn’t sell to Col. Juarez and were cleaning and putting them in barrels. Dad said they found out if they put a little vegetable oil in the barrel and rolled it so that the beans were coated with it, that it kept the weevil from getting in the beans. I thought what an ingenious idea. Mother put on the BYU tapes that Aunt Ernestine had sent her for Christmas in Col. Pacheco, and we cleaned more beans.

Friday we put in grape vines and dug more holes and more ditches for the drip hose. Then I dug a ditch for the waterline to put in the house. In the evening we listened to more of the Church history tapes. Mother was lying on the living room floor exercising, lifting her legs.”

“WE WERE ALL LOOKING FORWARD TO THE WHETTEN REUNION

AND DIDN’T RECOGNIZE THE SIGNS OF A STROKE”

“The next day was Sat. Feb. 25th. We had agreed to meet Marvin and Karene and Edward Whetten out at the hacienda where the John T. Whetten reunion was to be held in August. We all enjoyed the ride and being shown the hacienda by Ed. We talked about the activities that we would hold there. Marvin had been elected the President of this reunion at the last one, and I was elected to be the secretary. However, I think we really needed two, as Karene did the part that I couldn’t do, and was a tremendous help.

We then went to Nuevo Casas Grandes and met grandpa and grandma Kiko Bowman at the bank and they warmly greeted us and they enjoyed visiting with Mom and Dad. Then we went back to Juarez and Mother started cleaning beans again, we broke for lunch and we were discussing the Whetten Reunion coming up in July, and discussing what books she wanted to order, when she said “that’s queer, I wonder why my hand is numb? We thought it was because she is such a hard worker and she had cleaned barrels of pinto beans all week. Anyway we didn’t think anything more about it, not knowing that was a warning sign of a stroke.

Mother and I went back outside and she was cleaning beans while I was digging a trench that Calvin wanted dug, and we were listening to a tape about the man looking for diamonds who traveled the world and finally ended up finding it right in his own back yard. We were enjoying it and then Dad announced that he was going for a walk up on the part of the town pasture that was his and see how far it was and what it would take to put it into fruit trees. Soon he was back. We were amazed that he could walk so far. He had been having little fainting spells and not feeling up to much at times. Mother said “you’d better get a shower and get ready for priesthood meeting, it’s an hour earlier than we thought. He groaned and went in the house to take his shower.”

‘HELEN HAS A STOKE AND HEAVENLY FATHER SHOWED US MIRICLES”

“Soon we quit, because mother had to take a shower and get ready for conference too. I took my shower and was blowing my hair dry in the living room, when I heard mother calling, “LaVerne, LaVerne come here!”, by the time I ran to the bathroom, Dad was holding her as she was crumpling to the floor. He said, “Oh, my God. I think she’s having a stroke”! And she said,” yes, I think I’m having a stroke!”

Dad and I lifted her to her bed in the middle bedroom and got her dressed. I said to Dad, who in a daze was looking out the window, “Dad go over to Aunt Erma’s and get Kelly & Calvin to come and give Mother a blessing. So he did. While he was gone I told Mother “Let’s say a prayer, so I did, then she said, “You should go on and go to the conference, I will be alright.” I told her that we were going to stay with her. Then she said, “We should have eaten more vegetables”…as she went into unconsciousness.

She received a blessing and Calvin called the Doctor in town and called all over finally finding an oxygen machine at Minnie Whetten’s and got Mother on oxygen, then he called the Phoenix Fire Dept. and arranged for Air-vac to fly to Douglas to pick her up and fly her back to St. Joseph’s hospital. (All the time he kept saying, I hope she’ll forgive me for breaking my promise, I just can’t do it! A year or so before Mother had made him promise that if anything happened to her, to just let her die. She didn’t want to be a vegetable and be a burden. But he just couldn’t do it.) Then Kelly and Calvin carried her out to the car and she vomited all over. We drove to the hospital in Dublan and Kelly had talked to a Doctor and arranged for him to meet us there, which he did. While we were waiting for him to come, mother vomited again.

The Doctor tried to talk Calvin into leaving her there overnight saying she would probably be better in the morning. He thought she had a blood clot (Thrombosis) in the brain and that it would dissolve and encouraged us to leave her there. But Calvin’s gut instincts told him not to, so he told the Doctor he was going to take her to Douglas and air-vac her to Phoenix.

Kelly went to Jeff Jones and got some oxygen tanks that we could take and Kelly said he would follow us to the line and bring them back to Brother Jones. We’ll always be grateful for Kelly’s kindness and help in our time of need! Aunt Erma was with us at this hospital. Then we loaded mother in the back seat with me holding the oxygen mask over her mouth and nose and Calvin driving like he was going to a fire, with Dad in the front seat.

It takes 3 hours to drive to the line from Casas and I’m sure we made it in two and a half hours. Next we saw a series of miracles, which showed us that Heavenly Father was aware of our situation and was showing his love for all of us in our time of dire need.

First: As we neared Douglas, Calvin said, “See if you can call the Fire Dept. in Douglas and see if they have an ambulance at the line where we have to cross.” I did as he asked, and to my amazement the call went straight through, and they said the ambulance was at the line waiting to transport. He asked if the “Flight for Life” plane had come yet, that we were getting close to Agua Prieta and Douglas. They answered that the plane had landed and the team was with the ambulance. We’ve never been able to get a call through in that area before! Our first miracle!

Second: When we were driving up road to the line, we could see a long, long line of cars waiting to cross the line also. The panic button hit, what could we do? We had to get there fast and it wasn’t this way. Calvin turned left and headed towards the street by which you enter Mexico, which is a ONE WAY STREET! I said, in panic, “Calvin, the police are going to pull us over,” and then I was thinking about standing around in a police station, trying to explain the situation, while the clock was ticking on for mother, when sure enough a not just the local police, which is bad enough, but the Federal Police, who are particularly abrasive and always wear black, pulled alongside and Calvin yelled to them in English, “I have a sick woman here and I have to get her to across the line!”

And wonders of wonders they said “Follow us” and motioned for us to follow them. They led us on up the street towards the Douglas Boarder crossing and one fellow got out of the vehicle and stopped all the incoming cars and motioned for us to go on ahead. And then as we passed him, he WAVED, as if to say GOD SPEED! I showed this to Dad and we both started crying, for we both knew this was a heaven sent miracle! We both knew this never happens naturally!

When we drove to the US side, we could see the ambulance and the “Flight for Life” team waiting for us. However, we were in for a shock when the boarder guards, ran over and told us to get out of the car and ask questions of each of us, as to who was driving the car before we crossed and I was totally upset that they made me leave mother and stand outside of the car, while they interrogated me. But then the “Flight for Life” nurse came over and took mother out of the car and put her on a stretcher and was putting her in the ambulance, relieving my mind. The officer continued to ask questions and ordered me to open the trunk so he could see what was inside. Of course there was nothing. Everyone’s clothes and belongings had been left in Juarez. So he let us go, saying that other people had brought people across, pretending they were in need of a hospital real quick, and it was a cover up for transporting drugs.

Third: Just as they had loaded mother in the ambulance, Kelly Whetten drove up and I hadn’t realized that he had driven all the way, following us so he could take the oxygen tanks back and to see if we needed any more help. I was almost overwhelmed with gratitude at his act of service to us. We all thanked him and Calvin asked Dad if he would like to ride in the Fire Chief’s car to the airport, he said he did. Calvin had to drive our car and told me it would take him four or five hours to get to Phoenix, and that he would be there by 4:30 a.m. They had me ride in the ambulance with mother, where they had hooked her up to oxygen, and we sped away to the airport.

They put mother on first and then ask me if I would like to ride in the cockpit with the pilot. I said I did, but I ardently wish I had thought to get Dad up there as he said he froze to death in the back of the plane, as he had no jacket. It was very interesting in the cockpit. I’ve flown before with Dad’s old boss, brother Ellsworth in his little Cessna, I happen to like it, so this night it really helped to pass the time, it was a night I’ll never forget!

Fourth: When we landed in Phoenix, the team had called the Fire Dept and they had an ambulance waiting to take us to St. Josephs Hospital. (St. Josephs’ hospital is the best Neurological center in the West.) While I was there, I was told that one of the patients on mother’s floor was the wife of a prince in Arabia, another was another patient from Canada and another one from out of country).

I was grateful the ambulance driver invited Dad to sit in the front seat with him. The head “Flight for Life” nurse was so good to us, she got mother right in the emergency unit, where normally out of country people would have had to wait till the proper papers had been taken care of, which I was doing as she wheeled her in. (This is what the reception person told me.) Third Miracle: Being able to get her right into the hospital receiving unit, where a hurt person is taken for the Doctor to see, because this “Flight for Life nurse” knew my husband was a Phoenix Firefighter and because Heavenly Father was helping this nurse make sure Mother got the attention she needed! Thank You Father!! I can’t keep from crying while writing this!

