USA > New Mexico > History of New Mexico : its resources and people, Volume II > Part 19
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He resigned while in Brazil on a leave of absence and there turned his attention to railroad construction, working as a sub-contractor and contractor in Brazil for nine years, and during two years of that period was in a commission house. His last work in South America, however, was doing railroad work. Returning to the United States in 1883, he came to New Mexico and purchased his present place near Shoemaker. He was induced to go into the cattle business and ranching and has since con- tinued in this line of business activity, owning eleven thousand acres and also leasing twenty thousand acres of cattle land. He operates extensively in the cattle industry and is meeting with gratifying success in his under- takings.
In 1870, at Bloomfield, Iowa, Captain Brunton was married to Miss Laura B. Eichelberger, who died in Iowa in 1878. Their children are: Mary D., the wife of Lewis J. Bauer, Jr .; and John, a miner of Idaho. Captain Brunton is a commander of Sherman Post No. I, G. A. R., Las Vegas. He was elected department commander, G. A. R., May 4, 1906, at Las Cruces. He has served as school director for two terms and is a stalwart Republican, who has frequently served as a delegate to the county and territorial conventions of his party.
Anastacio Medina, of the firm of Ortega & Medina, Wagon Mound, Mora county, was born in Taos county, this Territory, April 15, 1872, son of Felipe and Doloritas ( Martinez) Medina. He was reared at Coyote, in Mora county, to which place he was taken when three years old, and where his boyhood days were spent on a sheep ranch. Since 1894 he has lived in Wagon Mound, and since 1904 has been in partnership with F. S. Ortega. Previous to that he was associated with his brother and Patricio Sanchez.
Politically Mr. Medina has always affiliated with the Republican party and has taken a commendable interest in public affairs. In the fall of 1892 he was elected county assessor of Mora county, for a term of two years, and served acceptably in that capacity. Mr. Medina married, in 1892, Miss Sara Montaya, a native of Coyote. Three daughters and one son have blessed their union, namely : Doloritas, Maclobia, Felipe and Adela.
Eugenio Romero, a merchant of Mora, New Mexico, is a native of the county in which he now lives and was born on his father's ranch May 18, 1872. As the name indicates, Mr. Romero is of Spanish origin. His father, Jose de Jesus Romero, was born in Rio Arriba county, New Mexico, May 15, 1834, son of Juan Jose Romero, whose whole life was passed in Rio Arriba county. The mother was, before her marriage, Maria Rita Salagar. Her grandfather, Diego Duran, was a native of Spain, from which place he emigrated to New Mexico, where he passed the rest of his life.
Eugenio Romero spent his boyhood days in caring for his father's stock. He attended school in Mora and here as clerk in the general store of Lowenstein, Strausse & Co. he received his business training. After clerking for them twelve years he was taken into the company as a partner
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and as such was associated with them for three and a half years, at the end of which time he sold his interest to the firm. Then he bought a lot and built his present store, which he opened August 5, 1901, and in which he has since successfully conducted a general mercandise business.
Politically he is a Democrat and religiously a Catholic, and both in church and in public affairs he is a prominent and active factor. Septem- ber 21, 1896, Mr. Romero married Miss Amelia Regensberg, daughter of Jacob Regensberg, of Guadalupita, Mora county. Their marriage has been blessed in the birth of three daughters: Isavelita, Sofia and Leonor. Mr. Romero was a visitor to the St. Louis Fair and to him belongs the dis- tinction of being the first man from New Mexico to place his name on the register, the entry bearing date of May 17, 1904.
Louis Kahn, who died at Mora in February, 1906, had a life of ad- venture worthy of record on these pages. He was born in Bavaria, Ger- many, September 22, 1830, and spent his boyhood attending the common schools of his native land. In 1847, at the age of seventeen, he came to America, landing in New York, and a month later going to Philadelphia, and thence to Mississippi. In the latter state he bought a team and stock of goods, and peddled through the country, and while thus occupied he was a victim of the western fever, which overtook so many of the more enter- prising young men of that day. Accordingly, in March, 1849, he started west with a wagon train, of which, a portion of the way, he was in charge. En route to Colorado, they met Col. Ceran St. Vrain, who was coming to Santa Fé, New Mexico, and they joined him and his party and arrived in Santa Fé August 15, 1849. From 1849 to 1867 Mr. Kahn was engaged in freighting, with wagon trains composed of eight to ten wagons, from Santa Fé and Las Vegas to Westport, Kansas City and Leavenworth, as well as other points. While on one of these trips, at Junction City, on the Lost Spring, he narrowly escaped death by cholera. At times the In- dians were troublesome and rendered frontier life wildly exciting. Mr. Kahn's most serious trouble with the red men was in 1864, about seventy- five miles from Las Vegas, when he fought the Indians from ten o'clock in the morning to sundown. All his men, eleven in number, were killed, himself alone escaping. He was wounded three times with the red man's arrows, in the arm, the scalp and the small of the back. August 8, 1860, when the Navajo Indians made a raid on his property, Mr. Kahn lost forty-six yoke of oxen, ninety-four cattle and fifteen head of thoroughbred horses. And the last freighting trip he made, in 1867, was one on which he had considerable trouble with the Indians.
