Maud's Story: With Entire Sections in Her Own Words

By Charlotte K. Lebaron

Mauds Story
A Modern Cain and Abel Story
A life she termed half joy and half sorrow.

Born to parents who had childhood memories of the Civil War, Mauds life began in 1892, just two years after the Mormon Church Manifesto had forbidden plural marriage.
Educated in the LDS High School in Salt Lake City, she, paradoxically, gained a love for that controversial principle.
In Salt Lake Maud read newspaper reports telling that President Joseph F. Smith had paid a $500 fine for a son who was born years after the Manifesto; yet the church continued to deny its practice.
She married Dayer LeBaron, helped him get a plural wife, fled to Mexico to avoid his arrest, and continued giving birth to children.
Dayers family lived nearly twenty years in Colonia Juarez, ostracized for living plural marriage, in a town that early Mormons had made as a place of refuge for polygamists.
With grown sons Maud and Dayer left the Mormon colony to pioneer a remote area on homestead land. There her son Joel began a church and became the beloved leader of a new community.
Ervil, a younger brother, enraged at Joel success, no longer supported him and .
A modern Cain and Abel story ensued, breaking Mauds heart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Mar 24, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491874233

Charlotte K. Lebaron

Charlotte K. LeBaron, is an American, who has lived most of her adult life in Mexico. At the age of eighty-one she is now publishing her sixth book—two of which are her late husband’s. Married into a family known for its Cain and Abel story, her fervent desire has been to show that there have been some mighty fine common people behind the scenes. This she has done after first compiling a book of timely quotations and advice for the feminine half of society—now in its second printing. She believes in holding to the beautiful side of life, despite the difficulties one might encounter. Mother of nine children, she also has many grandchildren, as well as great-grandchildren, and considers her posterity the greatest blessing of her life. With the help and support of her community, Charlotte incorporated a bilingual private school which has been in operation for thirty years. She served for six years as its director, along with teaching a second grade class. For forty years she taught classes in both Spanish and English, in public as well as private schools, the greater part of time being in her own private school. There she taught kindergarten in the morning and a one-room English class for students of all ages in the afternoon. In 2011 she retired from teaching and began dedicating more time to writing. Though she has limited participation in community affairs, she still accepts an occasional invitation to speak or teach a class. She lives alone, but her home is always open to family members who come to visit.

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Maud’s Story

With entire sections in her own words

Charlotte K. LeBaron

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AuthorHouse™

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Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

Phone: [phone]

© 2014 Charlotte K. LeBaron. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Woodbine Books

P.O. Box 923

Deming, New Mexico 88031

Published by AuthorHouse 03/20/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4918-7424-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-7423-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014905133

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Maud’s Family

Maud’s Marriage

A Growing Family

Mexico

Back to the United States

Onie

Colonia Juarez

Mesa

The Ranch

Dayer’s Death

Colonia LeBaron

Joel’s Death

San Diego

Back Home to Colonia LeBaron

Epilogue

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Maud Lucinda McDonald

Dedicated to:

Maud’s many descendants, those linked to her by blood,

All who are part of her numerous family,

And to any who have, or will be touched by

her gentle and radiant circle of love.

Introduction

Maud McDonald LeBaron became my mother-in-law in December, 1951, when I married her youngest son, Verlan M. LeBaron. The idea of doing her book first entered my mind in 1974 as I sat at her bedside in Colonia LeBaron, Chihuahua, Mexico, wondering if she would survive.

She spoke haltingly. In a box in a back bedroom of her house, I would find a stack of notebooks that she had written. Those notebooks were mine, she weakly explained. I was in awe, feeling that she was bequeathing me her most valuable possessions. Before I could say anything, she spoke in her usual forthright matter with a strength that surprised me. Now don’t ask me what you should do with them. You will know! She then drifted back into a fitful slumber.

Despite Maud’s instructions, I was not given the notebooks. Nearly twenty years had passed before I was able to obtain even a photo copy of them. Immediately, my dear friend Linda Craig came and graciously typed the copied notebooks into my computer so I could begin working on them. (Both Maud and Verlan had died years before, and I was anxious to start preserving her story.)

I had worked only briefly on the project when a component in my computer exploded. With technical help the Maud files were saved, but I was not able to get them into a form where I could use them. By February, 2013, I had published five other books, but the Maud files still remained a challenge.

