Family Story
as told by son Benjamin Echols

The tradition of the Echols family was that there were two brothers, Joshua and Benjamin who came from England previous to 1786 and settled in Virginia. Joshua, who was also the son of a Joshua met and married Nancy Brown. Soon after they moved to Franklin County, Georgia eight boys and three girls were born to them there. Joshua was a farmer, and I remember hearing my grandmother, Nancy, telling of her life on the farm, and the crude farming implements which were used in those days. The plow was made of a strong wooden beam with an iron bolted to the end as a point. Their hoes were wooden and the pitch forks were forked sticks.

Cotton and flax were raised and grandmother spun and wove all the cloth with which to clothe the family. She was quite clever at the spinning wheel as were also her daughters. The farm duties were taken care of by the boys, such as planting, plowing, looking after the livestock, etc.

On day my father met with an accident while helping a neighbor in handling some hogs and got his breast bone broke after which, his health was not good and grandmother had to assume complete responsibility of the family. Grandfather passed away in 1843. My father was then 9 years old.

When father was about 17 years old his mother, brothers and sisters moved into Arkansas. It proved to be a very unhealthy place and father was taken ill with chills and fever which afflicted him so badly that he never was as rugged afterwards as he should have been. After three years they returned to Georgia where my father, Lewis Barton Echols, met and married my mother, Emily Jane Weems.

To them were born twelve children. When the Civil War broke out father was forced into the army and mother had to assume the responsibility of maintaining the family. They were submitted to abject poverty and their condition became desperate. Father objected to thus leave his family and because of his reluctance, a mob gathered and threatened his life, and he barely escaped being shot down. His first army service was at Richmond, Virginia. While on their way to the battle front they were forced to dogtrot for three miles. This caused palpitation of the heart and by the time they arrived he was completely prostrated, but the brutal officer in charge told him that if he did not go into action he would be court-martialed. Just then the Doctor happened along, and ordered him to lie down in one of the shell holes and rest. The battle raged with bullets flying thick and fast, many of them coming within a few inches of him. As soon as he had rested sufficiently he went into the battle. The officer who had been so brutal to him and others was shot down by one of his own men.

Later in the day, after the worst was over, Father was sitting in a shell hole eating his lunch, when glancing down he discovered that he was sitting on a dead soldier partly buried. The ground was strewn with the bodies of the dead.

He passed through many experiences. It was during this period of war that many feuds started between families. On account of extreme poverty and suffering and lack of food, much pillage and plundering was carried on, which resulted in hard feelings between families and communities which lasted for years. When I was three years old father moved into an unsettled part of Georgia where he had to clear the land before building our house. It was a wooded section covered with yellow pine, swamp hickory, white oak, dogwood and other kinds of trees. We lived there fifteen years. Cleared about 100 acres of land, raised corn, oats, sweet potatoes, peanuts and all kinds of vegetables. Our main crop was cotton. We also raised live stock and poultry. Saturdays was usually our time for recreation which consisted of fishing and hunting. Deer and turkey were our game, also possum, rabbits, quails, etc. The fish were trout, perch, cat, silver sides and others.

I enjoyed hunting more than the other as I was a better marksman and often while they were waiting for the game to settle so they could shoot, I got my shot in ahead and brought down the game. My expert marksmanship was often the cause of boyish quarrels and disputes among us. One day we went squirrel hunting taking the dogs. We started out and soon spied a cute little squirrel running along the branch of a tree. My brothers aimed at it. The squirrel seemed to know that its life was endangered, began circling around the tree, all the time keeping its eye on the boys. I slipped around quietly and as it came into view shot it down. My brothers never forgave me for getting in ahead of them. I played many such tricks on them.

During my boyhood days on the farm we attended the Methodist Church. I attended more to meet my friends than to participate in the worship. When I was 19 years of age I first heard the Mormon doctrine preached. Two missionaries came into our neighborhood and held a meeting at a saw mill camp.

After listening to them discourse on the principles of the Gospel I became converted. Persecution began from that hour. A few accepted the truth gladly but the majority were hateful and bitter, so thereafter all meetings had to be held in private homes, principally in our home. In just a few days our home was the only place where it was safe to meet at all.

About a week after hearing the Gospel our entire family except the younger children were baptized.

All of my friends, the boys with whom I had associated for years, turned against me. Mobs were formed from time to time and our lives threatened. The Elders continued to make their headquarters at our home where they were protected. Whenever they came or went, it had to be at night when they could slip in or out without fear of being seen by watchful enemies. One day, the young man who had been my closest friend, my chum, came riding up to the gate. He asked if there were any Mormon elders in the house. I told him "yes." He then asked if they were going to spend the night and when I said they were he advised me to send them away immediately or we would be mobbed. I advised him to get away and take his mob with him. He left and reported what I had said.

