Sunday, March 16, 2014
Friday, March 14, 2014
Finding George
In a quest to discover more about George, contact was made
with Cherrie Naegle who still lives in Toquerville Utah where the Naegle family
had homesteaded. She has dedicated much of her life to gathering and preserving
the history of the family as well as the cities in the surrounding area. She started with publishing a history on John
C Naegle George’s father, and when I contacted her she was very willing to
share the following information and photos about this son George. Some of it we’d
already heard, but we were always hopeful that more details could be found.
George Conrad Naegle was born October 1, 1860 to John Conrad
Naegle and Rosanna Zimmerman in Lehi, Utah. A brother, Heber, was added to the
family in 1864 and his grandmother Julianna Zimmerman passed away in Lehi.
In 1864 his father, John Conrad Naegle was called to settle
in the “Dixie Mission” and in 1865 when George was four years old his father
moved Rosanna’s family to Beaver.
In Beaver “Father Naegle found pasture for his growing herds
of cattle and bands of horses, and an excellent garden spot to produce food for
the rapidly increasing family. But the
stay at Beaver was short-lived.[1] “The
family lived there two years then moved back to Lehi.”[2]
About this time his grandfather and namesake, George Gottlob
Zimmerman, passed away. It was in Lehi
that George was baptized by his father.
George “spent his early years there with a garden and
orchard to be looked after and animals to be cared for. No doubt he was often at Warren Spring Ranch
(or Hot Spring now Saratoga) where his father had most of his cattle and
horses.
As the large family of which he was a member was very strict
in religious observance, he had solid training in the principles of the Gospel,
but little, if any, formal education.
The father, busy with projects for developing the fast-growing empire of
Utah, apparently did not sense the need for it.
Another brother,
Reuben Jacob, was added to the family in 1869, and a sister Rosanna in 1872
while their father was in Germany serving a mission. George must have spent
time in Toquerville while his father was away as it is recorded he was ordained
a Deacon in the early 1870’s in Toquerville.
Shortly after his father, John Conrad Naegle, returned from
his mission in 1874, part of the family again lived in Beaver Utah, but his
mother, Rosanna, was in Lehi for the birth of his last brother, James Zimmerman
Naegle, in 1875. father was ranching on
the Buckskin Mountains prior to September 1869, and in 1874 George undoubtedly
participated in an “all night cattle drive from Corn Creek through Baker’s
Canyon into Dog Valley” and to the Buckskin Ranch, which was remembered by his brother
Heber.
His father John Conrad Naegle “ made all decisions for all
the family, did all the planning, controlled all activities. (Their home) was a strictly patriarchal home
and George Conrad, the oldest son, was his (father’s) right-hand lieutenant. ”
Following the birth of James his father moved his mother,
Rosanna, and his siblings to New Harmony.
John C. also had several wives living in Toquerville through these
years, Aunt Regula, Aunt Verena, Aunt Pauline and Aunt Rosalia.
George probably lived with one of them when
his father needed his help in Toquerville.
George recorded that “there was no distinction between the children of
different families. We always considered
and spoke of each other as brothers and sisters as though they were our very
own and felt as much at home in the other homes as in our own.” At any rate he
met Miss Sarah Higbee of Toquerville and it was there he was ordained an
Elder. Sarah was a daughter of John S.
Higbee and Anna Grander. The couple was
married in the St. George Temple February 18, 1880.
In July 1881 Sarah bore him a daughter, Rose Ann, but she
only lived a few days.
The responsibility of marriage “made him definitely aware of
his lack of education. George determined
to correct an embarrassing situation.
His father readily agreed and purchased a home in Provo where his
children might attend Brigham Young Academy.
George now highly motivated, covered the preparatory studies
in record time and, at the close of the term in 1882, left with credits in
bookkeeping, German and other courses, some taken under Karl G. Maeser.”
In October 1882 a son was born to the couple. He was given the name John Higbee Naegle after
both grandfathers. In 1884 George left
his wife and son to fill a mission in Germany.
He was ordained a Seventy by Francis M. Lyman April 7, 1884. He was well versed in German as his brother
James said it was the language used in their mother Rosanna’s home.
In May 1885 he was appointed to preside over the South
German Conference. In this capacity he
made a tour of all the branches of the Church in Germany and also paid a visit
to Denmark.
“He first labored in Switzerland and later in that part of
Germany where his father’s people had lived for generations, Albersweiler and
Liensweiler. He searched genealogical
records to gather information on the Naegle family line. Later work done by a bonded archivist at
Speyer Staatarchiv verified George Conrad’s work for accuracy to the last
detail. Scraps of letters to his father
at this date have interest:
n November 1885, I was called on a special mission to
Turkey to aid Elder Jacob Spari in opening a mission in Constantinople. We started for the Orient but at Genoa, Italy,
were interrupted by a letter, which called us back owing to cholera, which at
that time was raging in Greece.’