For years I had sought help from the computer people I knew, even going to the professor of a nearby computer school. He worked only in Spanish and could give me no assistance.

Now, more determined than ever, I went to a computer repairman in Nuevo Casas Grandes and asked that he permit me to come into his repair room and show him what was happening. In less than half an hour he showed me how—paragraph by paragraph—I could make the old files compatible to present programs. Following his simple instructions, I was at last, able to make the Maud files functional. Six short months later her little biography was completed.

The greater bulk of what Maud had written was very short paragraphs—brief incidents of her life written as she had recalled them—but with no chronological order. After weeks of sorting and separating, I was able to bring what seemed to be a huge and complicated puzzle, into some semblance of order. Maud’s part was less than I had expected, and I could see the necessity of writing my own overview of her story to complement what she had done. The need to run them together seemed obvious.

In essence, this little history has two authors—Maud and Charlotte LeBaron. Maud’s words are printed in italics and Charlotte’s part is done in basic manuscript printing. The book is done in sections, each being its own length—long or short, as seemed appropriate.

This is my effort to present the unique life of a lovely and noble woman. She had pronounced her blessing upon me years before. In times of frustration and uncertainty, her words motivated me to realize that she had left me free to just go ahead and do what I felt needed to be done!

Charlotte K. LeBaron

Colonia LeBaron, Galeana, Chihuahua, Mexico

September 26, 2013

Acknowledgements

—Sincere gratitude goes to Linda Craig whose untiring efforts have helped to make this publication possible.

—Also to my sister Donna K. Mackert who has garnered international awards for her poetry and has also written several volumes of family history in both prose and poetry. She graciously proofread my manuscript.

Photos: Prepared by Silvia Esther Liddiard

McDonald Family

Maud’s Parents

William Wesley McDonald________________ January 14, 1856

Son of: Theodore Schofield McDonald and Susan Good

Lucinda Mariah Emmerson________________ December 11, 1859

Daughter of: John Emmerson and Mary M. Decker

William and Lucinda’s Children

Gertrude L.––––––––––––––—October 30, 1880

Annie Ellen––––––––––––––—November 26, 883

William Henry–––––––––––––-March 11, 1886

Joseph A.–––––––––––––––—November,18, 1887

Mary Susan––––––––––––––—January 14, 1890

David Howard–––––––––––––-May 29, 1891

Maud Lucinda–––––––––––––—July 6, 1892

Clarence Clinton––––––––––––—November 1, 1893

Charles Leroy––––––––––––––March 4, 1895

Leon John–––––––––––––––-August 26, 1897

Daisy Pearl–––––––––––––––March 18, 1903

Maud and Dayer’s Children

Irene_______________________________February 17, 1912

Ben________________________________July 2, 1913

Wesley______________________________November 16, 1914

Lucinda_____________________________August 1, 1916

Alma_______________________________April 2, 1918

Jenny_______________________________ ____

Esther______________________________August 1, 1921

Joel________________________________July 9, 1923

Ervil_______________________________February 22, 1925

Floren______________________________April 17, 1927

Verlan______________________________April 28, 1930

David and Mary_______________________July 6, 1932

__ Jenny was born in the fall of 1919, but no exact date is known.

Places Where Maud Lived

Born July 6, 1892 in Ogden, Utah

1892-1911 ____Ogden, Huntsville, and Cedar City, Utah;

Blackfoot, Idaho; Overton, Nevada; Thatcher Arizona;

Long Beach, California; and Salt Lake City, Utah.

1911-1912 ____ Colonia Dublan, Chihuahua, Mexico.

1912-1920 ____ Pima and Mesa, Arizona; Overton, Nevada;

Tucson and Mesa, Arizona again.

1920-1923 ____ Colonias Dublan and Pacheco, Chihuahua, Mexico.

1923-1924 ____ Hurricane, Utah

1924-1940 ____ Colonia Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico.

1940-1944 ____ Mesa, Arizona.

1944-1953 ____ Colonia LeBaron, Galeana, Chihuahua, Mexico.

1953-1955 ____ Las Vegas, Nevada.

1955-1963 ____ Colonia LeBaron, Galeana, Chihuahua, Mexico.

1963-1965 ____ Las Vegas, Nevada.

1965-1974 ____ Colonia LeBaron, Galeana, Chihuahua, Mexico.

