HISTORY OF JOHN UMPSTEAD RENCHER AND JULIA KEELE (KIEL) RENCHERJohn Umpstead Rencher was born at Liberty County, Texas on March 6, 1853. He was the fourth child of Umpstead Rencher and Elizabeth Jemima Philpott. In 1855 the Rencher family, having joined the Mormon Church, left Texas and traveled to Utah. They arrived in Salt Lake Valley and settled in Lehi (30 miles south of Salt Lake) where they lived for two years before President Brigham Young called Umpstead Rencher to go with other Southern families to settle the area around St. George, Utah. The Renchers settled in Grass Valley (35 miles north of St. George) and through hard work prospered. They raised cattle and farm crops. They made cheese and sold it. Much of what was produced was sold to the miners in Nevada. John started school in Grass Valley. The Rencher family had a private teacher until schools were built.
John served a mission in South Carolina. (After his mission) he married Julia C. Keele on December 9, 1881 at St. George, Utah. He later married Victoria Tenny as a second wife. He had no children by either wife. His second wife., Victoria, divorced John and later remarried (someone else).
In 1880 when Umpstead Rencher moved his family to Texas, John and Julia stayed in Grass Valley along with (children) Mary Ellen (Rencher) Wiltbank, Peter Preston and James Grandison. When they heard of Umpstead Rencher’s death in Blanco, Texas he (John) and his wife Julia traveled to Texas to join his mother and the family. The family later moved to Eager, Arizona where Mary Ellen and her husband Spencer Wiltbank had homesteaded land.
About 1893 John and Julia left the United States for Old Mexico. Their destination was the small community of Colonia Oaxaca, a town of about fifty Mormon families. John helped lay out the townsite of Colonia Oaxaca. He operated a small farm and had fruit trees along the Bavispe River. He also had a watch repair business with his friend Harvey Langford before Harvey and his family moved to Colonia Morelos.
In 1907 a man named Frank Forster arranged to have his children live with various families in Colonia Oaxaca and Colonia Morelos. His wife had died from tuberculosis and he could not care for them and earn a living. He had a family of six children. (Two of them,) Cora and Henry lived with John and Julia Rencher. In 1911 word came to Cora, Henry and the Renchers that (their father) Frank Forster had been shot and killed in the mining town of Nacora Chico, fifty miles south of Colonia Oaxaca. The Forster children were truly dependent upon others for their care. Cora and Henry were to live with the Renchers for many years and became part of the Rencher family. The elderly couple had previously reared six children by the name of Beecroft.
Living in Mexico in the American community of Colonia Oaxaca had it’s special problems. The “colonists”, as the Americans were called, were caught in the middle of the Mexican revolution that reached a critical point for the Mormons in 1912.
Although gladly welcomed to the country by the Mexican officials twenty—five years earlier, the change in political events and moods caused the Mexican government to withdraw it’s promise of protection to foreigners. Fearful for the lives and properties, the Mormons chose to leave their homes and find safety across the border in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. In August of 1912 the residents of Colonia Oaxaca quickly loaded a few of their belongings into wagons and went in haste the fifty miles to Douglas, Arizona where the United States government provided tents and other temporary items for the “refugees". The Renchers, (along) with Cora and Henry, came with a wagon pulled by Harvey Langford’s horses. John Rencher had a considerable amount of money (gold pieces) that he needed to get safely across the border. To accomplish this he put his gold in the bottom of a brass bucket and then filled the bucket with oats (feed for the horses).
Fortunately they were not stopped during their journey northward and crossed the border without incident. While most of the colonists lived in tents the Renchers rented a house for the short time they were the Douglas area. Individuals and families who had left their homes in Mexico gradually began leaving the Douglas, Arizona area, finding new homes in the United States. John Rencher and others made a return trip to Colonia Oaxaca to check their property. John found that the revolutionaries, or looters, had ransacked his house, killed his dog Captain and had thrown his large grandfather clock into the yard. He was able to recover some of his goods; five gallon cans of fruit from beneath the flooring of his home and some household items including a small wicker chair that is still in Cora’s possession.
