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Las Colonias Magazine

Welcome to Las Colonias

Welcome to  Las Colonias magazine.  Las Colonias believes that the same pioneer spirit that first settled the Mormon Colonies still lives in the descendants of the original colonists.  Sadly, with each passing generation. the biographies, the stories, and the principles that they teach become lost to time.  

In This Month's Issue        


Unveiling and commemoration of a new plaque and monument on Temple Hill in Pacheco.

James Douglas Harvey's history illustrates the violence common in the days preceding and during the Exodus.

The history of William Cook Prows doesn't mention him being a member of the Mormon Battalion.  Upon returning from California in 1850, multiple sources cite William Prows as being one of the first miners to discover gold in Virginia City, Nevada.

Most of the histories are taken from Stalwarts South of the Border 
compiled by Nelle Spilsbury Hatch and Carmon Hardy.  As far as possible,
in order to preserve the author's voice, all spelling and syntax have been kept as the original text.  Most numbers have been changed to numerals rather than the original text.

Las Colonias tells the amazing stories of the Mormon colonists, and introduces generations new and old to the incredible history and landscapes that act as a backdrop on which the colonists lived their lives.

Learn more about Las Colonias

 
All in attendance at the unveiling of new plaque and monument


Plaque Commemorating Temple Hill and Colonia Pacheco
On July 24th 2014 over sixty Mormon colonist descendants ascended Temple Hill overlooking Colonia Pacheco to honor their pioneer ancestors.  They came to pay tribute to the original men who scouted future Mormon settlements for colonization by unveiling a new plaque and monument to replace an older monument that had fallen into disrepair.

The original monument had been constructed by the Pacheco Boy Scout troop in 1935.  Dan Jarvis helped spearhead the project of replacing the original plaque and monument that was originally placed by his father Ray Jarvis who served as Scout Master.  

Later that evening a Pioneer Day celebration was held at the home of Ed and Gayle Whetten with most of the Colonies residents attending. 

 

Continue
Commemoration Photos

 

William Cook Prows

(1827 –1894)

 

It was the upper Kanawha Valley, Virginia (now West Virginia), on the eleventh day of June, 1827, that a son was born in the home of Thomas Prows and Elenor Kounts (Kountz).  He was given the name of William Cook Prows.  Two brothers, John Thomas Prows, born July 15, 1819, and Daniel “W” Prows, born 1824, along with a sister, Mary Ann Prows, born February.  22, 1822, greeted the new child.    

 

Thomas Prows’ father was born April 17, 1792. We have record of two Brothers of this Thomas, a Daniel and the Samuel G. His mother, Eleanor Kounts, was born January 4, 1802. Temple records indicate that both Thomas and Elenor came from Virginia. We also have record of three sisters of Eleanor—Mary, Jerusha, and Margaret—listed from St. Louis Missouri.

 

Very little is known about the route his family followed westward. However, records indicate that other brothers and sisters were born in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.  
 

 

Continued
William Cook Prows

Heaton Lunt of Colonia Pacheco 
book review

 
Marian L Lunt’s book, Heaton Lunt of Colonia Pacheco, was a lot of fun to read.  The biography was written from audiotapes recorded by her father-in-law, Heaton Lunt.  
I don’t think that Louis L’Amour or Zane Grey could have written better stories than the life Heaton lived.  It's like a Hollywood screenwriter had John Wayne or Clint Eastwood in mind as he created a script filled with banditos, hermits, army scouts, wild animals, and gunplay.

Heaton Lunt cont.



 

 

 James Douglas Harvey
(1863-1912)

 

My father, James D. Harvey, had two wives and when Church leaders advised men living in plural marriage to go to Mexico, he was one of those who made that long journey south in 1890. He and my mother, Sarah Elizabeth Kellett, went to Colonia Diaz, leaving the other wife, Nancy Anderson, with her folks until they could get a place. They bought an adobe structure with a dirt floor.

 

Father worked for John W. Young who was attempting to build a railroad through the country at that time. This required my mother to stay at home and care for the garden and similar chores by herself. The railroad project failed. Father came home but receive no pay for his work. Mother had worked so hard while he was gone getting the garden planted that she was sick and lost the baby.

 

In the autumn of 1890, they sold the place where they were living for a team and wagon and moved into a tin shop. In March 1891, they took the team and wagon and went to Deming to meet my father’s second wife, Nancy, and her little boy. They succeeded in buying two lots on which all live together. My mother inherited a home which she sold for sheep that she was able to also sell for enough money that she was able to buy a nice three-room house in which the entire family lived for some time.

 
Continue

James Harvey Douglas



 
Las Colonias magazine tells the amazing stories of the Mormon colonists, and introduces generations new and old to the incredible history and landscapes that act as a backdrop on which the colonists lived their lives.
Our mailing address is:
Las Colonias magazine
P.O. Box 15441
Ogden, UT 84403

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