Isaac Alldredge III (1870-1964)

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www.forefamilies.com
forefamilies.com/Alldredge

Verl Alldredge Pedigree Chart
aldridgefamilyresearch.org  -
(Tony Alldredge and M. Gene Aldridge research site)
Isaac Alldredge III  History
- on my AOL site

photo - Isaac Alldredge III Script Title- Isaac Alldredge III photo - Isaac Alldredge III in 1929

Life History of Isaac Alldredge III

I was born in Lehi, Utah Co., Utah October 13, 1870. My father was Isaac Alldredge II. My mother was Susannah Evans Alldredge. My grandmother, Barbara Ann Ewell Evans, had a school for a lot of her grand children and I went to it. I used to play mumble peg under a large tree in the corner of her lot and the loser had to root a peg out of the ground with his nose and I was nearly always the loser. This reminds me of a song we used to sing about school days... That old tree still stands, planted by my grandfather. Bishop David Evans. It is called the pioneer tree.

We lived in Lehi until 1881, when my father sold his farm and moved to Deseret, Millard Co., Utah. We worked for quite some time on dams and ditches. We bought a very good farm and built a home. I married Sarah Annie Western October 24, 1888. We were Endowed at the Manti Temple on July 15, 1891 by Anthony H. Lund. Our farm began to go swampy so we sold it and moved to Ferron, Emery Co., in 1895. We filed on some land and made a new canal and took water from the Ferron Creek. I peddled the land that I owned to a neighbor and built a blacksmith shop and went to work in it. I worked all day in the shop and spent .half the night in a band. I played the flute or piccolo. Also,- I worked in dramatics and was a ward teacher. Although this kept me very busy I enjoyed myself very much.

In the spring of 1901, my father, a neighbor named Robert King, and I took a trip to Idaho. We went to Rexburg and Teton Valley by team and worked on the railroad grade. While making a bargain for some property in Rexburg, we saw a piece in the Deseret News about a new place in Mexico, so we took the fever and left, went back to Ferron, and began plans for the trip. This new place in Mexico was Morelos, Sonora.

We clubbed together and in October we started by team the 150 mile trek to Payson, Utah. There Lorenzo Hursh was forming a company to go by train. In this company was Lorenzo Hursh and family, James Hursh and family, John Carlin and family, myself and family and my father and family, Mr. Peterson and son. Dan Snarr joined us at Salt Lake City with his family and also, Jacob Huber, Arnold Huber, and their families. We had a fine trip. We were 7 days getting to El Paso, Texas. Our papers from Mexico City had not yet arrived so we were held up there for a month. All the company went on to Dublan, Mexico and left me and John Carlin to take care of the stock and cars. We stayed in the cars all the time until our papers came and then we crossed the line and landed in Dublan. There we met Ammon Tenney with two Mexican Police and they ordered us not to stop in town. I asked him why and he told us to do as he said or go to jail. We didn't want to go to jail so went back to the stock yard. The next morning Brother Tenney, President Pratt, and the bishop came to our camp and told us why we couldn't come in town. We had been exposed to small pox. We tried to talk them out of it but couldn't so they put us under guard for 3 weeks. They sent a man every day to see what we needed. We pitched our tents by the river 1/2 mile from town, but we had a good time. Brother Jameson liked to sing and I liked to play my flute. He sang the songs of Zion and old folk songs. When we were finally turned loose we started for Morelos 150 miles by team. The first 100 miles we had good roads but the last 50 were very rough. When we got to Los Voras we laid over to hunt. We started out at daylight and was to be back by 1:00 pm but the country was so beautiful that I forgot myself and kept on going. When I looked at my watch it was 1:00 then and I didn't know which way camp was so I started hunting the camp instead of deer. But then I saw 6 deer and began shooting, killing two of them. I still didn't know where I was or what to do with them so I hung the largest one in a tree and put the small one on my back and started walking. I got in camp at 11:00 that night and went back the next morning for the other deer. We all had meat for the rest of the trip. When we arrived at Oaracca - 20 miles southwest of Morelos, they had guards at the edge of town and would not let us camp in town. We had to drive straight through. They brought us hay for our stock. When Jameson gave him the money for the hay, the man dropped it on the ground and rolled it in the dirt. He said he had to clean the small pox germs from it. We went on to Morelos where we met John Bowler and Simeon Hunsaker. They ordered us to stay out of camp for 3 weeks. By this time Dan Snarr was getting quite angry and told them .we would go on into camp or fight. So we went in. There were 9 families and we made 3 more.We got there January 1901.

