A Hoe From The Santa Fe Trail Era?

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This hoe used to belong to my grandfather and probably has not seen any use since the mid 1950's.  It is my guess that someone gave it to him or he bought it from someone. It is old and of unusual manufacture. Here is what I think. I think the original hoe, represented here by the part with the hole that has been riveted to the lower part probably came from the United States during the Santa Fe Trail days. Someone used it until it wore out and then they riveted the original to a new slab of metal to make it useful again.

These hoes used to see a lot of action, mixing mud to make adobes and to break adobes to fit. They were also used on the family garden or milpa where the vegetables were grown. They would have also been used when cleaning the ditches etc. So I can see where they would have worn down. Sharpening hoes also wears them down.

The white spot on the image above is a quarter for comparison. Dimensions are 10 inches wide and 7 and 3/4 inches high.

Here you can see where the handle went and the fact that the original hoe wore down and rivets were used to attach it to a new head.  The work was probably done by a smith at a blacksmith shop. 

Here you can see the metal where the handle is broken. It has been broken since I knew of the hoe. Holes have been drilled so as to use screws/bolts/nails to hold the handle on the hoe. There is a bolt all of the way thru right now.
The inside face of the hoe head.

A view of the outside face of the hoe and a better look at the rivets. 

Los Taborette's

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This is an upside down view of one of my new ones.

This is a regular shot of one of my latest. Built this grey colored one earlier in the month.
This is a brown colored one I built late last month.

The post on October 24th has a picture of the taborette my grandfather found on the railroad tracks in the early 1900's when he worked for the AT&SF (Santa Fe) Railroad. These two here are patterned after that one. Not a replica but a reasonable facsimile in my book. These here are built out of a 2x12 shaped into an octagon for the seat, 2x4's for the legs and wrapped around a 4x4.

They seem a bit sturdier and can serve as a stool to sit on, a plant holder or something similar. Like I wrote in my other post on taborette's, the family seems to like them because my grandfather had one. The ones I have made are in Colorado, New Mexico, Minnesota and soon in Montana.

By now you probably know more about taborettes than you ever wanted to know.

New Mexico Timeline - The Historical Period

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1536 - Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, Estevan the Moor, Andres Dorantes and Alonso Castillo de Maldonado wander through parts of Southern New Mexico before reaching Culican, Mexico.

1540 - 1542 - Francisco Vasquez de Coronado explores present day Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. A number of women are with the expedition, wives of soldiers. The first introduction of the horse and other domestic animals into the present day United States.

1581 - Augustin Rodriguez and some soldiers led by Francisco Sanchez Chamuscado leads an expedition into New Mexico.

1582 - 1583 - Bernardino Beltran and Antonio de Espejo comes to New Mexico with a small group with Antonio de Espejo naming himself as commander. 

1590 - 1591 - Gaspar Castano de Sosa leads 170 men women and children to New Mexico. The "entrada" was illegal, leaders were arrested and the colony abandoned.

1598 - don Juan de Onate, along with numerous soldier/colonists, takes possession of the area called New Mexico for the monarchs of Spain.

1680 - The Pueblo Indians revolt and expel the Spanish colonists from New Mexico. The surviving Spanish colonists retreat and establish El Paso.

1692 - don Diego de Vargas returns to New Mexico.

1693 - Colonists resettle New Mexico.

1695 - New colonists arrive in New Mexico from Zacatecas.

1720 - The Villasur expedition is launched to search for French intruders and are ambushed neat current day Columbus, Nebraska by Oto Indians and French allies.

1821 - New Mexico ceases to be a province of Spain and becomes a part of the new nation of Mexico. The Santa Fe trail officially opens.

1846 - August, Stephen Watts Kearney annexes New Mexico to the United States. Military rule is established.

1847 - The first American governor, Charles Bent is killed in Taos during an unsuccessful rebellion by New Mexicans against the United States.

1850 - Military rule ends and New Mexico becomes a territory. The area of "New Mexico" at that time included parts of Southern Colorado, Utah, Southern Nevada and Arizona.

1868 - Arizona is separated from New Mexico.

1912 - New Mexico becomes the 47th State.

Who Were the Founding Fathers? Yours mine and Theirs....

