Joel Ricks was the youngest son and the next to the youngest child of a large family. His father, Joel, whom we honor today as the patriarch of a large posterity, was 54 when young Joel was born. His mother was Sarah Beriah Fiske Allen, the widow of Ezra Allen, who was murdered by Indians while on his way to Utah from California, after serving in the Mormon Battalion. Out of the kindness of his heart, Father Ricks had helped her cross the plains and given her a home with his family in the Salt Lake Valley. She later became the second wife of this good man. In all, Father Joel had nine sons and eight daughters of 17 children in all.

Joel was born July 21, 1858 at Farmington, Utah. One day a few years ago while I was driving him to Salt Lake on Highway 91, just south of Lagoon where the road tends to rise slightly he said in his blunt Ricks fashion, "Wait a minute. I was born right on this spot here in the middle of the road." We stopped and he looked around surveying the scene again. "Yes sir, " he said, "Right there is where the house stood in which I was born. Right in the middle of the road."

He was born just after the return from the move south, when Johnston's Army came into the valley. Father Ricks had settled his second family at Farmington, while his first family had their home in Centerville.

The very next year, 1859, the Ricks family moved to Cache Valley. Between the farm in Benson Ward the homes in Logan, Joel was kept busy as an errand boy for the elder brothers and a father concerned with the responsibilities of carving out a home in the wilderness. The "West Fields" near Logan was the community pasture for the cows and sheep. Joel was one of the herd boys. He and his friends would start down second north and with a horn they would blow the signal for the residents to bring out the cows to be taken to the pasture. At night on the return trip, the cows were distributed to their various owners to be milked.

In between herd responsibilities there was plenty of time to cook up boyish pranks and fun. Here is one incident. One day in the fall when the cattails were dry and fluffy, the boys laid a row of them across a bend in the river, below the Cache Country Fair Grounds. A group of Indians were camped near the present Willow Park, serenely passing the heat of the day. The cattails were laid end to end with a stake driven in the middle of the row. The boys made their bets that if each end was set afire at the same time which end would reach the middle stake first. The preliminaries prepared, the bets made, each bent on winning, the two ends were fired at the same time.

So intent were the boys on winning that they didn't notice that the whole bank on the river was on fire. A strong wind had come up and the first was headed straight for the Indian camp. The boys hadn't realized what they had done until it was too late. Joel says he never say an Indian camp disappear so fast in his life. Tepees came down, packs were made, ponies rounded up and the whole colony disappeared like magic. The next morning he went to see if there were any bones of dead horses or Indians laying around the camp. He truly expected to find them.

Bears, wolves and coyotes were troublesome in those early days and many hunts had to be organized by the settlers, but it is quite certain that many of the hair-raising stories that have come down to us, originated in the imaginative minds of the herd boys wandering trough the brush and swamps of the West Fields.

Part of his time was spent on the Benson Ward Farm helping his father manage the ferry across the river and other chores around the farm. However, his father, being past middle-life with the responsibilities of two families left Joel much of the time to seek his own diversions.

Boys of a pioneer society reached manhood much sooner than they do in our complicated society of today. Along with his growing up came the seriousness and readiness to take on the business of life. In his middle teens, Joel and his friends organized a group known as "The Young Peoples Testimony society." They met semi-monthly where they studied, sang, and prayed, but the bearing of testimony to the truth of the gospel was the central purpose. In this society besides Joel, were Ellen Ricks, Hyrum Ricks, Susette Cardon (whom he later married), the Martineaus, the Crocketss, and other prominent names in Cache Valley. Along with these serious activities went dances, parties, "May Walks," and other diversions. This organization like many others was similar to the M.I.A. which came later.

Joel was called to a mission when he was 17. He labored in the Central States. At 21 he married Susette Cardon, 19, daughter of Paul and Susanna Goudin Cardon. This good woman must be given credit for the major share of the responsibilities of providing for and raising a large family. She took in borders and did nursing while her husband was doing his outstanding work in the Book of Mormon. Susette was a member of the Young Peoples Society where very likely the attachment between them began. They were married while he was operating at Eagle Rock, now Idaho Falls, where they took their honeymoon on a hand car while he inspected the lines.

Joel was essentially a railroad man. He began in his teens to study telegraphy. Ellen had already mastered the art and was operating as a telegrapher at Mendon, Utah on the old Utah Northern Railroad. Joel records that he often relieved his sister at the key board where he increased his efficiency in his chosen work. Eventually she was moved to Hampton station near Collinston, and he took over the Mendon station. From here he transferred to Franklin, Oxford, Eagle Rock, Logan, Salt Lake City, Provo, Springville, Salina, Richfield, Castle Gate, and Bingham Canyon. During the construction of the Marysville live, he was right-of-way agent for the Denver and RioGrande. In most of the places, he operated a telegraph and was Station Agent also.

During World War I when help was hard to get, Joel went back to railroading at the Salt Lake City office of the Union pacific though he was nearly sixty and long past his railroading career.