In 1867 Mr. Kahn settled down to keeping store, meat market, etc., in Sapello, New Mexico, where he remained two years. From that time until 1874 he farmed and traveled, and in 1874 he located in Mora, where he since made his home. He was in the butcher business here for a few years and from that turned to hotel keeping, in which he was engaged at the time of his death. He owned a hundred acres of land under irriga- tion and had a fine fruit orchard, from which fresh supplies were obtained for his hotel. Mr. Kahn was also largely interested in the Taos grant.
Mr. Kahn served five years as justice of the peace at Mora.
In June, 1851, at San Miguel, Mr. Kahn married Miss Candelaria Salazar, who died November 6, 1903, leaving a family of five children :
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Antonia, Mary, Rayitas, Regina and Julia. The last named is the wife of Charles U. Strong of Mora. The daughters are in charge of the hotel.
Don Epimenio Martinez, territorial sheep inspector, Wagon Mound, Mora county, New Mexico, figures as one of the prominent and influential men of his locality. Mr. Martinez was born in Taos county, New Mexico, July 17, 1859, son of Don Pablo and Libranda (Romero) Martinez, both natives of Taos county and still living there, thirty-five miles east of Taos, the former at the age of seventy-three years and the latter at sixty. Don Pablo Martinez is a nephew of old Father Antonio Martinez, is a man of superior ability, and has served in various official capacities, having filled the offices of sheriff of Taos county, deputy United States marshal, justice of the peace and probate judge. During the Civil war he served three years in the Union army.
Up to the age of twenty-one years Don E. spoke only the Spanish language, which alone was used in his father's family. Then he began the study of English. Soon afterward he moved to Colfax county and took claim to a tract of government land, where has since sprung up the town of Martinez, named in honor of him, and there he remained for about twelve years, conducting a sheep and cattle ranch and doing some farming. Also for four years of that time he kept a store. In these under- takings he prospered and accumulated money. At the end of the twelve years he moved to Moulding Place, six miles east of Wagon Mound, where he has since made his home. From time to time he has acquired land until now he owns some fifty claims, of one hundred and sixty acres each, aggregating eight thousand acres, and is ranked as the richest man in the county. Three of his ranches are unsurpassed by any others in Colfax and Mora counties, and his residence at Moulding Place, erected at a cost of seven thousand dollars, is one of the most attractive country homes in the Territory.
Mr. Martinez is a stanch Republican and for years has been actively identified with public affairs. In 1887 he was justice of the peace in Colfax county ; was elected probate judge of that county in 1888, and served a term of two years. he being the first man in the county elected to that office on the Republican ticket. While there, he was a candidate for county treasurer, but was defeated. In 1897 he was appointed territorial sheep inspector, and served as such for a period of seven years, until 1904, when he resigned. He was again appointed to this position August I, 1905, and is the incumbent of the office at this writing. In the advancement of edu- cational matters Mr. Martinez has always shown a keen interest and for years he was a school director. He was one of the leaders in the building of the school house at Wagon Mound and also it was largely due to his efforts that a school was secured at Martinez. During the year 1899 he was postmaster of Wagon Mound.
