27 Oct 1869 – 20 Jan 1967
Wife of Joseph Samuel Cardon
She’s 94 Sunday
It’s Been Hard But Good
Life, Mrs. Cardon Says
By TOM BRYAN
Mrs. Rhoda Ann Cardon 1304 Raynolds St., who came from the original Mormon stock of Utah to first settle the wild Gila country of Southwestern New Mexico and then the fertile Casas Grandes area of northern Chihuahua, will celebrate her 94th birthday Sunday.
Mrs. Cardon, who has been a resident of El Paso 47 years, was born Oct. 27, 1869 in Payson, Utah, Her father, William Carrol McClellan, had been in the original party of Brigham Young’s followers who had arrived in the Salt Lake Valley of Utah in the spring of 1847.
Her father had left Illinois with the Mormons in the spring of 1846, but left the party to join the Mormon Brigade at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., and marched into Mexico during the Mexican-American War of 1846. He was sent to Santa Fe, N.M. on a sick detail and he was mustered out in Pueblo, Colo., in time to rejoin the Mormons and reach Salt Lake Valley two days after Brigham Young, Mrs. Cardon proudly says.
At the age of 94, Mrs. Cardon is an attractive, alert and healthy person who is active in the affairs of El Paso’s second ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. She helps in the genealogy or family history research of the congregation and spends much of her time writing letters to her many relatives.
After spending her childhood traveling about the country in oxen-driven wagons in the midst of Indian fighting and the constant threat of death, she gave birth to nine children and raised them in the revolution-torn state of Chihuahua after losing her husband.
Today her family numbers 163, including six living children, 35 grandchildren, 54 great-grandsons, 48 great-granddaughters and 20 great-great-grandchildren
EL PASO RESIDENTS
Her sons, Lester, J. Harold and William A. Sr., and a daughter, Mrs. F. M. Farnsworth, are residents of El Paso. She has two more daughters, Mrs. Doris Webb of Farmington, N.M. and Mrs. A. K. Farnsworth of Mesa, Ariz.
Mrs. Cardon came from a family of 12 children.
The McClellan family left the Salt Lake area in 1877 to pioneer and settle Northeastern Arizona. They reached what is now Winslow, Ariz. The Mormon settlers had named the settlement Sunset. Mrs. Cardon’s father established the first lumber mill in the area.
While in the Winslow area the family moved about establishing new settlements. They helped establish an Indian settlement at Forest Dale, Ariz. Later her father had to pay off the Apaches at Forest Dale with horses and cattle to keep them from slaughtering his family, she said.
The family’s move across the White Mountains of Eastern Arizona in 1883 to Pleasonton, N.M., which was on the Gila River north of Silver City in the wild Mogollon country, was one of the roughest experiences of her life, Mrs. Cardon said.
“When we left Springerville, Ariz., and went to the summit of the mountains to cross the mountains we came to a fork in the trail and my father did not know which trail to take. We went down the mountain in our oxen-driven wagons with the men making a road by cutting down trees as we went,” Mrs. Cardon said.
“It was a terrible trip. We had to cross a stream 50 times, and we broke up everything we had on the way.”
INDIAN TROUBLE
While in Pleasanton, the family underwent almost constant harassing from the Apaches. Geronimo and his band of renegades were in the area keeping the other Indians stirred up, she said.
Mrs. Cardon told of an incident when the Apaches killed several drivers of ore freight wagons at the Mogollon mines. The Apaches poured ore concentrates over the bodies to hide them.
On another occasion the Apache men in a settlement near the McClellan family home got drunk and started shooting up the countryside. She said the Apache women brought their papooses to hide them in the McClellan’s cellar, and went to another settlement to hide from their men.
In 1885 when Mrs. Cardon was 16 years old the family moved to the vicinity of Casas Grandes on the eastern slope of Sierra Madre Occidental in northwestern Chihuahua. The family was among the first of the Mormon settlers to go into the Casas Grandes region to develop its fertile lands by planting orchards and building irrigation canals from the Casas Grandes River.
Mrs. Cardon said her husband ramrodded the construction of a 40-foot wide canal from the river 10 miles to a series of natural lakes, so the flood waters could be stored for irrigation.
The McClellan family first went to Colonia Diaz and later to Colonia Juarez to settle. It was in Colonia Juarez that at the age of 19 she met and married Joseph S. Cardon in 1888. The Cardons moved to Colonia Dublan to buy a ranch and start raising their family.
HUSBAND DIED
After driving himself very hard in heat and water to build the irrigation canal, Joseph Cardon contracted typhoid fever and died in Sept. 1908, 20 days before the canal was completed.
Mrs. Cardon was left with her nine children to care for. The oldest was a 17-year-old daughter. Mrs. F. M. Farnsworth of El Paso was 15, and Lester Cardon of El Paso was the oldest boy at the age of 13.
The family eked out a fairly good living until the outbreak of hostilities in the Mexican Revolution.
The general Francisco Madero and Pancho Villa waged the first full-scale battle against the Federales within a few miles of the Cardon ranch.
They had had only one raid by the Tamochi Indians while in Mexico, but after the outbreak of the Revolution, the Revolucionarios were constantly harassing the Americans who had settled near Casas Grandes, she said.
Most of the Revolucionarios were good and reliable men, she said, but a few were renegades who would kill cattle and steal horses from the Americans. Occasionally they would range their cattle on the Mormons’ wheat fields, and would give the landowners “vales” which supposedly could be collected from the Mexican government when the Revolutionary Party took power.
Finally in 1912, the family’s land and all of its belongings were confiscated by the Revolutionary Party, so the family was forced to leave Mexico with a large exodus of Americans, she said.
The years from 1912-1935, when she was trying to care for and raise each of her nine children, were the hardest of her life, she declared.
