STEPHANY SPENCER-LEBARON:

I joined Songmakers organization in 1987. Music has always been an important part of my life. A multi-instrumentalist, the following link is a fun recording of the cut I made in 2004 accompanied by Vic Brandriff and Steve Durfee on a Songmakers’ CD: “Tune Town:”

https://stephanyspencer.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/stephany-spencer-on-cd-2.m4a

To learn more about the wonderful Songmakers organization, its history, and venues, click on the following link:

Songmakers | Songmakers

Pt 41-A:
Esther LeBaron Spencer and
“More on” LeBaron Madness

“What lies behind us
and what lies before us
are tiny matters compared to
what lies within us.

“Ralph Waldo Emerson

In “Parts 39–40-B:
Esther LeBaron Spencer;
Ma, Pa, Me, and Pitfalls of Polygamy,”
I discussed issues of perfectionism in my grandparents Maud and Dayer LeBaron’s family.

But also of issue is their need to be “Number One“… MOST perfect, the very best; the most beloved of God.

Mother didn’t understand she did not have to be perfect nor number one to be loved, accepted, and respected; simply needed to accept and portray herself as she was. It seems her lack of understanding this lead to a lack of integrity being the best policy; i.e., pathological lying. [2]

When in states of mania [4], Ma especially believed her own stories–stories that included being above all others, the best, number one, the most perfect woman in the world … and God’s favorite female.

Many true-believing followers in the LeBaron cult fell for Ma’s tales; thus nudging her on in her storytelling, her entertaining of her admirers.
They didn’t realize her amygdala [3] was working overtime.

Sadly, Mama generally lived in a dream world. Her delusional thinking possibly worsened as she aged.

Whatever the case, she was all too often a con who fell for her own cons–the end justifying the means, if nothing else.

Perhaps it beat being a despised Mexico-LeBaron. But lack of integrity and honesty is one reason the Mexico-LeBaron family was dispised by some and ostracized by most (during the years they lived in the Mexico-Mormon colonies)–not to mention they often didn’t fit in.

But being a “mundane commoner” was an anathema in Ma’s language. The last thing she wanted was to fit in and be average.

I learned from her to do my best also; i.e., to NOT be a commoner, not fit in, not go with the flow … and NEVER be average if I could help it. Making waves was better; i.e., I did it the creative way, the Mexico-LeBaron way!

Now I’m trying to undo my obstinant upbringing. I’ve found being average isn’t such a bad thing. It’s easier to be average. When all’s said and done, I postulate, God loves average people. That’s why He/She makes so many of them!

Nonetheless, my childhood legacy included my ma Esther believing she was Royalty and set above all others–including her husband and fourteen children. Other than a few personality disorders like this, she seemed quite normal.

Ma thrived on the attention and respect she got in the cult for being “the sister of the one mighty and strong Joel LeBaron” … so much so, in fact, that she presented herself as: “The one mighty and strongess, the only begotten daughter–and second only to Christ, God’s only begotten son.”

Go figure! I already have. The numbers don’t add up–’cause bipolar disease was added in.

[1] NOTE:
I’m talking about the years I knew Mother. People can change. I had no contact with her the last years of her life, before she became riddled with dementia; then died at ninety-two.
So I’ll cut her some slack: Mother had people who loved her, looked up to her till the end, and they still have fond memories of her.

[2]
https://www.thoughtco.com › … › Social Sciences › PsychologyNov 26, 2018
 A pathological liar is an individual who chronically tells grandiose lies that may stretch or exceed the limits of believability.

[3].
https://brainmadesimple.com › amygdala

When you think of the amygdala, you should think of one word. Fear. The amygdala is the reason we are afraid of things outside our control. It also controls the …

Open publish panel

Pt 41-B:
Esther LeBaron Spencer and
“More on” LeBaron Madness”

Your beliefs will be the light by which you see,
but they will not be what you see;
and they will not be a substitute for seeing.

—Flannery O’Connor, Mystery and Manners

Claiming to be God’s chosen handful is a theme in some religions. But my maternal grandparents’ family, the Mexico-LeBarons, took it a step further: They had to be the most favored family of God’s chosen handful … and even God to the people.”
Had they a problem with sharing; plus feelings of insecurity? Were they perhaps jealous of Jesus, God’s favorite son – or of God, Himself?

Could that be why they claimed to hold The Right of the Firstborn? And to stand as God to the people? Or was something else driving these claims … something besides a Mormon-fundamentalist belief (among some) that my Grandfather Alma Dayer LeBaron received (from his grandfather Benjamin F Johnson) the Prophet Joseph Smith’s scepter of power. Then, just before he died, supposedly passed this scepter on to his most Godly son.

Notwithstanding those controversial claims, what was really going on in the Mexico-LeBaron family? That’s my quest and the purpose behind my pursuing this subject; i.e., I want to find the culprits and lay them bare; uncover the coverups, craziness, and contradictions.

Various members of my Mexico-LeBaron grandparents’ family talked a lot about their being number one–the only one; the main one; THE best – The One Mighty and Strong; and about their being God to the people.

Some of my maternal grandparents’ children were even out-right vociferous about letting people know they were the greatest person on earth. Apparently they believed this.

Some of their siblings and their mother/ my Grandmother Maud backed them up in these pompous claims. So did other followers. And my Uncle Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr, for example, boldly tells us, on his “Ross Radio Show,” that he’s the greatest man on earth!

People who think they’re great, usually aren’t. Truly great people leave it to others to announce their greatness. They don’t have to advertise nor brag about themselves. They naturally stand out and are credited. Let’s hope, anyway!

Open publish panel

Pt 41-C:
Esther LeBaron Spencer
and ‘More on’ LeBaron Madness

“Men never do evil so completely
and cheerfully as when they do it
from religious conviction.”
Blaise Pascal

When it comes to my Mexico-LeBaron relatives claiming to be Number One, the One Mighty and Strong, etc., something else was operating besides their dreams, revelations, and hearing voices that told them they were a Prophet, God’s mediator to the people, and the Lord’s chosen family.

And something else was also going on besides their rivalry, competition, preoccupation with power, and psychosis. And also something else besides false claims and deception: Some Mexico-LeBarons, at times, were cons who believed their own cons; thus multiplying the conflict and confusion.

Something else was also going on besides my maternal grandparents’ seven sons and their father Dayer being religion makers. That is, most of the One mighty and strong/OM&S Mexico-LeBarons left behind them in their wake, their demise, at least one religious cult that still follows their teachings. [1]

E.g, today there are numerous men claiming to have gotten their priesthood power and authority from one or another of my Mexico-LeBaron uncles; be it Ross Wesley Sr, Alma, Joel, Ervil, Floren, Verlan….maybe even Uncle Ben and Grandfather Dayer!

Eight men in the Mexico-LeBaron family, including Grandpa Dayer, claimed to be the greatest person on earth, at one time or another; i.e., the One Mighty and Strong. And most claimed to hold “The Right Of the First Born;” in other words, to stand as God on earth–tantamount to the Pope.” [2]

And one of the Mexico-LeBaron women, my Mother Esther, claimed to be the MAIN woman in the world. And to be to her brother Joel what Moses’s sister Miriam was to Moses.

[1] “There are good cults and bad cults. Bad cults won’t allow you to leave with your dignity intact:” Steven Hassan on YouTube, foremost authority on cults and cult mind control; Author of Combatting Cult Mind Control – Amazon.com
https://www.amazon.com › Combatting-Cult-Mind-Control-Best-selling

[2]. (See: Church of the Firstborn (LeBaron order) – Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Firstborn_(LeBaron_order)

[3]. Epigenetics & Inheritance – Utah Genetics – University of Utah
https://learn.genetics.utah.edu › content › epigenetics › inheritance

Epigenetics. In psychology, (behavioral) epigenetics is the study of what role genetics and environment take in the shaping of behavior. This is chiefly the study of how nurture (upbringing and experiences) affects and shapes behavior (hereditary nature of the subject).Epigenetics definition | Psychology Glossary | alleydog.com
https://www.alleydog.com › glossary › definition › term=Epigenetics

Pt 41-D:
Esther LeBaron Spencer
and ‘More on’ LeBaron Madness”

I learned again and again in my life,
until you get your own act together,
you’re not ready for Big Love.
What you’re ready for is one of those
codependent relationships where
you desperately need a partner.” 

–Bruce H. Lipton, The Honeymoon Effect:
The Science of Creating Heaven on Earth

Recently I read/ listened toDr. Kay Redfield Jamison‘s excellent biography, “Robert Lowell, Setting the River on Fire: A Study of Genius ...” [1]

Harvard Professor Robert Lowell was one of America’s greatest poets….and bipolar. During manic splits, he exhibited claims and traits reminiscent of my Mexico-LeBaron family. Sadly, he spent years in and out of mental institutions.

After reading Professor Jamison’s indepth study of this bipolar-compromised person, I now better understand the “something else” that caused some of my Mexico-LeBaron family’s maniacal claims, bizarre beliefs, and lifestyle.

But it was after reading and also listening to scientist Dr. Bruce Lipton’s books, “The Biology of Belief” and “Spontaneous Evolution,” that I found the final “something else” I was seeking as to why my maternal grandparents and their otherwise intelligent, gifted children hung onto crazy, formidable fundamentalism and behavior, against all odds. [2]

I figured part of the Mexico-LeBaron something-else anomaly had to do with growing up deluged in an environment such as the following:

1- Fanaticism, toxic perfectionism, poverty, ostracism; and fundamentalist Mormon doctrines and lifestyle.

2- Their Mormon mother Maud’s obsession with being “the best” in this, that, and the other.

3- Their mentally-challenged, possibly borderline-autistic father Dayer, with his claims of being the greatest man on earth—who, upon his death, would pass his scepter of power on to “one” of his sons.

4- Prevalent physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual, and perhaps even sexual abuse in the Mexico-LeBaron family.

The above and more had something to do with why all the Mexico-LeBaron children, except the oldest child Irene, claimed (at one time or another) to be the greatest person on earth; and other such.

Yet, I was at a loss as to why the Mexico-LeBarons continued to cling to their crazy claims and fundamentalist beliefs, against all odds. I couldn’t understand this seemingly backward, unintelligent behavior till I read/listened to father-of-epigenetics Dr. Bruce Lipton‘s books and YouTube productions.

Professor Bruce Lipton, Ph.D., in his groundbreaking work, explains how scientists have found that in the first seven years of life our mind is in a state of hipnosis; wherein, it downloads huge amounts of information, language, beliefs, etc., without effort or question.

Then, the rest of our life, at least 95% of what we do and thinkis controlled by our subconscious mind run by the downloaded tapes from our first seven years.

In other words, my Mexico-LeBarón family was guided by the epigenetic code they downloaded in their first seven years—a code they couldn’t contest, didn’t question, and followed verbatim; as though in a trance. [3]

Our first seven years spent in a hypnotic childhood trance is how we all acquire our epigenetic code/lifestyle that determines how we live the rest of our life—unless something happens so extreme it causes us to hit rock bottom enough to question our thoughts and actions; all we were raised to believe in, revere, and be.

It’s synonymous to 12-Step programs such as Addict-Alcoholics Anonymous, wherein the addict must hit rock bottom before concluding it’s worth doing whatever it takes to change his/her behavior.

Dr. Lipton explains we normally, otherwise, spend only 5% of our life in the present/the now, observing, questioning, and considering new ways of looking at the world and our life.

I suffered so much (especially during the 4.5 years I was married to polygamist William Tucker) that I dared to question my epigenetic code, upbringing, and beliefs—against all odds.

In other words, I hit rock bottom! This led to eventually escaping the destructive Mormon cult and its undue mind control that had hijacked, from birth, my life and who I was.

It wasn’t easy to flee. In leaving Mormonism, I lost pretty much everything except freedom to create a new life and belief system. And freedom to find my authentic self.

Difficult though this new road has been, I gave my life for it, haven’t looked back; and don’t regret it. Though it’s been immensely difficult in every way to make it up from down under, since my escape, it hasn’t been difficult enough to get me back into Mormonism—or any “ism.“

But facing the abyss for years, after losing my religious foundation, family, friends (i.e., my life support) has left me sympathetic to the many True-believers/Fundies who remain in miserable, masochistic lifestyles they downloaded in their first seven years of life.

Nonetheless, I grieve that, by not having the foresight, strength, and courage to leave high-demand, enslaved lifestyles, Fundies/True-believers continue to propagate countless more enslaved souls who ate destined to live hijacked lives in destructive, totalism cults laden with undue-mind-control tactics, fanaticism, and lack of freedom. [4]

That said, I suffice my quest, and rest my case with the following conclusion: Epigenetics is the final “something else” that drove the Mexico-LeBarons’ craziness and convoluted lifestyle that they pursued and endured against all odds and seeming sanity.

[1]. Robert Lowell, Setting the River on Fire: A Study of Genius …
https://www.amazon.com › Robert-Lowell-Setting-River-Fire In this magisterial study of the relationship between illness and art, the best- selling author of An Unquiet Mind, Kay Redfield Jamison, brings an entirely fresh  …

Robert Lowell – Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Robert_Lowell. Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV (/ˈloʊəl/; March 1, 1917 – September 12, 1977) was an American poet. He was born into a Boston Brahmin family that could trace its origins back to the Mayflower. His family, past and present were important subjects in his poetry.Children‎: ‎Harriet Lowell; Sheridan LowellLiterary movement‎: ‎Confessional poetryNotable works‎: ‎Lord Weary’s Castle‎, ‎Life Studi…Period‎: ‎1944–1977‎Life · ‎Writing · ‎1960s · ‎1970s

[2]. About Bruce Lipton | Bruce Lipton
https://www.brucelipton.com › about
Bruce H. Lipton, PhD is an internationally recognized leader in bridging science and spirit. … Dr. Lipton began his scientific career as a cell biologist. … Dr. Lipton’s research on muscular dystrophy, studies employing cloned human stem cells, focused upon the molecular mechanisms …

[3]. Epigenetics & Inheritance – Utah Genetics – University of Utah
https://learn.genetics.utah.edu › content › epigenetics › inheritance

Epigenetics. In psychology, (behavioral) epigenetics is the study of what role genetics and environment take in the shaping of behavior. This is chiefly the study of how nurture (upbringing and experiences) affects and shapes behavior (hereditary nature of the subject).Epigenetics definition | Psychology Glossary | alleydog.com
https://www.alleydog.com › glossary › definition › term=Epigenetics

[4[. Recovering Agency: Lifting the Veil of Mormon Mind Control …
https://www.amazon.com › Recovering-Agency-Lifting-Mormon-Control

Recovering Agency: Lifting the Veil of Mormon Mind Control Paperback – July 16, 2014. … In 2012, Mormon General Authority Marlin K. Jensen acknowledged that members are leaving the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints “in droves.” … Luna Lindsey was born into the LDS Church and …

[4]. Cult Expert Steven Hassan’s Freedom of Mind Resource Center
https://freedomofmind.com

Freedom of Mind Resource Center was founded by cult expert Steven Hassan so that cult specialists can help cult victims and survivors leave cults and heal.Open publish panel

Pt 41-E:
Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr
and “More on” LeBaron Madness

People who don’t have the ability to discern truth
will never be able to recognize me as
the world’s greatest prophet”Ross Wesley LeBaron sRRoss Wesley LeBaron Sr:
ROSS RADIO SHOW, clip #1
(Courtesy of Historian Kris Wray)

Recently on FaceBook Tom Green, modern-day fan
of the late Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr, commented:
“Ross was a defender of beautiful women.”

I responded:
Tom, how did Ross “defend beautiful women”?
He was as likely to molest them. I only know he married a few beautiful women; even begat some of his own. E.g., His daughter Rosa Linda was one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen!

But his gorgeous wife Thelma Cox and he were
the “Elizabeth Smart” news of their day!
That wasn’t “smart”!
My heart still “smarts”
over this rape
on their parts:

They spent time in jail for kidnapping a thirteen-year old girl they then FORCED to join Ross’s marriage bed—while Thelma looked on, I’m told by one of Ross’s close relatives.

Says my mother Esther LeBaron Spencer (Ross Wesley Sr’s sister):
“Because of this, our father [Dayer LeBaron] wouldn’t ordain Wes as the OM&S. Pa told Wesley he’d better get his own house in order before expecting to be ordained to the lofty position of the one mighty and strong.”

NOTE:
The following article is from a VERY old Newspaper Feed found on Tumblr (see Tumblr for accompanying photos– they didn’t copy along with my copied news briefs below):

“In 1941, Thelma [Ross’s wife] helped Ross LeBaron abduct a 13 year old girl (about to turn 14) for Ross to take as “plural wife”, Elizabeth Smart-style. The girl was Alice Balefske Jr (later married name Alice Caldwell).

“Thelma actually grabbed Alice and pulled her from the arms of a friend who was trying to save her. Fellow plygpedo Charles F Zitting arranged a fake marriage ceremony for the little girl and Ross LeBaron.

“Alice’s father Carl Balefske confronted Charles F. Zitting after he had found and freed Alice from Ross’ and Thelma’s home 12 days later. ” [1]

My Commentary:
In the above newspaper-article scenario, I believe Aunt Thelma Cox didwhat her self-proclaimed Prophet and Patriarch husband Ross Wesley Sr commanded her to do. (And Ross Wesley Sr was possibly following voices in his head that commanded him what to do.)

Note: As a good Mormon-fundamentalist woman in a patriarchal system, Thelma was under the thumb and direction of her husband Ross Sr whom she believed was righteous, and guided by his priesthood ordination…and God’s revelation.

[1]. See Luna Lindsey’s book “Recovering Agency: Lifting the Veil of Mormon Mind Control,” page 25.

In this book, Lindsey says:
“On June 2, 2002, fourteen-year-old Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her home by Brian David “Emmanuel” Mitchell.

“She was held captive and repeatedly raped for nine months. The Elizabeth Smart case is particularly interesting for two reasons:

“One, Mitchell (and his wife Wanda Barzee) sincerely believed they followed the teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith.

“In the LDS context of personal revelation and spiritual gifts, Mitchell thought he was a prophet. Following the example set by the former prophets, he obeyed God’s revelation, went against society’s laws, and took an especially young second wife.

“BYU professor Daniel Peterson studied Mitchell’s writings and called Mitchell’s book ‘an impressive production in many senses,’ and said Mitchell uses scriptural language well and makes many references to both fundamentalist and mainstream beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

” ‘I don’t share his belief, but there’s logic to them,’ said Peterson… ‘The logic makes sense when you buy into the presuppositions.’ “

(For further details, see Recovering Agency: Lifting the Veil of Mormon Mind Control)

Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison, is one of the foremost authorities on manic-depressive (bipolar) illness; she has also experienced it firsthand.
In her bestselling classic An Unquiet Mind:
Personal and Professional Perspectives on Bipolar Disorder,
Dr. Jamison has changed the way we think about moods and madness.

As she was pursuing her career in academic medicine, Jamison simultaneously found herself succumbing to the same exhilarating highs and catastrophic depressions that afflicted many of her patients.

The above video discusses in detail Author/Professor Jamison’s experiences and knowledge in the field of clinical depression, madness, and more.

Pt 41-F:
Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr and
“More on” LeBaron Madness

*NOTE:
An acquaintance sent the following
interesting but old news clipping she found on Tumblr:

“Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr’s oldest son, Ross LeBaron Jr, famously has his own cult in which he impregnates his biological daughters using his “pure seed”… cause God told him he wants that. [1]

“Also: He’s the reincarnation of various pharaohs. [2]
He kidnapped his young teenage niece Laurie LeBaron and kept her as slave for years.“

Note:
I was told by one of Uncle Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr’s granddaughters that her grandfather Ross’s first wife Thelma Cox divorced him when she discovered he was attempting to put into practice the “pure seed” doctrine on at least one of her/their daughters.

My source further informed me Ross Jr learned his “pure seed” doctrine (a euphemism for incest) from his father Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr.

Years ago, one of my own brothers, a follower of Ross Jr’s “pure seed” doctrine, justified the practice “under certain conditions.” He backed up these “certain conditions” (i.e., his incestuous beliefs) with the Biblical passage Genesis 19:30–38.

These verses tell the story of Lot and his two daughters fleeing Sodom, before its destruction, to live in a cave. Afraid they would never have husbands or children (due to isolation from others while in their hideout) Lot’s daughters inebriated their father so they could mate with him and bear children.

It’s said God allowed this to happen. Many Fundies follow anything the Bronze-Age “Word of God” Scriptures say….over and above today’s law of the land, of coarse; i.e., they use Scriptures to justify lust, incest, polygamy…you name it: “The end justifies the means.”

[1] Robert Lowell, Setting the River on Fire: A Study of Genius …
https://www.amazon.com › Robert-Lowell-Setting-River-Fir

[2] Ross LeBaron Accused by Sons of Incest – TEXAS POLYGAMY
texaspolygamy.blogspot.com › 2008/01 › ross-lebaron-accused-by-sons-o…

Jan 10, 2008 – indicates, and we are personally convinced, that our dad (Ross Wesley LeBaron Jr), two of our brothers, and three of our sisters have engaged …

The following clip is another MP3 recording of my Uncle Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr’s KZZI “ROSS RADIO SHOW,” circa 1988.
(Courtesy of historian Kris Wray)ROSS RADIO SHOW, clip #2

Part 41-G: Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr
and “More on” LeBaron Madness

“People who think they are great,
usually aren’t”

Old adage

*NOTE:
The following very old newspaper feeds were posted on Tumblr.
(See Tumblr for more Photos of these articles. Clicking on links in the pieces may take you to the complete articles—if they’re still there):

Says TUMBLR:
“This story is Mormon fundamentalism
in a nutshell… 

“Thelma Elena Cox poses in a picture for a “seeking husband to support my 8 children” newspaper ad in April 1949 (That’s 8 children in 12 years (1937-1949). 

“Thelma Cox (1918-1991) married Ross LeBaron Sr (1914-1996) in 1936 when she was 18 years old.

“They moved to what would later become Colonia LeBaron at some point (in the 1930s). They moved to Mesa, Arizona in ca. 1940 and then to Salt Lake City, probably the following year.” 

“From May 1948: 
Sister, 8, Saves Infant, Boy Who Found Match Box 

“Youngsters are children of Mr. and Mrs. Ross Wesley LeBaron

“Charles, 4, played with matches Monday night, and May Blossom, 8, was responsible for saving Jenny Lou, 1, and Daisy, the terrier, from smoke-filled rooms In old Copper hotel, 1660 N. 14th West, isolated for many years—since the copper mills in the northwest section of Salt Lake City were dismantled—the old Copper hotel, 1660 N. 14th West, became center of attraction Monday night.  Firemen Show Up Police, Press Race 

“But the building which once housed more than 100 copper mill workers soon lost the limelight to four of the smallest of its present occupants.

“An alarm was received by city firemen at 8:15 p.m. It sent heavy fire-fighting equipment over little- used, rutted roads to the old buildings now owned by Vernon Farnsworth and used mostly for casting pulleys, with three rooms occupied as living quarters by the family of Ross Wesley LeBaron.

“Fire Fighters Called Asst. Fire Chief Don E. White led fire fighters into the smoke- filled kitchen. Firemen carried out a burning mattress and bedding which scorched a corner of the room.

“Then began the investigation. Energy-packed Charles, 4, one of the LeBarons’ seven children had taken advantage of his parents’ absence to climb from a high chair onto a sideboard, and by standing on tiptoe he reached a box of matches.

“He lighted them in the corner and the bedding was ignited. It was burning hard when the smoke and the little boy’s cries attracted attention of May Blossom, the 8-year-old.

“She herded Charles out of the house, counted the other four children playing outside the building, and ran past the flames to the bedroom to get year-old Jenny Lou, who was sleeping on the bed.

“Carried Tot Out Covering the baby’s face with a blanket, “so she wouldn’t get smoke in her.face,” and closing the bedroom door,“ May Blossom carried the tot outside and to the nearest neighbor’s house. There she gave the alarm.

” When the neighbor returned with her, May Blossom insisted the bedroom window be broken so Daisy, the family’s pet terrier, could get out. Firemen said the fire did practically no damage other than to the bedding, because May Blossom, to get her tiny sister past the flames, threw paps of water onto the door and the burning cot.

“Police and press alike bowed Monday night to efficiency of the Salt Lake City fire department. In answering, the fire alarm at the old Copper hotel, 1660 N. 14th West, the fire fighters followed a true course, arriving as speedily as the equipment could make the run.

“In contrast, four press cars, carrying reporters and photographers and little yellow city street directories, spent from 30 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes looking for the route.

“Police, finally called to assist one photographer, got snarled in maps and directories, too, and spent 45 minutes seeking the road. Aided by directions relayed by the radio dispatcher from the assistant fire chief’s radio car, they found it.”  

ROSS RADIO SHOW, MP3 clip #3
Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr on KZZI, circa 1988
(Courtesy of historian Kris Wray)

Pt 41-H:
Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr and
“More on” LeBaron Madness

The following VERY old newspaper clippings were sent to me by an acquaintance who borrowed them off Tumblr:

“Thelma Cox divorced Ross LeBaron Sr in fall 1948, although heavily pregnant with David LeBaron.

“When the picture was taken [see Tumblr for the picture–not shown on my blog] Ross LeBaron did not pay any child support, Thelma and her children were instead on welfare and Thelma was three months behind in her rent.

“Newspapers mentioned her exhusband as “a self-styled prophet”.

“The April 14, 1949 Austin American has a much better article than the one I copied in below (it also describes a date with a Mormon fundamentalist fireman), but I don’t have a newspapers.com subscription, so couldn’t access it.

“The article mentions one of Ross LeBaron’s previous convictions (other than 1944 trial) for childbrides: “Records also show that in 1941, LeBaron was jailed for contributing to the delinquency of a minor.”

“Mother of 8 Advertises, Wanted:
A Husband

Salt Lake City:
“Divorcee Seeks Father for Children

“Mrs. Elena LeBaron, 30, a divorcee, told newsmen in Salt Lake City, she is “in the market for a new husband.” Her eight children, now supported by relief funds, need a father to provide for them, she said.

“Mrs. Elena LeBaron, 30, a comely brunette, has appealed publicly for a husband who likes children. She has eight of them. Mrs. LeBaron, blue-eyed and slender, asked the Salt Lake City Telegram to help her find a husband.

“A divorcee, she said she has been unable to keep the four-room cottage, on which she is three payments behind. She also offered her talents as a housekeeper and mother. As a cook, she compared herself to Mother Hubbard.

“She has been getting no alimony payments, she said, and can’t support her horde of children only on relief. “I need a husband,” said Mrs. LeBaron, “who could be the family’s breadwinner. That would be my kind of man.“

“She gave these qualifications: “He should be between 30 and 40 years of age, at least six feet tall, have literary tastes and like music —non-opera, that is.”

“She would like time to pursue her art career. She paints animals and landscapes, she said, and has sold some of her work. She asked that applicants enclose their pictures and those of their children.

“She said it would make no difference to her if a prospective suitor turns up with children himself, even If he has a dozen or more. But if he has none at all, Mrs. LeBaron said she might like “to try for 16 of my own.”

“Her own eight range in age from four months to 12 years. They are well behaved, she said and they want a new daddy. Mrs. LeBaron had other specifications.

She said men who drink too much could save themselves the trouble of applying. Although she did specify the tall, intellectual type, she said she would be more concerned…

ROSS RADIO SHOW, MP3 clip #4
Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr on KZZI, circa 1988
(Courtesy of Kris Wray)

Pt 41-I:
Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr
and “More on” LeBaron Madness

In this blog, I continue with Tumblr-borrowed newsfeeds (See Tumblr for more such; and photos that didn’t copy to these following newsfeeds):

“The outcome of Thelma Elena Cox LeBaron’s Ad: 

SNUBBED BY DIVORCEE, HE STILL WANTS A WIFE 

“Reno, Nev., April 25.–(IP)–The Illinois artist who flew west to propose to a Salt Lake City divorcee with eight children–only to be turned down–has moved to greener pastures here.

“I still want to find a divorcee-but one with just a couple of children,” says Cedric Younger Von Volleston. Von Volleston flew to Salt Lake City after Mrs. Elena LeBaron announced she wanted another husband to help her eight children out of a financial hole.

“She said she would like to have an artist, but Von Volleston’s suit didn’t click. ‘Sine turned him down flat less than 24 hours after he arrived and today announced she would remarry her former husband Ross W. LeBaron. 

“The article fails to mention that Robert Shrewsbury was also a fundamentalist and that Thelma knew him from the 1944 trials (see here).

“Robert had previously married Margaret Estelle Maslin in 1934. They were divorced at this point. One newspaper article mentions that he had four children, but I don’t know whether that was with Margaret or other women as well.

“Robert’s and Margaret’s son Benjamin Maslin Shrewsbury died as a baby. Margaret remarried to Amasa Lyman in 1966 three months after his previous wife died.   

“Thelma Cox LeBaron and her children were next in the newspapers fore more unsupervised children injuring each other (SO plyg!) in December 1949: 

“Granger Girl, 10, Knifed at Play GRANGER, Dec. 12, 1949 – A game of darts played with a hunting knife Monday night resulted in a hand injury for May Blossom LeBaron, 10, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R. W. LeBaron, about 2150 S. 2700 West.

“According to Salt Lake county deputy sheriffs, the girl suffered the wound accidentally while playing with brothers and sister in the family home. She was treated at Salt Lake general hospital and released. 

“In the early 1950s, Thelma Cox remarried to Larry Keegan. They had a daughter, Larrilee Keegan. 

“Meanwhile, Ross LeBaron Sr had two other wives, Betty ____ (he had one son with Betty _____) and then LaVella Cowley Robison (1925-1999). Ross Sr married LaVella in 1952. Ross and LaVella Robison had ten children together, including Lila LeBaron Morehead. LaVella left Ross and remarried to Elmer Leroy Spencer in 1977.   