We got a lot, pitched our tent and went to work on ditches and roads and clearing land, which was covered a great deal with large mesquite trees. Several more families came and made quite a colony. We raised a small crop, enough to get by with. In 1902 more people came to the colony. President Ivins and President Pratt came and brought Orson P. Brown to be our bishop with Alexander Jameson as first assistant and Lorenzo Hursh as second assistant. Jacob Huber was ward clerk. The first building made for the church was made with mesquite posts and was covered with long canes and dirt. We had many good times in that lowly hovel. We had no organ or piano at first so I played the flute for all their singing. I was also the drama director. I was put in charge over the deacons and sure enjoyed it. Later on we built a very nice church building across the street from my home.

I married Delila Van Leuven in the year 1902 on August 16. In 1903, there came a big flood down the Bavispa River and washed our crops and most of our land away, then being farmed. I went to the mines to work for awhile, and in 1905 I bought some more horses and wagons, and fixed up a freight team and hauled coke from Cose Station to Naccojaris to smelter. In 1906 I leased my outfit out and hired out to a railroad camp to sharpen or dress the tools. They extended the railroad on to Naccojaris and I worked for the railroad camp for one year until the road was done. Then for two years I ran my freight team from Naccojaris to Compas, hauling coke and ore from mines.

In 1909 my father and I bought some land 10 miles north of Morelos, as a number of other families bought theirs. We had another ward organized. This colony was called San Jose. We had to build everything over again but in 3 years we had another nice meeting house built and had lovely times both in drama and dances. I was called to be the drama leader.

We raised excellent crops and began to have plenty of everything. Our ward was organized with George Martineau as bishop and Alva and Oryus Nichlos were the counselors. Sam Bradshaw was chosen as Superintendent of the Sunday School. Isaac Alldredge was first assistant and David McClellan as second assistant. I was also chosen to be choir leader and on the dance committee. We all had farms and tried to keep the commandments. We prospered and had many lovely times together.

In 1910 and 1911, a rebellion started in the Mexican Government and by 1912 it got so bad that we were no longer safe staying in the country so both the President of the Church and President of the U.S. advised us to leave and come to the States. We all had to leave in a hurry so had to leave all our belongings behind, except for just what we could put in our wagons. That wasn't much. I dug holes in the bottom of my shop and buried my tools and some other things and then put the pigs in the shop to cover up the digging. We buried a lot of things under our floors. After awhile my father and my son Aze went back and got the tools. We have a barrel of molasses still buried there unless the Mexicans fell in it. As soon as we left they took over our homes. The U.S. furnished small tents for those who couldn't get houses and furnished some flour, pork and potatoes. I got 50 pounds of flour, one side bacon, and 50 pounds of potatoes.

There was a rich company in Tucson that had a large tract of land covered with mesquite trees. They wanted the Mexican people to clear the land and then buy it so about 40 families went there and started on the clearing. We were there about a year and the company began to go back on their contract and refused to pay, so Tenny hired a lawyer and he told the company to pay us all they owed or go to jail. So they paid up and then we all left. I went to Benson and bargained for a farm. I worked it for about 8 months and it proved to be no good. I paid for it and went north with John Neagle and my son-in-law, Osiah Haynie. We came to mesquite where we were joined with Frank McMullian and John and Able Hardy. We started for Nevada. We traveled over desert, sometimes with no water for miles. We came to Kingman and camped at the edge of town and a number of people came to see us. There was a small circus coming to town and they didn't look much better than we did. At last we got to the Colorado River and had to ferry across. The river had been up quite high but had gone down a lot and left the banks muddy and slippery. So we had quite a time getting out on the other side. We got our horses mired down in the mud so had to get chains to pull the outfit over the mud. It took us all day to get across. We soon landed in St. Thomas. They told us there that there were some Mexico people in Kaolin - 5 miles up the river. When we got there we found Brother Abraham Bundy and family and Martin Iverson and family. We stopped there and worked on a ditch for a church farm. We got some land and farmed. Kaolin was a branch of St. Thomas Ward and then was changed to Overton Ward. The bishopric came to organize a Sunday School putting me in as superintendent, with Abraham Bundy as first assistant and Willard Iverson as second assistant. We had very good times while there. In two years the place broke up and people left as they couldn't pay for the land. I went to Delta to work, working at different places. Then I hired out to be a foreman on a 400 acre farm for Robert Mason. I worked for him for a year and a half. Then I took a trip to the Uintah country and looked it over. Not finding anything that I wanted I came back to Mesquite, Nevada. I rented a 10 acre grape patch and raised a very good crop. I stayed there two years. In the ward I was put in as drama coach. We sure had some good times. There was a fine lot of people in Mesquite. From Mesquite I went back to Delta. I worked different things. I tried blacksmithing and also worked in the sugar factory.

