Gene Price (full name Eugene Hubbert Price) was born on November 19, 1868, in Grayson County, Texas to Theodore Martin Price (1836 – 1927) and Martha Ann Virginia Drisella Hubbert Price (1842 – 1905). Theodore Martin Price was a farmer/rancher/merchant and also a circuit riding Methodist preacher. From his early years, Gene was keenly interested in ranching, beginning in the era of the open range.
As a young man, he worked on several ranches in the southwest. He named the Quinn Brothers, the Hat Ranch, Pemberton Brothers and the E Ranch in his comments. In 1889, he married the former Lily Kirby Harris Cook in Eolian, Texas. Around 1901, the family homesteaded in New Mexico, at the corner where Yoakum, Gaines, Eddy, and Chaves counties met – roughly 15 miles east of the future site of Lovington.
Mr. Price built up one of the area’s earliest high-quality registered Hereford herds. For a while, he leased the Highlonesome Ranch, and the family resided in its old headquarters house. As their children reached school age, the family bought a home in Lovington while still working the ranch. Gene served on the Lovington School Board and participated actively in community matters; he generously donated land for a second, larger school building, which served as the town’s only school for many years. He was a long time member of the Methodist Church in Lovington.
In his later years, he authored “Open Range Ranching on the South Plains in the 1890’s,” a memoir of his early experiences that has become a valuable resource for those interested in the region’s history. Long out of print, the original publication included a reproduction of Gene’s informative hand drawn map of Lea County and the surrounding area.
Mr. Price passed away on September 5, 1952. Mrs. Price died on October 16. 1962. Both are buried in Lovington Cemetery. In 1988, he was posthumously honored with a Bronze Cowboy award for his numerous contributions to the early traditions and settlement of Lea County.
Image credit – Hobbs Daily News-Sun, August 13, 1967
The Texas and New Mexico Railway has been in business for close to 100 years. The line runs from Monahans, Texas to Lovington, New Mexico covering a distance of over 110 miles. The railway has been beneficial to Lea County in transporting oilfield products and other materials for the oil and gas, ranching and wind electricity generation industries and general business freight.
Prior to the discovery of oil in the Permian Basin, there were proposals to extend freight rail lines to Lea County from West Texas, but the plans were not realized. Once oil was discovered in the area in the late 1920s, rail service became more economical and appealing. The railway was incorporated on November 19, 1927 as a subsidiary of the Texas & Pacific Railway. The first train rolled into Lovington, the end of the line, on June 7, 1930. No copies of it can be found online, but the Lovington Leader issued a special “Railroad Edition” for the occasion.
Image credit – Casa Grande (AZ) Dispatch, December 18, 1927.
Over the years, the ownership has changed several times with the longest single duration of ownership being Texas and Pacific Railway (T&P). T&P was merged into the Missouri Pacific Railroad (Mo-Pac) in 1976. Mo-Pac merged with Union Pacific to become the Union Pacific System (UP) in 1982. UP sold the line to RailTex in 1989. In 2000 Railtex was taken over by RailAmerica, Inc. Two years later, the line was sold to Permian Basin Railways, a subsidiary of Iowa Pacific Holdings. Watco, a privately held company, acquired the line in 2015.
To view Watco’s description of the line, a map of its rail stops and other information, please see this page on Texas & New Mexico Railway.
Robert Lincoln “Bob” Causey was born in Illinois on February 12, 1868 to George Washington Causey and Mary Adeline Crowder Causey. February 12, 1809 was the birth date of the late United States President, Abraham Lincoln. This was likely the source of Robert’s middle name. Concerning his place of birth, articles usually say that he was born in Missouri, but both the 1870 and 1880 census pages list his place of birth as Illinois. He was one of ten children born to the couple, many of whom were also born in Illinois. George W. (the father) had been born in Tennessee and in the 1870 census, his occupation was listed as farmer. He 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 Territory. Mary Adeline had predeceased him, also in Oklahoma, in 1895.
In the 1880 federal census, Bob was twelve years old, still living with his parents and two of his sisters in Adams County, Iowa. The other siblings had left the family home over time. Several of the brothers including John and Thomas (known as George), had been making their living since the 1870s as buffalo hunters and had moved west following the herds. They had begun to hunt the big animals in Kansas and as the herds worked their way south, they followed them, eventually crossing the Arkansas River and venturing into areas that had been set aside by treaty as hunting lands for the native tribes which roamed the area. George continued this until he reached the Panhandle of Texas. Still in close proximity to the roaming tribes, George was not involved in either of the two battles of Adobe Walls, but he was camped near enough to hear the shooting during one of the events, at the time assuming that it was his fellow buffalo hunters at work.
