Samuel Claridge

Samuel Claridge

Sex

Male

Birth

5 December 1828

Leighton Buzzard, Bedford, England

Christening

21 April 1831

Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, England

Death

11 September 1919

Thatcher, Graham, Arizona, United States

"Faith to Answer the Call," by Jeffrey R. Holland

This article in the July 2011 Ensign, taken from a regional stake conference broadcast address delivered at BYU, includes a wonderful story of Elizabeth Claridge McCune and her father Samuel Claridge. Relevant text repeated below: When the Call Comes The Hole-in-the-Rock expedition is only one of many examples of the dramatic determination and devotion of the early Saints to answer the call of their prophet when it came. Another example is the creation of and call to the Muddy Mission in present-day Nevada. As with so many early pioneer settlements, the Muddy promised a very hard life, and much soul-searching was done when the calls came to settle there. Some of those called in the 1860s certainly must have asked, “Of all places on the earth, why the Muddy?” Well, there actually were reasons. First of all, the American Civil War had given rise to the possibility of shipping commodities via the Colorado River. Second, when the war interrupted traditional sources for textiles, the Cotton Mission had been established in the cities of St. George and Washington not too many miles away. It was assumed that cotton for that mission could be grown in the Muddy region. Third, the Latter-day Saints felt strongly their obligation to work with the Native American tribes in the region, helping to feed them and hoping to educate them. But the region was nevertheless a lonely, barren wasteland. It seemed to have almost nothing to offer but heat and hard work. It was isolated and for the most part desolate, and the river that gave the mission its identity was aptly named. As to how and with what faith and determination the Muddy was settled, I will let one of the settlers have her say. She represents the grit and spunk and moral conviction that both young and old had—in this case especially the young. Wrote Elizabeth Claridge McCune of her father’s call to settle the Muddy: “No place on earth seemed so precious to me at fifteen years of age as [the town of] dear old Nephi [in Utah’s Juab County]. How eagerly we looked forward to the periodical visits of President Brigham Young and his company! … “… Bro. Brigham, Bros. Kimball and Wells with [their] entire company got out of their carriages, and walked over the flowery road … to our homes, [where] dinner was prepared and served. … “We all attended the [Sunday] afternoon meeting, the girls in white having reserved seats in front. The sermons were grand, and we were happy until President Young announced that he had a few names to read of men who were to be called and voted in as missionaries to go and settle … the ‘Muddy.’ This almost stilled the beating of the hearts of all present. Many of our people had been called to go to settle the Dixie country—but the Muddy, so many miles farther south! and so much worse! oh! oh! I did not hear another name except ‘Samuel Claridge.’ Then how I sobbed and cried, regardless of the fact that the tears were spoiling [my] new white dress. The father of the girl who sat next to me was also called. Said my companion, ‘Why, what are you crying about? It doesn’t make me cry. I know my father won’t go.’ ‘Well, there is the difference,’ said I. ‘I know that my father will go and that nothing could prevent him, and I should not own him as a father if he would not go when he is called.’ Then I broke down sobbing again. … “As we had just moved into a new house and were fixed [so] comfortably, many of our friends tried to persuade father to keep his home and farm; to go south awhile and then come back. But father knew that this was not the kind of mission upon which he had been called. ‘I shall sell everything I own,’ said he, ‘and take my means to help build up another waste place in Zion.’” Full text available at https://www.lds.org/ensign/2011/07/faith-to-answer-the-call?lang=eng#

