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New Mexico Historical Biographies
New Mexico Historical Biographies
New Mexico Historical Biographies
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New Mexico Historical Biographies

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New Mexico Historical Biographies is an encyclopedia of the people of New Mexico—the 47th State in the Union. It is a cross-section of people who have had an influence on life—and sometimes death—in the Land of Enchantment, from the time before the first Europeans arrived around 1540 until today. There are entries for over 1,500 people in New Mexico’s history. Possibly the most important book on New Mexico history since Ralph Emerson Twitchell — 100 years ago.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherBookBaby
Release dateJul 1, 2011
ISBN9781936744909
New Mexico Historical Biographies

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    New Mexico Historical Biographies - Don Bullis

    Author

    Dedication

    New Mexico Historical Biographies is dedicated to Gloria Bullis, whose encouragement made the book possible, and whose affection made the last twenty-seven years of the author’s life worthwhile.

    The book is also dedicated to Paul Rhetts and Barbe Awalt, proprietors of Rio Grande Books, who lent consistent support to this effort, and who nursed it along, from an idea to the present volume.

    Acknowledgements

    I owe thanks to literally dozens of people who helped me in writing a book of this magnitude; sadly, too many people to mention by name in this space. Some folks offered suggestions while others provided specific information about the entries found here. Hundreds of people wrote books which provided some of the material I’ve used, and to them I offer profound thanks. I know the effort that goes into book-writing, and I’ve endeavored to give each author proper attribution. Some folks offered constructive criticism which made it necessary for me to review my work, and to improve it. Positive criticism was always welcome. In particular, I must offer thanks to Paul Rhetts and Barbe Awalt for the work they did in locating many of the photographs accompanying respective biographies. I also thank Tracey Kimball of the New Mexico Legislative Council Service for her research and help in providing me with information on many of New Mexico’s legislators. Many thanks also go to Dave Smoker, retired newsman and educator, who not only excelled at proofreading the manuscript, but also offered insights to many of the entries, and he taught me a great deal as we went along. And finally, I owe thanks to the Central New Mexico Corral of Westerners International and the Centennial of New Mexico Statehood Committee for support and encouragement for this project.

    Foreword

    In nearly a quarter century of writing regular newspaper and magazine columns about New Mexico and its history (based on more than two-score years of reading and research), it has never been necessary to go far afield to find a subject about which to write. Some subjects are obvious: think of de Vargas Mall in Santa Fe (named for Diego de Vargas) or Coronado Center in Albuquerque or Coronado Monument near Bernalillo (named for Francisco Vásquez de Coronado); or Billy the Kid Days in Old Lincoln (named for the outlaw William H. Bonney) or eastern New Mexico’s Curry County or western New Mexico’s Grant County (named for territorial governor George Curry and President Ulysses S. Grant, respectively). A quick look at a newspaper, a history book or a map always provided a seed that grew into column; over the years, several hundred of them.

    Other subjects were less obvious. Henry B. Coors comes to mind. The main north-south road on Albuquerque’s west side was named for him (and not for Colorado beer brewer Adolph Coors, as some folks seem to think). Or perhaps Frank and Charles Springer for whom a town in New Mexico’s northeast quadrant is named. On the distaff side there are such notables as Elizabeth Garrett, who wrote New Mexico’s state song and Fabiola Cabeza de Baca Gilbert, an important writer, teacher, and early Extension Agent, and Gloria Castillo, an actress, among many others.

    Even a few non-humans made their way onto these pages: Smokey Bear, for one, was a native of southern New Mexico; HAM the Chimpanzee, an early astronaut, called Alamogordo’s Holloman Air Force Base home; and a dinosaur, the Tawa hallae, a Triassic creature about the size of a Great Dane dog, lived near Hayden Quarry at Ghost Ranch in Rio Arriba County (albeit 2,000,000 years ago). And, there are a couple of inanimate subjects which rated attention, too; notably the United States naval vessels named for New Mexico-one a battleship and the other a submarine.

    All of these are included here, along with almost 1,500 other entries.

    This book began as an effort to sort out biographical information accumulated over the years, and to create files which could be easily accessed for use in on-going writing projects. Then the effort became a project in and of itself. Most frustrating about the work is that it is not, and cannot be, complete. There are other significant New Mexicans who should be included and for one reason or another they are not found on these pages. Readers should know that no one was deliberately omitted, and those not included here may find their way into future editions.

    A word or two about organization is in order. Within the text of each entry, those names in bold print are people who have an entry elsewhere in Historical Biographies. Since the book is arranged in alphabetical order, this is intended to make cross referencing easy. Sources found at the end of each entry include authors’ names and book titles. Further information about each may be found in the Bibliography at the back of the book. Complete information on periodical publications and other sources is included with each entry. Also at the back of the book is a section entitled Specialized Indices. Entries in Historical Biographies are sorted into several categories-Artists, Educators or Indian Leaders, for example-which are intended to make the book easier to use.

    It is the author’s sincere hope that readers of this book will gain a greater understanding of, and appreciation for, the people who made New Mexico the state it has become in more than 470 years of recorded history and in the 100 years since it became a state of the Union.

    Historical Biographies

    ---A---

    Abbey, Edward Paul Ed or Cactus Ed (1927-1989)

    Author/Environmentalist

    Ed Abbey was born in the town of Indiana, Pennsylvania, and grew up at the village of Home, located nearby. He served in the United States military from 1945 to 1947, and then studied at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) briefly. He entered the University of New Mexico and eventually earned both master’s and Ph.D. degrees. He also studied briefly at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and at Yale, which he found too confining, he said. For many years, he worked as a ranger and fire lookout at several national parks. He also lived for a time in Brooklyn, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey. In a long writing career, Abbey wrote 19 books, two of which were set in New Mexico: The Brave Cowboy (1956) and Fire on the Mountain (1962). Both were made into movies. The former, renamed Lonely Are the Brave (1962) starred Kirk Douglas. It was set in and around Duke City, New Mexico. The latter, a movie made for television (1981), starred Buddy Ebsen and Ron Howard. It is said to have been based on the tribulations of New Mexico rancher John Prather. One of Abbey’s best-known books was The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975). It became a guidebook for those who believe that sabotage of lumbering and road-building machinery is acceptable in protecting the environment. Abbey died at his home in Oracle, Arizona. Four of his friends buried his body in the Cabeza Prieta Wilderness in southwestern Arizona. The marker, in addition to his name and dates of birth and death, reads, No Comment. Abbey’s papers may be found at the University of Arizona.

