Rachel Hennefer Richins, was born October 30, 1861 in Henefer, Utah, where she spent her childhood. Orson Oriel Richins was considered one of her very best friends. This friendship grew into love and they were married in the Salt Lake City Temple May 25, 1881. After moving to Mesa, Arizona to avoid federal marshalls, Orson and Rachel moved to Colonia Diaz, Mexico. While Orson served in the Central States Mission for the Church, Rachel had to provide for the family. In 1912, nearly all the Mormon colonists were forced to leave Mexico because of the revolutionary fighting. The family settled on a homestead about twenty-three miles south of Hachita, New Mexico near the Mexican border. They lived there for about seven years before moving to Red Rock and Virden, New Mexico. At the time of Rachel's death in April 1946, she had fifty-seven grandchildren, and forty-three great-grandchildren.

In 1853, William and James Hennefer received a call from Brigham Young asking them to take their families and settle along the Weber River in the valley, which was then known as Indian hunting ground. Upon the advice of Brigham Young, they gathered their meager belongings together, placed them in two covered wagons and made the hard journey over the mountains into the little valley now known as Henefer. They took up forty acres of land on the sage-covered flats and lived in their wagons and fortified themselves against the Indians while they cut and prepared logs to build their cabins. After the death of his wife, William Henry Hennefer returned to Salt Lake City where he was employed on the City Police force. later William returned to Henefer as Presiding Elder of the Henefer Branch of the Church of Jesus Chriost of Latter-day Saints, with James Hennefer and Abraham Hays as counselors. James Hennefer was a blacksmith by trade and had a shop in Hennefer.