Mr. Martinez was appointed and commissioned by the governor to represent the Territory of New Mexico at the Paris exposition in 1900, and while there he had the honor and pleasure of meeting the president of France and many of the monarchs of the different nations of the old world. He saw, too, the greatness and beauty of the different countries and the magnificent palaces of the once great Napoleon, likewise the pal- aces of Marie Antoinette of Versailles and the casties of King Philip XIV. He spent one month in Paris, where he made many friends, and at the
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exposition had the pleasure of seeing the samples of all of the manufactured products of the world, as well as the evidence of the civilization of different countries as represented in their ancient and modern customs, dress and practices. From Paris he made his way to many of the leading cities of Germany and Italy, passing through the San Gotthard tunnel, twelve miles in length. He visited Lake Como, the city of Milan and its surroundings, the palaces of Victor Emanuel, Venice with its San Marcos church and tower, also the great Doges palaces and the golden stairs. He also saw some of the finest crystal manufactories of the world and that Campanile, built over a thousand years ago. He says that one of the happiest periods of his life was spent on the Grand Canal at Venice as he rode for hours on the night of July 26, 1900, in one of the finest gondolas of that city. He visited Florence on his way to Rome, where he arrived on the 28th of July. At ten o'clock that night, when in the Plaza de Ricord, the telegram was received of the assassination of King Humbert. He visited the ruins of the Coliseum, also St. Peter's and the Vatican and many other points of interest of "the eternal city." Later he went to Naples and to Pompeii and climbed Mount Vesuvius. There he had a very narrow escape, being robbed by a gang of highwaymen, who took all of his money and valuable possessions that he had with him, but he fortunately escaped with- out personal injury. He afterward visited Christopher Columbus' native city and various points of interest in Spain, together with other places, modern and historic, on the continent.
Mr. Martinez, on the 10th of January, 1906, was appointed a commis- sioner to represent Mora county as one of the vice-presidents at the Fall Annual Fair held in Albuquerque in September of that year. He is num- bered today among the prosperous merchants of his town, being a member of the Wagon Mound Mercantile Company.
April 22, 1887. Mr. Martinez married Miss Parfirio Mares. They have two adopted daughters.
Juan Rafael Aguilar, a merchant and sheep rancher of Wagon Mound, Mora county, was born in Taos, New Mexico, February 9, 1860, son of Pablo and Ramona (Pacheco) Aguilar. Pablo Aguilar, son of Salvador Aguilar, was born and reared in Taos, and made that place his home until 1872, when he moved with his family to Ocate. He was a farmer and cattle raiser. Both he and his wife are deceased, her death having occurred in 1882 and his in 1894.
Juan Rafael Aguilar was twelve years old at the time his parents moved to Ocate. There he lived until he was twenty, when he came to Wagon Mound, which then consisted of only three adobe houses. He entered the employ of Schmidt & Reinkin, the pioneer merchants of the town, and clerked for them for a period of thirteen years. In 1893 he engaged in the sheep and cattle business on land which he owns east and south of Wagon Mound, and which he has continued successfully up to the present time. He has thoroughly posted himself on the sheep industry and so successful has he been in this business that he has come to be regarded as an authority on the subject in his locality. Also, since 1903, he has con- ducted a store in Wagon Mound, which he keeps chiefly for his own convenience.
Mr. Aguilar is politically a Republican, and for years has figured prominently in public affairs in his county. Since 1893 he has been a notary
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public. In 1894 he was elected sheriff of Mora county for a term of two years. Since 1903 he has been sheep inspector, the duties of his office being to make inspection of all shipments made at Wagon Mound. In 1902 he was appointed a United States commissioner. This office he re- signed in 1903, but was reappointed the following year. For years he has been a member of the Wagon Mound school board.
Mr. Aguilar has an interesting family. October 5. 1885, he married Miss Cleofas Mascarenes, a native of Ciruela, Mora county, and the fruits of their union are eight children : Claudia, Adelina, Alfonso, Celina, Pablo, Antonita, Sofronia and Corina.
Francisco Sales Ortega, one of the enterprising and public-spirited citizens of Wagon Mound, Mora county, New Mexico, was born in this county, January 29, 1864, son of Luciano and Ascencion ( Aldecoa) Ortega. His father, a native of Mora county, died on the Ortega ranch in the Red River country, this county. in 1893; and his mother, born in Sonora, old Mexico, died in 1890. Luciano Ortega was in early life a strong Democrat but later transferred his franchise and influence to the Republican party. For years he was a justice of the peace.
Francisco was reared on his father's ranch above Mora, which was the family home until 1885, when they moved to the Red River country, where he lived until 1902. that year taking up his residence in Wagon Mound. He was already interested in the livery business here, under the firm name of Ortega & Medina, and has since continued the business under the same name. Mr. Ortega owns the new residence he occupies and also has other town property here.
Politically he is a Republican. In 1900 he was elected assessor of Mora county, and served a term of two years. Mr. Ortega's family con- sists of wife and daughter. Mrs. Ortega, formerly Miss Maximiana Stines, is a native of Watrous, New Mexico. The daughter, Adela, is the wife of Jose de la Luz Silva, of Wagon Mound.
