USA > New Mexico > History of New Mexico : its resources and people, Volume II > Part 43
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In March, 1888. General Carr assigned Second Lieutenant John M. Stotsenburg, Sixth Cavalry. to the work of making a survey of the Navajo reservation for purposes of irrigation. This was the first step taken by the federal government in that direction.
Early Settlement of the County .- In the early days, prior to and for a few years after the construction of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad (1881), the region now embraced within the limits of Mckinley county was the scene of extensive and profitable operations in cattle and horses. But long before any cattle men of note began to occupy the range in this sec- tion "Uncle Billy" Crane, who had come to the Territory as a scout under Kit Carson, established himself at Bacon Springs, about a mile and a half west of the site of the station on the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad known as Coolidge (afterward Guam), where he built a house for the accommoda- tion of passengers on the overland stage route from Santa Fé to Prescott. This was about the time of the location of Fort Wingate on its present site, in 1870.
Bacon Springs was also a stage station for the government Star route, and Crane remained there the balance of his life, in the seventies commenc- ing to raise cattle and horses. He supplied the troops at Fort Wingate with beef, hay and other commodities, under contract with the govern- ment, and, though he accumulated a fortune of $30,000 or $40,000, he lost it in gambling with the officers at the fort. Among the Navajo Indians he was known as "Hostin Kloee," or the "hay man.'
The town of Gallup, the county seat of Mckinley county, was first
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settled a short time prior to the advent of the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad line to this point in 1881. The town was named in honor of one of the auditors of the company engaged in the construction of the road. The first permanent settler was J. W. Swartz, who arrived on the 15th of December of that year as a member of the bridge construction party in charge of his brother, A. C. Swartz, now of Fresno, California. Mr. Swartz was ac- companied by his wife and his son, Frank C., and they made their home in the upper story of the rough section house. For several months follow- ing their arrival Mrs. Swartz was the only white woman in the new town and their son, Frank, was the only child in the town. Wiley Weaver, who, with John McMillan and William Pegram, formed the Gallup Coal Com- pany, also made the new town his home. Tom Dye, who discovered the first bed of coal in that section, conducted a saloon and was a notorious character. Among those who are said to have met death at his hands were his mother-in-law and his sister-in-law, whom he claimed to have killed at the same time by accident. Dye flagrantly violated the federal statute rel- ative to the sale of liquor to the Indians, selling openly to the Navajos. His place was surrounded by a United States cavalry troop one day and he was taken to Albuquerque under arrest and for this offense was sentenced to the penitentiary for four years. Charles Harding, who opened a saloon just prior to the construction of the railroad to Gallup, came from Pennsyl- vania and became quite wealthy, owning considerable real estate in the town. Thomas Hinch, proprietor of Hinch's Hotel, is another pioneer. Among the other early settlers were James Baylis, who came as agent for the railroad and afterward located at Fort Defiance, Arizona; Mr. Dennis, section foreman : and Frank Ritz, who had the first stock of drugs and med- icines and the first store of any kind excepting the general merchandise establishment of the Gallup Coal Company. J. W. Swartz soon afterward established a general store, the only one except the company's store. The latter was also the first postmaster of Gallup, serving from 1883 to 1885 under appointment by President Arthur. George W. Sampson, now an Indian trader at Rock Springs, was also an early merchant. Gus Mul- holland came in 1884 and the following year established an Indian trad- ing store, which he conducted for several years. In the spring of 1885 WV. F. Kuchenbecker and his brother-in-law. Worth Keene, started a gen- eral store. J. W. Swartz was the first justice of the peace, being elected in the summer of 1883 and serving two years.
The town of Gallup was incorporated July 9, 1891, and the first elec- tion for officers was held August 10th of that year. Upon the creation of Mckinley county in 1901 and its designation as the county seat, tem- porary accommodations were provided for the courts and officers. In 1905 the erection of a court house was begun, but after laying the founda- tions the work was temporarily abandoned. The plans of the county of- ficials contemplate a structure costing between $10,000 and $12,000.