ROSS RADIO SHOW, clip #4
Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr on KZZI Circa 1988
(Courtesy of Kris Wray)

Pt 41-J: Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr and
“More on” LeBaron Madness

The great enemy of truth
is very often not the lie–
deliberate, contrived, and dishonest–
but the myth–
persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic….
We enjoy the comfort of opinion
without the discomfort of thought.

John F. Kennedy

Ross Wesley LeBaron in June, 1977. | Photo: Dale Van Atta. Courtesy of L. Tom Perry Special Collections, BYU.

In 1977, as the murderous acts of Ross LeBaron’s brother Ervil gained international attention, journalist Dale Van Atta did some research on the priesthood claims of the LeBaron family. Van Atta later co-authored a book on Ervil LeBaron and his crimes.

The following file can be found among Van Atta’s research papers at the Special Collections of the Brigham Young University. Despite the title on the library catalog – “Interview with Ross LeBaron” -, the document might actually be a transcript of a radio show by Ross LeBaron, in June that year.

According to Ross, the violence was over ownership of land in Mexico, as was well as a Cain-and-Abel war over spiritual rights to preside in Joseph Smith’s patriarchal family.

In the following notes, Van Atta reports Ross LeBaron’s ideas on his brothers‘ churches, the Mormon Fundamentalist movement, and his own spiritual position as the heir of Joseph Smith:

Now this is going on in the LeBaron family particularly because we are, definitely, the patriarchal family of the line of the prophet Joseph Smith.”Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr

To view the file, click here: Ross LeBaron – MSS 2258 Box 2 Interview Van Atta

Reference

Van Atta, Dale. Interview with Ross LeBaron for KSXX (1977). Dale Van Atta Collection, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Brigham Young University.

In “Documents”

In “Scholarly”August 26, 2017HolyOrder.OrgAlex Joseph, Alma Dayer LeBaron, Benjamin F. Johnson, Ervil LeBaron, Joel LeBaron, Joseph Smith, LeBaronism, Mormon Fundamentalists, Mormon Studies, Offices, Patriarch, Patriarchal heir, Patriarchal Priesthood, Right of the Firstborn, Ross Wesley LeBaron, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Church of the Firstborn, The Holy Order of God, Theology, Violence

Open publish panel

ROSS RADIO SHOW
Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr on KZZI circa 1988
(Courtesy of Historian Kris Wray)(MP3 clip #5) (MP3 clip #2)

Pt 41-k:
Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr and
“More on” LeBaron Madness

“Polygamy attracts the type of men
who do not wish to be accountable to anyone;
least of all their wives.
Marriage was not a partnership.”Karen MILLER: “My Life as a Sister Wife”

*Continued from “Pt 41-J:
Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr and
“More on” LeBaron Madness”

Enjoy the following minutes my Uncle Floren M. LeBaron took during the initiate meeting of the Church of the Firstborn of the Fullness of Times, September 21, 1955
(Courtesy of DeWayne Hafen):

ROSS RADIO SHOW (MP3 clip #1)
Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr on KZZI, circa 1988
(Courtesy of Historian Kris Wray)

Open publish panel

Pt 41-L:
Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr
and “More on” LeBaron Madness

A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind
and won’t change the subject.”

Winston Spencer Churchhill

Continued from “Pt 41-L:
Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr and
“More on” LeBaron Madness”:
The following exhibits come from gifted
Uncle Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr’s Art Portfolio.

I regret we can’t see more of his intricate typewriter art and other creative work and accomplishments extending from sports and drawings to inventions, lectures,
poetry, prose, leadership, religion-making, and more:

Typewriter Art: Outer-Space Aliens
By Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr
(Courtesy of historian Kris Wray)

For all his lunacy and shortcomings, Mother’s amazing, uncanny brother Ross W. LeBaron Sr exhibited a high IQ and genius.

The following notes on high achievement
are taken from the Internet:

“Genius and High IQ
(Apr 12, 2004)
IQ over 140 – Genius or near genius.
120 – 140 – Very superior intelligence.
110 – 119 – Superior intelligence.
90 – 109 – Normal or average intelligence.
Apr 12, 2004

“IQ tests can be used to determine giftedness in some children. Depending on which test is used, mildly gifted children score from 115 to 129, moderately gifted from 130 to 144, highly gifted from 145 to 159, exceptionally gifted from 160 to 179, and profoundly gifted — 180.“
  (Feb 12, 2018)

Notwithstanding Uncle Ross W. LeBaron Sr’s evil doings, deception, and lunacy, he exhibited a modicum of giftedness and talent—more so, in some ways, than his other Mexico-LeBaron siblings; most notably Ben, Lucinda, Esther, and Ervil. But all my maternal grandparents’ children were gifted and talented.

Nevertheless, the bizarre behavior and lifestyle of the Mexico-LeBarons is mind-boggling beyond belief. Therein lies the intrigue and interest people exhibit who follow and try to unveil the mysteries and intricacies of this family—my maternal grandparents Maud and Dayer LeBaron and their offspring.

Perhaps, like me, they attempt to unravel the yarns (pun intended) and loose ends left dangling; i.e., unfinished business—business never to be finished.

Why? Because, as Mama years ago attested in her letters to investigative journalist Dale Van Atta (author of Prophet of Blood): “There are skeletons in our closets.”

She knew it. I know it. But I won’t write it—not the worst skeletons, anyway. There’s not enough pay-off in it; nor would it do any good. Would mostly harm me and my relatives….more than our history already has.

But where there is smoke, there is fire: Play with matches, get burned. Tangle with wayward people, end up with more skeletons in your own closets.

Why? Many religious fundamentalists are pretend-saints. They live in denial and fabrications, playing down and covering up their misdeeds, misdemeanors, and crimes. I know of too many people burned by playing with “saintly” Mexico-LeBaron “matches.”

Although numerous Mormon fundamentalists have made it up and out of the cult cesspool they were born into, many more have been helplessly and hopelessly sucked under. They never had a chance; can never climb out. So continue to pass on their lifestyle. They don’t even know the difference. And still believe they are God’s gift to the world

But whatever the case and however the outcome, it takes generations to overcome the setbacks of a bad parentage and a bad heritage.

Pt 41-M:
Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr and
“More on” LeBaron Madness

“There are no heros.
Only heroic decisions.
You are never further
than one decision away from
making a difference.

It doesn’t matter whether
it is a big difference
or if it is a small difference,
because you don’t have to
save the world by yourself:

All you have to do is
lay down one brick….
All you have to do is
make things a little bit better
in a small way
so that other people
can lay their brick
on top of that
or beside that.

And together,
step by step,
day by day,
year by year,
we build the foundation
of something better.”

—-Edward Snowden

I escaped Mormonism, polygamy, and the LeBaron cult in 1967. Fifty-three years later, I’m still struggling due to setbacks and dilemmas brought on by my upbringing in fanatic fundamentalism/LeBaronism.

Like all ex-cult members’ accomplishments,
I could’ve done more
had I not started out from down under.

But, besides the Mormon fundamentalist cult setbacks, I’ve had to deal with harm done to me by my father—harm entailing, among other things, damage he inadvertently passed on due to his own traumatized upbringing and background—one that included abandonment and coming from a part American-Indian heritage.

Speaking of American Indians, we can’t begin to fathom what they and their posterity
have had to overcome and rise above, since the European take-over.
Even so, I prefer being part European-American, despite the price paid,
as opposed to living an all-American-Indian lifestyle;
especially that existing before the European usurption.

All humans have had their cross to bear; their setbacks.
But we’ve chosen to get down off the cross; not carry it:
The world needs the wood.

Everyone has to start with what they’re born with; go from there.
Thank God nothing’s all bad. Everybody has been blessed in countless ways.

I’m grateful there was genius on both sides of my parentage;
despite the downsides—enough to sink a ship.

But we don’t abandon the ship.
On our hero’s Journey,
we keep going,
keep trying;
keep doing our best
with the cards dealt.

Our motto is:
We don’t give up.
We won’t be kept down;
Caught in the fray,
We stick around.

We give the fight
Our best shot
Till death doth take us,
Like it or not;
We give thanks
Whatever our lot.
(by Stephany Spencer-LeBaron)

I’ve never heard the Mexico-LeBarons complain.
They are, in general, a proud and religious people.
Same goes for my Spencer side of the family.

As a whole,
they’ve all done good in the world,
whatever the deck dealt.
In that, they and I can be proud.
Our family flags will wave forever!

Continued February 6, 2020,
“Pt 42-A:
Mother, Mexico-LeBarons,
and Megalomania”

Check out this following link:

http://texaspolygamy.blogspot.com/2008/01/ross-lebaron-accused-by-sons-of-incest.html

Pt 41-k:
Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr and
“More on” LeBaron

Madness

“Polygamy attracts the type of men
who do not wish to be accountable to anyone;
least of all their wives.
Marriage was not a partnership.”

*Continued from “Pt 41-J:
Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr and
“More on” LeBaron Madness”

Enjoy the following minutes my Uncle Floren M. LeBaron took during the initiate meeting of the Church of the Firstborn of the Fullness of Times, September 21, 1955
(Courtesy of DeWayne Hafen):

ROSS RADIO SHOW (MP3 clip #1)
Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr on KZZI, circa 1988
(Courtesy of Historian Kris Wray)

Continued January 16, 2020,
“Pt 41-L: Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr
and “More on” LeBaron Madness

Pt 41-J: Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr and
“More on” LeBaron Madness

The great enemy of truth
is very often not the lie–
deliberate, contrived, and dishonest–
but the myth–
persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic….
We enjoy the comfort of opinion
without the discomfort of thought.

Ross Wesley LeBaron in June, 1977. | Photo: Dale Van Atta. Courtesy of L. Tom Perry Special Collections, BYU.

In 1977, as the murderous acts of Ross LeBaron’s brother Ervil gained international attention, journalist Dale Van Atta did some research on the priesthood claims of the LeBaron family. Van Atta later co-authored a book on Ervil LeBaron and his crimes.

The following file can be found among Van Atta’s research papers at the Special Collections of the Brigham Young University. Despite the title on the library catalog – “Interview with Ross LeBaron” -, the document might actually be a transcript of a radio show by Ross LeBaron, in June that year.

According to Ross, the violence was over ownership of land in Mexico, as was well as a Cain-and-Abel war over spiritual rights to preside in Joseph Smith’s patriarchal family.

In the following notes, Van Atta reports Ross LeBaron’s ideas on his brothers‘ churches, the Mormon Fundamentalist movement, and his own spiritual position as the heir of Joseph Smith:

Now this is going on in the LeBaron family particularly because we are, definitely, the patriarchal family of the line of the prophet Joseph Smith.”

To view the file, click here: Ross LeBaron – MSS 2258 Box 2 Interview Van Atta

Reference

Van Atta, Dale. Interview with Ross LeBaron for KSXX (1977). Dale Van Atta Collection, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Brigham Young University.

In “Documents”

In “Scholarly”August 26, 2017HolyOrder.OrgAlex Joseph, Alma Dayer LeBaron, Benjamin F. Johnson, Ervil LeBaron, Joel LeBaron, Joseph Smith, LeBaronism, Mormon Fundamentalists, Mormon Studies, Offices, Patriarch, Patriarchal heir, Patriarchal Priesthood, Right of the Firstborn, Ross Wesley LeBaron, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Church of the Firstborn, The Holy Order of God, Theology, Violence

ROSS RADIO SHOW
Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr on KZZI circa 1988
(Courtesy of Historian Kris Wray)

Continued January 9, 2020, “Pt 41-K:
Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr and “More on” LeBaron Madness

Pt 41-I:
Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr
and “More on” LeBaron Madness

In this blog, I continue with Tumblr-borrowed newsfeeds (See Tumblr for more such; and photos that didn’t copy to these following newsfeeds):

“The outcome of Thelma Elena Cox LeBaron’s Ad: 

SNUBBED BY DIVORCEE, HE STILL WANTS A WIFE 

“Reno, Nev., April 25.–(IP)–The Illinois artist who flew west to propose to a Salt Lake City divorcee with eight children–only to be turned down–has moved to greener pastures here.

“I still want to find a divorcee-but one with just a couple of children,” says Cedric Younger Von Volleston. Von Volleston flew to Salt Lake City after Mrs. Elena LeBaron announced she wanted another husband to help her eight children out of a financial hole.

“She said she would like to have an artist, but Von Volleston’s suit didn’t click. ‘Sine turned him down flat less than 24 hours after he arrived and today announced she would remarry her former husband Ross W. LeBaron. 

“The article fails to mention that Robert Shrewsbury was also a fundamentalist and that Thelma knew him from the 1944 trials (see here).

“Robert had previously married Margaret Estelle Maslin in 1934. They were divorced at this point. One newspaper article mentions that he had four children, but I don’t know whether that was with Margaret or other women as well.

“Robert’s and Margaret’s son Benjamin Maslin Shrewsbury died as a baby. Margaret remarried to Amasa Lyman in 1966 three months after his previous wife died.   

“Thelma Cox LeBaron and her children were next in the newspapers fore more unsupervised children injuring each other (SO plyg!) in December 1949: 

“Granger Girl, 10, Knifed at Play GRANGER, Dec. 12, 1949 – A game of darts played with a hunting knife Monday night resulted in a hand injury for May Blossom LeBaron, 10, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R. W. LeBaron, about 2150 S. 2700 West.

“According to Salt Lake county deputy sheriffs, the girl suffered the wound accidentally while playing with brothers and sister in the family home. She was treated at Salt Lake general hospital and released. 

“In the early 1950s, Thelma Cox remarried to Larry Keegan. They had a daughter, Larrilee Keegan. 

“Meanwhile, Ross LeBaron Sr had two other wives, Betty ____ (he had one son with Betty _____) and then LaVella Cowley Robison (1925-1999). Ross Sr married LaVella in 1952. Ross and LaVella Robison had ten children together, including Lila LeBaron Morehead. LaVella left Ross and remarried to Elmer Leroy Spencer in 1977.   

Continued January 2, 2020, “Pt 41-J: Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr and “More on” LeBaron Madness”

Pt 41-H:
Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr and
“More on” LeBaron Madness

The following VERY old newspaper clippings were sent to me by an acquaintance who borrowed them off Tumblr:

“Thelma Cox divorced Ross LeBaron Sr in fall 1948, although heavily pregnant with David LeBaron.

“When the picture was taken [see Tumblr for the picture–not shown on my blog] Ross LeBaron did not pay any child support, Thelma and her children were instead on welfare and Thelma was three months behind in her rent.

“Newspapers mentioned her exhusband as “a self-styled prophet”.

“The April 14, 1949 Austin American has a much better article than the one I copied in below (it also describes a date with a Mormon fundamentalist fireman), but I don’t have a newspapers.com subscription, so couldn’t access it.

“The article mentions one of Ross LeBaron’s previous convictions (other than 1944 trial) for childbrides: “Records also show that in 1941, LeBaron was jailed for contributing to the delinquency of a minor.”

“Mother of 8 Advertises, Wanted:
A Husband

Salt Lake City:
“Divorcee Seeks Father for Children

“Mrs. Elena LeBaron, 30, a divorcee, told newsmen in Salt Lake City, she is “in the market for a new husband.” Her eight children, now supported by relief funds, need a father to provide for them, she said.

“Mrs. Elena LeBaron, 30, a comely brunette, has appealed publicly for a husband who likes children. She has eight of them. Mrs. LeBaron, blue-eyed and slender, asked the Salt Lake City Telegram to help her find a husband.

“A divorcee, she said she has been unable to keep the four-room cottage, on which she is three payments behind. She also offered her talents as a housekeeper and mother. As a cook, she compared herself to Mother Hubbard.

“She has been getting no alimony payments, she said, and can’t support her horde of children only on relief. “I need a husband,” said Mrs. LeBaron, “who could be the family’s breadwinner. That would be my kind of man.“

“She gave these qualifications: “He should be between 30 and 40 years of age, at least six feet tall, have literary tastes and like music —non-opera, that is.”

“She would like time to pursue her art career. She paints animals and landscapes, she said, and has sold some of her work. She asked that applicants enclose their pictures and those of their children.

“She said it would make no difference to her if a prospective suitor turns up with children himself, even If he has a dozen or more. But if he has none at all, Mrs. LeBaron said she might like “to try for 16 of my own.”

“Her own eight range in age from four months to 12 years. They are well behaved, she said and they want a new daddy. Mrs. LeBaron had other specifications.

She said men who drink too much could save themselves the trouble of applying. Although she did specify the tall, intellectual type, she said she would be more concerned…

Continued December 26, 2019, “Pt 41-I: Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr and “More on” LeBaron Madness”

Part 41-G: Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr
and “More on” LeBaron Madness

“People who think they are great,
usually aren’t”

*NOTE:
The following very old newspaper feeds were posted on Tumblr.
(See Tumblr for more Photos of these articles. Clicking on links in the pieces may take you to the complete articles—if they’re still there):

Says TUMBLR:
“This story is Mormon fundamentalism
in a nutshell… 

“Thelma Elena Cox poses in a picture for a “seeking husband to support my 8 children” newspaper ad in April 1949 (That’s 8 children in 12 years (1937-1949). 

“Thelma Cox (1918-1991) married Ross LeBaron Sr (1914-1996) in 1936 when she was 18 years old.

“They moved to what would later become Colonia LeBaron at some point (in the 1930s). They moved to Mesa, Arizona in ca. 1940 and then to Salt Lake City, probably the following year.” 

“From May 1948: 
Sister, 8, Saves Infant, Boy Who Found Match Box 

“Youngsters are children of Mr. and Mrs. Ross Wesley LeBaron

“Charles, 4, played with matches Monday night, and May Blossom, 8, was responsible for saving Jenny Lou, 1, and Daisy, the terrier, from smoke-filled rooms In old Copper hotel, 1660 N. 14th West, isolated for many years—since the copper mills in the northwest section of Salt Lake City were dismantled—the old Copper hotel, 1660 N. 14th West, became center of attraction Monday night.  Firemen Show Up Police, Press Race 

“But the building which once housed more than 100 copper mill workers soon lost the limelight to four of the smallest of its present occupants.

“An alarm was received by city firemen at 8:15 p.m. It sent heavy fire-fighting equipment over little- used, rutted roads to the old buildings now owned by Vernon Farnsworth and used mostly for casting pulleys, with three rooms occupied as living quarters by the family of Ross Wesley LeBaron.

“Fire Fighters Called Asst. Fire Chief Don E. White led fire fighters into the smoke- filled kitchen. Firemen carried out a burning mattress and bedding which scorched a corner of the room.

“Then began the investigation. Energy-packed Charles, 4, one of the LeBarons’ seven children had taken advantage of his parents’ absence to climb from a high chair onto a sideboard, and by standing on tiptoe he reached a box of matches.

“He lighted them in the corner and the bedding was ignited. It was burning hard when the smoke and the little boy’s cries attracted attention of May Blossom, the 8-year-old.

“She herded Charles out of the house, counted the other four children playing outside the building, and ran past the flames to the bedroom to get year-old Jenny Lou, who was sleeping on the bed.

“Carried Tot Out Covering the baby’s face with a blanket, “so she wouldn’t get smoke in her.face,” and closing the bedroom door,“ May Blossom carried the tot outside and to the nearest neighbor’s house. There she gave the alarm.

” When the neighbor returned with her, May Blossom insisted the bedroom window be broken so Daisy, the family’s pet terrier, could get out. Firemen said the fire did practically no damage other than to the bedding, because May Blossom, to get her tiny sister past the flames, threw paps of water onto the door and the burning cot.

“Police and press alike bowed Monday night to efficiency of the Salt Lake City fire department. In answering, the fire alarm at the old Copper hotel, 1660 N. 14th West, the fire fighters followed a true course, arriving as speedily as the equipment could make the run.

“In contrast, four press cars, carrying reporters and photographers and little yellow city street directories, spent from 30 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes looking for the route.

“Police, finally called to assist one photographer, got snarled in maps and directories, too, and spent 45 minutes seeking the road. Aided by directions relayed by the radio dispatcher from the assistant fire chief’s radio car, they found it.”  

(Continued December 5, 2019,
“Pt 41-H: Ross Wesley LeBaron Sr and
“More on” LeBaron Madness)

Pt 30:
My Mama Esther LeBaron Spencer, Me, and Mental Illness

“A mother’s love for her child
is like nothing else in the world. 
It knows no law, no pity; it dares all things, 
and crushes down remorselessly
all that stands in its path.”
Agatha Christie

Mother once confided in me: “I told yer Pa, before I married him, if he ever raised his voice at me — ever argued, hit, or put me down in front of my children — or where they could hear – I’d leave him!”

She continued, “I believe the terrible, bitter battles and arguments between my parents is part of the reason why my older siblings Ben and Lucinda broke [I.e: Had their first mental-illness episodes] by the time they hit their late teens … eventually ended up the rest of their lives in mental institutions! I remember, all too well, the fear ‘n’ misery my parents’ constant screaming and fighting caused in me and my siblings throughout our childhood.

That’s why I always do my best to keep a good spirit ’round me and you kids. I don’t believe in psychologists! They say Ben and Lucinda are schizophrenic. But I thoroughly believe evil spirits took them over because, for one thing, they fought with their parents, and didn’t do what their parents told them to do. And they didn’t keep a good spirit with them.

“My oldest brother Ben first went crazy in his late teens, shortly after he had a violent fist fight with Pa … beat him up badly. After that, he prayed out loud! The devil was able to hear what he was thinkin’, so could take him over,” moaned Mama.

“But it probably would’ve never of happened,” she continued, “if it weren’t for all the terrible persecution perpetrated against Ben and our family by the Mormons in Colonia Juarez all the while we was growin’ up and goin’ to school. Being treated as wicked outcasts is the main thing that lead to his mental breakdown — and Lucinda’s too.”

Regardless of what Mother and her immediate LeBaron family wanted to believe, I know and they knew mental illness ran in their family. Still, they believed the devil was “Just tryin’ to thwart God’s work on earth — if he possibly could” — by taking over Maud and Dayer’s children. In other words, they generally projected onto others and Satan the blame for their problems.

But let me insert some personal commentary: First of all, schizophrenia generally sets in, in one’s late teens to early twenties. And is often preceded by extreme stress. As for my uncle Ben’s behavior, I believe he was already becoming mentally unstrung when he lit into his “worst fist fight” with his father.

 Second of all, and on a different note, I only recall four cases wherein Mama and Grandma LeBaron ever took any responsibility for what may have helped cause the mental illness in their family.The first case I recall was when Mother, as I related above, believed the terrible fighting between her parents had affected her and her siblings.

Another partial acceptance of the blame came when Grandmother told me, with tears in her eyes: “I feel so very bad because I believe part of the reason my children had mental problems was I neglected them so much all them years I was away for days at a time teachin’ piano lessons in the Mormon colonies to help support our family … to help keep the wolves away.”

The third incident I recall, wherein Mother admitted any iota of responsibility for the family’s mental illness, was in the following:
When I was in my pre-adolescence, in an effort to teach me to obey her and to also never take medicine without her permission, she told me her sister Lucinda’s first mental breakdown happened after she went into the medicine cabinet and secretly took a bunch of pills in an effort to start her period … because she feared she was pregnant and was trying to hide it from her parents.

[Commentary: In those days, and with the strict teachings she was raised with concerning virginity, fearing she had become pregnant (and all that entailed!) was enough, in itself, to cause an already-compromised mentality to go over the brink … in my humble opinion!]

The fourth case, wherein the Mexico-LeBarons accepted a little blame, was, as I related above, Mother’s belief that her siblings who went crazy “didn’t keep a good spirit with them.” She said Ben, especially, often argued with his father, and treated him disrespectfully — including, in his late teens, having fist fights with him — once even beating him up badly. “Right after that,” Mama told me, “he prayed out loud so the devil could hear what he was thinkin’ and so was able to take him over.”

Commentary: This is old-fashioned, old-world, backward thinking. But the last I knew, Mother still (even after having graduated in 1981 with a BA in journalism from the University of Utah) did not believe in Psychology nor Psychologists. She still believed evil spirits took over her beloved and brilliant siblings Ben, Lucinda, and Ervil.

Her raising me with such beliefs scared me into trying to keep a good spirit with me, come hell or high water, all the years I was growing up. Not a bad thing … as long as you don’t go around with a fake smile on your face, like I did. People must accept and work with their emotions and problems, not stuff and deny them. 

Pt 31-A:
My Mama Esther LeBaron Spencer,
the Mexico LeBarons, and Mental Illness

“No influence is so powerful as that of the mother.”
Sarah Josepha Hale

As I said in the previous blog, the Mexico LeBarons, including my mother and maternal grandmother Maud LeBaron, believed the cause of mental illness in their immediate family was mainly due to the townspeople who ostracized and persecuted them incessantly for many years.

But I believe people need to take a good look at what part they, themselves, played/ play in what happens to them and the lives of their children. My opinion as to what caused the mental illnesses includes the following list:

1-  The genes for susceptibility to a number of mental illnesses runs in both of my maternal grandparents’ family lines! That’s a biggie!

2-  There were some huge problems in my grandparents’ household and in the upbringing of their children — problems that affected their mental well-being from the womb to the tomb. 

3-  Enduring their whole life the small-town Mormon venom, denigration, and ostracism definitely played a large part in my grandparents’ children’s succumbing to multiple mental and emotional illnesses. Especially damaging to the LeBaron children was being shunned by the most influential people of their own religion and community.

4- In hindsight, and judging by my own personal sight, my grandparents’ choices also greatly affected their children. I’ve listed some of those choices here:

     A-  Staying in the Mormon colonies to raise their children, despite the devastating effects ostracism and persecution have on sensitive children .

     B-  Taking a plural wife, thereby ignoring their Mormon church’s Manifesto of 1890 that outlawed polygamy. This not only compounded the familial problems that already existed: It forced my grandparents to move to Old Mexico to raise their family — a place where Grandfather Dayer was not allowed to earn a living. So he had to leave his family for months at a time to earn a wage in the United States.

     C-  Living polygamy multiplied the poverty, stress, deprivation, and emotional upheaval, not to mention it brought on ostracization and persecution BIG-time. All these things lead to stress—and stress helps lead to mental illness; especially when it already exists in the genes.

     D-  Sticking to Mormon fundamentalist beliefs and values, come hell or high water, meant having all the children they could possibly have — whether it was healthy or not — which also meant much greater poverty and far less time, money, attention, food, and love for each child.

     E-  Having lots of kids meant the older children, especially, had to work far too hard to help raise all those babies.
Since the oldest child born to my grandparents was a girl (Irene), she suffered the biggest brunt of having to play mommy to the huge family born to Grandpa Dayer and Grandma Maud:
Orthodox Mormon beliefs put quantity ahead of quality … and their beliefs ahead of common sense and the needs of their babies, children, and themselves.

Pt 31-B: My Mama Esther LeBaron Spencer,
The Mexico LeBarons, and Mental Illness

“As you work on your memoir, write with fidelity to your own experience while knowing that memory is fallible. Write with respect for your subjects, even if they come across as louts. And tell your story true, artfully, and with courage.”  
Tracy seeley
My Ruby Slippers

(We left off on letter “E” in blog “Pt 31-A”)

Repeating what was said in blog Pt 31-A, the Mexico-LeBarons believed the cause of mental illness in their immediate family was largely due to the mainstream Mormon townspeople of Colonia Juarez severely ostracizing and persecuting them during the twenty years they lived there.

But, again, I believe people must look at what part they, themselves, played/ play in what happens to them and their offspring. Many things went into the Mexico-LeBaron mental-illness factor.

Let’s continue where we left off with what I believe caused the mental illness in my dear Mexico-LeBaron family:

     F-  Mormon fundamentalists/Fundies believed in beating the devil out of their children—as in Spare the rod, spoil the child:
Force, physical and emotional abuse, brutality — these were only some of the control tactics my well-meaning, old-country, perfectionistic grandparents employed to keep their children in line in an effort to make SURE they were perfect little Saints bound for the the highest degree of glory in the hereafter-—as if one can force somebody back to heaven!

(Wasn’t that Satan’s plan: To remove our agency so as to ensure that everyone returned to live with God in heaven? Jesus wanted to let us all choose for ourselves what we wanted to do.)

     G-  They stuck to many strict, stoic, fallacious beliefs—backward values and fears they lived by, taught, and ingrained in their children. These shaming, guilt-provoking, fanatic religious strictures were, alone, enough to cause mental illness—especially in highly sensitive kids.

     H–  Add to that their unstable, nomadic lifestyle of moving back and forth from one homestead, town, and country to another — during especially the older Mexico-LeBaron childrens’ lives.

     I-  Then, take into account that not only was their mother Maud absent much of the time teaching piano lessons to help support the huge family, but their father was also often gone months at a time. The oldest children, who lacked parenting themselves, were, nonetheless, left to raise the younger ones—if any of them got raised at all!

     J- On top of this, in 1940 Grandmother Maud left Grandfather Dayer and went to live in the United States for five years, taking her two youngest children with her—ten-year-old Verlan and thirteen-year-old Floren. She returned to Dayer in 1945. The separating of one’s parents is, in and of itself, a great emotional stress on children.

     K-  Now, add to this whole scenario the problems involved in dealing with polygamy, including two plural wives and all their kids living in the same household for seven long years — and Maud being many years older than Onie.

     L- Now, just a remider: These were the olden days. Hindsight is always the best sight. We have come a long way in understanding and knowledge since the 19th through early 20th century — my grandparents’ time period. Child-protective laws and much more have changed since then.

I only know my grandparents had their sight set on heaven and the hereafter so were definitely trying to do what they believed was right. They thought if they did what God commanded them to do, He would take care of the rest!

Pt 31-C:
My Mama Esther LeBaron Spencer, the Mexico-LeBarons, and Mental Illness

  “He did the wrong thing for the right reason.” 

Stephany Spencer-LeBaron

Continuing where we left off in blog “Pt 31-B.”

