HISTORIES OF
JOSEPH ALVIN RENCHER &
NETTIE HUNT
HISTORIES OF
JOSEPH ALVIN RENCHER &
NETTIE HUNT
LIFE SKETCH OF JOSEPH ALVIN RENCHER
By himself
My first Rencher ancestor to come to America was John Rencher (Jr.) and his wife Elizabeth (Grant). They left Ireland and came to America and settled in North Carolina in about 1740. I only know the name of one child, John Grant Rencher, who was born in (about 1744) and died in 1812. He served during the Revolutionary War and had two fingers shot off while in action.
John Grant Rencher married Ann Nelson. They had ten children, nine sons and one daughter. Here are their names: Samuel, George, John Nelson, Sarah, James, Daniel Grant, Abraham, William, Umpstead, and Hinton. It is supposed all ten children were born in North Carolina. The ninth one, Umpstead, is my Grandfather. He was born January 10, 1793 and died on May 31, 1823. Umpstead married Stacy Roberts on November 8, 1822. She was born in North Carolina in 1808; both died in North Carolina. Their first and only child, Umpstead, Jr., was born when his mother was only 15 years old. Three months before his birth the father died. He was counted the finest locksmith, or blacksmith, in North Carolina. One day while working at his forge he became over heated, then chilled, and died in a few hours. Umpstead, Sr., left considerable property - a large plantation with slaves, etc. My father’s brother Abraham was appointed guardian of Umpstead, Jr. Different to most Renchers, Abraham was a politician, prominent in the affairs of both government and state. He served as congressman from North Carolina from 1829 to 1839, then later from 1841 to 1843. He was then appointed U.S. Ambassador to Portugal. When he left the United States, his brother, Daniel Grant Rencher, was appointed Umpstead Junior’s guardian. When Abraham returned from Portugal, President Buchannan offered him the position of Secretary of the Navy, which he declined, but he did accept the Governorship of the new Territory of New Mexico. His portrait hangs in the Capitol Building in Santa Fe.
After the death of Umpstead Rencher, Sr., Stacy Roberts married Alfred Beavers, by whom she had ten children.
My mother’s father, Grandison Philpott, was born in North Carolina in 1802. He married Elizabeth Clements. They owned a large plantation with negro slaves to run it. They had two daughters, Isabella and Elizabeth Jemima. When the latter was three months old her mother died.
My mother often told me of the good old negro mammy who raised her, and the kind old negro coachman, who always had her and her sister under his care when they were away from home or riding in their fine carriage.
My Mother, Elizabeth Jemima Philpott, was born in Granville County, North Carolina, January 1, 1828. They were married in Wake County, January 11, 1846. From here they moved to Sumpter County, Alabama, where three children were born, Virginia Caroline, James Grandison and Mary Ellen. Then they moved to Liberty County, Texas. Here one son, John Umpstead, was born. While here Mormon missionaries visited them and they were converted and baptized, and were now anxious to gather with the Saints in the Rocky Mountains. So in 1854 they left their beloved South and went to Utah. They settled in Lehi. Here Peter Preston was born. About two years later they moved down to Washington; here Abraham Hinton was born. They then moved out on a large ranch in Grass Valley, six miles from Pine Valley, which was their post office. Here they lived for nearly twenty years. Elizabeth Jemima, William David, Benjamin Grant, Joseph Alvin, Emma Isabella, Ammon Lee and Thomas Jay were all born here.
My father, who had acquired a goodly amount of means, decided to go back to Texas where he thought he could better invest his money. Jim and Mary were married, Pete and John did not wish to go so father gave them each a good share of property and took the rest of the family with him to Texas. In 1880, we took the train going up through Wyoming and east as far as Kansas City, then around and back to Texas. We lived in Austin awhile, then rented the Twin Sisters, or Evans Ranch, in Kendall County.