The first school district organization was perfected in 1883 by the selection of J. W. Swartz, Wiley Weaver and James Baylis as trustees. Mr. Swartz raised three hundred and sixty-seven dollars by subscrip- tion for the support of the school and W. S. Burke, of Albuquerque, then county superintendent of schools, donated an equal amount from the fund in his charge. As the result of this enterprise a one-room schoolhouse was erected at a cost of eleven hundred dollars, and finally equipped. This, it
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is claimed, was the first public school to be opened in New Mexico. The present school was not erected until 1892-3, but prior to this a traveling musician named Woods, who had tramped into Gallup from California, taught six or eight pupils in the old railroad pump house. Mrs. Swartz had the first private school in the town, with seven pupils.
The first religious services of any kind in Gallup were conducted by Mr. Ashley, a Congregational minister from Albuquerque, who preached twice a month, in 1883 and 1884, in the waiting room of the railroad sta- tion. The first church to be regularly organized was that of the Methodist Episcopal society, with Mr. Bush as pastor, in 1888. The Roman Catholic church, established by Father Brun, a French priest, was the second. Dr. Z. B. Sawyer was the first physician and surgeon to be permanently located at this point. Dr. Edward D. Harper, who came later, became widely known as a successful physician. John Woods, one of the early post- masters, was also town marshal for some time.
J. W. Swartz, the oldest resident pioneer of Gallup, was born in Pennsylvania in 1838 and was taken to Illinois by his parents at the age of fifteen. Soon after the outbreak of the Civil war he enlisted as a pri- vate in the One Hundred and Third Illinois Volunteer Infantry and served three years, participating in the campaign in the Mississippi valley, about Atlanta, the march to the sea and the grand review in Washington. He was mustered out at Louisville, Kentucky, with the rank of first lieutenant. In 1880 he accompanied his brother, A. C. Swartz, to New Mexico, and since the 15th of December, 1881, has been a resident of Gallup, with the exception of the years 1885 to 1890, when he returned to his former home in Galesburg, Illinois, for the purpose of educating his son. Upon his return to Gallup in 1890 he was employed by the Crescent Coal Company for four years, but since 1894 has lived in practical retirement.
In 1866 Mr. Swartz married Della B. Swain, a native of Glens Falls, New York. Their only child is a son, Frank C. Swartz, who was born in Galesburg, Illinois, in 1868, and completed his education in the nor- mal school at Bushnell, Illinois. After coming to Gallup he was employed for thirteen years in the commissary department of various coal compa- nies. In 1896 be established himself in the mercantile business, selling to Palmer Ketner in May, 1904, and afterward starting a retail and jobbing business. He has served as town trustee and has been the Democratic can- didate for county commissioner.
Mysterious Ruins .- About one and a half miles northeast of Gallup, on the summit of a rocky hill, known as "Crown Point," are the ruins of a structure which many believe to have been one of the early Spanish forts erected in New Mexico. The ruins, part of which are in a fair state of preservation, show that this fortification-if such it was-was eighty- eight feet long and twelve feet wide, and constructed of stone. The east and south walls have fallen, but the northwest portion, with its numerous portholes, is in good condition.
This structure was first discovered, so far as can be learned, by A. C. Swartz, formerly engineer in charge of the work of bridge construction on the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, who ascended the hill from the north side in 1883. In later years his brother, J. W. Swartz, of Gallup, found among the stones entering into the structure one in which was cut the name "E. Maynox," and the date 1589.
Mrs. J. W. Swartz
J. W. Swartz
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Coolidge (now Guam) .- The town of Coolidge, now Guam, located on the Santa Fe Railroad, twenty-one miles east of Gallup, was at one time one of the liveliest places in New Mexico. When the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad Company extended its line to that point it was made a division station and was maintaincd as such for over ten years. But it was a live and progressive town even before the advent of the railroad. The cattle industry in that part of the Territory had become established in earlier days, but the approach of the men engaged in the construction of the railroad gave a fresh impetus to the place. Like most of the frontier towns of those days, it was a rendezvous for desperate characters, and blood-letting was not uncommon during the first two or three years of its history.
Among the early general merchants of Coolidge were John B. Hall and Charles Paxton, who were partners in trade. Hall came from Canada and Paxton from Pennsylvania, and they transacted an extensive business until Gallup was made the division town of the railroad. Gregory Page and James Page, brothers, had a sawmill and lumber yard there from 1881 to 1885. C. L. Flynn conducted a general mercantile establishment. The only physician permanently located was Dr. Burke. The settlement was without religious organization or school facilities, and the law was administered, for the most part, by the citizens without recourse to the constituted court.
