John Jacob and Anna Elizabeth Louise Walser Family
(John's first family)
| Back left to right: Henry Samuel, Annie Elizabeth, John Jacob III Front row left to rigth: Wilhelmina, Anna Elizabeth Louise Schaerrer, Eliza Jane, John Jacob, Laura and George Jasper Walser |
| Henry Samuel Walser at the piano and John Jacob Walser far right behind piano. |
History of John Jacob Walser by Wilhelmina Walser Bowman (daughter)Biography of John Jacob Walser (II)
Contributed By: SmithLindaSue1 · 9 September 2013 on familysearch.org
John Jacob Walser Jr., son of John Jacob Walser Sr. and Anna Elizabeth Hafen, was born in Herisau, Switzerland, on April 20, 1849. His father, a prominent Lutheran minister, died when John Jacob was six years old. After his mother remarried Captain John Diem, the family joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and, in 1860, migrated to Utah. They settled in Payson, Utah, where John Jacob was reared.
On January 17, 1870, John Jacob married Anna (Annie) Elizabeth Louisa Schaerrer whom he had met years earlier when his family emigrated to Utah. They had eleven children, all but one growing to maturity. John Jacob worked with Anna's father, Henry Schaerrer, in the leather business for some years, then turned his attention to farming. During the Indian troubles that occurred in the early settlement of Sanpete County, John Jacob joined a company of volunteers from the area who organized to protect the settlers from the depredations of the Indians. They had been causing lots of trouble, such as killing the settler's cattle and domestic animals and stealing their horses, etc. After the organization of the company, the settlers were no longer molested.
In 1874, while he was still struggling to secure a home for his family, John Jacob was called to preside over the East Switzerland Mission. After he was well situated in his labors, he visited Herisau, his birthplace, and had a most pleasant time visiting relatives and friends. In June 1874, he was transferred to the Jura Mission in West Switzerland where he stayed until July 1875. While there, he published "Der Stern," a monthly Church magazine of sixteen pages. He also translated The Pearl of Great Price into German. He was instructed to go to Berlin to try and effect an opening there for teaching the gospel. After two months of hard labor and no success, he returned to Bern and continued his work there until the following June 1876, when he was released to return home. He served for 27 months.
On his return, he assisted Elder Stucki in taking care of a company of Saints emigrating to Utah. He arrived in Payson safely and found his family well and things in good condition at home. He stepped into his former church activities with the added responsibility of presiding over the German Saints in his ward in Payson.
After his return home, he took a second wife, who he had met on his mission, Martha Louise (Mary) Frischknecht, on September 11, 1876. In 1881, he was called to serve 21 months on a second mission to Switzerland and Germany. While on this mission, he was mission secretary, edited the bi-monthly Stern, published The Pearl of Great Price, several pamphlets, and kept the mission books, besides giving one-fourth of his time to traveling and doing regular missionary work.
In 1883 he was released, and, on his return home, again assisted in looking after a company of Saints going to Utah. The ocean voyage was pleasant and the train trip interesting and even exciting: On the 1st of June, fifteen freight cars in front of the baggage coach derailed and smashed into kindling wood. The rest of the cars were left on the track unharmed. During the seven hours of delay, the Saints went to a nearby hill and offered up their thanks to God for the protection they had received. Everyone arrived safely in Utah and were taken to their different destinations. When John Jacob arrived at the Payson Depot, he was welcomed by his family, the Payson brass band, and the German choir (both of which he had organized), and many friends. "How good it was to be home again!"
John Jacob was very musically talented and was the community bandleader. Two of his sons, George and Henry, were members of the band as well. The band went around on a horse drawn wagon, serenading the town on holidays and special occasions. It was very accomplished and won several awards at competitions. During his absence, the Lord took care of John Jacob’s family, financially, as well as in other ways. He was able to buy fifteen additional acres of land, and by hauling brick, rock, sand and clay for the city jail and the new district school house, he earned enough to make his families comfortable for the coming winter.
In 1885, rumblings in the United States against those who participated in plural marriage began to increase. Frequently, John Jacob had to leave home to avoid being arrested under the Edmund-Tucker Act. Until 1888, he managed to keep things moving normally, but later in that year he, with others, was arrested and sent to the Utah State Penitentiary for six months. When he was released and outside the prison wall, John Jacob said, "I am determined, with God's help to be true to the covenants I made to my wives in holy places."