M- All the previous situations discussed in blogs “Pt 31-A & B,” and more, contributed to mental illness in the Mexico-LeBaron family—especially given that there was a history of mental illness in both my grandmother and grandfather LeBaron’s family lines.

N- Let’s not leave out that Grandpa Dayer LeBaron, himself, was not well-balanced mentally. Besides being guided by dreams, voices he heard in his head, and other such, he had personality disorders. On top of that, he, himself, was born and raised in a Mormon polygamous pioneer family—So no doubt he suffered and experienced many of the same things his own children later endured.

What’s more, despite how handsome he was, Grandpa Dayer was already an outcast when Grandma Maud married him. But she, too, had a few personality disorders, albeit to a lesser degree. And HER own father became mentally deranged in her later years. More on this in future blogs.

O- Now let us factor in the Mexico-LeBarons’ many fanatical and shaming fundamentalist Mormon/Fundy beliefs. And the ignorance we all share as human beings. ALL of this and more colluded, collided, and escalated to incubate the insanity and other personality disorders running in the Mexico-LeBarons’ genes—a collusion that eventually kicked in big-time with especially my grandparents’ sensitive and highly-gifted Ben, Wesley, Lucinda, and Ervil.

P- We’ve gotten this far and haven’t mentioned: They didn’t believe in Psychology nor Psychological Counseling. And there was no Dr. Phil anywhere to be seen!

Q- What’s worse, besides being laws unto themselves, and largely ostracized by others, this beautiful, bright, talented family was nonetheless not well-educated nor well read—though they thought they were.

 R-  And, on top of all else, they were pretty much isolated. They lived far away from family and relatives and hadn’t many friends.

Plus, they lived during the Great Depression; in a foreign, strange land — and in a small-town—a Mexican-Mormon colony that faught tooth-and-toenail these gorgeous, highly gifted, Mexico-LeBaron renegades and creatives living on the fringe of society and reality.

S- The Maud and Dayer LeBaron family simply had almost nowhere to turn for help in the face of all their extenuating problems and situations!

And, to exacerbate everything else, Grandpa Dayer lacked tact. The last thing he would do, for example, was to compromise ANY of his values in order to come to an agreement so as to get along with others who differed with him.

He didn’t believe in compromising when it came to telling the truth and doing what was right. It was not beneath him to tell people they were stupid and going to hell if they didn’t agree with him and follow his beliefs.

T- I almost left out this crucial factor: Not only were the Mexico-LeBarons ostracized by most of their own town’s people, AND the mainstream Mormon church, BUT by all the Mormon fundamentalist groups too—the “Fundies”!!

U- Now, add to this that in the time the of the Mexico-LeBarons—the olden days—Mental Illness carried terrible stigmas! People held extreme and fearful beliefs such as “The devil or evil spirits are in the mentally ill!” Many even believed Satan resided in the insane so avoided families with mentally ill members.

A person could be ostracized from the community because he or she was mentally deranged. Often the mentally challenged person’s whole family would be ostracized right along with the crazy member. They would be jeered at, sticks and stones thrown to break their bones—the list goes on.
Sadly, the Mexico-LeBarons endured ALL this and more.

V- When you consider the many things my overly-challenged Mexico-LeBaron family had to bear up under, it’s a wonder they survived at all; or remained strong and determined in so many ways. (Nietzsche said: “Whatever doesn’t kill you will make you stronger.” Really?!)

One way they survived was to try to prove themselves by out-doing others whenever they were able to. (Often that was not such a challenge for the Mexico-LeBarons!)

Another tactic they employed was to try to rise above the gossip and persecution. Still another was to escape into a dreamworld. Mother said she purposely created stories in her mind about the way she wanted her life to be because this helped her survive the terrible ostracism and shame brought upon her and her family.

W- I’m not saying the Mexico-LeBarons didn’t have their faults and foibles that helped cause them to be cast out by most people. I’m saying this was a most unusual and strong family, considering all they endured and survived. And, despite everything, they were leaders, no less: They acquired followers and they lead them—by hook or crook!

Pt 31-D:
My Mama Esther LeBaron Spencer, The-Mexico-LeBarons, and Mental Illness

https://stephanyspencer.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/stephany-spencer-on-cd-2.m4a

~Picking up where we left off on “Pt 31-C: My Mama Esther LeBaron Spencer, The- Mexico-LeBarons, and Mental Illness”:

 Y–  There was incest involved, too. How much? Don’t know. Only know my mother told the reseacher Dale Van Atta there were “skeletons in the Mexico-LeBaron’s closets.”  (Wish she would have told the rest of us about them!)
 But I do happen to know a few closeted skeletons. I’ll relate them, perhaps, in my upcoming book. It’s enough to know, for now, that first cousins married each other, for example — even having been told that would compound the mental illness that ran in both sides of their families! (Is the adidge “All’s fair in love and war” really true? I only know Cupid’s/ Libido’s bow shoots a strong arrow!)

Z– Last, though not least — and a biggie: The Mexico-LeBarons were CREATIVES. If you study the genealogy of poets, artists, musicians, inventors, writers, spiritual leaders, and so forth, you will find mental illness is a common thread running in many of these creatives’ families. The following are some of the many books I found in the Public Library covering this topic:

Suffice it to say, to generate healing and better mental health, people must take responsibility for their own actions—not blame the devil or other people for what happens to them and their children.

Raising children is a very serious business. It makes a huge difference what the parents do and don’t do—and what the atmosphere and temperature is of the home and community they grow up in. “It takes a village.”  When it comes to social ills, there is enough blame to go around. Enough said, though I could write a book on the subject of child-rearing—as many writers have already done!

Despite the unfortunate mental illness in my Mexico-LeBaron family born to Maud and Dayer, presently and in the past there have been many notable LeBarons. The Mexico-LeBarons are but one faction of the LeBarons the world over. But the Mexico-LeBarons have a huge posterity—I do mean HUGE! My own parents’ progeny, alone, extends into the thousands.  And the number is growing exponentially as I write.

Many of these gifted Mexico-LeBarons, the offshoots from Dayer and Maud LeBaron, are doing courageous, creative, and outstanding things. Very few of them, despite the many travails they have survived, have succumbed to mental illness.

All of them, as far as I know, are making a go of it. And most of them are doing better than the Mexico-LeBaron family my mother was born into. It says a lot for my Mexico-LeBaron family “forrest.”  They are all glowing examples of what the human spirit is capable of.

NOTE: The following is a lovely message left me on my Facebook page by Julie LeBaron Elkins, one of my many nieces.  It’s the perfect example of feedback I look for and am motivated by.  I appreciate lovely Julie’s taking the time to write this beautifully-worded paragraph:

“My Auntie is so amazing! Ty for your blog, I know it has helped me. Still reading, I have to take breaks as it does affect me and I have to still peal the layers off. Ty for the example you are and the courage it took to get where you are and the heart to help your family even though they turned their backs on you. I am so happy that I have you in my life and finally got to meet you. Will remember to take notes as I am reading to give you feedback as promised.”

[3] See “Cult Insanity” and “Shattered Dreams“ by Irene Spencer

http://texaspolygamy.blogspot.com/2008/01/ross-lebaron-accused-by-sons-of-incest.html

[2] See “The LeBaron Story,“ and “Maud’s Story,” on Amazon.com and Kindle. Though these books were written to preach “The Church of the First Born” doctrine, they are all we have of the Mexico-LeBaron Family’s published history — about our only source, though highly biased.

[3] See “Cult Insanity” and “Shattered Dreams“ by Irene Spencer

http://texaspolygamy.blogspot.com/2008/01/ross-lebaron-accused-by-sons-of-incest.html

“The heart of the mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.”
Honore De Balzac

Incest on my maternal grandfather Alma Dayer LeBaron’s side definitely contributed to the mental illness prevalent in most of my maternal grandparents’ ten children who lived to adulthood!

Grandfather Alma Dayer LeBaron, Sr.’s parents were first cousins: His grandfather Benjamin Franklin Johnson’s seventh wife’s daughter Sarah Jane Johnson married her paternal Aunt Esther Melita Johnson’s son Benjamin Franklin LeBaron—Benjamin Franklin Johnson’s nephew. Incest plain and simple!

The dilemma — and the reason incest is illegal is that when close relatives marry, they compound bad/recessive genes in their family tree.

Says historian Kris Wray:
Benjamin F. Johnson had a brilliant brother, Seth Johnson, who, he said in his “My Life’s Review,” experienced “mania” and was “weakened in mind” at one time … though he stated he had a “sound” mind later.

“As far as Owen LeBaron, I’d gamble his mental illness came from the Johnson/LeBaron line. His dad’s (William Farland LeBaron) parents were David Tully LeBaron and Harriett Naomi Johnson. Grandpa David Tully’s parents were David Tully LeBaron (Sr) and Esther Malita Johnson [Benjamin F. Johnson’s sister].”

In other words, there WAS genetic disposition for mental illness in the LeBaron AND Johnson lines (NOT just in my grandmother Maud McDonald’s line). Dayer’s dad marrying his Johnson first-cousin magnified it.

Mania is a facet of type I bipolar disorder in which the mood state is abnormally heightened and accompanied by hyperactivity and a reduced need for sleep.

By contrast, hypomania (often described as “mania-light”) is a type II bipolar disorder which neither has the range nor severity of symptoms that classic mania has. (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjKv53WyubgAhUUs54KHXqaBBkQFjACegQIBxAL&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.verywellmind.com%2Fsymptoms-of-mania-380311&usg=AOvVaw1rN1sW2GH8_ntXBJYx8aKY)

In my quest to further understand what might have caused the unusual amount of mental illness in my Mexico-LeBaron family, years ago I was told the following by my sister Judith Spencer: “Mental illness ran in the bloodlines of BOTof our Grandma Maud’s parents William Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emmerson.

“People TOLD our grandmother’s parents, William Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emerson, ‘DO NOT marry!! There’s ‘bad blood’ in your families!’ — In other words,” she said, “There was mental illness in both their family trees! For them to marry could only compound the problem. They married anyway.” * Love and libido won out!

It is now known Schizophrenia is heritable — AND SKIPS a generation to show up in the SECOND generation of children born into bloodlines where at least one of the parents has the schizophrenia/ manic-depressive/ bipolar gene.

As it turns out, in the Mexico-LeBarons’ case schizophrenia/ bipolar disease/ personality disorders not only ran in BOTH our Grandmother Maud’s parents’ family trees, but ALSO in Grandfather Dayer’s family tree. That would more than double the schizophrenic /bipolar genetics and heritability.

I do not personally know about any mental disorders that ran in my great-grandmother Lucinda Mariah Emmerson’s family line. Only that, though schizophrenia is found in all nationalities and races, Sweden and Ireland rate the highest for this disorder. Norway follows close behind. (The Scots Irish? When history’s followed back far enough, they are Irish.)

In past decades, schizophrenia was often called “Manic Depression.” Today it is usually referred to as Bipolar Disease. “McDonald” is an Irish/ Scots Irish surname. “Emmerson” is a Swedish surname. I mention this as only one piece of the puzzle contributing to mental challenges in my beloved Mexico-LeBaron family line.

Though my grandmother Maud’s parents Wm. Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emerson had mental illness running in their family trees (as many family trees do, I might add), out of Grandma Maud’s own immediate family of origin, none of her siblings suffered notable mental illness—as far as I know. And none of Wesley and Mariah McDonald’s children exhibited any of the mental illness that existed in their father Wesley McDonald’s later years.

Grandma Maud told me about a number of occasions in her life when she’d heard a voice speak to her “plain as day.” This and other such things may have been mild signs of Schizophrenia in Gramma Maud. But I read in a book on Schizophrenia that eating even part of a green potato, among other things, could affect a temporary Schizophrenic disorder in at least some people. So you never know.

Case in point, however: The mental-illness gene my great-grandfather William Wesley McDonald carried DID skip a generation! That is, it didn’t show up, as far as I know, in the siblings of my grandmother Maud McDonald’s family of origin. BUT it showed up BIG-TIME in the next generation — Grandpa Dayer and Grandma Maud LeBarons’ children. Most, if not all of their living children had mental problems to one degree or another.

For example, every one of Grandpa and Grandma LeBaron’s seven living sons claimed to be, at one time or another and to one degree or another, “The one mighty and strong”/OM&S (God’s spoke person on earth). [2] Some of this may have been brought on by upbringing, desires for power and profit, and other such, rather than by defective genes.

But it’s also likely they heard voices, and had revelations, dreams, and inspiration that told them they were “the one mighty and strong prophet” spoken of in Mormon Scriptures.

Grandpa and Grandma LeBaron’s creative and talented daughter Lucinda spent most of her life in a mental institution — as did their brilliant oldest son Ben. And their disturbed son Ervil went clear over the cliff—“was the spittin’ image,” said Grandmamma Maud, of her own father William Wesley McDonald who began to hear voices, get revelations, etc., in his later yrsars. [3]t

Their gifted and beautiful daughter Esther (my mother) lived in a mild dream world along with other personality disorders. Example: from time to time she/ Mama had manic-depressive episodes/ bipolar symptoms — including a few “nervous breakdowns.” And she had a narcissistic personality disorder, including delusions of grandeur. Paranoia also visited Mama as well as pathological lying; i.e., she believed her own lies.

Nevertheless, many people loved, respected, and befriended my mother throughout her life. In other words, Mother’s mental issues didn’t get in the way of her relationships with most people—though they got in my way!

As a young woman, Mother once told people she was a Hollywood starlet and a Concert Pianist. In actuality, my grandma Maud saw to it her daughter Esther/my mother got piano lessons and the time to practice enough to memorize a number of beautiful Piano Concertos.

But that did not make her a Concert Pianist; i.e., she never held the prestigious position of accompanyig Philharmonic Orchestra’s as their Concert Pianst! Instead, she quit college early on to become the plural wife of an old man, bearing him fourteen kids along with six miscarriages within the space of 21 years; i.e., She was a stay-at-home mom.

Mother also told people she and all her kids and husband had their “callings and elections made sure.” (That is to say, HER kids were ALL going to heaven. No question about it!!)

She told people she “knew” HER husband and HER kids were going to “the highest degree of glory” “because they, like her, were so pure and saintly — so holy they were incapable of experiencing even “evil emotions such as envy or jealousy”! (That made them perfectly cut out to live polygamy, right? However, in her 21 years of marriage, Mom was too jealous to share Pop with even ONE other concurrent wife!)

Nevertheless, I don’t believe anybody in the cult ever noticed the inconsistentcies in what she preached and what she practiced. She said her Patriarchal Blessing “said so” and they believed her. This was mostly wishful thinking, exaggeration, and delusions of grandeur, on Ma’s part. Up until I escaped the LeBaron sect she belonged to, she also told people I/moi was her most perfect and holy child!

It helped cause Ma a nervous breakdown, therefore, when at age 21 I FLED the religion she raised me in — the religion she was SO sure was the ONLY true religion — the one you HAD to believe in to go to the highest degree of glory!

Needless to say, after I fled Mother’s religion/cult, she condemned me to hell, saying I wasn’t as spiritual as she and the rest of her kids were. (She somehow always took it upon herself to be my judge! … I thought that was God’s job!)

Now, back to the subject of mental illness in the Mexico-LeBarons’ immediate family: What further caused the Mexico-LeBaron children’s mental disorders is: There was not ONLY mental illness and personality disorders in BOTH my maternal grandparent’s family trees, but BOTH Grandmother Maud AND Grandfather Dayer, THEMSELVES, talked, not infrequently, about having unusually vivid dreams, revelations, and “hearing voices” — voices that spoke to them and gave them guidance. In other words, this meant double the schizophrenic characteristics in just the Mexico-LeBaron children’s parents, alone!

I know some people are gifted with a high level of intuition, extra-sensory perception/ ESP, and so forth. The gift of inspiration/ “a still, small voice,” etc., runs in creative families like the Mexico-LeBarons. And Poets are said to be prophets. Furthermore, schizophrenia runs high in creative families. Still, Grandfather Dayer’s extra-sensory perceptions went beyond that of healthy and normal.

To sum it all up, my maternal grandparents carried outward signs of mental-illness; e.g., voices talking to them, on TOP of their inner genetic markers for mental disorders. This tally sheet quadrupled chances that at least some of their children would inherit mental problems—especially given there were other stressors and traumas in their life that helped kick in the recessive genes for mental illness.

*This concludes my comments. Thank you for visi.
Now, till next time, be of good cheer; Spring is here! ~ Stephany Spencer-LeBaron

*My sister Judith Spencer’s oldest daughter was schizophrenic/bipolar. Because of this, Judy did much research, trying to understand the disease, how it came about, and how to deal with it. I don’t recall, now, the relatives she spoke with on my grandma Maud’s and grandpa Dayer’s family sides. But the information I related above was told to her by them.

[2] See “The LeBaron Story,“ and “Maud’s Story,” on Amazon.com and Kindle. Though these books were written to preach “The Church of the First Born” doctrine, they are all we have of the Mexico-LeBaron Family’s published history — about our only source, though highly biased.

[3] See “Cult Insanity” and “Shattered Dreams“ by Irene Spencer

http://texaspolygamy.blogspot.com/2008/01/ross-lebaron-accused-by-sons-of-incest.html

Pt 33:
My Mama Esther LeBaron Spencer and Family Incest

“The heart of the mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.”
Honore De Balzac

Incest on my maternal grandfather Alma Dayer LeBaron’s side definitely contributed to the mental illness prevalent in most of my maternal grandparents’ ten children who lived to adulthood!

Grandfather Alma Dayer LeBaron, Sr.’s parents were first cousins: His grandfather Benjamin Franklin Johnson’s seventh wife’s daughter Sarah Jane Johnson married her paternal Aunt Esther Melita Johnson’s son Benjamin Franklin LeBaron—Benjamin Franklin Johnson’s nephew. Incest plain and simple!

The dilemma — and the reason incest is illegal is that when close relatives marry, they compound bad/recessive genes in their family tree.

Says historian Kris Wray:
Benjamin F. Johnson had a brilliant brother, Seth Johnson, who, he said in his “My Life’s Review,” experienced “mania” and was “weakened in mind” at one time … though he stated he had a “sound” mind later.

“As far as Owen LeBaron, I’d gamble his mental illness came from the Johnson/LeBaron line. His dad’s (William Farland LeBaron) parents were David Tully LeBaron and Harriett Naomi Johnson. Grandpa David Tully’s parents were David Tully LeBaron (Sr) and Esther Malita Johnson [Benjamin F. Johnson’s sister].”

In other words, there WAS genetic disposition for mental illness in the LeBaron AND Johnson lines (NOT just in my grandmother Maud McDonald’s line). Dayer’s dad marrying his Johnson first-cousin magnified it.

Mania is a facet of type I bipolar disorder in which the mood state is abnormally heightened and accompanied by hyperactivity and a reduced need for sleep.

By contrast, hypomania (often described as “mania-light”) is a type II bipolar disorder which neither has the range nor severity of symptoms that classic mania has. (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjKv53WyubgAhUUs54KHXqaBBkQFjACegQIBxAL&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.verywellmind.com%2Fsymptoms-of-mania-380311&usg=AOvVaw1rN1sW2GH8_ntXBJYx8aKY)

In my quest to further understand what might have caused the unusual amount of mental illness in my Mexico-LeBaron family, years ago I was told the following by my sister Judith Spencer: “Mental illness ran in the bloodlines of BOTof our Grandma Maud’s parents William Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emmerson.

“People TOLD our grandmother’s parents, William Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emerson, ‘DO NOT marry!! There’s ‘bad blood’ in your families!’ — In other words,” she said, “There was mental illness in both their family trees! For them to marry could only compound the problem. They married anyway.” * Love and libido won out!

It is now known Schizophrenia is heritable — AND SKIPS a generation to show up in the SECOND generation of children born into bloodlines where at least one of the parents has the schizophrenia/ manic-depressive/ bipolar gene.

As it turns out, in the Mexico-LeBarons’ case schizophrenia/ bipolar disease/ personality disorders not only ran in BOTH our Grandmother Maud’s parents’ family trees, but ALSO in Grandfather Dayer’s family tree. That would more than double the schizophrenic /bipolar genetics and heritability.

I do not personally know about any mental disorders that ran in my great-grandmother Lucinda Mariah Emmerson’s family line. Only that, though schizophrenia is found in all nationalities and races, Sweden and Ireland rate the highest for this disorder. Norway follows close behind. (The Scots Irish? When history’s followed back far enough, they are Irish.)

In past decades, schizophrenia was often called “Manic Depression.” Today it is usually referred to as Bipolar Disease. “McDonald” is an Irish/ Scots Irish surname. “Emmerson” is a Swedish surname. I mention this as only one piece of the puzzle contributing to mental challenges in my beloved Mexico-LeBaron family line.

Though my grandmother Maud’s parents Wm. Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emerson had mental illness running in their family trees (as many family trees do, I might add), out of Grandma Maud’s own immediate family of origin, none of her siblings suffered notable mental illness—as far as I know. And none of Wesley and Mariah McDonald’s children exhibited any of the mental illness that existed in their father Wesley McDonald’s later years.

Grandma Maud told me about a number of occasions in her life when she’d heard a voice speak to her “plain as day.” This and other such things may have been mild signs of Schizophrenia in Gramma Maud. But I read in a book on Schizophrenia that eating even part of a green potato, among other things, could affect a temporary Schizophrenic disorder in at least some people. So you never know.

Case in point, however: The mental-illness gene my great-grandfather William Wesley McDonald carried DID skip a generation! That is, it didn’t show up, as far as I know, in the siblings of my grandmother Maud McDonald’s family of origin. BUT it showed up BIG-TIME in the next generation — Grandpa Dayer and Grandma Maud LeBarons’ children. Most, if not all of their living children had mental problems to one degree or another.

For example, every one of Grandpa and Grandma LeBaron’s seven living sons claimed to be, at one time or another and to one degree or another, “The one mighty and strong”/OM&S (God’s spoke person on earth). [2] Some of this may have been brought on by upbringing, desires for power and profit, and other such, rather than by defective genes.

But it’s also likely they heard voices, and had revelations, dreams, and inspiration that told them they were “the one mighty and strong prophet” spoken of in Mormon Scriptures.

Grandpa and Grandma LeBaron’s creative and talented daughter Lucinda spent most of her life in a mental institution — as did their brilliant oldest son Ben. And their disturbed son Ervil went clear over the cliff—“was the spittin’ image,” said Grandmamma Maud, of her own father William Wesley McDonald who began to hear voices, get revelations, etc., in his later yrsars. [3]t

Their gifted and beautiful daughter Esther (my mother) lived in a mild dream world along with other personality disorders. Example: from time to time she/ Mama had manic-depressive episodes/ bipolar symptoms — including a few “nervous breakdowns.” And she had a narcissistic personality disorder, including delusions of grandeur. Paranoia also visited Mama as well as pathological lying; i.e., she believed her own lies.

Nevertheless, many people loved, respected, and befriended my mother throughout her life. In other words, Mother’s mental issues didn’t get in the way of her relationships with most people—though they got in my way!

As a young woman, Mother once told people she was a Hollywood starlet and a Concert Pianist. In actuality, my grandma Maud saw to it her daughter Esther/my mother got piano lessons and the time to practice enough to memorize a number of beautiful Piano Concertos.

But that did not make her a Concert Pianist; i.e., she never held the prestigious position of accompanyig Philharmonic Orchestra’s as their Concert Pianst! Instead, she quit college early on to become the plural wife of an old man, bearing him fourteen kids along with six miscarriages within the space of 21 years; i.e., She was a stay-at-home mom.

Mother also told people she and all her kids and husband had their “callings and elections made sure.” (That is to say, HER kids were ALL going to heaven. No question about it!!)

She told people she “knew” HER husband and HER kids were going to “the highest degree of glory” “because they, like her, were so pure and saintly — so holy they were incapable of experiencing even “evil emotions such as envy or jealousy”! (That made them perfectly cut out to live polygamy, right? However, in her 21 years of marriage, Mom was too jealous to share Pop with even ONE other concurrent wife!)

Nevertheless, I don’t believe anybody in the cult ever noticed the inconsistentcies in what she preached and what she practiced. She said her Patriarchal Blessing “said so” and they believed her. This was mostly wishful thinking, exaggeration, and delusions of grandeur, on Ma’s part. Up until I escaped the LeBaron sect she belonged to, she also told people I/moi was her most perfect and holy child!

It helped cause Ma a nervous breakdown, therefore, when at age 21 I FLED the religion she raised me in — the religion she was SO sure was the ONLY true religion — the one you HAD to believe in to go to the highest degree of glory!

Needless to say, after I fled Mother’s religion/cult, she condemned me to hell, saying I wasn’t as spiritual as she and the rest of her kids were. (She somehow always took it upon herself to be my judge! … I thought that was God’s job!)

Now, back to the subject of mental illness in the Mexico-LeBarons’ immediate family: What further caused the Mexico-LeBaron children’s mental disorders is: There was not ONLY mental illness and personality disorders in BOTH my maternal grandparent’s family trees, but BOTH Grandmother Maud AND Grandfather Dayer, THEMSELVES, talked, not infrequently, about having unusually vivid dreams, revelations, and “hearing voices” — voices that spoke to them and gave them guidance. In other words, this meant double the schizophrenic characteristics in just the Mexico-LeBaron children’s parents, alone!

I know some people are gifted with a high level of intuition, extra-sensory perception/ ESP, and so forth. The gift of inspiration/ “a still, small voice,” etc., runs in creative families like the Mexico-LeBarons. And Poets are said to be prophets. Furthermore, schizophrenia runs high in creative families. Still, Grandfather Dayer’s extra-sensory perceptions went beyond that of healthy and normal.

To sum it all up, my maternal grandparents carried outward signs of mental-illness; e.g., voices talking to them, on TOP of their inner genetic markers for mental disorders. This tally sheet quadrupled chances that at least some of their children would inherit mental problems—especially given there were other stressors and traumas in their life that helped kick in the recessive genes for mental illness.

*This concludes my comments. Thank you for visi.
Now, till next time, be of good cheer; Spring is here! ~ Stephany Spencer-LeBaron

*My sister Judith Spencer’s oldest daughter was schizophrenic/bipolar. Because of this, Judy did much research, trying to understand the disease, how it came about, and how to deal with it. I don’t recall, now, the relatives she spoke with on my grandma Maud’s and grandpa Dayer’s family sides. But the information I related above was told to her by them.

[2] See “The LeBaron Story,“ and “Maud’s Story,” on Amazon.com and Kindle. Though these books were written to preach “The Church of the First Born” doctrine, they are all we have of the Mexico-LeBaron Family’s published history — about our only source, though highly biased.

[3] See “Cult Insanity” and “Shattered Dreams“ by Irene Spencer

http://texaspolygamy.blogspot.com/2008/01/ross-lebaron-accused-by-sons-of-incest.html

*1– See: “The LeBaron Story,” Pages 201 through 210. Also see: “Maud’s Story.” Both books are/ were available on Amazon.com and/or Kindle. Though these books were written mostly to preach The Church of the First Born dogma, they’re all we have of the Mexico-LeBaron family’s published history.

NOTE: For those questioning what I quoted Grandma saying, please check out the following Facebook statement (used without my niece Vicky LeBaron’s permission, as of yet, because I trust she won’t mind):

2-7-2019: “I heard my grandmother — G.Grandma Maud’s, daughter Esther LeBaron Spencer — say on multiple occasions almost exactly what Steph Spencer is saying.
I also heard one of G.G. Maud’s daughter-in-laws say the same type of comments about what Maud had told her about Ervil, in various conversations over the years:

“Basically, that mental illness ran in the McDonald family. And that she had been concerned about Ervil because of her father’s mental health struggles, and the fact that Ervil reminded her of her father more than any of her other sons. [She said] ‘He was handsome like her father.’ Or ‘He had a charismatic personality and a way with words.’ If I’m not mistaken, her father was rather tall, too [like her son Ervil].

“I don’t particularly think uncle Ervil looked like great-great-grandfather Wesley, either, but she may have recognized mannerisms and perhaps his walk, or the way he talked, etc., as being like her father. Often, I think the way my children act reminds me more of their grandparents and great grandparents, than the way they look.
And I definitely feel like several of my children are very much like their grandparents and others don’t seem to see it.”

“

*2– See “Cult Insanity” by Irene Spencer
https://youtu.be/-6QUWqQOc8Q

Pt 33:
My Mama Esther LeBaron Spencer and Family Incest

“The heart of the mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.”
Honore De Balzac

Incest on my maternal grandfather Alma Dayer LeBaron’s side definitely contributed to the mental illness prevalent in most of my maternal grandparents’ ten children who lived to adulthood!

Grandfather Alma Dayer LeBaron, Sr.’s parents were first cousins: His grandfather Benjamin Franklin Johnson’s seventh wife’s daughter Sarah Jane Johnson married her paternal Aunt Esther Melita Johnson’s son Benjamin Franklin LeBaron—Benjamin Franklin Johnson’s nephew. Incest plain and simple!

The dilemma — and the reason incest is illegal is that when close relatives marry, they compound bad/recessive genes in their family tree.

Says historian Kris Wray:
Benjamin F. Johnson had a brilliant brother, Seth Johnson, who, he said in his “My Life’s Review,” experienced “mania” and was “weakened in mind” at one time … though he stated he had a “sound” mind later.

“As far as Owen LeBaron, I’d gamble his mental illness came from the Johnson/LeBaron line. His dad’s (William Farland LeBaron) parents were David Tully LeBaron and Harriett Naomi Johnson. Grandpa David Tully’s parents were David Tully LeBaron (Sr) and Esther Malita Johnson [Benjamin F. Johnson’s sister].”

In other words, there WAS genetic disposition for mental illness in the LeBaron AND Johnson lines (NOT just in my grandmother Maud McDonald’s line). Dayer’s dad marrying his Johnson first-cousin magnified it.

