Old Lea County, N.M.

Category: ranching

  • The Joseph Hall Graham Family

    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

    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.

  • Addison “Add” Jones, Well Known Black Cowboy

    Addison “Add” Jones was born a slave in Texas. Much of what we understand about his early life was told by his wife Rosa when she furnished information for his death certificate after he died. He is thought to have been born in Gonzalez County in 1845.

    Jones worked for many years for George Washington Littlefield (1842-1920), probably only a few years older than Addison, who was former soldier in the Confederate army after which he became a rancher, banker and was known as a philanthropist. Littlefield’s father had died when he was about ten years old and he grew up on the family farm, also in the general vicinity of Gonzalez County. How Jones and Littlefield became acquainted is not documented, but they were closely associated for most of Addison’s life. Addison is believed to have worked on Littlefield ranches including the LFD, Four Lakes in Lea County and Yellow House.

    There were racially discriminatory situations that occurred throughout the southwest over these years. It is said that the Black cowboys often got the hardest and most disagreeable jobs, but in ranch life, Black cowboys were quite common, either working in all Black crews or alongside other cowboys. Addison gained a reputation for being a skilled cowboy and a hard worker. He was a leader, was known to be a good horseman and would often be the first to ride wild broncs as they began the process of being broken or tamed. He was also skilled at roping horses and served as trail boss in the Littlefield outfits. Because of his skills and endurance, Add Jones was one of the best known Black cowboys in West Texas and eastern New Mexico.

    Jones does not appear to have had much formal education, if any at all, and it has been speculated that he had limited ability to read and write. He left no personally written accounts of his life, as far as is known. He owned his own home later in life and lived in Roswell when he and his wife were older.

    According to a 1993 article in the Roswell Daily Record by Elvis Fleming, Addison and Rosa were married on December 7, 1899 in the Chaves County courthouse when he was 54 and she was 36. Rosa was originally from Texas and was working in Roswell.

    The couple was living in Roswell when he died in 1926. His obituary was carried in the March 25, 1926 issue of the Roswell Daily Record, and cited his having lived in southeastern New Mexico for forty years. It also mentioned his sunny disposition and many friendships among all people. It also related that he was a member of the Knights of Pythias and that he was a Mason. His wife Rosa followed him in death in 1933. Both are buried in South Park Cemetery in Roswell, New Mexico.

    Sources include newspaper articles, and “Black Cowboys of Texas” edited by Sara R. Massey.

  • Fern Sawyer

    “She died in the saddle, surrounded by friends.” said Peter Holt, as quoted in the October 21, 1993 issue of the Lincoln County News, Carrizozo, New Mexico. Most recently Ms. Sawyer had resided in Nogal, Lincoln County, New Mexico.

    Fern Sawyer was born at Buchanan, De Baca County, New Mexico, on May 17, 1917 to Uyless Devoe Sawyer and Dessie Lewis Sawyer and was raised on the family ranch at Crossroads, near Tatum, New Mexico. She passed away at the age of 76 on October 16, 1993 near Blanco, Blanco County, Texas while visiting friends. Earlier in the day, Ms. Sawyer had been riding with friends and herding heifer cattle when she told another rider she was feeling tired, and shortly thereafter, she passed away.

    A funeral service was held the following Tuesday at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Roswell, officiated by Rev. Robert L. Williams. The service was attended by her many friends, including Governor and Mrs. Bruce King. According to a newspaper report in the Roswell Daily Record, the eulogy was given by Mr. Holt and the service included the singing of “Amazing Grace.” After the service, she was interred at Tatum Cemetery, Tatum, Lea County, New Mexico where her mother and father are also buried.

    At an early age, Fern had exhibited her talents in the area of horsemanship and became well known for her abilities. She was encouraged by her parents to work on the ranch and inspired by them to perform as well as any of the men. She began a rodeo career by competing in events previously confined to male contestants. Her many accomplishments include winning the cutting horse championship at the 1945 Southwestern Exhibition and Fat Stock Show in Fort Worth, Texas. She won the Cutting Horse competition aboard her horse “Belen.” In the competition, she eliminated Grady Blue on “Tom Cat” and R. W. McClure on “Smokey” who were second and third place finishers. She is shown below looking up at Belen.

    Image credit: University of Texas at Arlington, Digital Collection, Special Collections Identifier: AR406-6-27

    Fern’s honors include being inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame, the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and the National Cutting Horse Hall of Fame. She won the All-Around World Champion Cowgirl title in 1938 and the Cutting Horse World Champion title in 1947.

  • A. J. Crawford

    Abel Justus Crawford was a pioneer to the area, having lived in or near Lea County for almost 70 years when he passed away in 1969. Mr. Crawford was born November 10, 1867 in Mount Giliad, Kentucky.

