James William Palmer
1860-1931
James William Palmer, son of Zemira Palmer and Sally Knight Palmer, was
born September 23, 1860 in Provo, Utah County, Utah. He was the sixth child of
twelve children, six sons and six daughters. Two of the girls were twins.
Father's father was born August 9,
1821, at Loborough, Toronto, Canada. His mother was born December 1, 1836 at
Gailston, Missouri. Her father, Newell Knight, Jr., was instrumental in
bringing about the first miracle performed in The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints. At the time of the miracle, Newell Knight, Jr. and his wife
were living with Newell's parents, Joseph Knight, Sr. and his wife, Polly Peck.
Although the Knights had not yet joined the Church, they were dear friends of
the Prophet Joseph Smith who visited them often and conversed with them on
spiritual subjects and the plan of salvation. These conversations inspired Newell
with a desire to assist the Prophet by offering prayer in one of the Sabbath
meetings. But when the time came for him to pray, his courage failed him and he
could not utter a word. This disturbed him very much in mind and in body. By
the time he reached home, he was acting very strangely. He asked his wife to
send for the Prophet. When the Prophet arrived, Newell was suffering so
intensely his face and limbs were twisted out of shape in a most terrible
manner. He was on the floor when suddenly he was caught up from the floor and
tossed about the room. After some difficulty, the Prophet took Newell by the
hand and Newell pleaded with the Prophet to cast the devil out of him. The
Prophet said, “If you believe that I can, it shall be done.” Then, almost unconsciously,
the Prophet rebuked the evil spirit and demanded it to depart. Immediately
Newell began to speak, saying he saw the evil spirit leaving him and vanishing
from the room. This vision was one of Father's choice memories and an
inspiration to him throughout his life.
Father was of a quiet, reserved
nature and would not tolerate anything loud, boisterous or obscene. He was very
neat and particular, and viewed everything he did with pride. Public speaking
was very difficult for Father, but when he was called upon to speak in any
church meeting he humbly responded.
He was a faithful church member. No man ever paid a more honest tithe. More
than once the Bishop said, “Jimmy Palmer goes through his bins and sorts out a
big tenth of the best he has for tithing.” Of course, in his day, tithes and
fast offerings were paid with produce such as corn, potatoes, beans, squash,
molasses, cornmeal, eggs, poultry, livestock, lumber, or whatever the people
had. Father was also ever ready with labor and means when a church or school
donation was called for.
He held several responsible civic
positions such as school trustee, water supervisor and president of a
stockholders' association. Due to the fact that Father never did talk much
about himself as a boy, we know but very little about his early life. However,
we do know that, like most pioneer families, his parents moved from one place
to another quite frequently. Some of his boyhood homes were: Provo, Meadow
Valley, and Springdale in Utah. As a boy, Father helped with farming,
sheepherding, or whatever there was to be done.
From their Springdale home, Father's
parents moved to Orderville, Kane County, Utah, where they lived the United
Order for ten years. It was here that he met Mary Ann Black, a daughter of
William Morley Black and his wife, Amy Jane Washburn Black. Father and Mary Ann
were married in the St. George Temple on June 25, 1879. Mary Ann died the same
year, leaving Father a widower at the age of nineteen.
Two years later Father married Olive
Myrtle Black, daughter of William Morley Black and Maria Hansen Black, a
half-sister to Mary Ann. They were married December 1881, in the St. George
Temple. They spent their honeymoon traveling by team and wagon from St. George
to Orderville. It was in Orderville that their first child, William Zemira, was
born on December 3, 1882.
On December 25, Father married Eva Minerva
Black, a full sister to Mary Ann. After Father's third marriage to Black girls,
no doubt he was referred to as “Jimmy Palmer-the man who prefers Black
Girls," or "There comes Jimmy with his three Black wives,” and “No
matter how bright the day or dark the night, it's always Black for Jimmy!”
In the spring of 1884, Father, his two
Black wives, and baby Will, moved to Snowflake, Navajo County” Arizona, where they
lived with Father‘s brother, Asael. It was there in Uncle Asael’s home that Father‘s
and Mother's second child, James Asael, was born on October 12, 1884.
