“Tootie” Schnaubert was born January 29, 1917 to Stephen Arthur Schnaubert and Ella M. Adams Schnaubert in Rankin, Texas. Both parents died in December, 1918 when he was not quite two years old, their causes of death unstated. Tootie and his two siblings, Leon and Stephen, went to live with their grandparents, Arthur and Mentie Schnaubert in Upton County, Texas. By 1930, the combined family was living in Carlsbad, New Mexico where Arthur was working as an electrician for Carlsbad Light and Power Company.
Tootie married Peggy Jo Parks in 1939 and the couple would remain married until Peggy’s death in 1987. Tootie registered for the draft in 1940 naming his grandfather Arthur Francis as his next of kin and his employer as Homer Bryan of Carlsbad. He was 23 years old.
Around 1950, Tootie opened up his first retail grocery stores in Hobbs and called them Tootie’s Cashway. A 1952 article in the Lovington Leader announced the remodeling of their Hobbs store giving it the largest floor space of a grocery store in Hobbs. It offered not Green Stamps but Pacific Stamps.
It was not uncommon for the grocery to take out full page ads in local newspapers. The company also ran commercials on local radio stations. The melody was taken from an old Al Jolson song “Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Goodbye” and singer sang these lyrics. “Toot, Toot, Tootie’s Cashway. Ladies hear what we say…”
Clovis News Journal Sun, August 30, 1959
The company expanded to have multiple stores in places like Hobbs, Lovington and Clovis. It was not unusual to see Tootie’s image on the ads. Tootie eventually retired. Over the years, the company employed many people. An internet search of obituaries would mention that different individuals had worked in some capacity for Tootie’s Cashway.
Peggy Jo passed away in 1987 and Tootie followed him in death in 1997. Both are buried in Memory Gardens in Hobbs, New Mexico.
In the book, “Then and Now – Lea County Families, Vol. 1,” Fred B. Cooper (1915-1996) relates a family story of a lightning strike to his family home on September 27, 1910. The family was sleeping in their home in the Panhandle of Texas when a big electrical storm came up.
Fred writes, “The lightning struck their clothesline wire, one end of which was tied to the house. Lightning followed the line to the house, making its way inside, splitting the lumber and throwing splinters in ever(y) direction over the room. The lightning then passed over a bed where James was lying and jumped to another bed in the same room, setting it afire, then passing near where his wife was sitting, then out the door. The fire was extinguished; another bolt struck a barrel of water at the well.” (1)
The Coopers moved to Jal in 1914 and the above anecdote was part of Fred’s contribution to the book regarding the Samuel Rose Cooper family.
(1) Lea County Genealogical Society, “Then and Now – Lea County Families, Vol. 1,” Walsworth Publishing Company, 1979.
James Benjamin “Jim” Love was the younger brother of Robert Florence Love. Both were sons of John Dillard Love and Mary Jane Austin Love. Jim was born on September 25, 1873 in Palo Pinto, Stephens County, Texas. By the time he was about seventeen, he began working on ranches in West Texas and on into New Mexico. (1) Jim’s father John D. Love died in 1889 at the age of 76. His mother survived John for about seventeen years and died at the age of 69.
Jim had met Mary Myrtleene “Myrtle” Ward who was living in Fort Griffin, north of Albany, Texas. Myrtle had been born in a rock house in old Fort Griffin, the town, according to her daughter Anemone Binkley’s account. There is only one remaining intact structure where Fort Griffin was located. It is called the Jackson-Ward house and is still standing, at last report. This is probably the house that Mrs. Binkley was referring to.
Their first child, a daughter named Emma Leona was born the following year in Turkey, Texas. Another daughter, Ruth Alma, was born two years later in 1906. Soon afterward, the young family moved to southeastern New Mexico, then still a territory and settling first in the general area of Knowles. By about 1908, they were living in what would become the town of Lovington, named after the two brothers.(1)
Jim operated the first mercantile store in Lovington on property he had acquired around what would eventually become the town square. To their family, five more children were born: Velma (1908), Jordan Ward (1910), Mary Kathleen (1910), Myrtle Jim (1914) and Anemone (1918).
