More on Las Ruedas and Pajarito, New Mexico

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Las Ruedas, New Mexico is one of two communities that existed on the old Los Trigos Land Grant. The other community was, or is,  Pajarito. The Los Trigos Land Grant lies between the boundaries of the Pecos Pueblo Land Grant and the San Miguel del Bado Land Grant at Gusano, todays South San Isidro, along and on either side of the Pecos River. The Los Trigos Land Grant was made on May 26, 1817 by Jose Manrique, acting governor of the province of New Mexico and confirmed by Alberto Maynes, governor of the province on June 22, 1815. It was granted to Francisco Trujillo, Diego Padilla and Bartolome Marquez.

Up to 1815 only a few acres of land had been tilled in the "arroyo de Las Ruedas" area. The community began to grow until 1829 when Vicente Villanueva sent an Indian boy also known as Vicente Villanueva , whom he had bought from the Comanches, to the Los Trigos area with a flock of sheep. Villanueva and a partner took some cattle to graze at El Canon de los Soldados. Suddenly, the Apaches swooped down on the Indian Boy and killed him, ran off the sheep, and continued on to the Canon de Los Soldados where Villanueva and his partner were also killed.

Las Ruedas was abandoned after the death of its most influential citizen.

The story of the Indian boy, also known as Vicente Villanueva, presisted and in time the people of La Cuesta had the name of their village changed at the request of the American postal authorities because there was another village north of Taos named Questa. The villagers decided on Villanueva to honor the name of the captive who gave his life in the defense of his masters sheep.

Anyway in the 1830's people from San Miguel del Bado and Santa Fe once again moved into the Las Ruedas and Pajarito area of the Los Trigos Land Grant. They were, as can best be identified, Antonio Maria Archuleta, his wife Maria de Jesus Lovato and his brother Nepomuceno Archuleta and his wife Maria Manuela Lovato, the sons of Vicente Antonio Archuleta and his first wife Maria Ignacia Angel. Miguel Sena and his wife Maria Ygnes Valencia were others who moved there. Matias Alarid, the son of Jose Antonio Alarid and Marcelina Quintana and his wife Maria Josefa Valencia also moved there.  Jose Alejandro Montoya, the son of Juan Jose Montoya and Juana Gonzales and his wife Francisca Lovato were another couple who moved there  as were Antonio Ortiz and others who moved into the area.

For the most part, these and other Hispanos with their families were the ones there when the Americans arrived in August of 1846. The village continued to grow until the late 1870's when construction on the Santa Fe Railroad started a few miles up the arroyo at the base of the mesa. By 1880 most of the families had moved to the railroad site at the new village of Rowe. My great grand mother Mariana Duran Archuleta was the last person to be burried at the Las Ruedas cemetary in the early 1920's. She was the the second wife of Juan de Jesus Archuleta who was the brother of Antonio Maria and Nepomuceno Archuleta who are mentioned in the previous paragraph.

Many descendants of these settlers still live in Rowe and the surrounding communities.

Note: Some information for this post comes from the book, Giant in Lilliput, the story of Donaciano Vigil by F. Stanley and the remainder is from information unearthed by my wife and myself.