They rallied around their leader adding more men to their ranks. In the meantime father called the family together and we held a council what was the best thing to do--fight or surrender. My oldest brother was in favor of submitting to the mob, to be whipped in the spirit of humility and martyrdom. I spoke up and said "no." I did not intend to be whipped like a dog; I intended to fight to the finish. My attitude seemed to find favor with father and the other boys so we decided that was what we would do. The second time the mob leader came he again threatened us; said we must surrender the Elders to be whipped and we had to leave the country immediately or else we would all be dragged out and whipped. I advised him to bring his wagon and team to haul off his dead, as I intended to kill as many as I could. He said "You would not kill your neighbor, would you? I answered "no, but you cease to be a neighbor when you come here to whip me. When you come with your mob you will be the first man to die. Your men may get me later, but at least a few of you will die first. Buckshot will be flying out from every hole in the house. He knew what I said was true. My reputation as an expert marksman stood me in good stead.

He then wished to compromise; asked how long we intended to remain there. I told him "at least six months." He talked and argued for quite awhile, then left. Thereafter we had to be very careful of every move we made. There was never a night we failed to sleep with our shot guns beside our pillows. The few neighbors who were favorably disposed to the gospel continued to meet at our house as often as circumstances would permit.

After we left there the elders stayed away from that locality for about a year; then returned and baptized some these neighbors. Sometime later my oldest brother visited there as a missionary and met much opposition, although there were no more mobbing to contend with.

The following March (1882) we prepared to leave our old home. Father sold the farm and took with us only our personal belongings. From Georgia we went to Chattanooga, Tennessee where we met the emigrant train in route to Manassa, Colorado. Five days later we arrived at our destination where we set to work making a new home. Manassa was the first Mormon settlement in that valley.

Land was cheap there at that time. We hauled poles and posts with which to build fences and lumber from the mountains to build our houses. Crops were planted and farm life began and Colorado was a wild, rough country at that time. The Vigilance Committee was still in force and shortly after our arrival the Civil Law became Effective. There were many outlaws although we had no trouble with them.

My parents and most of their children went to the Logan Temple in 1884 and received their blessings in the House of the Lord.

In 1886 I moved with my sister Amanda Nations and her husband to Arizona with teams and wagons. We were on the way three weeks. Geronimo and his band of warriors were out on their last big raid prior to his capture. It lasted 444 days and cost the whites 444 lives, or an average of one a day. This added to the hazards of our long, lonely journey. We arrived at Pima in the Gila Valley in safety.

I traded for a blacksmith shop in Pima and run it for six months, then traded it for a freight outfit and freighted as long as it was profitable, then bought improvements and a claim on a farm; also filed on a homestead and proved up on it. I bought wire and improved my farm, raised horses and freighted. When it paid, about every 2 years I would sell the old outfit and rig up a new one. In 1883 I married Georgianna Blair, daughter of my neighbor. Ceremony performed by Wm. D. Johnson, counsellor to R. (?) Layton, at Thatcher, Arizona July lst. Was later counselor to President Andrew Kimball. Ten children blessed our union as follows: Eva, Benjamin Jr., Mary Jane, Grace, Maud, Hazel, Lillian, Pearl, George Albert, and Joseph Marion (twins) and Bessie. I continued farming and freighting until the Railroad was built from Bowie to Geronimo in 1895.

Thomas J. Nations, my brother-in-law and I began work on the Model Canal in New Mexico in January 1894. We got others interested with us and built it to Franklin in the winter of 1895 and 1896. We had done a lot of canal and road work in Colorado and in the Safford or Gila Valley, as an overseer and had much experience.

I was a ward teacher in Graham County and first counselor to Bishop Peterson. My Brother Samuel was the first Bishop of Franklin and I was his first counselor for one year. Came back to Graham and was in the high council of Saint Joseph Stake. In filling these positions I had much pleasure and gained much experience.

I began school at the Stake Academy when I was thirty six years old but my health failed me before the year was finished so had to stop. Health remained poor for five years. I rented out the farm and bought a herd of fine angora goats in partnership with my brother Martin. Kept them for three years. Was water master two years on the Layton town canal. Had prospered financially as also spiritually during those years. We moved by team to old Mexico in 1904. Went first to Morelos, later Oaxaca where we resided for one year. I sold and delivered fruit trees to the Mormon colonies as also to the residents along the Bivispi and Sonora rivers. I went into the cattle business quite extensively and traded a farm in Thatcher for cattle.