From a later letter:
‘We distributed tracts and ‘Articles of Faith,’ conversed with them all
(his relatives in Albersweiler) on the principles of the Gospel, but it remains
for the future to see if any will embrace it.
I have borne testimony to many and hope the seed sown will find some good
ground and bring forth fruit.
I have five companions, noble and praiseworthy young men,
viz: Elder F. M Lyman, Jr. of Provo and
Elder A. W. Musser of Salt Lake City.
The former is president of the South German Conference and the latter
and myself his co-laborers; but we do not enjoy each other’s company very much
as we are . . . in the Missionary field, I desire to be an instrument in His
hands in bringing souls to salvation.
We have some pretty warm times, especially in the Kingdom of
Bavaria from where Elders Smoot and Jennings were banished last June. I was sent there last July from Switzerland
and spent two months with the police at my heels, was summoned before the Chief
of Police twice and each time threatened with banishment, but I got over the
border into Wurttemberg and escaped being banished. That was in September last and in October Elder
F. M. Lyman, Jr. was banished from that Kingdom . . .’”
George C. returned to Utah in the summer of 1886 and in July
1886 married a second wife, Anna Fauth, who was born in Germany, the daughter
of Herr Fauth and Francisca Moore.
That same year George’s father, John C. Naegle, bought a home
in Kanab, forty miles from the Buckskin Mountains, where he had George and his
family live to be near their ranching interests.
George was ordained a High Priest December 16, 1887, by
Thomas Chamberlain and set apart to act as First Counselor to Bishop Lawrence
C. Mariger of the Kanab Ward. Other
positions held by him in Kanab were President of the Ward and Stake YMMIA, Home
Missionary, and Clerk of the Stake Board of Education.
About this time his wife Sabra was having serious mental
health problems owing to the loss of their first child and was committed to a
hospital in Provo, Utah.
In 1889 he decided to join his father in a move to Mexico
where they had already purchased a tract of land in the Sierra Madre Mountains
near Colonia Juarez. After a three
months’ trip they arrived in Colonia Pacheco and established their large herd
of cattle on the range nearby. In 1890 a baby girl, Georgeanna, was born to
George and Anna in Mexico. He was called
to act as Ward Clerk, President of Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Association,
a Home Missionary and an alternate member of the High Council in the Mexican
Mission.
It was there, in June, 1892, that his brother Hyrum was
killed by a large brown bear west of Pacheco.
“It was with the utmost danger to his own life that George killed the
bear and brought his fatally wounded brother to the settlement.
Soon after this sad event, his family suffered severely with
Typhoid Fever and his second wife Anna Fauth and his baby girl (Georgeanna) and
his only son (John) whose mother Sabra was at the time in Utah under doctor’s
care, died.
After the death of his boy, he went immediately to Utah to
wait upon his sick wife. While there he
was called on a special mission to Europe to preside over the Swiss and German
Mission. His wife Sabra, who had
recovered, accompanied him. They arrived
in Berne, Switzerland February 16, 1894 and in April following he took charge
of the mission. During this period he
traveled through the entire mission and also Scandinavia in company with
Apostle Anthon H. Lund and later President Rulon S. Wells both of whom presided
over the European Mission.
Sabra kept the mission home at Berne, and through her kindness
to the Elders and Saints generally she acquired the endearing title of
Missionary Mother.While he presided in Germany four brothers, Heber, Joseph,
Enoch and Casper joined him in the mission field. During their mission Margie Pope’s mother who was dying
trusted her baby to George and Sabra’s care to adopt and raise as their own.
George presided nearly three years during which time the
number of Elders laboring in Germany and Switzerland was increased from 40 to
82 missionaries, among whom were nine French speaking missionaries at the time
of his departure.
After a most successful mission, Elder George C. and Sister
Sabra Naegle returned to Salt Lake City in January 1897 and soon afterwards
continued the journey to his home in Mexico.
The following year, 1898 he removed from Pacheco to Colonia
Oaxaca, Sonora where once again he was called to fill a mission in the interest
of Mutual Improvement in the St. Joseph Stake, Arizona.
And this was just the beginning of what she shared. And the journey
continues as the more and more information is discovered. And as its discovered
we hope to post it here.
[1] A History of George Conrad Naegle
in the book “Stalwarts South of the Border” by his wife Philinda Keeler Naegle
[1] Autobiography of Heber Lehi Naegle,
George’s younger brother
[1] A History of George Conrad Naegle
in the book “Stalwarts South of the Border” by his wife Philinda Keeler
Naegle. Philinda
wondered why Grandfather Zimmerman, educated
in the universities of Germany in German, French, Latin and English, did not
leave his cobbler’s bench and hold classes
for the young of Lehi but he died when George was five years old.
[1] A History of George Conrad Naegle
in the book “Stalwarts South of the Border” by his wife Philinda Keeler Naegle
[1] Ibid.
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