Interspersed in his railroad work were other business ventures that he promoted. He managed the Old United Order store where all farm produce and general merchandise was handled. Dr. John A. Widtsoe was employed in this business as a clerk. Later he promoted the Ricks-Crandall Produce Company where a similar business was carried on. Later he became engaged with Melvin J. Ballard and Joseph E. Cardon in promoting the Knitting Industry in Ogden and Logan. In this he was engaged in various times as administrator and salesman. It was hard for Joel to "stay put" in any one business. He wanted to have his hand in all of them.

When the General Authorities asked the people to divide on politics, Joel was "assigned" to be a Republican. He took his politics as seriously as he had done his other activities and went into partisan politics heart and soul. He was "Mister Republican" of Cache Valley. If anybody voted any other ticket, he thought something was the matter with them. Many of his former good friends were ostracized from his friendship if they voted Democratic.

As election days drew near, Joel could be seen quietly moving about his precinct fixing political fences and amassing votes for the right--that is, Republican candidates. He knew how to pull political strings, who were the key parties to see in favors, and how to forecast polling results. If his precinct went Republican, even if the nation went Democratic, he was happy and came home with the victory smile on his face.

He even held few political positions himself. One of his early offices was the appointment as a Selectman to fill the vacancy of Charles O. Card. During the hectic days of forming a state government for Utah, he was the secretary to the Constitutional Convention and carried his full share of responsibility of that notable body. He had been appointed to that office from Sevier County, while working there on the railroad.

The following is a good example to show his love of politics and his great concern for the country. Three weeks before his death while he was disintegrating rapidly on his death bed, he demanded to be taken to the polls where he might cast his vote. He had to be literally carried from the car to the booth and back again. The old fire was in his eye. Shortly after, he passed into a coma and did not have to suffer the humiliation of seeing another Democratic victory. He cast his vote on November 2, 1944 and died on November 21, 1944.

From his earliest remembrance, the Book of Mormon was his first love. He read it until he almost knew it by heart. His general education in the sciences and arts was meager, but he had a good working knowledge of archeology and linguistics. If he had been trained in the methods and procedures of science, he would undoubtedly have been a world-renowned archeologist. As it was, however, he preceded in his own homely way and accomplished astounding results.

A scientist proceeds into the unknown with an open mind. He has an idea which he would like to find out but lets the facts determine his course. His investigations lead him on and on, not to a preconceived goal, but to a conclusion that the facts he discovers will justify. A scientist is just as happy to discover that a thing is wrong as to find it is right. If wrong, he can't follow that pattern again, if right he prods further and further into the unknown guided by the facts he discovers.

Joel had a unique method in his Book of Mormon Archeological investigations. His belief in the Book of Mormon was genuine. There were three fixed points: 1)The place of landing in Chili. 2)The narrow neck between two large land areas. 3)The Hill Cumorah in New York. He took his Book of Mormon and on a trail map located the rivers, cities, valleys, and other natural features in relation to each other. For instance, the Sidon river, according to the Book of Mormon ran from South to North. The city of Zarahemla was on this river. The Land of Nephi was south of Zarahemla above the head-water of the Sidon. With his trail map and his three fixed points, he then went over the maps of the world to find a place that matched his findings.

Since according to his conclusions, the Nephites landed in Chili and the narrow neck was the Isthmus of Panama, the Land of Zarahemla must be just south of the narrow neck in the northern corner of South America. Having worked the whole thing out in his own mind from maps, charts, etc., he tucked a Book of Mormon under his arm as a guide and set out to see the place he had determined. Accordingly in February 1903, he packed his valise and with a few hundred dollars in his pocket saved up from his railroading, he hopped on the train. He changed trains dozens of times and finally landed in New Orleans. He took passage on a boat sailing out into the Caribbean sea, past Cuba, Jamaica, and down the coast of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama to the Gulf of Darian and then along the South American coast to the mouth of the Magdelena River. All along the Central American coast he watched for possible landing places of an ancient people. He found none. The entire coast was mostly bog.

On the little wood burning steamer, he sailed south up the river to a little place called Honda, near the 5th parallel and debarked. Here was a beautiful valley nearly on the equator, 9000 feet above sea level. The climate was ideal--60-80 degrees the year around. No winter, no hot summer or fall, just perpetual springtime. He hired an Indian boy and a donkey and set out to explore this beautiful region. Up on high mountain ranges, he could see for hundreds of miles. Down in the deep river valley, he was able to study the evidences of ancient civilizations and on the plains he found ruined cities, roads, and monuments.

Here he found a river running from south to north, with ruins in various parts of a vast valley through which it ran, and with the Book of Mormon as his guide, he was able to locate what he thinks was Zarahemla, Manti, the Valley of Gideon, the land Bountiful near the narrow neck, and other evidences that supported his pre-conceived conclusions.

Four times Joel made trips to this land he was convinced was Zarahemla. Once he was sponsored by Dr. John A. Widtsoe and the Brigham Young College Archeological Society. He was thoroughly convinced that he was right. President Joseph F. Smith supported him and he has many followers today who follow his map in the study of the Book of Mormon.