Jim Love died in 1945. Myrtle survived him about 26 years until she passed in 1971. The home they lived in, pictured below, was originally located at 109 S. Eddy Street. In the spring of 1975, the children of Jim and Myrtle Love donated the home to the Lea County Museum. At that time, most of the children were still living, with the exception of Jordan, who had passed away in the previous year. The residence was later moved about two blocks to a location behind the Lea County Museum on Love Street, on the courthouse square. The home was renovated and furnished as it would have been in the past.
(1) Lea County Genealogical Society, “Then and Now – Lea County Families, Vol. 1,” Walsworth Publishing Company, 1979.
Samuel R. Cooper was an early resident of Lea County. He was born near Salina, Kansas in 1874. When he was six years old, his family moved to Erring Springs, in the Chickasaw Nation, Oklahoma Territory, now known as Oklahoma.
As a young adult around the age of 21, Mr. Cooper left his family and moved west to Mobeetie, Texas in the Panhandle. He worked on several ranches including the XIT ranch. He also recalled hunting prairie chickens and sending them to markets in Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri. When he was 27, he married the former Jessie May Gray and the young couple moved to a farm near Mobeetie and supplemented his income by cutting wood and transporting it by ox teams. He also hauled and sold cottonseed cake to ranches int he area.
In 1914, two years after New Mexico became a state, Mr. Cooper sold his Panhandle farm and moved to the area. He homesteaded a half section located roughly ten miles northwest of the area that would give rise to the town of Jal and later added another half section to his homestead holdings. His brothers and father were already residing in New Mexico. Mr. Cooper built a one room house with a dirt floor early on, and lived there for a few years before building a more substantial home. The first three years they were in the area, they had to rely on water which they hauled from Mr. Cooper’s father’s property, but in 1917 they were able to drill their own well and set up a windmill to provide their water supply.
At that time, a one room schoolhouse served the community children and also provided a place for community gatherings and Sunday School meetings each Sunday morning.
After some time, the Coopers set up a post office with Mrs. Cooper serving as post mistress. They later established a small mercantile store near their home, supplying it with goods freighted in from Pecos, Texas. The goods were transported by two large wagons in tandem, pulled by a team of twenty burros.
Oil was discovered in Jal around 1929, and Mr. Cooper recalls that all structures, including barns and chicken houses were converted to housing for oilfield workers. One additional benefit of the oil boom was that Mr. Cooper then was able to get natural gas service to his home where he previously only had wood and kerosene for home use.
Mr. Cooper passed away in 1958 at the age of 84. He had lived in Lea County for forty-four years. His services were held and the Church of God in Jal, of which he was a charter member. He was buried in the Jal-Cooper Cemetery on land that he donated. His wife Jessie survived him another eighteen years. He and Jessie had eight children, four sons and four daughters, all of whom survived him along with 29 grandchildren and 17 great grandchildren.
Mescalero Ridge is a name given to the geological feature that is part of the larger Caprock Escarpment. It begins in eastern Chaves County in New Mexico and runs for fifty miles roughly parallel to the county line of Lea County. Its name comes from the Mescalero Apache tribe who once resided and hunted in this general area. It is likely the most distinguishing landmark of the Lea County area.(1)
Image believed to be in the public domain.
For illustrative purposes, below is an image of the same escarpment system located further north in the state.
Elevated view of the Mescalero Escarpment in Quay County near Tucumcari. Image credit: nps.gov
(1) Julyan, Robert, “The Place Names of New Mexico,” University of New Mexico Press, 1998.
Robert Florence Love was born April 17, 1870 to John Dillard Love and Nancy Jane M. Austin Love in Palo Pinto County, Texas. John Dillard Love had been born in North Carolina in 1822 while Nancy Jane was a number of years younger having been born in Arkansas in 1837. John Dillard and Nancy Jane had married in 1859 in Arkansas. Their first child, Jefferson A. Love was born in 1862 and he was followed by five more male children, Samuel Oliver (1865), John G. (1867), Robert Florence (1870), James B. (Jim) (1873), and Albert Berry (1877). The first two sons were born in Tennessee and the remaining four were born in Texas.
