Las Ruedas, New Mexico

Click on the google image to make it larger. You can't make out the details otherwise.

This is an aerial view of the Picacho, Rowe and Las Ruedas area of San Miguel County in New Mexico. Las Ruedas was just east of Rowe on the Pecos River and is where a lot, if not most of the early settlers of Rowe came from. They came as a result of the Santa Fe Railroad arrival and its replacement of the Santa Fe Trail.

Las Ruedas was the only village on the old Los Trigos Land Grant. and was depopulated as a result of the railroad arriving in the area. I do not know who was the last person to leave but it probably occurred in the late 1800 or very early 1900's. I have access to the 1860 and 1870 Territorial Census and will post here on the demographics of the village. I will do it as I find time.

When I was a kid in the 1950's the church was still there, in ruins, but still there. You could still see the remnants of the rock fence around the church. The presence  of a church there indicates that my ancestors lived there for a while. There were stone remnants of the houses on the semi flat areas close to the river. There was also the concrete remnant of a water holding tank that the railroad used to pump water to the railroad at Rowe for the steam engines.

When we walked down there to go fishing or swimming we would always look for lead along the old pipeline. We used the lead as sinkers for our fishing lines. Just cut a notch in a small piece of lead with a knife attach it to the line and bite down on it and wa laaaa, a custom made sinker. There was a cool place to swim on the furthest point east in this photo that the river reached. "El Remance" was well known to all of the kids in Rowe.

The Los Trigos land Grant, of which Las Ruedas was part of, ended up in the hands of "Buddy Folgensen and his actress wife Greer Garson. When they passed away the property was split up and the Pecos National Monument ended up with parts of it. I do not know who exactly owns the old village site. I am told that Jane Fonda and Val Kilmer own the rest. Anyway this post is about Las Ruedas, not the Los Trigos Land Grant. There are references to Las Ruedas  in the book titled "Four Leagues of Pecos" written by G. Emlen Hill and another titled "Before Pecos, Settlement Aggregation at Rowe, New Mexico" written by Linda S. Cordell and published by UNM Press. The place is pretty near to being totally forgotten.

El Gusano, New Mexico on July 26, 1870

An aerial view of modern day South San Isidro courtesy of Google Earth. Click on the image to make it larger. The areas to the west and south of the village are those that were irrigated and planted as "milpas". Milpas were family plots or large gardens where folks grew their vegatables.

El Gusano, now South San Isidro, on July 26, 1870 consisted of 13 families made up of 67 individuals, here is a snapshot of the community as provided by the 1870 territorial census compiled by Demetrio Perez. All of the Benavidez and Encinias listed in El Gusano, as well as some of the others, are relations of mine and were relatives of my maternal grandfather Roman Benavidez.

Only 3 of the residents could read and only 1 could write. Juan Andres Benavidez listed in the 1870 territorial census as 27 years old was actually 30, having been born the 6th of November of 1840, could read and write. Juan Andres was my maternal great grandfather. Pablo Encinias age 37 and his son Tiburcio age 14 are listed as being able to read, but not write. 

Every male was listed as a farm laborer and the women for the most part were listed as housekeepers except for 1 washerwoman and 3 seamstresses. The men were probably tending farm fields along the Pecos River. El Gusano is on the river and a few acres can be irrigated. So the men were tending their own fields.

The washerwoman was Susana Garcia, age 25. The seamstresses were Manuela Garcia age 20 and her sister Teodora age 16 were sewing as was Catarina Garcia, age 15. Susana, Manuela and Teodora were all sisters and living with Marcelina Encinias, my maternal great great grandmother, and the other Garcia siblings. There were 3 males and 6 females in the family living with Marcelina. Marcelina was the widow of Camilo Garcia who died a couple of years previous.

Here are the heads of households.

1, Juan Cristoval Benavidez, my maternal great great grandfather.

2, Gregorio Benavidez was Juan Cristoval's brother.

3, Ponciano Benavidez was Juan Cristoval's brother also.

4, Cresencio Garcia.