W. F. Kuchenbecker, one of the oldest living pioneer residents of that portion of the Territory now included within the limits of Mckinley county, has, since 1885, been engaged in mercantile pursuits in Gallup. The career of Mr. Kuchenbecker is of more than passing interest. Born in Hesse Cassel. Germany, in 1851, he came to America in 1867, and for the first six months of his stav in the new world was employed in a lum- ber yard in Chicago. Going thence to Cairo, Illinois, he became a sales- man in a wholesale grocery house, remaining there until a short time prior to his enlistment in the United States army at St. Louis, Missouri, August 27, 1875. A few weeks later his command was sent west, traveling by train as far as Granada, Colorado, and thence on foot by way of Raton Pass and the old Santa Fé trail to Fort Union, where he was assigned to Com- pany K, Fifteenth United States Infantry. He was ordered to Fort Win- gate, garrisoned by four companies under Major William Redwood Price. In 1878 he participated in guarding a town of about four hundred Warm Springs Apaches under the noted chief, Victorio, and Geronimo and Nana were members of the party. In 1879 he was ordered north to the San Juan river and the Pine River agency to help quell the Ute uprising of that year at the time of the Mecker massacre. He remained there from October, 1879, until March, 1880, and at Pagosa Springs until May 31, 1880. On the latter day he was ordered to proceed to the La Plata to assist in the erection of a new post headquarters under the direction of General George P. Buel, but at Animas City, while en route, a courier overtook his command with orders that they should proceed as quickly as possible to Fort Wingate, as a serious Navajo uprising was feared. By forced marches the little company made the trip in three days and two nights, but the threatened uprising did not materialize. Mr. Kuchen- becker relates many other exciting experiences of the frontier days.
On the 27th of August, 1880. after five years' service, Mr. Kuchen- becker received his discharge, and within an hour thereafter he was
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behind the counter in the post trading store of Lambert N. Hopkins at Fort Wingate, in whose employ he remained about a year. In 1882 William S. Woodside became the trader and Mr. Kuchenbecker remained with him until March, 1885, when he came to Gallup, and in partnership with his brother-in-law, Worth Keene, established a general store. Two years later the partnership was dissolved and Mr. Kuchenbecker continued the business until 1891, when he sold out and established a wholesale ice and beer business. Since 1898 he has conducted a trade in hardware and furniture, and also has in connection therewith an undertaking es- tablishment.
Mr. Kuchenbecker has taken an active interest in public affairs ever since locating in Gallup. As the nominee of the Republican party he was elected to the legislature in 1886 and again on the fusion ticket in 1892. Upon the incorporation of the town of Gallup he was elected its first mayor.
He was married, April 14. 1882, at Fort Wingate, to Angelina Young, of Daviess county, Missouri, who died in Los Angeles, California, Decem- ber II, 1905. Mr. Kuchenbecker has one son, Louis F., who assists his father in business.
Few living residents of the western part of New Mexico have had a wider experience throughout the west and the southwest than S. E. Aldrich, of Gallup. A descendant of old and prominent New England families, he was born at Cranston, a suburb of Providence, Rhode Island; in 1845. In youth he entered the employ of the American Water and Gas Pipe Company of New Jersey, and at the age of nineteen, near the close of the Civil war, he enlisted in Battery E, First Rhode Island Light Artillery, serving in the closing campaign on the James river.
After his discharge Mr. Aldrich entered the service of the American Water and Gas Pipe Company in Portland, Maine, and in New Jersey, but his health failed, and, believing that a few years' experience in the west would prove beneficial, on the 6th of September, 1870, he enlisted as a private in the United States army. He was at once assigned to Com- pany A, Third United States Cavalry, and sent to Fort Verde, Arizona, traveling by way of the Isthmus of Panama, San Diego and Yuma. After five years' service in New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming and other centers of trouble in the west. he was discharged, but immediately re-enlisted, joining Company D of the Sixth Cavalry at Fort Apache. He thus was in continuous service for ten years. During the last year of his military life, in which he filled successively all the offices except those under commission, he was also engaged in the cattle business with a partner on a ranch near St. Johns, Arizona.