Mania is a facet of type I bipolar disorder in which the mood state is abnormally heightened and accompanied by hyperactivity and a reduced need for sleep.

By contrast, hypomania (often described as “mania-light”) is a type II bipolar disorder which neither has the range nor severity of symptoms that classic mania has. (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjKv53WyubgAhUUs54KHXqaBBkQFjACegQIBxAL&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.verywellmind.com%2Fsymptoms-of-mania-380311&usg=AOvVaw1rN1sW2GH8_ntXBJYx8aKY)

In my quest to further understand what might have caused the unusual amount of mental illness in my Mexico-LeBaron family, years ago I was told the following by my sister Judith Spencer: “Mental illness ran in the bloodlines of BOTof our Grandma Maud’s parents William Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emmerson.

“People TOLD our grandmother’s parents, William Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emerson, ‘DO NOT marry!! There’s ‘bad blood’ in your families!’ — In other words,” she said, “There was mental illness in both their family trees! For them to marry could only compound the problem. They married anyway.” * Love and libido won out!

It is now known Schizophrenia is heritable — AND SKIPS a generation to show up in the SECOND generation of children born into bloodlines where at least one of the parents has the schizophrenia/ manic-depressive/ bipolar gene.

As it turns out, in the Mexico-LeBarons’ case schizophrenia/ bipolar disease/ personality disorders not only ran in BOTH our Grandmother Maud’s parents’ family trees, but ALSO in Grandfather Dayer’s family tree. That would more than double the schizophrenic /bipolar genetics and heritability.

I do not personally know about any mental disorders that ran in my great-grandmother Lucinda Mariah Emmerson’s family line. Only that, though schizophrenia is found in all nationalities and races, Sweden and Ireland rate the highest for this disorder. Norway follows close behind. (The Scots Irish? When history’s followed back far enough, they are Irish.)

In past decades, schizophrenia was often called “Manic Depression.” Today it is usually referred to as Bipolar Disease. “McDonald” is an Irish/ Scots Irish surname. “Emmerson” is a Swedish surname. I mention this as only one piece of the puzzle contributing to mental challenges in my beloved Mexico-LeBaron family line.

Though my grandmother Maud’s parents Wm. Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emerson had mental illness running in their family trees (as many family trees do, I might add), out of Grandma Maud’s own immediate family of origin, none of her siblings suffered notable mental illness—as far as I know. And none of Wesley and Mariah McDonald’s children exhibited any of the mental illness that existed in their father Wesley McDonald’s later years.

Grandma Maud told me about a number of occasions in her life when she’d heard a voice speak to her “plain as day.” This and other such things may have been mild signs of Schizophrenia in Gramma Maud. But I read in a book on Schizophrenia that eating even part of a green potato, among other things, could affect a temporary Schizophrenic disorder in at least some people. So you never know.

Case in point, however: The mental-illness gene my great-grandfather William Wesley McDonald carried DID skip a generation! That is, it didn’t show up, as far as I know, in the siblings of my grandmother Maud McDonald’s family of origin. BUT it showed up BIG-TIME in the next generation — Grandpa Dayer and Grandma Maud LeBarons’ children. Most, if not all of their living children had mental problems to one degree or another.

For example, every one of Grandpa and Grandma LeBaron’s seven living sons claimed to be, at one time or another and to one degree or another, “The one mighty and strong”/OM&S (God’s spoke person on earth). [2] Some of this may have been brought on by upbringing, desires for power and profit, and other such, rather than by defective genes.

But it’s also likely they heard voices, and had revelations, dreams, and inspiration that told them they were “the one mighty and strong prophet” spoken of in Mormon Scriptures.

Grandpa and Grandma LeBaron’s creative and talented daughter Lucinda spent most of her life in a mental institution — as did their brilliant oldest son Ben. And their disturbed son Ervil went clear over the cliff—“was the spittin’ image,” said Grandmamma Maud, of her own father William Wesley McDonald who began to hear voices, get revelations, etc., in his later yrsars. [3]t

Their gifted and beautiful daughter Esther (my mother) lived in a mild dream world along with other personality disorders. Example: from time to time she/ Mama had manic-depressive episodes/ bipolar symptoms — including a few “nervous breakdowns.” And she had a narcissistic personality disorder, including delusions of grandeur. Paranoia also visited Mama as well as pathological lying; i.e., she believed her own lies.

Nevertheless, many people loved, respected, and befriended my mother throughout her life. In other words, Mother’s mental issues didn’t get in the way of her relationships with most people—though they got in my way!

As a young woman, Mother once told people she was a Hollywood starlet and a Concert Pianist. In actuality, my grandma Maud saw to it her daughter Esther/my mother got piano lessons and the time to practice enough to memorize a number of beautiful Piano Concertos.

But that did not make her a Concert Pianist; i.e., she never held the prestigious position of accompanyig Philharmonic Orchestra’s as their Concert Pianst! Instead, she quit college early on to become the plural wife of an old man, bearing him fourteen kids along with six miscarriages within the space of 21 years; i.e., She was a stay-at-home mom.

Mother also told people she and all her kids and husband had their “callings and elections made sure.” (That is to say, HER kids were ALL going to heaven. No question about it!!)

She told people she “knew” HER husband and HER kids were going to “the highest degree of glory” “because they, like her, were so pure and saintly — so holy they were incapable of experiencing even “evil emotions such as envy or jealousy”! (That made them perfectly cut out to live polygamy, right? However, in her 21 years of marriage, Mom was too jealous to share Pop with even ONE other concurrent wife!)

Nevertheless, I don’t believe anybody in the cult ever noticed the inconsistentcies in what she preached and what she practiced. She said her Patriarchal Blessing “said so” and they believed her. This was mostly wishful thinking, exaggeration, and delusions of grandeur, on Ma’s part. Up until I escaped the LeBaron sect she belonged to, she also told people I/moi was her most perfect and holy child!

It helped cause Ma a nervous breakdown, therefore, when at age 21 I FLED the religion she raised me in — the religion she was SO sure was the ONLY true religion — the one you HAD to believe in to go to the highest degree of glory!

Needless to say, after I fled Mother’s religion/cult, she condemned me to hell, saying I wasn’t as spiritual as she and the rest of her kids were. (She somehow always took it upon herself to be my judge! … I thought that was God’s job!)

Now, back to the subject of mental illness in the Mexico-LeBarons’ immediate family: What further caused the Mexico-LeBaron children’s mental disorders is: There was not ONLY mental illness and personality disorders in BOTH my maternal grandparent’s family trees, but BOTH Grandmother Maud AND Grandfather Dayer, THEMSELVES, talked, not infrequently, about having unusually vivid dreams, revelations, and “hearing voices” — voices that spoke to them and gave them guidance. In other words, this meant double the schizophrenic characteristics in just the Mexico-LeBaron children’s parents, alone!

I know some people are gifted with a high level of intuition, extra-sensory perception/ ESP, and so forth. The gift of inspiration/ “a still, small voice,” etc., runs in creative families like the Mexico-LeBarons. And Poets are said to be prophets. Furthermore, schizophrenia runs high in creative families. Still, Grandfather Dayer’s extra-sensory perceptions went beyond that of healthy and normal.

To sum it all up, my maternal grandparents carried outward signs of mental-illness; e.g., voices talking to them, on TOP of their inner genetic markers for mental disorders. This tally sheet quadrupled chances that at least some of their children would inherit mental problems—especially given there were other stressors and traumas in their life that helped kick in the recessive genes for mental illness.

*This concludes my comments. Thank you for visi.
Now, till next time, be of good cheer; Spring is here! ~ Stephany Spencer-LeBaron

*My sister Judith Spencer’s oldest daughter was schizophrenic/bipolar. Because of this, Judy did much research, trying to understand the disease, how it came about, and how to deal with it. I don’t recall, now, the relatives she spoke with on my grandma Maud’s and grandpa Dayer’s family sides. But the information I related above was told to her by them.

[2] See “The LeBaron Story,“ and “Maud’s Story,” on Amazon.com and Kindle. Though these books were written to preach “The Church of the First Born” doctrine, they are all we have of the Mexico-LeBaron Family’s published history — about our only source, though highly biased.

[3] See “Cult Insanity” and “Shattered Dreams“ by Irene Spencer

http://texaspolygamy.blogspot.com/2008/01/ross-lebaron-accused-by-sons-of-incest.html

We left off last week with my assertion: People should take responsibility for their actions; not project blame onto the devil nor others for what happens to them and their children.

As we saw in the previous blogs, Grandfather Dayer and Grandmother Maud’s life and child-rearing included plenty of things that could cause mental breakdowns — though they tended to put most of the blame on the persecution and ostracism their kids suffered growing up in the Mormon colonies in Mexico. No question, that took its toll!

But Grandma told us her son Ervil was the “spittin’ image” of her own father: “Even looks exactly like ‘im!” she efused. [*1] But she only divulged this long-held secret after her son Ervil began showing severe psychotic breaks — as in intent to murder his brother Joel, et Al.

In an afterthought, Grandma Maud added, disconcertingly, “Despite his bein’ highly gifted in art, music, teaching, and other areas, Pa broke in his older years — same as his grandson Ervil.

“But before he became mentally ill, my handsome father taught Art and Music in High School, often delivered sermons in church. And was a much sought-after Singer, as well as a teacher of church doctrinal classes.

“Him and my ma regularly sang duets in church and elsewhere. Both had perfect pitch … could sight-sing sheet music, so they could do fine when they had no instrumental backup or a pitchpipe. They really knew their Music Theory, too. Music was very important in my home as we grew up.”

Unfortunately, that’s pretty much all Grandma would tell about her father. In fact, as I pointed out, she never, ever let anybody know about her father going off the deep end until she saw her son Ervil, “had the spirit of murder,” as she referred to it in her letters to Ervil. [*1]

Makes me wonder what else my Grandmother Maud never told us about her family of origin. What else was she hiding? For example, why would she marry my Grandfather Dayer when he was an outcast (though she says when she married him she didn’t know he was an outcast).

In the same breath, she claimed her “McDonalds of Arizona” family “were highly respected and well to do—owned a real estate office.” I only know (from personal experience) Grandma, though I love her, was a “storyteller.” [*2]

But I understand her brother Max McDonald (who was a pal of Pres. Spencer W. Kimball in his young years—they played and performed music together, among other things) was a Real Estate broker and owned his own Real Estate office.

Because being “crazy” carried such stigma and shame back in Grandmother’s day, as noted earlier, she only let us know about her own father’s mental breakdown when it became absolutely necessary to do everything in her power to get her dear son Ervil to see the error of his ways … in hopes he would not end up a “Cain.”

In the next blog, I will continue with this mental-illness thread, tying it in with incest in my Mexico-LeBaron family: Grandpa Dayer’s father Benjamin Franklin LeBaron married his first cousin Sarah Jane Johnson—daughter of his/ Benjamin Franklin LeBaron’s maternal uncle Benjamin F. Johnson’s seventh wife).[*1]

*1– See: “The LeBaron Story,” Pages 201 through 210. Also see: “Maud’s Story.” Both books are/ were available on Amazon.com and/or Kindle. Though these books were written mostly to preach The Church of the First Born dogma, they’re all we have of the Mexico-LeBaron family’s published history.

NOTE: For those questioning what I quoted Grandma saying, please check out the following Facebook statement (used without my niece Vicky LeBaron’s permission, as of yet, because I trust she won’t mind):

2-7-2019: “I heard my grandmother — G.Grandma Maud’s, daughter Esther LeBaron Spencer — say on multiple occasions almost exactly what Steph Spencer is saying.
I also heard one of G.G. Maud’s daughter-in-laws say the same type of comments about what Maud had told her about Ervil, in various conversations over the years:

“Basically, that mental illness ran in the McDonald family. And that she had been concerned about Ervil because of her father’s mental health struggles, and the fact that Ervil reminded her of her father more than any of her other sons. [She said] ‘He was handsome like her father.’ Or ‘He had a charismatic personality and a way with words.’ If I’m not mistaken, her father was rather tall, too [like her son Ervil].

“I don’t particularly think uncle Ervil looked like great-great-grandfather Wesley, either, but she may have recognized mannerisms and perhaps his walk, or the way he talked, etc., as being like her father. Often, I think the way my children act reminds me more of their grandparents and great grandparents, than the way they look.
And I definitely feel like several of my children are very much like their grandparents and others don’t seem to see it.”

“

*2– See “Cult Insanity” by Irene Spencer
https://youtu.be/-6QUWqQOc8Q

Pt 33:
My Mama Esther LeBaron Spencer and Family Incest

“The heart of the mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.”
Honore De Balzac

Incest on my maternal grandfather Alma Dayer LeBaron’s side definitely contributed to the mental illness prevalent in most of my maternal grandparents’ ten children who lived to adulthood!

Grandfather Alma Dayer LeBaron, Sr.’s parents were first cousins: His grandfather Benjamin Franklin Johnson’s seventh wife’s daughter Sarah Jane Johnson married her paternal Aunt Esther Melita Johnson’s son Benjamin Franklin LeBaron—Benjamin Franklin Johnson’s nephew. Incest plain and simple!

The dilemma — and the reason incest is illegal is that when close relatives marry, they compound bad/recessive genes in their family tree.

Says historian Kris Wray:
Benjamin F. Johnson had a brilliant brother, Seth Johnson, who, he said in his “My Life’s Review,” experienced “mania” and was “weakened in mind” at one time … though he stated he had a “sound” mind later.

“As far as Owen LeBaron, I’d gamble his mental illness came from the Johnson/LeBaron line. His dad’s (William Farland LeBaron) parents were David Tully LeBaron and Harriett Naomi Johnson. Grandpa David Tully’s parents were David Tully LeBaron (Sr) and Esther Malita Johnson [Benjamin F. Johnson’s sister].”

In other words, there WAS genetic disposition for mental illness in the LeBaron AND Johnson lines (NOT just in my grandmother Maud McDonald’s line). Dayer’s dad marrying his Johnson first-cousin magnified it.

Mania is a facet of type I bipolar disorder in which the mood state is abnormally heightened and accompanied by hyperactivity and a reduced need for sleep.

By contrast, hypomania (often described as “mania-light”) is a type II bipolar disorder which neither has the range nor severity of symptoms that classic mania has. (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjKv53WyubgAhUUs54KHXqaBBkQFjACegQIBxAL&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.verywellmind.com%2Fsymptoms-of-mania-380311&usg=AOvVaw1rN1sW2GH8_ntXBJYx8aKY)

In my quest to further understand what might have caused the unusual amount of mental illness in my Mexico-LeBaron family, years ago I was told the following by my sister Judith Spencer: “Mental illness ran in the bloodlines of BOTof our Grandma Maud’s parents William Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emmerson.

“People TOLD our grandmother’s parents, William Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emerson, ‘DO NOT marry!! There’s ‘bad blood’ in your families!’ — In other words,” she said, “There was mental illness in both their family trees! For them to marry could only compound the problem. They married anyway.” * Love and libido won out!

It is now known Schizophrenia is heritable — AND SKIPS a generation to show up in the SECOND generation of children born into bloodlines where at least one of the parents has the schizophrenia/ manic-depressive/ bipolar gene.

As it turns out, in the Mexico-LeBarons’ case schizophrenia/ bipolar disease/ personality disorders not only ran in BOTH our Grandmother Maud’s parents’ family trees, but ALSO in Grandfather Dayer’s family tree. That would more than double the schizophrenic /bipolar genetics and heritability.

I do not personally know about any mental disorders that ran in my great-grandmother Lucinda Mariah Emmerson’s family line. Only that, though schizophrenia is found in all nationalities and races, Sweden and Ireland rate the highest for this disorder. Norway follows close behind. (The Scots Irish? When history’s followed back far enough, they are Irish.)

In past decades, schizophrenia was often called “Manic Depression.” Today it is usually referred to as Bipolar Disease. “McDonald” is an Irish/ Scots Irish surname. “Emmerson” is a Swedish surname. I mention this as only one piece of the puzzle contributing to mental challenges in my beloved Mexico-LeBaron family line.

Though my grandmother Maud’s parents Wm. Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emerson had mental illness running in their family trees (as many family trees do, I might add), out of Grandma Maud’s own immediate family of origin, none of her siblings suffered notable mental illness—as far as I know. And none of Wesley and Mariah McDonald’s children exhibited any of the mental illness that existed in their father Wesley McDonald’s later years.

Grandma Maud told me about a number of occasions in her life when she’d heard a voice speak to her “plain as day.” This and other such things may have been mild signs of Schizophrenia in Gramma Maud. But I read in a book on Schizophrenia that eating even part of a green potato, among other things, could affect a temporary Schizophrenic disorder in at least some people. So you never know.

Case in point, however: The mental-illness gene my great-grandfather William Wesley McDonald carried DID skip a generation! That is, it didn’t show up, as far as I know, in the siblings of my grandmother Maud McDonald’s family of origin. BUT it showed up BIG-TIME in the next generation — Grandpa Dayer and Grandma Maud LeBarons’ children. Most, if not all of their living children had mental problems to one degree or another.

For example, every one of Grandpa and Grandma LeBaron’s seven living sons claimed to be, at one time or another and to one degree or another, “The one mighty and strong”/OM&S (God’s spoke person on earth). [2] Some of this may have been brought on by upbringing, desires for power and profit, and other such, rather than by defective genes.

But it’s also likely they heard voices, and had revelations, dreams, and inspiration that told them they were “the one mighty and strong prophet” spoken of in Mormon Scriptures.

Grandpa and Grandma LeBaron’s creative and talented daughter Lucinda spent most of her life in a mental institution — as did their brilliant oldest son Ben. And their disturbed son Ervil went clear over the cliff—“was the spittin’ image,” said Grandmamma Maud, of her own father William Wesley McDonald who began to hear voices, get revelations, etc., in his later yrsars. [3]t

Their gifted and beautiful daughter Esther (my mother) lived in a mild dream world along with other personality disorders. Example: from time to time she/ Mama had manic-depressive episodes/ bipolar symptoms — including a few “nervous breakdowns.” And she had a narcissistic personality disorder, including delusions of grandeur. Paranoia also visited Mama as well as pathological lying; i.e., she believed her own lies.

Nevertheless, many people loved, respected, and befriended my mother throughout her life. In other words, Mother’s mental issues didn’t get in the way of her relationships with most people—though they got in my way!

As a young woman, Mother once told people she was a Hollywood starlet and a Concert Pianist. In actuality, my grandma Maud saw to it her daughter Esther/my mother got piano lessons and the time to practice enough to memorize a number of beautiful Piano Concertos.

But that did not make her a Concert Pianist; i.e., she never held the prestigious position of accompanyig Philharmonic Orchestra’s as their Concert Pianst! Instead, she quit college early on to become the plural wife of an old man, bearing him fourteen kids along with six miscarriages within the space of 21 years; i.e., She was a stay-at-home mom.

Mother also told people she and all her kids and husband had their “callings and elections made sure.” (That is to say, HER kids were ALL going to heaven. No question about it!!)

She told people she “knew” HER husband and HER kids were going to “the highest degree of glory” “because they, like her, were so pure and saintly — so holy they were incapable of experiencing even “evil emotions such as envy or jealousy”! (That made them perfectly cut out to live polygamy, right? However, in her 21 years of marriage, Mom was too jealous to share Pop with even ONE other concurrent wife!)

Nevertheless, I don’t believe anybody in the cult ever noticed the inconsistentcies in what she preached and what she practiced. She said her Patriarchal Blessing “said so” and they believed her. This was mostly wishful thinking, exaggeration, and delusions of grandeur, on Ma’s part. Up until I escaped the LeBaron sect she belonged to, she also told people I/moi was her most perfect and holy child!

It helped cause Ma a nervous breakdown, therefore, when at age 21 I FLED the religion she raised me in — the religion she was SO sure was the ONLY true religion — the one you HAD to believe in to go to the highest degree of glory!

Needless to say, after I fled Mother’s religion/cult, she condemned me to hell, saying I wasn’t as spiritual as she and the rest of her kids were. (She somehow always took it upon herself to be my judge! … I thought that was God’s job!)

Now, back to the subject of mental illness in the Mexico-LeBarons’ immediate family: What further caused the Mexico-LeBaron children’s mental disorders is: There was not ONLY mental illness and personality disorders in BOTH my maternal grandparent’s family trees, but BOTH Grandmother Maud AND Grandfather Dayer, THEMSELVES, talked, not infrequently, about having unusually vivid dreams, revelations, and “hearing voices” — voices that spoke to them and gave them guidance. In other words, this meant double the schizophrenic characteristics in just the Mexico-LeBaron children’s parents, alone!

I know some people are gifted with a high level of intuition, extra-sensory perception/ ESP, and so forth. The gift of inspiration/ “a still, small voice,” etc., runs in creative families like the Mexico-LeBarons. And Poets are said to be prophets. Furthermore, schizophrenia runs high in creative families. Still, Grandfather Dayer’s extra-sensory perceptions went beyond that of healthy and normal.

To sum it all up, my maternal grandparents carried outward signs of mental-illness; e.g., voices talking to them, on TOP of their inner genetic markers for mental disorders. This tally sheet quadrupled chances that at least some of their children would inherit mental problems—especially given there were other stressors and traumas in their life that helped kick in the recessive genes for mental illness.

*This concludes my comments. Thank you for visi.
Now, till next time, be of good cheer; Spring is here! ~ Stephany Spencer-LeBaron

*My sister Judith Spencer’s oldest daughter was schizophrenic/bipolar. Because of this, Judy did much research, trying to understand the disease, how it came about, and how to deal with it. I don’t recall, now, the relatives she spoke with on my grandma Maud’s and grandpa Dayer’s family sides. But the information I related above was told to her by them.

[2] See “The LeBaron Story,“ and “Maud’s Story,” on Amazon.com and Kindle. Though these books were written to preach “The Church of the First Born” doctrine, they are all we have of the Mexico-LeBaron Family’s published history — about our only source, though highly biased.

[3] See “Cult Insanity” and “Shattered Dreams“ by Irene Spencer

http://texaspolygamy.blogspot.com/2008/01/ross-lebaron-accused-by-sons-of-incest.html

“The conscience of children is formed
by the influences that surrounded them;
their notions of good and evil are the result of
the moral atmosphere they breathe.”
Jean Paul Richter

We left off last week with my assertion: People should take responsibility for their actions; not project blame onto the devil nor others for what happens to them and their children.

As we saw in the previous blogs, Grandfather Dayer and Grandmother Maud’s life and child-rearing included plenty of things that could cause mental breakdowns — though they tended to put most of the blame on the persecution and ostracism their kids suffered growing up in the Mormon colonies in Mexico. No question, that took its toll!

But Grandma told us her son Ervil was the “spittin’ image” of her own father: “Even looks exactly like ‘im!” she efused. [*1] But she only divulged this long-held secret after her son Ervil began showing severe psychotic breaks — as in intent to murder his brother Joel, et Al.

In an afterthought, Grandma Maud added, disconcertingly, “Despite his bein’ highly gifted in art, music, teaching, and other areas, Pa broke in his older years — same as his grandson Ervil.

“But before he became mentally ill, my handsome father taught Art and Music in High School, often delivered sermons in church. And was a much sought-after Singer, as well as a teacher of church doctrinal classes.

“Him and my ma regularly sang duets in church and elsewhere. Both had perfect pitch … could sight-sing sheet music, so they could do fine when they had no instrumental backup or a pitchpipe. They really knew their Music Theory, too. Music was very important in my home as we grew up.”

Unfortunately, that’s pretty much all Grandma would tell about her father. In fact, as I pointed out, she never, ever let anybody know about her father going off the deep end until she saw her son Ervil, “had the spirit of murder,” as she referred to it in her letters to Ervil. [*1]

Makes me wonder what else my Grandmother Maud never told us about her family of origin. What else was she hiding? For example, why would she marry my Grandfather Dayer when he was an outcast (though she says when she married him she didn’t know he was an outcast).

In the same breath, she claimed her “McDonalds of Arizona” family “were highly respected and well to do—owned a real estate office.” I only know (from personal experience) Grandma, though I love her, was a “storyteller.” [*2]

But I understand her brother Max McDonald (who was a pal of Pres. Spencer W. Kimball in his young years—they played and performed music together, among other things) was a Real Estate broker and owned his own Real Estate office.

Because being “crazy” carried such stigma and shame back in Grandmother’s day, as noted earlier, she only let us know about her own father’s mental breakdown when it became absolutely necessary to do everything in her power to get her dear son Ervil to see the error of his ways … in hopes he would not end up a “Cain.”

In the next blog, I will continue with this mental-illness thread, tying it in with incest in my Mexico-LeBaron family: Grandpa Dayer’s father Benjamin Franklin LeBaron married his first cousin Sarah Jane Johnson—daughter of his/ Benjamin Franklin LeBaron’s maternal uncle Benjamin F. Johnson’s seventh wife).[*1]

*1– See: “The LeBaron Story,” Pages 201 through 210. Also see: “Maud’s Story.” Both books are/ were available on Amazon.com and/or Kindle. Though these books were written mostly to preach The Church of the First Born dogma, they’re all we have of the Mexico-LeBaron family’s published history.

NOTE: For those questioning what I quoted Grandma saying, please check out the following Facebook statement (used without my niece Vicky LeBaron’s permission, as of yet, because I trust she won’t mind):

2-7-2019: “I heard my grandmother — G.Grandma Maud’s, daughter Esther LeBaron Spencer — say on multiple occasions almost exactly what Steph Spencer is saying.
I also heard one of G.G. Maud’s daughter-in-laws say the same type of comments about what Maud had told her about Ervil, in various conversations over the years:

“Basically, that mental illness ran in the McDonald family. And that she had been concerned about Ervil because of her father’s mental health struggles, and the fact that Ervil reminded her of her father more than any of her other sons. [She said] ‘He was handsome like her father.’ Or ‘He had a charismatic personality and a way with words.’ If I’m not mistaken, her father was rather tall, too [like her son Ervil].

“I don’t particularly think uncle Ervil looked like great-great-grandfather Wesley, either, but she may have recognized mannerisms and perhaps his walk, or the way he talked, etc., as being like her father. Often, I think the way my children act reminds me more of their grandparents and great grandparents, than the way they look.
And I definitely feel like several of my children are very much like their grandparents and others don’t seem to see it.”

“

*2– See “Cult Insanity” by Irene Spencer
https://youtu.be/-6QUWqQOc8Q

Pt 33:
My Mama Esther LeBaron Spencer and Family Incest

“The heart of the mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.”
Honore De Balzac

Incest on my maternal grandfather Alma Dayer LeBaron’s side definitely contributed to the mental illness prevalent in most of my maternal grandparents’ ten children who lived to adulthood!

Grandfather Alma Dayer LeBaron, Sr.’s parents were first cousins: His grandfather Benjamin Franklin Johnson’s seventh wife’s daughter Sarah Jane Johnson married her paternal Aunt Esther Melita Johnson’s son Benjamin Franklin LeBaron—Benjamin Franklin Johnson’s nephew. Incest plain and simple!

The dilemma — and the reason incest is illegal is that when close relatives marry, they compound bad/recessive genes in their family tree.

Says historian Kris Wray:
Benjamin F. Johnson had a brilliant brother, Seth Johnson, who, he said in his “My Life’s Review,” experienced “mania” and was “weakened in mind” at one time … though he stated he had a “sound” mind later.

“As far as Owen LeBaron, I’d gamble his mental illness came from the Johnson/LeBaron line. His dad’s (William Farland LeBaron) parents were David Tully LeBaron and Harriett Naomi Johnson. Grandpa David Tully’s parents were David Tully LeBaron (Sr) and Esther Malita Johnson [Benjamin F. Johnson’s sister].”

In other words, there WAS genetic disposition for mental illness in the LeBaron AND Johnson lines (NOT just in my grandmother Maud McDonald’s line). Dayer’s dad marrying his Johnson first-cousin magnified it.

Mania is a facet of type I bipolar disorder in which the mood state is abnormally heightened and accompanied by hyperactivity and a reduced need for sleep.

By contrast, hypomania (often described as “mania-light”) is a type II bipolar disorder which neither has the range nor severity of symptoms that classic mania has. (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjKv53WyubgAhUUs54KHXqaBBkQFjACegQIBxAL&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.verywellmind.com%2Fsymptoms-of-mania-380311&usg=AOvVaw1rN1sW2GH8_ntXBJYx8aKY)

In my quest to further understand what might have caused the unusual amount of mental illness in my Mexico-LeBaron family, years ago I was told the following by my sister Judith Spencer: “Mental illness ran in the bloodlines of BOTof our Grandma Maud’s parents William Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emmerson.

“People TOLD our grandmother’s parents, William Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emerson, ‘DO NOT marry!! There’s ‘bad blood’ in your families!’ — In other words,” she said, “There was mental illness in both their family trees! For them to marry could only compound the problem. They married anyway.” * Love and libido won out!

It is now known Schizophrenia is heritable — AND SKIPS a generation to show up in the SECOND generation of children born into bloodlines where at least one of the parents has the schizophrenia/ manic-depressive/ bipolar gene.

As it turns out, in the Mexico-LeBarons’ case schizophrenia/ bipolar disease/ personality disorders not only ran in BOTH our Grandmother Maud’s parents’ family trees, but ALSO in Grandfather Dayer’s family tree. That would more than double the schizophrenic /bipolar genetics and heritability.

I do not personally know about any mental disorders that ran in my great-grandmother Lucinda Mariah Emmerson’s family line. Only that, though schizophrenia is found in all nationalities and races, Sweden and Ireland rate the highest for this disorder. Norway follows close behind. (The Scots Irish? When history’s followed back far enough, they are Irish.)

In past decades, schizophrenia was often called “Manic Depression.” Today it is usually referred to as Bipolar Disease. “McDonald” is an Irish/ Scots Irish surname. “Emmerson” is a Swedish surname. I mention this as only one piece of the puzzle contributing to mental challenges in my beloved Mexico-LeBaron family line.