5, Marcelina Encinias, my maternal great great grandmother and sister in law of Crecencio.

6, Pablo Encinias, Marcelinas brother and son of Tomas Encinias..

7, Tomas Encinias at age 97 living with his third wife and the father of Marcelina was my maternal great great great grandfather.

8, Tomasa Segura, married Jose Marcos Garcia and into the family.

9, Juan Garcia.

10, Simona Cordova listed as being 46 was in reality 44 as she was born on the 28th of October in 1826 in Pecos, New Mexico. She was the widow of Juan Ortiz. Listed as living with her was her grandson, Asencio Benavidez, a relative of mine and her son Trinidad Ortiz who would later marry into the family.

11, Domingo Archiveque married to Socorro Encinias, Marcelina's sister .

12, Antonio Encinias, son of Tomas Encinias and his third wife and half brother to Marcelina.

13, Jose Andres Mejia.

So just 1 of the families living there there seems to have no connection. But that is just a guess on my part. 

Margarita Archuleta

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This is a picture, from an old tin type, of my maternal grandmother Ignacia's older sister Margarita Archuleta. I do not have any idea as to when it was taken, but my guess is the 1880's or 1890's. I knew this lady, she was born circa 1860 and died circa 1952. She actually stayed at our house for a while late in life. I understand that she was married more than once. By the time I remember her she was a widow. She had no children. My guess is that she is buried in Rowe, New Mexico.

For information on her first marriage to Juan Nicolas Butierrez refer to page 169 of the publication Santa Fe Marriages, St. Francis Cathedral, Jan 1858 to Oct 1889 published by the Hispanic Genealogical Research Center of New Mexico. Witnesses/padrinos were Francisco Garcia and Francisca Butierrez. She is listed as the legitimate daughter of the deceased Juan de Jesus Archuleta and Mariana Duran.

She is inumerated in the 1920 federal census. She lived and died in a very difficult period for New Mexicans. She was born 16 years or so after the American occupation of New Mexico. She lived under the territorial administrations and later witnessed first hand the early statehood period.

Volunteer "Historians"!!!!!!

Click on the image to make it larger. This is a picture of the San Miguel Mission Church, the oldest church in the USA. 

Hispanos in New Mexico, especially Santa Fe, need to step up to the plate and volunteer in places where they are "making presentations about us". Or others will and we may not like the results. An example follows. If you do happen to volunteer be truthful and do not promote agendas...

I went and paid my $1.00 to go into the San Miguel Mission, the "Oldest Church". I went into the church itself and sat down to listen to the "historical account" a person was making to what seemed like a group of German tourists. The presentation was no where close to factual. Not even close.

He told them that several hundred Indians from Mexico had decided to relocate/migrate and that when they got to Santa Fe they decided to build the San Miguel Mission on top of another Native American holy place. So that the Mission had had religious significance for over 800 years. But no where in his presentation did he tell the tourists that the "Indians from Mexico" had come with don Juan de Onate. 

I personally think that was a horrible oversight. I don't know what effect the talk had on the Germans, but they did not hear the whole truth.

Pablo Archuleta and His Friend Manuel Garcia

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This is a photo of Manuel Garcia and Pablo Archuleta. I have no idea when it was taken. It is a copy from an old tinplate I have. My mother gave me the tin plate and told me the names of the folks. Pablo was her maternal  uncle. She spoke fondly of him. I have not been able to make out what they had in their hands.  

Manuel Garcia is on the left and my Grandmother's brother Pablo Archuleta is on the right. I do not know anything of Manuel Garcia. Pablo Archuleta was the son of Juan de Jesus Archuleta and Marianna Duran. He was married to a woman by the name of Juana Garcia, so this was probably his brother in law. But, at this time, that is speculation on my part.

Pablo was born circa 1871 and probably in Santa Fe or Las Ruedas, New Mexico.

Mariage information for Pablo and Juana comes from page 37 of the publication "New Mexico Marriages, Pecos, October 1862 - April 1904" published by the Hispanic Genealogical Research Center of New Mexico. Witnesses at the wedding were Roman Gabaldon and his wife.

