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
- Martha Cragun Cox
- Eli Clayson
- Ernest Isaac Hatch
As I finish this issue on Thanksgiving morning, I find a great sense of gratitude for pioneer ancestors who endured much heartache and tribulation so we may sit down at our family table and enjoy the bounties of modern life. I hope you do too.
In Martha Cragun Cox we peek into the introspections of a young girl as she deals with the realization of her own mortality and then finding her life's purpose. This unique perspective is one we don't normally see in the "just the facts" of typical pioneer biographies. At the end of Martha's bio there is a link to more detailed sketch taken from her 300-page autobiography that details her life in a loveless polygamist marriage where she finds more love and connection to her sister wives than with her husband. Unfortunately this probably wasn't atypical for the time. Reading this biography by Lavina Fielding Anderson is worth the time spent.
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
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Martha Cragun Cox
(1852 - 1932)
Martha Cragun Cox was born March 3, 1852 in the Mill Creek Ward, Salt Lake County, Utah. Her father, James Cragun, was a descendant of Patrick Cragun, born in Ireland, who came to America, settling in Massachusetts. Family tradition has it that in his early manhood he was one of the “Indians” threw the English tea overboard in Boston harbor.
Martha’s mother Elenor Lane, a granddaughter of Lambert Lane who was born in England and emigrated to America with his parents when he was about 12 years of age.
Martha’s parents joined the Mormon Church in 1843 and arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1849. They received the call to pioneer the Dixie, Utah country in 1862. As a girl, Martha learned to leave on her mother’s loom. She made cloth for her own dresses and earned a little money weaving for other people. Quoting from her “Reminiscences,” we learn of an experience that had a profound effect on her life:
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Eli Archer Clayson
(1876-1933)
Eli Archer Clayson was born at Payson, Utah, on November 12, 1876. He was the son of Nathan and Annie Harriet Butler Clayson.
Eli’s father, Nathan Clayson, had been baptized into the Church at the age of fourteen. At seventeen, he had left his birthplace in Northamptonshire, England, and emigrated to America. After a passage of 46 days between London and New York City, Nathan’s family went by train to Florence, Nebraska. From Florence, Nathan drove a team of oxen to Salt Lake City, suffering from frostbite and frozen feet on the plains. They arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on December 3, 1864, moving on to Payson, Utah, where the family made its home. In 1877 the family moved to Lake Shore, where they cleared land for a farm. They lived in a dugout for years until a home was built. Eli Archer was one of twelve brothers and sisters..
Eli Clayson cont.
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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.
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