The Turkey Mountains between Ft. Union and Watrous. Click on the image to make it larger.It took quite a while to get the Watrous 1900 census done 240+ individuals. The last page first type of putting it together is hard to read, sorry bout that, but it was hard to do.
It shows that for New Mexico in 1900, Watrous was a bit more diverse than other Northern New Mexico communities. There were many forign born folks there, most there because of Ft. Union. I think you can safely say that all were there because of Ft. Union.
By 1900 folks had started moving away from the communities associated with Ft. Union. The work associated with the fort was now gone. No fort, no jumping of point for the wagon trains of the now gone Santa Fe Trail.
There are several conclusions that can be drawn by looking at the whole picture. Intermarriage was increasing as contact with New Mexican Hispanics increased by the forigners. A lot more intermarriage than in other places. Mostly the Hispanic women marring forign and American males. There does seem to be some "coyotes" showing up in this census in Watrous.
The educational disparity is glaring. Most of the anglos could read and write and speak English. I am sure a few spoke Spanish. Amongst New Mexican Hispanic males several could read and write Spanish, but few could read and write and speak English. There were some but not many. Not many Hispanic females had an education, not even this late date. None noted here could speak English.
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Re Abelina Wildenstein - I've been doing some genealogy research, and though these families are part of, although very distantly, my ancestry, I'm intrigued. Abelina Watrous, 7 y.o., b.Santa Fe Co, appears on the 1860 Census for Las Golondrinas, Mora Co, NM, enumerated with S M Watrous, b. 1809 Washington Co, VA.Other children enumerated are Joseph B, 23, b. Rio____ Co; Maria Louisa,17, b.Santa Fe Co;and Samuel,b. Mora Co, 5. Two children also enumerated are Rosa, 11, and Nieves, 5, whose place of birth is "Unknown," and who are identified under "Race" as "ind"." In 1870 Abelina Watrous is enumerated with Samuel B Watrous and his presumptive 2nd wife, Josephine, b. VT. Maria Louisa Watrous, said to be a dtr of Samuel B Watrous and Tomasita Crespin, md. Wilhelm William Kronig, b. Germany. Kronig's first wife was Rafaelita Kinkead, dtr of Matthew Kinkead and Teresita Sandoval. Kronig and Kinkead's dtr Fannie md. Frank M Jones b. PA.On the 1910 Census Fannie claimed Spanish as her mother tongue, in 1920 she chose German. She must have spoken English - she attended Sacred Heart Boarding School, St. Louis, MO, when she was 14 y.o., and was md. to an English speaking man. I think she was proud of her German-Hispanic heritage and wanted it documented. These families are good examples of the intermarriage between females of Hispanic descent and males of U.S. or foreign birth.
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