Though my grandmother Maud’s parents Wm. Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emerson had mental illness running in their family trees (as many family trees do, I might add), out of Grandma Maud’s own immediate family of origin, none of her siblings suffered notable mental illness—as far as I know. And none of Wesley and Mariah McDonald’s children exhibited any of the mental illness that existed in their father Wesley McDonald’s later years.

Grandma Maud told me about a number of occasions in her life when she’d heard a voice speak to her “plain as day.” This and other such things may have been mild signs of Schizophrenia in Gramma Maud. But I read in a book on Schizophrenia that eating even part of a green potato, among other things, could affect a temporary Schizophrenic disorder in at least some people. So you never know.

Case in point, however: The mental-illness gene my great-grandfather William Wesley McDonald carried DID skip a generation! That is, it didn’t show up, as far as I know, in the siblings of my grandmother Maud McDonald’s family of origin. BUT it showed up BIG-TIME in the next generation — Grandpa Dayer and Grandma Maud LeBarons’ children. Most, if not all of their living children had mental problems to one degree or another.

For example, every one of Grandpa and Grandma LeBaron’s seven living sons claimed to be, at one time or another and to one degree or another, “The one mighty and strong”/OM&S (God’s spoke person on earth). [2] Some of this may have been brought on by upbringing, desires for power and profit, and other such, rather than by defective genes.

But it’s also likely they heard voices, and had revelations, dreams, and inspiration that told them they were “the one mighty and strong prophet” spoken of in Mormon Scriptures.

Grandpa and Grandma LeBaron’s creative and talented daughter Lucinda spent most of her life in a mental institution — as did their brilliant oldest son Ben. And their disturbed son Ervil went clear over the cliff—“was the spittin’ image,” said Grandmamma Maud, of her own father William Wesley McDonald who began to hear voices, get revelations, etc., in his later yrsars. [3]t

Their gifted and beautiful daughter Esther (my mother) lived in a mild dream world along with other personality disorders. Example: from time to time she/ Mama had manic-depressive episodes/ bipolar symptoms — including a few “nervous breakdowns.” And she had a narcissistic personality disorder, including delusions of grandeur. Paranoia also visited Mama as well as pathological lying; i.e., she believed her own lies.

Nevertheless, many people loved, respected, and befriended my mother throughout her life. In other words, Mother’s mental issues didn’t get in the way of her relationships with most people—though they got in my way!

As a young woman, Mother once told people she was a Hollywood starlet and a Concert Pianist. In actuality, my grandma Maud saw to it her daughter Esther/my mother got piano lessons and the time to practice enough to memorize a number of beautiful Piano Concertos.

But that did not make her a Concert Pianist; i.e., she never held the prestigious position of accompanyig Philharmonic Orchestra’s as their Concert Pianst! Instead, she quit college early on to become the plural wife of an old man, bearing him fourteen kids along with six miscarriages within the space of 21 years; i.e., She was a stay-at-home mom.

Mother also told people she and all her kids and husband had their “callings and elections made sure.” (That is to say, HER kids were ALL going to heaven. No question about it!!)

She told people she “knew” HER husband and HER kids were going to “the highest degree of glory” “because they, like her, were so pure and saintly — so holy they were incapable of experiencing even “evil emotions such as envy or jealousy”! (That made them perfectly cut out to live polygamy, right? However, in her 21 years of marriage, Mom was too jealous to share Pop with even ONE other concurrent wife!)

Nevertheless, I don’t believe anybody in the cult ever noticed the inconsistentcies in what she preached and what she practiced. She said her Patriarchal Blessing “said so” and they believed her. This was mostly wishful thinking, exaggeration, and delusions of grandeur, on Ma’s part. Up until I escaped the LeBaron sect she belonged to, she also told people I/moi was her most perfect and holy child!

It helped cause Ma a nervous breakdown, therefore, when at age 21 I FLED the religion she raised me in — the religion she was SO sure was the ONLY true religion — the one you HAD to believe in to go to the highest degree of glory!

Needless to say, after I fled Mother’s religion/cult, she condemned me to hell, saying I wasn’t as spiritual as she and the rest of her kids were. (She somehow always took it upon herself to be my judge! … I thought that was God’s job!)

Now, back to the subject of mental illness in the Mexico-LeBarons’ immediate family: What further caused the Mexico-LeBaron children’s mental disorders is: There was not ONLY mental illness and personality disorders in BOTH my maternal grandparent’s family trees, but BOTH Grandmother Maud AND Grandfather Dayer, THEMSELVES, talked, not infrequently, about having unusually vivid dreams, revelations, and “hearing voices” — voices that spoke to them and gave them guidance. In other words, this meant double the schizophrenic characteristics in just the Mexico-LeBaron children’s parents, alone!

I know some people are gifted with a high level of intuition, extra-sensory perception/ ESP, and so forth. The gift of inspiration/ “a still, small voice,” etc., runs in creative families like the Mexico-LeBarons. And Poets are said to be prophets. Furthermore, schizophrenia runs high in creative families. Still, Grandfather Dayer’s extra-sensory perceptions went beyond that of healthy and normal.

To sum it all up, my maternal grandparents carried outward signs of mental-illness; e.g., voices talking to them, on TOP of their inner genetic markers for mental disorders. This tally sheet quadrupled chances that at least some of their children would inherit mental problems—especially given there were other stressors and traumas in their life that helped kick in the recessive genes for mental illness.

*This concludes my comments. Thank you for visi.
Now, till next time, be of good cheer; Spring is here! ~ Stephany Spencer-LeBaron

*My sister Judith Spencer’s oldest daughter was schizophrenic/bipolar. Because of this, Judy did much research, trying to understand the disease, how it came about, and how to deal with it. I don’t recall, now, the relatives she spoke with on my grandma Maud’s and grandpa Dayer’s family sides. But the information I related above was told to her by them.

[2] See “The LeBaron Story,“ and “Maud’s Story,” on Amazon.com and Kindle. Though these books were written to preach “The Church of the First Born” doctrine, they are all we have of the Mexico-LeBaron Family’s published history — about our only source, though highly biased.

[3] See “Cult Insanity” and “Shattered Dreams“ by Irene Spencer

http://texaspolygamy.blogspot.com/2008/01/ross-lebaron-accused-by-sons-of-incest.html

“The conscience of children is formed
by the influences that surrounded them;
their notions of good and evil are the result of
the moral atmosphere they breathe.”
Jean Paul Richter

We left off last week with my assertion: People should take responsibility for their actions; not project blame onto the devil nor others for what happens to them and their children.

As we saw in the previous blogs, Grandfather Dayer and Grandmother Maud’s life and child-rearing included plenty of things that could cause mental breakdowns — though they tended to put most of the blame on the persecution and ostracism their kids suffered growing up in the Mormon colonies in Mexico. No question, that took its toll!

But Grandma told us her son Ervil was the “spittin’ image” of her own father: “Even looks exactly like ‘im!” she efused. [*1] But she only divulged this long-held secret after her son Ervil began showing severe psychotic breaks — as in intent to murder his brother Joel, et Al.

In an afterthought, Grandma Maud added, disconcertingly, “Despite his bein’ highly gifted in art, music, teaching, and other areas, Pa broke in his older years — same as his grandson Ervil.

“But before he became mentally ill, my handsome father taught Art and Music in High School, often delivered sermons in church. And was a much sought-after Singer, as well as a teacher of church doctrinal classes.

“Him and my ma regularly sang duets in church and elsewhere. Both had perfect pitch … could sight-sing sheet music, so they could do fine when they had no instrumental backup or a pitchpipe. They really knew their Music Theory, too. Music was very important in my home as we grew up.”

Unfortunately, that’s pretty much all Grandma would tell about her father. In fact, as I pointed out, she never, ever let anybody know about her father going off the deep end until she saw her son Ervil, “had the spirit of murder,” as she referred to it in her letters to Ervil. [*1]

Makes me wonder what else my Grandmother Maud never told us about her family of origin. What else was she hiding? For example, why would she marry my Grandfather Dayer when he was an outcast (though she says when she married him she didn’t know he was an outcast).

In the same breath, she claimed her “McDonalds of Arizona” family “were highly respected and well to do—owned a real estate office.” I only know (from personal experience) Grandma, though I love her, was a “storyteller.” [*2]

But I understand her brother Max McDonald (who was a pal of Pres. Spencer W. Kimball in his young years—they played and performed music together, among other things) was a Real Estate broker and owned his own Real Estate office.

Because being “crazy” carried such stigma and shame back in Grandmother’s day, as noted earlier, she only let us know about her own father’s mental breakdown when it became absolutely necessary to do everything in her power to get her dear son Ervil to see the error of his ways … in hopes he would not end up a “Cain.”

In the next blog, I will continue with this mental-illness thread, tying it in with incest in my Mexico-LeBaron family: Grandpa Dayer’s father Benjamin Franklin LeBaron married his first cousin Sarah Jane Johnson—daughter of his/ Benjamin Franklin LeBaron’s maternal uncle Benjamin F. Johnson’s seventh wife).[*1]

*1– See: “The LeBaron Story,” Pages 201 through 210. Also see: “Maud’s Story.” Both books are/ were available on Amazon.com and/or Kindle. Though these books were written mostly to preach The Church of the First Born dogma, they’re all we have of the Mexico-LeBaron family’s published history.

NOTE: For those questioning what I quoted Grandma saying, please check out the following Facebook statement (used without my niece Vicky LeBaron’s permission, as of yet, because I trust she won’t mind):

2-7-2019: “I heard my grandmother — G.Grandma Maud’s, daughter Esther LeBaron Spencer — say on multiple occasions almost exactly what Steph Spencer is saying.
I also heard one of G.G. Maud’s daughter-in-laws say the same type of comments about what Maud had told her about Ervil, in various conversations over the years:

“Basically, that mental illness ran in the McDonald family. And that she had been concerned about Ervil because of her father’s mental health struggles, and the fact that Ervil reminded her of her father more than any of her other sons. [She said] ‘He was handsome like her father.’ Or ‘He had a charismatic personality and a way with words.’ If I’m not mistaken, her father was rather tall, too [like her son Ervil].

“I don’t particularly think uncle Ervil looked like great-great-grandfather Wesley, either, but she may have recognized mannerisms and perhaps his walk, or the way he talked, etc., as being like her father. Often, I think the way my children act reminds me more of their grandparents and great grandparents, than the way they look.
And I definitely feel like several of my children are very much like their grandparents and others don’t seem to see it.”

“

*2– See “Cult Insanity” by Irene Spencer
https://youtu.be/-6QUWqQOc8Q

Pt 33:
My Mama Esther LeBaron Spencer and Family Incest

“The heart of the mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.”
Honore De Balzac

Incest on my maternal grandfather Alma Dayer LeBaron’s side definitely contributed to the mental illness prevalent in most of my maternal grandparents’ ten children who lived to adulthood!

Grandfather Alma Dayer LeBaron, Sr.’s parents were first cousins: His grandfather Benjamin Franklin Johnson’s seventh wife’s daughter Sarah Jane Johnson married her paternal Aunt Esther Melita Johnson’s son Benjamin Franklin LeBaron—Benjamin Franklin Johnson’s nephew. Incest plain and simple!

The dilemma — and the reason incest is illegal is that when close relatives marry, they compound bad/recessive genes in their family tree.

Says historian Kris Wray:
Benjamin F. Johnson had a brilliant brother, Seth Johnson, who, he said in his “My Life’s Review,” experienced “mania” and was “weakened in mind” at one time … though he stated he had a “sound” mind later.

“As far as Owen LeBaron, I’d gamble his mental illness came from the Johnson/LeBaron line. His dad’s (William Farland LeBaron) parents were David Tully LeBaron and Harriett Naomi Johnson. Grandpa David Tully’s parents were David Tully LeBaron (Sr) and Esther Malita Johnson [Benjamin F. Johnson’s sister].”

In other words, there WAS genetic disposition for mental illness in the LeBaron AND Johnson lines (NOT just in my grandmother Maud McDonald’s line). Dayer’s dad marrying his Johnson first-cousin magnified it.

Mania is a facet of type I bipolar disorder in which the mood state is abnormally heightened and accompanied by hyperactivity and a reduced need for sleep.

By contrast, hypomania (often described as “mania-light”) is a type II bipolar disorder which neither has the range nor severity of symptoms that classic mania has. (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjKv53WyubgAhUUs54KHXqaBBkQFjACegQIBxAL&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.verywellmind.com%2Fsymptoms-of-mania-380311&usg=AOvVaw1rN1sW2GH8_ntXBJYx8aKY)

In my quest to further understand what might have caused the unusual amount of mental illness in my Mexico-LeBaron family, years ago I was told the following by my sister Judith Spencer: “Mental illness ran in the bloodlines of BOTof our Grandma Maud’s parents William Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emmerson.

“People TOLD our grandmother’s parents, William Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emerson, ‘DO NOT marry!! There’s ‘bad blood’ in your families!’ — In other words,” she said, “There was mental illness in both their family trees! For them to marry could only compound the problem. They married anyway.” * Love and libido won out!

It is now known Schizophrenia is heritable — AND SKIPS a generation to show up in the SECOND generation of children born into bloodlines where at least one of the parents has the schizophrenia/ manic-depressive/ bipolar gene.

As it turns out, in the Mexico-LeBarons’ case schizophrenia/ bipolar disease/ personality disorders not only ran in BOTH our Grandmother Maud’s parents’ family trees, but ALSO in Grandfather Dayer’s family tree. That would more than double the schizophrenic /bipolar genetics and heritability.

I do not personally know about any mental disorders that ran in my great-grandmother Lucinda Mariah Emmerson’s family line. Only that, though schizophrenia is found in all nationalities and races, Sweden and Ireland rate the highest for this disorder. Norway follows close behind. (The Scots Irish? When history’s followed back far enough, they are Irish.)

In past decades, schizophrenia was often called “Manic Depression.” Today it is usually referred to as Bipolar Disease. “McDonald” is an Irish/ Scots Irish surname. “Emmerson” is a Swedish surname. I mention this as only one piece of the puzzle contributing to mental challenges in my beloved Mexico-LeBaron family line.

Though my grandmother Maud’s parents Wm. Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emerson had mental illness running in their family trees (as many family trees do, I might add), out of Grandma Maud’s own immediate family of origin, none of her siblings suffered notable mental illness—as far as I know. And none of Wesley and Mariah McDonald’s children exhibited any of the mental illness that existed in their father Wesley McDonald’s later years.

Grandma Maud told me about a number of occasions in her life when she’d heard a voice speak to her “plain as day.” This and other such things may have been mild signs of Schizophrenia in Gramma Maud. But I read in a book on Schizophrenia that eating even part of a green potato, among other things, could affect a temporary Schizophrenic disorder in at least some people. So you never know.

Case in point, however: The mental-illness gene my great-grandfather William Wesley McDonald carried DID skip a generation! That is, it didn’t show up, as far as I know, in the siblings of my grandmother Maud McDonald’s family of origin. BUT it showed up BIG-TIME in the next generation — Grandpa Dayer and Grandma Maud LeBarons’ children. Most, if not all of their living children had mental problems to one degree or another.

For example, every one of Grandpa and Grandma LeBaron’s seven living sons claimed to be, at one time or another and to one degree or another, “The one mighty and strong”/OM&S (God’s spoke person on earth). [2] Some of this may have been brought on by upbringing, desires for power and profit, and other such, rather than by defective genes.

But it’s also likely they heard voices, and had revelations, dreams, and inspiration that told them they were “the one mighty and strong prophet” spoken of in Mormon Scriptures.

Grandpa and Grandma LeBaron’s creative and talented daughter Lucinda spent most of her life in a mental institution — as did their brilliant oldest son Ben. And their disturbed son Ervil went clear over the cliff—“was the spittin’ image,” said Grandmamma Maud, of her own father William Wesley McDonald who began to hear voices, get revelations, etc., in his later yrsars. [3]t

Their gifted and beautiful daughter Esther (my mother) lived in a mild dream world along with other personality disorders. Example: from time to time she/ Mama had manic-depressive episodes/ bipolar symptoms — including a few “nervous breakdowns.” And she had a narcissistic personality disorder, including delusions of grandeur. Paranoia also visited Mama as well as pathological lying; i.e., she believed her own lies.

Nevertheless, many people loved, respected, and befriended my mother throughout her life. In other words, Mother’s mental issues didn’t get in the way of her relationships with most people—though they got in my way!

As a young woman, Mother once told people she was a Hollywood starlet and a Concert Pianist. In actuality, my grandma Maud saw to it her daughter Esther/my mother got piano lessons and the time to practice enough to memorize a number of beautiful Piano Concertos.

But that did not make her a Concert Pianist; i.e., she never held the prestigious position of accompanyig Philharmonic Orchestra’s as their Concert Pianst! Instead, she quit college early on to become the plural wife of an old man, bearing him fourteen kids along with six miscarriages within the space of 21 years; i.e., She was a stay-at-home mom.

Mother also told people she and all her kids and husband had their “callings and elections made sure.” (That is to say, HER kids were ALL going to heaven. No question about it!!)

She told people she “knew” HER husband and HER kids were going to “the highest degree of glory” “because they, like her, were so pure and saintly — so holy they were incapable of experiencing even “evil emotions such as envy or jealousy”! (That made them perfectly cut out to live polygamy, right? However, in her 21 years of marriage, Mom was too jealous to share Pop with even ONE other concurrent wife!)

Nevertheless, I don’t believe anybody in the cult ever noticed the inconsistentcies in what she preached and what she practiced. She said her Patriarchal Blessing “said so” and they believed her. This was mostly wishful thinking, exaggeration, and delusions of grandeur, on Ma’s part. Up until I escaped the LeBaron sect she belonged to, she also told people I/moi was her most perfect and holy child!

It helped cause Ma a nervous breakdown, therefore, when at age 21 I FLED the religion she raised me in — the religion she was SO sure was the ONLY true religion — the one you HAD to believe in to go to the highest degree of glory!

Needless to say, after I fled Mother’s religion/cult, she condemned me to hell, saying I wasn’t as spiritual as she and the rest of her kids were. (She somehow always took it upon herself to be my judge! … I thought that was God’s job!)

Now, back to the subject of mental illness in the Mexico-LeBarons’ immediate family: What further caused the Mexico-LeBaron children’s mental disorders is: There was not ONLY mental illness and personality disorders in BOTH my maternal grandparent’s family trees, but BOTH Grandmother Maud AND Grandfather Dayer, THEMSELVES, talked, not infrequently, about having unusually vivid dreams, revelations, and “hearing voices” — voices that spoke to them and gave them guidance. In other words, this meant double the schizophrenic characteristics in just the Mexico-LeBaron children’s parents, alone!

I know some people are gifted with a high level of intuition, extra-sensory perception/ ESP, and so forth. The gift of inspiration/ “a still, small voice,” etc., runs in creative families like the Mexico-LeBarons. And Poets are said to be prophets. Furthermore, schizophrenia runs high in creative families. Still, Grandfather Dayer’s extra-sensory perceptions went beyond that of healthy and normal.

To sum it all up, my maternal grandparents carried outward signs of mental-illness; e.g., voices talking to them, on TOP of their inner genetic markers for mental disorders. This tally sheet quadrupled chances that at least some of their children would inherit mental problems—especially given there were other stressors and traumas in their life that helped kick in the recessive genes for mental illness.

*This concludes my comments. Thank you for visi.
Now, till next time, be of good cheer; Spring is here! ~ Stephany Spencer-LeBaron

*My sister Judith Spencer’s oldest daughter was schizophrenic/bipolar. Because of this, Judy did much research, trying to understand the disease, how it came about, and how to deal with it. I don’t recall, now, the relatives she spoke with on my grandma Maud’s and grandpa Dayer’s family sides. But the information I related above was told to her by them.

[2] See “The LeBaron Story,“ and “Maud’s Story,” on Amazon.com and Kindle. Though these books were written to preach “The Church of the First Born” doctrine, they are all we have of the Mexico-LeBaron Family’s published history — about our only source, though highly biased.

[3] See “Cult Insanity” and “Shattered Dreams“ by Irene Spencer

http://texaspolygamy.blogspot.com/2008/01/ross-lebaron-accused-by-sons-of-incest.html

Pt 32:
My Mama Esther LeBaron Spencer,
the Mexico-LeBarons, and Mental Illness

“The conscience of children is formed
by the influences that surrounded them;
their notions of good and evil are the result of
the moral atmosphere they breathe.”
Jean Paul Richter

We left off last week with my assertion: People should take responsibility for their actions; not project blame onto the devil nor others for what happens to them and their children.

As we saw in the previous blogs, Grandfather Dayer and Grandmother Maud’s life and child-rearing included plenty of things that could cause mental breakdowns — though they tended to put most of the blame on the persecution and ostracism their kids suffered growing up in the Mormon colonies in Mexico. No question, that took its toll!

But Grandma told us her son Ervil was the “spittin’ image” of her own father: “Even looks exactly like ‘im!” she efused. [*1] But she only divulged this long-held secret after her son Ervil began showing severe psychotic breaks — as in intent to murder his brother Joel, et Al.

In an afterthought, Grandma Maud added, disconcertingly, “Despite his bein’ highly gifted in art, music, teaching, and other areas, Pa broke in his older years — same as his grandson Ervil.

“But before he became mentally ill, my handsome father taught Art and Music in High School, often delivered sermons in church. And was a much sought-after Singer, as well as a teacher of church doctrinal classes.

“Him and my ma regularly sang duets in church and elsewhere. Both had perfect pitch … could sight-sing sheet music, so they could do fine when they had no instrumental backup or a pitchpipe. They really knew their Music Theory, too. Music was very important in my home as we grew up.”

Unfortunately, that’s pretty much all Grandma would tell about her father. In fact, as I pointed out, she never, ever let anybody know about her father going off the deep end until she saw her son Ervil, “had the spirit of murder,” as she referred to it in her letters to Ervil. [*1]

Makes me wonder what else my Grandmother Maud never told us about her family of origin. What else was she hiding? For example, why would she marry my Grandfather Dayer when he was an outcast (though she says when she married him she didn’t know he was an outcast).

In the same breath, she claimed her “McDonalds of Arizona” family “were highly respected and well to do—owned a real estate office.” I only know (from personal experience) Grandma, though I love her, was a “storyteller.” [*2]

But I understand her brother Max McDonald (who was a pal of Pres. Spencer W. Kimball in his young years—they played and performed music together, among other things) was a Real Estate broker and owned his own Real Estate office.

Because being “crazy” carried such stigma and shame back in Grandmother’s day, as noted earlier, she only let us know about her own father’s mental breakdown when it became absolutely necessary to do everything in her power to get her dear son Ervil to see the error of his ways … in hopes he would not end up a “Cain.”

In the next blog, I will continue with this mental-illness thread, tying it in with incest in my Mexico-LeBaron family: Grandpa Dayer’s father Benjamin Franklin LeBaron married his first cousin Sarah Jane Johnson—daughter of his/ Benjamin Franklin LeBaron’s maternal uncle Benjamin F. Johnson’s seventh wife).[*1]

*1– See: “The LeBaron Story,” Pages 201 through 210. Also see: “Maud’s Story.” Both books are/ were available on Amazon.com and/or Kindle. Though these books were written mostly to preach The Church of the First Born dogma, they’re all we have of the Mexico-LeBaron family’s published history.

NOTE: For those questioning what I quoted Grandma saying, please check out the following Facebook statement (used without my niece Vicky LeBaron’s permission, as of yet, because I trust she won’t mind):

2-7-2019: “I heard my grandmother — G.Grandma Maud’s, daughter Esther LeBaron Spencer — say on multiple occasions almost exactly what Steph Spencer is saying.
I also heard one of G.G. Maud’s daughter-in-laws say the same type of comments about what Maud had told her about Ervil, in various conversations over the years:

“Basically, that mental illness ran in the McDonald family. And that she had been concerned about Ervil because of her father’s mental health struggles, and the fact that Ervil reminded her of her father more than any of her other sons. [She said] ‘He was handsome like her father.’ Or ‘He had a charismatic personality and a way with words.’ If I’m not mistaken, her father was rather tall, too [like her son Ervil].

“I don’t particularly think uncle Ervil looked like great-great-grandfather Wesley, either, but she may have recognized mannerisms and perhaps his walk, or the way he talked, etc., as being like her father. Often, I think the way my children act reminds me more of their grandparents and great grandparents, than the way they look.
And I definitely feel like several of my children are very much like their grandparents and others don’t seem to see it.”

“

*2– See “Cult Insanity” by Irene Spencer
https://youtu.be/-6QUWqQOc8Q

Pt 33:
My Mama Esther LeBaron Spencer and Family Incest

“The heart of the mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.”
Honore De Balzac

Incest on my maternal grandfather Alma Dayer LeBaron’s side definitely contributed to the mental illness prevalent in most of my maternal grandparents’ ten children who lived to adulthood!

Grandfather Alma Dayer LeBaron, Sr.’s parents were first cousins: His grandfather Benjamin Franklin Johnson’s seventh wife’s daughter Sarah Jane Johnson married her paternal Aunt Esther Melita Johnson’s son Benjamin Franklin LeBaron—Benjamin Franklin Johnson’s nephew. Incest plain and simple!

The dilemma — and the reason incest is illegal is that when close relatives marry, they compound bad/recessive genes in their family tree.

Says historian Kris Wray:
Benjamin F. Johnson had a brilliant brother, Seth Johnson, who, he said in his “My Life’s Review,” experienced “mania” and was “weakened in mind” at one time … though he stated he had a “sound” mind later.

“As far as Owen LeBaron, I’d gamble his mental illness came from the Johnson/LeBaron line. His dad’s (William Farland LeBaron) parents were David Tully LeBaron and Harriett Naomi Johnson. Grandpa David Tully’s parents were David Tully LeBaron (Sr) and Esther Malita Johnson [Benjamin F. Johnson’s sister].”

In other words, there WAS genetic disposition for mental illness in the LeBaron AND Johnson lines (NOT just in my grandmother Maud McDonald’s line). Dayer’s dad marrying his Johnson first-cousin magnified it.

Mania is a facet of type I bipolar disorder in which the mood state is abnormally heightened and accompanied by hyperactivity and a reduced need for sleep.

By contrast, hypomania (often described as “mania-light”) is a type II bipolar disorder which neither has the range nor severity of symptoms that classic mania has. (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjKv53WyubgAhUUs54KHXqaBBkQFjACegQIBxAL&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.verywellmind.com%2Fsymptoms-of-mania-380311&usg=AOvVaw1rN1sW2GH8_ntXBJYx8aKY)

In my quest to further understand what might have caused the unusual amount of mental illness in my Mexico-LeBaron family, years ago I was told the following by my sister Judith Spencer: “Mental illness ran in the bloodlines of BOTof our Grandma Maud’s parents William Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emmerson.

“People TOLD our grandmother’s parents, William Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emerson, ‘DO NOT marry!! There’s ‘bad blood’ in your families!’ — In other words,” she said, “There was mental illness in both their family trees! For them to marry could only compound the problem. They married anyway.” * Love and libido won out!

It is now known Schizophrenia is heritable — AND SKIPS a generation to show up in the SECOND generation of children born into bloodlines where at least one of the parents has the schizophrenia/ manic-depressive/ bipolar gene.

As it turns out, in the Mexico-LeBarons’ case schizophrenia/ bipolar disease/ personality disorders not only ran in BOTH our Grandmother Maud’s parents’ family trees, but ALSO in Grandfather Dayer’s family tree. That would more than double the schizophrenic /bipolar genetics and heritability.

I do not personally know about any mental disorders that ran in my great-grandmother Lucinda Mariah Emmerson’s family line. Only that, though schizophrenia is found in all nationalities and races, Sweden and Ireland rate the highest for this disorder. Norway follows close behind. (The Scots Irish? When history’s followed back far enough, they are Irish.)

In past decades, schizophrenia was often called “Manic Depression.” Today it is usually referred to as Bipolar Disease. “McDonald” is an Irish/ Scots Irish surname. “Emmerson” is a Swedish surname. I mention this as only one piece of the puzzle contributing to mental challenges in my beloved Mexico-LeBaron family line.

Though my grandmother Maud’s parents Wm. Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emerson had mental illness running in their family trees (as many family trees do, I might add), out of Grandma Maud’s own immediate family of origin, none of her siblings suffered notable mental illness—as far as I know. And none of Wesley and Mariah McDonald’s children exhibited any of the mental illness that existed in their father Wesley McDonald’s later years.

Grandma Maud told me about a number of occasions in her life when she’d heard a voice speak to her “plain as day.” This and other such things may have been mild signs of Schizophrenia in Gramma Maud. But I read in a book on Schizophrenia that eating even part of a green potato, among other things, could affect a temporary Schizophrenic disorder in at least some people. So you never know.

Case in point, however: The mental-illness gene my great-grandfather William Wesley McDonald carried DID skip a generation! That is, it didn’t show up, as far as I know, in the siblings of my grandmother Maud McDonald’s family of origin. BUT it showed up BIG-TIME in the next generation — Grandpa Dayer and Grandma Maud LeBarons’ children. Most, if not all of their living children had mental problems to one degree or another.

For example, every one of Grandpa and Grandma LeBaron’s seven living sons claimed to be, at one time or another and to one degree or another, “The one mighty and strong”/OM&S (God’s spoke person on earth). [2] Some of this may have been brought on by upbringing, desires for power and profit, and other such, rather than by defective genes.

But it’s also likely they heard voices, and had revelations, dreams, and inspiration that told them they were “the one mighty and strong prophet” spoken of in Mormon Scriptures.