We had not been there long before Father regretted the move he had made and said, “If I live, we will return in a year.” But in July he was taken violently ill with locked bowels. He died on the 11th of July, 1881, leaving us without a home and far from any Latter Day Saints. He was buried in the Blanco cemetery. As soon as Pete and Hint learned of father’s death, they settled up their affairs and came to Texas, and we purchased a large farm four miles from Blanco where we made our home as long as we lived in the state. Here I attended high school. It was not long until Pete and Hint were both married. Dave had gone out to Round Valley, Arizona where our sister, Mary now lived so I was head man on the place. We younger children grew up with very little knowledge of the gospel and without being baptized. My brother David had been baptized in Arizona and called on a mission to the Southern States. On his was he came by to see us and persuaded my mother to take the family and go out where he and Mary lived. Some two years later when he had received his release, he came by to accompany us.
We left Blanco May 2, 1894, and went by team and wagon the entire distance. Lizzie and Belle had gone by rail one year previous. We had three wagons, a fine new buggy and a number of loose horses. Harris McCrocklin, a friend, drove one team. Our married brothers were left behind, but both came out some years later. When we came to the Pecos River it was very high, but Dave and Lee undertook to cross over to Roswell, New Mexico to get grain for the horses; when out in the stream the current was so strong it turned the buggy over. They succeeded in cutting the horses loose and each horse brought a boy to shore, although on opposite banks. The buggy and one harness were lost, although we made many attempts to get the buggy.
We purchased a light wagon in Roswell and continued our journey. I was subject to severe headaches. One day I was taken violently ill. My brother David and I left camp found a secluded spot and he administered to me and I was instantly healed and never had a return of the infliction.
On the 11th of July 1894, we arrived in Round Valley. We were given a public reception and welcomed so royally we felt that truly our lot had been cast among God’s people. Bishop George H. Crosby was indeed a father to us. Before leaving Texas I was baptized by my brother David on April 30, 1892, confirmed the next day by A. V. Greer, better known as Uncle H. Greer.
I soon became a worker in the Union Ward, later known as the Eagar Ward, and was ordained a teacher, chosen as Assistant Superintendent of the Sunday School, later as Stake Aid in Sunday School and Mutual. In 1896 I was sustained as Ward Clerk and Superintendent of the Sunday School, occupying these positions eight years.
In 1894 I met Miss Nettie Hunt of Snowflake, Arizona. The next July she was my partner on a fishing trip to White River. Although twenty-six years old, this was my first case of love and it ended luckily for me when I was married to her for time and eternity in the temple in Salt Lake City, Utah, October 12, 1898. She was the daughter of John Hunt, Bishop of Snowflake for 31 years, and Lois Barnes Pratt.
When we returned from our wedding trip we had spent our last dollar, so we began at the bottom, but by working and saving we started us a little home, built one room. Next year drought struck the country and for seven years we did not raise a crop. We lived in our one room five years, two children being born in it, then added on two more. October 19, 1899, our first child, a little son was born. We named him Benjamin Jay. Then a little girl named Elizabeth for my mother, then a son named John Hunt, then another son, Lewis Newell. While the children were small I was away from home a great deal working on reservoirs. Our finances had become so low, raising no crops that I decided to freight between Holbrook and Ft. Apache, so when the baby, Lewis, was six weeks old I moved my family to Snowflake where I would pass going and coming. In a year and a half we had paid off our debts and had a little to go on so we returned to our house in Eagar. I wanted to make our home in Snowflake but Nettie felt like we ought to stay by Mother as long as she lived and was the only Mother we both had, and she had depended on —- for so long she felt like it would be more than she could bare to give me up. Two years I planted and raised a fairly good crop, but I was not satisfied so I decided to go out to the San Juan country where we heard there were fine prospects for homes. However, before we could get off, my dear Mother was taken violently ill with gall stones, an ailment she had suffered with for years. A few days before her death she had cooked a birthday dinner for Jay, and asked us all over, and we spent a happy day together little realizing it would be the last dinner we would eat with her.
