LIFE STORY OF WILLIAM HARRISON YOUNG
William Harrison Young was born 23 January 1886 at Ephraim, Conejos Co., Colorado, the fourth son of James Absalom Young, born 1 Feb. 1861 in Chatham Hill, Smyth Co., Virginia and Lillian Adelaide Hurst, born 18 November 1861 in Springville, Utah Co., Utah. James Absalom and Lillian Adelaide were married 12 February 1879 in Fairview, Sanpete Co., Utah. Twelve children were born to this union.
William Harrison Young's schooling commenced at five years of age. He spent his childhood days until he was thirteen in Colorado. He helped the family by picking up Irish potatoes. He said he got so tired looking at the endless rows of potatoes that he lost his taste for them for the rest of his life. Times were very hard in those pioneering days and they suffered many privations, especially during the long cold winters. He often had to go to the neighbors and ask if they could please have some skim milk. In. the year of 1896, Will's parents decided to move to Mexico where most of his mother's people lived. In the summer of 1896, preparations were made to leave the San Louis Valley. On the 18 November 1896, Will's family, along with a Mr. Jackson and family set out on the long trip from the San Louis Valley to Colonia Dublan, Chihuahua, Mexico. They reached the Mexican border in about thirty days. The papers had not arrived from Mexico City that would authorize their legal entry into Mexico. They had to wait some seven weeks for these papers, so Walter Hurst came from Dublan, Mexico and took part of the family to Dublan, leaving the men to help care for the teams and wait for those long-looked for papers. Will and his other two brothers started to school as soon as they arrived in Mexico. About two years after arriving in Dublan, his father, James Absalom Young bought a farm in Guadalupe, six miles south of Dublan, where a few Mormon families had settled. For three years the family worked hard improving the property, but their mother was not happy there. She missed not being able to go to church all the time and missed the association of her folks, so they sold their property and again moved back to Dublan where they bought two small farms and two lots in the city, where they lived in a small lumber house. Will finished the eighth grade in Dublan but missed a great deal of school due to the necessity of having to help with work. He had one year of high school at the Juarez Stake Academy. At the age of twenty-one, his father gave him a team of horses. Will worked hard to better his lot in life, as he was contemplating marriage to a young woman he had met about three years before. When he first gazed into her eyes, he said to himself that she was going to be his bride. Will worked at hauling lumber and machinery to the different colonies until the last of September when he and his bride- to- be took the train to Salt Lake City, Utah, where they were married in the Salt Lake Temple on 3 October 1907. After returning to Mexico, they lived with his parents for two or three months; then they lived with Grandmother Butler for about a year. While living there, daughter Thora was born the 4th of September, 1908. Shortly after Thora's birth, Will was able to buy a lot with a small lumber house on it where they began keeping house by themselves. Will worked on his father's farm and also away from home in order to provide for his growing family. On 3 August, 1910 another daughter Cecile was born to them. They had finally built them a small brick home, but during this time a revolution was brewing in Mexico, and in the latter part of July 1912, conditions had become so bad that most of the colonists decided to leave Mexico. They felt that their lives were not safe, so about 4000 people embarked on the trains for the United States. Will put his wife Effie and two daughters on the train and sent them to El Paso, Texas. Effie was pregnant with her third child, due the first part of September. There was no one to meet her and no place to stay. The United States government took the refugees to a lumber yard where they camped and the government fed them. Effie managed to hang some quilts around the family to give them some privacy. Will remained in Dublan with a few men to look after his interests, but in about a week all the men decided to leave. During his week in Mexico with these men, and on their journey to the border, they had some very harrowing experiences. At times, their very lives were in jeopardy.
Will and the men traveled all night, arriving at the border just at sunrise. Will rested and then started for Hatchita, New Mexico and upon arriving there he took the train for El Paso, Texas, where he put his wife Effie and two daughters on the train to Payson, Utah to stay with Effie's mother until they could decide what to do. Shortly after arriving in Payson, their third child, another little girl was born. Odeen was born 5 September 1912. Will then returned to Hàchita, New Mexico and helped herd the horses for about a month. Then he and some of the other men returned to Mexico to look after their interests. He stayed the remainder of that year, sold his wheat and planted again for the coming year.
