James Henry Martineau in his later years.
James H. Martineau was born in the state of New York on March 13, 1828,
the son of John and Eliza Mears Martineau. The Martineaus were Huguenots who
had fled France in the 1680s, escaping religious persecution and settled in
the State of New York. His namesake grandfather had been a farmer near New
York City during the Revolution when the British occupied the city, and
Ethan Allen of Revolutionary fame was his mother’s great uncle. His father
John Martineau went to England in his late teens to study medicine, but
after returning to New York, took up the profession of civil engineer and
became noted in that field. His family suffered significant financial losses
in the Panic of 1837 which caused young James to have to work as a janitor
to help pay for his education. He studied at Monroe Academy at Elbridge,
N.Y., graduating at age sixteen with credit in English, Latin grammar,
chemistry, geology, philosophy, history and algebra. He worked as a clerk in
his uncle’s store for a short time, before deciding he wanted to become a
printer by trade. He secured employment with a newspaper learning the
various trades of a printer in the Finger Lakes area of central New York
State. With the commencement of the War with Mexico he attempted to enlist
in the armed services only to have his mother prevent this due to his being
under age. He moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to work for a newspaper as
compositor and running the printing press. Within a short time he enlisted
in the army and after some training, the Wisconsin group was detailed to
Newport Barracks in Kentucky, the rendezvous point for the northwestern
states. Except for a few months detached service as a recruiter at
Cleveland, Ohio, he remained at Newport Barracks serving as a drill sergeant
and clerk in the ordnance department until peace was declared. He was
mustered out of the service about the first of July 1848. While en route to
Milwaukee his mother passed away (his father had died ten years earlier).
After arriving there, he worked as a clerk in a large book store until the
spring of 1849. In the meantime he developed in his mind a grand adventure
to travel around the world in stages, first to the California gold fields
for a year, then to China, India, Persia and Europe. An uncle tried every
inducement to dissuade this notion often reciting the old proverb: "a
rolling stone gathers no moss." James countered that he wanted his moss
rubbed off and he was going.
The twenty-one-year-old Martineau traveled to the western jumping off place
of St. Joseph, Missouri, but his six weeks journey caused him to be too late
to join an overland emigrating company that year. He remained in the area
teaching school near St. Joseph until the late spring of 1850. In the spring
he joined an overland company that left St. Joseph headed for California. Of
the thousand mile journey in which he said they traveled without seeing a
house he left just brief statements concerning three incidents. He believed
two of these were "narrow escapes from death." First, while possibly out
exploring by himself near the Sweetwater River he found himself on a high
narrow rocky ledge where his path was blocked and he had to use a small bush
growing in the rock to swing out and around the rocky obstacle with "an
abyss" of several hundred feet below him. The other close encounter came
while he was on foot and alone and came upon a large bull buffalo; although
he knew the danger of attempting to take the hard-to-kill animal by himself,
especially with no place of refuge at hand, he said he "could not resist the
opportunity." The other item of note was being told negative story after
story about the terrible Mormons and how they were guilty of all kinds of
wickedness. The group Martineau traveled with took the route through Salt
Lake City and arrived there on July 22, 1850, and according to him, they
"were all overjoyed," perhaps finding a speck of civilization in the western
wilds. When his traveling company resumed their journey, Martineau stayed
behind, having been impressed to stop there for a season and "study the
people for myself," and then go on to California the next spring. He quickly
learned that the bad reports concerning the Mormons were not true. He found
employment from a resident of Farmington, north of Salt Lake almost halfway
to Ogden, "doing all sorts of farm-work" during the remaining summer and
fall, at the same time beginning his inquiry into Mormonism. While here in
September of 1850 he rode with companies of militia to Ogden to thwart a
threatened attack, and then pursued marauding Indians with stolen horses and
other property as far north as the ford on Bear River before giving up the
chase.