It seemed that she did not have as much strength as common to withstand the terrible pain she always suffered with these attacks; she became weaker and weaker until the end came. She had always said she wanted me to drive her to the cemetery, and how glad I was that I could comply with this request. What a vacant place in our lives! She had been our only parent for so long. She was 81 years of age.
Soon after this we started for San Juan, my brothers Pete and Jay, my nephew Guy and my brother-in-law, John T. Patterson. My wife was in very delicate health, but I hoped to be gone but a short tine. I was much pleased with a little town called Hammond, and bargained for a place there.
Jay and Guy soon returned; the rest of us got work some distance apart. I worked on a large canal near Cortez, New Mexico. There was a daily mail four miles from the camp, but for some reason no mail reached me while there. My brother-in-law got word from home and knowing that I had not been getting my mail got on a horse and brought the sad news to me that my wife had given birth to a premature baby. The baby had died and she had nearly lost her life. How my heart smote me for having left her at such a time. I left my team in care of another and Pete, John and I left for home. The days seemed endless and yet when night came I could not close my eyes for thinking of the sorrow and sickness at home and of how much I was needed there. When I reached home I found that dear old Grandpa Hunt and Nettie’s sister May had come over and May had stayed to care for my wife, who was recovering very slowly. As soon as all was well at home again, I went back to see to my teams. I had no feed at home so got work for them up near Denver, Colorado, and worked with my brother-in-law, S. S. (Spencer Sanders) Wiltbank.
I had stayed several months when the sad news reached me that my little flock at home had Scarlet Fever; and then the dreadful word that our dear little five—year old son Lewis, or Lutie as we called him, had died after being sick only three days. It was some months before I could make arrangements to ship my horses home. When I did arrive I found that my family had been quarantined nine weeks, but were all well again.
I soon began making preparations to move, but President David K. Udall came to me and said he wanted me to give up the idea of moving and prepare to go on a mission. It was a very hard thing for me to listen to council at this tine, but I knew that I would not be blessed unless I did. I disposed of my place in San Juan for what I gave for it, but in a very short time the dam at Hammond went out and people were left without water and had to leave their homes and move away. Then how thankful was I that I had heeded the council of a man of God.
When I began preparing for my mission I was blessed on every hand, and soon had enough means to take me to the Northern States where I was to labor and keep me about six months. The night before leaving the town gave me a splendid farewell party. The hat was passed and over $40.00 was collected. On the 3rd of May, 1910, I left my faithful wife who had already suffered so much sorrow and affliction in my absence, and who was still in poor health and all my dear ones, and started on my mission.
I labored in Chicago one month, then went to Minnesota. I spent most of my time in St. Paul and Minneapolis, attended the large conference of the mission held at Nauvoo, Illinois. I said good-bye to the dear friends I had made and started home. While there I had served as branch president, also the conference president. I reached home August 4, 1912, having been gone two years and three months. Through the efforts of my wife, and the blessings of the Lord I came home out of debt. My dear ones had been blessed with health and preserved to me. In my absence they had dug a cellar and finished it, had made a porch the length of the house on the east and built a bedroom on the back of the house, but it was not yet finished on the inside.
September 1, 1913 another son was born to us. We rejoiced exceedingly as we had been without this joy for so long. We named him Joseph Lynn. We now had two children ready for high school with no prospect of one near us so with the blessing of our Stake President we moved to Snowflake where the children could attend a Stake Academy. It was with regret that we left our many friends and relatives and the dear home where we had lived for nineteen years and where all our children had been born.
We arrived in Snowflake November 30, 1917 (Thanksgiving Day). We bought a home in town and a dry farm at Linden; here we spent our summers farming and dairying. In April 1918 the United States was in war with Germany. I was too old for the draft, but we worked hard to raise food. We lived on corn bread that the flour might be shipped to our soldiers. Our eldest son, Benjamin, was registered for the third draft, being eighteen, but peace was declared before the draft was called for.
