USA > New Mexico > History of New Mexico : its resources and people, Volume II > Part 26
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At the time of the Civil war Mr. Bell enlisted in the Eighty-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry under Colonel William Hill, and served in 1864 and 1865, being largely engaged in duty in South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky. He went with Sherman on the cele- brated march to the sea, and participated in the grand review in Washing- ton. He has been helpfully interested in public affairs in New Mexico, and was the first postmaster at Bell following the establishment of the office in 1891. In politics he is an independent voter.
Mr. Bell was married March 31, 1867, to Louisa Dearth, a native of Ohio, and their children are: Charles Homer and John William, who are living in Raton ; and Maggie Melissa, the wife of Thomas L. O'Connor, re- siding on the home ranch.
Oscar Troy, a rancher in Blosser Gap, Colfax county, New Mexico, was born near Petaluma, in Sonoma county, California, April 7, 1853, son of the late Daniel Troy. Daniel Trov was a native of Illinois, who went from that state to California during the gold excitement of 1849. He was engaged in mining and hotel keeping in the Golden state until 1872, when he came to New Mexico and turned his attention to the sheep industry, which he followed for several years. Oscar, at the age of twenty-two years, joined his father on the sheep ranch here, and later they added cattle to the business. From 1878 to 1898 the subject of our sketch was on a ranch south of the present place in Blosser Gap, where, since the latter date, he
AL Bell & Mifr
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has carried on his ranching operations. This place, with a cabin on it, at one time sold for a pony worth from $50 to $75. Here Mr. Troy now has 7,000 acres of land, patented, and also at times ranges his stock on govern- ment land as well as his own. At this writing he has about 5,000 sheep and 300 cattle. So successful has he been with the former that he has come to be an expert in this line, and is recognized locally as an authority on sheep.
Mr. Troy's family divide their time between the ranch and their home in Raton, preferring, however, to spend the most of the year in town. Mrs. Troy, formerly Miss Louise Pieper, is a native of Clinton, Iowa. They were married in New Mexico December 28, 1878, and are the parents of six children : Edith Edna, wife of M. R. Grindle, of Raton; Eva Louise, deceased ; Earl, Rene, Marie and Myrtle, twins.
Joseph Workman Dwyer, deceased, was one of the prominent early pioneers of New Mexico, and for years carried on extensive operations as a cattle raiser and trader. He was born in Maryland, October 6, 1832, son of Thomas Dwyer, and died in Raton, New Mexico, March 27, 1904.
Thomas Dwyer, a cabinetmaker by trade, moved with his family from Maryland to Ohio and there settled on a farm. This removal was when Joseph W. was a boy. He grew up on his father's farm, receiving his edu- cation in the public schools, and remained in Ohio until 1876. During President Grant's administration he served as pension agent. In 1876 he came to New Mexico, driving teams from Pueblo, Colorado, and located first on Una de Gato creek, on a ranch purchased from Robert Marr. His first venture in the stock business here was with sheep; later with cattle, to which he devoted his time up to 1892, that year selling out and moving to Raton to engage in the real estate business. At one time he bought ten thousand yearlings and two-year-olds in Texas and brought them to John- son's Mesa, where he then owned all the water rights, he and his partner, John S. Delano, under the name of the Delano & Dwyer Ranch Co., having bought out all the pre-empters and homesteaders there. In Raton he erected several buildings, including the residence now occupied by his son, David G., on Second street, on the exact line of the old Santa Fé trail.
Joseph W. Dwyer was always a Republican. Several times he was elected and served as alderman of Raton, and his influence at all times could be counted upon to support the best measures and the best men. While in Ohio-probably at Coshocton-he was made a Mason, and re- mained a member in good standing up to the time of his death, having transferred his membership to Gate City Lodge. Also, he had received the degrees of the chapter and commandery up to and including the thirty- second degree.
Mr. Dwyer's choice of life companion was Miss Emma A. Titus, who was born March 27, 1835, and died December 4, 1898. She bore him three children ; two died in early childhood. The other, David G. Dwyer, is a prominent and influential citizen of Raton.