The journey from Orderville to Snowflake
was very hazardous because of the wild, undeveloped country and the terrible
road over which they had to travel. It took weeks to make the long, tiresome
journey. They had miles and miles of sand and more sand to go through, which
made traveling almost impossible. At Lee‘s Ferry they crossed the Colorado River
on a ferry. Father drove team, wagon and all onto the boat, and they were safely
ferried to the opposite side of the river, where the most dangerous part of the
road, “Lee's Backbone,” was staring them in the face. As they passed over Lee's
Backbone, the wagon, team and all could have been thrown to the bottom of the
canyon hundreds of feet below if Father's team had made only a careless swerve
to the left. While on their journey to Snowflake, the nights on the windswept desert
were made dismal by the bloodcurdling howls of hungry coyotes, and the fear of
rattlesnakes, which were plentiful. These conditions made sleeping on the
ground a terrifying experience.
Father and family had been in Snowflake
only a short time when President John Taylor, who was then President of the Church,
advised all polygamous families to move to Mexico. Father's brothers, Asael and
Alma did not want Father to go to Mexico, and they gave him some cattle and
land as an inducement to stay. But Father could not settle down and be
contented. He felt he should heed the advice of President Taylor, and it was
not long until he and his family, and what few supplies could be hauled in one wagon,
were on their way to Colonia Diaz. Father's brothers gave him a team of mules
and they, faithfully and securely, carried their load to Colonia Diaz, Mexico, where
they stayed only long enough to plant and harvest a crop. They reached Diaz on
March 31, 1885.
From Diaz they went to San Jose, a little
Mexican town near Colonia Dublan, Chihuahua, Mexico. San Jose was located near
the Casas Grandes River. Mother and Aunt Eva tried to catch fish from the river
but usually caught turtles. Fish were needed to help supply food for the
family. Many a meal consisted only of cornbread and water gravy thickened with
cornmeal. Father planted and raised corn and potatoes at San Jose. The potatoes
were so small that it took twenty for just one serving. They ground the corn in
an old-fashioned coffee grinder to get meal for bread, gravy and mush.
From San Jose, Father and family went
to a pioneer camp near where Colonia Juarez is now located. At this camp they
built forts or stockades in which to live, eight or nine families living in a
stockade. Their only stove was a campfire in the yard. It made no difference
how hot the summer or how cold the winter, their scanty rations were cooked on the
same stove. They named the pioneer camp “Stringtown.”
Father and family had just moved
into their part of a stockade when a pair of “twin” boys was born, October 14,
1886, Ellis for Mother and Edson for Aunt Eva. Poor Father now had to be nursemaid,
baby-sitter, diaper changer, laundry woman, chief cook and bottle washer, besides
trying to provide for the family. The fact that he was a proud father of four
robust sons, however, overbalanced anything else
Several months after the "twins”
arrived, the little colony of stockaders were eating their scanty noonday meal when
suddenly it seemed that the whole earth began to shake. Everyone was very
excited and thought surely their time had come. One woman who was running around
with a 1~w1 of soup in her hands said, "I'm going to eat my soup before I
die!” And she drank it down in a hurry. The tremor was just a minor part of the
Mexico earthquake we read about in history. It did not damage Stringtown much,
but scared a year's growth out of the people.
In the spring of 1887, Father hitched his faithful mule team to the wagon
and he and his family pioneered their way up the steep, rugged San Diego dugway
to Corrales. It took almost two weeks to make the trip of only forty miles.
Because the earthquake had shaken the road up so badly, they had to rebuild it
as they went along.
Corrales was a beautiful,
picturesque, little valley bounded on one side by the Sierra Madre Mountains. On
the other three sides were mountains, hills, pine forests and two rivers-one running
south and north, the other running east and west. The two rivers met a very
short distance from where Father built the three-room log cabin in which both families
lived. The additions to the family caused the home to be as crowded as a can of
sardines. Then, and only then, did Father move Aunt Eva to another small log
cabin. The parting of the two families was a sad one, even though they lived
close enough together to see one another every day.
When Father and his family first
came to Corrales, they lived in their wagon under pine trees until the log
cabin was finished. During the first year there, they built the log cabin, dug
an Irrigation ditch from the box canyon to the farm, plowed lands planted and harvested
crops, cut and hauled firewood and made a corral and shelter for the mule team.
All his life Father took great pride in having sleek, well cared for horses and
cattle.
Another pair of “twins" had the
great honor of being the first ones born in the newly-made log cabin-Olive
Rachel for Mother and Benjamin Elias for Aunt Eva, The stork delivered the
twins August 2, l888. The next child was Newell B., born to Aunt Eva. He was
born August 22, 1890. Following him was Mother's second daughter, Chloe Amelia,
born October 15, 1890. Aunt Eva gladly welcomed her first daughter, Myrtle Amy,
October 14, 1892. Next In line was John David for Mother. John was born April l9,
1893.
