Exodus to Mexico -- Rest of the Story...
Anna Delilah's Account:
The first part of October 1890 we began the long journey to Old Mexico. Brother John R. Young had four wagons and teams, Father had two wagons and teams, Brother Wright of Koosharem had one outfit. Eugene went along with us to drive one of the teams. The wagons were loaded with provisions and things we would need after reaching our destination in Mexico. We took along cows for fresh milk, a pen of chickens on the back of the wagon. Butter was made by putting milk in a large churn and the movement of the wagon churned it into butter. There was wild game along the way. I recall how my sister Mary and I enjoyed ourselves as we trudged along, gathering wild flowers, searching out birds nests, eating mesquite beans, etc. along the way. The scenery was beautiful and it impressed me so much that I have always loved the beauties of nature. The desert sands, cactus, mesquite, the steep rugged mountain passes we went through, the towering cliffs, the roads so steep that the had to block the wheels of the wagons to hold them back, the tall grasses, the wild flowers, rivers, mountain streams, the flat-roofed adobe houses with the strings of red peppers hung on the walls. These are the pictures hung in my mind about that trip. |
There were eighteen in the group and we all rested on the Sabbath Day and had devotional exercises. Before we could cross the border into Mexico the Mexican officials checked everything we had and branded the letters A. F. A. on each wagon. Father laughed and said the letters stood for "another fool arrived.” We spent New Year's Day in Colonia Dias, a small community of Mormon people who had gone to Mexico that they might live in peace with their families. After two more days we arrived in Dublan, our destination. It was a new country and there were hardships to endure but no doubt it was a relief to father to feel free and know that the marshals were not on his trail. Our first home in Mexico was a tent and a wagon-box set on the ground. A door was cut in one end of the tent connecting it with the wagon box, giving us a kitchen and bedroom. By Thanksgiving of 1891 we were living in an adobe house. After living in a tent so long, it was like a mansion. |
In summarizing the exodus to Mexico, Eugene’s son Golden wrote:
Grandpa Archie became sick with mountain fever on the way down and it was necessary for Aunt Caroline to drive the team much of the way. Again in the most primitive conditions the Buchanan’s began to build a new life. Grandfather was 60 years old by now. I visited the colonies several years ago and talked with one of the old bishops who remembered the Buchanan’s. He said the thing that he remembered about them most was their extreme poverty. They arrived in Mexico with nothing and it was difficult for them to get started. They lived for several months in their wagon boxes and in tents. Finally Grandfather got a job tending a grist mill and this helped to supply them with food and with money. He sent the first twenty-five dollars he earned home to Utah for his family there. Eugene went to work for the railroad to see what money he could make for his own child and to help with the family in any way he could.
The Eighteen Emigrants:
It was recorded that there were 18 individuals who comprised the Buchanan-Young Party that left Mancos, Colorado in October 1890 to make a new home in Mexico. The trip of approximately 600 miles took two months. No one left us a written record of the party members so we have had to piece together our best guess based on a study of the different narratives that survived the twentieth century from those who remembered and wrote about their experience. The party included seven wagons pulled by teams of horses and 18 persons from three families. Top center right John R. Young; the foursome in the top right photo are John R’s second wife Lydia Knight and her three sons from left, Howard Spencer, Edward Webb, and Newel K. Bottom center right is John R’s third wife Tamar and below her are two cutouts of a later photo taken at Kirtland. In the bottom right cutout are Thomas Robertson, left and Samuel Claridge Young. The middle bottom cutout shows Martin Ray, John R. and Tamar. Top center left is Archibald Waller Overton Buchanan with a small oval of his son Eugene Delos. Below Archie’s photo is that of Caroline Sophia Sorenson, his fourth wife. The oval at bottom left is of Caroline with her four children, clockwise from left, Anna Delilah (Lyle), Carrie Myrl, Archie Earl, and Mary Ann Buchanan. Carrie and Archie are twins born at Dublan in 1892. This collage contains images of all who were in the party except four--Vilate and William Lorenzo Young and Joseph Henry Wright and son. |
Mary Ann finally laid down the burdens of this life in 1901 about one year after being released from twenty-eight years of service to her Maker, her sisters and the community of Glenwood. In addition she had given her all to her husband and to the family. Words cannot express the feelings of the heart as we read and study the history of this devoted woman. May the Lord bless all other family to be worthy of her (Goldeen Buchanan).
