USA > New Mexico > History of New Mexico : its resources and people, Volume II > Part 48
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place in the fall of 1904, settling about a mile and three-quarters east of the town, where he purchased one hundred and twenty acres of land. He was born in Tuolumne county, California, in 1858, and when fifteen years of age became a resident of Texas, where he was largely engaged in farm- ing for a number of years. He lived in Indian Territory from 1889 until 1896, and then again went to Texas. He spent the year 1900 in the San Juan valley of New Mexico, and for three years, from 1901 until 1903, inclusive, was engaged in railroading in Texas. In 1904 he arrived in Farmington and made purchase of one hundred and twenty acres of land, a mile and three-quarters east of the town. Of this, twenty acres is de- voted to fruit raising, while the remainder is principally given to the cultivation of alfalfa. He expects to largely engage in the raising of Jonathan apples, of which he planted eight acres in 1905. and it is his purpose to have twenty acres devoted to the raising of that fruit.
Orville S. Evans, who has been a resident of Farmington since 1899, was born in Hancock county, Illinois, in 1868. In young manhood he re- moved to Nebraska, where he was engaged in business until coming to New Mexico. He is now engaged in the jewelry trade, and maintains the largest business of the kind in San Juan county. He has taken an active interest in public affairs, and in 1901 and 1902 served on the Farm- ington school board.
William T. Shelton, superintendent of the San Juan Training School, and acting Indian agent for the Navajo Indians at Shiprock, New Mexico, was born at Waynesville, North Carolina, in 1869, and became connected with the Indian Department in 1894. as industrial teacher among the Cherokee Indians in North Carolina. In 1897 he was transferred to the Santa Fé Indian School, New Mexico, as industrial teacher and agricul- tural instructor. and was there for nearly four years.
He was afterwards transferred to the Hava Supai Indian reservation, Arizona, in charge of the school and reservation, remaining there for three years, when he was promoted and transfered to the San Juan Navajo reservation, as superintendent and acting agent in August. 1903. Soon after his arrival he began the construction of the San Juan agency and the San Juan Training School, which is now nearing completion. The total cost of the complete outfit will be about $100,000. Under his charge are more than 8.000 Navajo Indians, and the reservation covers 6,000 square miles. extending into New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.
John T. Nielson, bishop of Burnham Ward. San Juan Stake, with post- office at Kirtland, came to New Mexico in 1898 from Ramah. He was born in Utah. May 5, 1867. and went to Arizona about 1881. spending several years thereafter near Winslow. He then went to Ramah, and for two years was engaged in missionary work in Kansas. In Arizona he was made an elder, and in November. 1905, was ordained bishop, which is his present ecclesiastic connection, and in which relation he is doing splendid service for the moral education and development of the territory. He also has fruit raising and farming interests in this locality.
C. H. Algert, who, as a merchant of Fruitland, is numbered among the leading business men there, was born in Pennsylvania in 1857. He removed to Albuquerque, New Mexico, from Pennsylvania in 1880, and acted as first night telegraph operator there for the Santa Fé Railroad. In 1885 Mr. Algert went to Arizona as an Indian trader on the Navajo
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reservation, and was prominently identified with the development of that country until 1904, when he retired to New Mexico and engaged in the general merchandise and Indian supply trade at Fruitland, in the capacity of president of the C. H. Algert Company, Incorporated.
J. E. Stevens, a merchant at Fruitland, was born in Millard county, Utah, in 1876, and came to this place in 1880, with his father, who con- ducted an Indian trading store some eight years. The parents are still living at Fruitland, and his father is one of the "seventy" in the church. His brothers, David A. and Walter J. Stevens, are now in old Mexico. They raised the first bushel of wheat and the first watermelons in San Juan county. The son, J. E. Stevens, has been in the stock business and in general farming and still owns a ranch. He entered merchandising on the Ist of February, 1906. He is an elder in the Mormon church and spent two years as a missionary traveling, in accordance with the customs of the sect, without purse or scrip, through Colorado and Nebraska.
Cyril J. Collyer, of Fruitland, owning and controlling a ranch of two hundred and forty acres, was born at Ware, Herefordshire, England, in 1871, and came to the United States in 1892, settling at Albuquerque, New Mexico. The following year he made his way to San Juan county and purchased his present ranch of two hundred and forty acres, whereon he has since lived, his attention being given to the raising of fruit, alfalfa and stock. He has one of the well improved ranch properties of this dis- trict. He was made a Mason in Animas Lodge No. 15, of Farmington.