Lets see..... Who were the founding fathers?

Francisco Coronado? Don Juan de Onate? Pope'? Don Diego de Vargas? George Washington, Don Juan de Anza? Cuerno Verde? Manuelito? Sitting Bull? Satanta?

I would venture a guess that this all depends on who you were when whatever you considered your country crystalized in your mind. Navajos in the 1870's did not consider any American, Mexican or whatever, a founding father. And who do Navajos consider their "founding father's" today? I do not know any Navajos, but I bet not many would call George Washington a "founding father".

The reason I give this example is because I feel the same way. I have a hard time relating to a conversation when someone mentions "founding fathers". And I know several Native Americans and they all feel this way. I have never had one Native American claim George Washington. 

El Taborette

These are pictures of a stool that was once owned by my grandfather, Roman Benavidez.  Click on the image if you want to see the larger version. The story I heard was that he found it on the tracks of the AT&SF when he used to work there in the early part of the last century. He called it a "taborette". Do a Google search on the word, there are many of these things floating around.

Anyway, this particular piece is now in the hands of my nephew somewhere in the vicinity of Salt Lake City, UT. I have made several similar to this out of 2x4 lumber and use them as an end table or a plant stand. But my grandfather used to lug this one all around the house, inside and out. On the ones that I have made, the top is more of an octagon than the one shown here. I have given them to relatives who knew of the taborette and wanted one. There is one in Minnesota, several in Colorado and several in New Mexico and soon there will be one in Montana. I got the idea from this one here.

Anyway, just made 3 more this last month. Had to replace some that I had given away. I might try and make them out of regular 1" lumber and see how they come out. The entire family seems to like them because my grandfather had this one. 

Forefathers

This is a picture of the statue of don Diego de Vargas near the cathedral in Santa Fe. Click on the image to enlarge it.

You think our forefathers might be different? That my forefathers might differ from yours? You think mine came here looking for religious freedom? Think again!  You think my forefathers wanted to be free of taxation (Boston Tea Party)? Squanto, remember Squanto?

My forefathers never did encounter Squanto, nor did they ever hear of him. In fact I do not think any Native New Mexicans in New Mexico ever heard about Squanto till the late 1940's or early 1950's when they started adding American History to the curriculum.

Anyway, my forefathers did not come here to have "religious freedom". Not by a long stretch. Nor did they come here to get away from taxation. They came because of the three G's, God, glory and gold. Not necessarily in that order.

In New Mexico, for New Mexican Hispanics, our forefathers were don Juan de Onate, don Diego de Vargas, don Juan de Anza, maybe even the Indian Pope and Cureno Verde. Not George Washington, not Patrick Henry!

Lets make a deal, I will adopt yours when you adopt mine.

Esquipula Padilla

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Esquipula Padilla having a cigarette with a cup of coffee in front of the kitchen stove at his house in Rowe, New Mexico. Circa 1960.

This is a neat picture of a relative of mine who lived next door to us in Rowe in the late 1950's and early 1960's. His name was Esquipula Padilla. He was one of my favorite relatives. He was always willing to spend time with family. I remember all of the neighborhood boys going to his house on a Friday evening in the winter to play cards. We used stick matches to make bets, or the paper book matches which were worth 10 stick matches. Sometimes we would end up going home at 2:30 or 3:00 AM. Playing poker for matches, can you imagine.

I also remember going rabbit hunting with him in the winter just after a snowfall. He had a .22 Cal. rifle and would take 5 shells and come home with  2 - 3 rabbits.

Actually he and his wife, Guadalupe Archuleta, and children lived in Colorado for a while, then in Rowe and finally in Cerillos, New Mexico. I last saw him in 1999, shortly before he passed away. He was then living with his daughter in an area close to the honor farm in the the Los Lunas area.

Almost All Gone

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This is a good pen and ink drawing of my maternal uncle, Abel Benavidez. The pen and ink was drawn by Roark Griffin in 1976. My mother doctored it up by writing on the corner "27 of Feb". And then someone else added the glasses. So the original is somewhat marred. But it is an amazing likeness. I am sure Mr. Griffin would not mind.