Will left Dublan, Mexico on the 22 December 1912 for Tucson, Arizona where his wife and children had come and were living in a tent by Will's brother Alma in the little community of Binghamton. He stayed in Tucson with his family, milking cows at a dairy until April 1913. He then returned to Mexico to look after his crops. He found that his property in Mexico had been stolen and his home occupied by rebels. His wife joined him in June and they lived with extended family for about a year. At this time, Will was taken hostage by the rebels, along with Bishop Anson Call and held for ransom. They were finally released, after threats against their lives, and returned to their families, thankful that the death threats had not been carried out. Conditions continued to deteriorate again and in 1914, they left Mexico for good and went to Tucson, Arizona, where Will's father and brother lived in the little community of Binghampton
For a time they lived in a tent, just the ground for a floor, under a mesquite tree on the north side of the Rillito River. The river ran through the little Binghampton community. Will had a team of horses which he brought with him from Mexico and was able to find work with his horses. In time he was able to provide a better home, further west, but still north of the river, close to his brother Alma. This was still a tent home, but it had a wooden floor and a frame work with about three foot sides and a canvas tent stretched over it. Shortly after moving into it, their fourth daughter Mae was born the 9 July 1915. Effie often told how hot it was in that tent in July; not even a tree for shade.
Will next got a job as foreman on a large ranch south of Tucson, bordering the banks of the Santa Cruz River. The family lived there in a four room adobe house and they had a cow for milk and raised a small garden. While living there, their first son, William Harrison Young, Jr., born 26 November 1917. It was during this winter that a terrible flu epidemic swept the country. Thousands of people died. Effie and the new baby were very sick and nearly died. They lived on the ranch for about four years but in time, Will bought two lots in Binghampton and Effie and the children moved back there in order to be able to attend church and be around other family. Will remained on the ranch in order to work and provide a living for his family. It was hard for Effie to be alone and harder on Will to be without her. On 5 September 1919 Philip Kent was born. When Will was still living on the Kinnison ranch by himself, he was trimming a mesquite tree when a thorn on one of the limbs hit him in the right eye and he lost the sight in his right eye. A little daughter Voris was born 30 November 1922. She died 25 Dec. 1922, Christmas morning, of pneumonia. Three years later on the 10 August, 1925, their son Ronal Theo was born. All these years, Will was not at home with his family. He continued working for Mr. Kinnison on the ranch. His life was not very pleasant either. He lived in a tent, doing his own cooking and was not able to get to church very often or to be with his family. He finally saved enough money to quit as foreman for Mr. Kinnison and with Effie's nephew, Harold Butler, he leased a farm west of Tucson. Here he farmed and started in the dairy business. They rented their home in Binghampton and moved the family to the farm. The house was just a small lumber shack, but Effie painted and wall papered and made it as attractive as possible. The family lived on this farm for about a year and a half. The partner relationship did not prove to be completely satisfactory, so Will moved his family back to their home in Binghampton and the assets of the farm were divided. Will negotiated with Mr. Kinnison to move his cows to the Kinnison ranch where he built up quite a large dairy herd, buying his pasture for his cows from Mr. Kinnison. Effie did not move with Will to the Kinnison ranch but remained in Binghampton. Mr. Kinnison's other foreman was living in the house that they had lived in, so Will put up a tent and he and two sons lived in. it. He did quite well with the dairy and in about two years time he was able to save enough money to make a down payment on some land east of their home in Binghampton, where he moved his dairy herd and built up a rather prosperous dairy business. He now realized his dream as a boy in Colorado. He had plenty of cows to keep his boys busy. In 1935, Will built mother a new home just north of the old home on the same property. His children were getting married and as they married, he gave some of them building sites around him. In 1938, he sold the dairy. To give him something to do, as he could not be idle and to also earn a little money, he gathered sacks and crates at the different grocery stores around town and hauled them to Phoenix, where he sold them. In about 1942 or 1943, Will's brother Phillip moved to Tucson. He needed help, so he and Will leased some land on the north side of the river and Will and his brother did gardening. Will sold the vegetables to the stores around Tucson. This was during the Second World War.
In February 1944, Will received a call to the Texas Spanish Mission, where he served with dedication, but was not able to complete this mission. He was called home early because of illness in the family. The last recording in his Missionary Journal was 25 October 1944. Will loved his wife and his children very dearly. One of his ways of showing it was to work hard to support them so that they might enjoy the comforts of life. He had to be busy . . . it was impossible for him to be idle. When he was past sixty, he went to work for Hamilton Company doing janitor work. During these last years he filled two Stake Missions. He spent hours reading and studying the scriptures. He contributed generously to his family organizations for researching and doing the work for his ancestors. He had a stroke in 1966. He was not able to read the scriptures after that, but loved to go to church. He passed away 15 August 1967 at eighty-one years of age in Tucson, Pima, Arizona and is buried in the little Binghampton Cemetery in the foothills at the base of the Catalina Mountains.
