USA > New Mexico > History of New Mexico : its resources and people, Volume II > Part 45
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N. A. Bolich. engaged in merchandising in Deming, is a native of Pennsylvania. in which state his boyhood and youth were passed. Seek- ing to benefit by the business opportunities of the west he located first in Iowa and in 1882 came to Deming, where he has now for almost a quar- ter of a century made his home. Here he engaged in general merchandis- ing and has since continued a representative of commercial interests. He has become a prosperous and influential citizen of the community, whose co-operation can always be counted upon to further progressive public measures.
C. L. Baker. conducting a livery business in Deming, was born and reared in Fort Worth, Texas, and while in the Lone Star state became familiar with the cattle business. He arrived in Lincoln county, New Mex- ico. in 1885, with a band of cattle from Texas, but as that locality was not a favorable one for cattle raising he continued on to Grant county and located a ranch south of Lordsburg. He is running cattle there now and has continued in the cattle business since his removal to the Territory more than twenty-one years ago. In 1892 he took up his abode in Deming,
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where he purchased a livery stable, which he has since successfully con- ducted, and he also engages in mining on a small scale.
Mr. Baker belongs to Deming Lodge No. 18, of Red Men. He married in this city in 1904 and is well known socially and in a business way.
S. Merideth Strong, M. D., physician and surgeon of Deming, was born in Logansport, Indiana, August 8. 1877, but was reared in New York, acquiring his education in the public schools of that state. He won the degree of bachelor of arts from Columbia University and prepared for his profession as a student in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York, from which he was graduated with the degree of M. D. He further perfected his knowledge by broad, practical experience in Roosevelt Hos- pital and in Bellevue Hospital of New York. He was also in the Sloan Fraternity Hospital and a student in Vanderbilt Clinic. He practiced to a limited extent in New York aside from his hospital work before com- ing to New Mexico, and here he has made a notable reputation because of liis superior skill in handling the intricate and complex problems which continually confront the physician. He arrived in Silver City in 1902 and began practice, but after a brief period removed to Santa Rita. In No- vember, 1902, he took charge of the Santa Rita Hospital and the hospital of the Nevada Mining Company at Hanover, also the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company's Hospital at Fierro. He left Santa Rita on the Ist of April, 1905, and came to Deming with the idea of building a sanitarium for the treatment of tuberculosis. Arrangements have been completed for the erection of the building, which is built on the cottage plan, with an administration building and wards for the bedridden cases. He has kept abreast with the rapid strides made in the profession in the treatment of this disease, which was formerly considered incurable. He feels fully as- sured that the dry climate, combined with outdoor life, careful sanitation and diet, will do much for the cure of tubercular patients, and undoubted- ly he will meet with both professional and financial success in the con- duct of the institution, which is now in process of construction.
Dr. Strong was married in the Episcopal church in Albuquerque, Sep- tember 17, 1902. to Miss Zerlena Morrill Quimby, of New York city. They have one child, a son, S. Merideth, Jr. The family are an addition to the social circles of Deming. Especially interested in his profession from the scientific and the humanitarian standpoint, he devotes his atten- tion largely to his work, to the exclusion of outside interests, and his labor is of practical benefit to his fellow men. He is now a member of Luna and Grant Counties Medical Society, the Territorial Medical Asso- cation and the American Medical Association. He is a Mason.
C. J. Kelly, who makes his home in Deming and is filling the position of treasurer of Luna county, was born and reared in Bloomington. Indiana, where he acquired a high school education. He has been a resident of Deming since 1894, at which time he entered mercantile circles in this city. He has since been identified with business interests here and is now bookkeeper for the J. A. Mahoney Mercantile Company. Ten years after settling in Deming he was called by popular suffrage to the position of collector and treasurer of Luna county, the election being held in Novem- ber, 1904. In 1902 he had been appointed to the position by Governor Otero upon the organization of the county, so that he has been five years
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James N. Mfiton. And Family
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in this position. In the discharge of his duties he is prompt and capable and has been found to be a worthy custodian of the public exchequer. Fraternally he is connected with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at Bloomington, Indiana, and with the Knights of Pythias lodge at Deming.
