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Pacheco (Colonia Pacheco)

PACHECO (COLONIA PACHECO), Juarez Stake, state of Chihuahua, Mexico, is situated in the Corrales Basin in the heart of the Sierra Madre Mountains on the headwaters of the Rio Piedras Verdes, 35 miles southwest of Colonia Juarez, the headquarters of the Juarez Stake of Zion. The colonists of Pacheco raise corn, potatoes, alfalfa, fruits, cattle and hogs, and also manufacture a very fine grade of cheese. All three of the L. D. S. mountain settlements raise a very fine quality of vegetables. The lands surrounding Pacheco are, as a rule, fertile and productive, although in places quite rocky. The altitude of the settlement is about 7,000 feet above sea level and only a small part of the land lying adjacent to the river is irrigated from that stream, while other lands are irrigated from small streams situated adjacent to the townsite. Dry farming is carried on successfully in the valley both above and below the settlement.

Pacheco was first settled by L. D. S. colonists in the spring of 1887, the first settlers being George C. Williams and Peter A. Dillman, who were soon joined by other L. D. S. home-seekers. The mountain slopes are covered with pine, oak, juniper, maple and other trees. A townsite was surveyed in 1889 and a branch organization effected with Merit Staley as presiding Elder. The Pacheco Ward was organized Feb. 12, 1890, with Jesse N. Smith, jun., as Bishop, the settlement being named in honor of General Carlos Pacheco, who had used his influence in the interest of the saints and received Apostle Brigham Young and other representatives of the Church with cordiality in the early days of Latter-day Saint colonization in Mexico.

Bishop Jesse N. Smith, jun., was succeeded in 1895 by George W. Hardy, who in 1903 was succeeded by John E. Steiner, who presided until the exodus in 1912. When Pacheco was resettled by the saints in 1920, Clarence L. Lunt was chosen as presiding Elder of the colony, and when the branch was organized as a ward in 1921, Bro. Lunt was chosen as Bishop. He acted until March 2, 1930, when he was succeeded by Marion L. Wilson, who presided Dec. 31, 1930. On that date the ward had a membership of 94, including 34 children.

Pahreah Ward

PAHREAH WARD, Kanab Stake, Kane Co., Utah, consisted of the Latter-day Saints residing on Pahreah Creek, a tributary of the Colorado River. The little settlement, which changed locations several times on account of washouts in the creek, was situated 42 miles northeast of Kanab and 35 miles northwest of Lee’s Ferry. The ward had a Sunday school, a Relief Society, and a Mutual Improvement Association for both sexes. The farming lands used for gardens and the raising of grain are narrow strips of [p.628] land lying along the bed of the creek, but during the existence of the settlement the main occupation of the people was stock-raising.

Peter Shirts was the first settler on Pahreah Creek; he located a claim at a point about four miles below the later village of Pahreah in 1865, and erected a substantial stone building and dug a trench from the house to the creek in order to secure safety for himself and family against the Indians. When the authorities of the Church advised the settlers in the small villages to leave and seek safety elsewhere, Brother Shirts refused to vacate, considering himself able to defend himself and family from any attacks from the Indians. Subsequently, however, a posse was sent out to take him and family to safety. They almost had to take Bro. Shirts away by force, although the Indians had stolen all of his stock. Pahreah was re-settled in 1870, under the presidency of William Meeks. Other settlers arrived, and for several years considerable progress was made in the little settlement. Brother Meeks was succeeded as presiding Elder in 1872 by Allen F. Smithson, who was succeeded in 1877 by Thomas W. Smith, who presided until 1884, when the Pahreah Ward was disorganized and the saints made a branch of the Kanab Ward with Thomas W. Smith as presiding Elder. He acted until 1890 when he was succeeded by John W. Mangum. In 1892 there were only eight families of saints in the Pahreah village, and as floods continued to destroy the property, the families left one by one, and in 1929 only one unmarried man remained. The old buildings erected by the early settlers were mostly in ruins. In 1930 the Pahreah townsite had been entirely vacated.