Pablo Archuleta and Juana Garcia had one son Higinio, who did not live to adulthood. Juana lived to be an old woman and died in Salt Lake City, UT where she lived the last years of her life with relatives. I do not know when Pablo died, I never met him so he was dead prior to the 1950's.

Pablo killed a man from Parajito, New Mexico and was sent to the  New Mexico State penitentiary. I do not know who he killed and how long he was in Prison. Nor do I know of any of the details. 

Cleta Archuleta

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This is my maternal grandmother Ignacia's older sister Cleta. She was the second child of Juan de Jesus Archuleta and Maria Anna Duran and was born circa 1854 - 1855 either in Santa Fe or Las Ruedas, New Mexico.

Enumerated in the 1860 Census at Las Ruedas, San Miguel, New Mexico Territory, Roll M653_713, page 336, image 63. Las Ruedas was on the Pecos River about a mile down the arroyo from today's Rowe, New Mexico. In this census there was Juan de Jesus age 60, Maria Mariana age 20, Jose Eulogio age 8 and Cleta age 6.

According to the church records in Santa Fe, by the time Juan De Jesus Archuleta and Maria Anna Duran married on 10 September 1862 they had Jose Eulogio 9, Cleta 7, and Margarita 2. According to the marriage information they "legitimized" them at the time of the marriage.

This information sets her birth date for either 1854 or 1855. She married an individual named Donaciano Martinez and had one child, Higinio Martines who died before reaching the age of 6.

I would guess that the picture was taken sometime around 1900 judging by the way they added the puffy sleeves and collar. It is similar to the picture, in one of my earlier posts, of my grand parents Roman Benavidez and Ignacia Archuleta with Maria Anna Duran and their son Jose Benavidez. I would guess she had her hair tied in a bun behind her head. Anyway, if my guess is right about the date when it was taken, it would make Cleta 44 or 45.

The First Trip On The Camino Real

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At least 24 of my direct line ancestors, out of 500 or so "First Colonists", have been identified as having come over the Camino Real de la Tierra Adentro with don Juan de Onate on his 1597 expidition.

This was 23 years before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.

This was 96 Years before don Diego de Vargas would lead the remanants of the colony back to Santa Fe from the El Paso del Norte area during the re-conquest.

This was 179 years before the American Revolution.

This was 206 years before Lewis and Clark began their journey to the west.

This was over 225 years before travel over the future Santa Fe Trail by Americans would become common.

The Camino Real trek was dangerous, very dangerous. Much more so than the trek across the future "Santa Fe Trail" would be hundreds of years later. Don Juan de Onate and his colonizers traveled it in 1597/1598. The remanants (decendants of the original settlers) of the colony traveled it when fleeing the 1680 Pueblo Revolt. Don Diego de Vargas and the remenants of the colony, decendants of the original settlers, traveled it again in 1693 - 1695. These colonizers traveled in large groups of men, women and children along with their provisions, including livestock to start or restart the colony.

Reference a book titled "The Last Conquistador, Juan de Onate and the settling of the far Southwest" by Marc Simmons. There it states: "The column that don Juan de Onate led, when completely lined out, stretched more than two miles, it's length studded with fluttering pennants and spiked with polearms, such as lances, hatchet like halfberds, and wicked half moon blades, or media lunas. In the vanguard, like a pair of colorful sails, the crimson and gold standard of the king and the richly ornamented standard of Onate. Upon closer examination, separate elements could be distinguished: eighty wagons and ox carts rumbling on their heavy wheeles, the loads covered with stout white canvas. Two coaches drawn by mules and owned by don Juan de Onate. Three small pieces of artillery and seven thousand head of livestock, beef cattle, spare oxen, horses, pack mules, donkeys, sheep and goats. And finally, the people, Onate's colonists, over five hundred souls."

To put the don Juan de Onate's Camino Real trek into perspective we can look and see that it came 206 years before Lewis and Clark would "find the way west" in 1804.