In November, 1882, Mr. Aldrich went to Manuelito, New Mexico, and purchased of a Mr. Brown a trading post, which the latter had estab- lished there about a year before. He also had a licensed trading post at Navajo reservation, at Washington Pass, but soon abandoned it. With Elias S. Clark, afterward attorney-general for Arizona, as a partner, he subsequently established a store at Tase-a-lee. Archibald Sweetland aft- erward purchased Mr. Clark's interest and remained as Mr. Aldrich's partner for three years, at the expiration of which time, in 1890, Mr. Aldrich opened his present store at Round Rock, a noted Indian trading point. In February, 1891, Henry Dodge, a half-breed Navajo and a self-
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made, self-educated man, became his partner in the latter store, Mr. Aldrich retaining individual control of the Manuelito store. In 1896 he erected a handsome residence in Gallup, where he and his family have since resided.
A strong Republican and a man of high public spirit, Mr. Aldrich has exhibited a lively interest in public affairs in town and county. He was one of the leaders in the movement which resulted in the erection of McKinley county from Bernalillo, and in 1903 and 1904 was a member of the board of county commissioners. He has been intimately identified with the best interests of Mckinley county for so long a period that a record of his life forms an interesting chapter in the history of the Territory dur- ing the days of American occupancy.
Gus Mulholland, president of the Pacific Improvement Company and identified with other enterprises in New Mexico, resides at Gallup and has made his home in the Territory since 1884. He is a native of Penn- sylvania. Soon after locating in Gallup he established a general mercan- tile business and carried it on about four years, then sold out to the Black Diamond Coal Company. From the early days of his residence in this town to the present time he has exhibited a keen and unselfish interest in the general welfare of the community. For several years he served as a member of the board of education and helped to erect the present public school building, one of the best equipped in New Mexico. He was post- master of Gallup in 1891-92, under appointment of President Mckinley, and in 1896 was elected to the Territorial legislature from Bernalillo county as the nominee of the Republican party, with which he has always affiliated and whose interests he has always stanchly espoused. He has stood for progress and advancement along material, intellectual and political lines and has left the impress of his individuality upon the upbuilding and progress of his county and the Territory.
Mr. Mulholland was one of the organizers of Fidelity Lodge No. 10, I. O. O. F., of Gallup, and his social acquaintance is wide and favorable. His business affairs, too, have proved of the utmost benefit to this city. For the past ten years he has been engaged in drilling wells throughout the Territory for the Territorial government, for corporations and for in- dividuals, most of the work along the line of the El Paso & Southwestern Railway having been done by him. He is regarded as one of the substantial citizens of Mckinley county.
A. W. Coddington, a native of New York state, who subsequently resided in Illinois and Colorado, came to Las Vegas in 1879 as a partner of C. P. Jones, and soon afterward began ranging cattle from that city to the Sandia mountains and thence to the Zuni mountain country. He took his sons, C. B., who died in 1893 at Albuquerque, and J. H. Coddington, now of Gallup, into partnership with him, but the stringent financial con- ditions of the early 'gos forced them to close out their business. A. W. Coddington, now a resident of Los Angeles, California, hunted buffalo on the plains before the days of the railroads and was closely associated with the pioneer progress and development of this part of the Territory. After his original activities in the cattle industry he had ranching inter- ests in the San Juan valley, a cattle ranch in the Sandia mountains and a dairy near Albuquerque.
His son, J. H. Coddington, who was elected sheriff of Mckinley
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county in 1904, located at Chaves, east of Gallup, on the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad in 1883 with his father. The earlier years of his young man- hood were devoted entirely to the cattle business, his duties compelling him to ride over a large range of country. He is now proprietor of a livery stable in Gallup. He takes an active interest in public matters as a Re- publican, laboring earnestly and effectively for the welfare of the party, and fraternally he is identified with the Elks at Albuquerque.