James W. Hannigan, a member of the firm of Hannigan & Tracy, who since 1889 have operated in Deming and whose opinions and labors have likewise been an influence in public affairs in this part of the Terri- tory, was born in California, April 17, 1856. He came to New Mexico in 1882, having previously, however. entered upon his business career as a bookkeeper in San Francisco for the firm of Carroll Brothers. Removing to New Mexico he settled at Lordsburg as a representative of the firm of Carroll Brothers, who were proprietors of stores and mines at that place and at Shakespeare. He acted as bookkeeper for a year and in 1883 came to Deming, continuing in the employ of Carroll Brothers until 1885, when they closed down their mines. He was associated with J. H. Tracy in the management of the Carroll interests and since 1889 he and Mr. Tracy have been in business in Deming, where they own two good business houses.
Mr. Hannigan has always been an earnest Republican, supporting the party since age gave to him the right of franchise. In 1904 he was elected to the Territorial legislature from the district comprising Luna. Grant. Doña Ana and Otero counties, and took an active part in the deliberations of that body, where he was regarded as an active working member. For the past four years he has been a member of the Republican county cen- tral committee and a delegate to the Territorial conventions. Fraternally he is connected with the Knights of Pythias and the Red Men. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Rosella Chase. was a native of Indiana. Mr. Hannigan has, through the improvement of opportunity and a ready rec- ognition and utilization of advantages, worked his way steadily upward to a position of prominence in business circles, and at the same time has exercised strong and beneficial influence in public affairs.
F. W. Kille, who is foreman of the Headlight, published at Deming. New Mexico, was born in Browning, Missouri, October 24, 1876. He is a son of J. L. Kille, an old settler of Browning and a real estate, insurance and loan agent at Browning. The son acquired his education in the pub- lic schools of his native citv, and after putting aside his text books took up the printers' trade, which he learned in Browning, following the bus- iness in Missouri for about twelve years. He came to Deming. October 8. 1903. and entering upon the position of foreman of the Headlight, has since acted in that capacity with credit to himself and profit to the paper.
Mr. Kille was married at Laclede. Missouri, to Miss Laura E. Brock, on the Ist of January, 1901. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen camp at Browning, and the Improved Order of Red Men at Deming, and he also holds membership in the Methodist Episcopal church at Browning.
James N. Upton, one of the well known cattlemen of New Mexico, now living in Deming. who is also interested in the development of the rich mineral districts of the Territory, was born in Tyler, Texas, and was reared in Smith county. that state. In early life he became connected with merchandising and continued in that line of business before his removal to Deming. where he arrived in 1887. Here he began mining and also gave a part of his time and attention to farming and to the raising of fine horses.
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He has, to a greater or less extent, been connected with the work of locat- ing and developing rich mining properties, and has also continued in the cattle business, which has been his chief interest during the past nine years. He purchased the old Mimbres River cattle ranch and upon this has large herds. He is continually improving the breed of cattle raised and thus securing advanced prices. He is also operating a zinc mine in Tres Her- manos district and this, too, is proving to him a gratifying source of in- come. Mr. Upton has his family with him in New Mexico. He belongs to Silver City Lodge No. 413, B. P. O. E., and to Deming Lodge, A. F. & A. M. For two terms he has served as county commissioner of Grant county and has ever manifested a public-spirited interest in those matters and measures which pertain to the material, intellectual and political prog- ress of the locality.
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SAN JUAN COUNTY.
San Juan county is in the extreme northwestern corner of New Mexico, being bounded north by Colorado, west by Arizona, east by Rio Arriba county and south by Mckinley and a small portion of Bernalillo county. It contains 5,942 square miles, 3,802,880 acres, of which 1,958,400 acres are in the Navajo Indian reservation, 1,475,000 acres are suject to entry, about 260,000 acres have been appropriated and about 300,000 are esti- mated to be irrigable. It is one of the smaller counties of the Territory, and yet is nearly twice as large as the combined area of Rhode Island and Delaware. Its county seat is Aztec, on the Rio Animas, in the northeast- ern portion of the county. Lying outside the main railroad lines, being admirably adapted to horticulture and agriculture and about half of its area being embraced in the Indian reservation, San Juan is characteristical- ly rural. Its small towns are chiefly the centers of farming communities, and its chief sources of wealth are live-stock, alfalfa and fruits.