I notified the rest of the family where we were and what happened and they came down and stayed with Dad in the waiting room, while I stayed in the ER with mother. I was amazed that we waited almost two hours for the Doctor to see Mother, almost the time that it took to drive her to the line. Finally they came and took her to get a Cat-scan, when the Doctor viewed it, he called me in and said “I want to show you some things on the scan.” He showed me four areas, like the corners of a piece of paper and said see these are drain holes for taking fluid or blood off the brain, “but you see these areas (and others that he pointed to) are black.” “She has had a previous bleed, and so the holes that would normally drain the fluids off are filled up, and it couldn’t drain.” He told me that her currant bleed was the size of a golf ball and if it got any larger she would die, that he needed to cut a hole in her head and put a tube in to drain the blood off, that they would need someone to sign a piece of paper in order for them to do the treatment. I told him my Dad would be the one to do that. So we went in the waiting room and I had him explain it to Dad and the family, and Dad signed the paper.

When we got home it was 4:30 and Calvin had beat us home. We were dead tired. The next day I realized that Dad didn’t have any clothes to wear, especially underwear, so I called Becky and Keith bought Dad some and gave it to us the next evening at the hospital, I was so thankful for his thoughtfulness! Everyone had gathered to give mother a blessing. Keith Dorn had just lost his mother to cancer. I was so grateful for and felt of his compassion for us, and I felt compassion towards him also.

All the sons and sons-in-law and Dad went in to the intensive care unit and laid their hands on her head with Dad as the spokesperson and gave her a blessing. Calvin said that in the blessing, Dad told her that he needed her to stay with him, and Calvin was watching the heart monitor and it stopped for 5 seconds and then started a good steady rhythm, as if she had stopped to make an important decision and decided she would stay.

She was unconscious or in a semi-coma for 3 weeks in the hospital. Why I say that, is because she would beat time with her foot to the music that was playing in her head. One time when Vona and I were visiting in her room, she would stop moving her foot and was listening to what we were saying. But she couldn’t open her eyes and communicate any other way. Her doctor was a very good Doctor. One day he came in and watched her and said to me, “We need to get her off oxygen soon or it will compromise her lungs.” So they soon did that and things were set in motion to move her to Glencroft Nursing facility.”

“HELEN FALLS OUT OF HER CHAIR AND STARTS TALKING”

“One day while she was there, Charleen came and started talking to her in Spanish and Mother was listening and understanding we could tell. Char said, “Is it easier for you to understand when I speak Spanish and mother nodded her head. I was dumbfounded. She had been working with the Spanish people so long that she thought in Spanish. After that she started getting better. Dad was staying with us and we went to visit her often.

One time when Calvin & I were there the nurse came running in and said she came to ask forgiveness for letting mother fall out of her wheel chair that she felt very badly about it but there is good news too, she said. “Your mother when she fell it must have jarred something loose, because she started talking!” We had been worried that she would never talk again. So we were thankful and told her not to worry.

Another time Dad, Calvin and I visited and she was sitting at the dining room table where they were helping her to eat, and she turned to Calvin and said, “Calvin is your truck here?” He said, “yes.” She said, “Well won’t you please take me home with you?” It often broke our hearts when she would beg us to please take her home! She thought she was in Hermosillo.”

“HILVEN AND CALVIN GO BACK TO LA JUNTA, MEXICO”

(“Then I had two parents in the hospital”)

“Calvin and Dad talked and decided to take a weekend and go to La Junta and tie up loose ends and bring the tractor and the disc and planter, which they shipped on the train and picked it up in Casas, driving them up to Colonia Juarez. Dad didn’t have enough high blood pressure pills, so we took him to a doctor here in Phoenix and he took some blood and he gave him a prescription. Then when they were gone the Doctor called and said we needed to go see a kidney specialist, because Dad’s blood test was so bad.

When they got back from getting Dad’s things in La Junta and shipping it to Col. Juarez, we made an appointment with this Kidney Specialist. He said he didn’t know how Dad was even walking around; he should be dead, according to the blood tests. He wanted us to take Dad straight to the hospital. What a shock that was to us. Here they wanted us to take Dad, straight to the hospital, not go home. We did, but we sure didn’t want to. I surely didn’t want to do this, I held his clothes, while he got into his hospital gown, and watched as they drove a shunt into his neck without deadening the area! I couldn’t and wouldn’t leave him there alone. I thought “Now that takes a real man with a lot of guts to stand there and let somebody do that to him! I would have got my hat and pants and boots and walked out of that hospital. Little did I know this was the first of countless times I would be holding his clothes, hat and wallet and worn out work boots at the hospital.

There for a while we had both parents in the hospital and nursing facility. So Mother could receive love and help from the family, we set up a sign up sheet in her room, each signing up for a turn to be there with her.”

“HILVEN GOES IN THE HOSPITAL FOR DIALYSIS SHUNT”

“The day they did Dad’s first dialysis at the hospital, he went like a trusting lamb to the slaughter. I was standing by him when they did it and he went into convulsions and I have seen it before with a little girl I used to take care of. But I couldn’t stand it and went into the foyer and bawled like a baby. This also was the first of many times when he went into convulsions. I found out that when he was too dehydrated, (taking too much fluid off him, caused convulsions.)

Calvin was our mainstay and our rock! Without him we wouldn’t have done as well as we did. Now they had Dad on hemo-dialysis, where you take them to a dialysis place and they take out the blood and clean it and put it back in, but they can also take some of the water off and it can cause cramping and blackouts and convulsions, and in general when I went to get him I would have to hold him up because he was so weak.

Every time I took him to dialysis and had to leave him there, I would go away crying because I knew what they were going to do to him. Well, he decided that he wouldn’t go so often, they wanted you to go in 3 times a week, and he decided 2 was enough, so the Doctor ordered the nurses to take more off, and it was just awful!! It made me so angry with them! I forgot to say that in between going to dialysis, Dad would spend all day in the hot sun in our orange grove with the chainsaw and the axe cutting down what I call Sticker trees, and cutting each branch into firewood for the fireplace. I remembered in La Junta he had leased some land and had grown a field of pinto beans and wheat. Therefore I think he felt like he had to be doing something, not staying in the house all day.”

“HILVEN REFUSES TO GO BACK TO THE DIALYSIS CENTER”

“Then he decided he wouldn’t go to Dialysis period. Well, then he got a fever and sweat and felt so bad that Calvin talked him into going to get some anti-biotic and so Calvin took him to another hospital in Tempe. At this one, Calvin got to talk with this other Doctor and told him how much Dad hated going to Dialysis. The Doctor said he could understand that, had we ever thought about going on Peritoneal Dialysis? Calvin said, what is that? The Doctor explained it and said that if he ever got in that shape, that this would be the way he would go!

Calvin ask him if he could do that for us, he gave Calvin a card, the Doctor said if Dad had hernias they would have to be fixed and that they could put the tube in the peritoneum in his belly at the same time. So that’s what they decided to do. Dad did it, but only because Calvin was there for him. Calvin promised Dad he would take him Lion Hunting, and Dad said he’d take him up on that. We’d been trying to get him to agree to get his hernias fixed for years, so that part was good.”

“RANDI AND DERRIL TAKE HELEN TO LIVE WITH THEM”

“Mother was taken care of by Randi and Derril after she got out of the nursing facility. Randi and Derril have big hearts and it was hard work to care of Mom, getting her in and out of bed, to the bathroom and bathed, and kept happy!! She had learned to talk and balance herself at Glencroft nursing home, and she was learning how to swallow and write among other things at Randi’s. I would take her to therapy and later Ivelen went with us to see what we needed to do at home to continue the skills they were teaching her. Mother learned how to roll over on the bed and how to get off the bed, how to get in and out of her chair, how to put on and take off her clothes. She was shown how she needed to exercise everyday to strengthen her leg and arm, and how to eat.”

“HELEN AND HILVEN BACK TOGETHER AGAIN”

“I talked her into coming to our house to be with Dad. It was a good thing! She encouraged him and he found ways to help her. It was so cute when he would come into the house and she would be sitting in the kitchen writing in her journal or crocheting, and he would give her a big hug and say, “How’s my gal?” She would beam, swallow and say “just fine!”

“PEROTENEAL DIALYSIS AND HONEY AND LION HUNTING’

“We, Calvin, Mother and I went to dialysis one day to learn about peritoneal dialysis and we were visited by what I thought was a lady angel, oddly enough named Helen. Soon we were starting our training on how to do peritoneal dialysis, at the dialysis facility on Dunlap. We would take mother with us to feel a part of it all, and so she would understand everything. Our nurse was a wonderful lady named Candy. We loved her!

Dad became famous in that facility, for putting honey on his tube site. The doctor or nurse would prod and poke but when Dad was faithful about using the honey, there would be no puss come out. The doctor would call the nurse in and tell her, this man puts honey on his site! One time when we came back from one of our Lion Hunts and I showed the Doctor a picture we had taken of Dad doing his Dialysis on the top of the Sierra Madres in Mexico, and the Doctor called in the nurse and said “what’s wrong with this picture?” She would look at it and say I don’t know. He said, “Well, he’s not wearing a mask!” In training us they said we must all wear a mask, so as not to contaminate the sight. We all thought it was real funny, because Dad had quit wearing a mask long ago, and you’d have had to tie a mask on the horse’s front and rear end, as it was standing right beside him. We love that picture! We gave one to the Doctor and one to Candy and when the other nurses came to the funeral I gave them each one, they were crying, such sweet ladies to come.