In the 1880 census, Robert was living with his family in Palo Pinto County, Texas. His father was listed as being a farmer and he and his three older brothers were noted as working on the farm. By the time Robert was twenty, he had begun to move west and was working on the OHO Ranch in Stephens County, in west Texas. Robert continued to work his way further west during the next decade as he neared the Texas-New Mexico border. He is known to have worked on the J96 Ranch, owned by Joe Allen Browning and then on the old Mallet (later known as the Hi-Lonesome) Ranch. For a brief time, he returned to Stephens County, Texas before again turning west near the current town of Plains, Texas. A son, John Leman Love, relates that he worked in Stephens County on the VVN Ranch for a while. He then moved to Stanton, Texas in Martin County, where he met Matilda Anne Glascock whom he married in 1896. By the time the 1900 census was taken, the couple had four of their five children: twins John Leman and Mary Nancy (1897), Grace Elizabeth (1898) and Robert Eugene (1900), all born in Stanton.
In 1900, the young family moved to New Mexico. They came by covered wagon and John Leman recounts that the trip took eight days. After living for a while on Matilda’s parents’ (Leman Pike and Mary Mumford Wilks Glascock) place in Portales, they settled and operated a ranch in what is Lea County. The family persisted despite two memorable winter storms, in 1906 and again in 1917 followed by a drought in 1918. Their youngest son, Florence Warren was born in 1908. For a short time, they built and operated a two story hotel in the Knowles area before selling it and returning to ranching.(1)
The town of Lovington was established in 1908. It was first suggested by the United States Land Commissioner Wesley McAllister that it be named Love, but Robert Florence preferred the name Loving. However, since the town of Loving was already established southeast of Carlsbad, the name request was amended to Lovington. Robert’s brother Jim Love was its first postmaster. (2)
Robert Florence acquired a store from his brother Jim on the west side of the town square and operated it for a few years. In 1911, Robert Florence was elected to the New Mexico State Legislature, serving in the first such session after the territory became a state in 1912. He later served as sheriff from 1921-1924 and returned to the legislature from 1923-1930. His final public office was serving as county assessor from 1931-1934. (1)
Robert Florence died in March, 1944 (his grave stone says 1942) and he was buried in the Lovington Cemetery. Matilda followed him in death some eight years later in 1952, and she is buried in Portales, New Mexico.
(1) Lea County Genealogical Society, “Then and Now, Lea County Families,” Walsworth Publishing Company, 1979.
(2) Julyan, Robert, “The Place Names of New Mexico,” University of New Mexico Press, 1998.
Arkansas Junction is a name given to the intersection of New Mexico highway 483 and US 62-180 (the Hobbs-Carlsbad highway). The location never really rose to the level of a settlement or community, like some others in the county, but most of the time has had businesses there, such as a gas station and a cafe. The Arkansas Junction Road is a name given to New Mexico highway 483 that runs due south from Lovington to the intersection. The actual origin of the name Arkansas Junction is unknown and is lost to history.
Joseph Hall Graham was born May 18, 1848 to Spencer Corp Graham and Nancy Venters Graham in Denton County, Texas. Both of his parents died in the mid to late 1860s. Joseph married Marianne (or Marian) Elizabeth Johnson of Tarrant County, Texas in 1879. The census in 1880 shows them to be living in Young County and they were raising cattle. Their family consisted of the two of them and three of Joseph’s younger siblings, all in their twenties. They also began their own family that same year with the birth of their first child, a daughter named Alice. By 1900, the census showed that all seven of their children lived with them at home in Midland, Texas and Joseph was a rancher. Around that time, Joseph bought the Allen ranch in what was then Eddy County, later to become Lea County. The ranch was called the Rock House Ranch, which had previously been owned by the Causey brothers. The Causeys had built a rock house in 1883 located about 15 miles south of Lovington to the east of Arkansas Junction Road. The house was built from native stone in the area and the ranch took its name from it. The Causeys had another ranch house about 5 miles south of Lovington and northwest of there that predated the Graham house by a few years. It had a similar look to the Graham rock house. The northern most house is believed to be the oldest standing structure in Lea County. Joseph Graham ran a cattle and horse ranch out of the Rock House Ranch location for many years and was a founding member of the “Plains Pool” which was a group of ranchers who banded together to run cattle in the land between the Pecos River and one fence close to the old Eddy and Chaves county line before other settlers and land owners began fencing off their property. The Joseph Hall family were witnesses to the early days of Lea County from the open range days to the fencing and subdivision of the land, the development of settlements and towns, the discovery of oil in the county, and many other landmark events. Some of their children moved away, but several remained in the area. Those that remained included Jody (Joseph Jefferson Graham), Spencer and Rebecca. Joseph Hall Graham died in 1931 at the age of 83. Marian Elizabeth survived him about another 17 years until her death in 1948. Both are buried in Lovington Cemetery.