October 1919. I was called to act as president of the High Priests Quorum of the Snowflake Stake. April, 1920, the Snowflake Ward made it binding on all its members to write a sketch of their lives and hand one copy in to the ward and keep one, so I have made this weak attempt. Our three oldest children are in High School and we are working hard to keep them there until they graduate. I have just finished a three—months call as a Stake Missionary to labor with inactive members. My wife assumed the responsibilities of the ranch while I filled these appointments. We are striving to serve the Lord and teach our children to do the same. I bear my testimony to you that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and that the Gospel of Jesus Christ established through him is the true plan of salvation. May we all be true to Its teachings and live so that we may be reunited again in the Celestial Kingdom of God where we will go on progressing through the countless ages of eternity, is the prayer of your Father.
JOSEPH ALVIN RENCHER
JOSEPH AND NETTIE HUNT RENCHER
as told by Nettie Hunt RencherSNOWFLAKE, ARIZONA
JANUARY 1, 1919At this date in our lives our children are asking about a sketch of their Father, so I have decided to start where this sketch ended in 1920 and finish it.
On May 1921 our eldest son and only daughter then, graduated with honors from the Snowflake Stake Academy. This made us very happy and was our first recompense for moving here. During this school year our Benjamin (Ben as we called him) had fallen in love with a schoolmate, Minnie Adele Hansen of Joseph City, who has made him a splendid wife and mother for his children. She is the daughter of Joseph C. Hansen, who is Danish, and Emma Swenson, who is Swedish. In the fall of this year in company with a cousin, Layfayette Kartchner and his bride to be, they went by car to Salt Lake City where they were married in the temple. We were very happy to have them start the right way. Soon after their marriage a small home just a block from us was offered for sale. They bought it and here they have lived these many years. Later they built a new home large enough to house their eight fine, intelligent children. One little son died at birth. The eldest of their three sons, Benjamin Jay, Jr., fought and was wounded in World War II. He was in the service of his country from May 3, 1943 to December 9, 1945.
Our second son, John H. filled a mission to the Southern States. We were blessed in our farming and my husband had some cash jobs that furnished the necessary means with what he had saved himself before leaving to keep him more than two years.
Many years before Joseph had received a bad injury to one of his legs which caused bad broken veins. While hauling a load of corn from the ranch a cornstalk jabbed into a broken vein and started serious trouble. The doctor pronounced (that) it (was a) blood clot and said he must be off of it and have it suspended for many weeks. One day when he thought his leg better and no one was near he arose and walked outside. Immediately the clot left the leg and went into his lung. Then the fight was on. For eleven long weeks he was bedfast and many more weeks passed before he was able to be about very much. He was almost a year recovering. He was a great favorite with all children, and almost every child in the town was praying for him. This faith, coupled with that of his family and the Elders who often came in to bless him, brought him back to health again. When he was very low, the President of the Stake wired, without our knowledge, for our son to come home from his mission. He had already been gone two years. Toward the last, Beth came home from college to help out, but during those long weeks Ben and I were his only nurses.
In the fall of 1921 a friend came to our home with two beautiful little girls. She said their mother had died and the father had been determined to keep his five children together, but after doing this for more than two years and making a living for them also he had found it a difficult task. Their nearest relatives were in Kansas. Then the child welfare of the county persuaded him to place the three smallest children out for adoption. The friend said that she and her husband were adopting the oldest little girl and the welfare board and judge of the county, who was chairman of the board as well was an old friend of ours, wished us to take the youngest one.
It was a staggering proposition. I had wished so much for another daughter and Beth had hoped for a sister, but this was different - assuming the great responsibility of bringing up the child of someone else. After serious thought and earnest prayer we took the dear child with grateful hearts, and from that day to this no parents ever had a child that brought them more comfort and joy than our dear Virginia has brought to us.
She soon became her Father’s pride and joy and was unconsolable at his passing. On September 1, 1921, Lynn’s 8th birthday, his Father baptized him in the tank at the ranch and we received our dear Virginia into our home. A day long to be remembered in our family.