Then, Hallelujah! Another pair of
"twins" was born - Ida for Mother and Mary Ann for Aunt Eva - on
March 13, 1895. Mother's darling little Loren Morley was born May 2, 1897 and
died with whooping cough on August 14, 1898. His was the first death in the family,
and how sad for everyone. The next child on the list was Aunt Eva's daughter,
Jennie, who was born November 12, 1897. Following Jennie was Joseph Martin,
Mother's sixth son He was born September 16, 1899. Following Joseph was Aunt
Eva's daughter, Margaret Ellen, who was born November 26, 1899.
Mother's fourth and last daughter was
the first child In the James William Palmer family to be born in the twentieth
century. She arrived July 2l, 1902. Following Viola was Aunt Eva's fourth and
last son, Delbert, born September 5, 1902. Next was Aunt Eva's daughter,
Florence, born July 27, 1904. Mother's son, Guy C., was born September 16,
1905. Aunt Eva's tenth and last child, Inez, was born November 23, 1906, and
died February 27, 1907. Again, the family was very sad and missed little Inez
so much, and yet it seemed that a death or any other tragedy in the family only
brought them closer together and caused them to be more humble and prayerful.
It was a consolation to Aunt Eva to feel within her heart and soul that little
Inez, her tenth child, had been given as a tithe offering.
Oren Kenneth, Mother's twelfth and
last child, was born January 18, 1908. Kenneth was Father's last and
twenty-second child. The first child William Zemira, was born December 3, 1882,
and the last child was born in 1908, making a difference of twenty-six years
between the first and last child. During twenty-six years, Father was blessed
with twelve sons and ten daughters, the majority of whom were born in the
little three-room cabin.
Even after the most difficult years
had passed and Father had accumulated horses, cattle, a good ranch and all
kinds of barnyard animals and fowl, he, as well as the other people in the
mountain colonies and ranches had to be ever alert and on the watch for
unfriendly, thieving Mexicans and wild Apache Indians. Chief Geronimo and his
hostile band of Apaches were not the only Indians to hide out in the Sierra
Madre Mountains. According to legend, Chief Geronimo's son, while yet very
young, followed in his father's footsteps and led a very hostile band of wild
Apache Indian into the mountains. It was they who were molesting and terrifying
the people. They stole horses and cattle and would go into the fields at night,
helping themselves to corn and potatoes. No doubt if the United States soldiers
had not killed or captured most of the Indians, the Indians would have killed
many of the people.
Later on, however, two Apaches and a
squaw, who were on a cliff above Pratt's ranch where the Thompson family was living,
shot and killed one of the Thompson boys as he came home to do the morning
chores. They also shot the mother and thought they had killed another boy. The
Indians came to the house and discovered the mother was not dead, so they
dragged her by her hair to the side of the house, set her against it, and beat
her to death with rocks. The five year old girl, Annie, was not hurt, because
the Indians intended to take her with them when they left the ranch after plundering
the house. They ripped open all the pillows and feather beds. There was such a terrible
whirlwind of feathers through the house that Annie took a chance on not being
seen if she tried to escape. She went to the chicken coop to hide. Elmer, the
boy whom the Indians thought they had killed, was in the coop. Most surely a divine
power was protecting Elmer and Annie from the clutches of the savage Indians, for
when they discovered that both Annie and Elmer had gone, they started hunting for
them. One buck looked in the coop but did not see them. The Indians were
somewhat superstitious about the disappearance of Annie and Elmer and left the
ranch in a hurry. After Elmer and Annie were sure the Indians had left, they
started for Cave Valley, but Elmer was bleeding so badly he could not go far. Annie
ran on as fast as she could until she met my father-in-law, Hyrum Nelson.
A few years later, Brothers Allen
and Harris encountered the Indians in the mountains. They very quickly hid
behind a boulder and got their guns ready to fire in case the Indians
discovered them. Soon, the Indians packed up and started on their way, which led
right past where Allen and Harris were hiding. The squaw, who was ahead of the others,
saw the men. As quick as lightning she had her gun on them. One of the men
fired at her when she drew her gun and she fell from her horse. The next rider
was shot by the other man and fell from his horse. When Allen and Harris felt
sure the Indians were dead, they went to their bodies and discovered a little
Papoose on the back of one of them. They were sorry that the little fellow had
also been shot. The other two Indians had whirled their horses quickly and galloped
away in the opposite direction. So far as anyone knows, they were the only two who
escaped and they did not molest anyone again. However, their tracks were seen several
times in the Sierra Madres, and more than once people were near enough to smell
the tobacco they were smoking. I had this experience myself once when on a
fishing and hunting party in the Sierra Madre Mountains.
