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David Alvin McClellan, Jr. (1890-1987)
(Autobiography)

 

The Theodore Turley Family Book, pp. 353-354

 

Second child and eldest son of David Alvin and Esther Turley McClellan, David was born in Colonia Juarez, Mexico on Nov. 27, 1890. There was nothing unusual about my childhood life that I know of.  My parents were poor and acquainted with the hardships of pioneer life.  They were both third-generation members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and staunch members of the Church, always active. They were the parents of nine girls and three boys.

When only a small boy the one game or pastime I remember was spool-horse ranching with my Uncle Isaac Turley. Of course he was the big rancher and had large herds of cattle and horses.  (Grandma made more quilts, emptying more spools than my mother did.)  A little later, the swimming-hole was a lot more attractive than that patch of weeds that didn’t know when to quit growing.  During my twelfth year my father was supervisor of the Deacons and I was constantly after him to let me attend Deacon’s meeting.  But I knew what his answer would be until he fooled me one time and said I could go that one time. 

Later, I was counselor in the Deacon’s Quorum and then in the Teacher’s Quorum.  I well remember the children's dances that we had under Apostle Teasdale’s supervision, and at least one Primary play: “The Gathering of All Nations.”  I started school a few months before six. I was “skipped” a time or two, then finishing one semester in the tenth grade and my schooldays just after turning eighteen.  After finishing the ninth grade I was out of school two years doing team-work of all kinds, including rock for foundations, sand and clay for mortar, lumber from the sawmills in the mountains, brick from the brickyard after I had worked to help make brick.  I also tended mason while Father did the foundation and bricklaying.  Then came the carpenter work.  That is where I began my life’s work of fifty-five years

As I write this (Dec. 1976) I think of those two years as very important ones of my life.  I learned to work and that hard work was no disgrace even though many people shun it–steer away from it. My physical development was very good. At eighteen I weighed one hundred seventy four pounds which has been my constant weight throughout my life.

In March 1909 I went with Father to get started on a fifty-acre farm that he had bought in Sonora, about ten miles north of Colonia Morelos.  The family stayed in Colonia Juarez for about a year before going to Sonora.  They lived in Morelos so the children could be in school.  I lived part of the time with Bradshaws and part of the time alone until I was married in March 1911 to Hortense Langford.  Farming was not too much of a success due to the uncertainty of conditions for which the Mexican Revolution was responsible.  During July and August of 1912 the four thousand or so LDS members of the eight Colonies were forced to leave Mexico for their personal safety.  Those three and a half years were very beneficial to me because of the many opportunities offered by living in a small church community. 

After leaving Mexico I took my family to Salt Lake City where we were sealed in the temple on Oct. 2, 1912.  In December 1912 we went back to Tucson.  Then six months later to Tempe, then Mesa, Chandler, and in late 1921 we moved to Los Angeles where we lived for twenty-five years.  It was then my wife and I separated and I went to Farmington, New Mexico where I lived for twenty-seven years.  I worked as a carpenter during my entire time in Los Angeles and Farmington.  My wife Zelma died in Febr. 1971 so I sold all my possessions in New Mexico and moved to Mesa where I now reside, arriving here on July 11, 1972.

[David died December 4, 1987.]