Albert Tison, who owns and conducts a ranch at Wagon Mound, dates his residence in the Territory from June, 1859. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, January 8, 1839. and was educated in the public schools of Chicago, Illinois. When a young man of twenty years he started to Pike's Peak, but met one thousand wagons and three thousand people re- turning from the Colorado gold fields and giving unfavorable reports of mining conditions there. In consequence he changed the course of his travel at Fort Mann and made his way to New Mexico, on the old Santa Fé trail. He located in Taos, where he engaged in clerking in the general mercantile store of Ferdinand Maxwell for two years. He afterward re- turned to "the states," where he remained until the Civil war was ended, his attention being given to general agricultural pursuits in St. Louis county, Missouri.
In 1865 Mr. Tison again came to the Territory of New Mexico and has since been engaged in cattle raising, ranching and general live stock business. He first followed ranching near Cimarron on the Maxwell grant and in 1884 took up his present ranch two and a half miles northwest of Wagon Mound, where he has three hundred and twenty acres of patented land with a large public range. He runs about one hundred head of cattle on an average throughout the year. He cuts sixty acres of hay and has one hundred and twenty acres of cultivated land. In 1882 he engaged
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in the saloon business at Wagon Mound, which he continued for four or five years, but his attention is now given entirely to his ranching interests.
In 1873 Mr. Tison was married at Cimarron to Miss Frances Ocosta, of Santa Fé. He is thoroughly familiar with pioncer experiences in the Territory and in the west. He crossed the plains a number of times during the '6os, but had no trouble with the Indians. He was deputy sheriff of Colfax county in an early day, filling the office during the time of the noted trouble over the Tolby murder. In politics he has always been a stalwart Democrat.
Patricia Sanchez, a merchant and farmer of Mora, was born Febru- ary 10, 1867, at Raciada, this Territory, son of Felipe and Bonifacia (Lujan) Sanchez. Felipe Sanchez, also a native of New Mexico, was born in 1829; has been engaged in ranching and the cattle business all his life, and now has a hundred acres of land under cultivation. In his younger days he served in the United States army against the Indians. His children are: Jesus Maria : Julia, wife of Juan B. Sanchez: Jose Ignacio ; Pascoala, wife of Jose Martinez; Patricio, whose name introduces this sketch; Eulgio; Consolacion, wife of Manuel Martin ; and Ignes, wife of Casto Mastas.
Patricio Sanchez received his education in the Christian Brothers College at Mora, and when he started out to make his own way in the world he went to Las Vegas, where for four months he was driver on a street car. Returning to Mora, in 189c he engaged in the liquor business, which he has since continued. Also he is interested in cattle and sheep ranching, and has under cultivation about fifty acres of land ; owns city real estate, and has a half interest in the general merchandise store at Ledoux, New Mexico.
Always more or less interested in public affairs, Mr. Sanchez has for years been called upon to act in some public capacity. He was school superintendent of Mora county in 1897 and 1898. Previous to that, from 1892 to 1896, he was deputy collector and treasurer ; was deputy assessor three years, and at this writing is deputy sheriff. Politically he has always been a Republican. February 18, 1889, he married Miss Loretta Mucy. They have no children.
Hon. Juan Navarro, a farmer of Mora, New Mexico, is a native of this place, born September 1I, 1848, son of Francisco and Maria Antonia (Martinez) Navarro. He was educated in the Christian Brothers College at Mora and, being the son of a prominent farmer, early became familiar with all the details of ranch life. On reaching his majority he engaged in farming on his own account, in which he has since been interested, now having seventy acres under cultivation, besides other lands used for stock purposes.
For years Mr. Navarro has figured prominently in local and terri- torial politics, as one of the stanch workers of the Republican party. He was elected sheriff of Mora county for the term of two years, 1888 to 1890, which he filled with credit to himself and the county, and on his retirement from the sheriff's office he was elected a member of the territorial council to represent district No. 1. comprising Mora, Colfax and Union counties. He served as representative in 1900 and 1901. For the past eight years he has been a member of the penitentiary board, of which at this writing he is secretary. Mr. Navarro married, in 1863. at Mora, Miss Margareta Galleyos, a native of this place. They have no children.
Carl Harberg, general merchant, Cleveland, New Mexico, was born
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in Morsberg, Germany, November 22, 1861. He received his education in the German gymnasium and in a seminary, preparing himself for a teacher. He did not, however, take up the work of teaching. He served one year in the German army, at the end of which time, in 1881, he came to the United States, and direct to New Mexico.