David G. Dwyer was born in Coshocton, Ohio, April 4, 1867. In 1877 he accompanied his mother to New Mexico, his father, as above stated, having come to the Territory the year previous; and after a visit of two months they returned to Ohio, where they remained until 1884, at that time again joining his father in the west. He attended the public schools of Coshocton, and immediately after his return west spent one year in a
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business college in Denver. Then for two years he was clerk in the bank of Chappelle & Officers, at Raton, after which, until 1891, he was a cattle- man on his father's range. Three vears he clerked in the hardware store of Charles A. Fox, then spent some time in the real estate business, in 1899 was deputy county assessor, in 1900-1901 was deputy postmaster under T. W. Collier, and since 1901 has been deputy county assessor.
Like his father before him, Mr. Dwyer is a stanch Republican. For two years, 1898 and 1899, he served as city clerk, to which office he was elected on the Republican ticket. Fraternally he is an Elk. While not a communicant of any church, he contributes of his means to the support of the various church institutions in Raton. Indeed, as a generous, broad- minded, public-spirited citizen, he is ever ready to give a helping hand to any worthy cause.
January 10, 1900, Mr. Dwyer married Miss Nettie Chase, daughter of C. C. Chase, of Fredonia, Kansas, and they have two children, Helen and Irene.
Edward Rogers Manning, who lives on a ranch near Maxwell City, New Mexico, was born in Newark, Knox county, Missouri, January 30, 1854, son of Washington T. and Eliza (Smith) Manning, and was reared on a farm in Lynn county, Kansas, and spent two years in the State Normal School at Emporia, preparing himself for a tcacher. He taught, however, only a short time. In 1876 he went to Colorado. There for two months he was a member of the guard that protected the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé Railroad employes at the Roval Gorge, and afterward for a short time worked for the D. & R. G. Then for five years he was conductor on a Pullman car running from Kansas City to Deming, New Mexico, and other points out of Kansas City. He started out in life without any finan- cial assistance, and at the end of his five years of railroading he had saved $2.500, which he lost in the subscription book business in Topeka, Kansas. But he was not to be discouraged. Again he set out for Denver, where he landed with forty dollars in his pocket. From Denver he came to Springer, New Mexico, to enter the employ of the Maxwell Land Grant Co., and went to work with the engineer corps on the grant survey and the building of the ditch. On June Ist of that vear he was placed in charge of the ditch system, which he managed until 1800, since which time he has been manager of the Maxwell farm, an experimental farm covering six sections of land, one thousand acres of which are now under cultivation. This place is lo- cated six miles northwest of Maxwell Citv.
Since becoming a resident of New Mexico, Mr. Manning has by energy and good management replaced his losses. Among the investments he has made are 7,000 acres of land, thirty-five miles west of Maxwell City. devoted to stock purposes, and he is interested in coal mining. While he has never sought or filled office, he has always been a stanch supporter of the Republican party. He is a member of the Masonic order-the lodge, chapter and commandery at Raton and the Mystic Shrine at Albuquerque.
Mr. Manning has been twice married. His first wife, whose maiden name was Fannie R. Denison, and who was a native of Manhattan, Kan- sas, died, leaving a son, Edward Denison Manning, now a student in the University of Nebraska. By his second wife, nce Minnie McGregor, he has a daughter, Arline Frances.
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John Gallagher, deceased, who was for many years well known as an extensive rancher of New Mexico and also engaged in farming, was born in Ireland in 1842 and came to the United States about 1861, when nine- teen years of age. He first settled in Pennsylvania, where he worked in coal mines, and in 1861 he came to the west, his destination being Cali- fornia.
He stopped, however, at Elizabethtown and in 1868 took up his abode permanently here. attracted by the mining excitement. Like others, he sought for gold in this part of the country, working in placer claims in Grouse and Willow gulches until 1881. He was successful in his mining operations and with the capital thus acquired he took up a home- stead, purchasing 5.237 acres of land from the Maxwell Land Grant Com- pany. He then turned his attention to the raising and herding of cattle and also to a limited extent followed farming. He likewise bought other land in Union county and was extensively engaged in business as a rancher up to the time of his death, which occurred on the 25th of May, 1905.
Mr. Gallagher was married in 1875 to Miss Mary McGarvey, and in addition to the property which was left the family by the husband and father, they also have ranches on the Chico river. There were eight children, including Patrick, who has charge of the ranch on the creek ; John, who has charge of the Chico river ranch and the cattle on the place ; and Charlie, who has charge of the home place.
