Alec,
It's exciting that you are teaching some of our cousins! He is undoubtedly related to us through Jonathan Hoopes, jr, who had 6 sons. Here's a bit about him:
Jonathan Hoopes, Jr. and Mary Ann Baldwin's family were living near St. David by 1880 on the "Hill Ranch," having moved from Wyoming. Their 24 year old, "most eligible bachelor" son, George Arthur, fell in love with Charlotte Iris Curtis, whose parents, Joseph Nahum Curtis and Sarah Diantha Gardner, had migrated from Salem, Utah in 1877. Called by Brigham Young to move to Arizona, just before Brigham's death, Dode and Sadie Curtis, as they were known, owned a 160 acre ranch on the San Pedro River, six miles north of Tombstone. (When Tombstone is depicted during its heyday in western movies, we generally don't see the faithful Mormon farmers, like Dode and Sadie, who grew the beans and steaks the gunslingers ate-the whiskey came from Bisbee.)
Apostle Erastus Snow visited St. David and learned that the Saints who settled there wanted to return to Utah because the swampy land was infested with mosquitos, which caused disease. He counseled them that if they would remain faithful to their mission calls, the Lord would make their part of His vineyard more inhabitable. This He did in an unusual way during May 1887. Following a great earthquake, which caused the walls of the adobe school house to cave in while the Curtis children were outside at recess-none were hurt, the swamps dried up. There was no more malaria to plague the faithful Saints who "stuck it out."
Jonathan Hoopes, Jr., took his plural wife, Arthusa Elmer, to the St. George Temple during the fall of 1888 over the "Honeymoon Trail" and came back south to settle in Colonia Juarez, Mexico in 1889, to escape federal marshals looking for "Mormon Poligs." However, Jonathan had moved his family from Mexico to Thatcher on the Gila River by 1892, after which he and Arthusa had 6 more children. Here Jonathan, born in Ohio to Quaker-turned-Mormon parents, lived the rest of his life, died and is buried. His first wife, Mary Ann Baldwin, grand daughter of the Prophet Joseph's dear friend, Caleb Baldwin, (who was imprisoned with Joseph at Liberty Jail) also died and is buried at the Thatcher Cemetery. Mormons founded other towns along the Gila River called Eden, Smithville (later named Pima), and Hubbard. (from "Mormon Coloniztion of Arizona" at www. Angelfire.com/ne/hoopesgenealogy)
Jonathan had 6 sons by Mary Ann Baldwin of whom one was Bert, your great, great grandfather.
We are wonderfully blessed to have you serving in Arizona where so much was sacrifice by our ancestors for the Gospel.
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Dad
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