The Renchers moved to Tucson, Arizona as did the Harvey Langford family. North of Tucson along Oracle Road, the Renchers lived in a house owned by a doctor where they operated a farm and orchard. It was here that Cora and Henry had their first ice cream, learned to ride bikes that had no brakes and went to school. During their stay in Tucson, Henry and Cora attended school about a year and a half. They had previously had schooling in Colonia Oaxaca. There a young teacher by the name of Harold Call from Colonia Dublan lived with the Renchers for about a year and taught Henry, Cora and some other children. John Rencher was also responsible for teaching Henry and Cora. A self-disciplined individual, John gave them notebooks and would give them arithmetic problems. Cora also said, “He would write a sentence and I would have to fill the whole page up with that sentence to improve my writing.”
After living near Tucson for about three years, the Renchers and their friends, the Langfords decided to move to Utah. Julia Rencher had a sister, Parna Billings who lived in Delta, Utah, where much new land was being made available by irrigation companies. The two families planned to leave for Utah early in the fall of 1915. The Renchers were delayed, having to wait for new wheels for one of their wagons to arrive from Montgomery Ward. The Langfords decided not to wait and left ahead of the Renchers. Finally, the wheels arrived and the long 600 mile journey began. It was Thanksgiving Day, 1915. The Renchers with Henry and Cora had two wagons. One was a large covered wagon pulled by two horses and the other a buckboard pulled by a large mule. The travelers went north from Tucson and across the mountain pass to the San Pedro River which they followed to the Globe area. They crossed the Salt River and traversed the mountain land to Flagstaff. Cora vividly remembers crossing the Little Colorado River near Cameron.
“Without hesitation Brother Rencher just drove right into the river. The horses took two or three strides into the water and then they were swimming. I was in this wagon. The swift current carried us down stream but eventually we came up on the other side. I realize now what danger we were in. We could all have been swept away by the water, drowned and no one would have known what became of us.” In the same general area the travelers had to negotiate with the Indians and ended up paying twenty—five cents a head to water their animals.
On their journey they had to cross the treacherous Colorado River at Lee’s Ferry in northern Arizona. It was now mid—December. Lee’s Ferry was the only crossing on the Colorado River for a distance of nearly 600 miles. The ferry made travel possible between Utah and Arizona. The ferry was operated for 1873 until 1929 when Navajo Bridge was completed at Marble Canyon below Lee’s Ferry. Originally the ferry was operated by John D. Lee, but his tenure was brief. In 1915 two brothers, Jerry and Frank Johnson operated the ferry. On either side of the river was quicksand. In crossing the river Cora remembers that “we had to whip the horses and have them race to the ferry to keep from sinkin." After successfully crossing the river the travelers climbed the high Kiabab Plateau at Jacob Lake where snow was encountered. It was so cold that they didn’t cook food and they simply slept in their wagons.
Entering Utah at Kanab they climbed the plateau land to Hatch and Panguitch and traveled along the Sevier River to Aurora. The party then turned west to Scipio and to Holden on the edge of the great Pahvant Valley. Their destination, Delta, was just twenty—five miles away.
Henry said he could see the trees in Delta. Perhaps thinking that he had a great distance yet to travel John Rencher said, “Yes, young man, I suppose you can see right through those mountains.” All the travelers suffered from frostbite as they arrived in Delta on an extremely cold New Year’s Day, 1916.
John and Julia Rencher spent their last days in Delta, Utah and both died there. Julia died on September 18, 1926 and John died on October 27, 1936.
Cora Forster married a man named Harris and lived in Delta, Utah. After Julia died, John shared his home with Cora and her husband so they could take care of him. Henry Forster at one time was Mayor of Delta.
The two children have appreciated and tried to return all the love and kindness shown them by the Renchers.
Information for this history came from Rencher sheets by Jay and Louise Rencher
No children were born to either marriage.