Patrick Dugan, a ranchman living at Elizabethtown, Colfax county, is a native of Ireland and in 1860 crossed the Atlantic from the Emerald Isle to Boston, Massachusetts. At the opening of the Civil war he entered the Civil Marine Corps in 1861, but they were afterward ordered to the United States steamship Lancaster at Panama Bay. He was there en- gaged in duty for two years and upon his request was transferred to the United States Marine barracks on Main Island off the coast of California, where he remained until honorably discharged on the 6th of September, 1865, following the close of the war. He was on the United States steamer Lancaster at a time when trouble with the British ships over the Mason and Slidel incident was but narrowly averted.
Mr. Dugan was married in Boston and has a family of four grown children. He came to Elizabethtown in March, 1868, attracted by the discovery of gold in this part of New Mexico and was engaged in work- ing placer claims with good success until 1878, when he sold out and bought a ranch from the Maxwell Land Grant Company, comprising thirty-three hundred acres. He then entered the cattle business, in which he has continued to the present. The broad tract of prairie offers excellent range for the stock and he is meeting with creditable success in this busi- ness venture.
Don Severino Martinez, a ranchman at Black Lakes, in Colfax coun- ty, was born in Taos county near the city of Taos, New Mexico, July 2, 1854, a son of Don Pascual and Teodora (Gallegos) Martinez. The father's grandfather, General Martinez, came from Chihuahua and the Galle- gos family from El Paso, Mexico. In the maternal line the subject of this review is also descended from the Bermudez family, and the Baca and Manganaris families are likewise related by marriage. The father was a native of Abiquiu, Rio Arriba county, and was a farmer and stock raiser. He spent most of his life in Taos., which he represented in the
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territorial council for three or four terms. At an earlier day he was pro- hate judge of the county and was a very active and influential Republican. He was also interested in the school of his brother, Father Antonio Jose Martinez, and was an active and able champion of Catholicism. He died February 27, 1882, at the age of seventy-six years. He was captain of the Mexican Rurales with a commission from Governor Santa Ana. He was a very prominent and influential man, known throughout the Terri- tory, and his military commission is still in possession of his son, Don Severino Martinez. These are valuable papers and read as follow :
SEAL SECOND.
(One dollar and a half.
For the years of 1800.
SEAL. ( Eight hundred and thirty-nine.
THE CITIZEN ANTONIO LOPEZ. DE SANTA ANA, General of Divisian and Provisional President of the Republic of Mexico and Well Deserving of the Country.
In compliance with the circumstances attendant upon the matter of the Citizen Pascual Martinez I have seen proper to appoint him captain of the mounted police of Taos, 1st district, Department of New Mexico, which post is vacant as it has been only recently created.
By virtue whereof the commanding officer to whom this may apply shall comply with the same at once and shall issue the necessary order therefore, so that he may be invested with the appointment and be placed in command, and that due respect may be paid his rank and that he be obeyed as such by his subordinates in rank, be his orders given by word of mouth or in writing.
Government palace, Mexico, the 23d day of April, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine. Nineteenth of Independence and Twelfth of Liberty.
ANTONIO LOPEZ DE SANTA ANA, Jose Maria Tornel.
The President shall appoint citizen Pascual Martinez captain of the rural troop of mounted police of Taos. New Mexico.
Santa Fé, September 12, 1839.
Let the order be complied with, as given by the President, at the time designated. MANUEL ARMIJO.
SEAL SECOND. One dollar and a half. For the year 1800 1 Eight hundred and forty-one. The Undersigned Minister of State, and of the Army and Navy Office:
Whereas by decree of August 28, 1840, and in conformity with the authority vested upon the government by the National Congress on the 26th of the same month and year, a cross of honor has been granted to the generals, chiefs and other officers who have fought in defense of the integrity of the national territory, with certain modifications as may be determined by the government, in conformity with the acts and individuals concerned ;. .and the citizen Pascual Martinez, commandant of the superior squadron, captain of the rural mounted police, being accredited with having taken part in the campaign of New Mexico against the adventurers from Texas in 1841, he is awarded for this service an escutcheon of honor in the left arm with the motto and in the form designated by the supreme order of the 17th of October last, and to which he is entitled in con- formity with dispositions in article fourth, as being embodied in the aforesaid and expressed decree; His Excellency, the President, orders that he be given the present diploma, and through which he may use the honorahle distinction in conformity with the rules that obtain in the staff of the army and under the directions given, where proper cognizance of this document must be had and which is granted to him as a testimony to his valor, loyalty and patriotism.
Given in Mexico on the 21st day of December, one thousand eight hundred and forty-one. The twenty-first of Independence and the twentieth of Liberty. Tornel.