1974-1977 ____ San Diego, California.

1977-1979 ____ Colonia LeBaron, Galeana, Chihuahua, Mexico.

Died February 23, 1979 in Colonia LeBaron

Maud’s Family

M aud Lucinda McDonald was born July 6, 1892, in Ogden, Utah, to William Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emmerson. They had both come from families who were devout Seventh-Day Adventists and lived in Minnesota where William’s father had been a doctor. It was a time when the Civil War was still lingering strongly in her parents’ memories and of those who lived around them. In the parlor, stories of the Great War were often shared among the adults, but when they began talking on that subject, Maud would hurry out, wanting to hear nothing of it.

Music was very much a part of the McDonald home. One of the first things that attracted William and Lucinda to the Mormons was their high quality of music, and as members they were soon actively participating in musical events.

They often sang at funerals and on other occasions. Theirs was a family where music was of utmost importance. They had their own family orchestra, with each member specializing on his own instrument. Maud studied under the best teachers they could find and was only sixteen when she gave her first piano lessons.

When Maud’s mother came from her room each morning, she was neatly dressed and her hair was nicely done. Maud never remembered seeing her in her nightgown. Her father was kind and compassionate with his family. If there were sick children in the family, it was Father who stayed up and cared for them. Mother was burdened with many responsibilities, and that was the least he could do to lighten her load, he maintained.

When Maud’s family sat down to eat breakfast, there was a fresh red and white checkered tablecloth on the table. At noon there was a green and white checkered tablecloth; and in the evening it was a white linen tablecloth. If there was not a bouquet of flowers in the center of the table, it was because none were available.

For Maud a year was filled with holidays, and each holiday meant a new dress! Wherever they lived, her mother had a dressmaker nearby. Cloth was chosen ahead of time and Maud was ready with a dress to fit the occasion. When she was in high school, she had a candy bar each day—just an expected part of her education.

Maud begins telling her own story:

My mother buried two of her children, Mary and David, who had died with pneumonia, while I was on the way. When I was born I was delicate and had to be carried on a pillow for nine months. Finally, the doctor said if I lived I could not grow. So they dug my grave and made my burial clothes. Father said he would go for the elders and dedicate me to the Lord. When they administered to me I was healed. I always received better care than anyone to be sure I grew.

My father lived when many people had never owned a looking glass. His neighbor loaded on a barrel and went for supplies. After everything was in the barrel he put a looking glass on top right side up. When he returned his twelve-year-old boy jumped on the wagon, then off again, and ran in the house and said, Ma, Pa’s got a wolf!

In these same days the overgrown boys used to beat the teacher. One boy had the credit of getting expelled every year. My father heard he had been boasting. So he took his ball and gloves and invited the boy play catch with him and then put him in as captain of a ball team.

My mother could play three tunes on the organ. She never had time to practice. She was busy learning to sing parts for the choir that my father always conducted. She often sang in quartets. They both sang by note.

When I was very young my father asked our miller how he made so much money and he said, By lighting four lamps with one match.

When my mother was a little girl folks thought tomatoes were poison. I suppose because they had tin kettles to cook in.

My father’s parents were Seventh Day Adventists, and felt very bad when he joined the Mormon Church. I can see the tears rolling down his cheeks as he read a letter from his father that said, Willie, I guess there is a little good left in you, or you wouldn’t send me money!

In Ogden one Thanksgiving Day we were all dressed up and ready for dinner. Someone knocked on the dining room window. We looked out and saw a whole crowd of people. It was my father and all his brothers and sisters. He had come from Minnesota and arrived on Thanksgiving Day with the conversion to the Mormon Church of eight brothers and sisters. He had gone back to Minnesota on a mission and converted all of them. Except for his father and mother, no one was left. They all lived with us in our big house.

My oldest sister Gertrude played for the Huntsville Ward when David O. McKay was a member. My father was the school teacher when David O. graduated from the eighth grade. President of the Mormon Church, he sometimes came to visit us in after years. I heard him say nice things about my father in public.

Maud’s Childhood

The very first thing that happened that I can remember—I was in my mother’s arms and she was taking off my wet clothes. Then I heard old Tally Nicholas say, I saw her pink bonnet in the canal and I thought she might be there too!

One day this same lady came in just as we were all seated at the table and she was invited to eat. We had our