Grandpa and Grandma LeBaron’s creative and talented daughter Lucinda spent most of her life in a mental institution — as did their brilliant oldest son Ben. And their disturbed son Ervil went clear over the cliff—“was the spittin’ image,” said Grandmamma Maud, of her own father William Wesley McDonald who began to hear voices, get revelations, etc., in his later yrsars. [3]t

Their gifted and beautiful daughter Esther (my mother) lived in a mild dream world along with other personality disorders. Example: from time to time she/ Mama had manic-depressive episodes/ bipolar symptoms — including a few “nervous breakdowns.” And she had a narcissistic personality disorder, including delusions of grandeur. Paranoia also visited Mama as well as pathological lying; i.e., she believed her own lies.

Nevertheless, many people loved, respected, and befriended my mother throughout her life. In other words, Mother’s mental issues didn’t get in the way of her relationships with most people—though they got in my way!

As a young woman, Mother once told people she was a Hollywood starlet and a Concert Pianist. In actuality, my grandma Maud saw to it her daughter Esther/my mother got piano lessons and the time to practice enough to memorize a number of beautiful Piano Concertos.

But that did not make her a Concert Pianist; i.e., she never held the prestigious position of accompanyig Philharmonic Orchestra’s as their Concert Pianst! Instead, she quit college early on to become the plural wife of an old man, bearing him fourteen kids along with six miscarriages within the space of 21 years; i.e., She was a stay-at-home mom.

Mother also told people she and all her kids and husband had their “callings and elections made sure.” (That is to say, HER kids were ALL going to heaven. No question about it!!)

She told people she “knew” HER husband and HER kids were going to “the highest degree of glory” “because they, like her, were so pure and saintly — so holy they were incapable of experiencing even “evil emotions such as envy or jealousy”! (That made them perfectly cut out to live polygamy, right? However, in her 21 years of marriage, Mom was too jealous to share Pop with even ONE other concurrent wife!)

Nevertheless, I don’t believe anybody in the cult ever noticed the inconsistentcies in what she preached and what she practiced. She said her Patriarchal Blessing “said so” and they believed her. This was mostly wishful thinking, exaggeration, and delusions of grandeur, on Ma’s part. Up until I escaped the LeBaron sect she belonged to, she also told people I/moi was her most perfect and holy child!

It helped cause Ma a nervous breakdown, therefore, when at age 21 I FLED the religion she raised me in — the religion she was SO sure was the ONLY true religion — the one you HAD to believe in to go to the highest degree of glory!

Needless to say, after I fled Mother’s religion/cult, she condemned me to hell, saying I wasn’t as spiritual as she and the rest of her kids were. (She somehow always took it upon herself to be my judge! … I thought that was God’s job!)

Now, back to the subject of mental illness in the Mexico-LeBarons’ immediate family: What further caused the Mexico-LeBaron children’s mental disorders is: There was not ONLY mental illness and personality disorders in BOTH my maternal grandparent’s family trees, but BOTH Grandmother Maud AND Grandfather Dayer, THEMSELVES, talked, not infrequently, about having unusually vivid dreams, revelations, and “hearing voices” — voices that spoke to them and gave them guidance. In other words, this meant double the schizophrenic characteristics in just the Mexico-LeBaron children’s parents, alone!

I know some people are gifted with a high level of intuition, extra-sensory perception/ ESP, and so forth. The gift of inspiration/ “a still, small voice,” etc., runs in creative families like the Mexico-LeBarons. And Poets are said to be prophets. Furthermore, schizophrenia runs high in creative families. Still, Grandfather Dayer’s extra-sensory perceptions went beyond that of healthy and normal.

To sum it all up, my maternal grandparents carried outward signs of mental-illness; e.g., voices talking to them, on TOP of their inner genetic markers for mental disorders. This tally sheet quadrupled chances that at least some of their children would inherit mental problems—especially given there were other stressors and traumas in their life that helped kick in the recessive genes for mental illness.

*This concludes my comments. Thank you for visi.
Now, till next time, be of good cheer; Spring is here! ~ Stephany Spencer-LeBaron

*My sister Judith Spencer’s oldest daughter was schizophrenic/bipolar. Because of this, Judy did much research, trying to understand the disease, how it came about, and how to deal with it. I don’t recall, now, the relatives she spoke with on my grandma Maud’s and grandpa Dayer’s family sides. But the information I related above was told to her by them.

[2] See “The LeBaron Story,“ and “Maud’s Story,” on Amazon.com and Kindle. Though these books were written to preach “The Church of the First Born” doctrine, they are all we have of the Mexico-LeBaron Family’s published history — about our only source, though highly biased.

[3] See “Cult Insanity” and “Shattered Dreams“ by Irene Spencer

http://texaspolygamy.blogspot.com/2008/01/ross-lebaron-accused-by-sons-of-incest.html

Pt 32:
My Mama Esther LeBaron Spencer,
the Mexico-LeBarons, and Mental Illness

“The conscience of children is formed
by the influences that surrounded them;
their notions of good and evil are the result of
the moral atmosphere they breathe.”
Jean Paul Richter

We left off last week with my assertion: People should take responsibility for their actions; not project blame onto the devil nor others for what happens to them and their children.

As we saw in the previous blogs, Grandfather Dayer and Grandmother Maud’s life and child-rearing included plenty of things that could cause mental breakdowns — though they tended to put most of the blame on the persecution and ostracism their kids suffered growing up in the Mormon colonies in Mexico. No question, that took its toll!

But Grandma told us her son Ervil was the “spittin’ image” of her own father: “Even looks exactly like ‘im!” she efused. [*1] But she only divulged this long-held secret after her son Ervil began showing severe psychotic breaks — as in intent to murder his brother Joel, et Al.

In an afterthought, Grandma Maud added, disconcertingly, “Despite his bein’ highly gifted in art, music, teaching, and other areas, Pa broke in his older years — same as his grandson Ervil.

“But before he became mentally ill, my handsome father taught Art and Music in High School, often delivered sermons in church. And was a much sought-after Singer, as well as a teacher of church doctrinal classes.

“Him and my ma regularly sang duets in church and elsewhere. Both had perfect pitch … could sight-sing sheet music, so they could do fine when they had no instrumental backup or a pitchpipe. They really knew their Music Theory, too. Music was very important in my home as we grew up.”

Unfortunately, that’s pretty much all Grandma would tell about her father. In fact, as I pointed out, she never, ever let anybody know about her father going off the deep end until she saw her son Ervil, “had the spirit of murder,” as she referred to it in her letters to Ervil. [*1]

Makes me wonder what else my Grandmother Maud never told us about her family of origin. What else was she hiding? For example, why would she marry my Grandfather Dayer when he was an outcast (though she says when she married him she didn’t know he was an outcast).

In the same breath, she claimed her “McDonalds of Arizona” family “were highly respected and well to do—owned a real estate office.” I only know (from personal experience) Grandma, though I love her, was a “storyteller.” [*2]

But I understand her brother Max McDonald (who was a pal of Pres. Spencer W. Kimball in his young years—they played and performed music together, among other things) was a Real Estate broker and owned his own Real Estate office.

Because being “crazy” carried such stigma and shame back in Grandmother’s day, as noted earlier, she only let us know about her own father’s mental breakdown when it became absolutely necessary to do everything in her power to get her dear son Ervil to see the error of his ways … in hopes he would not end up a “Cain.”

In the next blog, I will continue with this mental-illness thread, tying it in with incest in my Mexico-LeBaron family: Grandpa Dayer’s father Benjamin Franklin LeBaron married his first cousin Sarah Jane Johnson—daughter of his/ Benjamin Franklin LeBaron’s maternal uncle Benjamin F. Johnson’s seventh wife).[*1]

*1– See: “The LeBaron Story,” Pages 201 through 210. Also see: “Maud’s Story.” Both books are/ were available on Amazon.com and/or Kindle. Though these books were written mostly to preach The Church of the First Born dogma, they’re all we have of the Mexico-LeBaron family’s published history.

NOTE: For those questioning what I quoted Grandma saying, please check out the following Facebook statement (used without my niece Vicky LeBaron’s permission, as of yet, because I trust she won’t mind):

2-7-2019: “I heard my grandmother — G.Grandma Maud’s, daughter Esther LeBaron Spencer — say on multiple occasions almost exactly what Steph Spencer is saying.
I also heard one of G.G. Maud’s daughter-in-laws say the same type of comments about what Maud had told her about Ervil, in various conversations over the years:

“Basically, that mental illness ran in the McDonald family. And that she had been concerned about Ervil because of her father’s mental health struggles, and the fact that Ervil reminded her of her father more than any of her other sons. [She said] ‘He was handsome like her father.’ Or ‘He had a charismatic personality and a way with words.’ If I’m not mistaken, her father was rather tall, too [like her son Ervil].

“I don’t particularly think uncle Ervil looked like great-great-grandfather Wesley, either, but she may have recognized mannerisms and perhaps his walk, or the way he talked, etc., as being like her father. Often, I think the way my children act reminds me more of their grandparents and great grandparents, than the way they look.
And I definitely feel like several of my children are very much like their grandparents and others don’t seem to see it.”

“

*2– See “Cult Insanity” by Irene Spencer
https://youtu.be/-6QUWqQOc8Q

Pt 33:
My Mama Esther LeBaron Spencer and Family Incest

“The heart of the mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.”
Honore De Balzac

Incest on my maternal grandfather Alma Dayer LeBaron’s side definitely contributed to the mental illness prevalent in most of my maternal grandparents’ ten children who lived to adulthood!

Grandfather Alma Dayer LeBaron, Sr.’s parents were first cousins: His grandfather Benjamin Franklin Johnson’s seventh wife’s daughter Sarah Jane Johnson married her paternal Aunt Esther Melita Johnson’s son Benjamin Franklin LeBaron—Benjamin Franklin Johnson’s nephew. Incest plain and simple!

The dilemma — and the reason incest is illegal is that when close relatives marry, they compound bad/recessive genes in their family tree.

Says historian Kris Wray:
Benjamin F. Johnson had a brilliant brother, Seth Johnson, who, he said in his “My Life’s Review,” experienced “mania” and was “weakened in mind” at one time … though he stated he had a “sound” mind later.

“As far as Owen LeBaron, I’d gamble his mental illness came from the Johnson/LeBaron line. His dad’s (William Farland LeBaron) parents were David Tully LeBaron and Harriett Naomi Johnson. Grandpa David Tully’s parents were David Tully LeBaron (Sr) and Esther Malita Johnson [Benjamin F. Johnson’s sister].”

In other words, there WAS genetic disposition for mental illness in the LeBaron AND Johnson lines (NOT just in my grandmother Maud McDonald’s line). Dayer’s dad marrying his Johnson first-cousin magnified it.

Mania is a facet of type I bipolar disorder in which the mood state is abnormally heightened and accompanied by hyperactivity and a reduced need for sleep.

By contrast, hypomania (often described as “mania-light”) is a type II bipolar disorder which neither has the range nor severity of symptoms that classic mania has. (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjKv53WyubgAhUUs54KHXqaBBkQFjACegQIBxAL&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.verywellmind.com%2Fsymptoms-of-mania-380311&usg=AOvVaw1rN1sW2GH8_ntXBJYx8aKY)

In my quest to further understand what might have caused the unusual amount of mental illness in my Mexico-LeBaron family, years ago I was told the following by my sister Judith Spencer: “Mental illness ran in the bloodlines of BOTof our Grandma Maud’s parents William Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emmerson.

“People TOLD our grandmother’s parents, William Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emerson, ‘DO NOT marry!! There’s ‘bad blood’ in your families!’ — In other words,” she said, “There was mental illness in both their family trees! For them to marry could only compound the problem. They married anyway.” * Love and libido won out!

It is now known Schizophrenia is heritable — AND SKIPS a generation to show up in the SECOND generation of children born into bloodlines where at least one of the parents has the schizophrenia/ manic-depressive/ bipolar gene.

As it turns out, in the Mexico-LeBarons’ case schizophrenia/ bipolar disease/ personality disorders not only ran in BOTH our Grandmother Maud’s parents’ family trees, but ALSO in Grandfather Dayer’s family tree. That would more than double the schizophrenic /bipolar genetics and heritability.

I do not personally know about any mental disorders that ran in my great-grandmother Lucinda Mariah Emmerson’s family line. Only that, though schizophrenia is found in all nationalities and races, Sweden and Ireland rate the highest for this disorder. Norway follows close behind. (The Scots Irish? When history’s followed back far enough, they are Irish.)

In past decades, schizophrenia was often called “Manic Depression.” Today it is usually referred to as Bipolar Disease. “McDonald” is an Irish/ Scots Irish surname. “Emmerson” is a Swedish surname. I mention this as only one piece of the puzzle contributing to mental challenges in my beloved Mexico-LeBaron family line.

Though my grandmother Maud’s parents Wm. Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emerson had mental illness running in their family trees (as many family trees do, I might add), out of Grandma Maud’s own immediate family of origin, none of her siblings suffered notable mental illness—as far as I know. And none of Wesley and Mariah McDonald’s children exhibited any of the mental illness that existed in their father Wesley McDonald’s later years.

Grandma Maud told me about a number of occasions in her life when she’d heard a voice speak to her “plain as day.” This and other such things may have been mild signs of Schizophrenia in Gramma Maud. But I read in a book on Schizophrenia that eating even part of a green potato, among other things, could affect a temporary Schizophrenic disorder in at least some people. So you never know.

Case in point, however: The mental-illness gene my great-grandfather William Wesley McDonald carried DID skip a generation! That is, it didn’t show up, as far as I know, in the siblings of my grandmother Maud McDonald’s family of origin. BUT it showed up BIG-TIME in the next generation — Grandpa Dayer and Grandma Maud LeBarons’ children. Most, if not all of their living children had mental problems to one degree or another.

For example, every one of Grandpa and Grandma LeBaron’s seven living sons claimed to be, at one time or another and to one degree or another, “The one mighty and strong”/OM&S (God’s spoke person on earth). [2] Some of this may have been brought on by upbringing, desires for power and profit, and other such, rather than by defective genes.

But it’s also likely they heard voices, and had revelations, dreams, and inspiration that told them they were “the one mighty and strong prophet” spoken of in Mormon Scriptures.

Grandpa and Grandma LeBaron’s creative and talented daughter Lucinda spent most of her life in a mental institution — as did their brilliant oldest son Ben. And their disturbed son Ervil went clear over the cliff—“was the spittin’ image,” said Grandmamma Maud, of her own father William Wesley McDonald who began to hear voices, get revelations, etc., in his later yrsars. [3]t

Their gifted and beautiful daughter Esther (my mother) lived in a mild dream world along with other personality disorders. Example: from time to time she/ Mama had manic-depressive episodes/ bipolar symptoms — including a few “nervous breakdowns.” And she had a narcissistic personality disorder, including delusions of grandeur. Paranoia also visited Mama as well as pathological lying; i.e., she believed her own lies.

Nevertheless, many people loved, respected, and befriended my mother throughout her life. In other words, Mother’s mental issues didn’t get in the way of her relationships with most people—though they got in my way!

As a young woman, Mother once told people she was a Hollywood starlet and a Concert Pianist. In actuality, my grandma Maud saw to it her daughter Esther/my mother got piano lessons and the time to practice enough to memorize a number of beautiful Piano Concertos.

But that did not make her a Concert Pianist; i.e., she never held the prestigious position of accompanyig Philharmonic Orchestra’s as their Concert Pianst! Instead, she quit college early on to become the plural wife of an old man, bearing him fourteen kids along with six miscarriages within the space of 21 years; i.e., She was a stay-at-home mom.

Mother also told people she and all her kids and husband had their “callings and elections made sure.” (That is to say, HER kids were ALL going to heaven. No question about it!!)

She told people she “knew” HER husband and HER kids were going to “the highest degree of glory” “because they, like her, were so pure and saintly — so holy they were incapable of experiencing even “evil emotions such as envy or jealousy”! (That made them perfectly cut out to live polygamy, right? However, in her 21 years of marriage, Mom was too jealous to share Pop with even ONE other concurrent wife!)

Nevertheless, I don’t believe anybody in the cult ever noticed the inconsistentcies in what she preached and what she practiced. She said her Patriarchal Blessing “said so” and they believed her. This was mostly wishful thinking, exaggeration, and delusions of grandeur, on Ma’s part. Up until I escaped the LeBaron sect she belonged to, she also told people I/moi was her most perfect and holy child!

It helped cause Ma a nervous breakdown, therefore, when at age 21 I FLED the religion she raised me in — the religion she was SO sure was the ONLY true religion — the one you HAD to believe in to go to the highest degree of glory!

Needless to say, after I fled Mother’s religion/cult, she condemned me to hell, saying I wasn’t as spiritual as she and the rest of her kids were. (She somehow always took it upon herself to be my judge! … I thought that was God’s job!)

Now, back to the subject of mental illness in the Mexico-LeBarons’ immediate family: What further caused the Mexico-LeBaron children’s mental disorders is: There was not ONLY mental illness and personality disorders in BOTH my maternal grandparent’s family trees, but BOTH Grandmother Maud AND Grandfather Dayer, THEMSELVES, talked, not infrequently, about having unusually vivid dreams, revelations, and “hearing voices” — voices that spoke to them and gave them guidance. In other words, this meant double the schizophrenic characteristics in just the Mexico-LeBaron children’s parents, alone!

I know some people are gifted with a high level of intuition, extra-sensory perception/ ESP, and so forth. The gift of inspiration/ “a still, small voice,” etc., runs in creative families like the Mexico-LeBarons. And Poets are said to be prophets. Furthermore, schizophrenia runs high in creative families. Still, Grandfather Dayer’s extra-sensory perceptions went beyond that of healthy and normal.

To sum it all up, my maternal grandparents carried outward signs of mental-illness; e.g., voices talking to them, on TOP of their inner genetic markers for mental disorders. This tally sheet quadrupled chances that at least some of their children would inherit mental problems—especially given there were other stressors and traumas in their life that helped kick in the recessive genes for mental illness.

*This concludes my comments. Thank you for visi.
Now, till next time, be of good cheer; Spring is here! ~ Stephany Spencer-LeBaron

*My sister Judith Spencer’s oldest daughter was schizophrenic/bipolar. Because of this, Judy did much research, trying to understand the disease, how it came about, and how to deal with it. I don’t recall, now, the relatives she spoke with on my grandma Maud’s and grandpa Dayer’s family sides. But the information I related above was told to her by them.

[2] See “The LeBaron Story,“ and “Maud’s Story,” on Amazon.com and Kindle. Though these books were written to preach “The Church of the First Born” doctrine, they are all we have of the Mexico-LeBaron Family’s published history — about our only source, though highly biased.

[3] See “Cult Insanity” and “Shattered Dreams“ by Irene Spencer

http://texaspolygamy.blogspot.com/2008/01/ross-lebaron-accused-by-sons-of-incest.html

[3] See “Cult Insanity” and “Shattered Dreams“ by Irene Spencer

Pt 31-D:
My Mama Esther LeBaron Spencer, The-Mexico-LeBarons, and Mental Illness

https://stephanyspencer.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/stephany-spencer-on-cd-2.m4a

~Picking up where we left off on “Pt 31-C: My Mama Esther LeBaron Spencer, The- Mexico-LeBarons, and Mental Illness”:

Y– There was incest involved, too. How much? Don’t know. Only know my mother told the reseacher Dale Van Atta there were “skeletons in the Mexico-LeBaron’s closets.” (Wish she would have told the rest of us about them!)
But I do happen to know a few closeted skeletons. I’ll relate them, perhaps, in my upcoming book. It’s enough to know, for now, that first cousins married each other, for example — even having been told that would compound the mental illness that ran in both sides of their families! (Is the adidge “All’s fair in love and war” really true? I only know Cupid’s/ Libido’s bow shoots a strong arrow!)

Z– Last, though not least — and a biggie: The Mexico-LeBarons were CREATIVES. If you study the genealogy of poets, artists, musicians, inventors, writers, spiritual leaders, and so forth, you will find mental illness is a common thread running in many of these creatives’ families. The following are some of the many books I found in the Public Library covering this topic:

Suffice it to say, to generate healing and better mental health, people must take responsibility for their own actions—not blame the devil or other people for what happens to them and their children.

Raising children is a very serious business. It makes a huge difference what the parents do and don’t do—and what the atmosphere and temperature is of the home and community they grow up in. “It takes a village.” When it comes to social ills, there is enough blame to go around. Enough said, though I could write a book on the subject of child-rearing—as many writers have already done!

Despite the unfortunate mental illness in my Mexico-LeBaron family born to Maud and Dayer, presently and in the past there have been many notable LeBarons. The Mexico-LeBarons are but one faction of the LeBarons the world over. But the Mexico-LeBarons have a huge posterity—I do mean HUGE! My own parents’ progeny, alone, extends into the thousands. And the number is growing exponentially as I write.

Many of these gifted Mexico-LeBarons, the offshoots from Dayer and Maud LeBaron, are doing courageous, creative, and outstanding things. Very few of them, despite the many travails they have survived, have succumbed to mental illness.

All of them, as far as I know, are making a go of it. And most of them are doing better than the Mexico-LeBaron family my mother was born into. It says a lot for my Mexico-LeBaron family “forrest.” They are all glowing examples of what the human spirit is capable of.

NOTE: The following is a lovely message left me on my Facebook page by Julie LeBaron Elkins, one of my many nieces. It’s the perfect example of feedback I look for and am motivated by. I appreciate lovely Julie’s taking the time to write this beautifully-worded paragraph:

“My Auntie is so amazing! Ty for your blog, I know it has helped me. Still reading, I have to take breaks as it does affect me and I have to still peal the layers off. Ty for the example you are and the courage it took to get where you are and the heart to help your family even though they turned their backs on you. I am so happy that I have you in my life and finally got to meet you. Will remember to take notes as I am reading to give you feedback as promised.”

Pt 32:
My Mama Esther LeBaron Spencer,
the Mexico-LeBarons, and Mental Illness

“The conscience of children is formed
by the influences that surrounded them;
their notions of good and evil are the result of
the moral atmosphere they breathe.”
Jean Paul Richter

We left off last week with my assertion: People should take responsibility for their actions; not project blame onto the devil nor others for what happens to them and their children.

As we saw in the previous blogs, Grandfather Dayer and Grandmother Maud’s life and child-rearing included plenty of things that could cause mental breakdowns — though they tended to put most of the blame on the persecution and ostracism their kids suffered growing up in the Mormon colonies in Mexico. No question, that took its toll!

But Grandma told us her son Ervil was the “spittin’ image” of her own father: “Even looks exactly like ‘im!” she efused. [*1] But she only divulged this long-held secret after her son Ervil began showing severe psychotic breaks — as in intent to murder his brother Joel, et Al.

In an afterthought, Grandma Maud added, disconcertingly, “Despite his bein’ highly gifted in art, music, teaching, and other areas, Pa broke in his older years — same as his grandson Ervil.

“But before he became mentally ill, my handsome father taught Art and Music in High School, often delivered sermons in church. And was a much sought-after Singer, as well as a teacher of church doctrinal classes.

“Him and my ma regularly sang duets in church and elsewhere. Both had perfect pitch … could sight-sing sheet music, so they could do fine when they had no instrumental backup or a pitchpipe. They really knew their Music Theory, too. Music was very important in my home as we grew up.”

Unfortunately, that’s pretty much all Grandma would tell about her father. In fact, as I pointed out, she never, ever let anybody know about her father going off the deep end until she saw her son Ervil, “had the spirit of murder,” as she referred to it in her letters to Ervil. [*1]

Makes me wonder what else my Grandmother Maud never told us about her family of origin. What else was she hiding? For example, why would she marry my Grandfather Dayer when he was an outcast (though she says when she married him she didn’t know he was an outcast).

In the same breath, she claimed her “McDonalds of Arizona” family “were highly respected and well to do—owned a real estate office.” I only know (from personal experience) Grandma, though I love her, was a “storyteller.” [*2]

But I understand her brother Max McDonald (who was a pal of Pres. Spencer W. Kimball in his young years—they played and performed music together, among other things) was a Real Estate broker and owned his own Real Estate office.

Because being “crazy” carried such stigma and shame back in Grandmother’s day, as noted earlier, she only let us know about her own father’s mental breakdown when it became absolutely necessary to do everything in her power to get her dear son Ervil to see the error of his ways … in hopes he would not end up a “Cain.”

In the next blog, I will continue with this mental-illness thread, tying it in with incest in my Mexico-LeBaron family: Grandpa Dayer’s father Benjamin Franklin LeBaron married his first cousin Sarah Jane Johnson—daughter of his/ Benjamin Franklin LeBaron’s maternal uncle Benjamin F. Johnson’s seventh wife).[*1]

*1– See: “The LeBaron Story,” Pages 201 through 210. Also see: “Maud’s Story.” Both books are/ were available on Amazon.com and/or Kindle. Though these books were written mostly to preach The Church of the First Born dogma, they’re all we have of the Mexico-LeBaron family’s published history.

NOTE: For those questioning what I quoted Grandma saying, please check out the following Facebook statement (used without my niece Vicky LeBaron’s permission, as of yet, because I trust she won’t mind):

2-7-2019: “I heard my grandmother — G.Grandma Maud’s, daughter Esther LeBaron Spencer — say on multiple occasions almost exactly what Steph Spencer is saying.
I also heard one of G.G. Maud’s daughter-in-laws say the same type of comments about what Maud had told her about Ervil, in various conversations over the years:

“Basically, that mental illness ran in the McDonald family. And that she had been concerned about Ervil because of her father’s mental health struggles, and the fact that Ervil reminded her of her father more than any of her other sons. [She said] ‘He was handsome like her father.’ Or ‘He had a charismatic personality and a way with words.’ If I’m not mistaken, her father was rather tall, too [like her son Ervil].

“I don’t particularly think uncle Ervil looked like great-great-grandfather Wesley, either, but she may have recognized mannerisms and perhaps his walk, or the way he talked, etc., as being like her father. Often, I think the way my children act reminds me more of their grandparents and great grandparents, than the way they look.
And I definitely feel like several of my children are very much like their grandparents and others don’t seem to see it.”

“

*2– See “Cult Insanity” by Irene Spencer
https://youtu.be/-6QUWqQOc8Q

Pt 33:
My Mama Esther LeBaron Spencer and Family Incest

“The heart of the mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.”
Honore De Balzac

Incest on my maternal grandfather Alma Dayer LeBaron’s side definitely contributed to the mental illness prevalent in most of my maternal grandparents’ ten children who lived to adulthood!

Grandfather Alma Dayer LeBaron, Sr.’s parents were first cousins: His grandfather Benjamin Franklin Johnson’s seventh wife’s daughter Sarah Jane Johnson married her paternal Aunt Esther Melita Johnson’s son Benjamin Franklin LeBaron—Benjamin Franklin Johnson’s nephew. Incest plain and simple!

The dilemma — and the reason incest is illegal is that when close relatives marry, they compound bad/recessive genes in their family tree.

Says historian Kris Wray:
Benjamin F. Johnson had a brilliant brother, Seth Johnson, who, he said in his “My Life’s Review,” experienced “mania” and was “weakened in mind” at one time … though he stated he had a “sound” mind later.

“As far as Owen LeBaron, I’d gamble his mental illness came from the Johnson/LeBaron line. His dad’s (William Farland LeBaron) parents were David Tully LeBaron and Harriett Naomi Johnson. Grandpa David Tully’s parents were David Tully LeBaron (Sr) and Esther Malita Johnson [Benjamin F. Johnson’s sister].”

In other words, there WAS genetic disposition for mental illness in the LeBaron AND Johnson lines (NOT just in my grandmother Maud McDonald’s line). Dayer’s dad marrying his Johnson first-cousin magnified it.

Mania is a facet of type I bipolar disorder in which the mood state is abnormally heightened and accompanied by hyperactivity and a reduced need for sleep.

By contrast, hypomania (often described as “mania-light”) is a type II bipolar disorder which neither has the range nor severity of symptoms that classic mania has. (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjKv53WyubgAhUUs54KHXqaBBkQFjACegQIBxAL&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.verywellmind.com%2Fsymptoms-of-mania-380311&usg=AOvVaw1rN1sW2GH8_ntXBJYx8aKY)

In my quest to further understand what might have caused the unusual amount of mental illness in my Mexico-LeBaron family, years ago I was told the following by my sister Judith Spencer: “Mental illness ran in the bloodlines of BOTof our Grandma Maud’s parents William Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emmerson.

“People TOLD our grandmother’s parents, William Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emerson, ‘DO NOT marry!! There’s ‘bad blood’ in your families!’ — In other words,” she said, “There was mental illness in both their family trees! For them to marry could only compound the problem. They married anyway.” * Love and libido won out!

It is now known Schizophrenia is heritable — AND SKIPS a generation to show up in the SECOND generation of children born into bloodlines where at least one of the parents has the schizophrenia/ manic-depressive/ bipolar gene.

As it turns out, in the Mexico-LeBarons’ case schizophrenia/ bipolar disease/ personality disorders not only ran in BOTH our Grandmother Maud’s parents’ family trees, but ALSO in Grandfather Dayer’s family tree. That would more than double the schizophrenic /bipolar genetics and heritability.

I do not personally know about any mental disorders that ran in my great-grandmother Lucinda Mariah Emmerson’s family line. Only that, though schizophrenia is found in all nationalities and races, Sweden and Ireland rate the highest for this disorder. Norway follows close behind. (The Scots Irish? When history’s followed back far enough, they are Irish.)

In past decades, schizophrenia was often called “Manic Depression.” Today it is usually referred to as Bipolar Disease. “McDonald” is an Irish/ Scots Irish surname. “Emmerson” is a Swedish surname. I mention this as only one piece of the puzzle contributing to mental challenges in my beloved Mexico-LeBaron family line.

Though my grandmother Maud’s parents Wm. Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emerson had mental illness running in their family trees (as many family trees do, I might add), out of Grandma Maud’s own immediate family of origin, none of her siblings suffered notable mental illness—as far as I know. And none of Wesley and Mariah McDonald’s children exhibited any of the mental illness that existed in their father Wesley McDonald’s later years.