The Causey brothers were formerly buffalo hunters. The big lumbering buffalo were hunted in the southwest to the point where they declined from a peak of over 100 million animals to near extinction in only a few decades during the late 1800s.
Likely the best known Causey brother went by George Causey, though his given name was Thomas Leander Causey. He was born in 1849 in Madison County, Illinois and died in Roosevelt County, New Mexico in 1903. How he came by the nickname of George is unknown. He was a single man most of his life. He married in 1903 but died by his own hand only a few weeks after he married.
George was the first born of ten children to George Washington Causey and Mary Adeline Crowder Causey. The others were Mark, John Van Cleave, Eliza Jane, Mary Adeline, Charles Grant and Nellie Grant (twins), Robert Lincoln, George Washington, Jr. and Rose Evelyn. All but one or maybe two of the children were born in Illinois. George W. (the father) had been born in Tennessee and in the 1870 census, his occupation was listed as farmer and was still shown as being a farmer in the 1900 census before his death in 1907 at around 80 years of age. He died in Guthrie, Logan County, Oklahoma. Mary Adeline had predeceased him, also in Oklahoma, in 1895.
Thomas Leander “George” Causey does not appear have served in the Civil War, although he may indeed have done so. Near the end of the war, however, he is said to have worked as a freighter hauling supplies to Army forts and trading posts in Kansas. This profession became less profitable as the railroad system expanded and goods could be transported reliably via rail.
At some point, George began to hunt and trade in animal hides, following the buffalo herds south and west from Kansas to Oklahoma and later to Texas and New Mexico. George is reputed to be a prolific buffalo hunter, and by esimates of others is said to have killed over 40,000 of these animals, living off money he earned from selling both hides and meat.
By around 1877, George and at least two brothers, Robert and John, had come to Yellow House Canyon, apparently near the current town of Littlefield, Texas. The brothers, George, John and Bob, came to the area in the late 1870s. They are first believed to have settled with a couple of other partners on the western side of Yellow House Draw.
Yellow House Draw was a natural old watercourse, or stream bed, in the Llano Estacado that ran for about 150 miles originating around 20 miles south of Melrose, Roosevelt County, New Mexico all the way to near the current town of Lubbock, Lubbock County, Texas. There it ties into a fork of the Brazos River. There, still hunting for the remnants of the buffalo herds, the Causeys built an adobe house at a water hole there before exploring a bit further south into the Four Lakes area, in the northern part of what is now Lea County. They eventually settled on the southern end of the county near Monument Spring, still hunting the last of the buffalo which had been hunted until around 1880 in this area.
By the early 1880s, the brothers had tried to make the transition to capturing and selling wild mustangs. They began by capturing 100 mustangs along with about 50 stray beef cattle after the brothers moved to what became Lea County. An early task was to look for water, which they found in the northern part of the current county. George bought an Eclipse direct stroke windmill. Their ranch is referred to as being the first ranch in Lea County. After operating there for some time, that ranch was sold and George relocated some five miles south of Lovington. He had to supply water from Monument Spring and built a rock house. Causey ran his horse and cattle operation for a number of years from that location. He also contracted to drill water wells and set windmills for other settlers.