The Lewis and Clark men were gathered and in the winter of 1803 - 1804 were trained in Illinois across the Mississippi from St. Louis, the starting point. In May of 1804 they set out up the Missouri, and the next winter was spent at the Mandan Native American villages near present day Bismark, North Dakota. In 1805 the hardest part of the journey was made. After reaching the three forks of the Missouri River, and naming the three branches after Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin in loyalty to the administration, they followed the Jefferson as far as they could. Then their Shoshone guide, the remarkable woman Sacajwea, helped to obtain horses, which were introduced by don Juan de Onate's settlers, for them to continue across the high Rockies. They crossed the contiental divide at Lemhi Pass and went over the Bitteroot Mountains through Lolo Pass. They had reached the land of westward flowing rivers and for part of their way they followed the Clearwater River down to the Snake River. The Snake took them to the Columbia River where they spent a miserable, rainy winter season at Ft. Clatsop, a crude post they built on the Pacific Coast.

In the spring they started back across the continent. In July of 1806 the party split up for a time in order to explore as much territory as possible. Lewis went with a group down the Marias River, while Clark and most of the men decended the Yellowstone River; they were reunited on the Missouri at the mouth of the Yellowstone on August 12 1806. The party arrived back at St. Louis on September 23, 1806 and were greeted with much acclaim.

To further put it into perspective we quote Josiah Gregg in his book on the Santa Fe Trail and writing about travel there in 1831. The book titled "Commerce on the Prairies" and he writes "very seldom that any lives are lost in encounters with them (Indians) , in the course of 20 years since the commencement of the trade, I do not believe there have been a dozen deaths upon the Santa Fe route (trail), even those who have been killed off by disease".

Reference a book "Los Capitalistas" by Susan Calafate Boyle, on page 29 it states, "The nearly seventeen hundred miles separating Santa Fe and Mexico City were not as formidable an obsticle as the hardships of the trip. The terrain was rugged, the Indian threat was always present, and scarce water was found often in fetid springs or pools.... only rendered tolerable by necissity". Historian Albert Bork (Nuevos Aspectos) remarked that the character of the territory between Missouri and New Mexico was ideal compared to the extremly difficult nature of the roads leading into the interior of Mexico.

From "By Force of Arms, the Journals of don Diego de Vargas. 1691 - 1693" written by John L. Kessel and Rick Hendricks. New Mexico's racially mixed Spanish population grew slowly from a few hundred during Onate's properietorship to almost three thousand members by 1680. The royal governor, his appointees, the Franciscans and members of some fifteen or twenty econimically and socially prominant families formed the upper layer of this frontier society. Most of the remaining colonists worked for them. Because New Mexico lay at the far reaches of the Camino Real and attracted few immigrants, its residents intermarried until almost everyone was related. Hispanic New Mexico became a colony of cousins.

Again we quote Josiah Gregg in his book "Commerce on the Prairies" written in 1831. If we exclude the unsubjugated savages, the entire population of New Mexico, including the Pueblo Indians, cannot be set down, according to estimates I have been able to obtain at more than 70,000 souls. Divided as follows; white creoles 1,000, Mestizos or mixed Creoles 59,000, Pueblos 10,000 and Americans, scarcely 20.

INDIAN TROUBLES FOR THE MARTIN FAMILY

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Cristobal Martin' Serrano (number 8 on this pedigree chart) was killed during a Comanche raid documented here on this web log.  His great grandson Jose Andres (Andele) Martin'(ez), (number 1 on this chart) would be taken captive by the Apaches  four (4) generations later, this is also documented here on this web log.

 

My information on the raid that Cristobal Martin' Serrano was killed comes from  pages 77 and 78 of the publication titled "New Mexico Burials, Santa Fe - St. Francis Parish and Military Chapel of our Lady of Light (La Castrense), 1726 - 1834". This publication is published by the New Mexico Genealogical Society.

The information on Jose Andres (Andele) Martin'(ez) comes from several sources, but the information on his capture and captivity comes from the book titled " Andele, The Mexican-Kiowa Captive, A Story of Real Life Among the Indians", written by J. J. Methvin and published by the University of New Mexico Press in Alburquerque, New Mexico.