J. K. P. Pipkin, living at Fruitland, was born in Tennessee in 1840 and became a resident of Arkansas when a youth of eleven years. He re- sided in that state for twenty-six years, beginning in 1851, and in 1877 came to Savova (now Ramah), New Mexico. Since 1892 he has resided at Fruitland, and at the time of his arrival the only residents of the valley were Luther Burnham, Walter Stevens and Judge Webster. Mr. Pipkin has since been identified with ranching interests and has contributed in substantial measure to the reclamation of the wild lands of this district for the purposes of civilization. He is a member of the Mormon church.
Benjamin D. Black, engaged in the cultivation of fruit and hay at Fruitland, was born in Utah in 1859, a son of William Morley Black, who, in 1849, went to Utah, arriving at Salt Lake City on the 24th of July. In 1889 he removed to Mexico and has since resided in the state of Chihuahua. He has four sons living in New Mexico, namely: John M., of Fruitland; W. G .; Benjamin D .; and George H. There are also two daughters in the Territory : Mrs. Martha Gale and Mrs. Tamar Young. In the year 1897 William G. Black, of this family, established a mill at Fruitland, and the following year Benjamin D. Black came to the San Juan valley, where he has since resided, being now engaged in the raising of hay and fruit, having a well developed ranch.
William G. Black, who built the first grist mill in the San Juan val- ley in 1897, and in connection with its operation is engaged in horticul- tural pursuits and general farming at Fruitland, was born in Utah in 1857. In 1879 he removed to St. Johns, Arizona, and in 1896 arrived in Fruitland, where the following year he built the first grist mill in this section of the Territory. He has since developed a ranch which is devoted to general farming purposes and to the raising of fruit. In community affairs he has been somewhat active and influential and served as county
Vol. II. 23
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treasurer in 1893-4. He belongs to the Mormon church and is first coun- sellor to Bishop Nielson, of the Fruitland ward. His father has always been an elder in the church, and about six years ago was ordained a patri- arch.
Boone C. Vaughan, of Aztec, serving as county sheriff, came to New Mexico September 11, 1878. His father , James L. Vaughan, arrived in December, 1877, and died on the IIth of August, 1879, his being the first interment in Farmington cemetery. He had taken up a claim of govern- ment land between the Animas and San Juan rivers, at the junction of the two rivers, and he brought teams and wagons with him to the new ranch. In September, 1878, he was joined by his family. His family, bringing stock, cattle and horses, numbered a wife and eight children. Mr. Boone C. Vaughan has two brothers and two sisters, older than himself: Nettie C. Lock, Boyd L. Vaughan, Newton L. Vaughan and Mrs. Sarah Pierce, all of whom came to Farmington subsequent to 1878, and still reside there, except Boyd L., who lives in Routt county, Colorado. The younger chil- dren are James K., Alman W. and Gracie E. The daughter is now the wife of Thomas Morgan, of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, Routt county.
Boone C. Vaughan was born in Fosterburg, Illinois, February 8, 1861, and in 1868 accompanied his parents on their removal to Cedar county, Missouri. The family home was established in Colorado in 1873, and in New Mexico in 1878. After his father's death Boone C. Vaughan be- came manager of the farm. which he operated until 1885, when he went to northern Colorado, Routt county. Since returning to New Mexico in 1892, he has lived upon his present ranch at Farmington and has largely engaged in the raising of horses. In 1902 he was elected assessor on the Democratic ticket, and in 1904 was elected sheriff, being the present in- cumbent in the latter office. Since being elected sheriff he has lived in Aztec. He belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
Price Walters, a farmer of Aztec, was born in Poweshiek county, Iowa, in 1863, and in 1881 became a resident of southeastern Dakota. He had been reared in Cherokee, Iowa, and in 1885 he removed from Dakota to Colorado. In early life he followed the profession of teaching in both Iowa and Dakota, was for a time a teacher at the Willows in Custer county, Colorado; principal of the Rosita school, and county superintendent of schools of Custer county for two years. In 1887 he went to Montana and for a few months was in the commissary department of the Great Northern Railroad Company. He spent several years in Colorado, en- gaged in teaching in the La Jara schools and in other business interests, and in March, 1894, he came to Aztec, since which time he has been en- gaged in general farming. He was also principal of the Aztec school from 1896 until 1898, and largely built up the school, grading the work and doing much for the improvement of the system of public instruction here. He was one of the organizers of the populist party, but is now a stalwart Republican and he has served for two terms. in 1898-9 and again in 1905-6, as justice of the peace. He was made a Mason in Silver Cliff Lodge, A. F. & A. M., in Colorado, in 1800, became affiliated with the Odd Fellows in South Dakota in 1884, and is a charter member of the lodge of that order in Aztec.
