Category: Colonia LeBaron

Return to LeBaron: Day 3

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Monday May 1, 2017

We woke up early to head home today. On our first day in LeBaron we had done a quick drive-by of the house that daddy and I had built within the first year that we lived in LeBaron, but we hadn’t taken pictures, so we decided to make a quick stop and get out for pictures this time.

Street to home Daddy and I built

My daughter in law insisted that we go knock on the door to ask about wandering the place.

Here it is!

As a child of 12 years old, I helped build this place. It was one of the first concrete homes in LeBaron.

View from our front window. Across the street lived Ervil LeBarons wife Anna Maes house.

This is the well that I helped Daddy dig and dropped a bucket of cement on him in which I thought I had killed him.

The people that live there now was so friendly they let us go in and gave us a tour of the place.

Kitchen/ main living area

 

Daddy and Mothers Bedroom

 

Room all the kids shared

Nannettes portion of the house

Nanette, Daddys 3rd wifes area

The people living in the house now were so friendly and willing to talk to us and told us what they had done to make changes. It helped refresh my mind. The grandpa here was on site when Joel LeBaron the prophet of the church was killed. He told us stories and we stayed for hours. The little ones were fascinated with all the picture taking so we took a picture of all of us. Myself, the first family to live here and the last/ current family that lives there.

Needless to say our early rising to get home early didn’t pan out because we spent most the day visiting these delightful people. It was all worth it! To top our trip off Terry Lainey showed up right as we were leaving. Terry and Dale Lainey were brothers that family was close to ours wherever we moved. They were a constant in my life and always there for me. Little brothers that I treasure their friendship and hadn’t seen them since I had left.

Check out the other days in LeBaron

Fifty Years Gone By 

Day 1

Day 2

 

Returning to LeBaron: Day 2

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Day 2: April 30th 2017:

My first child Felipe, was born on this corner lot. The original house burnt to the ground and now been rebuilt but this was the spot. It is much more modern than the house when he was born.
My sister took me to the mountain that enters into Colonia LeBaron. The mountain that as a kid I would escape to and  Lane Stubbs and I would pretend we were Queen and King of the castle because we thought the mountain looked like a castle. It was much smaller than I remember.
Our Castle
This is our castle view of Colonia LeBaron
 Our last visit of the day was my sisters place to meet my nieces and nephews. Some roads are still pretty rough here. As you can tell we had a tire issue. Tip: Always have a spare when driving in Mexico.
       
Look at the difference of scenery. We drove on this dirt road in these pictures above. This was a road that reminded me of the old Colonia LeBaron. After a  few minutes on this road until we rounded the bend to my sisters place. The picture below shows the huge difference!
My sister showed us her spa retreat she is building up here. I think she will be pretty successful with scenery like this. She also treated me to a nice foot rub and a delicious mango smoothy. What a great little sister!
We also visited with Harvey Stubbs and his wife. I was able to learn a few details for my book. It is interesting how you can live in the same place and have different perspectives. I really enjoyed my visit with some original Colonia LeBaron settlers.
After meeting up with the Stubbs and meeting my little nieces and nephews we continued to the last visit of the day, one of my friends. We were one of the few girls that had been my age in LeBaron at the time.
My sister was a great tour guide. I had so much fun spending time and getting to know her.
Recipe for her mango shake
Mangos, goats milk, pecans, honey
That’s all we got for the shake.  Most things are made with throwing in a little of this and a little of that.
To read more about this trip:

Returning to LeBaron: Day 1

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Day 1: April 28th, 2016

We met with some LeBaron brothers and were welcomed with open arms. We were shown their beautiful houses, wives (yes they still live polygamy), and their kids. They treated us to a delicious breakfast at the house and I was able to see their mother Lucy LeBaron, who was one of the first people I had met when we moved to LeBaron. Today she wasn’t doing so well so we had come in the nick of time for me to see her one last time. It was great to see her and her family, and once again we were welcomed with open arms. I have fond memories of Lucy.

I met a younger sister that I had only met once prior and she also welcomed me with open arms as if she knew me forever. Something about sharing the same father gave us an instant connection.
She gave us a tour of how the town has changed. Isn’t my sister beautiful? Also look at the view of her new farm. What a fantastic sight.
First, we visited the church, Joels church, The Church of the Firstborn the Fullness of Times.
  I helped build the old section of this building. This corner is part of it. I spent many hours stomping mud and straw to build the outer walls. 
This is Joel LeBaron– the founder of The Church of the First Born the Fullness of Times
Alma Dayer LeBaron was the father of the famous Joel and Ervil LeBaron was the founder of Colonia LeBaron they have this memorial in the corner of the church.
Inside the LeBaron church
Next, we stopped at Charlotte LeBaron’s house to visit. She was so excited to see us. She instantly pegged my boys as relatives. My oldest looking much like my Daddy and my younger son looks exactly like my ex-husband.
Charlotte signing some of her books for us.
 Charlotte LeBaron is the author of Mauds Story, The Lebaron story, The martyrdom of Joel F. LeBaron and many others. You can check out one of her many books to learn more about the LeBarons on Amazon.
We were able to spend some more time with Charlotte when she took us to lunch at a delicious little LeBaron Restaurant, one of the two restaurants in the town. We ran into others that I knew. It’s not often that new faces are in this little town so when we walked in a group of ladies were eating and they instantly recognized my boys as Tippetts and a Babbitt (my daddy and my ex-husband)
MarJean, Daughter in law- Karie, Charlotte LeBaron, Son-Larry Babbitt

It was so neat spending time with Charlotte. She is still just as happy and positive as ever.

 

The restaurant was delicious but it still is very rustic. The floors were dirt. Here is a worker splashing water on it to clean and keep from being too dusty. The bathroom was an outhouse. The food was the best!

 

My boys on what we believe to be their fathers land while married to his first wife Consuela Salido.

 We got a tour of LeBaron and later that night received free dinner as the hotel owner recognized the Babbitt boys and thought they had returned to fulfill a prophecy.
How does one describe the feeling of coming to a place that originally had so much fear and unknown? To a town, I helped pioneer. It was a rough life yet mingled with good memories and good people, and yet when I had left this town at the end it was with fear for my life. Sweet moments with fear. How does one describe this?
This visit was nothing but sweet! Day one ended with a peaceful feeling of reuniting with people I struggled with and have endured many life challenges together.
Read more about our trip