The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 73, July 1969 - April, 1970 Page: 15
605 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Trek South: How the Mormons Went to Mexico
was viewed as the will of Providence. In the words of Bishop Henry
Lunt, it was "the Lord" who had "opened that country up for the
Saints.""
Why did the Mormons discontinue the movement to Mexico?
In the first place, after 1904, the church performed almost no polyg-
amous marriages." The Mexican colonies, in at least one sense, then
became superfluous. More significant than anything else, however,
was the violent dislocation suffered by the Mormons during the Mex-
ican Revolution. In 1912 they were forced from their Chihuahua and
Sonoran settlements by the belligerent demands of the rebel leader,
Inez Salazar. With few exceptions, the entire Mormon population,
packing themselves into crowded train cars or making a dash by
horse and wagon, fled northward in search of safety in El Paso,
Texas, or other border cities in the United States. In the midst of
the cataclysm, the President of the Mormon Church officially released
all settlers from any further ecclesiastical obligation to return."' Finally,
the emphasis formerly given to the idea of the "gathering" seems
to have terminated at about this same time. That is to say, the
church's program of transporting new converts from foreign lands
to North America and concentrating its membership in outlying
colonies established and supervised by authorities in Salt Lake City,
was gradually abandoned." The church, by shedding those peculiar-
the church be moved to the colonies in Mexico. "Journal History of the Church," March
ii, April 16, 1897.
72Deseret News Weekly, July 15, 1893.
"7Kimball Young, Isn't One Wife Enough? (New York, 1954), 410-422; relevant por-
tions of U.S. Congress, Senate, Proceedings Before the Committee on Privileges and
Elections of the U.S. Senate in the Matter of Protests Against the Right of Honorable
Reed Smoot ..., 59th Cong., 1st Sess., Senate (4 vols.; Washington, 1906), Document
486; and William Preston, Jr., "The Watershed of Mormon History, 1890o-191o" (M.A.
thesis, Columbia University, 1950), esp. 67-74.
74Joseph Fielding Smith, "The Mexican Trouble-Loyalty to the Constitution," Im-
provement Era, XVI (December, 1912), 95. It should be noted that a number of Mormon
property owners did return, struggled through the difficult remaining years of the Revolu-
tion, and assisted in reviving two Mormon colonies which have survived to the present
day: Colonia Dublan and Colonia JuArez.
75The question of the "gathering to Zion" in Mormon thought and its ancillary proj-
ect of supervised colonization deserves extensive study. The general consensus at the turn
of the century seems to have favored a renewal of the church's colonization under-
takings. See "Journal History of the Church," March 13, 1899, p. 2, and April 2, 1902, p. 5.
As Lorenzo Snow Huish put it, "In those days there was always the spirit of gathering."
"The Story of Lorenzo Snow Huish" (typescript in the possession of Mabel Todd, Salt
Lake City), 7; see also "Journal of Anthony W. Ivins," April 6, 1899. This attitude pre-
vailed despite the apparent certainty prevalent among high circles in the church that
the "second coming" of Christ with its antecedent return of the saints to Jackson County,
Missouri, was imminent. "Journal of Anthony W. Ivins," April 17, 1899, April 8, 19o01,
April 7, 190o2; and "Journal of John Mills Whittaker" (typewritten copy, University of
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 73, July 1969 - April, 1970, periodical, 1970; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117147/m1/31/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.