Essentials
Born: 25 December 1883; Wilford (Heber), Navajo County, Arizona
Son of: Joseph Henry JAMES and Mary Eliza BLOOMFIELD
Married: Sarah Loraina NELSON, 3 October 1907; Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah
Died: 24 August 1910; Pacheco, Chihuahua, Mexico

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One-minute history

BY DARYL JAMES
FROM 'JAMES/HATCH ONE MINUTE HISTORIES' (1994)
     George Heber James (called Heber) was born Christmas Day 1883 in Heber, Navajo County, Ariz. His father, Joseph Henry James, had emigrated from Utah to Arizona about six years earlier and had lived the United Order in Sunset, Ariz., before coming to Heber.
     Heber was born into a polygamist family near the time persecution against the practice had reached its peak. His father had three wives by 1883 and nearly a dozen children. Heber's mother, Mary Eliza Bloomfield, was Joseph's second wife. From her Heber was the third of 14 children. Joseph's first wife, Elizabeth Salome Bloomfield, was Mary's older sister (and therefore Heber's aunt). The third wife was Orpha Emelia Rogers. Elizabeth bore 14 children and Orpha seven, giving Heber an eventual 13 brothers and sisters and 21 half brothers and sisters.
     Anti-polygamy laws in the United States around 1883 allowed enforcers to imprison, fine or disenfranchise polygamists. The Edmunds-Tucker bill in 1887 also empowered government to disincorporate the Church and seize its real estate holdings. Rather than face this type of opposition, Heber's father moved his three families in 1885 to the newly organized Mormon colonies in northern Mexico.
     The James clan moved to Old Town, Chihuahua, Mexico, and then to Colonia Dublan, Casas Grandes and finally to the Sierra Madre mountains in Hop Valley near Pacheco. Heber's father had 25 children by the time he reached Pacheco and decided it was time each wife had a home of her own. So, on the three banks of a river where it forked, Heber's father built a home for each wife.
     Heber was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mexico about five weeks after his eighth birthday, and he remained active in church functions all his life. As he grew older he met Sarah Loraina Nelson in Hop Valley; they attended parties, school and church together and soon decided to marry. Sarah's parents and grandparents had come to the colonies in 1887 to help settle the frontier, and Sarah had been born three years later in Cave Valley, Chihuahua, Mexico. When Heber and Sarah knew they loved each other enough for marriage, Sarah went by wagon to Casas Grandes and by train to El Paso, Texas, to buy material for her wedding dress. Then she and Heber went nearly 800 miles by train to Salt Lake City, Utah, where they married in the Salt Lake Temple Oct. 3, 1907. Heber was 23 and Sarah 17 at the time. After their marriage they went to San Bernar-dino, Calif., to visit Heber's half sister and brother, then back to El Paso, Casas Grandes and their home in Pacheco, which was just across the street from Sarah's parents' home. They also lived in Hop Valley and Temosachic.
     Heber farmed for a living and also worked at his father's sawmill in the mountains. In April 1908 a freak accident at the mill killed Heber's father, but his brothers continued operating the mill.
     On Dec. 6, 1908, Sarah Vinetta was born to Heber and Sarah with the aid of a midwife. Sarah soon became pregnant with a second child, but a month before its birth Heber became sick and died suddenly. Everyone said Heber's death was a result of typhoid fever, but Sarah always believed it was a ruptured appendix because Heber died so suddenly. ``That is what I couldn't understand,'' she said, ``why he had to die so young. His patriarchal blessing said he was to go on a mission, but my father explained that Heber was on a mission because he was just the type needed on the other side and that is why he had to go.''
     Heber died Aug. 23, 1910, at age 26. George Heber Jr. was born Sept. 24, 1910 -- again in the James home with just a midwife. Sarah left Mexico two years later when The Mexican Revolution of 1912 became too violent. She married two more times before dying Feb. 10, 1982, in Safford, Ariz, at age 91.

-- Sources: 1. Typed autobiography of Sarah Loraina NELSON (reprinted on Nelson Web page). 2. "Sarah Loraina NELSON Hales." Thatcher Stake History (On record at Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.)

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Sarah HOLYOAK
George Heber JAMES Jr. (living)
George Heber JAMES Sr.
Gerald Heber JAMES (living)
Joseph Henry JAMES
Joseph JAMES

CHILDREN WITH SARAH LORAINA NELSON