Topography and Natural Features .- The northern, or irrigable por- tion of San Juan county, presents the appearance of a basin surrounded on all sides with mountains and high ridges, with a deep notch cut into one side for the exit of the San Juan river toward the Colorado. It is a por- tion of the foothill country of the Rocky mountain system, furrowed by fertile river valleys and checkered with broad and level mesas. Outside of the valleys and elevated plains the country consists of a series of "double lands," broken by arroyos and generally bearing luxurious growths of na- tive grasses. The altitude ranges from 5,000 to 6,000 feet.
The county is watered by the San Juan river and its branches. The watershed is from the San Juan mountains in southwestern Colorado, the main channel having its rise in Archuleta county, that state. It enters New Mexico at the northeast corner of the county, makes a huge semicircle and departs at the extreme northwestern corner of the Territory on its course through Utah. Within San Juan county the total length of the river is one hundred and twenty-four miles, about thirty miles of which is over lands of the Navajo reservation. It is two hundred and seventy-five feet wide on an average, and has a fall of about cleven fcet to the mile. In the spring and early summer it is only fordable at a few places, and its lowest depth is about two feet. Even as late as October and November its waters will generally reach a wagon bed. The least flow of the river will be about 4,000 cubit feet per second, or amply sufficient to irrigate 640,000 acres.
At Largo the river bottom widens out into rolling mesa and bottom lands available for cultivation. The most important of these tracts are known as the Bloomfield and Solomon mesas, which, with the bottom lands under them, will aggregate over 20,000 acres. They are on the north
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side of the river. On the south side, between the mouth of the Animas and Farmington, is a fine piece of valley land twenty-five miles long and about two broad. The Animas and La Plata empty into the San Juan near Farmington, about midway in the county.
The Animas river, which is the most important tributary of the San Juan, flows south from Durango, Colorado, near which place it is formed by the junction of two mountain streams, and will irrigate, if systematical- ly handled, 30,000 or 40,000 acres of fruit land. The stream flows thirty miles within the county, averages one hundred and fifty feet in width and is eighteen inches deep at low water. Besides the valley of the Animas there is an important area of land included in the Farmington Glade, an intervale between the Animas and La Plata rivers, and embracing a strip of country eighteen miles long and from two to three wide. It will aggre- gate 25,000 acres of good irrigable land, well adapted to fruit raising. In this locality the traces of an ancient Aztec ditch may be seen, which once irrigated a large area of the glade from the Animas. The La Plata river flows in a deep, sandy bed, and its waters generally disappear in the last week of August or the first week of September. Along the upper part of the river after it enters San Juan county there are several thousand acres cultivated, and at Jackson, near its mid-course, is a small Mormon colony with some one thousand acres under improvement.
These streams are permanent in character, but the flow fluctuates with the seasons, depending chiefly upon the melting of winter snows in spring and upon the so-called rainy season, occurring usually in the latter part of August and in September. The spring flow begins in the early part of March and reaches its maximum about the middle of May; then gradually declines until the fore part of July, when it reaches the normal summer flow. The rainy season flow is characterized by sudden freshets, which at times are of great volume, as in September, 1896, when a flow of seven thousand eight hundred feet per second was observed in the Animas river. Besides the valleys along the streams there is a vast extent of grain and fruit land lying back from the rivers in large plateaus, a great portion of which will ultimately be irrigated from the streams at a reasonable expense. The altitude of the valleys averages 4,500 feet in the lower portion of the county, increasing as the rivers are ascended at the rate of from fifteen to twenty-five feet per mile.
Irrigated and Irrigable Lands .- It has been estimated that from the average flow of the San Juan, the Animas and La Plata rivers, in whose valleys are the principal areas of irrigable land, there are available 6,250 cubic feet of water per second, or a volume sufficient to irrigate 1,000,000 acres. In addition, and properly to be considered in the San Juan basin, are the lands on either side of the Largo, Canyon Blanco and Canyon Gallegos, which flow into the parent stream from the south, but are dry part of the year. Still further south are twenty-four townships supplied with water, but less abundantly, from the headwaters of Rio Chaco, or Chusca, and the Ojo Amarilla.