In January, 1921 we started to St. George. We were 13 days on the road. The snow was a foot or two deep. I worked for several years at mines and road camps as blacksmith and tool sharpener.

Later we went to Mt. Trumbull, Arizona and took up homesteading. We finally ended up at St. George again where I am now living at the age of 81 years.

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A Testimony by Isaac Alldredge III

From the time I was a kid I wanted to go to Mexico. I would get the map of North America and measure the miles and wonder how I could get there. Time went on and we moved quite a bit. We heard of some new land for settlement in Rexburg, Idaho, so we started and got in Salt Lake for conference in April. We put our teams in stalls and slept in the tithing barn that was where the Hotel Utah now is. We spread our blankets on the hay. Early in the morning two of the other men, Garff and Kirkham woke up and began to talk. I listened to them. One said when they first came to Salt Lake some of the pioneers kept their covers on their wagons expecting to go back to Jackson Co. any time. So one conference Brigham Young told them all to take their covers off saying, "We are not going back to Jackson Co. that way." He said, "We will build cities south." The thought struck me again and I wondered how far south, that they may go as far south as Mexico. After conference we started for Rexburg. It took us nearly 2 weeks to get there. Riding along in the wagons I thought and thought and decided to make it a matter of prayer so I went out and asked the Father in Heaven. I said we were looking for a place to settle and if this was the right place for us, that we would be guided and be able to locate some land. If not the place, to guide us right. I did not only pray, I fasted, also. We landed in Rexburg, Idaho and soon my father came up for he thought we would surely stay. There was an old neighbor of ours from Deseret who had moved to Rexburg and had a store. He and my father were old chums and he wanted us to stay and help look for property. He located some and was taking Father to see it. While on the way he handed Pa a newspaper with a piece about Mexico. Pa said, "Hyrum, no use going further, we are going to Mexico." He came and told us; and said he would go and as he had to go through Payson he would see the man, Huish, who wrote the piece and if it was good he would write us to come. He wrote and we headed back to Ferron. Then we had to go to Payson to get on the train, put our wagons and other things in one end of the car and horses in the other end. We had a passenger car for us to ride in. They gave me the job of taking care of the horses and we were ready to start. I stayed with the horses to see that they would be alright, then got in the car with the folks. The first thing the wife said was, "Do you know what you are going to do?" I said, "What about?" She said, "You are going to Mexico and get another wife." I answered, "Nonsense, can't get them anymore." She said, "I know better, it was revealed to me the minute this train started." I tried to talk her out of it, but she said it was no use for me to try and talk her out of it for, "I know just as sure as we are here." This talk was never mentioned anymore until quite a long time after we arrived in Morelos, Mexico, and some time after, Newman Van Leuven and family came over from Dublan. They located just beyond us and had to pass our place to go to church. They had a girl named Delila, and as she was passing one day the wife said, "I think she would be a good wife for you. Ask her." So I yelled for her to stop and told her I would like to talk to her. We appointed a time and I asked her what she thought of joining us. She said, "I don't know, but will think about it." (I was quite surprised for I thought she would say, "Get gone, I don't want such an ignorant fella.") She said she would tell me in two weeks. Then I said to Father in Heaven, "If what I have done in proposing to this young lady is wrong and should not be, let her be inspired to know." But when the 2 weeks were up she said, "Yes." We were married August 16, 1902, President Ivins and our bishop being our witnesses.


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