Around 1900, the exact date is unknown, Causey was riding a horse in a mustang roundup. The mount got spooked and fell after possibly stepping into a badger hole and breaking its leg, after which it rolled over Causey. Ranch hands came upon him two days later, sent for a wagon and brought him back to the headquarters at Four Lakes and then taking Causey on to Roswell for further medical treatment. Causey was then transported to Missouri for further treatment but never regained full health, reportedly suffering from a continuing spinal injury causing him extended pain and discomfort. Causey sold his ranch to the owners of the Hat Ranch. He and his brothers continued to operate a mustang operation on the open range in Chaves County. His employees also continued the water well drilling operation.
Albuquerque Journal – May 30, 1903
Causey was married to a nurse of German ancestry named Johanna Fewson on April 8, 1903 and established a ranch between Kenna and Roswell. About six weeks later on May 18, 1903, Causey is believed to have taken his own life. Witnesses heard a gun shot, ran to the room and found Causey fatally wounded. Speculation was that he was despondent over his inability to recover from injuries sustained in the riding accident. When he died, Causey was 54 years old. Funeral services were held in Roswell at the First Christian Church after which Causey was buried in Southside (now called South Park) Cemetery there. His brothers Bob and John moved away and lived until the mid 1930s. Bob is buried in Arizona and John is buried in California.
Sources: Elvis E. Fleming’s articles in the Roswell Daily Record on George Causey. Fleming gives much credit to Gil Hinshaw’s book “Lea: New Mexico’s Last Frontier” and to Vivian H. Whitlock’s book “Cowboy Life on the Llano Estacado.” Sources also include genealogy records of the Causey family and various other newspaper articles.
Colonel William R. Shafter (1835-1906) was a United States Army officer in command of so called Buffalo Soldiers of the 24th United States Infantry Regiment in West Texas and the New Mexico Territory. He led troops during the Civil War as a first lieutenant in the 7th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment and for his actions received the Medal of Honor. He was captured by Confederate forces during the war and was confined to a prison until his release in 1864. Thereafter, he was in service as a colonel in the 17th United States Colored Infantry, among his other postings. He continued to serve during the Spanish-American War in 1898. By then he was about 63 years old. Shafter retired in 1901 and lived in Bakersfield, California until his death in 1906.
In the summer of 1875, Shafter was leading troops from the 10th Cavalry and 24th Infantry based in of Fort Concho. They were searching for Apaches and looking for water sources, the latter was known to be rare between the Concho and Pecos rivers. At a landmark then known as Dug Spring, believed to be located near the Texas-New Mexico border in what is now Winkler County, Texas and Lea County, New Mexico, they were attacked by a group of Apaches. Pursuing them, they came across a large spring in the New Mexico Territory.
Shafter is said to have ordered a structure erected to help make the location easier to find on the nearly flat prairie. Gil Hinshaw quotes Shafter as writing the following about the monument (1), “Monument Spring is so named from a monument I had built on a hill southwest and 1/12 miles distant from the spring. This monument is of nearly white stone, about eight feet in diameter at the base, four at the top, and 7 1/2 feet high. It can be seen for several miles in all directions… Monument spring is a very large spring of excellent water, furnishing enough for several thousand head of horses. The country to the north is for fifty miles, hard high prairie, to the south and west sandy; grass in all directions, of luxuriant growth, of the finest quality found on the plains; wood abundant (roots) for fuel, and good building stone in the hills near by (limestone).”
The spring was first occupied by Anglo buffalo hunters near the end of the years in which buffalo were plentiful on the plains. Eventually the community of Monument grew up nearby, thought to be the oldest Anglo community in what is now Lea County. The fate of the Shafter monument is not documented, but is thought to have either been destroyed and scattered by the native tribes or scavenged and used in the construction of early houses and other buildings by settlers. The image below is believed to be a replica of the original monument. No images of the original monument are known to exist.
Image credit: attributed to Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
(1) Hinshaw, Gil, “Lea, New Mexico’s Last Frontier,” Hobbs Daily News-Sun, publisher, 1976.
Old Lea County, N.M. 