What became of Eugene Delos Buchanan? To finish our story we turn to the words of his daughter Eugenia “V” Buchanan Garrett:
Eugene was in deepest despair! He felt the world was against him. The loss of two wives--then their two sons--it was just about too much! He must have help. His Bishop, feeling his responsibility, tried in vain to comfort him. He was asked if he would consider going on a mission for the Church. He felt in his present state of mind he could not do it justice to the work of the Lord, but he offered to go to work and raise the finances for his younger brother Henry to go in his stead. This he did and Henry was sent to the Southern States. Eugene got out and "put his shoulder to the wheel" to earn the money for his brother and thus took new interest in life. There was something to live for!
While serving on this mission …Henry met a beautiful girl--a convert--who had an intense longing to know more about the people in Zion and their land. In the year 1900, Eugene wrote a letter to Elizabeth Watson in Lexington, Mississippi. This correspondence blossomed into a beautiful romance; Elizabeth left her home in Mississippi and came to Utah, 28 January 1902. She was met at the train by Eugene and taken to the home of another brother and his wife, William and Dora. Dora being a convert to the Church from South Carolina made her at home and comfortable. Eugene and Elizabeth were married in the Manti Temple on 12 March, 1902.
Elizabeth blessed his home with five sons and two daughters of which he never failed to be proud of.
In 1904 Eugene received a call to go on a mission for the Church. This time his brother Henry offered to help him financially. Being grateful for his many blessings he could not at this time say "no". He left Elizabeth to care for their two boys and filled an honorable mission. He was sent to the Southern States Mission, where he served well. In his diary he wrote: "Monday, January 9, 1905: left home for my mission. Left my wife and children standing at the gate. Went and got in the buggy and went to the train. I took the train and started for Salt Lake City. Arrived there at 7 p.m. All O. K. " "Tuesday, I went to President Joseph F. Smith's office and then went to the Temple at 2 p.m.--was set apart for my mission".
He was honorably released 23 September 1906 at Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Seventy-two years later in 1978, Eugene’s son Golden spearheaded the work effort to collect historical accounts and data and then he published the history of his grandfather’s large family.1
The End
1 Archibald Waller Overton Buchanan and Family, by Golden R. Buchanan, J. Grant Stevenson, Provo, Utah, 210 pages.
What became of Eugene Delos Buchanan? To finish our story we turn to the words of his daughter Eugenia “V” Buchanan Garrett:
Eugene was in deepest despair! He felt the world was against him. The loss of two wives--then their two sons--it was just about too much! He must have help. His Bishop, feeling his responsibility, tried in vain to comfort him. He was asked if he would consider going on a mission for the Church. He felt in his present state of mind he could not do it justice to the work of the Lord, but he offered to go to work and raise the finances for his younger brother Henry to go in his stead. This he did and Henry was sent to the Southern States. Eugene got out and "put his shoulder to the wheel" to earn the money for his brother and thus took new interest in life. There was something to live for!
While serving on this mission …Henry met a beautiful girl--a convert--who had an intense longing to know more about the people in Zion and their land. In the year 1900, Eugene wrote a letter to Elizabeth Watson in Lexington, Mississippi. This correspondence blossomed into a beautiful romance; Elizabeth left her home in Mississippi and came to Utah, 28 January 1902. She was met at the train by Eugene and taken to the home of another brother and his wife, William and Dora. Dora being a convert to the Church from South Carolina made her at home and comfortable. Eugene and Elizabeth were married in the Manti Temple on 12 March, 1902.
Elizabeth blessed his home with five sons and two daughters of which he never failed to be proud of.
In 1904 Eugene received a call to go on a mission for the Church. This time his brother Henry offered to help him financially. Being grateful for his many blessings he could not at this time say "no". He left Elizabeth to care for their two boys and filled an honorable mission. He was sent to the Southern States Mission, where he served well. In his diary he wrote: "Monday, January 9, 1905: left home for my mission. Left my wife and children standing at the gate. Went and got in the buggy and went to the train. I took the train and started for Salt Lake City. Arrived there at 7 p.m. All O. K. " "Tuesday, I went to President Joseph F. Smith's office and then went to the Temple at 2 p.m.--was set apart for my mission".
He was honorably released 23 September 1906 at Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Seventy-two years later in 1978, Eugene’s son Golden spearheaded the work effort to collect historical accounts and data and then he published the history of his grandfather’s large family.1
The End
1 Archibald Waller Overton Buchanan and Family, by Golden R. Buchanan, J. Grant Stevenson, Provo, Utah, 210 pages.