LEBARON, Mexico -- Family is the center of life in LeBaron, a tiny farming town in Chihuahua, Mexico.

The town is just a four-hour drive to the Texas-Mexico border.

That’s one of the reasons people there are closely watching events at the polygamist compound in West Texas.

“If they’re running from the law, Mexico is their closest alternative. We haven’t seen anyone here,” said LeBaron resident Brent Verlan.

It’s not just proximity, but the town's past that might make it seem attractive to fundamentalists.

You see, an American polygamist founded LeBaron.

He was among a group of former Mormons who moved to Mexico in 1890 when the U.S. church banned so-called plural marriage.

Clarence LeBaron is the town’s former mayor.

“If we’re doing plural marriage at all, we’re doing it within the law, within freedom of choice. And little by little maybe that’s why we’re living plural marriage less and less because there’s not that religious push towards doing that,” he said.

LeBaron may have started out as a haven for polygamists, but generations of non-polygamists have made the town their home since its founding.

And the people 11 News talked to say they’re not rolling out the welcome mat for lawbreakers making a run for the border.

“They wouldn’t last here too long,” said LeBaron resident Lillian Tucker. “Not because we’re mean people but we’re not going to sit around and watch a 13-year-old or 14-year-old in any way be abused. I’m not. I know I won’t.”

Lillian Tucker has daughters that age. She’s the protective mother of a total of 18 children, and a polygamist wife.

But she and other polygamists living in LeBaron are adamant it’s an adult choice.

While they don't condone underage marriages, there’s also sympathy for Texas polygamist families.

“I think it’s sad they’re taking the children away from the mothers. I think it’s traumatizing. I think there are better ways to do it,” said one resident.

Even so, the town founded by polygamists who felt persecuted is determined to build a peaceful future with no repeats from the past.

Investigators in Arizona suspect that at least one fugitive from Colorado City, Orson Williams Black, is hiding in the mountains of Northern Mexico to avoid arrest.

He’s accused of sexually abusing young teens.

Authorities believe he has three wives, and all are in danger.