In the fall of 1927 the Arizona temple that had been erected in Mesa was ready for dedication. We had added our mite to help with its building. Before this Beth had graduated from the International Business College of El Paso, Texas and was now working in Phoenix. Joseph and I met her there and attended the dedicatory services. We counted this a great privilege. It was the first and only one my husband ever enjoyed. I had attended the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple on the 6th of April, 1893. My husband was called and set apart as a member of the High Council of the Snowflake Stake, which office he held until the time of his death.
After John returned from his mission and his father had recovered, a missionary companion urged him to come to Utah so he went. While there he met a young lady named Leona Deem—again we join the Scandinavians, as both of Leona’s parents came from Denmark. John and Leona were married in the Salt Lake temple. They soon came to Arizona and made their home in Flagstaff where John attended college.
After the boys left us, we ceased living at the ranch, but every summer my husband put in a crop there and never failed to have a bounteous harvest.
In 1928 a young man from Manti, Utah was teaching in our high school. His name was Byron G. Cox. For several weeks during the winter one of the lady teachers was ill and Beth substituted for her. Mr. Cox boarded next door to us, and I soon noticed him coming out of that gate just in time to walk to school with her. Soon more than a friendship was formed and when he left for home in the spring, she had promised to marry him. The summer was a busy one, filled with joy and sadness. Joy in having our dear daughter with us one more summer and sorrow that she would then leave our home to which she had added so much comfort and joy. Always so generous with her earnings and always so thoughtful of all of us. The last of September Byron came with his car to claim her. The question of how to get all her nice hand work and presents into the car was a big one . Her Father had purchased a very large trunk while in the mission field to bring his many things home in. He insisted that she take it and it really did accommodate most everything. When the back seat of the car was removed it fitted in nicely. It was a heart breaking time for all of us when they drove away and we realized that her home would be in a far away land and how empty our hearts and our home would be without her. I shall never forget how her Father wept after she had gone. I have often wondered since if he felt that it would be the last time he would see her in this life, but so it proved.
She and Byron were married in the Manti temple on October 9, 1929. Lynn was now sixteen and in high school, and Virginia was in grade school.
My husband had raised a large crop at Linden and was busy hauling it home. Ever since he was grown he had driven fine horses. Be now had a chance to buy a span of young full-of-life mules that could cover the many miles between the ranch and home much quicker than the horses so he traded the horses for them.
One of the first days of November he started for the ranch to bring home a load. On the way he stopped to water the mules. Soon after starting on they came to a steep place, the bridle on one mule pulled off her head completely. Whether after watering he failed to fasten the bridle or whether it broke he could not tell. Soon they were running at full speed; the wagon soon hit something solid and he was thrown so high that a woman living on a ranch half a mile away saw him flying through the air and got to him as quickly as she could expecting to find him dead or dying. She was very surprised to find he had staggered to his feet and was trying to get to the mules. They ran some distance, then straddled a tree which stopped them. The harness was in so many pieces he gathered it up in a sack. The wagon was not broken so he borrowed a harness from a nearby rancher to get home with. He had a great welt on his forehead, one on the back of his head and was black and blue and bruised almost all over his body. At first we did not realize he was hurt internally, but from then on he went about in a rather stooped manner, though he naturally was straight and tall.
For a few days he rested. Then he became restless and was determined to go to the ranch. When we could not dissuade him, Ben took his outfit and went with him to do all the work loading. By the time night came he could hardly get to the house and soon took with severe pain and voilent vomiting. It was a terrible night for both of them. The nearest help was three miles away, nothing to doctor him with but heat. Ben built a roaring fire in the big fireplace and all night long applied hot packs expecting any moment to see his father pass away. He wanted to go for help but his father begged him to wait until morning. When dawn came Joseph seemed a little easier. When they arrived at the ranch, they had turned the horses out in the pasture so Ben ran most of those three miles to the nearest ranch so fearful was he that his father might die there alone. Here he found a friend with a car who went back with him. When they got back Joseph was resting easier and was able to walk to the car and they brought him home.
