ISSN 1076-9072 SOUTHERN NEW MEXICO HISTORICAL REVIEW Pasajero del Camino Real Doña Ana County Historical Society Volume IX, No.1 Las Cruces, New Mexico January 2002 PUBLISHER Doña Ana County Historical Society EDITOR Rick Hendricks PUBLICATION COMMITTEE Robert L. Hart and Jeffery P. Brown TYPOGRAPHY, DESIGN, PRINTING lnsta-Copy Imaging Las Cruces, New Mexico COVER DRAWING BY Jose Cisneros (Reproduced with permission of the artist) The Southern New Mexico Historical Review (ISSN-1076-9072) is published by the Doña Ana County Historical Society for its members and others interested in the history of the region. The opinions expressed in the articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Doña Ana County Historical Society. Articles may be quoted with credit to the author and the Southern New Mexico Historical Review. The per-copy price of the Review is $6.00 ($5.00 to Members). If ordering by mail, please add $2.00 for postage and handling. Correspondence regarding articles for the Southern New Mexico Historical Review may be directed to the Editor at the Doña Ana County Historical Society (500 North Water Street, Las Cruces, NM 88001-1224). Inquiries for society membership also may be sent to this address. Click on Article to Go There Southern New Mexico Historical Review Volume IX, No. 1 Las Cruces, New Mexico January 2002 ARTICLES Antonio Severo Borrajo: Hispano-Mexican Patriot Priest Rick Hendricks ....................................................................................................................................................1 The Origins of Sierra County: Political and Economic Roots James B. Sullivan ..................................................................................................................................................6 Fred R. Higgins: Lawman of Southeast New Mexico Elvis E. Fleming .................................................................................................................................................14 Technology, Politicos, and the Decline of a Sierra County Seat: Hillsboro, 1884-1939 James B. Sullivan ................................................................................................................................................20 Some Notes Regarding Aviation Activities of New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts in the Early to Mid-1940s Joe Gold ..............................................................................................................................................................27 Harvesting the Crops: Axis Prisoners of War and Their Impact on Dona Ana County During World War II Wolfgang T. Schlauch .......................................................................................................................................30 The History of Stahmann Farms, 1926-1990 Theresa M. Hanley .............................................................................................................................................38 The Cabin on Aragon Draw Philip L. Duncan ................................................................................................................................................45 A Glimpse of the Past with Jerry Holguin Stephanie Elisabeth Cuellar ..............................................................................................................................52 Our Historic Home Natasha Elliot ......................................................................................................................................................53 A Son of Dona Ana County Katherine Emerick ............................................................................................................................................55 BOOK REVIEWS Ralph Adam Smith, Borderlander: The Life of James Kirker reviewed by Rick Hendricks .......................................................................................................................58 Lindley J. Stiles, I Never Rode Alone: My Boyhood on a New Mexico Cattle Ranch reviewed by Marc Simmons .......................................................................................................................58 Charles L. Kenner, Buffalo Soldiers and Officers of the Ninth Cavalry, 1867-1898: Black and White Together reviewed by Robert L. Hart .......................................................................................................................59 Martin Gemoets, A Short Story of War, 1944-45 in France and Germany reviewed by Bob Hart ................................................................................................................................59 Don E. Alberts, The Battle of Glorieta: Union Victory in the West reviewed by Robert L. Hart .......................................................................................................................60 Lindley J. Stiles and Simmie G. Plummer, Half a Man on a New Mexico Cattle Drive reviewed by Marc Simmons .......................................................................................................................61 Barbara A. Babcock, The Great Southwest of the Fred Harvey Company and the Santa Fe Railway reviewed by E. Donald Kaye .....................................................................................................................61 Rita Sanchez, Cochise Remembers Our Great-Grandfather, Charles Henry Coleman: A Primary Document in Southwest History reviewed by Richard Griswold del Castillo .................................................................................................63 Marci L. Riskin, New Mexico’s Historic Places: The Guide to National and State Register Sites: New Mexico’s Historic Places reviewed by E. Donald Kaye .....................................................................................................................63 The Doña Ana County Historical Society thanks the following for supporting this issue of the Southern New Mexico Historical review: Glennis L. Adam and Martin Ditmore Ray and Kathy Black Bowlin’s Mesilla Book Center Larry Brenner COAS: My Bookstore Doris and Martin Gemoets Win and Ed Jacobs Joseph E. Lopez, “The Old Vaquero West” Matrix Capital Bank E.L. and Josephine O. Mechem Chuck and Jean Miles Morgan and Joyce Nelson Dr. and Mrs. Gordon Owen Marcie Palmer Robert O. and Pamela Pick Paul and Beverley Pirtle Lou and Pat Sisbarro Steinborn Inc., Realtors Colonel Leonard R. Sugerman, USAF (Ret.) Elaine Szalay Wells Fargo Bank Harvey R. and Julia K. Wilke Yucca Tree Press Click for Table of Contents Antonio Severo Borraajo: Hispano-Mexican Patriot Priest by Rick Hendricks n The El Paso Salt War of 1877, C.L. Sonnichsen, had to come over to see about it. He set out described what he called the Salt Ring as being made from El Paso one morning, but was stopped Iup of W.W. Mills, A.J. Fountain, Louis Cardis, and at Socorro by Borrajo and a band of his Father Antonio Borrajo, the parish priest of San Elizario, followers. There was a terrible scene. The Texas. Sonnichsen went on to describe Father Borrajo Bishop heard himself called by hard names in this way: and threatened with dire consequences if In person he was a tall, slender old man he proceeded. The driver of the episcopal with bent shoulders, long gray hair, and carriage raised an expressive shoulder and black, blazing eyes set in a thin, white face. advised against going on. Temperamentally he resembled a volcano— Nevertheless the Bishop went ahead and was always sure he was right, and was always succeeded in reaching San Elizario without determined to have his own way... loss of dignity. Nobody in town dared take In religious matters he was desperately in him in, however, and he had to camp out for earnest. No couple need apply to him for the night. In the morning he returned to El wedding rites unless both of them could go Paso. through the catechism, the Hail Mary, and Borrajo was triumphant again. He jibed at a good deal more; but if they knew all the his enemies, it is said, even in the pulpit, answers, he might contribute a cow out of his calling them pelados, Protestants, and worse. own corral to start them off as householders. Ultimately the case was acted on by the Bishop Religion was behind his dislike of the of Durango, and Borrajo moved to a smaller American invaders of his stronghold. They parish at Guadalupe on the Mexican side of set up secular schools under his nose; they the river, but he did not go in peace. The even prevented him (for sanitary reasons, they Reverend Pierre Bourgade, later Archbishop said) from burying his dead in consecrated of Santa Fe, eventually took charge of the ground beside his church. He became a very parish. He testified that Borrajo “used his bitter man over all this, and often shook his influence to estrange the people of my parish gray mane in exasperation as he uttered his from me,” and even “tried to make the people favorite ejaculation: “Ba, ba, ba, que burrada!” believe that he would come back here again.”2 — what asininity!1 Sonnichsen notwithstanding, the historical Father A similarly negative perception of Father Borrajo Borrajo has remained somewhat a mystery. The work comes from Sonnichsen’s description of the bitter of Father Gerard Decorme, S.J., provides the basic facts. dispute between the Bishop of Durango and the Antonio Severo Borrajo was born in the parish of San American Catholic Church, in the person of Jean Bapiste Miguel de Taboada in the diocese of Orense in the region Salpointe.