John Jacob was advised by Church leaders to move to Mexico. Accordingly, in September 1889, he made the move, taking with him his second family (Martha and children), leaving behind the first (to join him later). He also left behind his many friends and co-workers in music and his Silver Band. With his two wagons filled with essentials to begin life in a foreign country, he began his journey. Before entering Spanish Fork Canyon, he stopped his team, "The sun was near setting; I wanted to look once more upon Payson in the distance, for perhaps the last time. My feelings at that time are hard to describe, for there, in that town in the distance, now lighted up with the parting rays of the sun, was my cherished home, my beloved family, my aged mother whom I was leaving behind, perhaps never to see again in this life. And what for? Was I leaving because I had wronged someone? No, my conscience was clear. I was leaving because I could not break sacred covenants, nor be untrue to those I loved and had promised to protect. The results I leave with God. He opened the way for me to make the start. He will guide and protect me further."
They traveled by way of Lee's Ferry to Deming, New Mexico. There he bought more supplies, complied with immigration restrictions, and crossed the border into Mexico. Nestled on the banks of the river, they made their home in Colonia Juarez. The community was then but a few years old, but so well settled it looked inviting and home like. Henry Eyring and his family shared their home with the Walsers, until they could build their own. Every new family was so welcome that help was generously given to prepare new homes. Not many weeks went by before they were in their own home. He was at once accepted as a welcome addition to the community. Bishop Sevey financed him in starting a tannery. John Jacob had learned the business some years before from his father-in-law. He started with but one soak and two lime vats. But by adding to them as quickly as possible, his business prospered.
He bought a town lot and some field and orchard property. He also commenced building homes in which he could locate both his families. He bought fruit trees to fill both lots and still had some left for the field. On November 15, 1890, Anna and her children arrived, and there was a happy reunion.
John Jacob also organized a town choir with his son, Henry, as the organist. With his family's talent and that of other ward members, they began to work on a concert to raise means to buy an organ for the meetinghouse. In September 1894, he took over the organization of a band. Apostle Teasdale offered to advance money for instruments, as John had a desire to reproduce his Silver Band days in Payson. When the stake was organized in December 1895, he was sustained as Stake Chorister and bandleader and a member of the Stake High Council.
From then on, the band played at all patriotic holidays. It began with a parade and would play rousing numbers through all the streets, moving on until every home had been serenaded. On the rostrum, usually the one built in the park, they accompanied the singing of the Himno Nacional (the Mexican national hymn). A special conveyance or bandwagon hauled the members on these serenading tours and escorted them to Nuevo Casas Grandes to honor visiting dignitaries from the town, Chihuahua. It soon became a picturesque feature for all public occasions, often led by four prancing white horses. Later, a bandstand was erected in the park to give prominence to the band and its Sunday afternoon concerts. When four missionaries left together for their various fields of labor, he made it a memorable occasion by having the band accompany them to Dublan where they entrained. He also oversaw the presentation of operas in the little community.
Four of John Jacob’s children died, two in each family, and the others were raised to maturity in Mexico. He had many tragic experiences in his life. His son, Henry, married with two children, fell onto a power saw and was fatally injured. The choir members made Henry's casket, dug his grave, dressed the body, and raised $100 for the bereft widow.
On his fiftieth birthday, the choir and the Bishopric surprised him. John Jacob was escorted to the schoolhouse where the town populace had assembled and he was presented with a gift and $25 in cash as a token of their esteem. He took great pride that his daughter, Mina, was the Stake organist. She spent a summer in Salt Lake City studying organ under the direction of her cousin, Professor J.J. McClellan, Tabernacle organist.
John's work in the tannery continued to expand until he was turning out all the good leather that both the shoe shop and saddle and harness shops could handle. His tannery business included his older sons: Henry, John and George. As early as 1895, he had a two thousand hide capacity, and each year saw more and more leather pass from his hands. In 1908, however, business had expanded until it became feasible to amalgamate the tanning with the leather manufacturing industries. After the businesses were merged, he severed his connections with the tannery and devoted all his time to his orchard, vineyard, and other farming interests.
The Madera revolution began in 1910 and John Jacob was among the first to suffer. Because the telegraph wires were cut, the railroad bridges were burned, and railroad traffic was stopped, John's third wife, Elizabeth Burrell **** (whom he married in 1903), and her sons Alvin and Earl, were sent to stay in El Paso, Texas. When the crisis came and all were compelled to give up their arms, he sent the rest of his family to El Paso July 1912, along with the hundreds of other women and children who left the colonies. Two days after his families had gone, he was requested by authorities to go with Guy C. Wilson and Thomas C. Romney and help take care of those that had already left. He found his own family, in El Paso, some in the lumberyard and some in Highland Park, crowded into small quarters but safe and well.
While waiting for things to quiet down in Mexico, The Walser family began leaving for one place and then another. One wife and two or three daughters returned to Payson, Utah. Another, with her daughters, went to Miami, Arizona. With his third wife, Elizabeth, in company with other men from Colonia Juarez, John Jacob finally decided to risk a return.