By the way, both Mother and Dad got well enough to go to the John T. Whetten Reunion at Bob Whetten’s Hacienda, “El Refujio” near Colonia Juarez. They went on the train ride up to the “Cumbre” tunnel, where we all got out and took pictures and stretched our legs. That was the last train ride. After that the railroad was taken over by some Orientals and the trains no longer run.

“On our trail rides, I would have to holler at Dad to not go so fast. He would ride in front of me, as I was the second in the line of trail riders and they were well behind me. I was afraid they or we would get lost from each other.” I know we took at least 3 trail rides and more trips than that, just to find the right canyon to go into. I wouldn’t trade those special days for anything!”

It got so Dad was helping with Mother’s baths and helping her to bed, and so sometimes we would leave them and go to Mexico. But mostly we took Dad with us and Becky or Ivelen would take Mother for the time we were gone. Sometimes she would go with us, but toward the end she would rather not go. But all you had to say to Dad, was “trail ride”, or “Lion Hunt” or “Mexico” and he was ready!

One night when the missionaries came over for dinner, Dad piped up and said, “Yeah, they say Calvin’s hunting Lions but he’s really “lyin” about the Lion he’s hunting. Calvin said, Yeah, but it was “one hell of a ride”!

The last trail ride I’ve talked about, was the most treasured of all and when Dad came home and was diagnosed with a black mass on his kidney, he said “No!” to cutting it out and being on hemo-dialysis again!”

“HILVEN AND HELEN WERE SINGING IN THEIR ROOM”

Thursday, 25th of August 2000 (LaVerne’s Journal)

“I went into Mom and Dad’s bedroom this morning and they were singing. He said they were singing the songs they used to sing when they were young and happy, and then they started singing again. “Oh My Name Is Frank Bolar, Lone Bachelor I Am”, then he said Al Fenn and Lee Fenn would bring their guitar and sing at intermission or in between acts, at the plays they would put on in Pacheco. He and Mother were laughing and singing. It was a most welcome sound!

Dad had a sense of humor. Through all of the good times and bad times his sense of humor and his dry wit, kept us smiling and laughing, even though it wasn’t pleasant for him. He made my life happy and made us love him more for it!

Even to the last week, though so weak he could just barely walk, every morning, he would insist on pushing Mother’s wheelchair outside to read the scriptures and then down the lane and back and in the evening out they would go to see the cow. When he got weaker, he would insist on pushing Mother’s chair to the kitchen for breakfast.

In September we took Dad to the hospital where they re-hydrated him, they took a CAT scan and it showed that the cancer had spread from his kidney to his lungs.

He was tough! His younger brother Lanar said, “He used to race up and down the mountains like a mountain goat and I would try to keep up with him and it almost killed me! He has a very strong heart!”

We had four pretty good months, the last 2 weeks being the worst. But through it all Mother would help him and tell us when he needed more pain medication, or ask for a blessing. One day the dialysis social worker came and said it was her job to go talk to him and tell him he could just quit dialysis, we thought it was beyond the pale, but we went in with her and when she told him that, he said, “well, I thought if you quit doing that, they came and put you in a pine box, and Calvin promised he’d take me on one more Lion Hunt!” So she left. I guess we couldn’t have Hospice and Dad be on Dialysis. That was OK by us. We were doing it all for him by then anyway. Then one day he couldn’t lift his legs and put them on the bed, because they had gone stiff. Calvin was there with me, so he lifted them and put them on the bed. This was like Monday, he stayed in bed, I took him his food and he read his book. Wed, evening, when we had all gone to bed for the night, Mother came into the hall, crying Calvin, Calvin, can’t you do something for Dad!!

We got up, Calvin went in and gave Dad a blessing and stayed with him and I saw him on his knees at the foot of the bed praying for Heavenly Father to please take him, so that he didn’t have to suffer and mother suffer anymore. I made a bed for mother in Paul’s room so she could get some sleep, and Calvin & I took turns praying for Dad that he could go! Calvin says that blood had pooled in Dads’ body, and told me that doesn’t happen unless they have died, but Dad wouldn’t go!

I went in the kitchen praying and it came to me to read the scriptures. I felt the Holy Ghost lead me to read these scriptures: These are the thoughts & verses that came: Read St Mathew 5, the Sermon on the Mount is a comfort. 1st Corinthians 15:52-58 Because Jesus gave his will to the Father and gave his life that we might live; we will and shall rise from the grave and put on immortality. According to our works, there are bodies celestial—bodies terrestrial—verse 44- it is sown a natural body and raised a spiritual body. Verse 51—We shall not sleep but be changed at the last trump- the dead shall arise incorruptible and we shall change and put on immortality. Judgment—Revelation 20:12………Revelation 21:1-7 …those who overcome shall be sons of God. “What the righteous have to look forward too”….Revelations 22: “Those that are written in the Book of Life shall dwell in Celestial splendor…14..blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates of the city…..Rev.22:12 Reward according as his work shall be.. Mosiah 18:9 We covenant to serve Him until death and bear one another’s burdens, comfort those, and stand as a witness… Rev:3:4,5….not defiled his garments shall walk with me, be clothed in white….name shall not be blotted out of the book of Life. Rev: 21…To him that overcometh, he grants to sit with him….not be hurt by 2nd death…..white stone…..eat of the hidden mana. 1st John 4:9-11 In this was manifested the Love of God…sent His Son that we might Live through Him!

About 4:00 a.m. we went to bed. The next morning I called all my brothers and sisters and asked if someone was holding onto Dad. Everyone said they weren’t except Klint and he said he didn’t realize and wouldn’t hold onto him anymore. David came and sat with him one night and said that he felt Dad was so lonely, that he could not leave! So he prayed that Heavenly Father would send someone to be with him and he felt them come, then he felt able to leave the room!

Derril came and sat with him. Rodney came, Ivelen came, Vona sat with him and rubbed his feet, we put some church music on and he seemed to enjoy that. Dad’s body was frozen and could not move. His spirit was entombed in his unresponsive body. Mother would go in his room everyday and tell him that it was all right to go. She told him to go and make a place for both of them, that she loved him, then would go take her nap.

Sunday came and Mother asked Bishop Mark McBride to come and give Dad (Hilven Cluff) a blessing so he could go. Brother Langston came with him, in the blessing the Bishop told him he had finished his work and not to worry about Mother, that he would make sure that her children would take care of her, that everything would be alright. Brother Lynn Langston was shedding tears.

I had invited Aunt Ella Whetten Anderson, Mother’s cousin to come be with Mother to give her some comfort. I wish then, that I had called all of our family together so they could have been here for Dad’s last few hours on earth. I wish to beg my family’s forgiveness for not having done that, but it never crossed my mind; it never sunk into my consciousness that he would be gone so fast after the blessing!

It was about 4:00 ‘o clock, I was sitting in the dinning room talking with Aunt Ella, Mom was in Paul’s room asleep and all of a sudden the thought came into my mind, “He’s gone!” I got up and ran into his room and we had the monitor on his arm, I took his blood pressure and there was nothing. I did it again and nothing! I called Calvin to come check and he said he was gone. About that time Mother woke up and when she came into the room and I said he’s gone, she broke down and sobbed. I ask her if she wanted to go to Vona’s home, she nodded and so I had Aunt Ella and Rodney take her over there.

Calvin had made arrangements for the Laveen Fire Chief and paramedics to come over one hour after he died, to be able to tell the Doctor that it was verified. David and Kimberly came and she helped me with calling the Doctor and getting the legal stuff taken care of. I was so grateful for her, to do that for me. We started making sure all the children were called so they could come and see him once more before they came to take him away.

As I looked at Dad in the room, he seemed to look just as alive as he had before he went, so it was hard to realize it was just a shell that I was looking at, but I was so happy to realize that he was free again. One time before when he had been really sick, he told me later that his mother had come and stood at the foot of the bed. So I thought of that and knew she had come to get her boy!”

“(This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done is to write this! But I do it out of Love for him and for you who read it and care for him too!)” LaVerne Cluff Price “Daughter”

“MY TESTIMONY”

By Hilven Cluff written May 17, 2000

“I have heard the member say, “I would like to leave my testimony with you today”. Rather than leave it with you, I prefer to retain it, but I will willingly share it with you. I don’t remember attaining a testimony, it came so naturally, so easily, that it seems as though I have always had one. I have had many experiences that have added to my testimony, and my love for Father in Heaven and His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost. I know they love me and I love them!

