John R. Young San Juan County, New Mexico

John R. Young, of Fruitland, was born at Kirtland. Ohio, in 1837, a son of Lorenzo D. Young, who was the youngest brother of Brigham Young and who put up the first house on a surveyed lot in Salt Lake City. In his early youth John R. Young accompanied his parents to Nauvoo, Illinois, and in 1847 went with the Mormon colonists to Salt Lake City, from which region he made his way southward as a pioneer. He spent ten years in building the Dixie country, and in 1891 came to Fruitland. He traveled as an elder of the Mormon Church and twice visited the Southern Pacific islands and England, making one trip as a missionary. He has also done much missionary work in the southwest, principally among the Utes. He made two trips to New Mexico in the '70s visiting the Molds and Navajos in 1874 and 1876, when they threatened war against the Mormons.

Since locating in Fruitland he has carried on business as a horticulturist, having a fruit ranch of forty acres. He is a member of the Utah Indian War Veteran Association, and he presides over the high priest's quorum. For two years he served as County assessor.

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Source: History of New Mexico, Its Resources and People, Volume II, Pacific States Publishing Co., 1907.