I wonder if Jose Andres Martin'(ez) knew that his great grandfather was killed by the ancestors of the Comanche that he represented in talks with the United States Government in the late 1800's. I would imagine he did know. The family memories would not have dimmed that much.

Anyway, it was a very interesting period for my family. Bumping into this information was the highlight of our genealogical research in the last year.

There are many similar stories about my ancestors in New Mexico. And the historical record is there. Even for the non professional, such as myself.

Wrong History Does Much Harm

This is a picture of Susan Shelby Magoffin, who history told us was the first "white woman" to cross the plains from Missouri to New Mexico on the Santa Fe Trail. The first "white women" my ancestors saw? This false history is extremely damaging, especially to Hispanic New Mexicans who were here when these "white folks" first arrived. And they wrote back to the "states" what they saw and felt about this foreign land and it's people.

Susan Shelby Magoffin wrote, "I have entered the city in a year that will always be remembered by my countrymen; and under the 'Stars Spangled banner' too, the first American lady, who has come under such auspices, and some of our company seem disposed to make me the first under any circumstances that ever crossed the plains."

So she would have us believe! She wrote her journal knowing it was an historic moment and believing she was the first and wishing to secure a place in history. And historians bought it. They bought it until Marian Cooper discovered and wrote about Mary Donoho.

Josiah Gregg wrote of others that had crossed before Ms. Magoffin. They were six (6) Spanish women who had, along with their families, been exiled from Mexico and traveled with Gregg from Santa Fe to Missouri. Gregg also noted that "other females, however, have crossed the praires to Santa Fe at different times, among whom I have known two (2) French ladies, who now reside in Chihuahua."

Another woman who traveled back and forth across the trail was Santa Fean Carmel Benavidez. She went with Antoine Robidou and accompanied him many time on trips to Missouri.

Also three white women, captives of the Comanche, were rescued  in New Mexico and came to Santa Fe where they joined trains going back to the States from Santa Fe. They were Sarah Horn, a Mrs Harris and Rachael Plummer. 

So, before Susan Shelby Magoffin even contemplated crossing we had the six (6) Spanish female exiles, the two (2) French ladies, Carmel Benavidez, Mary Donoho and the former Comanche captives, Sarah Horn, Mrs Harris and Rachael Plummer. That is at least thirteen (13) women who accomplished the feat. So what is so great about Susan Shelby Magoffin's crossing? I will tell you what! She figured it was an historic occasion and she had been told she was the first and probably saw an opportunity to end up in the history books.

This false history, all good intentions aside, is extremly damaging to Hispanic New Mexicans. Especially when we consider that the first arrivals usually hated the Mexicans they encountered. They hated their government, they hated their religion and, for the most part,  they hated them.

Santa Fe Railroad Depot at Rowe, New Mexico

This is a picture of the Santa Fe Railroad Depot in Rowe, New Mexico. The Picture was probably taken in the 1930's, I do not really know for sure. But the depot was still there in the late 1950's and early 1960's. You are looking at the backside of the Depot.

The railroad was a big part of the town from 1800's when it arrived to the early 1960's when they did away with the section gangs. Working for the railroad was the job to have in Rowe. If you did not work there, you wished you did.

Back then there was the Depot, the Santa Fe Railroad representative's house, the section gang garages where they kept the speeder cars, the huge black water tank for the old steam engines and the embarcadero or stock pens which all belonged to the railroad.

The depot was staffed around the clock, so that took at least 4-5 people employed there. And there was the superindendant, and the section gang probably employed 10 to 15 people. No two ways about it, The AT&SF was the biggest employer in Rowe for the better part of 80 years. In fact, that is why the town came into being.

The town then, had three (3) stores, and a (motel?) the old Lucky Seven where you could rent a cabin. The old Rowe Elementry was just in front of the Catholic Church. It was first to the eighth grade. An all stone building that eventually burned down. There was also a sawmill in town. How things change.