Diploma of the cross of honor substituted into an escutcheon which is granted to the citizen Pascual Martinez, commandant of the superior squadron, captain of the rural mounted police for his campaign in New Mexico against the adventurers from Texas in 1841.
Santa Fé, March 23, 1842.
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Let the order be complied with so that he may enjoy the honorable distinction granted him by this diploma.
MANUEL ARMIJO.
Don Severino Martinez spent four months with the Rev. J. M. Rob- erts, Presbyterian minister at Taos, who conducted a large school and who had been sent by the government to teach the Indians at Taos pueblo, in which work he succeeded in spite of the opposition of the Catholic broth- ers. Following the completion of his education. Mr. Martinez began ranching in connection with his father and brothers in Union, then Colfax county, and was thus engaged from 1871 until 1882, when his father died. The cattle and sheep were then divided among the sons, who inherited a goodly property. About this time, however, Senator Dorsey and his gang began fraudulent land entries and trouble ensued, resulting in the shoot- ing of herders on both sides. Because of this Mr. Martinez came to the Black Lakes district and took up government land, on which he has since resided, now having eight claims of one hundred and sixty acres each. Here he raises sheep and some cattle. He also has seven claims east of Roy, in Union county, and owns a store which was established in 1902, his cousin, Guillermo Martinez, being his partner. The latter is also post- master. In his political views he was a Republican until 1882, since which time he has been an advocate of the Democracy. and he was the first justice of the peace of the present precinct, serving for two terms, while prior to that time he was deputy United States marshal in New Mexico. He was also a member of the lower house in 1894, serving for one term, and for thirteen years has been school director of the district, which he organized two years after the precinct was organized. The first post- office was called Osha and since 1901 has been known as Black Lakes.
Don Severino Martinez is a member of the Catholic church. He was married January 4, 1877, to Guadalupe Mares, who was born in Taos, a daughter of Christobal and Trinidad de Mares.
Thomas McBride, a retired rancher of Raton, New Mexico, is a native of the Emerald Isle. Born September 20, 1863, he passed his boy- hood days in Ireland, and in 1880, at the age of seventeen, crossed the Atlantic, seeking a new home in America. After six months spent in New York, he came to New Mexico, where he has since lived, and where he joined his two brothers, Patrick and John, who came to New Mexico in 1867. Two other brothers, James and Edward, came in 1876. All landed in this country practically without means and here found the op- portunity they sought to make their way in the world.
Thomas soon found employment as a "cow puncher," saved his earn- ings and invested in sheep which he ranged in Union county, south of Clayton. In this he prospered until the winter of 1890-91, when his flock numbered 11,600. He was unfortunate, however, and in the spring he had left only 450 head of his large band of sheep. Afterward he sold out and engaged in the cattle business, in the canyon between Johnson's mesa and Barela mesa, near the Colorado state line, where he patented about 2,000 acres of land. He sold his cattle in the fall of 1904, and also dis- posed of 2,000 acres of land. Since then he has lived retired in Raton. Here he has built several houses and owns some valuable property.
While Mr. McBride has never taken any active part in politics or public affairs, he always keeps himself pretty well posted, and casts his
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franchise with the Republican party. He was reared in the Catholic church, and is a devoted member of the same. April 29, 1897, he married Miss Rose E. McArdle, a native of Mendota, Illinois. They have had two children, but have lost both by death.
Frederick Roth, one of the wealthiest ranchers of northern New Mex- ico, was born in Wismar, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Germany, October 23, 1838, and there spent his boyhood. At the age of sixteen he accompanied his father, George Roth, to America, and located in Ohio. His father, a tanner, Frederick learned the tanner's trade, at which he first worked for wages in Ohio. Later he owned a tannery and carried on an extensive business for a number of years, employing many men. For several years he did a $100,000 business annually, and in nine years he cleared $54,000. He made his home in Ohio thirty-one years, the last four years of that time being engaged in farming. In 1885 he came to New Mexico, bring- ing with him $85,000, which he has increased many fold since he came to the Territory. First he bought a small bunch of cattle, which he ranged upon 160 acres of land he pre-empted in the eastern part of Colfax county, near Johnson's mesa, and where he made his home for seven or eight years, Then he moved further west, and since 1900 has resided on his present ranch, twelve miles southeast of Raton. Here he has 40,000 acres of land, one of the finest cattle ranches in the county. Also, he owns valuable prop- erty in Raton, including a handsome business block on Front street, three other buildings on that street, and a two-story brick block on Park avenue, between First and Second streets, the last named erected in 1905, to be used for stores and offices. Mr. Roth has made it the rule of his life to attend strictly to his own business, and to this may be attributed the suc- cess he has won.