His pursuit of the new religion was more successful; having being taught the
gospel, he was baptized in January of 1851 in Salt Lake City. In one of his
writings he dismissed his plans of going to California with the words: "But
I went no farther. . . ." Wherein ending his dream adventure of going around
the world, but opening another venture that lasted seven decades. Early on
he was given the priesthood and advancement came quickly as in February of
1851 he was ordained a Seventy, and assigned to be in a company going to
reinforce the first settlement in southern Utah established January 13,
1851. Thus began the first of three geographic phases to his life in the
West.
The Iron County or Parowan period began with Martineau’s selection to be
part of the second company sent to Parowan. They had to travel over two
hundred miles to Parowan, set up to serve the dual purpose to be a half-way
station between a Mormon outpost in southern California and their base at
Great Salt Lake Valley, and to produce agricultural products to support a
planned "iron mission" nearby where an earlier exploring party had found a
hill with rich iron ore (Iron Mountain). Before the reinforcement party
arrived, the provisional government, called the State of Deseret, organized
Iron County and a "city" of Parowan, which consisted of a small fort where
no one could safely leave without being well-armed and in the company of
others due to the Indians. The company with Martineau left Salt Lake in
March of 1851 and arrived weeks later in April at Parowan. Their town or
"city" was initially called "The City of the Little Salt Lake" but renamed
Parowan an Indian word meaning "evil water." There were adequate resources
of water and timber for the farming settlement, and upon arrival Martineau
was granted land in the community and some farming land where he almost
never said anything about his farming. Through the remainder of 1851 he
spent much time exploring the area and countering the Indians’ threats. The
latter were sufficient to post a guard at the Parowan fort every night for
the first three years, plus a picket guard was posted on a hill with a
commanding view a mile away. Martineau joined the revived Nauvoo Legion as a
sergeant major in his district and quickly became an officer and finally
became the adjutant of the Iron Military District, taking in all the area
south of Fillmore. Besides responding to Indian threats and chasing after
Indians with stolen stock, the military companies paraded and drilled every
two weeks and kept on high alert constantly ready for any threat knowing
their nearest help was 200 miles away. Martineau served as a military
instructor and frequently drilled the companies and battalions in the
legion.
He recalled once that "In civil affairs I have always been busy." It started
at Parowan after the Territory of Utah was created and the first elections
were held in September of 1851 and Martineau was selected to be the clerk of
the elections. Two months later on November 17, 1851, he was elected city
recorder for Parowan and appointed to be the county clerk. In addition he
served as city councilor and alderman as well as surveyor and sheriff. In
the fall of 1851 he taught school. He married his first wife, Susan Ellen
Johnson, at Parowan January 8, 1852, and they had a large family. In
accordance with Mormon belief at that time he took a second wife, Susan
Julia Sherman (a cousin of his first wife), in 1857 and had more children.
In church matters he was equally engaged becoming a tithing clerk and in
September of 1852 a counselor in the bishopric and "Church Recorder." In
March of 1853 he with nine others organized a mutual improvement society in
Parowan, and he was appointed one of the school examiners.
In the meantime the situation with the Indians remained a primary concern
with many alarms from the Ute Indians in 1852 and 1853. During this time the
Utes stole much stock with the legion frequently deployed chasing Indians
with stolen animals with only a small portion ever recovered. Martineau
estimated that one-third of his time was spent in military service against
the Utes who were "a great burden." To obtain needed wood individuals had to
wait until a party of twelve or fifteen men could go together, half serving
as guard while the other loaded their wagons and in their return to town,
some drove the wagons as the others served as front and rear guards.
According to Martineau, "Men always slept with loaded rifles at hand, and
also carried them to the Sunday meetings, each man with his gun between his
knees." Even with such care on April 10, 1853, about seven miles outside of
Parowan, Martineau and twelve other men were taken prisoners by Ute Chief
Walker with around 400 warriors. For a time with the Indians’ rifles cocked
and leveled at the whites’ heads, it appeared that death was certain.
