Pictured above: The first home of Orson James and Edna R. Richins, located on the Orson Oriel Richins ranch. (L-R): Edna, her sister Madge Richardson and Orson’s sister Ena Richins (both on the porch).

Shortly after the Colonia Diaz refugees arrived in Hachita, Orson Oriel’s oldest son, Orson James, took the train to Logan, Utah to find work and much needed cash for his family. He remained there from July 1912 to April 1913, when his father asked him to return to Hachita to help him on the farm. A year later, Edmund Richardson’s family stayed overnight with Orson Oriel on their way to their new home in Thatcher, Arizona.

When the Richardsons left the next day, Orson asked Edmund’s daughter Edna to write him when she got to Thatcher. He didn’t hear from her until she again visited the Richins with some friends—about a year later. Orson gathered his courage and proposed to her that night! She accepted his proposal and they began to make their wedding plans. The couple estimated they would need $500 to make the trip to Salt Lake City to be married, as they wanted to take both their mothers along.

It took Orson eleven months to save up enough money—he worked as a cowhand at $35 per month and then his father asked him to come home to help him on the farm. He promised Orson that if he stayed on until April, he would see that Orson had enough money to make the trip to Salt Lake. Meanwhile, Edna found work with a family in Globe, Arizona. Their only contact with each other before the trip to Utah was by letter. Edna wrote him regularly, but Orson was 20 miles from the post office and was only able to get the mail once each week.

Before he left to meet Edna and take her to Salt Lake City, Orson planted a heavy crop of grain, anticipating a good harvest when he and Edna returned from Utah and started their life together. Drought, rabbits and an early frost ruined the crop. They had nothing, but this was just the beginnings of their trials. They built a two-room house on the Orson Oriel homestead and eked out a living.

(Source: "Life Story of Orson James Richins," compiled by Beverly R. Porter)