Phillipe Cardon was my great grandfather. He lived in the Pridamont Area of the Italian Alps. they migrated to the US in 1852. The reason they left Italy was because they at one time belonged to the old church. They were the Vadois people. The catholic church had been persucting these people for over a thousand years. They said join the Catholic Church or die. The Catholics would throw the babies up in the air and spear them, they would tie people up in balls and roll them down the steep mountains. Charlemagne decided to send his armies up to the mountains to convert them or kill them. The British General Cromwell told Charlemagne that he would go to war if they continued this persecution of the Vadois people. Charlemagne backed down and made a treaty to stop the persecution. The Vadois people were remnants of the original church Christ formed. They were hardy, rugged people who defended themselves for years. I will insert a complete history of these people.
I would like to tell the story of my family conversions. Lorenzo Snow, a mormon missionary was sent to Italy on a mission. He and his companion were having no luck in southern Italy. They went up on Mt. Brigham and prayed. The Lord told them to go to Northern Italy. Earlier my grandfather's sister who was Mary Magdeline (6 yrs) had a dream which she told to my great grandfather. She dreamt that she was a teenager sitting by her vineyard, keeping the cows out of the vineyard. She saw her father and two men coming toward her. They had a blue book with them and they told her they were bringing the word of God to them. About ten years later after the dream, Lorenzo Snow and his companion were in a neighboring village teaching the gospel. Word of those missionaries got to my great grandfather Cardon. It was about a days journey on foot to this village. He started out and met these missionaries and brought them home with him. When he got there, Mary Magdaline, who was then 16 years old was sitting by the vineyard tending it when they arrived. It was just like her dream. The missionaries taught them. They were converted and baptized. All but the oldest, married daughter left Italy to go to the US. They traveled by ship in New Orleans in 1852. They went across the plains with the Saints to Salt Lake City. Family members dispersed to Ogden, Logan and Idaho. My grandfather, Joseph Samuel Cardon, married two wives and was a polygamist in Utah. In 1890 when the Manifesto was declared against polygamy, the sheriffs raided the polygamist families. My grandfather and his family went to Mexico to keep his family together.
My grandmother Rhoda McClellan ended up in Mexico with her family. They said when she was born she was so small she would fit in a shoe box. Her father was in the Mormon Battallion with my grandfather Pace. When grandma was a baby they came across the plains to Utah. Her father was also a polygamist. Brigham Young sent them to Sunset, Arizona where the United Order was pracitced. It was not being successful there. In 1886 they went to Mexico. They were the first Mormon family to cross into Mexico. This is where Grandma Cardon (she was 18) met Grandpa Cardon. She became his third wife.
The Mormons started a town in Mexico. The church had bought some land for the Mormons who went to Mexico. After they had laid out canals, house, etc a Mexican Cabrone came up with about one hundred of his workers and told them to get off. That this was not the land that the church had bought. They found the right land was a hilly, rocky area with the only water was called Piedera Verde. It was a mossy rock with a little water seeping. They had an earthquake and the green mossy area became a flowing stream that served the whole town. The bishop said "The Lord works in mysterious ways." The town was called "Colonial Juarez". It became one of the best apple growing areas in Mexico. My family moved to Colonial Dublan. They were about 8 Mormon settlements in Mexico.
My mother, Genevive Cardon, was born in Colonial Dublan on August 10, 1902. She was one of Grandma Cardon's nine children. Grandpa Cardon died of typhoid fever. Grandma Cardon was a widow but she had a nice two story brick home.
There were political revolutionary times during this period. Pancho Villa was one of these. They got their food and supplies from the people in the towns. The Mormons had to walk a tight rope-not favoring either side, the Federals or the Revolutionaries. Pancho Villa hated gringos, but he respected the Mormons. He would take his armies around the Mormon towns. My grandmother made lunch for him and he paid her with a basketful of Mexican money that was worthless at the time.
In 1912 the revolution was becoming so dangerous that General Salizar came into Dublan and told them there was a vattle car that they could take to El Paso. Each family was allowed only one suitcase. My grandma got up that morning, made the beds and took her 9 children and one suitcase and got on the cattle car. The only dress Grandma had was the one she was wearing. Someone stepped on her dress and ripped it. They were dumped off in El Paso, Texas. They were told there were no jobs in El Paso, but there were jobs in Tuscan, Arizona. They went to Tuscan and lived in a tent. One day the tent caught fire and Grandma felt all hope was lost. They went back to El Paso and Uncle Lester, the oldest boy, a young teenager got a job and supported the family. The Cardon family became very successful in El Paso. They had street named for them. Grandma Cardon died in El Paso at nearly 100 years old. She used to tell me many stories of our past.
Uncle Bill and Uncle Earl, my mom's two older brothers went down into Mexico. They were involved in large farms and water businesses. In the 1930's one day a Mexican labore came to Uncle Bill and begged him for a job. Bill said it is off season now and I don't have much work for you. You can leave your family here while you look for a job and we will take care of them. The Mexican came back with the Federals and claimed that because he had worked there for a time and now he owned a part of their land. The farms etc. became tied up in courts for years and finally the Cardon's went back to El Paso. They were tired of trying to deal with the corrupt Mexican government.
Uncle Bill had a lumber yard in Juarez until 1952 when it mysteriously burned down.
One other tactic that the Mexican police tried to use to get rid of them was they drove up in the front of their house and let out a prisoner. He ran to their door and wanted to get in. They knew if they opened the door they would have been shot. It was a set up.
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