However, with a "little strategy"—not detailed—the white prisoners got away
from the "crowd" of Utes and "made a very exciting race back to Parowan"
safely with great appreciation for good horses. In late July the settlers at
Parowan received news that troubles with the Indians produced killings with
much loss of stock to the Mormon settlers at Payson near Utah Lake. Word was
received from Governor Brigham Young to fortify themselves and to always be
armed, and for small settlements and isolated farms to be abandoned. At
Parowan the settlers decided to build a more substantial wall six feet thick
and twelve feet high around the settlement. Martineau recorded—"I worked on
it all the season, to the amount of $600.00." He became the assessor and
collector of "Fortification District No. 1" embracing Parowan, in which he
assessed personal property in which a tax was imposed for the building of
the wall. He had to post a $15,000 bond for this position.
His wide ranging interests and activities included help in organizing a
dramatic association in April of 1854, and his painting the scenery for the
first performance to a paying audience, netting $6.75. He had an artisan
make him a bass viol which he thought was the first musical instrument made
in Utah. He used it in the choir of which he was the leader. In March of
1854 he was commissioned a notary public. In July of 1855 he began teaching
the Deseret alphabet, an abortive attempt to simplify the orthography and
reading of the English language by way of a Mormon phonetic alphabet, and of
which Martineau acknowledged he "was very proficient." In January of 1856
Martineau made a map of Utah for the territory’s delegate to Congress, J. M.
Bernhisel, for his use in Washington, D.C. In addition he made surveys,
doing the town plat for Parowan, Paragonah, Ft. Johnson and the first city
plat of Beaver. In March of 1856 he assisted Colonel W. H. Dame to survey
the line between Iron and Washington counties. In June of 1857 he was
appointed captain of topographical engineers in the Nauvoo Legion. In time
he became much noted as a surveyor.
On August 2, 1857, the settlers in southern Utah received the news that an
U.S. army was approaching Utah, with a host of Mormon fears as to their
intentions beyond deposing Governor Young. Colonel Dame reorganized the Iron
Military District comprising nine companies and appointed Martineau as
regimental adjutant. They began drilling constantly with Martineau as drill
master. Apostle George A. Smith came in early August after being appointed
general in command of southern Utah. On September 4, 1857, Martineau and
three men were dispatched on a scouting expedition into the mountains to the
east with an expectation that they could locate a detachment of U.S.
dragoons. They found no signs of an armed force approaching and returned
after an eight day patrol. Of this he wrote—"On my return I heard that
Indians had killed a company of emigrants at Mountain Meadows in revenge for
the death of six braves poisoned by the emigrants at Corn Creek some time
previously. Another company following the first applied to Col. Dame for
help and was furnished by him with five Mormon interpreters, to help them
through the Indian country, which they succeeded in doing, but with much
difficulty." Thus Martineau received the local story that soon became the
Church’s story of the fate of the Fancher company of over 120 persons that
cast a long dark shadow over southern Utah beyond the two decades later when
only one man was executed for the crime.
March 19, 1858, Amasa Lyman came to the area and became the new military
commander of the Iron Military District and found the troops under almost
constant drilling by Adjutant Martineau, with their anticipated foe being
United States troops. On April 13, 1858, Colonel William H. Dame, commander
of the militia in southern Utah and a bishop at Parowan, returned from Salt
Lake City with instructions from Brigham Young. The Church leader directed
the southern Saints to raise a company of between sixty to seventy men with
twenty wagons each pulled by four mules with seed, grain, tools, etc., "to
Penetrate the Desert in search for a resting place for the Saints," thinking
the Mormons would have to flee from Utah. Young’s directions included his
hope that they could find a desert location that would take eight days to
cross, yet he feared they would only find one that could be crossed in three
days. Young stressed the importance of this mission by stating it was the
fourth attempt, and if the one started from Parowan did not find such a
place, then Young himself would seek one when he arrived at that place. For
just over a week they were selecting mule teams fit for the desert and
fitting up wagons from the various settlements with rendezvous at Iron
Spring on April 23rd. Martineau picks up his account as follows: "April
23rd, 1858, I started exploring the desert with Col. Dame and a party of
sixty men. Our object was to find a place of refuge for the people of Utah,
who were to move south, and burn everything behind them. I left my house,
expecting never to see it again, but that my family, after burning it, would
meet me in the desert, but I did so cheerfully." The expedition went west
into the vast deserts of Nevada and experienced much suffering for lack of
water but never found a location that met Young’s criteria. According to
Martineau, who served as historian for the group plus made a map of the
areas covered, they "explored a large part" of present day Nevada with their
searching continuing to the last of July. In the meantime peace relations
were made between the Mormons and the federal authorities, and the army came
into Salt Lake City on June 26, 1858, and four days later the Saints were
told they could return to their homes. This news was carried to the desert
exploring party and they were released from their service and returned home.