LIFE STORY OF WILLIAM HARRISON YOUNG
William Harrison Young was born 23 January 1886 at Ephraim, Conejos Co., Colorado, the fourth son of James Absalom Young, born 1 Feb. 1861 in Chatham Hill, Smyth Co., Virginia and Lillian Adelaide Hurst, born 18 November 1861 in Springville, Utah Co., Utah. James Absalom and Lillian Adelaide were married 12 February 1879 in Fairview, Sanpete Co., Utah. Twelve children were born to this union.
William Harrison Young's schooling commenced at five years of age. He spent his childhood days until he was thirteen in Colorado. He helped the family by picking up Irish potatoes. He said he got so tired looking at the endless rows of potatoes that he lost his taste for them for the rest of his life. Times were very hard in those pioneering days and they suffered many privations, especially during the long cold winters. He often had to go to the neighbors and ask if they could please have some skim milk. In. the year of 1896, Will's parents decided to move to Mexico where most of his mother's people lived. In the summer of 1896, preparations were made to leave the San Louis Valley. On the 18 November 1896, Will's family, along with a Mr. Jackson and family set out on the long trip from the San Louis Valley to Colonia Dublan, Chihuahua, Mexico. They reached the Mexican border in about thirty days. The papers had not arrived from Mexico City that would authorize their legal entry into Mexico. They had to wait some seven weeks for these papers, so Walter Hurst came from Dublan, Mexico and took part of the family to Dublan, leaving the men to help care for the teams and wait for those long-looked for papers. Will and his other two brothers started to school as soon as they arrived in Mexico. About two years after arriving in Dublan, his father, James Absalom Young bought a farm in Guadalupe, six miles south of Dublan, where a few Mormon families had settled. For three years the family worked hard improving the property, but their mother was not happy there. She missed not being able to go to church all the time and missed the association of her folks, so they sold their property and again moved back to Dublan where they bought two small farms and two lots in the city, where they lived in a small lumber house. Will finished the eighth grade in Dublan but missed a great deal of school due to the necessity of having to help with work. He had one year of high school at the Juarez Stake Academy. At the age of twenty-one, his father gave him a team of horses. Will worked hard to better his lot in life, as he was contemplating marriage to a young woman he had met about three years before. When he first gazed into her eyes, he said to himself that she was going to be his bride. Will worked at hauling lumber and machinery to the different colonies until the last of September when he and his bride- to- be took the train to Salt Lake City, Utah, where they were married in the Salt Lake Temple on 3 October 1907. After returning to Mexico, they lived with his parents for two or three months; then they lived with Grandmother Butler for about a year. While living there, daughter Thora was born the 4th of September, 1908. Shortly after Thora's birth, Will was able to buy a lot with a small lumber house on it where they began keeping house by themselves. Will worked on his father's farm and also away from home in order to provide for his growing family. On 3 August, 1910 another daughter Cecile was born to them. They had finally built them a small brick home, but during this time a revolution was brewing in Mexico, and in the latter part of July 1912, conditions had become so bad that most of the colonists decided to leave Mexico. They felt that their lives were not safe, so about 4000 people embarked on the trains for the United States. Will put his wife Effie and two daughters on the train and sent them to El Paso, Texas. Effie was pregnant with her third child, due the first part of September. There was no one to meet her and no place to stay. The United States government took the refugees to a lumber yard where they camped and the government fed them. Effie managed to hang some quilts around the family to give them some privacy. Will remained in Dublan with a few men to look after his interests, but in about a week all the men decided to leave. During his week in Mexico with these men, and on their journey to the border, they had some very harrowing experiences. At times, their very lives were in jeopardy.
Will and the men traveled all night, arriving at the border just at sunrise. Will rested and then started for Hatchita, New Mexico and upon arriving there he took the train for El Paso, Texas, where he put his wife Effie and two daughters on the train to Payson, Utah to stay with Effie's mother until they could decide what to do. Shortly after arriving in Payson, their third child, another little girl was born. Odeen was born 5 September 1912. Will then returned to Hàchita, New Mexico and helped herd the horses for about a month. Then he and some of the other men returned to Mexico to look after their interests. He stayed the remainder of that year, sold his wheat and planted again for the coming year.