I see many manifestations of their love, the restoration of the gospel and the priesthood to the earth. The divine and inspired leadership of the prophets and seers and revelators, who stand at the head of His restored church. I plainly see that each of the prophets has been chosen by the Lord for his special talents and the needs of the time. Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are interested and know of the happenings of our everyday lives. I have been helped and inspired by them in my every day life.

I was raised as a farmer and rancher. I love the outdoor life. To me, the beauties of nature are as the manifestations of the Love of God. All of this, God has prepared for our enjoyment and use!

My brother Darvin Cluff and I were assigned to bring in from the pasture, the horses we were to use for the days work. Our little bay mare was especially tame. I thought to catch her first and with her help, catch the rest of the animals. As I walked toward her, with my rope in hand, she suddenly whirled and kicked me in the chin. For me, the sun just fell out of the sky. My brother Darvin thought I was dead. He half carried, half dragged me to the nearby stream, and tried to revive me, but to no avail. He caught a horse and threw me, like a sack of meal, to the animals back and took me home, two and a half to three miles. I seemed more dead than alive, there were no doctors where we lived.

My Father and another priesthood member administered to me and gave me a blessing, promising a complete recovery and hasty recovery from my injuries. I did recover most miraculously from my injuries and gained a stronger testimony of the power of the priesthood and Heavenly Father’s love for me.

I Love the gospel, and I love my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I have a testimony of the promptings of the Holy Ghost. This is my testimony, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.”

(One time LaVerne ask Dad “When did you first get a testimony?” Hilven said: “Oh, I guess it was down at the Stevens Ranch when I was a boy. I got a Spanish Book of Mormon and I would climb up in a big tree and I read it from start to finish. That’s when I got my testimony that the Book of Mormon was true!”)

“HILVEN AND HELEN CLUFF”

(A Shortened Version of their life & their missions together.)

Hilven Cluff

Born. Mar. 29, 1921

At Col. Pacheco, Chih. Mexico

Helen Whetten

Born Nov. 1923

At Col. Chuichupa, Chih. Mexico

By E. LaVerne Price (daughter)

“Hilven Cluff was born March 29, 1921, in Colonia Pacheco, Chih. Mexico. His parents are Heber M. Cluff Jr. and Amanda Rebecca Mortensen. Hilven’s paternal grandparents are Heber M. Cluff Sr. and Sarah Ann Weech, and his maternal grandparents are Morten Peder Mortensen and Karen Katrina Olsen.

Hilven is the 6th in a family of 11 children, they are Verl, Halver J., LaRee, Darvin, Loyd, Hilven, Erma, Viva, Zola, Lanar, and Lorel.

Helen (Whetten) Cluff was born Nov. l, 1923, in Colonia Chuichupa, Chih., Mexico. Her parents are Charles W. Whetten and Ivy Tietjen. Helen’s paternal grandparents are John Thomas Whetten and Agnes Belzora Savage, and her maternal grandparents are Albert Tietjen and Amanda Maria Hatch.

Helen is the 4th child in a family of six, they are: Christeen, Anna Alta, Ernestine, Helen, Freda, and Charles Alma.

The children of Hilven and Helen (Whetten) Cluff are: E. LaVerne Price, Klint H. Cluff, Vona Vining, Charleen Bowman, Rodney M. Cluff, Derril R. Cluff, Ivelen Branum, and Rebecca Dorn.

After the time of Pancho Villa and the Exodus, while living in Arizona, father Heber Cluff Jr., after much consideration and prayer to his Father in Heaven, returned to Colonia Juarez, Chih., Mexico, with his wife and four children where they lived two years, then moved up to Col. Garcia, then to Col. Pacheco, where Hilven was born. Hilven attended grade school in the “rebuilt” Church-school-house. The family then lived alternately in Col. Pacheco and Col. Juarez so the children could attend high school at the Juarez Stake Academy.

Hilven attended the J.S.A. and Douglas High School. He returned to the J.S.A .and was student-body president in 1941-2, graduating from the Juarez Stake Academy in Col. Juarez in 1942. Helen attended the J.S.A. also, but after her junior year, when Hilven proposed, she accepted, so she didn’t finish up her senior year.

On Sept. 23, 1942, Hilven married his school sweetheart Helen Whetten, by the Coredada in a civil marriage. Helen said after the 2nd world war was over and the armistice was signed we took our little daughter LaVerne and traveled with my parents to the Mesa Arizona and on Oct. 10th 1943 our little family was sealed together. Helen said, “It was like we had been allowed to enter heaven for a day and I wouldn’t have been surprised if we had gotten to see Jesus.” Together they reared a family of eight children.

Hilven & Helen first lived in Colonia Pacheco where Hilven taught the 6th, 7th, & 8th grades in the Col. Pacheco Elementary school in 1942-3, Scout leader 1941-4, instructor of the Gospel Doctrine class in 1950, ward clerk of Pacheco Ward in 1947-51. He was a home-teacher in Col. Pacheco, Col. Juarez and Queen Creek, Arizona, also ward-clerk in the Queen Creek ward, Mesa Stake, in 1953.

He was called as a Stake missionary in 1956. He also served as the Branch Genealogy instructor in Hermosillo Sonora in 1958. Upon returning to Col. Juarez Stake, Hilven was called as 2nd, counselor in the Stake Sunday School, set apart May 12, 1968 by Don Bowman.

Hilven was ordained an Elder by Claudius Bowman, and ordained a Seventy by Milton R. Hunter. March 4, 1956, and ordained a High Priest by Joel De La Cruz.

While in Col. Juarez, Bishop Howard Schmidt called Hilven and Helen to visit the mountain branches at “Rancho Willie”, and Col. Pacheco, each Sunday. Bishop Schmidt furnished them with a pick-up which Hilven and Helen nicknamed “The Gospel Chariot”. They adjusted the meetings so as to be able to attend both towns each Sunday. They served in this calling for about a year.

Soon Hilven & Helen decided to move to Colonia Pacheco. This they did, in Feb. of 1974, leaving their two youngest daughters in Col. Juarez with their Aunt Christeen Gilman, to finish high school. Hilven was soon called to serve as the Colonia Pacheco Branch President, serving for 12 years. Helen served as Branch Relief Society President, pianist, & Primary teacher, serving for 14 years. They were assigned all of the members of this mountain region, and visited them periodically by pick-up and sometimes on horseback.

There were members in Col. Pacheco, Williams Ranch “Willie”, El Oro, El Gavilan, and Hop Valley. It covered a territory of roughly, 50 square miles of rough mountain roads. Colonia Garcia was also under the Pacheco branch, they would visit each of these places on alternate Sundays. Hilven recalls: “At the Oro the people had the Church manuals and held class every Sunday, even though they didn’t have the Priesthood, and they even had non-members attending. The families in “Willie” also had their Church manuals and faithfully held their classes each week. Hilven says, by having classes in the home, when Bro. Valenzuela was called to be Bishop and Sister Valenzuela to be the Relief Society President they were ready. Later Brother Francisco Valenzuela was called to be the Stake Patriarch.”

A wonderful blessing was soon realized. By hard work and encouraging the members, the activities, Sacrament attendance, fast offerings, tithing reports, and membership, qualified these mountain church members for the building of a small Chapel there in Colonia Pacheco. Through the fast offerings made by the members, they were able to install a water system to the chapel. About this time Hilven was voted in as the “Supplente de Commisario” for two terms from four to six years. During this time the Chapel was built and a water system put in assisted by the Church. Hilven recalls: “We had activities and dances at the Chapel. People would come clear from Hop-Valley”, and thought the dances were great.” They had dance icebreakers such as “dancing with the broom.”

It is interesting that the Commisario was Hilven’s first counselor in the Pacheco Branch and Hilven the Assistant Commisario. While in this position, among other things, they caught cattle thieves who were in the process of branding over Chato Bluths brand on his cattle there in “Corrales”.

Also during this time, Hilven and Helen had been to the courts to keep their land. The Agrarians were trying to take it by any means they could. So, it was in May of 1988, that they felt compelled to sell their land. Some members of the “Agrarian Society”, who badly wanted their land, were threatening their safety. Hilven said, “Finally we received a strong Impression to get out. I knew very well what it meant when I got that feeling. The spirit said to move, so we moved!” It was with heavy hearts that they left everything in their beloved green-valley mountain home, to stay with their daughter in Laveen, Arizona.

Hilven said “We decided working for the Lord was a more profitable and satisfying way of spending our life than fighting our neighbors, so we volunteered to go on a mission for the Lord!”

On August 4, 1988 Hilven and Helen left Laveen, Ariz., to serve in the “Mexico City East Mission.” They were set apart by John Robinson on Aug. 21, 1988 in Col. Dublan. At the Mexico City Visitors Center, they enjoyed serving as assistant directors with Pres. and Hna. Ynostroza and Pres. and Sister Harold Pratt. Helen’s sister Ernestine and husband Walter Walser were serving in Mexico City temple at this time, so it was a happy time for both couples. Another sister Freda, and her husband Orville Thayne were serving in the Switzerland Temple. This was real special to these three sisters to be serving missions at the same time! After having served a year and five months, Hilven and Helen were released Jan. 4, 1990.