I had worried every moment of the time they were away and when the car drove up I was not surprised. He got out of the car and walked into the house without help, but he gradually grew weaker though he walked about until a few hours before his death. The nearest doctor was twenty miles away, but when he arrived and examined our dear one he said his body was filled with inflammation and there was nothing we could do but ease his pain with deadener, which we did. He said to the doctor, “How good it is to be free from that terrible pain.” The Elders came and administered to him and I worked over him every hour doing everything in my power to ease and comfort him. He said to me, “This time I have to go,” and I knew it too, but could not let him know that I knew it. Three years before when he was so ill so long I knew if we did our part the Lord would heal him but “this time”, as he would say, I knew he had to go. Always before when loved ones had died, I had thought, “Oh, if we had only done this or that they might have lived.” This time I had none of those regrets for I knew nothing we could do would have hindered his going. The call for him had come!
We had wired our two who were away of his serious condition, but almost before it reached them we must wire them he had left us. He lived eleven days after the accident, but only three after coming from the ranch. He left us at 1 o’clock in the morning Saturday, the 16th of November, 1929. Such sad, sad word to send to our two absent children. They arrived Sunday, Beth and Byron from Manti, Utah and John and Leona from Flagstaff.
The funeral was held Monday at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Although it was a week day friends came from far and near; some from every ward in the Stake. The Stake House was filled and many were sitting on the stairs leading to the galleries. After the selected speakers had spoken, twenty minutes were allowed for sentiments and every moment was taken. Sometimes two or more on their feet at once. His brother David said he he’d known for some weeks that one of the sons was needed on the “other side”, and now that Joseph had been called he realized that he was the best prepared to go of any of the family. Every relative we had in the Stake came, even dear Aunt Carrie so bent and feeble. How precious are relatives and dear friends at a time like this, yet we face our Gethsemanies alone. We laid him to rest in the Snowflake cemetery.
When all had returned to their homes - just the two children and I left, how empty was our house and our hearts. Just at dusk, his usual time for arriving from the ranch, we found ourselves listening for the rattle of his wagon and his cheerful voice. One evening sure enough we heard the rattle of a wagon and instinctively we all started for the door. Before we reached it we realized those were sounds we would never hear again and with our arms around each other we sobbed out our grief together. Nineteen years have passed since that sad time and we have found consolation in consoling and assisting others and serving in the Master’s great cause.
Lynn and Virginia both graduated from the Union High School and all three of us graduated from the church Seminary. I attended Seminary with the children and graduated when Virginia did. Lynn married Afton Flake, a daughter of James M. and Martha (Mattie) Smith Flake. For ten years they made their home in California where Lynn attended mechanics school, then during World War II, he built airplanes at the North American factory. They lived for awhile in Hermosa Beach, then in Manhattan Beach. While here he served as Bishop of the Redondo Beach Ward for seven years. They now live in Farmington, New Mexico. They have five lovely children, three girls and two boys.
Virginia is still unmarried. She works away part of the time but is still my joy and comfort as she has always been. She graduated from the LDS business college in Salt Lake City, then was a secretary there for a year and a half. Beth and Byron have two children, a son and a daughter, and are now making their home in Mesa, Arizona. John and his wife Margaret live in Mexico City, Mexico and have a baby daughter.
I am alone now in this big house, but there are so many interesting things for me to do that I am often sad but never lonely. By work and persistence I have my Grandmother Louisa Barnes Pratt’s journal published for the benefit of her descendants, which has given me great joy and satisfaction. I still teach a class of 38 children in Sunday School. For six years I have been a missionary, being released and recalled twice. Many Indians are included in this mission and I spend a great deal of time assisting them.
My life is drawing to its close, and I pray that when the call comes for me, I will be worthy to meet my parents, my husband and children and many loved ones who have gone before me. There your Father and I will be watching for you—all our descendants. We will be interested in what you are doing and hoping that the time will soon come when we will all be united in the Celestial Kingdom of our Father in Heaven. This is the hope and prayer of your loving Mother.
