“Doc” Scurlock
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
ISSN 1076-9072 SOUTHERN NEW MEXICO HISTORICAL REVIEW Pasajero del Camino Real Doña Ana County Historical Society Volume VIII, No.1 Las Cruces, New Mexico January 2001 PUBLISHER Doña Ana County Historical Society EDITOR Robert L. Hart ASSOCIATE EDITOR Rick Hendricks PUBLICATION COMMITTEE Doris Gemoets, Martin Gemoets, Rhonda A. Jackson, Winifred Y, Jacobs, Julia Wilke TYPOGRAPHY, DESIGN, PRINTING lnsta-Copy Printing/Office Supply 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 VIII, No. 1 Las Cruces, New Mexico January 2001 ARTICLES The Fort Fillmore Cemetery Richard Wadsworth ................................................................................................................................ 1 Coleman and Cruz: A Southern New Mexico Legacy Rita Sanchez ....................................................................................................................................7 Physician, Gunfighter, and Family Man: Josiah Scurlock Dan Scurlock .................................................................................................................................14 The San Antonio-White Oaks Stagecoach Robberies of 1896 John D. Tanner, Jr. and Karen H. Tanner .......................................................................................20 A Brief History of the New Mexico State University Dairy Department S. Ralph Skaggs, S. Robert Skaggs, and Mildred Latini ...............................................................24 Women Accepted for Emergency Service: WAVES Donna Eichstaedt ...........................................................................................................................27 The Capitan Gap Fire and the Making of Smokey Bear Leslie Bergloff ...............................................................................................................................32 The Changing World of Horse Racing in New Mexico Bruce Brinkley ..............................................................................................................................41 Charreada: A Mexican Horse Game Jo Tice Bloom ................................................................................................................................44 Fats, Slims, and Copper Leaguers: Early Baseball in Southwestern New Mexico Susan Berry ...................................................................................................................................48 The Early Years of Aggie Sports Walter Hines ...................................................................................................................................55 FEATURES Museums: The Deming Luna Mimbres Museum Ruth Brown ..........................................................................................................................................60 Award-winning Essay: The Home of the Good Shepherd Paul Smith ............................................................................................................................................62 IN MEMORIAM Jack Nunemaker ............................................................................................................................... 64 BOOK REVIEWS Margaret C. Nelson, Mimbres During the Twelfth Century: Abandonment, Continuity, and Reorganization reviewed by Gwendolyn Teekell .............................................................................................................................65 David L. Caffey, Land of Enchantment, Land of Conflict: New Mexico in English-Language Fiction reviewed by Winifred Y. Jacobs ................................................................................................................................65 Paul G. McHenry, Adobe and Rammed Earth Building: Design and Construction reviewed by G.C. Lundeen ........................................................................................................................................66 Gerald D. Nash, The Federal Landscape: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century reviewed by John Porter Bloom ................................................................................................................................66 H.A. Hoover, Tales from the Bloated Goat: Early Days in Mogollon reviewed by Doris Gemoets ......................................................................................................................................67 David A. Townsend and Clif McDonald, Centennial: Where the Old West Meets the New Frontier reviewed by Martin Gemoets ...................................................................................................................................67 Richard Melzer, Coming of Age in the Great Depression: The Civilian Conservation Corps in New Mexico reviewed by Jo Tice Bloom .......................................................................................................................................68 The Doña Ana County Historical Society thanks the following for supporting this issue of the Southern New Mexico Historical review: Glennis Adam and Martin Ditmore Ray & Kathy Black Lawerence Y. Brenner Community First National Bank Doris and Martin Gemoets David G. Giron Winifred Y. and Ed Jacobs Joseph E. López, “The Old Vaquero West” Benjamin and Ingred Luchini Dr. & Mrs. Gordon Owen Marcie Palmer Robert O. and Pamela Pick Paul E. and Beverley A. Pirtle Col. Leonard R. Sugerman, USAF (Ret.) J. E. Szalay Harvey R. and Julia K. Wilke Yucca Tree Press Click for Table of Contents Fort Fillmore Cemetery by Richard Wadsworth t’s quiet out there, except when the workers in the ty others were left behind — forgotten. pecan groves are nearby with their machines, or when Fort Fillmore was officially founded on September Ithe wind is just right and draws the noise of trucks up 23, 1851, named for the then-serving President Millard on the interstate in from the east. It’s been quiet out Fillmore. President Fillmore had much to do with there for the most part these last near 150 years, since ordering United States troops into the region and for the three young boys from California were carried from setting up a territorial government in New Mexico. There down below to be with the others; they were the last, had been troops in southern New Mexico since 1849, the those Company A, Fifth California blue-coats. Their first mounted company of the United States Dragoons comrades, Union-supporting lads one and all, banners being sent to Dona Ana to protect the Hispanic residents flying, left Fort Fillmore abandoned for good in October living there. A short while later, in 1850, a large portion of 1862. The Fort Fillmore Cemetery, with its unmarked of the Third Infantry Regiment, now known as the “Old graves and silent residents, deteriorated thereafter among Guard,” marched up from San Antonio and garrisoned the sand dunes. both the Island of San Elizario and also a site near what It got very quiet out there after the abandonment. The is downtown El Paso, Texas, today. A cost-conscious adobe wall surrounding the cemetery deteriorated piece military found expenses for the garrison in New Mexico by piece, matching the disintegration of the adobe fort and west Texas to be too expensive. which lay just down the hill. By 1868 the last recorded Colonel Edwin Vose Sumner, appointed to command official visitors found the walls fallen down, the gate gone, the Ninth Military Department (New Mexico) early in the graves unmarked and unknown, save for one.1 They 1851, was given a free hand in reorganizing the entire left Henry Stanton out there when the Fifth California military structure. One measure was to remove the troops withdrew. He was the only officer ever buried in the Fort from the costly town locations; the soldiers were believed Fillmore Cemetery. Henry had the finest marker; one to be led into wickedness by the availability of vice within source says the only one. Captain Henry Stanton he was, the towns as well. In the spring and summer of 1851, commanding officer of Company B, First United States a suitable site for a new fort was sought. Fort Fillmore Dragoon Regiment. The Mescalero Apaches killed Henry was eventually constructed just south of present-day in January 1855, leaving his wife, then living in adobe Las Cruces, New Mexico. On September 23, 1851, the quarters at the fort, a young widow. headquarters staff, the Third Infantry Regimental Band, They named Fort Stanton, over by Ruidoso, for and one company of the Third United States Infantry Captain Stanton, the first fort to be built in the land of arrived at the site, marching from the now