Jacob T. Hobbs, living three miles north of Aztec, first located on La Plata, where he bought a squatter's right. He afterward homesteaded
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one hundred and sixty acres of land, and in 1901 he removed to another farm, purchasing one hundred and sixty acres which he sold in 1906. He then bought a place across the Animas river from Farmington, and is now identified with ranching interests.
Mr. Hobbs was born in Jackson county, Missouri, in 1839, and in 1852 went west to California with bull teams, taking one thousand head of cattle from Bates county, Missouri, to the Pacific coast. He spent four- teen years in California engaged in mining and farming in Sonoma county. He was one of the pioneers of the Ukiah, and in 1866 he returned to Missouri. He afterward went to Colorado, where he was engaged in the hotel business, in freighting and mining. but his attention was principally given to the raising of stock. Later he conducted a hotel in Montana for five years, and in New Mexico he has devoted his energies to farming and stock-raising.
George William McCoy, a rancher and fruit grower of Aztec, was born in Virginia in 1844. In his youth he became a resident of the west, and at the time of the Civil war joined the Second Nebraska Cavalry as a private, serving for fourteen months, from September, 1862. He then re-enlisted in the Third Colorado Cavalry and served for six months. He participated in the Chivington massacre under Colonel Chivington, and did other frontier service. Both before and after the war he crossed the plains with bull teams, making nine trips from Missouri river points to Montana, Salt Lake and Nevada. He abandoned that work in 1870, and in 1878 began cattle raising in the Animas valley. He turned his atten- tion to farming in 1884, having entered his present place from the gov- ernment in 1880. He helped build the first general ditch-a community ditch constructed in 1889. He helped put in the first fruit in this part of the valley, being associated with Peter Knickerbocker, the work being done in the spring of 1889. He was thus a pioneer in the inauguration and development of the horticultural interests of this part of the Territory, and has since been well known as a rancher and fruit raiser. Fraternally a Mason, he was initiated into the lodge in New Albany, Kansas, in 1870, and has since assisted in oganizing a number of lodges in New Mexico.
Lemuel G. Eblen, probate clerk of Aztec, came to New Mexico in March, 1902, from Texas. He was born in Tennessee in 1859, and when nine years of age became a resident of Missouri, living for thirty years in Howell county, this state. For sixteen years he was an office holder there and acted as postmaster at West Plains during President Cleveland's first administration. In 1900 he went to California, but seven months later re- moved to Texas, and in 1902 came to Aztec. During his first year here he taught school. He was then appointed deputy probate clerk under Joseph Prewitt in February, 1903, and thus served until elected probate clerk in the fall of 1904 as the candidate of the Democratic party. Fra- ternally he is connected with the Modern Woodmen of America.
Cyrus S. Cameron, a rancher of Aztec, first came to the Territory in 1888. He located permanently at Flora Vista and secured a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, which he at once began to improve. He continued its cultivation until 1902, but in the meantime purchased eighty acres of land near Aztec, for which he gave nine hundred dollars. In the spring of 1906 he bought his present place of eighty acres that cost him sixty-five hundred dollars. He was the first to boom land values in Ani-
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mas valley, and the Flora Vista place, or at least forty acres of it, is now worth more than one hundred and fifty dollars per acre. He has devoted all of his time to the development of the country and the exploitation of its resources and his efforts have been an important factor in the settle- ment and improvement of this portion of the Territory. He was born in Canton, Ohio, in 1845, but has spent most of his life since 1864 in the mountain country. He mined in Colorado and elsewhere prior to coming to the Territory: He has not only been a promoter of the interests of New Mexico, but also of the populist party in this section of the country.