Throughout this period Martineau held several Church and civic positions
which need to be at least mentioned. In March of 1855 he was elected as a
city councilor, and in May he was ordained a High Priest and made first
counselor to President J. C. L. Smith (John Calvin Lazelle Smith was the
acting presiding authority in the area until his death in December of 1855).
In December of 1856 he was elected clerk of the House of Representatives of
the Utah Territorial legislature. The first meeting convened on December 8th
at the capital at Fillmore some seventy miles to the north. The Legislature
passed a quick resolution to change the session to Salt Lake City and
adjourned. Martineau went on the Salt Lake City arriving on December 14th.
At the conclusion of the legislative session he started on the long return
journey to Parowan on January 19, 1857, traveling at times in two feet of
snow, arriving home nine days later. In April of 1857 he was unanimously
elected an alderman in Parowan. In August of 1858 he was elected the county
surveyor for Iron County and surveyed two areas the following month. In
January of 1859 he was again elected alderman and reappointed notary public.
In the latter part of 1859 he surveyed the enlarged town site of Parowan and
the town of Paragonah and made "additional surveys at Cedar City."
Martineau participated in the second Mormon investigation into the Mountain
Meadows Massacre held at Parowan in August of 1858, looking into complaints
against Colonel William H. Dame in regard to the massacre almost a year
earlier. Twenty-two men spent four days in this investigation and at the
conclusion issued a statement that: "We have carefully investigated the
complaints against President William H. Dame . . . . and that the complaints
presented before us are without foundation in truth." The signers included
two apostles, four men which history has concluded participated in the
carnage, three men who were military attendants to Colonel Dame in the Iron
County Brigade—James H. Martineau, Calvin C. Pendleton and Jesse N.
Smith—and at least ten of the other men belonged to the local high council
of the church. John D. Lee was not present at the investigation, and the
twenty-two men charged Lee with being at the massacre and being the person
chiefly responsible for it. However, this verdict could not dispel the dark
shadow of doubt and whispers concerning this local tragedy.
Martineau related that in early May of 1859 "a large force of infantry and
cavalry and Judge Cradlebaugh" passed through Parowan. This was actually two
different military forces as in April the U.S. Army’s First Dragoons under
the command of Brevet Major James H. Carleton were ordered from California
to Mountain Meadows in Utah Territory to bury the massacred victims. The
troops arrived in May and gathered the scattered remains of victims
initially placed in a gully and covered with a thin covering of earth with
many dug up by animals. The soldiers buried the recovered remains in a mass
grave and constructed a stone cairn over the grave and placed a large cross
with the inscription: "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." The
second force came about when Judge John Cradlebaugh, who had been assigned
to the southern judicial district, finished his first term of court held at
Provo with the belief that the Mormons would not indict other members of
their faith, decided to act in large part on his own. To carry this out the
judge accompanied by a small detachment of solders from Camp Floyd and a
deputy marshal traveled southward to visit the Mountain Meadows site and
surrounding settlements. En route he met Indian Agent Jacob Forney returning
from his investigation of the area along with fifteen or sixteen surviving
children from the massacre some twenty months earlier. Forney supplied the
judge with the names of many whites reported to be prominent in the affair
at the meadows; the judge issued warrants for almost forty men. Although his
name was not on the warrant list, Martineau wrote: "Quite a number, myself
included, went to the hills until the danger passed." The judge’s military
judicial activities soon ended when the military force was recalled by a
directive that the army’s services were to be invoked only to limited cases
when ordered by the governor; and Cradlebaugh was reassigned to a district
in what became western Nevada.