Will left Dublan, Mexico on the 22 December 1912 for Tucson, Arizona where his wife and children had come and were living in a tent by Will's brother Alma in the little community of Binghamton. He stayed in Tucson with his family, milking cows at a dairy until April 1913. He then returned to Mexico to look after his crops. He found that his property in Mexico had been stolen and his home occupied by rebels. His wife joined him in June and they lived with extended family for about a year. At this time, Will was taken hostage by the rebels, along with Bishop Anson Call and held for ransom. They were finally released, after threats against their lives, and returned to their families, thankful that the death threats had not been carried out. Conditions continued to deteriorate again and in 1914, they left Mexico for good and went to Tucson, Arizona, where Will's father and brother lived in the little community of Binghampton
For a time they lived in a tent, just the ground for a floor, under a mesquite tree on the north side of the Rillito River. The river ran through the little Binghampton community. Will had a team of horses which he brought with him from Mexico and was able to find work with his horses. In time he was able to provide a better home, further west, but still north of the river, close to his brother Alma. This was still a tent home, but it had a wooden floor and a frame work with about three foot sides and a canvas tent stretched over it. Shortly after moving into it, their fourth daughter Mae was born the 9 July 1915. Effie often told how hot it was in that tent in July; not even a tree for shade.
Will next got a job as foreman on a large ranch south of Tucson, bordering the banks of the Santa Cruz River. The family lived there in a four room adobe house and they had a cow for milk and raised a small garden. While living there, their first son, William Harrison Young, Jr., born 26 November 1917. It was during this winter that a terrible flu epidemic swept the country. Thousands of people died. Effie and the new baby were very sick and nearly died. They lived on the ranch for about four years but in time, Will bought two lots in Binghampton and Effie and the children moved back there in order to be able to attend church and be around other family. Will remained on the ranch in order to work and provide a living for his family. It was hard for Effie to be alone and harder on Will to be without her. On 5 September 1919 Philip Kent was born. When Will was still living on the Kinnison ranch by himself, he was trimming a mesquite tree when a thorn on one of the limbs hit him in the right eye and he lost the sight in his right eye. A little daughter Voris was born 30 November 1922. She died 25 Dec. 1922, Christmas morning, of pneumonia. Three years later on the 10 August, 1925, their son Ronal Theo was born. All these years, Will was not at home with his family. He continued working for Mr. Kinnison on the ranch. His life was not very pleasant either. He lived in a tent, doing his own cooking and was not able to get to church very often or to be with his family. He finally saved enough money to quit as foreman for Mr. Kinnison and with Effie's nephew, Harold Butler, he leased a farm west of Tucson. Here he farmed and started in the dairy business. They rented their home in Binghampton and moved the family to the farm. The house was just a small lumber shack, but Effie painted and wall papered and made it as attractive as possible. The family lived on this farm for about a year and a half. The partner relationship did not prove to be completely satisfactory, so Will moved his family back to their home in Binghampton and the assets of the farm were divided. Will negotiated with Mr. Kinnison to move his cows to the Kinnison ranch where he built up quite a large dairy herd, buying his pasture for his cows from Mr. Kinnison. Effie did not move with Will to the Kinnison ranch but remained in Binghampton. Mr. Kinnison's other foreman was living in the house that they had lived in, so Will put up a tent and he and two sons lived in. it. He did quite well with the dairy and in about two years time he was able to save enough money to make a down payment on some land east of their home in Binghampton, where he moved his dairy herd and built up a rather prosperous dairy business. He now realized his dream as a boy in Colorado. He had plenty of cows to keep his boys busy. In 1935, Will built mother a new home just north of the old home on the same property. His children were getting married and as they married, he gave some of them building sites around him. In 1938, he sold the dairy. To give him something to do, as he could not be idle and to also earn a little money, he gathered sacks and crates at the different grocery stores around town and hauled them to Phoenix, where he sold them. In about 1942 or 1943, Will's brother Phillip moved to Tucson. He needed help, so he and Will leased some land on the north side of the river and Will and his brother did gardening. Will sold the vegetables to the stores around Tucson. This was during the Second World War.
In February 1944, Will received a call to the Texas Spanish Mission, where he served with dedication, but was not able to complete this mission. He was called home early because of illness in the family. The last recording in his Missionary Journal was 25 October 1944. Will loved his wife and his children very dearly. One of his ways of showing it was to work hard to support them so that they might enjoy the comforts of life. He had to be busy . . . it was impossible for him to be idle. When he was past sixty, he went to work for Hamilton Company doing janitor work. During these last years he filled two Stake Missions. He spent hours reading and studying the scriptures. He contributed generously to his family organizations for researching and doing the work for his ancestors. He had a stroke in 1966. He was not able to read the scriptures after that, but loved to go to church. He passed away 15 August 1967 at eighty-one years of age in Tucson, Pima, Arizona and is buried in the little Binghampton Cemetery in the foothills at the base of the Catalina Mountains.
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