The family first came to El Paso in July, 1912, but left in August for Tucson, Ariz. They spent the next four years in Tucson and Duncan, Ariz., before returning to El Paso to stay.
Mrs. Cardon said she enjoyed the hard life of her youth, because she was not only use to it, but it was a good and wholesome life.
Longevity, she explained, is a common trait in her family. Her mother lived to be 102, and one sister lived to be 101. She has living brothers 92 and 89.
Though caring for her family has been her major concern, since returning to the United States, she has contributed much of her time to the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. While in Duncan, Ariz. she was president of the Mormon’s Women’s Relief Society Organization for Greenlee County, Ariz. and southeastern New Mexico. She also worked with the Young Women’s Mutual Improvement Association of her church.
Her posterity has carried on the family tradition of being very active in their church, she said proudly.
Her son Lester is the Sunday school superintendent for all of the El Paso stake of the church which includes most of southern New Mexico, as well as El Paso County.
-Published in El Paso Times (El Paso, Texas), Sunday, October 27, 1963, page 9-C
Rites Set
For Pioneer
LDS Woman
Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m., Monday at Latter Day Saints Chapel, 3625 Douglas for Mrs. Rhoda M. Cardon, 97, 4640 La Luz, one of the Mormons to settle the boarder area. She died Friday.
She was a resident of El Paso for 55 years and a member of the original Morman stock of Utah who came to settle the Gila Country of Southwestern New Mexico and later the Casas Grandes area of western Chihuahua.
Mrs. Cardon was born in Person, Utah, on Oct. 27, 1869, and her father, William Carrol McClellan, had been in the original party of Brigham Young’s followers who had arrived in the Salt Lake Valley of Utah in the spring of 1847.
AMONG FIRST
Mrs. Cardon’s family was among the first to go into the Casas Grandes region to develop its fertile lands by planting orchards and building irrigation canals from the Casas Grandes River.
The McClellan family first went to Colonia Diaz and later to Colonia Juarez to settle. It was in Colonia Juarez that at the age of 19 she met and married Joseph S. Cardon in 1888. The Cardons moved to Colonia Dublan to buy a ranch and start raising their family.
The family first came to El Paso in July, 1912, but left in August for Tucson, Ariz. They spent the next four years in Tucson and Duncan, Ariz., before returning to El Paso to stay.
Mrs. Cardon’s husband died after he contracted typhoid fever in an effort to build an irrigation canal in Casas Grandes in 1908. She was left with nine children.
SERVED CHURCH
She had contributed much of her time to the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. While in Duncan, Ariz., she was president of the Mormon’s Women’s Relief Society Organization for Greenlee County, Ariz., and southeastern New Mexico. She also worked with the Young Women’s Mutual Improvement Association of her church.
Her survivors include two daughters, Mrs. Albert K. Farnsworth, Mesa Ariz., Mrs. Mable Webb, Farmington, N.M., three sons, Lester L. Cardon, William A. Cardon, J. Harold Cardon, all of El Paso, 35 grandchildren, 127 great-grandchildren, 26 great-great-grandchildren, and four great-great-great-grandchildren.
Bishop Willard H. Whipple, will conduct the services. Burial will be in Evergreen cemetery under the direction of Harding Orr & McDanial Montana Ave.
Pallbearers will be her grandsons.
-Published in El Paso Times (El Paso, Texas), Saturday, January 21, 1967, page 1-B
Funeral Rites
Monday For
Mrs. Cardon
Funeral services for Mrs. Rhoda M. Cardon, who died yesterday, will be held Monday at 10 a.m. in Latter Day Saints Chapel, 3625 Douglas avenue, Bishop Willard H. Whipple will officiate.
Mrs. Cardon was 97. She had been a resident of El Paso 55 years and lived at 4640 La Luz avenue. She was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, El Paso Ward.
Survivors include her daughters, Mrs. Albert K. Farnsworth, Mesa, Ariz., Mrs. Mable Webb, Farmington, N.M., her sons, Lester L. Cardon, William A. Cardon and J. Harold Cardon, all of El Paso, 35 grandchildren, 127 great grandchildren, 26 great-great-grandchildren and four great-great-great-grandchildren.
Interment will be in Evergreen Cemetery under the direction of Harding, Orr and McDaniel.
-Published in The El Paso Herald-Post, 21 Jan 1967, Saturday, page A-13
CARDON
Mrs. Rhoda M. Cardon, 97, of 4640 La Luz Ave., passed away Friday. Funeral services will be held Monday 10:00 a.m. in the LDS Chapel, 3625 Douglas Ave. with Bishop Willard H. Whipple officiating. Interment in Evergreen cemetery. Pallbearers will be grandsons. Arrangements by Harding Orr & McDaniel, Pershing Dr.
-Published in El Paso Times, Sunday, Jan. 22, 1967, page 1-E
-Published in El Paso Times, Monday, Jan. 23, 1967, page 5-B
EX-N.M. Resident Dies at Age 97
Funeral services will be held in El Paso Monday for Mrs. Rhoda McClellan Cardon, 97, who came by covered wagon from Salt Lake City to Catron County in 1887.
Mrs. Cardon died Friday in her El Paso home. She is survived by five children, 35 grandchildren, 127 great-grandchildren, 26 great-great-grandchildren and four great-great-great-grandchildren.
Mrs. Cardon was a frequent visitor to Albuquerque. Her granddaughter, Mrs. John S. Eilar, and three great-grand-children live here. Another granddaughter, Mrs. Robert A. Clark, lives in Los Alamos with Mrs. Cardon’s four great-grandchildren
-Published in the Albuquerque Journal, 22 Jan 1967, Sunday, page C-6