According to a careful computation there are at least 600,000 acres in San Juan county available for irrigation, about 100,000 acres being actual- ly under ditch, most of which is used for pasturage. The areas under cul- tivation embrace 5,000 acres on the Las Animas, under twenty ditches ; 4,200 on the La Plata, with the same number of irrigation ditches ; 5,000
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acres on the San Juan, and 500 acres on the Rio de los Pinos, in the ex- treme northeastern portion of the county.
The Irrigation Ditches .- Irrigation and the cultivation of the soil thereby is not a new art in the San Juan county. The traces of ancient pueblos and surrounding irrigating canals may be seen in several places. On the south side of the Animas and skirting the bluffs is to be noticed a ditch of higher line than any now in use. It covers all that side of the valley down to the San Juan, and on the north side of the river is another entering the Farmington Glade.
The irrigation system of San Juan county is mainly described by the expression "neighborhood ditches." The status of affairs in this regard is thus described by Granville Pendleton in a pamphlet published by author- ity of the New Mexican Bureau of Immigration in 1906: "The farmers have joined in constructing canals and ditches sufficient to irrigate nearly all of the tillable land in the first or immediate bottoms of the rivers and also some of the mesa lands on the second bottoms. While the various ditches and canals under the law are called corporation or community ditches, they are owned exclusively by the farmers and land owners hav- ing land under them. In the first construction of these ditches or canals, the farmers owning adjoining land would associate themselves as a com- munity ditch company to construct a ditch with sufficient capacity to irri- gate all of their respective lands under this particular ditch. The shares of water were then divided in proportion to the amount of land that each held for irrigation. Each farmer thus procured a sufficient water right for the lands owned by him under this particular ditch. This water right goes with the land and is perpetual. the same as houses, fencing and other im- provements. Of course, water rights can be divided, transferred and sold separately from the land or attached to other lands by deed or transfer.
"The only expense connected with a water right in one of these com- munity ditches is the amount of work and expense necessary each year in repairing and putting the ditches in proper shape. This expense is light and is done mostly in work of cleaning out and repairing the ditches, each water owner doing his pro rata share of the work. The average cost of a water right for forty acres ranges from $10 to $25 and averages $15 to $17."
The one syndicate or corporation ditch in San Juan county is now known as the Animas. La Plata and San Juan Canal, or, more familiarly, the Coolidge Ditch. The canal is twenty miles long and was constructed by the Coolidge Brothers (Dr. J. W. and F. J., of Scranton, Pennsylvania) at a cost of $109,000 (including the acquirement of lands for the water- ways). The work was commenced in 1887 and the original builders still own and operate the canal. The supply is drawn from the Animas river near Aztec, and the course of the canal is westwardly to the La Plata. It is designed to irrigate some 10,000 acres, the main body of land lying just north of the town of Farmington. The Canyon Largo ditch, taken from the south side of the San Juan, near Largo, covers a. large tract of land opposite Bloomfield, and the High Line ditch, taken from the La Plata river near the Colorado state line, covers a considerable area between the La Plata and the Hogback.
The first successful irrigating canal on the San Juan was that con- structed by J. C. Carson, Joseph Starriett and others, mostly stockmen, and
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was known as the Bloomfield ditch. It covered a portion of the San Juan valley east of the mouth of the Animas river, and is still in operation.
In September, 1904, the federal government sent a surveying party into the La Plata valley for the purpose of planning irrigation works. They ran a line from the Animas river above Durango, but found that the ex- penses of the proposed undertaking would be too great, on account of the necessity of constructing tunnels for carrying the water. A good natural dam site is to be found near the Colorado line on the La Plata. Two irrigation projects have been under consideration by the Reclamation Service of the government. One covers 17,000 acres lying on both sides of the river; the other. about 9,000 additional acres on what is called the Meadows, a mesa between La Plata and Fruitland. The latter project includes a second reservoir at a point known as "the narrows," flooding about 1.000 acres, and being connected with the upper reservoir by a canal. The estimated cost per acre is about $30.
Among the most important development projects inaugurated in the county within recent years is that of the New Eden Ditch and Land Com- pany, incorporated April 3. 1906, for the purpose of building a large canal from the Animas river to the mesas east of the valley, which is intended to irrigate about 30,000 acres of exceedingly fertile tableland. W. Goff Black, William T. Allen, Thomas P. Maddox, Robert W. Bray and Charles E. Clendenny are the principal spirits in the enterprise.