By 1860 James H. Martineau seemed well established in Iron County, and the
territorial legislature in January of 1860 re-appointed him to be the notary
public for the county. However, he had other plans and in his journal he
noted that in the fall of 1859 he "determined to remove to Salt Lake City."
He traded his Iron County land for property in the Salt Lake First, Sixth
and Thirteenth wards. As to his reasons for moving we can only speculate
that among them were personal desire for better opportunities for his
growing families, realizing the great hope of the Iron mission had not
succeeded, and perhaps a desire to get out from under the dark shadow of
Mountain Meadows in southern Utah. He with his families departed Parowan in
January and apparently traveled slowly and experienced a somewhat nervous
encampment with the Indians at Corn Creek in southeastern Millard County
that came off without difficulties. The Martineaus arrived in Salt Lake City
on May 5th followed by a deep snow with freezing temperatures. He wrote that
he cut and hauled wood from the west mountain during his short stay in the
city. The following month on June 5th the Martineaus were listed in the 1860
census for the 13th Ward in "Great Salt Lake City" with the head of
household, two wives and seven children. His occupation was listed as a
"farmer" with real estate of $800 and personal property valued at $500. Just
over six weeks later on July 19, 1860, the Martineaus moved. Leaving wife
Susan Ellen with her children at Manti visiting her relatives, James and
wife Susan Julia with their two children headed for Cache County to
beginning surveying lands "by desire of President B. Young." They traveled
north with a company of settlers and while en route learned of troubles with
the Indians at Smithfield wherein both whites and Indians died. Their
company reacted and traveled thereafter in military order to Providence
without trouble.
Martineau and his family remained at Providence for a few weeks while he
began making surveys in Cache County. He relocated his family to the county
seat at Logan where they would live for the next twenty-three years. He
established his "plantation" or home place on the lot north of the public
square. Here he constructed two homes facing south, the one of the west for
Susan Julia and the house on the east for Susan Ellen. In a January 12, 1861
letter to Susan Ellen still at Manti, James wrote and drew a sketch the
arrangement at Logan. The family in Logan was living in their own house, and
Susan Ellen’s house next door was still under construction. In back of the
houses was a stable, and in front of the residences was an eleven foot well.
To the west and across a street was the "Tithing Stack Yard," on the lot to
the east was the home of Brother Blair, who he came to Logan with. Logan was
at this time, a mile long and five-eighth of a mile wide with lots
containing one acre of land each. Perhaps most revealing in his letter to
Susan Ellen, although Logan as early in its establishment and things were
still primitive, still—"It is none of your two-penny Parowan operations—all
is on a larger scale." Within a short time Susan Ellen and children joined
the rest of the family at Logan.
In summarizing some of his life in Cache County he stated: ". . . when the
county was organized was appointed county clerk and elected county surveyor,
which last position I held for over twenty years. On January 19th, 1861, I
received appointment as notary public for Cache County. I spent some months
clerking for Farnsworth & Co.; afterwards for Thomas Box & Co. Also taught a
military school, and assisted some of the time in the Tithing Office." As he
did in southern Utah, he was involved in many activities at his new
location. He placed a long advertisement in the Deseret News at Salt Lake
City on August 29, 1860, stating that he was the Cache County surveyor and
would promptly attend to any business in this line. In addition he would buy
and sell real estate, furs, lumber, firearms, ammunition and "various other
notions." Beside this, he suggested that people seeking employment and
employers wanting workers should register with him or examine his listings.
A month later he advertised in the Salt Lake paper that he had established a
drug store at Logan with a long list of items he carried along with three
"&c." for good measure, as well as received eggs, lard and butter. The
"Cache Valley Drug Store" advertisements ran in the Salt Lake newspaper
weekly through the end of 1860. Much of this may well have been short time
or largely involved his wives and older children. He was engaged to a large
degree with the local militia most often called the "Minute Men," a name
apparently preferred over the old name of Nauvoo Legion which the non-Mormon
governors were trying to eliminate. As an officer in the militia he was
often engaged in training, drills and inspections besides the expeditions
after Indians with stolen property or threats against towns or stock. He
later recalled that during his first ten years in Cache County he "spent a
large proportion of time" in explorations, Indian expeditions and guard
duty; and in all he spent over twenty years as a "minute man"—which included
his service in Iron County and rose to the rank of colonel. For more
specifics on this aspect one should read his "Military History of Cache
County."