    He recalled his first job, that of picking cherries for 15 cents per day. As a youth, he was an industrious and diligent worker who worked in a variety of jobs, from sanding piano legs to piloting a ferryboat on the Ohio River. When he was 17, he left home to come to the southwest. He took a job herding sheep for a rancher named Sam Brookshire who had a ranch near Abilene, Texas. He later purchased 125 sheep from Mr. Brookshire to begin his own sheep ranch operation in Lea County.

    At around the age of 30, he returned to Kentucky to marry Minnie Campbell, his childhood sweetheart. When the couple returned to the southwest, they settled in Carlsbad where they made their home for the rest of their lives.

    Among his various interests, Crawford owned the Buckeye Sheep Ranch in Lea County. In addition to his ranching activities, he acquired an interest in six banks: El Paso National Bank; Carlsbad National Bank; City Bank and Trust of Kansas City; the Valley National Bank of Phoenix, and the Bank of America in California. He also built or acquired a number of hotels in West Texas and New Mexico including a number that bore the Crawford name in Carlsbad, New Mexico, Midland, Big Spring and Colorado City, Texas.

    When Mr. Crawford died in 1969, he was 101 years old and had lived in southeastern New Mexico for almost seven decades. His wife Minnie had predeceased him in 1961.

  • Buckeye Sheep Ranch

    by David L. Minton, Lea County Historian. Used with permission.

    Today a look at the origin of the name of the area in Our Lea County known as Buckeye.  Today it is known primarily as the oil patch southwest of Lovington, but 130 years ago it and a larger area was known as the Buckeye Sheep Company owned by Abel Justus “A. J.” Crawford.  Have you ever wondered why it was called Buckeye?  Once again, an interesting story emerges from an unlikely source.

    A. J. Crawford was born in Kentucky November 10, 1867.  When he got big enough A.J. went to work in the tobacco fields for $1.25 a week.  He moved with his family to Ripley, Ohio and Ripley was where he attended school and met his future wife, Minnie May Campbell.  A. J. considered Ripley his home town.

    In 1884 A. J. Crawford finds his way to Abilene, Texas and goes to work on a ranch and also begins working at building his own flock of sheep.  In 1890 A. J. Crawford has a flock of 125 head built up and he moves his flock to the ranch he bought in the Monument area.  This trail drive was made on foot.  He named his ranch the Buckeye Sheep Company.

    On July 18, 1898 A. J. and Minnie wed at Ripley, Ohio and they moved to Carlsbad in September of that year. 

    On the 19th day of November 1906 there was a terrible blizzard and 5 of Crawford’s Mexican sheep herders froze to death.  The loss of the men affected Crawford deeply, many years later in a newspaper interview he became teary eyed when talking about the loss.  While burying the dead Crawford decided to sell the ranch and get out of the sheep business for good.  The Buckeye Sheep Co. also lost 4,000 head of its 15,000 sheep to the blizzard. 

    A. J. Crawford sold the Buckeye Sheep Co. to his foreman Seth Alston in 1907.

    Abel Justus “A. J.” Crawford, the man who started out a boy working in Kentucky tobacco fields at $1.25 a week, then a New Mexico sheep man who went on to get into banking, hotels, grocery stores and other ventures died at his home in Carlsbad February 11, 1969 at 101, a multi-millionaire.  Crawford was generous and shared his wealth with individuals as well as the city of Carlsbad while alive and after death.  A. J. and Minnie Crawford are now together in a private mausoleum at Ripley, Ohio.

    So, have you figured out why Buckeye/The Buckeye Sheep Co. are called Buckeye?  The clues are in the story.    Happy Trails!

  • The Lee Family

    Richard David “Dick” Lee, Sr. was born November 23, 1877 in Brownwood, Brown County, Texas to Brooks William Lee and Nancy Lenora “Jennie” Millican Lee. He married Sarah Viola Forrester in Scurry County, Texas on January 24, 1900.

    Dick came to the New Mexico Territory with his parents in 1886 from Texas when he was not quite ten years old. He recounted living in a dugout near Seminole when he was younger and helping out as the family ranched on the open range. In New Mexico, he started working as a cowboy on the Hat Ranch near Monument when he was about 21. Soon afterward, he and Viola were married. For a while he and Viola lived in Indian Territory working on a cattle ranch for the Connell family before moving back to Texas, near Midland where he worked for the C Ranch. Dick later went to work for Clarence Scharbauer around 1920 still in Texas. When the Scharbauer Cattle Company expanded their operations round 1925 to the recently formed Lea County, he came back to New Mexico. He worked for Scharbauer for a number of years as ranch manager and partner, before he began ranching on his own, settling near the current location of Buckeye, New Mexico.