Palmer Ketner, of Gallup, who was elected treasurer of Mckinley county in 1904 as the nominee of the Republican party, came to New Mexico in 1888 as bookkeeper for the Aztec Coal Company. He remained in the employ of that concern until 1892, when it was merged into the Crescent Coal Company. In that year he assumed charge of the books and merchandising department of the Caledonian Coal Company and was identified with that concern until December, 1904, when he purchased the general merchandise establishment of Frank C. Swartz, which he still owns. He is here conducting a profitable business, having closely studied the demands of the public and selecting his goods with regard to the trade. His methods are strictly honorable and his conformity to a high standard of professional ethics has been one of the elements in his success. He is a member of Lebanon Lodge No. 27, A. F. & A. M., and is justly ac- counted one of the progressive citizens of Gallup.
Gregory Page, to whom much of the upbuilding of the town of Gallup is due, is proprietor of Hotel Page. He was born in Canada, removed to Michigan in 1878, and three years later, just before the construction of the railroad to Coolidge, he located at that place, and in partnership with his brother James began the operation of a sawmill and lumber yard. Four or five years later he went to Winslow, Arizona, where he remained until locating in Gallup in 1891. In that year he erected his hotel, which he conducted on the American plan until the opening of the Harvey eating house. It has since been conducted as a European hotel. In 1899 he installed a plant for the manufacture of ice, the only one in the county. In 1905 was organized the Pacific Improvement Company, which estab- lished a modern electric light and power plant and took over the ice manufacturing plant, both of which are now controlled by the new cor- poration.
Mr. Page has been a recognized leader of the Republican party in Mckinley county for several years, but has not sought elective office. Since the organization of the county in 1001 he has been chairman of the Republican county central committee, and during the same period has represented his county in the Territorial central committee. His activity in business and political circles has made him a valued citizen of this part of the Territory, and he early had the prescience to discern the eminence which the future had in store for this great and growing district. He has co-operated in many movements which have been of direct and immediate serviceableness, and his efforts in behalf of public progress and im- provement have made him one of the prominent and influential residents of Gallup.
John A. Gordon, of Gallup, a member of the board of county commis- sioners of Mckinley countv, has resided in New Mexico since 1890. His father, Henry Gordon, located in the Territory in 1888. John A. Gor- don was employed upon the railroad in New Mexico and Arizona until
Val DEshow
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1897, when he engaged in the tobacco and cigar trade in Albuquerque. Since 1898 he has resided in Gallup, where he has become known as a sub- stantial and public-spirited citizen. He also has business interests in Clarkville and Gibson, and owns valuable undeveloped coal lands in Mc- Kinley county. He has taken an active interest in Republican politics, and in the fall of 1904 was elected county commissioner for the full term of four years.
On the 25th of December, 1900, Jolin A. Gordon was married to Rosa Renn. He is a charter member of Manuelito Tribe No. 9 of the Redmen, in which he is a prophet. In an active career he has been watchful of opportunities and has readily utilized the advantages which have come to him, whereby he has made steady progress toward the goal of prosperity. He was born in Scotland in 1873, but was brought to this country by his parents at the age of five months and has always been thoroughly American in spirit and interests. He is numbered among the pioneers whose efforts in behalf of the southwest have been effective, beneficial and far-reaching.
Eugene F. Kenney, a contractor and builder at Gallup, whose business activity contributes to the substantial improvement of his adopted city, was born in Maine in August, 1853, and engaged in railroading in that state in 1869 for a few months. He afterward went to Salem, Massachusetts, where he was employed in the Salem Lead Company's mill, and subse- quently filled a position in a Boston, Massachusetts, bakery for ten years. On the expiration of that decade he came to the southwest, locating in Winslow, Arizona. in 1882. For eleven years he was engaged in railroad- ing in New Mexico and Arizona, and spent one year as a carpenter in California. He has resided in Gallup since 1889, and for five years con- tinued in the railroad service as air-brake inspector and repairer. In 1894 he left that position, however, and turned his attention to contract- ing and building. He erected the schoolhouse, the Episcopal church and many residences and stores here. having a liberal share of the public patronage. He is also interested in the location of oil lands in this vi- cinity.
Mr. Kenney has served as a member of the town board for several years, and has been a helpful promoter of community interests. He belongs to the Odd Fellows society and planned the Odd Fellows Hall in 1898. He also holds membership with the Improved Order of Red Men.
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