Moses Martin Sanders, Jr., was the son of Amanda Armstrong Fausett and Moses Martin Sanders Sr., pioneers of 1850. In later years he was described as a big man, weighing about 350 pounds but with small feet that could not support his weight, so that he traveled everywhere on horseback or on a horsedrawn buckboard.
In all he would merry 3 times and have 29 children. From 1885 to 1912 he was a successful rancher/farmer in one of the Mormon Mexican colonies, Colonia Diaz. The revolutionary army of Pancho Villa changed all of that for him when he was 59 years old, forcing him and his families back to the U.S. where he had to start all over again.
Early Life
Moses Martin Jr was born in the Salt Lake Valley, and at an early age his family moved to Fairview in the Sanpete County area. There he would court his first wife, Elizabeth Ellen Cheney when he was 19 years old. At age 26 he became a polygamous when he married his second wife, Lora Ann Amelia Starr (in 1879).
In 1880 Moses Martin and his families were living in Mineville, Kane County Utah.
In 1882, Moses moved to join his mother and brother living in Tonto Basin, Arizona in western Gila County. Also known as Punkin Center, it is today a small hamlet along State Route 188, just north of Roosevelt Lake.
Colonia Diaz
Map of Mormon Colonies in Mexico 1885-1912 - Credit Mapping Mormonism
He left Tonto Creek, Arizona, with wife and his two little daughters, aged three years and eight months, traveling in a light wagon for Old Mexico, arriving there April 1, 1885. At first the Mexican people refused to sell him land; but, they were allowed to pitch their tent on the land owned by a Mexican until a delegation of men had been sent to President Diaz regarding the purchase of property. In August, 1886, a townsite was surveyed, four miles from the Spanish town of La Ascencion, and at a meeting held Nov. 5, 1886, the townsite was named Colonia Diaz. The Casas Grande river ran between the two towns.
While there, in 1890, Moses Martin married his third wife, Lillian May Jackson, in 1901. She would bare him seven children, the last two after the exodus from Mexico.
Return to Arizona
Gravesite of Moses Martin Sanders Jr
When the Latter-day Saints left Colonia Diaz, his people came to Duncan, Arizona, where they made their home after leaving practically all of their possessions in the Mexican colony. Moses passed away March 23, 1926.
-Maude Sanders LaFrankie, his daughter
Marriages
Wives: Elizabeth Ellen Cheney, Lora Ann Amelia Starr and Lillian May Jackson. Altogether, Moses Junior had 29 children.
Marriage to Elizabeth Cheney
At age 19, Moses Jr, courted Elizabeth Ellen Cheney, daughter of Elam and Margaret Cheney, a prominent founding pioneer family of Fairview, Utah in Sanpete County. They were joined together in a civil marriage there on Nov 23, 1872. They later went to the Mormon Temple in St George to have their marriage sealed in 21-Feb-1878.
Their first child, their only daughter, was born stillborn in 1873. After that they had 11 healthy sons.
Marriage to Lora Ann Starr
Moses Martin received Lora Ann Amelia Starr, in plural marriage as his second wife in a ceremony at the St George Temple on 25 Mar 1879 at age 26.
Marriage to Lillian Jackson
Moses Martin married his third wife, Lillian May Jackson, on February 21, 1901 at Colonia Juarez, located a short ways south of their hometown at Colonia Dias. She bore him seven children. The first five were born in Diaz before the exodus: Brigham, February 23, 1902; Malcolm, June 10, 1904; Ezra, May 15, 1906; Leonard, May 20, 1907 and Alroy, June 16, 1910. The last two born in Hachita, New Mexico after their expulsion were: Mary, November 25, 1912 and Ellen, January 1, 1915.
While the families of his two other wives migrated back to Utah. Moses lived with Lillian and the family with his youngest children at Greenlee County, Arizona. Which is where he is at when he passed away.