In the year 1991, they bought a small Toyota pick-up, with a small but serviceable camper and set out for Col. Dublan, presenting themselves as desirous to serve another mission. Hilven was first set apart by Pres. Antonio Flores on the “Mexico Chih. Mission”, as a special representative of the Mission President to the: “Distrito de Parral”. Helen was set apart as special representative to look after the Parral District Relief Society. About 6 months later, Hilven was set apart to serve as District President and Helen as District Relief Society 1st Counselor.

Helen soon saw the great need to teach the hymns and soon had 8 students in 3 branches. About this time, a simplified hymnbook was published using the chords for the left hand. Helen found it very useful to teach the hymns. One of these music students, 3 years later, was playing for the area conferences in Parral. Hilven and Helen were released from the Parral mission in August 1992, in time to join their families at the Charles W. Whetten Reunion where everyone celebrated Hilven’s and Helen’s 50th Wedding Anniversary.

These two beloved people were off this mission about 8 months when they decided to go on another mission. So they set off again in their small Toyota camper home for Colonia Dublan. In January of 1993, they were set apart by S. Keith Bowman under the direction of Mission President Jorge Mendez Ibarra. Hilven was called to serve in the “Distrito de la Sierra”, as visiting High-councilor. Helen was set apart as District Relief Society President.

Helen, again saw the great need to teach the hymns and soon had 12 piano students in 3 branches. She had them learn two or three hymns and had recitals for them to perform for their families and the mission president, these recitals being a great success. They learned hymns and played for their branches. This was a great service, as the people in the different branches, not knowing the correct tune to the hymn, would make up their own, and they might have a piano, but no-one to play it. Though it was not easy, Helen and Hilven had the youth sing at each Branch Conference and the choir or children’s choir sing at the District Conferences.

In Dec. of 1995, Helen said, “Five students in the “La Junta” Branch have completed the “Basic Piano Course” and are playing many hymns from “100 Himnos Facil”, and four or five hymns from the current Hymn book. Two piano students in “Matachic” are finishing the “Basic Piano Course Book:” and play for their branch.”

Sometime during the year of 1996, after living five years in their little camper, two years in “Parral,” and three years in “La Junta”, traveling weekly to visit seven branches, they expected to be released from the “Distrito de la Sierra” Chih. Mexico Mission. They were released when they both went to the hospital, Helen with a Cerebral Hemorrhage, and Hilven with kidney failure.

Hilven continued serving as Stake missionary with his son-in-law Calvin C. Price until he got so weak he couldn’t do it any more, and Helen served as the Laveen Ward Choir Secretary until she went to visit with Charleen where she passed on.

Looking back, their daughter LaVerne feels that Heavenly Father, knowing that Hilven did not ever want to leave his beloved mountain home again, had a hand in bringing his son and daughter out of Col. Pacheco, because he needed their time, talents and dedicated hearts to serve his children in these other areas. To this end they have unselfishly given! These are two of the “Pure In Heart”, “Stalwarts of Old Mexico”, carrying The Torch…For Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and a loving Eternal Father In Heaven!”

“HILVEN CLUFF’S LINE OF AUTHORITY

IN THE HOLY PRIESTHOOD OF JESUS CHRIST”

“Hilven was ordained an Elder by Claudius Bowman, Claudius Bowman was ordained a High Priest October 30, 1924, by John T. Whetten, John T. Whetten was ordained a High Priest March 9,1898 by John W. Taylor, John W. Taylor was ordained and Apostle December 19, 1838 under the hands of the three witnesses, Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris, David Whitmer being mouth, who were blessed by the laying on of hands of the Presidency, (Joseph Smith Jr., Sidney Rigdon, Fredrick G. Williams) to choose and ordain the twelve apostles: Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery received the Melchizdek Priesthood in 1829, from Peter, James and John who were apostles and angelic ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ, who were chosen and ordained by Him.”

“HILVEN PASSES ON”

Hilven Cluff passed on the Sunday of the 17th of September 2000 in the home of Calvin & LaVerne Price in Laveen Arizona. Hilven lived 79 years. David Price made the Funeral Programs for which we were so grateful.

We had two funeral services, one in Phoenix AZ, and one in Colonia Juarez, Chihuahua Mexico. The one in Phoenix was conducted by Bishop Mark McBride, and well attended by family and friends. The Relief Society sisters served us a wonderful lunch, and we enjoyed all our relatives who came!

Becky and Kieth Dorn took both Dad and Mother’s caskets to Colonia Juarez Chih., Mexico for our family; we love them for doing this for us.

The funeral in Col. Juarez was conducted by Bishop Rick Turley and Gail Whetten, our cousin played the organ. When I walked into the chapel, I was dumbstruck, it was beautiful, Pine boughs were draped across the front of the chapel in remembrance of Dad’s love for the mountains. I found out that Ed Whetten, our cousin, had done this and cleaned the graveyard and made all the arrangements at the gravesite. Kelly Whetten had also worked 4 hours also at the gravesite.

“SAM CLUFF, HILVEN’S NEPHEW, HIS MISSION PRESIDENT”

Hilven Cluff’s nephew Sam Cluff was his mission President while they were serving in the Distrito Sierra Madres in La Junta Chihuahua Mexico. President Sam Cluff came and spoke at the funeral. This is part of his talk.

“My dear brothers and sisters, it is a great honor for me to participate in the funeral of my dear Uncle Hilven. I know some of the things about my uncle. One of the things that I know is that he, like Nephi was born of goodly parents. What do goodly parents do? They teach their children! Hilven’s father was also a man of vision. I remember very well, as if it were yesterday, one of my first spiritual experiences, in a family reunion that we had in Pacheco.

We had a sacrament meeting and testimonies out in the open. My grandfather, the father of Uncle Hilven shared with us a vision that he had in which he saw a spacious field where there were many people. The Savior drew near to my grandfather and told him to feed his sheep! I don’t remember very well the details of the vision, but I remember the spirit that I felt in my heart when he shared his testimony with us. I was seven or eight years old on that occasion and I was the first to stand on my feet after my grandfathers’ testimony. I was so small, I didn’t even know how to say I know, and I didn’t know what to say after that! My heart had been touched so strongly by the spirit, that I knew it, but I didn’t know how to put into words what I knew. My father helped me put my testimony in words.

In July of this year, we went to a Cluff family reunion and Mona and I had the opportunity to visit with my Uncle for one or two hours, it was an unforgettable experience. I am thankful that we had this opportunity! My uncle spoke to us concerning the visions that my grandfather had had, which are very sacred, but also he spoke of his own life. One of the things that he told us was that it took him a long time to learn to be submissive to the will of his Heavenly Father. He said that when he was a young man, and even when he was older, he would rather do his own will and not that of the Father. He said that because of this attitude he suffered many difficulties in his life. He said that when he finally learned to submit to the will of the Father everything changed for him!

He said that he was working on David Brown’s ranch and the spirit told him to go to Pacheco. And so it was that he and his wife moved to Pacheco. When they got to Pacheco, Bishop Howard Schmidt called him as the branch president of Pacheco, as a dependent branch of the first ward in Col. Juarez.

As a branch president he was in charge of the church, not only in Pacheco, but a large part of the mountains. He said that as branch president, the Lord inspired him to take the Gospel to the families who couldn’t attend the branch because of the distance involved. He and Sister Cluff obtained all the manuals of the church and took them to these brothers who lived far from Pacheco, so they could study the Gospel in their own homes. These families had Sacrament Services, Sunday-School, homevenings and so forth in their own homes.

My Uncle and Aunt traveled through the mountains visiting these families. He said that later many of these persons moved to places where they could attend regularly the services and that today many of them are still active in the church and have been sealed in the temple.

Some of the favorite memories of my own family are when we went to Pacheco to visit my uncle. At that time I was a stake missionary and he took me to many of his friends to teach them the Gospel. My children liked to have my uncle tell them of his adventures about hunting Lions and Bears! We remember the excellent meals that my Aunt prepared with butter and cheese that she herself had made. When I was called as a mission President, we had the great privilege of associating with my uncle in La Junta each month, because he was the President of the Mountain District.

They had already served a mission in the Mexico Visitors Center and in the Paral District. On these occasions, Sister Cluff and I could feel the depth of the testimonies of my Aunt and Uncle and of the great Love that they had for the people of the mountains. We could also sense the great Love that these people had for my Aunt and Uncle! When President Cluff was released as District President, he said that he wanted to dedicate his time to activating the less active in the mountains.

A short time later my Aunt became ill and they had to move to Arizona. I’m sure that the Lord, who knows the intents of our heart, will repay my Aunt and Uncle for the desires that they still had to serve in the church.

In Section 137:9, the Lord says, “I the Lord will judge all men according to their works and according to the desires of their hearts.” My Aunt and Uncle had the desire to continue working with the less active in the mountains, but were not permitted to do so because of their health. For the Lord, it was if they were already doing it because of their desires.