William W. O'Neal is a rancher of La Plata, who came from Long Beach, California, to San Juan county, New Mexico, in 1903. He was born in Missouri in 1850 and removed to Kansas, where he engaged in business as a contractor and as a real estate dealer. He was also con- nected with the grain trade. He left Missouri in 1878 and Kansas in 1890, and after a sojourn on the Pacific coast came to New Mexico in 1903. He is now largely engaged in the raising of grain, having three hundred and twenty acres of land devoted to that purpose.
John Schwarten, a rancher at La Plata, was born in Germany in 1834 and in 1857 became a resident of Halifax. Nova Scotia. The same year he removed to Boston, Massachusetts, but he followed the sea as a sailor until his removal to the west. In 1876 he became a resident of New Mex- ico, settling in the town of La Plata. He has been on his present ranch of one hundred acres for twenty-three years, his attention being given to general farming. While still a resident of the east he served for nine months as a soldier of the Civil war in the Forty-fifth Massachusetts In- fantry and was then honorably discharged. He has watched with interest the reclamation of the arid lands of this section of the country and their transformation into richly productive fields. . When he came here there were only two ditches, the MacDermott and an Indian ditch. He pur- chased his place from the government and is now the oldest settler in the valley.
Newton A. Conger, a rancher of La Plata, was born in Illinois in 1862, and in 1870 became a resident of the southwest, settling in Texas, where he later engaged in ranching. He removed from the Lone Star state to the Territory in 1903 and purchased three hundred and twenty acres of land. He also leases a similar amount of school land and is snc- cessfully conducting his ranching interests. He has forty acres planted to fruit, while the remainder of his place is about equally divided between hay and small grain. He believes that small grain is the most profitable crop and that oats pays best of all, and his ranch is well improved and brings to him a good return. Mr. Conger was made a Mason in Texas. and he also belongs to Carlton Lodge No. 356, I. O. O. F., of Texas, of which he is a past noble grand. He was also a member of the grand lodge in Texas and state instructor for two years.
Daniel J. Kennedy, of La Plata, was born in Ohio in 1856, and came to the Territory in 1901, since which time he has lived in San Juan county. He is engaged in the real estate and insurance business in La Plata, where he has a good clientage and in addition to the conduct of interests along that line he gives supervision to a ranch which he owns in the La Plata valley. As a real estate dealer he is contributing in substantial measure to the improvement of his town and district and at the same time promotes
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individual success. He belongs to Lead City Lodge No. 17, I. O. O. F., in South Dakota.
Martin F. Curnutte, of La Plata, was born in Carter county, Kentucky, in 1849, and came to New Mexico in 1902, settling in San Juan county. He was engaged in mining in Colorado from 1879 until 1904, spending the winters, however, in New Mexico, and in the latter year he rented the Cunningham place, since which time he has been connected with ranch life.
H. H. De Luche, of Jewett, has resided in the Territory for more than a quarter of a century. He was born in Lewis county, New York, in 1857, and in 1863 was taken by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John S. De Luche, to Utah. The father purchased the Benning place in San Juan county, becoming one of the early residents of this part of the Territory.
H. H. De Luche came to the Territory in November, 1880, and has here since resided. He turned his attention to farming, and he assisted in build- ing the first irrigation ditch in this locality in 1881. He also helped widen a ditch which was built in 1879, and in this work was associated with Adam Wiley, John C. Bowen, Pat McLaughlin, L. S. Welch, A. F. Koeh- ler and Henry Benning. His attention is now given to general farming and horticultural pursuits, and also to stock raising.
John A. Hippler, of Bloomfield, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1861, and was graduated from the Boston School of Technology as a civil and mechanical engineer in 1882. He came into the Territory with the South Kansas surveying corps about 1886, and was located at Chama for about eighteen years, conducting a small Indian trading store. He also spent considerable time hunting relics. About four years ago he removed to San Juan county, taking up his abode at Bloomfield, and in 1903 he purchased a ranch of sixty acres, which he has since conducted. It is devoted to the raising of fruit and alfalfa and last year he cleared nine hundred dollars from twenty-two acres of land devoted to alfalfa, apples and wheat. He is practical in all of his methods and has made good use of his opportunities. At present he is justice of the peace for precinct No. 6.