Grandma Maud told me about a number of occasions in her life when she’d heard a voice speak to her “plain as day.” This and other such things may have been mild signs of Schizophrenia in Gramma Maud. But I read in a book on Schizophrenia that eating even part of a green potato, among other things, could affect a temporary Schizophrenic disorder in at least some people. So you never know.

Case in point, however: The mental-illness gene my great-grandfather William Wesley McDonald carried DID skip a generation! That is, it didn’t show up, as far as I know, in the siblings of my grandmother Maud McDonald’s family of origin. BUT it showed up BIG-TIME in the next generation — Grandpa Dayer and Grandma Maud LeBarons’ children. Most, if not all of their living children had mental problems to one degree or another.

For example, every one of Grandpa and Grandma LeBaron’s seven living sons claimed to be, at one time or another and to one degree or another, “The one mighty and strong”/OM&S (God’s spoke person on earth). [2] Some of this may have been brought on by upbringing, desires for power and profit, and other such, rather than by defective genes.

But it’s also likely they heard voices, and had revelations, dreams, and inspiration that told them they were “the one mighty and strong prophet” spoken of in Mormon Scriptures.

Grandpa and Grandma LeBaron’s creative and talented daughter Lucinda spent most of her life in a mental institution — as did their brilliant oldest son Ben. And their disturbed son Ervil went clear over the cliff—“was the spittin’ image,” said Grandmamma Maud, of her own father William Wesley McDonald who began to hear voices, get revelations, etc., in his later yrsars. [3]t

Their gifted and beautiful daughter Esther (my mother) lived in a mild dream world along with other personality disorders. Example: from time to time she/ Mama had manic-depressive episodes/ bipolar symptoms — including a few “nervous breakdowns.” And she had a narcissistic personality disorder, including delusions of grandeur. Paranoia also visited Mama as well as pathological lying; i.e., she believed her own lies.

Nevertheless, many people loved, respected, and befriended my mother throughout her life. In other words, Mother’s mental issues didn’t get in the way of her relationships with most people—though they got in my way!

As a young woman, Mother once told people she was a Hollywood starlet and a Concert Pianist. In actuality, my grandma Maud saw to it her daughter Esther/my mother got piano lessons and the time to practice enough to memorize a number of beautiful Piano Concertos.

But that did not make her a Concert Pianist; i.e., she never held the prestigious position of accompanyig Philharmonic Orchestra’s as their Concert Pianst! Instead, she quit college early on to become the plural wife of an old man, bearing him fourteen kids along with six miscarriages within the space of 21 years; i.e., She was a stay-at-home mom.

Mother also told people she and all her kids and husband had their “callings and elections made sure.” (That is to say, HER kids were ALL going to heaven. No question about it!!)

She told people she “knew” HER husband and HER kids were going to “the highest degree of glory” “because they, like her, were so pure and saintly — so holy they were incapable of experiencing even “evil emotions such as envy or jealousy”! (That made them perfectly cut out to live polygamy, right? However, in her 21 years of marriage, Mom was too jealous to share Pop with even ONE other concurrent wife!)

Nevertheless, I don’t believe anybody in the cult ever noticed the inconsistentcies in what she preached and what she practiced. She said her Patriarchal Blessing “said so” and they believed her. This was mostly wishful thinking, exaggeration, and delusions of grandeur, on Ma’s part. Up until I escaped the LeBaron sect she belonged to, she also told people I/moi was her most perfect and holy child!

It helped cause Ma a nervous breakdown, therefore, when at age 21 I FLED the religion she raised me in — the religion she was SO sure was the ONLY true religion — the one you HAD to believe in to go to the highest degree of glory!

Needless to say, after I fled Mother’s religion/cult, she condemned me to hell, saying I wasn’t as spiritual as she and the rest of her kids were. (She somehow always took it upon herself to be my judge! … I thought that was God’s job!)

Now, back to the subject of mental illness in the Mexico-LeBarons’ immediate family: What further caused the Mexico-LeBaron children’s mental disorders is: There was not ONLY mental illness and personality disorders in BOTH my maternal grandparent’s family trees, but BOTH Grandmother Maud AND Grandfather Dayer, THEMSELVES, talked, not infrequently, about having unusually vivid dreams, revelations, and “hearing voices” — voices that spoke to them and gave them guidance. In other words, this meant double the schizophrenic characteristics in just the Mexico-LeBaron children’s parents, alone!

I know some people are gifted with a high level of intuition, extra-sensory perception/ ESP, and so forth. The gift of inspiration/ “a still, small voice,” etc., runs in creative families like the Mexico-LeBarons. And Poets are said to be prophets. Furthermore, schizophrenia runs high in creative families. Still, Grandfather Dayer’s extra-sensory perceptions went beyond that of healthy and normal.

To sum it all up, my maternal grandparents carried outward signs of mental-illness; e.g., voices talking to them, on TOP of their inner genetic markers for mental disorders. This tally sheet quadrupled chances that at least some of their children would inherit mental problems—especially given there were other stressors and traumas in their life that helped kick in the recessive genes for mental illness.

*This concludes my comments. Thank you for visi.
Now, till next time, be of good cheer; Spring is here! ~ Stephany Spencer-LeBaron

*My sister Judith Spencer’s oldest daughter was schizophrenic/bipolar. Because of this, Judy did much research, trying to understand the disease, how it came about, and how to deal with it. I don’t recall, now, the relatives she spoke with on my grandma Maud’s and grandpa Dayer’s family sides. But the information I related above was told to her by them.

[2] See “The LeBaron Story,“ and “Maud’s Story,” on Amazon.com and Kindle. Though these books were written to preach “The Church of the First Born” doctrine, they are all we have of the Mexico-LeBaron Family’s published history — about our only source, though highly biased.

[3] See “Cult Insanity” and “Shattered Dreams“ by Irene Spencer

http://texaspolygamy.blogspot.com/2008/01/ross-lebaron-accused-by-sons-of-incest.html

[2]  See “The LeBaron Story,“ and “Maud’s Story,” on Amazon.com and Kindle. Though these books were written to preach “The Church of the First Born” doctrine, they are all we have of the Mexico-LeBaron Family’s published history — about our only source, though highly biased.

[3] See “Cult Insanity” and “Shattered Dreams“ by Irene Spencer

Pt 31-D:
My Mama Esther LeBaron Spencer, The-Mexico-LeBarons, and Mental Illness

https://stephanyspencer.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/stephany-spencer-on-cd-2.m4a

~Picking up where we left off on “Pt 31-C: My Mama Esther LeBaron Spencer, The- Mexico-LeBarons, and Mental Illness”:

Y– There was incest involved, too. How much? Don’t know. Only know my mother told the reseacher Dale Van Atta there were “skeletons in the Mexico-LeBaron’s closets.” (Wish she would have told the rest of us about them!)
But I do happen to know a few closeted skeletons. I’ll relate them, perhaps, in my upcoming book. It’s enough to know, for now, that first cousins married each other, for example — even having been told that would compound the mental illness that ran in both sides of their families! (Is the adidge “All’s fair in love and war” really true? I only know Cupid’s/ Libido’s bow shoots a strong arrow!)

Z– Last, though not least — and a biggie: The Mexico-LeBarons were CREATIVES. If you study the genealogy of poets, artists, musicians, inventors, writers, spiritual leaders, and so forth, you will find mental illness is a common thread running in many of these creatives’ families. The following are some of the many books I found in the Public Library covering this topic:

Suffice it to say, to generate healing and better mental health, people must take responsibility for their own actions—not blame the devil or other people for what happens to them and their children.

Raising children is a very serious business. It makes a huge difference what the parents do and don’t do—and what the atmosphere and temperature is of the home and community they grow up in. “It takes a village.” When it comes to social ills, there is enough blame to go around. Enough said, though I could write a book on the subject of child-rearing—as many writers have already done!

Despite the unfortunate mental illness in my Mexico-LeBaron family born to Maud and Dayer, presently and in the past there have been many notable LeBarons. The Mexico-LeBarons are but one faction of the LeBarons the world over. But the Mexico-LeBarons have a huge posterity—I do mean HUGE! My own parents’ progeny, alone, extends into the thousands. And the number is growing exponentially as I write.

Many of these gifted Mexico-LeBarons, the offshoots from Dayer and Maud LeBaron, are doing courageous, creative, and outstanding things. Very few of them, despite the many travails they have survived, have succumbed to mental illness.

All of them, as far as I know, are making a go of it. And most of them are doing better than the Mexico-LeBaron family my mother was born into. It says a lot for my Mexico-LeBaron family “forrest.” They are all glowing examples of what the human spirit is capable of.

NOTE: The following is a lovely message left me on my Facebook page by Julie LeBaron Elkins, one of my many nieces. It’s the perfect example of feedback I look for and am motivated by. I appreciate lovely Julie’s taking the time to write this beautifully-worded paragraph:

“My Auntie is so amazing! Ty for your blog, I know it has helped me. Still reading, I have to take breaks as it does affect me and I have to still peal the layers off. Ty for the example you are and the courage it took to get where you are and the heart to help your family even though they turned their backs on you. I am so happy that I have you in my life and finally got to meet you. Will remember to take notes as I am reading to give you feedback as promised.”

Pt 32:
My Mama Esther LeBaron Spencer,
the Mexico-LeBarons, and Mental Illness

“The conscience of children is formed
by the influences that surrounded them;
their notions of good and evil are the result of
the moral atmosphere they breathe.”
Jean Paul Richter

We left off last week with my assertion: People should take responsibility for their actions; not project blame onto the devil nor others for what happens to them and their children.

As we saw in the previous blogs, Grandfather Dayer and Grandmother Maud’s life and child-rearing included plenty of things that could cause mental breakdowns — though they tended to put most of the blame on the persecution and ostracism their kids suffered growing up in the Mormon colonies in Mexico. No question, that took its toll!

But Grandma told us her son Ervil was the “spittin’ image” of her own father: “Even looks exactly like ‘im!” she efused. [*1] But she only divulged this long-held secret after her son Ervil began showing severe psychotic breaks — as in intent to murder his brother Joel, et Al.

In an afterthought, Grandma Maud added, disconcertingly, “Despite his bein’ highly gifted in art, music, teaching, and other areas, Pa broke in his older years — same as his grandson Ervil.

“But before he became mentally ill, my handsome father taught Art and Music in High School, often delivered sermons in church. And was a much sought-after Singer, as well as a teacher of church doctrinal classes.

“Him and my ma regularly sang duets in church and elsewhere. Both had perfect pitch … could sight-sing sheet music, so they could do fine when they had no instrumental backup or a pitchpipe. They really knew their Music Theory, too. Music was very important in my home as we grew up.”

Unfortunately, that’s pretty much all Grandma would tell about her father. In fact, as I pointed out, she never, ever let anybody know about her father going off the deep end until she saw her son Ervil, “had the spirit of murder,” as she referred to it in her letters to Ervil. [*1]

Makes me wonder what else my Grandmother Maud never told us about her family of origin. What else was she hiding? For example, why would she marry my Grandfather Dayer when he was an outcast (though she says when she married him she didn’t know he was an outcast).

In the same breath, she claimed her “McDonalds of Arizona” family “were highly respected and well to do—owned a real estate office.” I only know (from personal experience) Grandma, though I love her, was a “storyteller.” [*2]

But I understand her brother Max McDonald (who was a pal of Pres. Spencer W. Kimball in his young years—they played and performed music together, among other things) was a Real Estate broker and owned his own Real Estate office.

Because being “crazy” carried such stigma and shame back in Grandmother’s day, as noted earlier, she only let us know about her own father’s mental breakdown when it became absolutely necessary to do everything in her power to get her dear son Ervil to see the error of his ways … in hopes he would not end up a “Cain.”

In the next blog, I will continue with this mental-illness thread, tying it in with incest in my Mexico-LeBaron family: Grandpa Dayer’s father Benjamin Franklin LeBaron married his first cousin Sarah Jane Johnson—daughter of his/ Benjamin Franklin LeBaron’s maternal uncle Benjamin F. Johnson’s seventh wife).[*1]

*1– See: “The LeBaron Story,” Pages 201 through 210. Also see: “Maud’s Story.” Both books are/ were available on Amazon.com and/or Kindle. Though these books were written mostly to preach The Church of the First Born dogma, they’re all we have of the Mexico-LeBaron family’s published history.

NOTE: For those questioning what I quoted Grandma saying, please check out the following Facebook statement (used without my niece Vicky LeBaron’s permission, as of yet, because I trust she won’t mind):

2-7-2019: “I heard my grandmother — G.Grandma Maud’s, daughter Esther LeBaron Spencer — say on multiple occasions almost exactly what Steph Spencer is saying.
I also heard one of G.G. Maud’s daughter-in-laws say the same type of comments about what Maud had told her about Ervil, in various conversations over the years:

“Basically, that mental illness ran in the McDonald family. And that she had been concerned about Ervil because of her father’s mental health struggles, and the fact that Ervil reminded her of her father more than any of her other sons. [She said] ‘He was handsome like her father.’ Or ‘He had a charismatic personality and a way with words.’ If I’m not mistaken, her father was rather tall, too [like her son Ervil].

“I don’t particularly think uncle Ervil looked like great-great-grandfather Wesley, either, but she may have recognized mannerisms and perhaps his walk, or the way he talked, etc., as being like her father. Often, I think the way my children act reminds me more of their grandparents and great grandparents, than the way they look.
And I definitely feel like several of my children are very much like their grandparents and others don’t seem to see it.”

“

*2– See “Cult Insanity” by Irene Spencer
https://youtu.be/-6QUWqQOc8Q

Pt 33:
My Mama Esther LeBaron Spencer and Family Incest

“The heart of the mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.”
Honore De Balzac

Incest on my maternal grandfather Alma Dayer LeBaron’s side definitely contributed to the mental illness prevalent in most of my maternal grandparents’ ten children who lived to adulthood!

Grandfather Alma Dayer LeBaron, Sr.’s parents were first cousins: His grandfather Benjamin Franklin Johnson’s seventh wife’s daughter Sarah Jane Johnson married her paternal Aunt Esther Melita Johnson’s son Benjamin Franklin LeBaron—Benjamin Franklin Johnson’s nephew. Incest plain and simple!

The dilemma — and the reason incest is illegal is that when close relatives marry, they compound bad/recessive genes in their family tree.

Says historian Kris Wray:
Benjamin F. Johnson had a brilliant brother, Seth Johnson, who, he said in his “My Life’s Review,” experienced “mania” and was “weakened in mind” at one time … though he stated he had a “sound” mind later.

“As far as Owen LeBaron, I’d gamble his mental illness came from the Johnson/LeBaron line. His dad’s (William Farland LeBaron) parents were David Tully LeBaron and Harriett Naomi Johnson. Grandpa David Tully’s parents were David Tully LeBaron (Sr) and Esther Malita Johnson [Benjamin F. Johnson’s sister].”

In other words, there WAS genetic disposition for mental illness in the LeBaron AND Johnson lines (NOT just in my grandmother Maud McDonald’s line). Dayer’s dad marrying his Johnson first-cousin magnified it.

Mania is a facet of type I bipolar disorder in which the mood state is abnormally heightened and accompanied by hyperactivity and a reduced need for sleep.

By contrast, hypomania (often described as “mania-light”) is a type II bipolar disorder which neither has the range nor severity of symptoms that classic mania has. (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjKv53WyubgAhUUs54KHXqaBBkQFjACegQIBxAL&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.verywellmind.com%2Fsymptoms-of-mania-380311&usg=AOvVaw1rN1sW2GH8_ntXBJYx8aKY)

In my quest to further understand what might have caused the unusual amount of mental illness in my Mexico-LeBaron family, years ago I was told the following by my sister Judith Spencer: “Mental illness ran in the bloodlines of BOTof our Grandma Maud’s parents William Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emmerson.

“People TOLD our grandmother’s parents, William Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emerson, ‘DO NOT marry!! There’s ‘bad blood’ in your families!’ — In other words,” she said, “There was mental illness in both their family trees! For them to marry could only compound the problem. They married anyway.” * Love and libido won out!

It is now known Schizophrenia is heritable — AND SKIPS a generation to show up in the SECOND generation of children born into bloodlines where at least one of the parents has the schizophrenia/ manic-depressive/ bipolar gene.

As it turns out, in the Mexico-LeBarons’ case schizophrenia/ bipolar disease/ personality disorders not only ran in BOTH our Grandmother Maud’s parents’ family trees, but ALSO in Grandfather Dayer’s family tree. That would more than double the schizophrenic /bipolar genetics and heritability.

I do not personally know about any mental disorders that ran in my great-grandmother Lucinda Mariah Emmerson’s family line. Only that, though schizophrenia is found in all nationalities and races, Sweden and Ireland rate the highest for this disorder. Norway follows close behind. (The Scots Irish? When history’s followed back far enough, they are Irish.)

In past decades, schizophrenia was often called “Manic Depression.” Today it is usually referred to as Bipolar Disease. “McDonald” is an Irish/ Scots Irish surname. “Emmerson” is a Swedish surname. I mention this as only one piece of the puzzle contributing to mental challenges in my beloved Mexico-LeBaron family line.

Though my grandmother Maud’s parents Wm. Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emerson had mental illness running in their family trees (as many family trees do, I might add), out of Grandma Maud’s own immediate family of origin, none of her siblings suffered notable mental illness—as far as I know. And none of Wesley and Mariah McDonald’s children exhibited any of the mental illness that existed in their father Wesley McDonald’s later years.

Grandma Maud told me about a number of occasions in her life when she’d heard a voice speak to her “plain as day.” This and other such things may have been mild signs of Schizophrenia in Gramma Maud. But I read in a book on Schizophrenia that eating even part of a green potato, among other things, could affect a temporary Schizophrenic disorder in at least some people. So you never know.

Case in point, however: The mental-illness gene my great-grandfather William Wesley McDonald carried DID skip a generation! That is, it didn’t show up, as far as I know, in the siblings of my grandmother Maud McDonald’s family of origin. BUT it showed up BIG-TIME in the next generation — Grandpa Dayer and Grandma Maud LeBarons’ children. Most, if not all of their living children had mental problems to one degree or another.

For example, every one of Grandpa and Grandma LeBaron’s seven living sons claimed to be, at one time or another and to one degree or another, “The one mighty and strong”/OM&S (God’s spoke person on earth). [2] Some of this may have been brought on by upbringing, desires for power and profit, and other such, rather than by defective genes.

But it’s also likely they heard voices, and had revelations, dreams, and inspiration that told them they were “the one mighty and strong prophet” spoken of in Mormon Scriptures.

Grandpa and Grandma LeBaron’s creative and talented daughter Lucinda spent most of her life in a mental institution — as did their brilliant oldest son Ben. And their disturbed son Ervil went clear over the cliff—“was the spittin’ image,” said Grandmamma Maud, of her own father William Wesley McDonald who began to hear voices, get revelations, etc., in his later yrsars. [3]t

Their gifted and beautiful daughter Esther (my mother) lived in a mild dream world along with other personality disorders. Example: from time to time she/ Mama had manic-depressive episodes/ bipolar symptoms — including a few “nervous breakdowns.” And she had a narcissistic personality disorder, including delusions of grandeur. Paranoia also visited Mama as well as pathological lying; i.e., she believed her own lies.

Nevertheless, many people loved, respected, and befriended my mother throughout her life. In other words, Mother’s mental issues didn’t get in the way of her relationships with most people—though they got in my way!

As a young woman, Mother once told people she was a Hollywood starlet and a Concert Pianist. In actuality, my grandma Maud saw to it her daughter Esther/my mother got piano lessons and the time to practice enough to memorize a number of beautiful Piano Concertos.

But that did not make her a Concert Pianist; i.e., she never held the prestigious position of accompanyig Philharmonic Orchestra’s as their Concert Pianst! Instead, she quit college early on to become the plural wife of an old man, bearing him fourteen kids along with six miscarriages within the space of 21 years; i.e., She was a stay-at-home mom.

Mother also told people she and all her kids and husband had their “callings and elections made sure.” (That is to say, HER kids were ALL going to heaven. No question about it!!)

She told people she “knew” HER husband and HER kids were going to “the highest degree of glory” “because they, like her, were so pure and saintly — so holy they were incapable of experiencing even “evil emotions such as envy or jealousy”! (That made them perfectly cut out to live polygamy, right? However, in her 21 years of marriage, Mom was too jealous to share Pop with even ONE other concurrent wife!)

Nevertheless, I don’t believe anybody in the cult ever noticed the inconsistentcies in what she preached and what she practiced. She said her Patriarchal Blessing “said so” and they believed her. This was mostly wishful thinking, exaggeration, and delusions of grandeur, on Ma’s part. Up until I escaped the LeBaron sect she belonged to, she also told people I/moi was her most perfect and holy child!

It helped cause Ma a nervous breakdown, therefore, when at age 21 I FLED the religion she raised me in — the religion she was SO sure was the ONLY true religion — the one you HAD to believe in to go to the highest degree of glory!

Needless to say, after I fled Mother’s religion/cult, she condemned me to hell, saying I wasn’t as spiritual as she and the rest of her kids were. (She somehow always took it upon herself to be my judge! … I thought that was God’s job!)

Now, back to the subject of mental illness in the Mexico-LeBarons’ immediate family: What further caused the Mexico-LeBaron children’s mental disorders is: There was not ONLY mental illness and personality disorders in BOTH my maternal grandparent’s family trees, but BOTH Grandmother Maud AND Grandfather Dayer, THEMSELVES, talked, not infrequently, about having unusually vivid dreams, revelations, and “hearing voices” — voices that spoke to them and gave them guidance. In other words, this meant double the schizophrenic characteristics in just the Mexico-LeBaron children’s parents, alone!

I know some people are gifted with a high level of intuition, extra-sensory perception/ ESP, and so forth. The gift of inspiration/ “a still, small voice,” etc., runs in creative families like the Mexico-LeBarons. And Poets are said to be prophets. Furthermore, schizophrenia runs high in creative families. Still, Grandfather Dayer’s extra-sensory perceptions went beyond that of healthy and normal.

To sum it all up, my maternal grandparents carried outward signs of mental-illness; e.g., voices talking to them, on TOP of their inner genetic markers for mental disorders. This tally sheet quadrupled chances that at least some of their children would inherit mental problems—especially given there were other stressors and traumas in their life that helped kick in the recessive genes for mental illness.

*This concludes my comments. Thank you for visi.
Now, till next time, be of good cheer; Spring is here! ~ Stephany Spencer-LeBaron

*My sister Judith Spencer’s oldest daughter was schizophrenic/bipolar. Because of this, Judy did much research, trying to understand the disease, how it came about, and how to deal with it. I don’t recall, now, the relatives she spoke with on my grandma Maud’s and grandpa Dayer’s family sides. But the information I related above was told to her by them.

[2] See “The LeBaron Story,“ and “Maud’s Story,” on Amazon.com and Kindle. Though these books were written to preach “The Church of the First Born” doctrine, they are all we have of the Mexico-LeBaron Family’s published history — about our only source, though highly biased.

[3] See “Cult Insanity” and “Shattered Dreams“ by Irene Spencer

http://texaspolygamy.blogspot.com/2008/01/ross-lebaron-accused-by-sons-of-incest.html

“The heart of the mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.”
Honore De Balzac

Incest on my maternal grandfather Alma Dayer LeBaron’s side definitely contributed to the mental illness prevalent in most of my maternal grandparents’ ten children who lived to adulthood!

Grandfather Alma Dayer LeBaron, Sr.’s parents were first cousins: His grandfather Benjamin Franklin Johnson’s seventh wife’s daughter Sarah Jane Johnson married her paternal Aunt Esther Melita Johnson’s son Benjamin Franklin LeBaron—Benjamin Franklin Johnson’s nephew. Incest plain and simple!

The dilemma — and the reason incest is illegal is that when close relatives marry, they compound bad/recessive genes in their family tree.

Says historian Kris Wray:
Benjamin F. Johnson had a brilliant brother, Seth Johnson, who, he said in his “My Life’s Review,” experienced “mania” and was “weakened in mind” at one time … though he stated he had a “sound” mind later.

“As far as Owen LeBaron, I’d gamble his mental illness came from the Johnson/LeBaron line. His dad’s (William Farland LeBaron) parents were David Tully LeBaron and Harriett Naomi Johnson. Grandpa David Tully’s parents were David Tully LeBaron (Sr) and Esther Malita Johnson [Benjamin F. Johnson’s sister].”

In other words, there WAS genetic disposition for mental illness in the LeBaron AND Johnson lines (NOT just in my grandmother Maud McDonald’s line). Dayer’s dad marrying his Johnson first-cousin magnified it. 

Mania is a facet of type I bipolar disorder in which the mood state is abnormally heightened and accompanied by hyperactivity and a reduced need for sleep.

By contrast, hypomania (often described as “mania-light”) is a type II bipolar disorder which neither has the range nor severity of symptoms that classic mania has. (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjKv53WyubgAhUUs54KHXqaBBkQFjACegQIBxAL&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.verywellmind.com%2Fsymptoms-of-mania-380311&usg=AOvVaw1rN1sW2GH8_ntXBJYx8aKY)

In my quest to further understand what might have caused the unusual amount of mental illness in my Mexico-LeBaron family, years ago I was told the following by my sister Judith Spencer: “Mental illness ran in the bloodlines of BOTof  our Grandma Maud’s parents William Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emmerson.

“People TOLD our grandmother’s parents, William Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emerson, ‘DO NOT marry!! There’s ‘bad blood’ in your families!’ — In other words,” she said, “There was mental illness in both their family trees! For them to marry could only compound the problem. They married anyway.” * Love and libido won out!

It is now known Schizophrenia is heritable — AND SKIPS a generation to show up in the SECOND generation of children born into bloodlines where at least one of the parents has the schizophrenia/ manic-depressive/ bipolar gene.

As it turns out, in the Mexico-LeBarons’ case schizophrenia/ bipolar disease/ personality disorders not only ran in BOTH our Grandmother Maud’s parents’ family trees, but ALSO in Grandfather Dayer’s family tree. That would more than double the schizophrenic /bipolar genetics and heritability.

I do not personally know about any mental disorders that ran in my great-grandmother Lucinda Mariah Emmerson’s family line. Only that, though schizophrenia is found in all nationalities and races, Sweden and Ireland rate the highest for this disorder. Norway follows close behind. (The Scots Irish? When history’s followed back far enough, they are Irish.) 

In past decades, schizophrenia was often called “Manic Depression.” Today it is usually referred to as Bipolar Disease. “McDonald” is an Irish/ Scots Irish surname. “Emmerson” is a Swedish surname. I mention this as only one piece of the puzzle contributing to mental challenges in my beloved Mexico-LeBaron family line.

Though my grandmother Maud’s parents Wm. Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emerson had mental illness running in their family trees (as many family trees do, I might add), out of Grandma Maud’s own immediate family of origin, none of her siblings suffered notable mental illness—as far as I know. And none of Wesley and Mariah McDonald’s children exhibited any of the mental illness that existed in their father Wesley McDonald’s later years.

Grandma Maud told me about a number of occasions in her life when she’d heard a voice speak to her “plain as day.” This and other such things may have been mild signs of Schizophrenia in Gramma Maud. But I read in a book on Schizophrenia that eating even part of a green potato, among other things, could affect a temporary Schizophrenic disorder in at least some people. So you never know.

Case in point, however: The mental-illness gene my great-grandfather William Wesley McDonald carried DID skip a generation! That is, it didn’t show up, as far as I know, in the siblings of my grandmother Maud McDonald’s family of origin. BUT it showed up BIG-TIME in the next generation — Grandpa Dayer and Grandma Maud LeBarons’ children. Most, if not all of their living children had mental problems to one degree or another.

For example, every one of Grandpa and Grandma LeBaron’s seven living sons claimed to be, at one time or another and to one degree or another, “The one mighty and strong”/OM&S (God’s spoke person on earth). [2] Some of this may have been brought on by upbringing, desires for power and profit, and other such, rather than by defective genes.

But it’s also likely they heard voices, and had revelations, dreams, and inspiration that told them they were “the one mighty and strong prophet” spoken of in Mormon Scriptures.

Grandpa and Grandma LeBaron’s creative and talented daughter Lucinda spent most of her life in a mental institution — as did their brilliant oldest son Ben. And their disturbed son Ervil went clear over the cliff—“was the spittin’ image,” said Grandmamma Maud, of her own father William Wesley McDonald who began to hear voices, get revelations, etc., in his later yrsars.  [3]t 

Their gifted and beautiful daughter Esther (my mother) lived in a mild dream world along with other personality disorders. Example: from time to time she/ Mama had manic-depressive episodes/ bipolar symptoms — including a few “nervous breakdowns.” And she had a narcissistic personality disorder, including delusions of grandeur. Paranoia also visited Mama as well as pathological lying; i.e., she believed her own lies.

Nevertheless, many people loved, respected, and befriended my mother throughout her life. In other words, Mother’s mental issues didn’t get in the way of her relationships with most people—though they got in my way!

As a young woman, Mother once told people she was a Hollywood starlet and a Concert Pianist. In actuality, my grandma Maud saw to it her daughter Esther/my mother got piano lessons and the time to practice enough to memorize a number of beautiful Piano Concertos.

But that did not make her a Concert Pianist; i.e., she never held the prestigious position of accompanyig Philharmonic Orchestra’s as their Concert Pianst! Instead, she quit college early on to become the plural wife of an old man, bearing him fourteen kids along with six miscarriages within the space of 21 years; i.e., She was a stay-at-home mom.

Mother also told people she and all her kids and husband had their “callings and elections made sure.” (That is to say, HER kids were ALL going to heaven. No question about it!!)

She told people she “knew” HER husband and HER kids were going to “the highest degree of glory” “because they, like her, were so pure and saintly — so holy they were incapable of experiencing even “evil emotions such as envy or jealousy”! (That made them perfectly cut out to live polygamy, right? However, in her 21 years of marriage, Mom was too jealous to share Pop with even ONE other concurrent wife!)