    Dick was always known as a most capable rancher and developed a Hereford operation there. He also served in the management of Lea County. Dick and Viola had four children, all of whom stayed and lived in the county: Brookie Wanda Lee Anderson, Roy Lester Lee, Richard David Lee, Jr. and Giles Milton Lee. Dick passed away on May 12, 1940 and Viola survived him about another 34 years, passing away in 1974. Both are buried in Lovington Cemetery.

  • Open Range Cowboy Association

    “To Preserve the Spirit of the Old West as a Spirit That Should Never Be Forgotten”

    This interesting Lea County group dates back to 1940. After a few years of meeting informally, it was organized as part of a national group of the same name. Its original charter members included Henry S. Record, Will Gray, Bill Duncan, Charlie Cochran, John Catchings, Frank Wyckoff, M. G Cottrell, Bob Beverly, J. D. Hart, R. F. Love, Bert Ancell, J D. Black, Max Fletcher, Robert Allie, Jim Love, W. P. Bird and Bill Montieth.

    According to old newspaper articles, it was intended to be a social group organized to “honor the memories of cowboys who rode the open range” before barbed wire and other forms of fencing became commonly used. Lovington was the headquarters. The group was open to old time cowboys and their descendants. Another goal was to erect some sort of monument to the cowboys who had gone on to their “last roundup.”

    The group has held reunions since its inaugural meeting. The initial members have long since passed away, but the group still meets to honor this unique time of western history.

    Notes from some of the newspaper coverage over the years:

    In 1941, Henry Record invited oldtimers to attend the 10th reunion. [Albuquerque Journal, Albuquerque, NM. 1 Sep 1950.]

    In 1956, some 750 people attended what was the 23rd annual reunion. Fifty-seven men were considered to be open range cowboys from the era. Attendees consumed 1,000 pounds of beef and a considerable amount of son-of-a-gun stew. The meeting was called to order not with a gavel, but with the ringing of a cowbell. The program included a lot of reminiscing, fiddle, guitar and accordion music and some brief speeches. The oldest man present was G. H. Goodrich of Lovington, age 90, and the oldest woman was Mrs. Ella Thrasher of Lovington, age 85. The person who came the longest distance to attend was Charley Wiggins, once of Lea County, but currently a resident of Lewisburg, Tennessee. The couple married the longest were Mr. and Mrs. W. R. Bilbrey of Lovington who had been married 66 years. [Albuquerque Journal, Albuquerque, NM. 2 Sep 1956.]

    Some 500 people, an estimated 200 over 60 years of age, attended the reunion. Henry Record of Monument served as president of the association. [Albuquerque Journal, Albuquerque, NM. 7 Sep 1958.]

    An estimated 500 people attended the reunion this year, it being the 27th gathering. Over half were over 60. The oldest man present was O. L. Tomlinson, 90, of Lovington. The oldest cowgirl was 87 year old Mrs. J. W. Russell of Hobbs. Mrs. Eva Woodward, 85, was named sweetheart by those attending. Henry Record served as president. [Hobbs Daily News-Sun, Hobbs, NM. 18 Sep 1960.]

  • The Peveler Family

    David Lee Roy Peveler was born in Seymour, Baylor County, Texas on June 18, 1886. He married Henri Bess Coleman on December 23, 1914 in Gaines County, Texas. David’s father, William Jasper Peveler (1855-1947) was born in June 1855 to Greenup Cauley Peveler and the former Martha A. Dennis in Young County, Texas on July 3, 1855.

    The Peveler family were early settlers to Texas and many of them lived in an area that came to be known as Peveler Valley in northern Hood County. Greenup Peveler had been a Texas Ranger serving in the Frontier Battalion in 1864 when he died in March of that year in an unrecorded incident. He was serving under his uncle, William Riley Peveler in North Texas. William was a well known Texas Ranger company captain and was later killed in September, 1864 in Jack County in a Comanche ambush, though his grave went largely unnoticed for about 100 years until he was honored and the story of his actions was recounted in local newspapers. The Frontier Battalion was a Confederate Army unit, but generally remained in Texas during the war to protect the settlers living there. It was mostly made up of local citizens and included Christopher Columbus Slaughter who survived the Civil War and went on to become a rancher in north central Texas.

    David Lee Roy Peveler is believed to have moved to what is now Lea County around 1902. He and Bess had two sons, James William “Son” Peveler (1916-1957) and Henry Leroy “Wad” Peveler (1918-2002) who lived in the Prairieview area. Their families were involved at various times in the sheep and later the cattle business. Wad also operated a boot shop in Tatum at one time.

  • Ranchers and Water

    From the Jal Flare, Jal, NM. 7 Mar 1939:

    Here’s a story which amply illustrates how ranchers felt about water here in the early days. When Walter C. Cochran dug the first water well in this area, at the hackberry trees which are now Hubbs and Justis Water Company, he found water, the farthest west and the last this side of the Pecos River.

    Years later in describing his reaction:

    “I was happier at finding water than any man ever was at finding oil.”