Abel was born 18 March 1909 the son of Roman Benavidez and Ignacia Archuleta in Rowe, New Mexico and passed away on 5 August 2008 in Colorado Springs. Ninety nine years and then some. In previous posts here I have posted a picture of his business in Rowe, New Mexico. It was the Midway Bar and Grocery.

He worked in the mines in the Pecos Canyon at Terrero, New Mexico in the late 1920's and 1930's. He was enumerated in the 1930 U.S. Federal Census at Terrero as a miner and living with his sister and brother in law as well as a niece.  I know that he worked for the CCC because he told me so, not sure where he worked with them. At some time he also worked for a time logging north of La Madera, New Mexico. He told me he saw a train car with only 3 logs on it from that area. This was because no more logs fit on the car. Seems like they had railroad spurs all over the canyons up there during that time. During the second world war he worked in the shipyards in California. After the war, he came back to Rowe and opened up the bar/grocery store/filling station. 

The Midway Bar and Grocery was a place that was very prominent on U.S. 85 on the road between Santa Fe and Las Vegas, you could not miss it. Especially in the pre I-25 era. He sold the liquor licence in the late 1960's and continued to sell gas and groceries until he sold the business. He worked at the Glorietta Baptist Assembly and retired from there only to go to work at La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe. He worked there until he finally decided to quit. Then he stayed busy hauling wood from Rowe Mesa and tending the best garden in Rowe.

I only know of one other person from his Benavidez family and generation that is still alive. She is in a rest home in Las Vegas. Today she is 102 years and 8 months old. Her name is Flora Benavidez Ortiz, Abels first cousin.

They are almost all gone!

Word Smithing in History

Kit Carson was "unlettered".

New Mexicans were "illiterate".

Unlettered and illiterate are one and the same. But unlettered seems kinder.

Americans dressed in "buckskins".

New Mexicans dressed in "animal skins".

Again, no difference in meaning, but one sounds better than the other.

These are some examples of the word smithing folks use. Sometimes it is done intentionally and sometimes not. They are particularly plentiful when people are in conflict. Like now with the Iraq war and like then, when the Americans first got to New Mexico. Usually it is done to vilify one group and raise the status of another. 

On another post on this blog I posted of one man, hung as a traitor, hung for treason for daring to plot against the United States in early 1847, less than a year after the Americans invaded and occupied New Mexico and most of Northern Mexico. He was don Antonio Maria Trujillo. What would we call an American today who plotted against an invader that had been here less than a year and planned to stay forever as ruler? We would call him/her a hero/heroine.  But don Antonio Maria Trujillo went down in history as a traitor.

Watch out for those types of word smithing in the history of New Mexico.

IGNORANCE OF THE READER vs IGNORANCE OF THE WRITER vs PLAIN OLD IGNORANCE

The first picture is of an unidentified Mexican woman oh horseback. The second image is of a chart that depicts Spanish racial classifications during the conquest of the Americas. Click on the image to see a larger picture of racial classifications during the Spanish era in New Mexico.

I was looking for some information on a particular individual in the 1910 Federal Census and it took me to Conejos County Colorado. I found the individual in question in 1910 Federal Census for Conejos Counry in  Los Pinos. Anyway I was surprised to find out that the individual is listed as a mullato. I did a little more checking to see if his family was listed as mulatto. They sure were! I did a bit more checking and I find out the whole community is listed as mulatto! Now I know a lot of folks in Los Pinos and do not know a single mulatto. So I check some more and I see where the census taker's W looks close to his M's. The census taker was Jose B Romero.

So I check on and go to San Rafael, CO which the same individual was doing the census taking. Anyway, here is an individual born in Indiana, a Charles Emmerson.  Here is where I compare the W for white in column 5 with the M for male in column 6. They are similar, but not the same. a couple of lines down there is an individual by the name of Elias Quintana. Now I compare the M for "whatever" in column No. 5 with the M for male in column No. 6. They are the same!!!!!

I Think Jose B. Romero was using the M for Mexican, not Mulatto !!!!!!!!! Whoever transcribed the actual image made the mistake, Mr. Romero's penmanship is not good, but it is not that bad. But by interpreting the M as being for mulatto instead of the M being for Mexican someone made a huge blunder. The moral of the story is "checks your data" before you determine they are facts.