Nevertheless, I don’t believe anybody in the cult ever noticed the inconsistentcies in what she preached and what she practiced. She said her Patriarchal Blessing “said so” and they believed her. This was mostly wishful thinking, exaggeration, and delusions of grandeur, on Ma’s part. Up until I escaped the LeBaron sect she belonged to, she also told people I/moi was her most perfect and holy child!

It helped cause Ma a nervous breakdown, therefore, when at age 21 I FLED the religion she raised me in — the religion she was SO sure was the ONLY true religion — the one you HAD to believe in to go to the highest degree of glory!

Needless to say, after I fled Mother’s religion/cult, she condemned me to hell, saying I wasn’t as spiritual as she and the rest of her kids were. (She somehow always took it upon herself to be my judge! … I thought that was God’s job!)

Now, back to the subject of mental illness in the Mexico-LeBarons’ immediate family: What further caused the Mexico-LeBaron children’s mental disorders is: There was not ONLY mental illness and personality disorders in BOTH my maternal grandparent’s family trees, but BOTH Grandmother Maud AND Grandfather Dayer, THEMSELVES, talked, not infrequently, about having unusually vivid dreams, revelations, and “hearing voices” — voices that spoke to them and gave them guidance. In other words, this meant double the schizophrenic characteristics in just the Mexico-LeBaron children’s parents, alone!

I know some people are gifted with a high level of intuition, extra-sensory perception/ ESP, and so forth. The gift of inspiration/ “a still, small voice,” etc., runs in creative families like the Mexico-LeBarons. And Poets are said to be prophets. Furthermore, schizophrenia runs high in creative families. Still, Grandfather Dayer’s extra-sensory perceptions went beyond that of healthy and normal.

To sum it all up, my maternal grandparents carried outward signs of mental-illness; e.g., voices talking to them, on TOP of their inner genetic markers for mental disorders. This tally sheet quadrupled chances that at least some of their children would inherit mental problems—especially given there were other stressors and traumas in their life that helped kick in the recessive genes for mental illness.

*This concludes my comments. Thank you for visi.
Now, till next time, be of good cheer; Spring is here! ~ Stephany Spencer-LeBaron

*My sister Judith Spencer’s oldest daughter was schizophrenic/bipolar. Because of this, Judy did much research, trying to understand the disease, how it came about, and how to deal with it. I don’t recall, now, the relatives she spoke with on my grandma Maud’s and grandpa Dayer’s family sides. But the information I related above was told to her by them.

[2]  See “The LeBaron Story,“ and “Maud’s Story,” on Amazon.com and Kindle. Though these books were written to preach “The Church of the First Born” doctrine, they are all we have of the Mexico-LeBaron Family’s published history — about our only source, though highly biased.

[3] See “Cult Insanity” and “Shattered Dreams“ by Irene Spencer

Pt 31-D:
My Mama Esther LeBaron Spencer, The-Mexico-LeBarons, and Mental Illness

https://stephanyspencer.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/stephany-spencer-on-cd-2.m4a

~Picking up where we left off on “Pt 31-C: My Mama Esther LeBaron Spencer, The- Mexico-LeBarons, and Mental Illness”:

Y– There was incest involved, too. How much? Don’t know. Only know my mother told the reseacher Dale Van Atta there were “skeletons in the Mexico-LeBaron’s closets.” (Wish she would have told the rest of us about them!)
But I do happen to know a few closeted skeletons. I’ll relate them, perhaps, in my upcoming book. It’s enough to know, for now, that first cousins married each other, for example — even having been told that would compound the mental illness that ran in both sides of their families! (Is the adidge “All’s fair in love and war” really true? I only know Cupid’s/ Libido’s bow shoots a strong arrow!)

Z– Last, though not least — and a biggie: The Mexico-LeBarons were CREATIVES. If you study the genealogy of poets, artists, musicians, inventors, writers, spiritual leaders, and so forth, you will find mental illness is a common thread running in many of these creatives’ families. The following are some of the many books I found in the Public Library covering this topic:

Suffice it to say, to generate healing and better mental health, people must take responsibility for their own actions—not blame the devil or other people for what happens to them and their children.

Raising children is a very serious business. It makes a huge difference what the parents do and don’t do—and what the atmosphere and temperature is of the home and community they grow up in. “It takes a village.” When it comes to social ills, there is enough blame to go around. Enough said, though I could write a book on the subject of child-rearing—as many writers have already done!

Despite the unfortunate mental illness in my Mexico-LeBaron family born to Maud and Dayer, presently and in the past there have been many notable LeBarons. The Mexico-LeBarons are but one faction of the LeBarons the world over. But the Mexico-LeBarons have a huge posterity—I do mean HUGE! My own parents’ progeny, alone, extends into the thousands. And the number is growing exponentially as I write.

Many of these gifted Mexico-LeBarons, the offshoots from Dayer and Maud LeBaron, are doing courageous, creative, and outstanding things. Very few of them, despite the many travails they have survived, have succumbed to mental illness.

All of them, as far as I know, are making a go of it. And most of them are doing better than the Mexico-LeBaron family my mother was born into. It says a lot for my Mexico-LeBaron family “forrest.” They are all glowing examples of what the human spirit is capable of.

NOTE: The following is a lovely message left me on my Facebook page by Julie LeBaron Elkins, one of my many nieces. It’s the perfect example of feedback I look for and am motivated by. I appreciate lovely Julie’s taking the time to write this beautifully-worded paragraph:

“My Auntie is so amazing! Ty for your blog, I know it has helped me. Still reading, I have to take breaks as it does affect me and I have to still peal the layers off. Ty for the example you are and the courage it took to get where you are and the heart to help your family even though they turned their backs on you. I am so happy that I have you in my life and finally got to meet you. Will remember to take notes as I am reading to give you feedback as promised.”

Pt 32:
My Mama Esther LeBaron Spencer,
the Mexico-LeBarons, and Mental Illness

“The conscience of children is formed
by the influences that surrounded them;
their notions of good and evil are the result of
the moral atmosphere they breathe.”
Jean Paul Richter

We left off last week with my assertion: People should take responsibility for their actions; not project blame onto the devil nor others for what happens to them and their children.

As we saw in the previous blogs, Grandfather Dayer and Grandmother Maud’s life and child-rearing included plenty of things that could cause mental breakdowns — though they tended to put most of the blame on the persecution and ostracism their kids suffered growing up in the Mormon colonies in Mexico. No question, that took its toll!

But Grandma told us her son Ervil was the “spittin’ image” of her own father: “Even looks exactly like ‘im!” she efused. [*1] But she only divulged this long-held secret after her son Ervil began showing severe psychotic breaks — as in intent to murder his brother Joel, et Al.

In an afterthought, Grandma Maud added, disconcertingly, “Despite his bein’ highly gifted in art, music, teaching, and other areas, Pa broke in his older years — same as his grandson Ervil.

“But before he became mentally ill, my handsome father taught Art and Music in High School, often delivered sermons in church. And was a much sought-after Singer, as well as a teacher of church doctrinal classes.

“Him and my ma regularly sang duets in church and elsewhere. Both had perfect pitch … could sight-sing sheet music, so they could do fine when they had no instrumental backup or a pitchpipe. They really knew their Music Theory, too. Music was very important in my home as we grew up.”

Unfortunately, that’s pretty much all Grandma would tell about her father. In fact, as I pointed out, she never, ever let anybody know about her father going off the deep end until she saw her son Ervil, “had the spirit of murder,” as she referred to it in her letters to Ervil. [*1]

Makes me wonder what else my Grandmother Maud never told us about her family of origin. What else was she hiding? For example, why would she marry my Grandfather Dayer when he was an outcast (though she says when she married him she didn’t know he was an outcast).

In the same breath, she claimed her “McDonalds of Arizona” family “were highly respected and well to do—owned a real estate office.” I only know (from personal experience) Grandma, though I love her, was a “storyteller.” [*2]

But I understand her brother Max McDonald (who was a pal of Pres. Spencer W. Kimball in his young years—they played and performed music together, among other things) was a Real Estate broker and owned his own Real Estate office.

Because being “crazy” carried such stigma and shame back in Grandmother’s day, as noted earlier, she only let us know about her own father’s mental breakdown when it became absolutely necessary to do everything in her power to get her dear son Ervil to see the error of his ways … in hopes he would not end up a “Cain.”

In the next blog, I will continue with this mental-illness thread, tying it in with incest in my Mexico-LeBaron family: Grandpa Dayer’s father Benjamin Franklin LeBaron married his first cousin Sarah Jane Johnson—daughter of his/ Benjamin Franklin LeBaron’s maternal uncle Benjamin F. Johnson’s seventh wife).[*1]

*1– See: “The LeBaron Story,” Pages 201 through 210. Also see: “Maud’s Story.” Both books are/ were available on Amazon.com and/or Kindle. Though these books were written mostly to preach The Church of the First Born dogma, they’re all we have of the Mexico-LeBaron family’s published history.

NOTE: For those questioning what I quoted Grandma saying, please check out the following Facebook statement (used without my niece Vicky LeBaron’s permission, as of yet, because I trust she won’t mind):

2-7-2019: “I heard my grandmother — G.Grandma Maud’s, daughter Esther LeBaron Spencer — say on multiple occasions almost exactly what Steph Spencer is saying.
I also heard one of G.G. Maud’s daughter-in-laws say the same type of comments about what Maud had told her about Ervil, in various conversations over the years:

“Basically, that mental illness ran in the McDonald family. And that she had been concerned about Ervil because of her father’s mental health struggles, and the fact that Ervil reminded her of her father more than any of her other sons. [She said] ‘He was handsome like her father.’ Or ‘He had a charismatic personality and a way with words.’ If I’m not mistaken, her father was rather tall, too [like her son Ervil].

“I don’t particularly think uncle Ervil looked like great-great-grandfather Wesley, either, but she may have recognized mannerisms and perhaps his walk, or the way he talked, etc., as being like her father. Often, I think the way my children act reminds me more of their grandparents and great grandparents, than the way they look.
And I definitely feel like several of my children are very much like their grandparents and others don’t seem to see it.”

“

*2– See “Cult Insanity” by Irene Spencer
https://youtu.be/-6QUWqQOc8Q

Pt 33:
My Mama Esther LeBaron Spencer and Family Incest

“The heart of the mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.”
Honore De Balzac

Incest on my maternal grandfather Alma Dayer LeBaron’s side definitely contributed to the mental illness prevalent in most of my maternal grandparents’ ten children who lived to adulthood!

Grandfather Alma Dayer LeBaron, Sr.’s parents were first cousins: His grandfather Benjamin Franklin Johnson’s seventh wife’s daughter Sarah Jane Johnson married her paternal Aunt Esther Melita Johnson’s son Benjamin Franklin LeBaron—Benjamin Franklin Johnson’s nephew. Incest plain and simple!

The dilemma — and the reason incest is illegal is that when close relatives marry, they compound bad/recessive genes in their family tree.

Says historian Kris Wray:
Benjamin F. Johnson had a brilliant brother, Seth Johnson, who, he said in his “My Life’s Review,” experienced “mania” and was “weakened in mind” at one time … though he stated he had a “sound” mind later.

“As far as Owen LeBaron, I’d gamble his mental illness came from the Johnson/LeBaron line. His dad’s (William Farland LeBaron) parents were David Tully LeBaron and Harriett Naomi Johnson. Grandpa David Tully’s parents were David Tully LeBaron (Sr) and Esther Malita Johnson [Benjamin F. Johnson’s sister].”

In other words, there WAS genetic disposition for mental illness in the LeBaron AND Johnson lines (NOT just in my grandmother Maud McDonald’s line). Dayer’s dad marrying his Johnson first-cousin magnified it.

Mania is a facet of type I bipolar disorder in which the mood state is abnormally heightened and accompanied by hyperactivity and a reduced need for sleep.

By contrast, hypomania (often described as “mania-light”) is a type II bipolar disorder which neither has the range nor severity of symptoms that classic mania has. (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjKv53WyubgAhUUs54KHXqaBBkQFjACegQIBxAL&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.verywellmind.com%2Fsymptoms-of-mania-380311&usg=AOvVaw1rN1sW2GH8_ntXBJYx8aKY)

In my quest to further understand what might have caused the unusual amount of mental illness in my Mexico-LeBaron family, years ago I was told the following by my sister Judith Spencer: “Mental illness ran in the bloodlines of BOTof our Grandma Maud’s parents William Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emmerson.

“People TOLD our grandmother’s parents, William Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emerson, ‘DO NOT marry!! There’s ‘bad blood’ in your families!’ — In other words,” she said, “There was mental illness in both their family trees! For them to marry could only compound the problem. They married anyway.” * Love and libido won out!

It is now known Schizophrenia is heritable — AND SKIPS a generation to show up in the SECOND generation of children born into bloodlines where at least one of the parents has the schizophrenia/ manic-depressive/ bipolar gene.

As it turns out, in the Mexico-LeBarons’ case schizophrenia/ bipolar disease/ personality disorders not only ran in BOTH our Grandmother Maud’s parents’ family trees, but ALSO in Grandfather Dayer’s family tree. That would more than double the schizophrenic /bipolar genetics and heritability.

I do not personally know about any mental disorders that ran in my great-grandmother Lucinda Mariah Emmerson’s family line. Only that, though schizophrenia is found in all nationalities and races, Sweden and Ireland rate the highest for this disorder. Norway follows close behind. (The Scots Irish? When history’s followed back far enough, they are Irish.)

In past decades, schizophrenia was often called “Manic Depression.” Today it is usually referred to as Bipolar Disease. “McDonald” is an Irish/ Scots Irish surname. “Emmerson” is a Swedish surname. I mention this as only one piece of the puzzle contributing to mental challenges in my beloved Mexico-LeBaron family line.

Though my grandmother Maud’s parents Wm. Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emerson had mental illness running in their family trees (as many family trees do, I might add), out of Grandma Maud’s own immediate family of origin, none of her siblings suffered notable mental illness—as far as I know. And none of Wesley and Mariah McDonald’s children exhibited any of the mental illness that existed in their father Wesley McDonald’s later years.

Grandma Maud told me about a number of occasions in her life when she’d heard a voice speak to her “plain as day.” This and other such things may have been mild signs of Schizophrenia in Gramma Maud. But I read in a book on Schizophrenia that eating even part of a green potato, among other things, could affect a temporary Schizophrenic disorder in at least some people. So you never know.

Case in point, however: The mental-illness gene my great-grandfather William Wesley McDonald carried DID skip a generation! That is, it didn’t show up, as far as I know, in the siblings of my grandmother Maud McDonald’s family of origin. BUT it showed up BIG-TIME in the next generation — Grandpa Dayer and Grandma Maud LeBarons’ children. Most, if not all of their living children had mental problems to one degree or another.

For example, every one of Grandpa and Grandma LeBaron’s seven living sons claimed to be, at one time or another and to one degree or another, “The one mighty and strong”/OM&S (God’s spoke person on earth). [2] Some of this may have been brought on by upbringing, desires for power and profit, and other such, rather than by defective genes.

But it’s also likely they heard voices, and had revelations, dreams, and inspiration that told them they were “the one mighty and strong prophet” spoken of in Mormon Scriptures.

Grandpa and Grandma LeBaron’s creative and talented daughter Lucinda spent most of her life in a mental institution — as did their brilliant oldest son Ben. And their disturbed son Ervil went clear over the cliff—“was the spittin’ image,” said Grandmamma Maud, of her own father William Wesley McDonald who began to hear voices, get revelations, etc., in his later yrsars. [3]t

Their gifted and beautiful daughter Esther (my mother) lived in a mild dream world along with other personality disorders. Example: from time to time she/ Mama had manic-depressive episodes/ bipolar symptoms — including a few “nervous breakdowns.” And she had a narcissistic personality disorder, including delusions of grandeur. Paranoia also visited Mama as well as pathological lying; i.e., she believed her own lies.

Nevertheless, many people loved, respected, and befriended my mother throughout her life. In other words, Mother’s mental issues didn’t get in the way of her relationships with most people—though they got in my way!

As a young woman, Mother once told people she was a Hollywood starlet and a Concert Pianist. In actuality, my grandma Maud saw to it her daughter Esther/my mother got piano lessons and the time to practice enough to memorize a number of beautiful Piano Concertos.

But that did not make her a Concert Pianist; i.e., she never held the prestigious position of accompanyig Philharmonic Orchestra’s as their Concert Pianst! Instead, she quit college early on to become the plural wife of an old man, bearing him fourteen kids along with six miscarriages within the space of 21 years; i.e., She was a stay-at-home mom.

Mother also told people she and all her kids and husband had their “callings and elections made sure.” (That is to say, HER kids were ALL going to heaven. No question about it!!)

She told people she “knew” HER husband and HER kids were going to “the highest degree of glory” “because they, like her, were so pure and saintly — so holy they were incapable of experiencing even “evil emotions such as envy or jealousy”! (That made them perfectly cut out to live polygamy, right? However, in her 21 years of marriage, Mom was too jealous to share Pop with even ONE other concurrent wife!)

Nevertheless, I don’t believe anybody in the cult ever noticed the inconsistentcies in what she preached and what she practiced. She said her Patriarchal Blessing “said so” and they believed her. This was mostly wishful thinking, exaggeration, and delusions of grandeur, on Ma’s part. Up until I escaped the LeBaron sect she belonged to, she also told people I/moi was her most perfect and holy child!

It helped cause Ma a nervous breakdown, therefore, when at age 21 I FLED the religion she raised me in — the religion she was SO sure was the ONLY true religion — the one you HAD to believe in to go to the highest degree of glory!

Needless to say, after I fled Mother’s religion/cult, she condemned me to hell, saying I wasn’t as spiritual as she and the rest of her kids were. (She somehow always took it upon herself to be my judge! … I thought that was God’s job!)

Now, back to the subject of mental illness in the Mexico-LeBarons’ immediate family: What further caused the Mexico-LeBaron children’s mental disorders is: There was not ONLY mental illness and personality disorders in BOTH my maternal grandparent’s family trees, but BOTH Grandmother Maud AND Grandfather Dayer, THEMSELVES, talked, not infrequently, about having unusually vivid dreams, revelations, and “hearing voices” — voices that spoke to them and gave them guidance. In other words, this meant double the schizophrenic characteristics in just the Mexico-LeBaron children’s parents, alone!

I know some people are gifted with a high level of intuition, extra-sensory perception/ ESP, and so forth. The gift of inspiration/ “a still, small voice,” etc., runs in creative families like the Mexico-LeBarons. And Poets are said to be prophets. Furthermore, schizophrenia runs high in creative families. Still, Grandfather Dayer’s extra-sensory perceptions went beyond that of healthy and normal.

To sum it all up, my maternal grandparents carried outward signs of mental-illness; e.g., voices talking to them, on TOP of their inner genetic markers for mental disorders. This tally sheet quadrupled chances that at least some of their children would inherit mental problems—especially given there were other stressors and traumas in their life that helped kick in the recessive genes for mental illness.

*This concludes my comments. Thank you for visi.
Now, till next time, be of good cheer; Spring is here! ~ Stephany Spencer-LeBaron

*My sister Judith Spencer’s oldest daughter was schizophrenic/bipolar. Because of this, Judy did much research, trying to understand the disease, how it came about, and how to deal with it. I don’t recall, now, the relatives she spoke with on my grandma Maud’s and grandpa Dayer’s family sides. But the information I related above was told to her by them.

[2] See “The LeBaron Story,“ and “Maud’s Story,” on Amazon.com and Kindle. Though these books were written to preach “The Church of the First Born” doctrine, they are all we have of the Mexico-LeBaron Family’s published history — about our only source, though highly biased.

[3] See “Cult Insanity” and “Shattered Dreams“ by Irene Spencer

http://texaspolygamy.blogspot.com/2008/01/ross-lebaron-accused-by-sons-of-incest.html

Pt 33:
My Mama Esther LeBaron Spencer and Family Incest

“The heart of the mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.”
Honore De Balzac

Incest on my maternal grandfather Alma Dayer LeBaron’s side definitely contributed to the mental illness prevalent in most of my maternal grandparents’ ten children who lived to adulthood!

Grandfather Alma Dayer LeBaron, Sr.’s parents were first cousins: His grandfather Benjamin Franklin Johnson’s seventh wife’s daughter Sarah Jane Johnson married her paternal Aunt Esther Melita Johnson’s son Benjamin Franklin LeBaron—Benjamin Franklin Johnson’s nephew. Incest plain and simple!

The dilemma — and the reason incest is illegal is that when close relatives marry, they compound bad/recessive genes in their family tree.

Says historian Kris Wray:
Benjamin F. Johnson had a brilliant brother, Seth Johnson, who, he said in his “My Life’s Review,” experienced “mania” and was “weakened in mind” at one time … though he stated he had a “sound” mind later.

“As far as Owen LeBaron, I’d gamble his mental illness came from the Johnson/LeBaron line. His dad’s (William Farland LeBaron) parents were David Tully LeBaron and Harriett Naomi Johnson. Grandpa David Tully’s parents were David Tully LeBaron (Sr) and Esther Malita Johnson [Benjamin F. Johnson’s sister].”

In other words, there WAS genetic disposition for mental illness in the LeBaron AND Johnson lines (NOT just in my grandmother Maud McDonald’s line). Dayer’s dad marrying his Johnson first-cousin magnified it. 

Mania is a facet of type I bipolar disorder in which the mood state is abnormally heightened and accompanied by hyperactivity and a reduced need for sleep.

By contrast, hypomania (often described as “mania-light”) is a type II bipolar disorder which neither has the range nor severity of symptoms that classic mania has. (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjKv53WyubgAhUUs54KHXqaBBkQFjACegQIBxAL&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.verywellmind.com%2Fsymptoms-of-mania-380311&usg=AOvVaw1rN1sW2GH8_ntXBJYx8aKY)

In my quest to further understand what might have caused the unusual amount of mental illness in my Mexico-LeBaron family, years ago I was told the following by my sister Judith Spencer: “Mental illness ran in the bloodlines of BOTof  our Grandma Maud’s parents William Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emmerson.

“People TOLD our grandmother’s parents, William Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emerson, ‘DO NOT marry!! There’s ‘bad blood’ in your families!’ — In other words,” she said, “There was mental illness in both their family trees! For them to marry could only compound the problem. They married anyway.” * Love and libido won out!

It is now known Schizophrenia is heritable — AND SKIPS a generation to show up in the SECOND generation of children born into bloodlines where at least one of the parents has the schizophrenia/ manic-depressive/ bipolar gene.

As it turns out, in the Mexico-LeBarons’ case schizophrenia/ bipolar disease/ personality disorders not only ran in BOTH our Grandmother Maud’s parents’ family trees, but ALSO in Grandfather Dayer’s family tree. That would more than double the schizophrenic /bipolar genetics and heritability.

I do not personally know about any mental disorders that ran in my great-grandmother Lucinda Mariah Emmerson’s family line. Only that, though schizophrenia is found in all nationalities and races, Sweden and Ireland rate the highest for this disorder. Norway follows close behind. (The Scots Irish? When history’s followed back far enough, they are Irish.) 

In past decades, schizophrenia was often called “Manic Depression.” Today it is usually referred to as Bipolar Disease. “McDonald” is an Irish/ Scots Irish surname. “Emmerson” is a Swedish surname. I mention this as only one piece of the puzzle contributing to mental challenges in my beloved Mexico-LeBaron family line.

Though my grandmother Maud’s parents Wm. Wesley McDonald and Lucinda Mariah Emerson had mental illness running in their family trees (as many family trees do, I might add), out of Grandma Maud’s own immediate family of origin, none of her siblings suffered notable mental illness—as far as I know. And none of Wesley and Mariah McDonald’s children exhibited any of the mental illness that existed in their father Wesley McDonald’s later years.

Grandma Maud told me about a number of occasions in her life when she’d heard a voice speak to her “plain as day.” This and other such things may have been mild signs of Schizophrenia in Gramma Maud. But I read in a book on Schizophrenia that eating even part of a green potato, among other things, could affect a temporary Schizophrenic disorder in at least some people. So you never know.

Case in point, however: The mental-illness gene my great-grandfather William Wesley McDonald carried DID skip a generation! That is, it didn’t show up, as far as I know, in the siblings of my grandmother Maud McDonald’s family of origin. BUT it showed up BIG-TIME in the next generation — Grandpa Dayer and Grandma Maud LeBarons’ children. Most, if not all of their living children had mental problems to one degree or another.

For example, every one of Grandpa and Grandma LeBaron’s seven living sons claimed to be, at one time or another and to one degree or another, “The one mighty and strong”/OM&S (God’s spoke person on earth). [2] Some of this may have been brought on by upbringing, desires for power and profit, and other such, rather than by defective genes.

But it’s also likely they heard voices, and had revelations, dreams, and inspiration that told them they were “the one mighty and strong prophet” spoken of in Mormon Scriptures.

Grandpa and Grandma LeBaron’s creative and talented daughter Lucinda spent most of her life in a mental institution — as did their brilliant oldest son Ben. And their disturbed son Ervil went clear over the cliff—“was the spittin’ image,” said Grandmamma Maud, of her own father William Wesley McDonald who began to hear voices, get revelations, etc., in his later yrsars.  [3]t 

Their gifted and beautiful daughter Esther (my mother) lived in a mild dream world along with other personality disorders. Example: from time to time she/ Mama had manic-depressive episodes/ bipolar symptoms — including a few “nervous breakdowns.” And she had a narcissistic personality disorder, including delusions of grandeur. Paranoia also visited Mama as well as pathological lying; i.e., she believed her own lies.

Nevertheless, many people loved, respected, and befriended my mother throughout her life. In other words, Mother’s mental issues didn’t get in the way of her relationships with most people—though they got in my way!

As a young woman, Mother once told people she was a Hollywood starlet and a Concert Pianist. In actuality, my grandma Maud saw to it her daughter Esther/my mother got piano lessons and the time to practice enough to memorize a number of beautiful Piano Concertos.

But that did not make her a Concert Pianist; i.e., she never held the prestigious position of accompanyig Philharmonic Orchestra’s as their Concert Pianst! Instead, she quit college early on to become the plural wife of an old man, bearing him fourteen kids along with six miscarriages within the space of 21 years; i.e., She was a stay-at-home mom.

Mother also told people she and all her kids and husband had their “callings and elections made sure.” (That is to say, HER kids were ALL going to heaven. No question about it!!)

She told people she “knew” HER husband and HER kids were going to “the highest degree of glory” “because they, like her, were so pure and saintly — so holy they were incapable of experiencing even “evil emotions such as envy or jealousy”! (That made them perfectly cut out to live polygamy, right? However, in her 21 years of marriage, Mom was too jealous to share Pop with even ONE other concurrent wife!)

Nevertheless, I don’t believe anybody in the cult ever noticed the inconsistentcies in what she preached and what she practiced. She said her Patriarchal Blessing “said so” and they believed her. This was mostly wishful thinking, exaggeration, and delusions of grandeur, on Ma’s part. Up until I escaped the LeBaron sect she belonged to, she also told people I/moi was her most perfect and holy child!

It helped cause Ma a nervous breakdown, therefore, when at age 21 I FLED the religion she raised me in — the religion she was SO sure was the ONLY true religion — the one you HAD to believe in to go to the highest degree of glory!

Needless to say, after I fled Mother’s religion/cult, she condemned me to hell, saying I wasn’t as spiritual as she and the rest of her kids were. (She somehow always took it upon herself to be my judge! … I thought that was God’s job!)

Now, back to the subject of mental illness in the Mexico-LeBarons’ immediate family: What further caused the Mexico-LeBaron children’s mental disorders is: There was not ONLY mental illness and personality disorders in BOTH my maternal grandparent’s family trees, but BOTH Grandmother Maud AND Grandfather Dayer, THEMSELVES, talked, not infrequently, about having unusually vivid dreams, revelations, and “hearing voices” — voices that spoke to them and gave them guidance. In other words, this meant double the schizophrenic characteristics in just the Mexico-LeBaron children’s parents, alone!

I know some people are gifted with a high level of intuition, extra-sensory perception/ ESP, and so forth. The gift of inspiration/ “a still, small voice,” etc., runs in creative families like the Mexico-LeBarons. And Poets are said to be prophets. Furthermore, schizophrenia runs high in creative families. Still, Grandfather Dayer’s extra-sensory perceptions went beyond that of healthy and normal.

To sum it all up, my maternal grandparents carried outward signs of mental-illness; e.g., voices talking to them, on TOP of their inner genetic markers for mental disorders. This tally sheet quadrupled chances that at least some of their children would inherit mental problems—especially given there were other stressors and traumas in their life that helped kick in the recessive genes for mental illness.

*This concludes my comments. Thank you for visi.
Now, till next time, be of good cheer; Spring is here! ~ Stephany Spencer-LeBaron

*My sister Judith Spencer’s oldest daughter was schizophrenic/bipolar. Because of this, Judy did much research, trying to understand the disease, how it came about, and how to deal with it. I don’t recall, now, the relatives she spoke with on my grandma Maud’s and grandpa Dayer’s family sides. But the information I related above was told to her by them.

[2]  See “The LeBaron Story,“ and “Maud’s Story,” on Amazon.com and Kindle. Though these books were written to preach “The Church of the First Born” doctrine, they are all we have of the Mexico-LeBaron Family’s published history — about our only source, though highly biased.

[3] See “Cult Insanity” and “Shattered Dreams“ by Irene Spencer

Pt 31-D:
My Mama Esther LeBaron Spencer, The-Mexico-LeBarons, and Mental Illness

https://stephanyspencer.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/stephany-spencer-on-cd-2.m4a

~Picking up where we left off on “Pt 31-C: My Mama Esther LeBaron Spencer, The- Mexico-LeBarons, and Mental Illness”: