This picture was labeled "LaPriel[,] Owen LeBaron", but I do not know who they are. Andrew opined, "Owen LeBaron is perhaps the same one who later became a polygamist." Your thoughts?
UPDATE
Ellen gives us some background on Owen LeBaron and his wife in the comments.
Owen LaBaron was a brother to Art LaBaron who was Grandpa Stutz's roommate at BYU. LaPril was Owen's wife. And yes, Owen did become a polygamist and moved to Canada. Lapril left him and moved back to the States to live with her family. ... Grandma mentioned that she cared for their first baby.Thanks, Ellen! It looks like you and Andrew have good sources.
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Owen LaBaron was a brother to Art LaBaron who was Grandpa Stutz's roommate at BYU. LaPril was Owen's wife. And yes, Owen did become a polygamist and moved to Canada. Lapril left him and moved back to the States to live with her family.
ReplyDeleteOne more comment - Grandma mentioned that she cared for their first baby.
ReplyDeleteLapriel lived next door to me when my children were toddlers in Riverside, CA. She loved to tell stories about being a polygamist wife. I don't know how much of it was true but I can share what I was told.
ReplyDeleteShe said her first baby died one evening while she and Owen were out irrigating an apricot orchard. She could hear it cry but eventually it stopped. Of course, she was shocked when she went back and found the baby was dead. She wondered if it was SIDs.
She said Owen came home one day after visiting his cousin Ervil and informed her he had a revelation to take another wife. He moved his polygamist family to Mexico and went back to the states to work.
The two wives went through a lot down in the Mexican desert. No medicine for sick children. They delivered each others' babies. Lapriel felt that this was the most spiritual time of her life as a result of having to rely on Heavenly Father for survival. At one point, she died while giving birth and remembered hovering over the scene, watching her sisterwife cry. She felt relieved and disappointed when she heard someone say that it wasn't her time and she could feel her spirit re-enter her body.
Once the kids were sick and had developed horrible ear infections. Eardrums had ruptured and were draining. She was so mad that Owen had left them abandoned in Mexico away from any help. She said she prayed for the children to be healed, layed her hands on their heads and gave them each a blessing. But that made her decide no more.
Later, when she was told the only way she could be re-baptized back into the church was to denounce her polygamy time she claimed she told them she couldn't. That those years she felt she was the closest to God and her most spiritual. She knew God had cured her children and saved her life there was no way she could denounce it.
Owen took Lapriel, their children and children by his other wife for a visit to UT and when asked who the children belonged to, he didn't lie. All of the children were taken away and both Lapriel and Owen put into the state mental hospital. Owen was given a lobotomy and deported back to Alberta.
Eventually, Owen committed suicide. Lapriel went up to Canada to help the family with the home funeral. She spoke of the washing of the body, etc.
The stories were sad. She was very interesting. I'm glad she was a part of my life.
I'd love to hear more!
DeleteI just stumbled onto this blog, and found it extremely interesting, and thought I would share my perspective. Owen and Lapriel are my grandparents. I am the son of their first son, Larry, who lives with his wife, Bonnie, in Hurricane, Ut. They have nine children and are faithful members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. My dad came was put in foster care in Provo, UT after the kids were taken from Owen and Lapriel. The family were members of the church, though inactive and somewhat bullying to my dad. Having been mostly unschooled in Mexico, my dad was a 14 year old illiterate and had to fight his way through the seventh grade, on up through high school, being two years older than everyone else, and at least 5-6 years behind. What a start! He went on to graduate from high school, go on a mission to Central America, and received a degree from BYU, following which, he married my mom and eventually moved to Hurricane, where they built and established their home. They have made an incredible name for the LeBarons in this area. They've raised 9 faithful children (8 boys, 1 girl), and are living happily ever after. They are great examples to me and my now budding family. I have been married for 4 years, have a 1 and a half year old daughter, with another baby on the way.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, Lapriel is still living, and currently resides in Oregon. We will be going up to see her this summer and are looking forward to a pleasant visit.
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DeleteVery interesting to have stumbled upon this! Through ancestryDNA in a quest to find my bio father, I've discovered he is a son of Owen Lebaron and Gene Bronson. Yet, mysteriously nobody can figure out which son.
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