August 31, 1912, just one month after the general Exodus, they arrived by train in Pearson after a ten-hour ride from Ciudad Juarez. John Jacob hired a team the next morning to take them to Colonia Juarez, where they found his sons Alma and Earl who had preceded them, caring for their summer crops. How thankful he was for his privileged return. Vigorously he flew into the task of harvesting apples and gathering his produce, yet unmolested as he found them.
Because it later seemed unsafe to keep the women in Mexico, he again took his family to El Paso in October. He wrote in his diary, "This is a severe trial and a dark day for the future of our colonies in Mexico. But God is at the helm of the good ship Zion, and he will give us strength and faith as our days shall demand."
After caring for his family, John Jacob returned to Colonia Juarez for a week to attend to his crops. He rented his land, lots, and teams to Benigno Chazez for one year and then returned to El Paso.
This was a discouraging time in John Jacob’s life. His family was scattered and he was unable to make a good livelihood for those still with him. Alvin and Alma, still in Mexico, sent word that Alvin would be in Columbus, New Mexico, on January 31, 1913. John Jacob entrained for Columbus along with sixty five others. Loading themselves into eleven wagons, they left Columbus on February 1, traveled slowly and stopped in Colonia Diaz en route, two days before it burned. They stayed to observe Sabbath worship, then arrived in Colonia Juarez on the evening of February 4.
A ward group, which Bishop Bentley had been instructed to organize, cleaned out the schoolhouse, which had been used for a barracks, so that Ward activities could be resumed, and generally did all they could to protect and care for the property and households of those who had not returned. John made a trip to El Paso on the first train to run in months and brought more of his family back. He planted and pruned and planned for the return of others.
On May 24, 1913, a band of outlaws came into town, bringing terror for the few hours they were there. They seized all horses and guns and took what they liked from the homes. They entered John Jacob's home in their search, and when they found only a revolver and two pocket pistols, they demanded the rifles they were sure he had. They even threatened to shoot him if he did not produce them. But he looked them fearlessly in the face, calmly disregarding the cocked revolver held close to his head, and refused to give them any information about guns. They then dragged him from his house, trying desperately to intimidate him further, marched him about one mile above town and again held their pistols in his face. They would shoot him sure this time, they said, if he didn't get them a rifle. "Go ahead and shoot, if you dare." he said. Perhaps they would have, had not a friendly Mexican interceded in his behalf. They let him go. "God preserved my life," he wrote, "and in Him I trust."
His respite from these outlaws was short lived. On June 10, General Castillo sent his men in all directions in search of loot. Colonia Juarez was one of the first places where they went to gain the accoutrements of war, and along with other homes entered, the Walser home was again searched. This time they found the rifle they sought, one belonging to Albert C. Wagner that had been left in John Jacob’s care. As the Revolution continued, first the Red Flaggers, then other opposing factions came. Each time, there would be another search for guns. Things quieted down, and for several months no molestation of a serious nature occurred. This welcome respite provided John Jacob an opportunity to take a trip to El Paso and bring his family home. He took a team with ten boxes of apples, went to Columbus, took the train for El Paso and brought his wife Anna and family home with him.
On January 1, 1914, John wrote in his diary: "We have the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Holy Priesthood and the everlasting Covenant, the greatest blessings that can be given to man. We enjoy health, have the peaceful possessions of our homes and farms, and granaries, and barns are filled with the bounties of the earth. And we have the spirit of the Lord to guide and direct us in our daily life. Should we not be happy and grateful?"
During this same month, the running of the train made it possible for him to visit his folks in El Paso, do some needed business and return unmolested.
February, however, was a different story. Manuel Gutierrez and his Red Flagger bandits came into town, engaging in all kinds of pillage and threatening the life of Ernest L. Taylor and others. On March 26, 1914, as John was returning from Skousen's mill with a thousand pounds of flour on a loaded wagon, he was hailed by Captain Dolores and his twenty men and was forced to go back to the store. These men were part of the government’s Quevedo federals, yet they robbed the store of $200 worth of supplies, loaded them onto John's wagon and compelled him to haul their loot about twenty miles up the Tapiacitas. Brothers Bentley and Elliot went with him. Besides this, the bandits took six horses and three saddles from town members and made John Jacob unload them all in the rebel camp. All he was allowed to return with was a little bran and corn meal for his own family.
After school resumed, and things had settled down with only a few raids now and then, John Jacob was surprised when Bishop Joseph Bentley came running to find him as he was irrigating his land. The Bishop asked him to come to the tithing office as quickly as possible. A telegram from President Joseph F. Smith had been received, requesting them to leave Mexico as quickly as possible. It was like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky. They could see no reason for such a move. But there was nothing to do but obey - and they would be obedient. So again, the Walsers, along with the rest of the town, packed their things as quickly as possible in order to catch a train that was leaving Pearson that day. They failed to catch that particular train. The next morning, the whole company, 217 strong, piled into the special train that had been ordered for them, and left for El Paso, effecting what many later called the Second Exodus.
