Item Detail
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4155
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0
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0
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English
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Brief Sanctuary : The Mormon Colonies of Northern Mexico
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American West
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May 1967
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4
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4-11, 66-67
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In 1852 Mormon leader Brigham Young publicly proclaimed the doctrine of plural marriage. Effective Federal antipolygamy legislation was not written until 1874 and 1882. After losing the legal battles some went underground, but many looked for sanctuary elsewhere. As early as 1875 new sites for settlement were scouted in northern Chihuahua. In 1885, even before the church had purchased lands there, Mormon families crossed the border and encamped along Mexican streams. Arrangements made with the Mexican officials, they set out in systematic Mormon fashion to adapt themselves to the physical circumstances of their new homeland. Their towns, all named in honor of prominent men in their adopted land, became the breadbasket of Chihuahua and were pointed to as models for Mexicans to follow. Prospering under a favorable national regime, they were placed in a precarious position when revolutionist Francisco I. Madero headquartered his operations in northern Chihuahua on the doorstep of the Mormon colnies. Madero was compelled to live off the country when pressed by federal forces. For self protection the Mormon soon smuggled in high-powered rifles. The appearance of still another revolutionary group, incidents which approached the brink of disaster, and confiscation of Mormon supplies and arms forced the evacuation of the Mormons to Texas in 1912. Within a short time, however, many of the refugees filtered back to their Mexican homes and succeeded in riding out the storms of the revolution because it was their conviction that, in the long run, there was more opportunity for them there than in the United States. To them, Mexico was now more than just a haven for those with more than one wife.