In about two years time I sold about seven hundred head, then quit the business and moved to Colonia Juarez. The following spring I built a home in Dublan. Here I helped to make the Big Lake Canal and laterals at a cost of $100,000.00. Was foreman of the job and worked out about $20,000 of that amount. I was successor to Joseph Cardon, who helped start the work, but soon afterwards died. This canal covered a beautiful piece of land. I owned abut 400 acres. Had 3,000 acres of pasture land and 200 head of cattle; also a grading outfit, and was building railroad when the revolution started.

We had to leave it all, including our good home and the savings of almost a lifetime representing about $40,000. We have been hoping and trying to get some pay from it through the Mexican Government but governments are slow and especially the government of the "Mahana."

I was in the Juarez Stake High Council and enjoyed my labors there with those good men. President Ivins was a great help to that Stake, financially as well as spiritually and helped greatly to build up the country. Was a personal friend of President Diaz, whom I consider the greatest man that Mexico has ever produced. Our part of the country was fast becoming devastated by soldiers and marauding bands who helped themselves to what ever they wanted, and even the lives of the American residents there were considered unsafe, so we moved back to the United States of America in 1911.

I bought a herd of goats and worked with them for one year, then traded them for farm land under an unfinished canal, taking charge of canal work until it was finished. Owned a big tract of land which I cleared and fenced, but the canal servicing it was an extension canal with second water right.

I would have been called to go on a mission in middle age if I had not lost my health. In 1920 the St. Joseph Stake was asking for volunteer missionaries. As I felt that my health was now good enough and my financial condition prosperous, I answered "ready," and was sent to the Mexico Mission in Texas. Labored there for four months and was transferred to Mexico City. Had charge of the mission in that land under President Rey L. Pratt who was President over the missions of Mexico with headquarters at El Paso, Texas. I had all single boys with me helping to rebuild the mission after the American Missionaries had been out of Mexico for eight years during the Revolution. So bad was the war that most of the branches had been broken up. We found five branches that were being cared for by Indian and Mexican elders. A few lost their lives and were killed for their religion, and the converts scattered. These we found and reorganized, also opened up new fields of labor.

Catholicism is the National religion and has been for generations, so other denominations find proselytizing difficult and slow work. But I enjoyed my mission and trust that some good results have followed and will continue to follow from the seeds of the Gospel thus sown.

After my release I returned home and to the farm life. Bought cattle, fed and butchered them and hauled them to Globe and Miami for about six years. We have lived in Mesa five years. (1934) Built a good home in which are several apartments to rent to transients who come to do temple work. We have done a lot of temple work and hired more done, paying them in fruit, hauling, lumber and some cash.

The last of our children married six years ago. We are now spending our time and money in gathering genealogy and doing temple work. We still have money coming to us from a farm we sold, and are getting along comfortably. Have a good car, so can go and come as we care to. Our neighbors are mostly elderly people and without cars, so we try to see that these dear old people get to meetings, conferences and so on, even if we have to make two trips to get them there and home again. ("In as much as ye have done it unto the least of these my little ones, ye have done it unto me.")  [Mesa, Arizona, June 3, 1934.---Ben Echols]

Told to Roger Echols on the 30th day of October 1951 by Benjamin Echols, son of Lewis Barton Echols

The Echols family lived on a farm near Rome, Georgia, Polk County. They had moved there from Tallapoosa County, Alabama. There was a Saw Mill close by. This was in the days when the church was being persecuted the worst in the south. An Elder had been killed a year or so before that. The Elders came into this little settlement and started holding meetings. Lewis Barton Echols, my father, had heard Elder Matthias F. Cowley preach. My brother Samuel and I attended a meeting held by William Packer and John W. Taylor. Elder Packer talked .first and bore his testimony. Then Elder Taylor spoke and bore his testimony. I was convinced and from that time on the Elders were welcome at our house. We invited them to come home with us and they accepted. My Father, Mother, sister Josephine, sister Amanda, brother Samuel, Martin, John, were all baptized and confirmed by Elder Packer and Elder Taylor about 1 November 1881. No sooner had we joined the Church than we were severely persecuted. The Elders were holding meetings at our house and we were protecting them. A mob formed and was going to run the Elders off and also us if we did not quit harboring them. They first sent a boy that I was acquainted with up to the house to find out if there were Elders there and what we were going to do about it. My Father talked to all of us boys and we decided that we would fight. We had plenty of guns and we had purchased three new shot guns in addition to what we had. They intended to run us off. I told the boy to go back and tell the mob that we had Elders there and that we were going to stay there and until we were good and ready to go and that I would kill the leader of the mob or the first one that came through the gate. The mob never did attack at any time and we stayed there until, we sold our place and belongings and we all moved to Manassa, Colorado with a group of other saints.

(Benjamin Echols was 19 years old when this took place. He is now 89 years old when telling me the story at Mesa, Arizona. Recorded by Roger Echols.)