Samuel Claridge

Shortly before his death and while participating in the 1877 ceremonies dedicating the St. George Temple, President Brigham Young uttered these prophetic words...”My work is done!” And perhaps in his closing years and in the same general context, Samuel Claridge contemplated his life’s many achievements...foundations laid that helped to create the present town of Thatcher; a lifetime of diligent and faithful service to his beloved LDS Church; back-breaking work that transformed mesquite infested lands into fertile fields. And still another of his rich legacies to his fellowman are his many dead and living descendants who have so admirably contributed to Arizona’s advancement and our nation’s general welfare. Samuel was born 5 December 1828 in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, England to David Claridge & Elizabeth Pratt Hopkins. Young Samuel established a bakery business and married Charlotte Joy before the time he was handed an LDS tract entitled “The Remarkable Vision”. The reading of this literature, which was an account of Joseph Smith’s first prayer, was a first step towards Samuel’s conversion to the Mormon faith and a following step which witnessed the June 1853 departure of Samuel and his family to distant America, and Salt Lake City in particular. While in route to America, Samuel read “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” which made him especially interested in the southern terrain as he and his family and fellow immigrants traveled up the Mississippi to Keokuk, Iowa, opposite Nauvoo, Illinois. Here, after a five month period spent gathering cattle and outfitting wagons, the Claridges and other LDS converts commenced a grueling journey which ended 10 October 1853, their arrival in Salt Lake City. After receiving greetings from President Brigham Young, who spoke highly of the company and its captain - Samuel and his family settled for a time in Salt Lake City where the industrious young Englishman “worked on the canal on North Temple Street and, the big wall around Temple Square.” From this point and for the next 30 years Samuel played roles in the founding and development of Nephi, the “Muddy area and Long Valley, meanwhile new additions were made to the bourgeoning Claridge family. Samuel was called to go to Muddy, Moapa Valley, Lincoln County, Nevada and colonize it. He and some of his family lived there from 1868 until February 1871 when the Nevada Law prosecutions began. They then retreated to southern Utah to start again. The family located at Mount Carmel and remained there three years until Samuel Claridge joined the United Order at Orderville he being one of the founders. He was an officer, a leader, and supporting member for nearly ten years. During those years he went to England on a proselyting mission for the church, where he also spent time collecting his genealogy and visiting his family. The following time line helps to show where Samuel lived: Salt Lake Valley, 1853-1854; Nephi, 1850s-1860s; The Muddy, 1868-1871; Mount Carmel, Utah, 1871-1875; Orderville, 1875-1885; Gila Valley, Arizona Territory, 1885-1923 In Nephi Samuel met and married his second wife, Rebecca Hughes, on 1 July 1865 in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City. During the late 1870's word spread throughout Southern Utah about fertile lands in Arizona penetrated by the temperamental Gila River. Samuel accepted the call of the fabled land of Arizona - three related families: Claridges, Brinkerhoffs and Carpenters left their Utah homes on 17 October 1883 for Arizona. They traveled via Lee’s Ferry; the Little Colorado settlements; Fort Apache and over the old military road to Pima which was reached 29 November 1883. After spending a few days in the budding community of Pima, the heads of the three involved families reached the decision to purchase land on the northeastern outskirts of today’s Thatcher; Samuel’s version of this fateful decision appears below: “In five or six weeks we reached the Gila Valley the fore-part of October or November 1883. There were a number of families in Pima presided over by Bishop Rogers and after looking around we bought a ranch from an old Frenchman, 320 acres and gave him $1000 for his squatters claim. This was at Thatcher where three families lived on their ranches. This land was purchased one day before Christmas 1883. On the land was considerable grain, several stands of bees and a number of hogs, besides some old nearly worn out farm tools. They killed a hog that evening and had a genuine Christmas dinner next day. John Monroe Moody was ordained Bishop and great things were prophesied concerning Thatcher. Our land was divided and most of mine was covered with heavy mesquites which made plenty of work for me and my boys for many years. The following spring (22 January 1884) Bishop Moody died and shortly after, Samuel was ordained Bishop in 1884 with Erastus Snow Carpenter and Winfred F. Moody as his counselors. He was destined to serve with distinction at the post of Bishop for a period of 14 rewarding years. In March Rebecca and his daughter Nellie was born, another time long to be remembered. In the evening a tent eight feet square was set up, Sister Elizabeth Poole Moody was there and a fearful thunderstorm came up. Samuel had made a small place where they ate covered with willows. The little ones had to come in the tent and the three big boys stayed out in the shed. After this Samuel moved up on his building lot, put up mesquite posts and covered it around with carpet and other things until he could make adobes. They always had a place to look like home for his wife Rebecca would put up her pictures and other things and everything was kept neat and clean. The “old Frenchman” was Amos Perigo who was well remembered by members of the pioneer Edward Tuttle family and also by Samuel’s oldest son by Rebecca, Hyrum Claridge. Those who knew him especially remembered his afflicted nose believing he was possibly a victim of cancer. Stories have it that Perigo was murdered in southern Arizona shortly after making the land sale. As Bishop of the Thatcher Ward, Samuel played a leading role in the construction of a building that served the Thatcher area as a church house, school house, and meeting place. This adobe structure completed in 1887, once stood across the street and east of the present day Thatcher Circle K Store.  During the following years, Bishop Claridge presided over church affairs in Allred Hall and in Robinson Hall. After relinquishing his reins of office to Hans N. Chlarson in 1898, Samuel Claridge continued serving his beloved church as a Patriarch. He was always prideful of Thatcher’s steady growth which he nourished in various ways; he played leading roles in the founding and development of Eastern Arizona College and the erection of the magnificent Thatcher Ward Church which was dedicated in 1907. It was in 1890 that the Claridge family erected a beautiful two story brick building once located east of today’s Thatcher public school. Hyrum Claridge, his oldest son, was mainly responsible for this once Thatcher showplace. Before the time Samuel Claridge passed away on 11 September 1919, he had the satisfaction of knowing that his works were good, and in the manner of Brigham Young could rightfully say...”My work is finished!” He gave the account that he lived the life as a polygamist having two wives and 19 children, touching on the importance of a large family, unity, and cooperation.

Home in Thatcher , Arizona

Home in Thatcher, Arizona