He mentioned some of his activities with little or no comment such as
helping form a dramatic association in Logan as well as being "engaged in
farming" and becoming the "U.S. deputy internal revenue collector." In
1861-1862 he participated in two Mormon exploring parties into Bear Lake
Valley with special interest at to possibilities for settlers and best
routes there. He recalled that in July of 1863, he "began photography,
learning from E. Covington." Possibly he bought his equipment from Edward
Covington of Ogden. Martineau took pictures for a period and then sold his
business to Davy Lewis, an English emigrant photographer, but he continued
photography as a hobby for many more years. Beginning while in Iron County
he wrote letters to the Deseret News, usually covering local happenings with
an occasional piece of poetry such as the one entitled "Truth" published in
the newspaper on December 8, 1858. He was active in civic matters serving as
a councilor and later an alderman from 1866 to 1880. In 1864 he was selected
as one of three men on a board of examiners to determine teacher
qualification for the twenty-three school districts in the county. During
all this he was a surveyor and within four years had made all the surveys
for all the established towns in Cache County and continued these surveys
when new settlements were formed. In addition he surveyed much public land,
located irrigation canals and in 1877 assisted in laying out the foundation
and grounds for the new temple at Logan. He served as U.S. deputy land and
mineral surveyor under three surveyor generals of the United States and made
a geodetic survey of central Nevada to Ogden, Utah for the Smithsonian
Institute. His survey work just within Cache County was extensive beginning
with the original fort surveys, expanding these efforts when towns relocated
and with the passage of the Townsite act of 1867 initiating another round of
surveys. This coupled with his drive to achieve accuracy in his own work and
in correcting previous misalignment in previous surveys by others and
missing township corner markers kept him more than busy. A recent scholarly
article on his survery work rightfully concluded: "But his survey work in
northern Utah is by far his most impressive."
In 1868 he assisted in locating a route for the Union Pacific Railroad on
the transcontinental line from Echo Canyon into Nevada. In 1869 he surveyed
the railroad route from Ogden south to Salt Lake City over which the Utah
Central Railroad would run.
In the 1870 census the head of the Martineau family in Logan was listed as a
"Civil Engineer" with real estate valued at $2,000 and personal property
valued at $1,000. The family consisted of the father, two wives and eleven
children and resided in the Logan 1st Ward. In the early 1870s he surveyed a
route for the narrow-gauged Utah Northern Railroad from Ogden into Cache
County and on to Franklin, Idaho. His survey route was accepted except where
he recommended that it pass through Bear River Canyon. But the railroad took
the cheap way over the mountain with steep grades and sweeping curves, only
to regret their decision and in 1889-1890 moved the tracks to Martineau’s
route. At Logan his second wife died and was buried in 1874. Six years later
the Martineau family on the 1880 census was composed of the father, a wife
and eleven children ranging in age from twenty-one to three-years of age.
The head of the family was listed as a fifty-two-year-old "surveyor."
In February of 1878 the city of Logan proposed construction of a water works
for use by humans. Martineau was asked to make a preliminary examination
with an estimate of the cost. When this was completed it was accepted, and
he was placed in charge of the water project as engineer. In February of
1879 together with his son Lyman along with Moses Thatcher and Williams
Jenning spent three months visiting in Washington, D.C., New York and other
eastern and Midwestern cities. The trip to New York was his first since
1849. With the establishment of a Logan newspaper there was a continuous
front page advertisement in each weekly issue along the line: "Jas. H.