Arrived here, he located at Mora, where he was employed as clerk in the wholesale mercantile establishment of Loewenstein, Strausse & Com- pany, with whom he remained ten years. Then he was one year with the St. Vrain Mercantile Company, which failed, and after the failure he went to Sonora, old Mexico. The climate in the latter place, however, not being conducive to his health, he soon returned to Mora, and re-entered the employ of Loewenstein. Strausse & Company, with whom he continued until 1897, when, in partnership with E. Romero and brother Joe, he bought the store of Loewenstein, Strausse & Company at Cleveland. This busi- ness was then run under the firm name of Carl Harberg & Co. In 1890 Mr. Harberg purchased the interest of his partners and has since conducted the business successfully in his own name. In addition to merchandising, he is interested in cattle and sheep ranching.
At Trinidad, Colorado, April 29, 1895, Mr. Harberg married Miss Julia Klein, a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and they have two children, Carrie and Solomon. Fraternally Mr. Harberg is identified with Chapman Lodge No. 2, A. F. & A. M., of Las Vegas.
Richard Parr Strong, a retired rancher of Mora, New Mexico, is a native of the Emerald Isle. He was born in County Wicklow, Ireland, August 26, 1831, and was reared and received his education in the city of Dublin. At the age of nineteen years he came to America, landing in New York city, where he remained a year and a half, employed in a furniture warehouse. October 21, 1851, he enlisted in the United States army. First Regular Mounted Cavalry; re-enlisted August 27, 1856, and served a term of ten years, until August 18, 1861, when he was honorably discharged. The latter part of his army life covered the first five months of the Civil war.
Mr. Strong first came to New Mexico from Texas, with Major Pope, to look for artesian water, and spent five weeks at Galisteo, Santa Fé county. In August, 1856, he again landed at Santa Fé, thence to old Fort Massachusetts, from there to the Presidio, ten miles south of Taos, known as Fort Canton Burgwyn, and thence to Fort Union, where he re- mained until the expiration of his term of service and was discharged.
After leaving the army Mr. Strong took claim to a tract of govern- ment land, on which he settled and where he has since lived, all this time interested in the stock business. Also for several years, from 1864 to 1875, he was engaged in freighting with his own teams, and in that time made seven trips over the old Santa Fé trail to Kansas City and Leaven- worth, the average time for each trip being three months. In the forty- nine years Mr. Strong has lived in New Mexico he has had trouble with the Indians only once. That was in August, 1864, when he was on his first freighting trip, and was attacked by a party of twenty-five renegade Indians who were encamped on Cow creek. The Indians stole all of his horses and killed two of his men. In referring to his early experience in the west, Mr. Strong says that in 1866 he came over the plains alone with
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two wagons, and two hours after he crossed the Wankarusha bridge in Kansas it was burned by Quantrell.
In Taos, New Mexico, March 1, 1857, Mr. Strong married Miss Fanny Ryan, a native of Ladysbridge, County Cork, Ireland, Father Ortiz performing the ceremony. The children born to them are as follows : Jane, born in Taos, December 5. 1857, is deceased; Mary, born in Taos, May 25, 1859, is deceased; Charles, born in Fort Union, January 6, 1860, is deceased; William P., born in Ocate, May 25, 1862, is a resident of Garrett, Oklahoma; Daniel (and all the other children, natives of Ocate), born October 12. 1865, is deceased; Richard, born January 8, 1868, is deceased ; Charles U., born January 19, 1869, is a resident of Mora ; Ann, born February 2, 1871, is deceased; John R., born October 2, 1874, is a resident of Wagon Mound; Julia C., born April 24, 1881, is the wife of WV. L. Blattman, of Ocate.
Charles Ulick Strong, clerk in the store of Dougherty & Cassidy, of Mora, New Mexico, and also deputy county treasurer and collector of Mora county, was born in Ocate, this county, January 19, 1869, son of Richard P. and Fannie (Ryan) Strorig. His father, a rancher, Charles U., received his early training on the farm. He was educated in the Chris- tian Brothers' schools at Mora and Santa Fé, and his first business venture was in a store with his brother, William P., at Ocate, where he remained four years, until he reached his majority. He was then elected county clerk of Mora county on the Democratic ticket, and served a term of two years. After this he entered the employ of J. J. Smith, dealer in general merchandise at Wagon Mound. Four months later Mr. Smith was killed, after which Mr. Strong went to Mora as clerk for the St. Vrain Mercantile Company, with which he was connected in that capacity until 1896. In the meantime he served as county commissioner one term. From 1896 to 1898 he owned and ran a store in Mora, which he sold, and until 1903 he clerked for P. D. St. Vrain. Mr. St. Vrain was deputy county treasurer of Mora county four years, the work being performed by Mr. Strong, who, at the end of that time, was appointed deputy, and is now serving as such. And he has had a clerkship with Dougherty & Cassidy since the establish- ment of their business, May I, 1904.
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