This is a solemn occasion because we are going to miss my uncle, but at the same time it is an occasion for great rejoicing, because we know that he is going to receive a great reward because of his obedience to the plan of our father and thankfully for the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, who put into effect this plan.

Nephi taught and I believe that this described the life of my Aunt and Uncle. “Wherefore you must go forward, with a firmness in Christ, having a perfect hope and Love of God for all men!” “Wherefore if ye go forward feasting upon the words of Christ and are faithful to the end, wherefore the Father says ye shall have eternal Life!” My Aunt and Uncle received all the ordinances that are necessary for our salvation and were faithful to their covenants.

“In the Doctrine and Covenants 132 verse 19, “And I say unto you, if a man shall marry a woman by my word, which is my law, by the new and everlasting covenant and is sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise, and it is said unto them, “Ye shall come forth in the first resurrection and if not in the first in the 2nd resurrection, you shall inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities, powers and dominions of all height and depth and then shall be written in the book of Life of the Lamb. And it shall be fulfilled all that my servant has declared upon them, for time and for all eternity and this shall be in force when they are no longer in the world, and the angels and the Gods that are there, will let them pass by to their exaltation and glory in all things according to that which has been sealed upon their head, and this glory shall be a fullness and a continuation of the seeds forever”.

“Surely this is the reward that awaits my uncle. Elder McConkie taught us that if we are on the straight and narrow road as we leave this life; there is no way that we can get off the road after death. For behold this life is the time for a man to prepare to meet God. Yes this is the day in this life, in which man must do his work!

I bear my testimony of the truthfulness of this work. I know that our Heavenly Father lives, and that He gave us a plan by which we, as his children, not only can return to live with him, but we can become as He is! I know that this is possible through the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ. I am thankful for the restoration of the Gospel through the Prophet Joseph Smith, and I know that Gordon B. Hinkley possesses all the keys that were conferred upon the Prophet Joseph Smith. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.”

(This talk was prepared to be given at Dad’s funeral, but because Sam felt the time was gone, he said a few words, but did not give this talk. The next day he gave the talk to me and said he was feeling guilty for not giving the talk and felt he had short-changed the family by not giving it. He asked, would I give a copy to the family? I told him that I would.)

(Brother Keith Bowman, gave a beautiful talk about Mother and Dad at both of the funerals.)

Dad’s funeral in Phoenix was on Thursday and we left Phoenix Friday for Mexico. Our love for our extended family was deepened when we were greeted at our home in Col. Juarez by Karene Whetten and Ed & Gail Whetten. They had a huge meal all prepared for us. It was so nice! Mother had had to share the back seat and was very upset and didn’t want me to help her out of the car. So Charleen graciously took care of all her needs, got her bathed and to bed. Then she ironed her dress, and then headed for the Bowman’s home in Dublan.

Saturday we got ready for the funeral. We made it to the Chapel early. Mother & her children formed a line in the Relief Society room to greet everyone. (I found out that no one told the native people in the 2nd ward and a lot of them were from Col. Pacheco and knew Mother and Dad. One lady came to our home after the funeral, and said she would have come if she had known. She watched our home in Pacheco when Derril had his accident, when he fell out of the tree and severed his spinal cord. Then I found out that no one had notified anyone in Dublan, so the Bowmans had the Deacons run and tell everyone) Later we found that no one had let Concho Soto & his wife know either and they told us they would like to have been to the funeral. I apologize; I’ve felt so badly about that!

I did have the presence of mind to call Dad’s Mission President, Sam Cluff and he let the people know, in the mountain District where they had been serving their mission. About 10 people came from La Junta. The President of the Branch, being a man Dad had re-activated and the Relief Society President was the visiting teaching companion of Mothers while they had been in La Junta.

The funeral was very nice, then we went up the road past the temple, through Romney’s orchard and over to the graveyard. They had a green carpet over the final resting place and they set the casket on it, there were chairs all set up for the family and friends.

A graveside service would have been very nice there with the pine trees all around and the wind whispering through them, it was very beautiful weather. I felt impelled to stand up and thank the people from La Junta for coming and for their faithfulness in the gospel and urged them to keep the work of the Lord going there where Dad and Mother had labored and here is the interesting thing… as I was talking in English, a sister from Dublan was behind them interpreting and soon “she told me she just quit because they were understanding everything I was saying, before I could say it.” The Spirit of the Lord was helping them to understand without an interpreter.

I saw their heads nod and when I was encouraging the Branch President and the others whom Mom and Dad worked with, to carry on the work where Dad and Mother left off, I saw one of the men bow his head communicating to me that he would do that responsibility. I was almost overcome with the realization that he understood what I was saying. The words just came, so I feel that Heavenly Father used me to say them. So I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that the Lord takes over where we can’t!

Then I noticed the trees were whispering peace to our souls and then a little while later after they put the casket down in the vault, I heard the whispering wind through the pines go “swoosh!” and a voice in my head had me exclaiming, “He’s gone!” And then I noticed that the whispering wind thru the trees was gone and they were silent. I’m positive Dad and his mother and father and Dad’s brothers were there until that time!

After the burial, Ivelen and Becky stayed to make sure everything was done and they arranged the flowers on the grave. Mother was almost overcome with joy when we went back to see the gravesite, to see the flowers still there on the grave. She said that when she would take flowers to put on her mothers grave, (Ivy Tietjen) that before she could leave the graveyard, the native people had taken her flowers and put them on their graves.

Another visit to Mexico and visit to Dad’s grave, I found someone (Ed Whetten) had engraved on a piece of a rock slab left over from the temple, Dads name and the dates. It made my heart melt towards him again. What a loving, thoughtful person he is!

“PRESIDENT KEITH BOWMANS TALK AT HILVEN’S FUNERAL”

“Memories of Hilven Cluff or a spiritual talk can be one and the same because Hilven was a very spiritual man. He was an example of living the gospel of Jesus Christ. He looked for opportunities to serve and didn’t wait to be forced to accept a call to serve in the church especially if it was missionary work. He also looked for opportunities to serve his fellow men in any way he could.

When I was called to preside over the Distrito de la Sierra, I was given a very big job to do. Soon my son Keith LaRae called to say that Hilven said that he would really like to work with me in the district. I told him to tell Hilven to come as soon as he could because we really needed Him.

When he came to Dublan we set up an appointment with the mission president to have him set apart. He and Helen and Naoma and I traveled to Chihuahua City for this purpose. After he and Helen were set apart as missionaries the president told Hilven and Helen that they were to work with us one week. Then go to Parral and get to know the people in all of the branches so he could take over as President of the District of Parral. Hilven knew this was a call from the Lord so he immediately accepted.

Hilven and Helen came prepared to move from place to place and live in their very small camper on their little truck. That is going all out sacrificing comfort and convenience to be near the people and be available at all times, offering spiritual guidance, serving the Lord in the best way possible. They visited the people in their meetings and in their homes, loved them and received love in return. We soon received glowing reports from President Flores about their work and success. They united the people and trained the branch presidents and loved them into activity.

When we were invited to a Seminar to train the branch presidents of Parral, we could feel the spirit of love and eagerness of the people of Parral to learn and serve. The sisters of the Relief Society told us of the wonderful work of Sister Cluff.

Soon the branch of Guachochic was turned over to the Parral District and Hilven took it over and visited often. This branch is in the middle of the Tarahumara lands and is composed mostly of Indians who exhibit their reverence for all people and the Gospel.

After they had been released awhile, Hilven again expressed his desire to work with us. This time the new President authorized me to set Hilven apart as my counselor in the district presidency. Again they came in their little camper and endeared themselves to the people by living in the different branches in turn. Their work and sacrifice was accepted by the Lord and by the Saints in the branches.

Sister Cluff was set apart as the District Relief Society President and worked with the sisters in the different branches. With the little keyboard organ she would play for the services where they didn’t have a piano. She gave many of the young girls piano lessons and taught them to play the hymns. Soon some could play for services.

When I was called to be the Patriarch to the Dublan Stake, President Mendez called Hilven to be the District President. They served faithfully until the Lord released them when they both went to the hospital. I am sure that the Lord accepted their service and sacrifice because of the pure intent of their hearts. I saw them seek to serve and serve with all their might, mind and strength.

Through their service they received the love of those whom they served and especially the love of the Lord. I am sure their hearts were filled with love and with joy and peace. That is what the Lord promised to those that serve him as they did.

My wife and I express our love and respect for you Hilven and Helen and your family. We are glad that you are part of our family and that we are part of yours. We have a daughter and 8 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren that are yours as well. May the Lord bless you Sister Cluff with His peace and comfort. May your posterity call you blessed because of your example, teaching and love.

I pray in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.”

(Elder Harold B. Lee has said: “About this matter of foreordination. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that “Every man who has a calling to minister to the inhabitants of the world was ordained to that very purpose in the grand council of heaven before this world was.”)

“

A Quote from Hilven Cluff”

“I have found that if we do our part the Lord can use us to help in carrying forward his work, that in spite of our inabilities and weaknesses, He can and does make up the difference so the work can go forward!”