Although Father loved his children and did everything in his power for
their comfort and well-being, he had very little companionship with them. He
never took time out for relaxation except on Sunday, and that was strictly
"go to church day.”
Father had many faith promoting experiences. He was bitten by a rattlesnake
once while hoeing corn in his bare feet. He had no shoes. On another occasion
he camped in the oaks at the foot of the San Diego dugway and made his bed
under a large oak tree. He was almost asleep when he was prompted to move his
bed. He tried to ignore the prompting and go back to sleep, but he could not,
so he moved his bed. About an hour later, one of the terrible electrical storms
the country was accustomed to headed father’s way. The big oak he had moved
from under was shattered with lightning. The prayer he had offered before going
to bed was answered.
While throwing corn fodder from the barn loft into the manger below, he
fell and broke two ribs. There were no doctors in the country. The only remedy
our parents had for all kinds of sickness, accidents or anything was faith in
the healing power of the priesthood. Father was saved from being killed by a
big, brown bear through prayer. Another man was killed by the bear.
An exciting but sad experience happened on Sunday, July 4, 1910. Lightning
struck Father's barn, and it was burned to the ground. Aunt Eva and Newell were
lucky enough to get all the horses and cattle out of the barn, but the effects
of the lightning caused Old Glory's death three days later. Old Glory was a
thoroughbred horse for breeding purposed, for which Father had paid $1,000. The
death of the horse was quite a shock to Father and a large financial loss in
those days.
Father was accustomed to have very severe headaches. They caused him to be delirious
at times. These headaches, along with worry and loss of the horse, caused
Father to become very nervous and discontented. He decided to make a trip
through Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, thinking the change would improve his
health, and it did. It also brought a big change in the families' lives, for
Father never returned to Mexico.
He decided to make a new start at Grayson, Utah which is now called
Blanding. The new start would not have been so difficult if he could have sold
his property at Corrales and Pacheco. But soon after Father left Mexico, the
Mexican Revolutionaries started making trouble for the people in the Mormon
colonies. They became so dangerous by 1912 that the President of our Church,
Joseph F. Smith, advised people to leave. It was thought that the trouble would
soon be over and the colonists could return to their homes. Most did not
return, however, except a very few. But even they could not live in peace
because of the Mexicans.
When Father decided to stay at Blanding, he wrote a letter to our brother
who was preparing to go on a mission to Mexico City, asking him to help Aunt
Eva and her unmarried children move to Blanding. Will went as far as the United
States line with Aunt Eva and her children, got them through the customhouse,
and saw them well on their way to Blanding before going to Mexico City. He
could not finish his mission because of the trouble the re-flaggers were making
for his family at Corrales. All Mormon missionaries in Mexico were advised to
go home and protect their families.
Mother and her family left Pacheco and Corrales with the rest of the
Corrales and Pacheco people Tuesday morning, July 28, 1912. That was
twenty-seven years after Father had settled at Corrales. After twenty-seven
years of hard labor and sacrifice, Father now had no earthly possessions except
the two teams and what few supplies and household goods could be hauled, plus a
few horses our brother, John, drove across the line and on to Blanding.
Regardless of this, Father was not broken spiritually. He had laid up for
himself treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where
thieves cannot break in and steal. He was ready and willing to make a new start
and was very successful
He developed his farm, not far from Blanding, to be one of the best, if not
the very best, in the country. During the cold winter months when he could not
work on the farm, he carried mail from Blanding to Buff by team and buggy in
order to get money for shoes, clothing and other necessities. Most of the food
was produced on the farm and in the home garden, but money was scarce.
Father kept going, and was never idle until his failing health forced him
to slow down. He did not completely quit until he was helplessly confined to
his bed. Finally, even the most efficient doctors could do nothing for him. He
grew weaker until February 20, 1931, when he breathed his last breath at nine
AM Friday morning. Most surely when his spirit left its earthly tabernacle and
returned to the home from which it had come seventy-three years before, it was
welcomed with this greeting: "Well done thou good and faithful servant,
enter into the joy of your Lord."
After very appropriate funeral services were held February 21 at the
Blanding chapel, father's body was laid to rest in the Blanding cemetery.
--Chloe Amelia Palmer Nelson, daughter
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