Wild Celebration of St. Johns Day

The San Juan Fiestas have been celebrated annually on or near June 24th since the earliest days of St. Johns. The following story was reported in "The Pioneer Press," a local newspaper.

Harris at age 17, one year after this incident

There was a wild time in St. Johns on the day of the Mexican population's patron saint, San Juan, June 24, 1882, when Nat Greer and a band of Texas cowboys entered the Mexican town. The Greers had been unpopular with the Mexicans since they had marked a Mexican with an ear underslope, as cattle are marked, this after a charge that their victim had been found in the act of stealing a Greer colt. The fight that followed the Greer entry had nothing at its initiation to do with the Mormon settlers. Assaulted by the Mexican police and populace, eight of the band rode away and four were penned into an uncompleted adobe house. Jim Vaughn [one of the Greer cowhands] was killed and Harris Greer was wounded.... It was declared that several thousand shots had been fired, but there was a lull, in which the part of the peacemaker was taken up by "Father" Nathan C. Tenney, a pioneer of Woodruff and father of Ammon Tenney. He walked to the house and induced the Greers to surrender. The Sheriff, E.S. Stover, was summoned and was in the act of taking the men to jail when a shot was fired from a loft of the Barth house, where a number of Mexicans had established themselves. The bullet, possibly intended for a Greer, passed through the patriarch's head and neck, killing him instantly. The Greers were threatened with lynching, but were saved by the sheriff's determination. Their case was taken to Prescott and they escaped with light punishment.

[You can read a more complete version of the story (from the Greer point of view) in Errol G. Brown's book The Greer Family and a Look Into the Past available online through the catalog at FamilySearch.org. This story starts on page 42.]

memorial honoring Nathan Tenney,
who gave his life trying to save the Greer boys

Important Family Dates for June

Here are the dates that are important to the family in the month of June:

7th: Kate married Leroy Hall (this was her second marriage; she was divorced from Alvin Stradling)
21st: Nathan born
24th: St. Johns Day/San Juan Fiestas (a 2-3 day event held each year to celebrate the heritage of St. Johns with a barbecue, parade, dance, and other activities)

Remembering John Harris Greer

John Harris Greer died on May 10, 1926, at the age of 60 after a long bout with pneumonia. He is buried in the St. Johns Cemetery next to his beloved wife Orpha. His obituary gives a sense of the kind of man he was:

          "In the death of J. H. Greer we lose a highly respected man; a man of high moral standards; a man who was strictly honest and reliable in all his dealings with his fellowmen; a man in whose integrity and ability we had implicit faith and confidence, which he never violated as a citizen nor as a public official; a man who at all times spoke openly and fearlessly against corruption of any kind, and at all times took a leading part in public affairs and in the administration of the state and county. 

          Because of his honesty, his integrity, and general character, he has made the world a better place in which to live, and we who knew him best are better men and women because of our association with him."

Happy 150th Birthday, Orpha!

History of the John Harris & Orpha Elzetta Greer Family Organization

by Sylvia Clegg

To honor Harris and Orpha this year on their anniversary, I invited all of their descendants (I tried my best to reach as many of them as I could) to gather at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City on March 18th. At that meeting, I gave the following history of the family organization and projects associated with it:

29 March 1980-2005 The family organization for the descendants of John Harris & Orpha Elzetta Nicoll Greer was officially created on March 29, 1980. This was significant because it was on that date in 1885 that John Harris and Orpha were married in St Johns, Arizona. (It is also Orpha's birthday!) Each of the children were invited to have a representative at this meeting. Those in attendance were: Vermelle B. Cowley,  Florence Greer Crosby, Carma Crosby, Blanche Greer,  John Harris Greer, Leland C. Greer, Geneva Greer, Louise B. Hancock,  Cathleen G. Taylor, and Evelyn Whiting. These reunions were held every other year (odd years) and each sibling (or one of their descendants) took turns being in charge.

Some of the siblings in 1967 (from left to right): Kate, Margaret, Leland, Flossie, and Jim

1991 The Greer Family and a Look into the Past by Errol G. Brown (Myrtle's son) printed for 1992 the Greer Family Reunion--this book has been digitized and can be read online using this link:  

https://familysearch.org/search/catalog/1277293availability=Family%20History%20Library

2001 The Greer Trail by Laurie Jo Greer Rhoton (Leland's daughter)

2002 -2008 Greer Newsletter written and published biennially (every other year) by Laurie Jo Greer Rhoton (Leland's daughter) 

2013  The family blog greerfamilyconnection.blogspot.com was created by Barbara Ballantyne (Kate's granddaughter-in-law) as a place for the family to gather virtually when gathering together in person became too prohibitive.

18 March 2017  Greer cousins met at the Salt Lake Family History Library in the new Discovery Center for a high-tech, interactive family history experience.

Those in attendance (from left to right): Bill & Karen Gillespie (Myrtle), Craig Parker Crosby (Flossie),
Sylvia Crosby Clegg (Flossie), Laurie Jo Greer Rhoton (Leland), and Richard & Barbara Ballantyne (Kate).

Greetings to those who were not able to be with us but expressed the desire and appreciated the contact: LaBina Yorgensen (Bina); Dennis Tayrien & Jacque Tayrien Stapley (Nathan); Elaine Short, who recently celebrated her 88th birthday (in Kingman with her daughter Teri Short); Evelyn Whiting, who has been in the hospital in St. George under the watchful care of her granddaughter Rachel Bates (Tom); JD & Ada Greer in San Antonio (John); Billy Parks (Lillian); and Milton Greer (Nathan).

I enjoyed gathering with some of my Greer cousins! I am thankful to be a part of the wonderful family that has come from the marriage of John Harris and Orpha Elzetta Nicoll Greer. I really appreciate this blog where our ancestors come to life and their descendants connect! Please help with this blog by contributing photos and stories from your branches of the family. I love you all.