……………………………………………………………..

(Dad made me promise to read my poem about him at his funeral and so I am including it here, written by LaVerne Price.)

“MY FATHER’S HANDS”

My Father’s hands, so big and rough and strong,

Were placed upon the wooden plow,

“Giddy-up!” he’d call to ol’ “Bolly”.

The horse’s ears came back,

and he did rally.

Back and forth, the pasture long,

I followed, hopping, skipping;

humming a happy song!

Oh, the dark rich warm black furrows

looked so nice and neat,

planted by his hand,

the seed

would soon become next season’s treat!

Sugar-cane so tall and green

was oh so yummy,

and the molasses made from it

was just as good as honey!

Father, off to work, he had to go.

To the mountains hauling timber,

driving logging trucks to the sawmill

so they could make it into lumber.

……………

My father’s hands, so big and rough and gentle,

could gently put me on his knee,

or firmly wrestle an ornery mule,

when I was one and two and three.

Those hands would lift me high

into a saddle seat.

He said, I would wave him away!

Those hands in readiness

were held at bay!

On his horse, there was such a good seat.

Oh, what a wonderful treat!

Hands so gentle, yet so strong

one day fashioned long,

two stick horses for the

little son and daughter.

He became their hero

to pattern after!

Magic seemed to flow

from those strong hands

when placed upon my fevered brow,

a prayer was offered and you knew

that everything would be alright now!

Yes, just a touch from those

Big strong hands,

sends warmth and courage

to my soul!

These blessings from a father’s hands

Can make you well and whole!

……………

My Father’s hands, could trap

a bear and lion, not a few,

or hold a gun a so calm and steady.

It made his sons a little heady

to see the bullet true,

reach the target, turkey, deer and lion too!

One time a deer, it was so heavy!

His hand, two sons’ hands were much wearied,

as they tugged and pulled and carried,

for four long hours straining.

Down the steepened mountain-side,

slipping and sliding, but at last

to their camp-site were finally attaining!

My Father’s hands, so big and rough and strong,

could do so many things all day long.

A special warmth pervades my heart,

when in my memory I see,

four high-stepping mules with he and me

in his wonderful two-wheel cart!

No soft Cadillac in which I ride,

could equal that time of pride, when I was five,

as we rode together, side by side,

the wind in my hair, my father and I!

From mountain-tops to valleys below

we’d go,

stopping along the way.

The whispering pines and scent of

sweet smelling flowers

all seemed to say:

“Oh what a wonderful, glorious day!”

Onto the green grass we lay and ate the good lunch

that a loving Mother had made.

Down there on the side of the mountain green,

flowed a cool mountain spring.

I hopped and I skipped over the rocks

along the way,

thirsty and wanting a drink.

The birds were singing, the air was cool

there under those big Oak trees.

And I drank it all in, as also I did

the cool water from the spring!

My father called to me

and up I went a-running.

Into those strong big hands, I was a-coming.

into the cart, I had flown!

A flick of the reins upon their manes,

and off the mules did go,

down that sunny, winding canyon road!

………….

A tribute we pay to you our loving Father,

children of eight, are yours forever,

with your companion, our dear sweet Mother!

Grand and great grandchildren, are on the way from heaven,

they too will reach out to touch your hands

and feel that special love and magic that you had given,

which I felt so long ago,

when those big, rough hands, so gentle,

were placed upon my brow!

Through those strong, big work-roughened hands,

a legacy he leaves.

The service he has rendered

is true charity!

His legacy of loving service

Is shining through

the touch of his hand

reaching out to me and you!

And so to the rest of us, I say:

“Isn’t it wonderful to know and see,

those same strong gentle hands

can be with you and me forever,

down through the years.

and into Eternity!”

So, let us carry on his legacy of service

Of love and charity,

to all our friends and family,

and those we see in need.

To help and lift a burden,

or help to mend a broken heart

and share the message of our Savior,

is a joy apart!

Of this we can be certain,

Even though there is a curtain,

behind which we cannot see.

His smiling face, and loving hands

Are reaching out to you and me!

And in your heart you know, he would be saying;

“Live well, stay close to our Savior, so you can be with me!”

…………………………………

(When life seems to get too hard, read this:)

“Live in all things outside yourself by Love and you will have joy, that is the Life of God!”

“I have found that if I come humbly and faithfully before God each morning and ask him to fill my soul with His Love, I am blessed abundantly!”

From the March 1986 Ensign.

“AN INCIDENT THAT HAPPENED TO KLINT’S TALK AT HILVEN’S FUNERAL”

Klint Cluff started into his talk at his father’s funeral in Colonia Juarez, Chih., Mexico with: “I don’t know quite where to begin, but I Know I’m going to jump around, so I’ll tell this one first.

My Dad just says “I was raised first as a farmer, then a rancher”, so I guess I’ll tell you this first experience: He loved the out-of-doors, He says his brother Darvin went out to gather the workhorses for the days work, to plow you know. To round up cows they used horses, and he liked a little bay mare, because it was tame and it was nice, except this time. Dad was trying to catch her, she turned around and gave him a kick, and he fell down and Darvin tried to pick him up and Darvin couldn’t get him to come to, so he took him to the creek. It was cold water and he splashed him on his face (here Klint tells Kelly Whetten his interpreter, “You’re supposed to be interpreting for me, and Kelly said I am!” Klint had started relating the story in English then jumped into speaking Spanish and hadn’t realized it. So Kelly had started translating the Spanish into English and everybody was laughing. It was very interesting to see Klint change from English to Spanish and not realize it at all. When he realized what he had done, he started speaking English again.) (I guess the tape came to an end and Calvin didn’t realize it and then when he did, he started it again and the next talk was Brother Keith Bowman. (Hilven has related this same story in his early years in this book.)

(A story of Heber M. Cluff Jr. from another one of Hilven’s tapes.)

“I SAW MY SAVIOR”

(Hilven) “This is the way I remember Dad telling me about that experience. Dad was quite desireous of knowing what would be of most worth to him. I suppose we all think about it sometimes “what would the Lord like us to do”? Some of the early people in the church had the same idea. They’d come to the prophet and ask him to find out what the Lord wanted them to do, and the Prophet inquired and received an answer.

My Dad inquired and he received an answer too. He (Heber M. Cluff Jr.) said he was on a path and he was following this path that led into a beautiful valley. Beautiful green grass, flowers and trees, and as he followed along this path through this beautiful valley, he noticed off to one side in front of him was a large congregation of people, and as he drew near, he could see that there was someone talking to them. The person was talking to the people. The people were facing my Dad and the person that was talking to them had his back to my father and as Dad drew near, he could hear that they were being taught the principles of the Gospel. The person that was speaking impressed him very strongly, and as he turned so he could see his face, he could see it was the Savior who was teaching these people.

He (the Savior) told my father, what would be of most worth to him was “to teach his people”, so that was an answer to his prayer. The Lord set an example, which gave him to understand that what would be of most worth to Him, would be to “teach the people”! And my Mother and Dad did, although they had a struggle with the Spanish language. They had such a beautiful spirit that some way they got the message over.

{Calvin) “Your Dad and Mom didn’t speak Spanish that well then?”) (Hilven) “No, Mother had a terrible time, but she made enough progress that she could communicate. She learned those discussions pretty well. My Dad had a hard time talking Spanish too, talking it correctly. He could communicate alright, but he wasn’t telling it very correctly. But they did a lot of good.

My Dad served as Branch President for a good many years there in Col. Pacheco. They made a good many converts to the church. In converts that they made there in Col. Pacheco, a good many of them, later became leaders in other places. When they joined the church, of course their standards and their desires raised up, they wanted better advantages for their children. Nearly all of them moved out of the mountains down to the lower colonies or Casas Grandes to put their kids in school. Even now those same people and their descendants are active in the church. A number of them I know, are still good members of the church, they’re leaders. I met one just the other day when we gave our report to the high counsel; he is on the high council now, one of the converts from Col. Pacheco!”

“WHEN DOCTOR E. LEROY HATCH WAS CALLED AS MISSION PRESIDENT

OF MEXICO”

(Hilven) “At that time Daddy and Mother were still serving in Col. Pacheco, he was the Branch President and she was the Relief Society President and they were leading the group in Col. Pacheco. Dr. Hatch wanted them to go to Mexico City, to help out at the mission home. He went to Col. Pacheco to talk to them about it. They thought about it, they said they’d rather not give him an answer right now, they’d think about it, and they’d give him an answer later on. So they thought about it, talked it over and they couldn’t come to any decision, so they decided they’d pray about it, and see what the Lord wanted them to do. They wanted to do what the Lord wanted them to do!