In recent years a new theory has been advanced on Book of Mormon geography. Some think that the Nephite lands were in Central America and Southern Mexico, an area of about 500 miles in radius. The river Ulna is taken as the Sidon and the narrow neck is the Isthmus of Honduras. Joel was much irritated by this theory. He said it was unthinkable in view of the facts in the Book of Mormon. He has written thousands of words in tearing this new theory apart and in supporting his own. When a Ricks is convinced, he's convinced. If you try to cross him, he'll fight back. That's what got so many people mad at him in his various activities. his impatient desire to get at things and do something, sometimes made the rest of us a little jealous of his accomplishments. On the Book of Mormon alone, he as written the following works: 1. Helps In the Study of the Book of Mormon 2. Geography of the Book of Mormon 3. Nephites in Story 4. Whence Came the Mayas 5. Map of the land Zarahemla. In addition he has published numerous articles in the Era, The Desert News, The Logan Nation, The Logan Herald-Journal, and the Logan Republican.

During the time he was in business in Logan, Joel had access to many dealers lists of credit, rating associations and other lists of names from all over the United States. Many of these names were Ricks and Rix. As was his nature Joel became curious about his relatives and began a correspondence with various men in North Carolina and Virginia. More letters and more acquaintances developed until the book, History of the Ricks Family resulted. Although Joel was not the author, he did most of the work. A fine gentleman, Guy Scoby Rix of Concord, New Hampshire was the author and compiler.

For many years the genealogical urge in Joel lay dormant until his old age when he was employed by the Utah Genealogical Society to copy marriage bonds in the Virginia area. During the three years he served, he copied 150,000 bonds, a monumental work.

His wife, Susette, died on 2 January 1919. About a year later, Joel married Mary J. Sermet and retired to his small farm in Logan. Part of his farm was unimproved, and he spent much of his time cutting the cottonwood trees that covered it. He learned farming in the days of the pioneers. His methods on the Logan farm were about as ancient as the pioneers themselves. He resisted new methods in agriculture and still operated as an isolationist of the past. This, coupled with his employment by the Genealogical Society of Utah made him a comfortable living. He still retained his pioneer frugality and the independence he had inherited from his parents.

During his last days, he spent most of his time sitting at his old typewriter tapping off his conclusions about the Book of Mormon Archeology and refuting the suggestions of the new Central American Theory. If a visitor should happen to drop in he would keep him for hours going over again his experiences in South America. Even when his hand was shaky with over 80 years of age, he wrote Whence Came the Mayas. He had always held that the Mayas of Central America were the Jaradites while the new theorists are trying to make them Nephites. This certainly makes sense. He died peacefully, a worn-out, old man of 86 after a life of intense activity and study in many fields.
 

THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION WAS TAKEN FROM THE NEWSPAPER CONCERNING GRANDFATHER JOEL RICKS AT THE TIME OF HIS DEATH ON 21 NOVEMBER 1944:

"Funeral services had been arranged today for one of Cache Valley's most prominent religious writers and researchers, Joel Ricks, 86, of River Heights, who died Thursday evening (Thanksgiving Day about 7 P.M.) at the family home, of ailments incidental to old age.

The noted church and civic worker will be eulogized in rites to be conducted Monday at 1 P.M. in the River Heights Ward Chapel, with Bishop Lee Barfuss officiating.

Friends may call at the family home Sunday evening and Monday until time of the funeral. Burial in the Logan City Cemetery will be under the direction of the W. Loyal Mall Mortuary. He resided in River Heights for 35 years. Mr. Ricks was a high priest. Survivors are 7 children, 4 grand-children, 80 in the armed forces, and 18 great grand-children."

ON HIS EIGHTIETH BIRTHDAY THE FOLLOWING APPEARED IN THE NEWSPAPER:

The Joel Ricks Family met Friday at the resident of J. Karl Wood in River Heights to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Mr. Ricks' birth. All of the local members of the family were present. Refreshments were served and an enjoyable time was had by all.

Mr. Ricks was born at Farmington, Utah, July 21, 1858. The family had just retured from the "move" occasioned by the coming of the army. A year later the family moved to Logan, and Mr. Ricks is the only living man who passed the winter of 1859 in Logan. The three women living who were here then are Mrs. Rebecca Eams, Mrs. Orin Benson, and Mrs. Joseph Tarbet. Mr. Ricks has seven living children and 46 grand-children and six great-grandchildren.

Mr. Ricks was a member of the Constitutional Convention and is the only one now residing in this county.

He just returned from Virginia where he spent two years compiling a list of marriages of colonial Virginia covering 150 and 200 years prior to 1853 when the present system was adopted. This book contains over 150,000 marriage bonds and nearly 600,000 names, and is the most valuable record so far compiled.

Mr. Ricks says he wants to live to publish his pioneer stories, which he obtained from the old settlers more than fifty years ago, and which contain many interesting events of pioneer days not recorded elsewhere.