This forced John Jacob to repeat his experience of two years earlier, when it was necessary to distribute his family among friends and relatives and depend on the Bishop of El Paso, Arwell Pierce, for help. John Jacob received an offer to go to Safford, Arizona, where Miles Romney was located and where they could obtain employment. Without special permission to return to Mexico, then or perhaps ever, John Jacob accepted the offer and went to Safford, Arizona.
After spending a week or two in the hayfields in Safford, John Jacob accepted a job at the smelter in Miami, Arizona, where his son-in-law, Albert Wagner, worked. He worked there for one month before returning to Safford, where he worked on the farm again. Encouraging word had been received saying that another company was being formed for a third return to Mexico, so he bid his time. Traveling back to El Paso they boarded the train at Ciudad Juarez for home - Colonia Juarez on July 20, 1914. The tracks had been washed out, the bridges had been burned repeatedly and makeshift shooflies had been resorted to in order to keep the train running. The schedule was so indefinite that they never knew when they would reach their destination. It took two days, but they were glad to arrive safe and sound. Things were soon put in order. The troops moved out of the schoolhouse, and Church organizations again began to function, with John Jacob taking the lead in many things. He wrote as the year came to a close, "We abide here in peace and plenty."
The next year was again full of problems, but John Walser and others seemed to thrive on problems and the Lord blessed them. Crops were planted in a pioneer manner, using burros for plowing as all horses had been taken. More floods destroyed the flumes and one pier of the wagon bridge was washed away. Money depreciated until it was worth five cents on the dollar. John Jacob Walser became a counselor to Bishop Joseph Bentley.
John Jacob's faith and desire to live the commandments of the Lord made him an able leader. In spite of his trials he wrote, "We have lost much in property, our lives have been spared and our wives and children have been preserved from violence. God has done this, and all glory to His name. He has also blessed us with good crops, and while we have been robbed of much by Villa's soldiers, there is still plenty left for our needs."
In 1916, John Walser was made bishop of the Juarez Ward, with Daniel Slousen and Ernest Isaac Hatch as counselors. The following year brought a little prosperity to the colony, due to the presence of American soldiers under General John Pershing who had been sent to Mexico to capture Pancho Villa. When the American troops were called back to the United States, many people, fearing reprisals from the rebels, decided to leave with them.
John wrote, "It is strange that a people who have witnessed the saving providence of our God so many times can have so much fear of man. But many of our people have run wild after the dollar, and consequently lost the Spirit of the Lord. The last of the U.S. Army has gone and about ten thousand Mexican people have fled with them to escape Villa. But we trust in the Lord. He has protected us in the past, and he will protect us in the future."
Again, more raiding and pillaging occurred and much of this came from the troops that should have been the peoples' protectors. Bishop Walser watched over his people as a father over his family. He encouraged all to continue to rebuild their homes and properties. Men had lost their lives and families needed comforting. Despite the German heritage that made him a hard man by nature, he was kind and considerate beneath a stern exterior. Throughout his entire service to the Juarez Ward, he gave freely of himself in teaching priesthood quorums and in the Sunday School. Year after year, he taught the Gospel Message Class to the older young people, sharing with them his store of gospel knowledge.
After many years as Bishop, in 1922 he was released and made a patriarch for the Stake. For the rest of his life, he gave blessings of promise to those seeking them. He remained in Colonia Juarez until his death at the age of eighty eight in 1937. He knew he was ill, but wanted to attend one more Sunday. Death overtook him on the way to Sacrament Meeting. His life was one of service and he was faithful to the end.
Written by Linda Wharton Smith
Sources:
Stalwarts South of the Border by Hatch
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| First Mission |
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| second mission |
Johann Jacob Walser
Contributed By: Carlos M. Bowman · 10 August 2016 · on familysearch.org
He served several months in the Utah Territorial Penitentiary because of polygamy. Upon his release he emigrated to Mormon Colonies in Chihuahua Mexico as he did not want to have to abandon his plural wives.
He served two missions to Switzerland and Germany and was supported by his family back home in Payson, Utah.
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Johann Jacob Walser and Mary Louise Frischknecht |
| Back two girls: Mary and Ida Parents: Mary Louise Frischknecht and Johan Jacob Walser Children left to right: Clara Matilda, Alma, Alice and William |
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Johann Jacob Walser and Mary Louise Frischknecht |
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| Asenath Skousen and Johann Walser |
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