At that time my Dad had that ranch up there to the Pinal on the way to Garcia, (the same place you camped this time when you waiting for Uncle Delbert.) He went one day to look after the cattle, on his horse, and he was thinking pretty seriously about this proposition and wanting to do what the Lord wanted him to do. He decided to make it a matter of prayer, and he got down off his horse, held his reins in his hands and knelt on the ground in prayer. He ask the Lord what did he want him to do. He would like some direction and he got his answer. He felt that where he was serving was the place where he was needed more than he was at the mission home in Mexico City. Mother at the same time, the same day, she had a prayer at home and she got the same impression, in fact she heard the voice that said: “Heber is needed more here, than he is to tend flowers in the mission home in Mexico City.” So when he got home Mother ask him what he was supposed to do, what his answer was. He says “I think you know!” and she did!

The Lord has a way of letting us know what he wants us to do. He gives his leaders instructions if they’ll listen to the Spirit, they’ll receive instructions. I know, without a doubt, I’ve received instructions a good many times when I was Branch President, in things we were supposed to do! We were pretty well isolated. We didn’t have contact with the leaders that other branches and Col. Juarez has. The high council would come up periodically. One time the Stake Presidency came up. At times when the roads were bad, and rainy weather or snowy weather, we were quite awhile, that we didn’t receive a visit from them. But we never felt like we were alone!

Sometimes when we’d receive a visit, why they would tell us the programs that they were working on and the changes that had been made and the way they were carrying on different activities. I’d say: “Yes, I already know.” You receive impressions what you are supposed to do! Listen carefully!

“THE SPIRIT WHISPERED”

(Hilven) “Bishop Schmidt told me of an experience he had. He was working as a high councilman and they had gone to General Conference in Salt Lake. The previous Bishop had been in for quite a long time. He said he didn’t know why it happened, but when he was at conference, something told him “You’re going to be the next Bishop!” He couldn’t believe it! But he was called to be the next Bishop.”

(Calvin) “That’s what happened to Kelly Vining, he sure was going around mumbling to himself, he knew before he was called that he would be the next Bishop and he was kicking against the pricks. “How come me? Why Me? I don’t know why? He sure didn’t want the job! (Hilven said) In priesthood meeting today he got up and told them what he thought about it. We were walking down the hall, and Kiko said: “Well, Kelly sure tells them what he thinks!” (Hilven) “How he feels!’ and I said, “that’s the reason the Lord put him in there!” (Calvin) “That’s right! He’ll do a good job and he’s spiritual!”

(LaVerne) “Thank you Dad!”

Songs that Dad loved: “Cool, Clear Water”, “I Got a hundred and Sixty Acres in the Valley”, “The Strawberry Roan”, “Down in the Little Green Valley”. ”Red River Valley”

(On this tape is the ending of Mom and Dad’s talks about the Mexico Visitors Center.) Children sing at Mothers’ request.: “Love One Another” She had them sing it twice.

(Dad said the prayer)

(This tape is: “THE FUTURE EVENTS OF THE MEXICO COLONIES AS SEEN BY HEBER CLUFF RELATED BY HILVEN CLUFF”

(Hilven) “He told me of another experience that I’ve always remembered, because it had to do with the future events in the colonies. He told me this a long time ago and I’ve lived to see nearly every bit of it fulfilled. I probably will live to see the rest of it fulfilled because it looks like it is shaping up right now to come about what he told me would happen.”

Mother and Dad came out here to the States and went to Salt Lake and were married in the Salt Lake Temple. It was about the time of the revolution in 1911-12, is when they left out of the Colonies and came out here. Dad and Mother were already out here, just a little bit before that, so they decided not to go back. The situation in Mexico was not favorable for anybody to be living down there at that time.

They were living in Pima. Dad had fixed up a little house. I think Dad was working out to the Cluff ranch or somewhere close around there. They had fixed up a little two-room house. The bottom part was lumber, the floor was lumber and he’d put a tent over the top of it. He divided it into two rooms, so they would have a kitchen and a bedroom. A lot of the people had left everything they had down there, and they were in dire circumstances out here, and you have cattle and horses and property down there and they had very little out here. Some of the boys went down there and got some of the property and brought it out.

Some of the boys were figuring on going back down there and seeing how the situation was, see if it was favorable that they could return, they still wanted to go back down there. Some of the Whetten boys were figuring on going down there. And Dad had desires of going back to but he wanted to know what the situation was and I imagine he thought about it seriously, if there was a future for the Colonies down there, if it was really in the Lord’s plan, that people be established in the Colonies. He was thinking about it and he was thinking about writing a letter to these people that had been down there, to see what they thought about it.

He got his paper and his ink and went back into the bedroom. He had a table in there, so he could be away from the kids, so they wouldn’t be bothering him while he wrote the letter. He sat down to write the letter and he said he dipped his pen in the ink, but he never wrote anything, because it was just like a picture-show, the whole thing opened up to him. He saw it just like a panorama picture-show.

He said it started with a beautiful white cloud that hung over what they called the tithing office in Dublan. As he watched this white cloud it began to open up and spread, until it spread and completely covered the Dublan purchase. You know in the early days the church sent some of the apostles to make arrangements for purchasing some land that they could colonize. They purchased pieces of land about the same dimensions in nearly all these colonies. There was Colonia Diaz, Colonia Dublan, Colonia Juarez, Colonia Pacheco, Colonia Garcia, Colonia Chuichupa, all of those were in Chihuhua, and then there were two colonies in Sonora, Oaxaca, and Morelos.

He watched this cloud that opened up and spread all over the Dublan purchase and covered the Dublan purchase. Then a little finger of it started out and led up the road and followed the road from Dublan up to Colonia Juarez. Just the finger of it followed the road and it started to open up and covered all the purchase of Colonia Juarez and then another little finger led off and followed the road up the mountain, just like the road went up to Colonia Pacheco, then it opened up and covered the whole purchase of Colonia Pacheco. It did the same thing to Garcia and Chuichupa, and he said that during all the events that he saw after that, this beautiful white cloud stayed above these colonies. The interpretation that he received from that, was that the protecting power of the Lord would be over those colonies. He had a purpose for those colonies, he wanted them there and he was going to protect them.”

MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR HELEN AND HILVEN CLUFF HELD JULY 14, 2006

(LaVerne) “Calvin & I and Vona had been talking about getting a nice headstone for Mother and Dad’s grave site, so Vona went looking for one that we might like. The one we all liked had both parent’s information on it and the Mesa Temple in the center. We set a date to take it to Col. Juarez and Calvin took it down. All Mom & Dad’s children were invited to come and participate in a memorial service and laying of the stone and enjoy visiting together, as this was the time of the Bowman reunion and Charleen would be there. I apologize for not letting more people know about this event.

So on July 13th the ones that were there set about preparing for setting the headstone for Hivlen and Helen. This was accomplished by grandson Andrew & Nathan Dorn, Gary Branum, Calvin C. Price, Paul Price and Klint Cluff. We went down to the Tinaja and shoveled sand into Calvin’s truck and drove to the graveyard where we mixed the sand and mortar together and lay the beautiful headstone in it. LaVerne laid some Pacheco rocks on either side and Meg put a pretty white stone in the center at the bottom in the cement. It was a beautiful afternoon and a very memorable experience.

On July 14th the men had taken chairs and set them up under the Pine trees in the graveyard and we held a memorial service there. It was a beautiful clear morning and we enjoyed a peaceful spirit there. Klint conducted the service, welcoming everyone there. We sang an opening hymn “I know That My Redeemer Lives”. Rodney Cluff gave the opening prayer. Klint bore his testimony and told stories of Mother & Dad’s life. Grandpa Keith Bowman talked to us about Helen & Hilven, Mother and Dad, which we all appreciated very much.

A special song “That Silver Haired Daddy of Mine” was sung by Ivelen and LaVerne, accompanied by Ivelen on her quitar. Everyone was invited to say the things in their heart and bear their testimony. Those that spoke were Klint Cluff, Justin Bowman, Becky Dorn, Derril Cluff, Queta Cluff, Rodney Cluff, Charleen Bowman, Vona Vining, Ivelen Branum and LaVerne C. Price.

LaVerne gave all the brothers and sisters a book she had put together from Hilven and Helen’s journals and tape recordings, entitled “The Life Story of Hilven Cluff”.

Those that came were Derril & Randi Cluff, Klint Cluff, Rod & Queta Cluff and great-granddaughter Marissa, Charleen C. Bowman, Justin Bowman, Connie Bowman, Paul & Rochelle and family, Vona & Kelly Vining, Becky & Keith, Nathan and Andrew, and Grandpa Keith Bowman and his wife Naomi were brought by their daughter Claudia Bowman Nelson.

The closing song was “I Need Thee Every Hour” and the closing prayer was given by Klint Hilven Cluff. This lasted two hours and was a wonderful memorial to Dad and Mother. Pictures were taken and a luncheon was served at the family home in Colonia Juarez and everyone enjoyed being together there.

(Note) “More of mother Helen’s narration was included in this book to bring continuity to the years of their lives. Calvin says I should include all of Helen’s journal stories and pictures but I’m not ready and don’t have the time just yet. I like the books Aunt Viva has done; eventually maybe I can do one similar to hers.”