Martineau / U.S. Deputy Mineral Surveyor and civil engineer / Logan, Cache
Co. Utah / Surveys for mining claims made for location or for obtaining
patents." The first known ad was on the front page of The Logan Leader on
October 9, 1879, and continued weekly until January 20, 1882. Then for two
months his business card was printed in the Logan newspaper through March
17, 1882. By that time he was no longer the county surveyor and was in the
process of relocating again. He made a three month tour into Mexico with
Apostles Erastus Snow and Moses Thatcher beginning in November of 1882
seeking another "refuge" for the Mormons being pushed hard by the government
on the polygamy issue. He made other trips into Arizona and Sonora, Mexico
in 1883 and 1884 where he and his family and many Utah Mormons were
considering moving to, but purchased no land as the prices were too high.
On September 5, 1883, the Logan paper, The Utah Journal, told its readers
about a recent visit to their offices of former resident James H. Martineau,
"who has been in Arizona since last spring." He brought from Arizona two
fine specimens of "round cactus" for his son Lyman and President William B.
Preston both of Logan. Most of the Martineaus were in southern Arizona but
the family head made a series of prolonged visits to Utah. In 1884 he was
called to be the second counselor in the newly organized St. Joseph Stake in
Arizona. He traveled extensively in southern Arizona visiting the various
Mormon settlements and surveying town sites again. In 1883 he surveyed the
Mormon settlement of St. David along with a large canal nearby. He also
surveyed the towns of Curtis, Graham, Pima, Thatcher, Solomonville, Duncan
and Thomas plus another large canal in Graham County. From southern Arizona,
usually St. David in Cochise County, he wrote a series of letters to the
Logan newspaper telling about his new home and its prospects. In 1885 he
wrote a general historical statement of the beginning of Mormon settlements
in southeastern Arizona entitled "Settlements in Arizona." "Having a great
desire to go to Mexico" to live he applied to Mormon President John Taylor
for release as counselor in the St. Joseph Stake Presidency. His request was
granted and in 1888, and he with most of his family moved to Colonia Juarez
in Chihuahua, Mexico. Here he made a fourth round of surveying, covering the
Mormon settlements of Colonia Juarez, Dublan and Chuichupa along with some
surveying for private enterprises, one of which covered 800 square miles of
mountain timberland in the Sierra Madre Range for a California Land Company.
In February of 1892 a group from the Chihuahuan colonies which included
James H. Martineau and some of his family moved westward beyond the Janos
River to found the Mormon colony of Oaxaca on the Bivispi River. In 1898
James H. Martineau was ordained a patriarch in the Mormon Church.
The Martineau family remained in Mexico into the 1900s and in 1903 James H.
Martineau made a long visit to Utah to see family living there and to pursue
genealogical and temple work for his ancestors. In 1908 he decided to move
permanently to Utah, leaving his wife and a son in charge in Mexico. Before
long his first wife Susan Ellen joined him in Utah, leaving their family in
Mexico to take care of the homes and property. This they did until 1912
when, according to Martineau, "all my family in Mexico, sixty in number were
forced to fly [or flee] to the United States for safety, abandoning almost
all they possessed, including homes, farms, orchards and live stock to
bandits called Mexican soldiers . . . . I lost all the savings of a life
time. . . . " due to the instability and chaos of the Mexican Revolution. In
the 1910 U.S. Census James H. Martineau was in Salt Lake City with his wife
living with son Lyman. The eighty-two year-old patriarch of the family
listed his occupation at the time as a "writer." In December of 1918 his
wife Susan Ellen died. Two years later in the Fourteenth Census of the
United States in 1920, the widower James H. Martineau was living with
another son, Charles F. and family, at Logan, Utah. Five months later on
June 24, 1921, the extraordinary and multi-faceted James H. Martineau died
at the age of ninety-three in Salt Lake City. A few days later he was buried
in the Logan Cemetery. At his funeral President Heber J. Grant eulogized
him. He had been in his western life, a pioneer, an explorer, a military,
church and civic leader along with being a writer, photographer, and above
all a surveyor—par excellence.
Larry D. Christiansen & Marcella Martineau Roe, Biographical Sketch of James
H. Martineau, © 2007. Note: Marcella Martineau Roe (2nd great granddaughter
of JHM)