Several companies are considering the advisability of constructing a number of new ditches and canals that will bring under cultivation large bodies of rich government lands subject to homestead and desert land en- tries. Not one-fifth of the land that can thus be reclaimed has vet been filed upon. In the western part of the county, tributary to the La Plata valley, a large storage reservoir is contemplated, which will bring to pro- ductiveness considerable tracts of uplands and mesas, consisting of gov- ernment land well adapted to fruit culture. The La Plata river, being the shortest in the county and having its source in the La Plata mountains, very moderate in height, the surface drainage is small, the snows near its source melt rapidly and the supply of water sometimes does not last to the latter part of the irrigation season. As the valley is unusually fertile and productive when water is sufficient, it is all the more necessary that artificial storage should be provided, that none of the supply shall go to waste. Even under present conditions La Plata valley is one of the finest in the county, and for the past twenty-five years farming and fruit-growing have been profitably conducted on the first and second bottoms.
Resources of the County .- Aside from the lands of the county sus- ceptible of irrigation and cultivation, the country is one vast stock range, occupied by large herds of cattle and horses and flocks of sheep, thereby guaranteeing a good home market for the surplus forage grown in the valleys. Under the mild winters all kinds of stock subsist the year through without expense to the owner, except the marking and branding, until the time for fattening arrives. There are from 40,000 to 50,000 head of sheep fed each winter and from 8,000 to 10,000 head of cattle. Many of the latter are thoroughbreds-Shorthorns, Herefords and Red Poles. It is only within the past few years that it has been demonstrated that alfalfa- fed cattle make the finest of beef, and also the cheapest that can be pro- duced For that reason stock-growers and farmers are acquiring the best
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breeds of cattle-White Face, Shorthorns, Red Poles and Polled Angus for beef, and Jerseys and Holsteins for dairying purposes.
Farmers who have learned the value of alfalfa do not now feed grain to their stock unless for the heaviest kind of work, such as freighting or heavy teaming. It is the average feed for both horses and cows. The average yield is five tons per acre, and in San Juan county three crops can be cut. It does not deteriorate with successive crops, and with all its prodigious growth continuously fertilizes and invigorates the soil. It is the most valuable crop in the county and the greatest source of wealth:
Stock sheep very rarely require feed in the winter. There are times, however, when snow covers the ground for a few days and at such time alfalfa is often fed. About 100,000 head of sheep are owned and grazed in the county at the present time, and the wool clip in 1905 amounted to some 350,000 pounds. There are 5,000 head of horses and about'as many goats. The raising of a good class of draught and road horses is proving a profit- able occupation, as is also the breeding of Angora goats. Goats need no feed the year round, and thrive on the open range. It is estimated that the public range of the county now embraces 1.500,000 acres, exclusive of the Navajo reservation.
Although cereals and vegetables of all kinds flourish in San Juan county, more progress has been made in horticulture than in any other branch of husbandry. The orchards extend along all the rivers, those at Farmington and Junction City being the oldest and largest. Apples, pears, plums, peaches, apricots, cherries and all small fruits do well. Besides American grapes, the foreign varieties have succeeded beyond expectation, even the seedless Sultana ripening to perfection. Many varieties of apples bear the next year after setting, when set at two years from graft, and seen to be quite regular bearers thereafter, so that it is not necessary to wait from five to ten years for fruit, as is often the case in'the middle states. Peaches, plums and apricots often bear the first year after being planted, and produce large crops during the second year. Southwestern Colorado is now almost wholly supplied with fruit from San Juan county, and the apples grown here have gained a reputation for fine flavor and freedom from blemishes not excelled by any other locality in the United States. In the Chicago markets they have sold as high as $5 per fifty-pound box. Besides the fruits mentioned, San Juan is a good country for all kinds of nuts, especially peanuts, almonds and black walnuts. The cottonwood, willow and cedar are native growths, while in ornamental trees the Lom- bard poplar, the maples, the weeping willow, the locust and the catalpa naturally flourish, and a great variety of roses, the honeysuckle, the snow- ball and a world of other flowers adorn the lawns and beantify the gar- dens. ..
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