    Albuquerque Journal, Abbey’s Road, October 9, 2008

    Cahalan, Edward Abbey: A Life

    Lamar, The New Encyclopedia of the American West

    Melzer, Buried Treasures

    Laura Paskus, Desert Renegade, New Mexico Magazine, May 2010

    Abbott, Ira Anson (1845-1921)

    Territorial Supreme Court Justice (1901-1912)

    Ira Abbott, a native of Barnard, Vermont, participated in the Civil War as a member of the 9th Vermont Volunteer Infantry, and was among the first to enter Richmond, Virginia, at war’s close. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1870, and then read law while he taught mathematics at Phillips Academy in Massachusetts. He practiced law until he was appointed judge of Essex County, Massachusetts, a position he held until he accepted appointment in New Mexico. One source says President Theodore Roosevelt named him a Supreme Court justice in 1901; another reports 1904. In any event, he presided over the 2nd Judicial District (Albuquerque) and served on the last Territorial Court. When New Mexico statehood arrived in 1912, he returned to Massachusetts. According to Twitchell, before his departure, "a banquet and reception were tendered him at Alburquerque [sic] where many addresses laudatory of his career were made by members of the bar and representative men of the second judicial district …." Modern historians tend to ignore Judge Abbott. It is noted that he may have built a summer home in Frijoles Canyon, near what is now Bandelier National Monument (established in 1916).

    Archeological Trail Guide: Frijoles Canyon, Southwest Parks and Monuments Association, 9th printing, July 1997

    Twitchell, Leading Facts of New Mexico History, Vol. II

    Abeita, Pablo (1871-1940)

    Isleta Pueblo Governor

    A native of Isleta Pueblo, south of Albuquerque, Pablo Abeita was unique among his peers in territorial New Mexico; he received ten years of formal education. For several years in his youth he worked as a typesetter for both the Albuquerque Journal and Tribune. Beginning in 1905 he operated the family general store in Isleta. He served for many years as governor and tribal council member, as well as tribal judge. He also served on the All Pueblo Council. Historian Joe Sando writes, Abeita was an able spokesman for the Pueblo people and an avid writer to the newspapers, presenting his views on problems of the day. In 1909, according to one report, Abeita, then lieutenant governor of Isleta, and President Theodore Roosevelt struck up a friendship close enough that the two of them slipped out of a meeting at the Alvarado Hotel in Albuquerque and rode a buckboard to Isleta Pueblo where they had lunch. In 1927, Governor Abeita entered a contest to name a new theater in downtown Albuquerque. His entry won and the theater became the KiMo, which means king of its kind. He may be best remembered for a speech he made on the occasion of the Coronado Quatrocentennial on May 29, 1940, at what would become Coronado State Monument. He said to an audience that included the governor, a United States Senator and the Spanish Ambassador to the United States, I am afraid I will have to contradict some of the things you gentlemen have said. Coronado came by Isleta… was given food and royally received. He came up the valley, and what did he do? Well, we had better say no more about it, for his record isn’t good and you know it. Abeita also used the occasion to say that about 90% of white man’s history was wrong. He died seven months later, and was buried in the Isleta Pueblo cemetery.

    El Palacio, Coronado Monument Dedication, June 1940

    Melzer, Buried Treasures

    Sando, Five Ancient Pueblo Warriors

    Sando, Pueblo Nation

    Sando, Pueblo Profiles

    Slaney, Albuquerque’s Alvarado Hotel

    Weigle & White, The Lore of New Mexico

    Abeyta, Alex A., Jr. (1933-2009)

    Businessman

    Bernalillo County Manager (1979-1989)

    Bernalillo County Treasurer (2001-2004)

    Alex Abeyta was born in Socorro, New Mexico, but raised in Deming where he graduated from high school in 1951. He served in the United States Air Force as a bi-lingual air traffic controller during the Korean War. After the war, he attended and graduated from Western New Mexico University, and subsequently received a law degree from the University of Wyoming. A Democrat, he was active in party politics and managed the gubernatorial campaign of Odis Echols in 1974. He was in the vending machine business with partner Gordon Burnell for a number of years before he was appointed Bernalillo County Manager in 1979, when he divested himself of interest in the company to avoid conflict of interest. He later served a term as Bernalillo County Treasurer and was Deputy Treasurer for three years. He lost the use of his legs as a result of neck surgery and served on the Governor’s Commission on Disability at the time of his death.

    Albuquerque Journal, Deaths/Funerals, January 2, 2010

    Don Bullis, personal recollections

    Abeyta, Luis (c.1883-1921)

    Isleta Pueblo Deputy Sheriff

    (One news story identified the deputy as Louis while another referred to him as Pablo Abeyta.) In early January 1921, Luis Abeyta, a deputy sheriff from Isleta Pueblo, attempted to arrest James Williams, 19, who had shot and severely wounded 16-year-old Lawrence B. Mackey Jr. in Albuquerque the day before. Williams shot Deputy Abeyta, too, and fled after firing at Mrs. A. G. Seis, wife of the Isleta postmaster. A posse of people from the Pueblo, along with several Albuquerque-area police officers, soon began tracking Williams and found him in a swampy area just northeast of the village. In the gunfight that followed on January 7, 1921, Albuquerque officer Pablo Lujan shot and killed Williams. Some sources report that the outlaw was hit by two bullets while others report four. Young Mackey died of his wounds the following day and Deputy Abeyta died of his wounds on January 12. The original shooting was the result of a squabble, the cause unknown, between Williams and Mackey, both of whom worked at the Alvarado Hotel in Albuquerque. Williams was a janitor and bootblack in the barbershop and Mackey was a call boy.* Abeyta was survived by a wife and five children ranging in age from two to 17. His wife was granted a pension after it was confirmed that Abeyta was acting in his official capacity as a peace officer when he was killed, and that a recently enacted law made Mrs. Abeyta eligible. She was allowed $17.50 per month for herself (as long as she didn’t remarry) and just over $3.00 per month for each of her children (until they reached 18 years of age), for a total of $33.33 per month. A newspaper reported at the time that, [Deputy Abeyta] had been in the service for a number of years and was considered one of the most trustworthy and invaluable of the force.

    * A call boy was responsible for ensuring the members of train crews were notified and on hand for their assigned runs.

    Albuquerque Morning Journal, January 8 & May 17, 1921

    Bullis, New Mexico’s Finest, 4th Edition

    Las Vegas Optic, January 7, 8 & 12, 1921

    Santa Fe New Mexican, January 8, 1921

    Abréu Brothers, Santiago, Ramón, Marcelino (d. 1837)

    Victims of the 1837 Rebellion in Río Arriba

    No source indicates dates of birth for the brothers, but Fray Angélico Chávez indicates that Santiago was married in 1818. Santiago Abréu served in the administration of New Mexico Governor Albino Pérez (1835-1837), as district judge and Jefe Político. He had served as governor in 1832 and 1833. His brother, Ramon, served as the prefect in Santa Fe, appointed by Governor Perez. A third brother, Marcelino (incorrectly called Mariano by some sources), was a Santa Fe school teacher and printer, who was also associated with Governor Perez (who was a strong supporter of education). Unfortunately for the Abréu brothers, Perez became the most unpopular governor in the era of Mexican rule (1821-1846). A rebellion against the governor and his policies occurred in August 1837, during which Perez was killed and decapitated. The Abréu brothers, all three of them, were captured by insurgents and tortured to death; their bodies mutilated. Another dozen or so of Perez’s associates were similarly slain. Historian Jacqueline Dorgan Meketa writes that the brothers were members of a politically active and powerful family.

    Chávez, Fray Angélico, Origins of New Mexico Families

    Lecompte, Rebellion in Río Arriba

    Meketa, Legacy of Honor

    Roberts & Roberts, New Mexico

    Twitchell, Leading Facts of New Mexico History, Vol. II

    Twitchell, Old Santa Fe

    Abruzzo, Benjamin L. Ben (1930-1985)

    Sandia Crest Tramway Builder (1966)

    International Balloonist

    Ben Abruzzo was born in Rockford, Illinois, and graduated from the University of Illinois in 1952. While serving in the United States Air Force he was assigned to Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque and in 1954 he made New Mexico his home. Along with attorney Bob Nordhaus, he built the Sandia Peak Tramway between 1964 and 1966 at a cost of almost $2 million. It opened in May 1966. It is the longest jigback passenger tramway in the world. It rises to nearly 10,400 feet. Abruzzo, along with Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman crossed the Atlantic Ocean, from Presque Isle, Maine, to Miserey, France, in a gondola beneath the balloon Double Eagle II, in August 1978. The flight took just over 137 hours and covered 3,100 miles. The team was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for their exploit. Abruzzo was killed in an airplane crash near Albuquerque seven years later. The Anderson-Abruzzo International Ballooning Museum in Albuquerque is named for him and Maxie Anderson. Ben Abruzzo’s son Richard (1963-2010) disappeared over the Adriatic Sea off the coast of Italy in late September 2010 while participating in the 54th Gordon Bennett Gas Balloon Race. His body and that of his flying partner, Carol Rymer Davis, was found by fishermen on December 6. His remains were returned to New Mexico later that month for interment at Gates of Heaven Cemetery in Albuquerque.

    Albuquerque Journal, October 30 & December 19, 2010

    Bryan, Albuquerque

    Cline, Albuquerque

    Melzer, Buried Treasures

    Salmon, Sandia Peak

    Acosta, Oscar Carlos (1957-2006)

    Major League Baseball Pitcher and Pitching Coach

    Oscar Acosta was born in Portales, Roosevelt County, New Mexico, but moved 25 or so miles south, with his family, to the town of Elida at a young age. He excelled in rodeo, boxing, and baseball, but the latter became his primary interest. He attended Dallas Baptist College and Lubbock Christian College. He was the NAIA All-American pitcher for 1978 and he signed with the Philadelphia Phillies later the same year. He remained with the Phillies organization for three years and played a year in the Mexican League before he became a minor league coach and manager. He entered the major leagues when he signed with the Chicago Cubs in 2000, and then joined the Texas Rangers in 2002. At the time of his death in an automobile accident in the Dominican Republic he was the manager of the Gulf Coast Yankees, the New York Yankees Rookie League affiliate farm team in Tampa, Florida. He was interred at Portales. His sister, Yolanda, wrote a memoir of the Acosta family in 2010.

    Acosta, Acosta

    Albuquerque Journal, April 21, 2006

    Clovis News-Journal, May 2, 2006

    Portales News-Tribune, April 2, 2007

    Acuff, Mark Douglas (1940-1994)

    New Mexico Independent Newspapers, Editor

    Mark Acuff was born in Goodyear, and received a public education at Casa Grande, both in Arizona. He was a national merit scholar and attended the University of New Mexico on a Navy ROTC scholarship. He gravitated to the student newspaper, The Lobo, and became its editor in the late 1950s. He upgraded it from a weekly to a daily before he moved on to other things. He was the first general secretary of the National Student Press Association. He worked on a union strike newspaper in Detroit, Michigan; and edited the Valencia County (New Mexico) News; served briefly as political editor for the Santa Fe New Mexican; worked on a paper in Omaha, Nebraska; and edited the Albuquerque News, all before he and his wife, Mary Beth Schaub Acuff, purchased the New Mexico Independent in 1970. The Independent Newspapers also included El Independiente, and the Sandoval County Times-Independent. It was Acuff who coined the phrase Mama Lucy Gang (see Lucy Lopez) for a group of young, generally liberal, state legislators in the 1970s. Acuff was hard to pin down, politically; many liberals thought he was a conservative and many conservatives thought he was a liberal. Any and all public figures were fair game for his editorial barbs. Acuff returned to Casa Grande in the 1980s, after the New Mexico Independent failed, and published the Pinal Pioneer. He died in Arizona a few years later.

    Mary Beth Acuff, correspondence, April 7, 2006

    Don Bullis, personal recollections

    Ward Harkavy, The Native is Restless, Phoenix New Times, May 10, 1989

    Acuff, Mary Beth Schaub (1941- )

    New Mexico Independent Newspapers, Publisher

    Mary Beth Schaub was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and grew up in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1964 and married Mark Acuff the same year. She held a variety of positions while Mark pursued a newspaper career in various parts of the United States; New York City to Omaha and Detroit along the way. In 1970 she and Mark bought the Independent Publishing Company in Albuquerque and Mary Beth became the publisher. By her own account, she was also personnel manager, bookkeeper, reporter, columnist, typesetter, proofreader, mailroom manager, and chief-cook-and-bottle-washer. The Independent Newspapers also included El Independiente, and the Sandoval County Times-Independent. It is no exaggeration to say that Mary Beth’s business acumen, hard work, and faith in the project kept the Independent Newspapers afloat for the 13 years that it lasted. She left the Independent in 1983 and joined the staff of the Albuquerque Museum as Public Information Officer. She and Mark were divorced in 1985. In 1990 she married Lee Bertram, an engineer from Sandia National Laboratories, and they moved to California later the same year. She became active in government in Dublin, California, and took an interest in the town’s heritage activities. In 1996 Mary Beth was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and very soon became a leader in the local MS support group and served as facilitator and newsletter editor. Lee died unexpectedly in 2002. Mary Beth continued to be active in the local Democratic Party in 2010.

    Mary Beth Acuff, correspondence, April 10, 2006

    Don Bullis, personal recollections (Bullis served as editor of the Sandoval County Times-Independent in the early 1980s)

    Adams, Ansel Easton (1902-1984)

    Master Photographer

    A native of San Francisco, California, Ansel Adams is frequently identified with the many black-and-white photographs he took of the Yosemite Valley. As modern historian Ferenc Szasz wrote, though, he had strong ties to New Mexico. He visited Taos a number of times beginning in the 1920s and took thousands of photographs. One of his early published works was Taos Pueblo (1930) which he did in collaboration with Mary Austin. He was also associated with Mabel Dodge Luhan and the artists and writers that surrounded her. One of Adams’ most famous photographs is Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, which he shot in 1941. Szasz reports that Adams admitted in 1974 that the stark quality of the photograph was enhanced considerably by the work he did on it in the darkroom. Reality was not that way at all. But it felt that way, Adams said. Adams published more than a dozen photographic books and four technical books. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter in 1980. Adams died at Carmel, California of heart disease. Mt. Ansel Adams in California’s Sierra Nevada was named for him in 1985.

    Lamar, The New Encyclopedia of the American West

    Melzer, Buried Treasures

    Rudnick, Mabel Dodge Luhan

    Szasz, Larger Than Life

    Adams, Kenneth Miller (1897-1966)

    Painter & Muralist

    Kenneth Miller Adams was born in Topeka, Kansas, where he studied under local artist George M. Stone. He also attended the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League in New York before he traveled to Europe and studied in France and Italy. He arrived in Taos in 1924 and became the last person to join the Taos Society of Artists before the group disbanded in 1927. He served as visiting professor of art at the University of New Mexico from 1938 to 1963. Adams was a New Deal artist, famous for his controversial murals in Zimmerman Library at the University of New Mexico. He also painted, on commission from the United States Post Office, murals for the Goodland, Kansas, and Deming, New Mexico, Post Offices, along with much other work. He died in Albuquerque.

    Flynn, Treasures on New Mexico Trails

    Gibson, The Santa Fe and Taos Colonies (photograph)

    Melzer, Buried Treasures

    Adamson, Carl (1856-1919)

    Smuggler/Petty Criminal

    Carl Adamson was present when former sheriff Patrick Floyd Garrett was murdered on February 29, 1908 near Las Cruces, New Mexico. There were, and perhaps are, people who believe that he was in fact Garrett’s killer. Some believe that Adamson and Jesse Wayne Brazel both shot the old lawman. Adamson served prison time for smuggling Chinese people into the United States from Mexico. He was related by marriage to Jim Miller, who some also suspected of killing Garrett. Brazel confessed to the killing but was acquitted upon a plea of self-defense. Adamson was never charged and, as the only eyewitness to the crime, he was not even called upon to testify at Brazel’s murder trial. Adamson died at Roswell of a fever. It is an interesting historical footnote that upon Adamson’s release from prison, he worked for a Roswell sheep rancher named A. D. Garrett (1861-1913) who was not related in any direct way to Pat Garrett.

    Curry, Autobiography

    Metz, Pat Garrett

    Ross, Pete, Western Lore, Wild West, December 2001

    Tanner, John, correspondence, March 30, 2006

    Thrapp, Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography

    Agostini, Juan Maria

    See Deagostini, Giovanni Maria

    Agreda, María de Jesús de (1602-1665)

    The Lady in Blue, a Miraculous Franciscan Nun

    Fray Alonso de Benavides told the tale of María de Jesús de Agreda in his 1630 Memorial to King Phillip IV. As the story goes, a nun, clad in blue, appeared before several New Mexico nomadic Indian groups, and spoke to each in its own language, telling them they should summon the padres so that they, the Indians, could be taught and properly baptized. The Indians therefore eagerly received the priests. Fray Alonso himself confirmed that the miraculous nun, described by the Indians as young and beautiful, was Mary of Agreda, a Spanish Franciscan who wore a habit of gray beneath a mantle of blue. She never visited North American in her physical lifetime, but was reported to have made some 500 bi-locations. The nun was investigated by the Inquisition, but, as historian John Kessell wrote, she received praise, not censure.

    Chávez, New Mexico Past and Future

    Kessell, Kiva, Cross & Crown

    Kessell, Spain in the Southwest

    Weigle & White, The Lore of New Mexico

    Thrapp, Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography

    Alarid, Michael Mike (1919-2007)

    Businessman

    State Representative (1965-1966)

    State Senator (1966-1972 & 1977-1992)

    Mike Alarid was born in Berwind, Colorado. His obituary reports the year of his birth as 1919, while his legislative biography gives the year as 1920. After graduating at the top of his Trinidad, Colorado, high school class, he set off to seek his fortune in the later years of the Great Depression. He got as far as Albuquerque before he met and married Stella Salazar. He joined the United States Navy during World War II and served in the South Pacific. After the war, he opened an insurance agency, which he operated until he opened Mike’s Food Store at 4th and Atlantic in Albuquerque’s Barelas neighborhood in 1952. Local folks knew Alarid for his generosity and his willingness to extend credit. That his faith in the community was not misguided is demonstrated by the fact that after 39 years in business, he had only $430 in uncollected receivables. He served on numerous boards and commissions and, as a Democrat, was elected to the New Mexico House of Representatives in 1964 and served one term before he was elected to the State Senate in 1966. He served there until 1972, and after a hiatus, he again served in the Senate from 1977 to 1992, in leadership positions for many of those years. In 1968, he ran for lieutenant governor on a ticket led by Fabián Chávez, but lost when Republican Governor David Cargo was re-elected to a second term. Alarid ran for Congress in 1972 and lost to incumbent Republican Manuel Lujan, and he ran for mayor of Albuquerque in 1974 and lost to Harry Kinney in the first mayoralty race in modern Albuquerque history. While he was doing all of that, he managed to graduate from the University of New Mexico and to attend two years of law school. After he closed his grocery store, he became an administrator at Albuquerque’s Technical-Vocational Institute (now Central New Mexico Community College). Former Governor Bruce King commented, There’s no finer guy than Mike Alarid. He did an awful lot for New Mexico. Many of his contemporaries shared that opinion. He died in Albuquerque.

    Albuquerque Journal, August 3 and 5, 2007

    Cargo, Lonesome Dave

    Tracey Kimball, New Mexico Legislative Council Service

    King, Cowboy in the Roundhouse

    Roybal, Taking on Giants

    Alberts, Don Edward (1935-2010)

    New Mexico Civil War/Aviation Historian

    Don Alberts was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and spent his early years in Seminole, also in Oklahoma. He and his family moved to Albuquerque when he was 12. He was educated in Albuquerque and graduated from the University of New Mexico in 1956 with a degree in aviation engineering. After working at Sandia Corporation for a time, he entered the United States Navy pilot program and earned his wings in 1960. He later served on the carrier Yorktown in Southeast Asia. He returned to Sandia Corp. and began work on an advanced degree in history at UNM. He earned a Ph.D. in 1975. After teaching stints at Texas Tech and the University of Albuquerque, he became Chief Historian at Kirtland Air Force Base (1977-88). Books he has written over the years include The History of Kirtland Air Force Base; Balloons to Bombers: Aviation in Albuquerque 1882-1945 (1987); Rebels on the Rio Grande (1984); The Battle of Glorieta (1998); and General Wesley Merritt: Brandy Station to Manila Bay (2001). Alberts was a frequent speaker on New Mexico historical subjects and was a former deputy sheriff of the Central New Mexico Corral of Westerners International. In declining health, he died at his home in Rio Rancho, New Mexico.

    Alberts, correspondence, 2006

    Don Bullis, personal recollections

    Rio Rancho Observer, Westsider, October 31, 2004

    Carol A. Myers, Ed., Biographical Sketches, Albuquerque (Central New Mexico after 2008) Corral, Westerners International, Newsletter, 1995

    Alexander, Ruth Barbara Laughlin (1889-1962)

    Author

    Founder of the Old Santa Fe Association

    Ruth Laughlin was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and educated at Colorado College and the Columbia School of Journalism. She traveled widely in Europe, Mexico, and Central America before she returned to New Mexico. Her interests turned to archaeology and early New Mexico history. She wrote for several newspapers and other periodicals, including the Christian Science Monitor and the New York Times. In 1926, she became one of the founding members of the Old Santa Fe Association. She wrote two novels of some note: Caballeros (1931), which follows the Spanish Colonial period (1598-1821) in Santa Fe, and The Wind Leaves No Shadow (1948), which has to do with the life of Santa Fe’s famous gambler, Gertrudis Barceló, better known as La Tules or Doña Tules. Alexander once commented, Modern Santa Fe is the City of contrasts. Every day the newest bumps into the oldest. Ruth Laughlin was married to William J. Barker and later to Dr. Henry Alexander. She died in 1962 at the age of 73. She is buried in the Fairview Cemetery in Santa Fe.

    Melzer, Buried Treasures

    Marcia Muth, Foreword to the Sunstone Press facsimile of the 1945 edition of Caballeros

    Allen, Paula Marie Francis Gunn (1939-2008)

    Author & Educator

    Paula Marie Francis was born at Cubero, New Mexico. Her father, Lee Francis, who served as lieutenant governor of New Mexico from 1967-1970, was of Lebanese descent. Her mother was from Laguna Pueblo, and was part Sioux Indian and part Scottish. Paula Francis was raised in Albuquerque but educated at the University of Oregon where she earned a bachelor’s degree in English in 1966 and a master’s degree in creative writing in 1968. She was awarded a Ph.D. by the University of New Mexico in American Studies in 1975. She taught variously at San Francisco State University, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of California at Los Angeles. She was primarily a professor of English with considerable emphasis on American Indian studies and literature. As the story goes, while at the University of New Mexico, she proposed that she do her doctoral dissertation on American Indian Literature, only to be told by a faculty member that no such literature existed. She undertook to demonstrate that such was not the case, and she succeeded admirably. She wrote 17 books over the years including Studies on American Indian Literature, Critical Essays and Course Designs; a book that laid the foundation for the study of Native American literature, according to her obituary. In 1999, Allen received the Hubbell Medal from the American Literature Section of the Modern Language Association. The citation read in part: To say that Paula Gunn Allen is multi-talented and to claim that she has had a major impact on the field of American Literature are two statements that vastly over-simplify and understate her stature and importance. In fact, what can accurately be said of Paula Gunn Allen—that her work as a poet and novelist helped create basic texts in Native American Literature and that her work as a critic and anthologist has been instrumental in promoting the study and understanding of that literature—cannot be said of many other academics in any field, let alone in American Literature. When one adds to these roles those of feminist, political activist, and theorist, we begin to see just how Paula’s work has reflected and attempted to reconcile a number of developments and tensions in our field over the last four decades. She died from lung cancer at her home in Fort Bragg, California.

    Hubbell Medal Citation, 1999

    Santa Fe New Mexican, August 1, 1997

    Jocelyn Y. Steward, Los Angeles Times, June 7, 2008

    Allison, Robert A. Clay (1840-1887)

    Colfax County Gunman/Killer

    (Note: Some sources cite his name as Robert A., others as Robert C. His 1862 Confederate Army discharge papers identify him as R. A. C. Allison. He gained fame as Clay Allison.) Born in Wayne County, Tennessee, Clay Allison served in the Confederate Army early in the Civil War. Some historians report that he was discharged as mentally unstable, while others indicate that epilepsy was the cause of his return to civilian life. Some also report that he had a clubfoot. He arrived in Texas soon after the war in 1865 and spent time in Colfax County, New Mexico. His reputation reached almost mythical proportions during his lifetime. One Missouri newspaper alleged that he had killed 15 men by 1870, a number that Allison did not dispute, although it is probably not accurate. He was a participant in the Colfax County War (1875-76), during which he is known to have killed a couple of men. He died near Pecos, Texas, from injuries suffered when he fell off a freight wagon. He may or may not have been roaring drunk. One newspaper opined: Certain it is that many of his stern deeds were for the right as he understood it to be. Damned by faint praise, some might say. One of his two tombstones identifies Allison as Gentleman Gun Fighter. Famed Texas historian and writer J. Frank Dobie incorrectly states that Allison died in New Mexico in 1884. Many writers over the years have tried to make much more of Allison than he really was: a hot-headed drunk and a bully.

    Bullis, Duels, Gunfights & Shoot-Outs

    Norman Cleaveland, Clay Allison’s Cimarron, New Mexico Magazine, March/April 1974 (Cited in Zimmer, For Good or Bad)

    Sharon Cunningham, Clay Allison Facts, Wild West, April 2010

    Fitzpatrick, New Mexico

    Jay France, "The Secret Life of Hell Raising Clay Allison, Western Action, September 1960

    Lamar, The New Encyclopedia of the American West

    Melzer, Buried Treasures

    Metz, Encyclopedia of Lawmen, Outlaws, and Gunfighters

    Metz, The Shooters

    Parsons, Clay Allison

    Allyn, Joseph Pratt (1833-1869)

    Newspaper Correspondent/Santa Fe Trail Traveler

    Allyn was born in Hartford, Connecticut, to a well-off textile manufacturing family. He contracted tuberculosis at a young age and was obliged to spend much of his youth in the southern United States, Europe and the Mediterranean. After a three-year sojourn abroad, he returned to the United States in 1859 and shortly found employment in the United States Congress where he worked in the 36th and 37th sessions. He was an ardent Republican and strong supporter of Abraham Lincoln. His poor health kept him from receiving a commission in the Union Army during the Civil War, but President Lincoln named him to the Arizona Supreme Court soon after that Territory was created on February 24, 1863. Allyn wrote a series of letters to the Hartford Evening Press as he made his way along the Santa Fe Trail. Santa Fe, he wrote in November 1863, is a strange chapter torn out of the past and stuck in between the leaves of American progress. Its people are a strange medley of the Indians, the Saracen and the Spaniard. It is nearly as difficult now to study the genuine Mexican manners among the better classes as it is to penetrate the interior of eastern seraglios. This kind of writing explains in part why New Mexico was so misunderstood in the eastern United States in the early territorial days, but Allyn followed the equally biased writings of George Ruxton, George Kendall, W. W. H. Davis, and others. Allyn continued his travels to Arizona where became unsuccessfully involved in territorial politics. A reviewer of Nicholson’s book (see below) described Allyn as sickly, undereducated but traveled, barely thirty years old, wealthy, supercilious, opinionated, pompous, and politically ambitious…. a political carpetbagger in the truest sense. He left Arizona in 1866 and returned to Connecticut by way of California and Oregon. He died in Europe at age 36.

    Allyn, By Horse, Stage & Packet

    Odie B. Faulk, Book Reviews, New Mexico Historical Review, October 1975

    Nicolson, The Arizona of Joseph Pratt Allyn

    Strate, West by Southwest

    Altamirano, Ben D. Benny (1930-2007)

    New Mexico State Senator (1971-2007)

    A native of Silver City, Grant County, New Mexico, Benny Altamirano graduated from Silver City High School and attended Western New Mexico University. He served his community in many ways in a life dedicated to public service. A Democrat, he was respected by members of both parties for his even-handed approach to politics and government, and his friendliness. He served as Silver City town councilor for 10 years (1960-1970) and as Grant County Commissioner for four years (1965-1968) before voters elected him to the State Senate in 1971. They consistently re-elected him until his death. He served as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee for 17 years before his colleagues elected him Senate President Pro Tempore in 2005. Senator Altamirano’s committee assignments were far too many for inclusion here, but the list of the standing committees on which he served begin with Border Development and end with Workmen’s Compensation. Speaker of the New Mexico House of Representatives Ben Lujan said this: He was a gentleman in a place that does not always treat gentlemen kindly. He was a statesman in a place that too frequently rewards those with narrow concerns. He brought a calm, reasonable voice to a place that needs more calm and more reason. Senator Altamirano died of a heart attack at his home in Silver City.

    Albuquerque Journal, January 1, 2008

    Albuquerque Tribune, December 31, 2007 & January 1, 2008

    Tracey Kimball, New Mexico Legislative Council Service

    Santa Fe New Mexican, December 31, 2007

    Silver City Daily Press, December 28, 2007 & January 4, 2008

    Alvarado, Hernando de (c. 1517-post 1548)

    Spanish Soldier/Explorer

    Alvarado was a captain of artillery in the army of Spaniard Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, who visited New Mexico in 1540-1542. According to historian Marc Simmons, Alvarado wrote the first description of the middle Rio Grande Valley: This river flows through a broad valley planted with fields of maize. There are some cottonwood groves. The houses are of mud, two stories high. The people seem good, more given to farming than war…. He named the stream Río de Nuestra Senora, because he came upon it on September 17, 1540, the eve of the Blessed Virgin’s birthday. The old Alvarado Hotel in downtown Albuquerque from 1902 to 1970 was named for him.

    Kessell, Spain in the Southwest

    Simmons, Albuquerque

    Thrapp, Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography

    Alvarez, Manuel (1794-1856)

    New Mexico Pioneer/Politician

    Alvarez was born in Spain and reached Mexico in 1818 (one source says 1823) and Santa Fe by 1824. He engaged in the fur trade for a time before he became a successful Santa Fe merchant after 1834. In 1839 he became the American Consul and in 1846 he was appointed United States commercial agent. As such he approached Mexican Governor Manuel Armijo and urged him not to resist the coming American invasion (August 1846). In 1850, more than three years after the American occupation, an effort was made to establish New Mexico as a state of the Union, and an election was held in May. Alvarez was elected lieutenant governor. That state government was abrogated by the death of President Zachary Taylor (July 9, 1850) and the Compromise of 1850 (September 9, 1850), but not before Alvarez entered into a controversy with Colonel John Munroe, military governor of New Mexico, who forbade the civil government from taking office. The debate became moot with the establishment of territorial government in 1851. Marc Simmons says Alvarez was an erudite man with a true philosophical bent.

    Thomas Esteban Chávez, The Trouble with Texans: Manuel Alvarez and the 1841 ‘Invasion’, New Mexico Historical Review, April 1978

    Chávez, Manuel Alvarez

    Lamar, The New Encyclopedia of the American West

    Marc Simmons, The Wit of Manuel Alvarez, Prime Time, January 2004

    Thrapp, Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography

    Twitchell, Leading Facts of New Mexico History, Vol. II

    Amonett, Elijah Thomas E. T. (1868-1950)

    Amonett, Edd (1892-1963)

    Saddle Makers

    E. T. Amonett was probably born in Louisiana, and moved to Corsicana, Texas in the 1880s where he operated a harness shop. In 1894 he moved his family to Eddy, New Mexico (today called Carlsbad), and in 1898 he moved north to Roswell where he invested in a saddle and harness shop. E. T.’s son, Edd [sic], learned the saddle making trade working by his father’s side. Soon after Edd married in 1912, E. T. moved to El Paso where he opened a second saddle shop, leaving the Roswell operation in his son’s hands. E. T. retired in 1932 and closed the El Paso store. Edd retired in 1949. A couple of Amonett mottos became well-known in the 80 years they spent in the saddle and harness business. One was, The Square Deal and Good Work. Another was, What We Sell for Leather is Leather. They believed in making saddles that were comfortable for the horse as well as the rider, and they sold them throughout the Southwest. In the late 1920s, a basic stock saddle sold for $75 to $125 (when top-of-the-line Sears & Roebuck saddles sold for about $50). They also offered fancier models in the $300 to $450 range. Historian Cameron Saffell writes, …an Amonett saddle is still a treasured tool to the rancher or rider that owns one today.

    Cameron Saffell, Curator of History, New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum

    Anaya, Rudolfo (1937- )

    The Dean of Southwest Ethnic Literature

    Rudolfo Anaya was born in Pastura, southwest of Santa Rosa in Guadalupe County, New Mexico, and lived in a Spanish-speaking world during his early years. I grew up treasuring the few books I came across; I grew up believing my liberation was in books, he wrote in 1990. Anaya attended the University of New Mexico where he earned degrees in English and Guidance and Counseling. As a professor of English, he directed the creative writing program at UNM for many years. His first novel, Bless Me, Ultima (1971), caused a surge of interest in Chicano literature. While efforts have been made to ban the book in several places—in Texas, California and Colorado as well as variously in New Mexico where it was actually burned in one community—it has remained continually in print since it was first published and it has been translated into Spanish, French, Italian, Russian and Japanese. Among his other books are Heart of Aztlán (1976), Tortuga (1979), The Silence of the Llano (1982), Albuquerque (1992), Zia Summer (1996), Jemez Spring (2005) and others. He has also written poetry, children’s literature and plays. He received numerous awards for his work over the years: the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts in 1980; the National Medal for the Arts by President George W. Bush in 2002; a 2007 New Mexico Book Award, and others.

    Rudolfo A. Anaya, Stand Up Against Censorship Anywhere it Occurs, Book Talk, New Mexico Book League, November 1990

    Etulain, Beyond the Missouri

    Garcia, Albuquerque

    Lamar, The New Encyclopedia of the American West

    Montaño, Tradiciones Nuevomexicanas

    Roberts, Our New Mexico

    Szasz, Larger Than Life

    Ancheta, Joseph A. (1865-1898)

    Silver City Lawyer

    Territorial Legislator (1891-1894)

    A native New Mexican, Ancheta was born in Mesilla, Doña Ana County, the son of a refugee who fled Mexico during the liberal/conservative struggle of the middle 1850s. He first attended St. Michael’s College in Santa Fe, and then studied for four years at Notre Dame University, graduating in 1886. Ancheta entered the practice of law at Silver City, New Mexico. He was elected to the territorial legislature in 1890 and 1892. On February 5, 1891, he was the victim of one of New Mexico’s most infamous attempted political assassinations. While he was attending a meeting with political boss Tom Catron and legislator Elias Stover, shots were fired through an office window. Ancheta was hit in the neck with buckshot, but survived. Catron and Stover were not injured. No one was ever prosecuted for the crime. Ancheta died at Silver City.

    Curry, Autobiography

    Lamar, Charlie Siringo’s West

    Twitchell, Leading Facts of New Mexico History, Vol. II

    Anderson, Clinton Presba (1895-1975)

    United States Congressman (1941-1945)

    United States Secretary of Agriculture (1945-1948)

    United States Senator (1949-1973)

    A native of Centerville, Turner County, South Dakota, Anderson was educated in the public schools and at Dakota Wesleyan University and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor (he did not graduate from either). He arrived in New Mexico in 1917, seeking a cure for the tuberculosis from which he suffered, and which had kept him out of the army in World War I. He was employed as a newspaper reporter and editor from 1918 to 1922; and engaged in the insurance business from 1922 until 1946. The Clinton P. Anderson Insurance Agency in Albuquerque is named for him. A Democrat, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1940, a time when New Mexico had only one congressman in Washington, D. C. He was re-elected twice after the state acquired a second house seat in 1943, but resigned in 1945 to become Secretary of Agriculture under President Harry S Truman. He then served in the United States Senate from 1949 until 1973. His autobiography is titled Outsider in the Senate, Senator Clinton Anderson’s Memoirs.

    Albuquerque Tribune, November 11, 1975

    Baker, Conservation Politics

    Cargo, Lonesome Dave

    Congressional Biography

    King, Cowboy in the Roundhouse

    Roybal, Taking on Giants

    Anderson, Max Leroy Maxie (1934-1983)

    Albuquerque Businessman

    International Balloonist

    Anderson, who operated Ranchers Exploration and Development Corporation, a uranium mining company, along with Ben Abruzzo and Larry Newman, was aboard a gondola—called the Spirit of Albuquerque—suspended beneath the Double Eagle II, a helium-filled balloon, that made the first successful balloon flight across the Atlantic Ocean in August 1978. The flight, from Presque Isle, Maine, to Miserey, France, took just over 137 hours and covered 3,100 miles. Anderson was killed in a ballooning accident in Bavaria, Germany, in June 1983. The Anderson-Abruzzo International Ballooning Museum in Albuquerque is named for him and Ben Abruzzo.

    Garcia & McCord, Albuquerque ¡Feliz Cumpleanos! Three Centuries to Remember

    Salmon, Sandia Peak

    Smithsonian, National Air and Space Museum

    Anderson, Robert Orville (1917-2007)

    Oilman/Rancher

    A native of Chicago, Illinois, and a graduate of the University of Chicago, Robert O. Anderson purchased Malco Refineries, Inc. of Roswell, New Mexico, in 1941 and served as its president. He increased the company’s production and sold it to Atlantic Refining in 1962. As a major stockholder of Atlantic, he served as chairman and chief executive officer from 1965 to 1986, during which term the company acquired the Richfield Oil Corporation. Atlantic Richfield subsequently became the 12th largest of United States corporations. He created Hondo Oil & Gas in 1986 after leaving Atlantic Richfield. He is said to have been one of the largest individual landowners in the United States, with about 1,000,000 acres. Anderson supported construction of the Alaska pipeline. He was the first recipient of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Medal of Excellence in 1989. He was an active member of the New Mexico Republican Party and served as National Committeeman. The Robert O. Anderson School of Management at the University of New Mexico, founded in 1947, is named for him. He served on the Board of Regents of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology at Socorro from 1987 to 1992. Anderson maintained homes in Roswell and Picacho, New Mexico, until his death on December 2, 2007 at the age of 90.

    Albuquerque Journal, American Profile, August 24-30, 2008

    Associated Press, December 4, 2007

    Cargo, Lonesome Dave

    Fleming & Williams, Treasures of History II, Chaves County Vignettes

    Leslie Linthicum, Oil Legend Got Start in Artesia, Albuquerque Journal, December 4, 2007

    Patterson, Hardhat and Stetson

    University of New Mexico

    Andrade, José E. (1907-2008)

    Boxer & Bodybuilding Champion

    Disc Jockey

    …. and School Crossing Guard

    A native of La Barca, Jalisco, Mexico, José Andrade arrived in Albuquerque in 1919, when, he said, It was just a little horse-and-buggy town. From 1926 to 1931, he held the Southwest bantamweight boxing championship. Nearly 20 years later he won the Mr. Albuquerque bodybuilding championship, and he became Mr. New Mexico the following year. Over the years, he also worked as a Spanish radio disc jockey and as an automobile mechanic. He was honored by Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez early in 2007 with an A Plus award. Mr. Andrade was 99 years old at the time, and had been working as a school crossing guard for 13 years. He attributed his long life to physical fitness and to not smoking or drinking. He continued to work as an Albuquerque school crossing guard as he enjoyed his 100th birthday. He died six months later. He was the father of 23 children and had 140 grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren at the time of his death. Mr. Andrade was indeed a New Mexican worthy of note.

    Albuquerque Journal, February 1, 2007 & May 11, 2008

    Albuquerque Tribune, December 20, 2007

    Rio Rancho Journal, December 18, 2007

    Andrews, William Henry Bull (1846-1919)

    Railroad Speculator

    Representative to Congress (1905-1912)

    Some sources show his year of birth as 1852. Bull Andrews was born in Warren County, Pennsylvania, and educated there. He won election to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and served from 1889 to 1893 and in the Pennsylvania State Senate in 1895. After losing re-election, he moved to New Mexico in 1900 or 1902, again depending on the source. Voters elected him to the Territorial Council in 1903, and he served until the following year. In 1904, he won the election that sent him to Washington, D. C., as New Mexico’s Congressional delegate. He served until statehood in 1912. Some historians consider him influential in securing statehood for the territory, but others indicate that he may have impeded it. House Committee on Territories chairman Albert J. Beveridge of Indiana considered Andrews a speculator who would profit from statehood, and used that as one of his excuses for opposing statehood. (Beveridge’s real reason seems to have been that he held considerable prejudice against the Spanish-speaking citizens of New Mexico and Arizona.) Andrews, in fact, did participate in mining and railroad speculation in the years leading up to 1912. It was also alleged that he was responsible for a $300,000 shortage in a Pennsylvania bank; money he used to finance the Santa Fe Central Railway, of which he was president. The railroad eventually failed and Andrews lost his investment. He died broke at Carlsbad, New Mexico, of influenza and pneumonia. His body was returned to Titusville, Pennsylvania, for burial. It is interesting that, according to historian Bob Julyan, the town of Andrews, named for Bull Andrews and located in Sierra County, near Hillsboro, had a post office from 1898 to 1907, while other sources report that Andrews did not arrive in New Mexico until 1900 or 1902. Andrews owned a mine in the area and built a sumptuous residence there. The town is today a ruin and little remembered, and so is Bull Andrews.

    Congressional Biography

    Julyan, The Place Names of New Mexico

    Lamar, The Far Southwest

    Melzer, Buried Treasures

    Myrick, New Mexico’s Railroads

    Twitchell, Old Santa Fe

    Angel, Francisco Frank Jr. (1914-2005)

    President, New Mexico Highlands University (1971-1975)

    (Note: Francisco Frank Angel should not be confused with Frank Warner Angel.) Francisco Frank Angel was born in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and was educated in the public schools there. After graduation, he taught at rural schools in San Miguel and Santa Fe counties, before he served as a B-24 pilot in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II, service for which he was decorated. After the war, he returned to teaching, with the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County public schools, and he earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of New Mexico in 1949. He attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and earned a master’s degree in rural sociology. He returned to New Mexico and worked for the state’s Department of Education from 1951 to 1954. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, in educational administration, in 1955. He was employed by the University of New Mexico from 1955 until 1971. The New Mexico Highlands University regents named Angel president of the Las Vegas school in 1971, and he served until 1975. He was the first native-born Hispanic to serve as president of that institution, and was the first Hispanic to serve as president of a public university in the United States. Angel’s administration marked a change in institutional direction, toward educational services for New Mexico’s Hispanic and indigenous populations. Dr. Angel died in Brazil at the age of 91.

    Melzer, Buried Treasures

    Santa Fe New Mexican, June 5, 2005

    Vigil, Defining our Destiny

    Angel, Frank Warner (1845-1906)

    United States Government Investigator (1878)

    (Note: Frank Warner Angel should not be confused with Francisco Frank Angel, Jr.) President Rutherford B. Hayes dispatched Frank Angel to New Mexico in 1878 for the purpose of learning the facts surrounding the violent events in Lincoln and Colfax counties. The president did this in response to the murder of John Henry Tunstall in February of that year. Angel took hundreds of pages of depositions that became first-person accounts used by a variety of historians in the years since. He was not particularly good at what he did. Historian Robert Utley wrote, He turned out to be a young man of moderate ability, persistent though somewhat careless and imprecise in gathering evidence…. Historian Marc Simmons, though, credits Angel with exposing major government corruption in New Mexico, citing Angel, Simmons wrote "It is seldom that history states more corruption, fraud, plots and murder than New Mexico has seen under the administration of Gov. [Samuel] Axtell." Angel spent four months in New Mexico, and never returned. He died at Jersey City, New Jersey. There is a bit of confusion about his names: one source spells his last name Angell, and another cites his middle name as Warren.

    Keleher, Violence in Lincoln County

    Lamar, Far Southwest

    Marc Simmons, Trail Dust, Santa Fe New Mexican, June 10, 2006

    Tuska, Billy the Kid

    Utley, High Noon in Lincoln

    Angel, Pablita or Paula (c. 1834-1861)

    Legendary San Miguel County Murderess (1861)

    Paula, or Pablita, is the only woman to be legally hanged during New Mexico’s territorial period (two women, María Josefa and María Francisca, mother and daughter, were tried, convicted and hanged in January 1779 for the murder of María Francisca’s husband). That alone makes her stand out in a crowd of 50 men who were legally hanged between 1847 and 1908. Even though she was defended by noted attorney Spruce M. Baird, Pablita was convicted of murdering her married lover, Juan Miguel Martín, by stabbing him in the back on March 23, 1861. Her trial was held only five days after the crime was committed. Sentenced to death by Judge Kirby Benedict, she was also obliged to pay the costs of all legal action against her, including her own hanging, which was a normal legal practice at the time. According to legend, San Miguel County Sheriff, Antonio Abad Herrera, botched the hanging so badly that Paula had to be hanged a second time before the court’s order of execution was carried out. Some sources have indicated that Angel was hanged from the limb of a cottonwood tree, but historian Robert Tórrez has found no documentation to support that notion, even though, after a long search, he has confirmed the basic facts surrounding this matter, including the return of service notation for Angel’s execution. New Mexico writer S. Omar Barker related a legend that claimed the leaves on the cottonwood tree from which Miss Angel was hanged would turn blood red in the fall while all other cottonwood leaves turned golden yellow. Barker acknowledged that the tree in question was no longer standing and therefore no firsthand examination could be made.

    Ball, Desert Lawmen

    S. Omar Barker, The Cottonwood That Mourned, Real West, July 1963

    Bryan, Wildest of the Wild West

    Gilbreath, Death on the Gallows

    Robert Tórrez, Albuquerque Westerners (Central New Mexico Westerners after 2009), February 2009

    Tórrez, Myth of the Hanging Tree

    Robert Tórrez, conversation, April 2010

    Antrim, Catherine McCarty (1829-1874)

    Mother of Billy the Kid

    Catherine McCarty was born in Ireland, but made her way to the United States, probably in the late 1840s. According to one historian, she lived in New York City’s 4th Ward, on the east side of Manhattan, when her first son, Joe, was born in 1854 (some sources indicate that Joe was not born until 1862, and he claimed at one point that he was born in Indiana). Her second son, Henry, was also born in New York, probably in 1859. (Henry became famous in New Mexico as William Henry Bonney, or Billy the Kid.) Both boys were illegitimate, according to the same historian. Different sources offer different versions of her departure from New York and her route west. One suggests that she went first to Indiana, which would have been in the early 1860s if indeed Joe was born there in 1862. Another reports that her travels took her to Wichita, Kansas, in 1868 or 1869 (another source refutes this entirely). There is some certainty that Catherine left New York by the early 1870s, suffering from tuberculosis. She reached Santa Fe by 1873 and married William H. Antrim there on March 1. The newlyweds moved on to Silver City, New Mexico, with Joe and Henry, by May of the same year. Catherine’s tuberculosis worsened, and she died there in September of 1874. In the early years of the 21st century, some historical revisionists made misguided efforts to exhume her body so that DNA comparisons could be made with the alleged remains of Billy the Kid. They intended to prove that Sheriff Pat Garrett did not kill the Kid on July 14, 1881, at Fort Sumner, New Mexico. As of 2008, citizens of Silver City prevented the molestation of Catherine’s body. In 1947, a local funeral home replaced her original wooden grave marker with a stone monument. Both misspelled her first name as Katherine. Described as a jolly Irish lady, full of fun and mischief, Catherine has occasionally, and unfairly, been maligned for the misdeeds of her offspring.

    Cline, Alias Billy the Kid

    Fulton, History of the Lincoln County War

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