John R. Young, of Fruitland, was born at Kirtland, Ohio, in 1837. a son of Lorenzo D. Young, who was the youngest brother of Brigham Young and who put up the first house on a surveyed lot in Salt Lake City. In his early youth John R. Young accompanied his parents to Nauvoo, Illi- nois, and in 1847 went with the Mormon colonists to Salt Lake City, from which region he made his way southward as a pioneer. He spent ten years in upbuilding the Dixie country, and in 1891 came to Fruitland. He traveled as an elder of the Mormon church and twice visited the Southern Pacific islands and England, making one trip as a missionary. He has also done much missionary work in the southwest, principally among the Utes. He made two trips to New Mexico in the 'zos, visiting the Mokis and Navajos in 1874 and 1876, when they threatened war against the Mor- mons. Since locating in Fruitland he has carried on business as a horticul- turist, having a fruit ranch of forty acres. He is a member of the Utah Indian War Veteran Association, and he presides over the high priest's quornm. For two years he served as county assessor.
Ira Hatch, who is living, retired, at Fruitland, San Juan county, is one of the well-known Mormons of the older generation. He was born Au-
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gust 5, 1835, in Farmersville, Cattaraugus county, New York, and came to the west in 1840. In 1849 he became a resident of Utah, and in 1862 removed to Arizona, coming to New Mexico twenty years later, or in 1882. He was one of the earlier pioneers of the Mormons in all these territories, and has lived continuously upon the frontier, bearing his part in promoting the work of development and progress in these different localities.
Charles Blanchard, interested in the development of the coal fields near Fruitland, came to the Territory in 1864, when he made his way to Las Vegas. He was born near Montreal, Canada, of French parentage, in 1842, and studied law for four years in that country. He afterward made his way to Westport, Missouri, and thence overland by ox teams to Las Vegas, where he secured a position as clerk in a store, remaining there, however, for less than a year. On the expiration of that period he went to Lincoln, then Rio Bonito, with a cargo of goods and spent three years as a merchant there in partnership with Eugene Leitendorfer. In the fall of 1867 he returned to Las Vegas, where for two and a half years he en- gaged in merchandising. He built the first adobe mill on the Hondo known as Casey's mill, and while thus engaged had many of the trying and thrilling experiences incident to life on the frontier. On one occasion he was attacked by the Apaches and narrowly escaped death by their arrows by jumping across a very deep ravine of the Hondo, estimated to be nearly twenty-five feet across. In 1868 he hired as a wagon-master with the Kansas Pacific Railroad Company for the overland trade, and that year his train was captured by the Cheyennes west of Fort Dodge at a time when the Indians were supposed to be at peace. He had a train of eleven wagon loads and because of the Indian outbreak he rode to Fort Dodge, where he obtained military assistance. This, however, delayed him for three months. The following year-1869-he engaged in business on his own account at Las Vegas, and thus continued until 1904. becoming one of the prominent and influential representatives of commercial and financial interests of that city. He assisted in organizing the First Na- . tional Bank of Las Vegas, and was one of its directors for nine years. He established a meat market and general mercantile store in Socorro in 1887, and conducted an extensive business there for five years, after which he removed his business from Socorro to Albuquerque about 1892, continu- ing in trade at that point until a recent date, when he sold out. In 1904 he became connected with the coal business six miles from Fruitland, and has three thousand acres of coal lands, which he is operating in connection with others. There are three veins, one of which is twenty-six feet wide and in fact this is the largest known coal vein in the southwest. The lands yield both anthracite and bituminous coal as well as coking coal. Mr. Blanchard was three times elected between the years 1869 and 1884 to the office of county treasurer, and has been probate judge and county com- missioner. He has been very active in political circles and is a recognized leader of public thought and action.
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QUAY COUNTY.
This is one of the recently organized counties, being erected in April, 1903, chiefly from Guadalupe county, with small portions of San Miguel and Union. It is in the extreme eastern tier of counties, and until very recently was only known as a rough country of sheep herders and cow- boys, but, with the building of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific line through the county, in 1902, and the grading of Chocktaw, Oklahoma & Gulf road through Tucumcari, the county seat, the entire section took on new life. The El Paso & Northeastern, from the latter point, also crosses the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé at French, reaching into a fine body of coal at Dawson, and it is believed that that company will soon erect shops, round-houses and sidings at Tucumcari.
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