In 1867 Mr. Roth married Miss Margaret Coons, who died in 1892. They had no children. He was reared a Lutheran, but is not now actively identified with the church. He is Republican in politics.
Peter Larsen is known throughout Colfax county and, indeed, all over the Territory of New Mexico, as a scientific and successful farmer, there being few ranches in New Mexico that can compare with the Larsen farm near Springer.
Mr. Larsen was born on the Island of Fyen, Denmark, May 24, 1844, and his early environments were those of the garden and farm. In the spring of 1866, at the age of twenty-two years, he came to the United States and located first in Moline, Illinois, where he worked at the trade of cabinet-maker. He spent one year in Moline, five years in Omaha, Ne- braska, and a year and a half in Utah, being engaged in mining at the last named place. Then he returned to Nebraska, where he resumed farming, and the next seventeen years he carried on agricultural pursuits near Oak- land. On account of failing health, the result of a serious attack of la grippe, he left Nebraska in 1891 and came to New Mexico. direct to Springer, where he bought his present farm. Although ditches had been built, the land was at that time without irrigation, and all the improve- ments here are the result of Mr. Larsen's well-directed efforts. He first put up a small shack, in which he and his family lived until 1903. when he built his present home, a comfortable, substantial house, the work of his own hands. In fact, he does nearly all the work on his ranch. He now has plenty of water for irrigation, and his fertile acres are productive of fine
F. Roth
At the Age of 31.
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crops. Among his first work here was tree-planting. Today he has a fine orchard of fifteen acres, principally apples, with a variety of other fruits. He has twenty-seven acres of frejoles, eighty acres in oats and other grain, and fifty acres in alfalfa. He annually gathers three crops from his alfalfa fields and has harvested as much as seven tons per acre, the average amount, however, being five tons. Altogether he has 150 acres under cultivation, and usually keeps about one hundred cattle and eighteen horses.
Mr. Larsen is a member of the I. O. O. F. at Springer. His religious creed is Lutheran. November 10, 1874, he married Miss Elesa Pauline Hanson, a native of Copenhagen, who came to the United States in 1873. They have six children living, namely: Mary, wife of Julius Edwerson, of Springer; Minnie, wife of Charles Pearson, of Springer; Emma Louise, Louis Clemens, Charlotte Annie, and Florence Gertrude, at home.
Vol. 11. 13
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UNION COUNTY.
Union is a long and narrow county of 5,772 square miles, situated in the northeastern corner of New Mexico, and is bounded north by Colorado, east by Oklahoma and the Panhandle of Texas, south by Quay and San Miguel counties, and west by San Miguel, Mora and Colfax counties. It has a population of about 7,000, and its county seat is Clayton, a town of some 1,000 people in the northeastern part of the county, on the Colorado & Southern Railway. Folsom, also, and some of the larger towns are on this line of road, which crosses the northeastern corner of the county for a distance of 84 miles. The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad runs for 56 miles through the southern part, and that line, with its branch from Tucumcari, Quay county, is doing much to develop this section. The bridge of the Rock Island over the Canadian river is over 750 feet in length, spans the stream at a height of 135 feet, and is considered one of the best pieces of engineering work in New Mexico.
Formation of the County .- For many years prior to the formation of Union county, the citizens of the eastern portions of Colfax, San Miguel and Mora counties had complained of the great distances which they were obliged to travel in order to transact legal and official business at the county seat. Not only did they have this common and reasonable complaint, but they possessed a bond of union in a community of interests, as they were nearly all engaged in the raising of sheep and cattle. There naturally arose a desire to unite under one county government, whose seat of justice and official procedures should be of easier access, and which should par- ticularly foster the main business of their lives. As is the usual case, the controlling portions of the counties were opposed to a decrease of their territory, but the rational nature of the proposed division and creation ap- pealed to the territorial legislature, which passed an act for the formation of Union county, and which was approved by Governor Prince February 23, 1893. Under the circumstances, the name was well chosen. In 1903 the county assumed its present dimensions by the creation of Quay county, to whose territory it contributed 265 square miles.
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