However, by about 1882, the herds had been depleted to the point that the brothers realized that they needed to find other livelihoods. So, they headed further west to the New Mexico Territory with a plan to round up, raise and sell wild mustangs, which they did with little early success. Bob must have been drawn to the west himself, as later in 1880 he is said to have left the family home with $5 in his pocket. He made his way as far as Indian Territory where he managed to stop in an unnamed town and find a job as an apprentice in a blacksmith shop. He worked there for about four years earning a tiny wage plus room and board before moving on to join his brothers around 1884.
In the meantime, his brother George settled for a while in the Yellow House area of West Texas before moving on. George found a seepage spring and dammed it up to provide a water supply. There he built a sod house as his home base. The area took its name from nearby geological formation of limestone bluffs that were pockmarked with caves. The name in Spanish was las casas amarillas which in English was translated “yellow houses.” The general area was to later become part of both the XIT and Yellow House (owned by Littlefield) ranches at various times. George was aware of the enormous transaction had taken place between the State of Texas and a syndicate to create the XIT and decided it was time to move on. When the XIT began to be dissolved after around 1910, the Littlefield operation acquired some 236,000 acres of the former XIT.
George and John Causey left West Texas and resettled in southeastern New Mexico, near a place called Monument Spring before building their ranch house a bit north of there. They built their ranch headquarters about five miles south of what became the town of Lovington and roughly fifteen or so miles northwest of what became the town of Hobbs. Bob appears to have joined them at their ranch a few years later. He stayed in southeastern New Mexico until in the latter part of the 1880s, when he branched out to set up his first blacksmith shop in Odessa, then basically just a water stop for the Texas and Pacific Railroad. He was soon joined some time later by his recently widowed sister Nellie Causey Whitlock and her young son, Vivian Whitlock. As Netties’ son grew up, Bob took him under his wing at the blacksmith shop. However, Whitlock did not follow in Bob’s footsteps as a blacksmith. Instead, he became a writer. He published one book, “Cowboy Life on the Llano Estacado” and numerous stories and articles in magazines and newspapers over thirty plus years. Some knew him by his pen-name, “Ol’ Waddy” and others under his given name.
Being one of the earliest Anglo settlers to arrive in the area and an early blacksmith, Bob is called the “first blacksmith of the Llano Estacado.” In addition to his day to day blacksmithing duties, Bob began to make spurs and bits for the local cowboys. One of his designs was called the “gal-leg” spurs. They were so labeled because the neck or shank of the spur (the part that extends behind the boot) was fashioned to resemble a woman’s leg, with the foot or toe holding the rowel pin. (Parts of a spur.) Bob is sometimes credited for coming up with the gal-leg design, but even if he was not the inventor of the design, he was at the least one of the first to make them.
Bob remained in the Odessa area for about ten years, also serving as constable as the town grew. He moved to Eddy, now known as Carlsbad, New Mexico about 1895. There he set up a blacksmith shop on Main Street. He operated the shop for many years before partnering with Robert Osborn. Bob married Martha Agnes Bogle in 1903 and the couple had one daughter. His reputation spread and Bob became well known for his spurs and bits. He would make them up ahead of time and also make them to order. When he signed his work, he stamped the articles with his initials, “R. L. C”. In addition to the gal-leg design, he was known for fashioning the neck or shank in the shape of a horse head. He would often adorn them with Mexican coins that he would collect on his travels and save for just this purpose.
After a few other moves, he was finally drawn to move to Safford, Arizona in 1924. He remained there until his death in 1937. He is buried in Safford City Cemetery. His wife Martha Bogle Causey survived him by twenty-four years and is also buried in Safford City Cemetery.
Source: “Then and Now – Lea County Families,” Lea County Genealogical Society, Walsworth Publishing Company, 1979.
Tom Conway interviewed Robert L. “Preacher” Jones for an article in the above mentioned book. In the interview, Rev. Jones was said to be the first person of African American descent to move to Lovington, arriving in 1931 and staying a short time. He had previously lived in Hobbs, moving there from North Texas where he said he had grown up on the “Wagner” (probably a reference to the Waggoner) Ranch near Vernon, Texas.
The interview stated that he had moved to Hobbs, attracted by the oil boom, where he did some carpentry work. After that, he left the area for a while, returning in 1933 to Lovington where he bought property on a high place to the east of town.
The article stated that one David Martin was the second person of African American descent to come to Lovington around 1935. Mr. Martin bought some of Rev. Jones’ land where he built a home and lived until the 1950s. While in Lovington, Mr. Martin, reportedly disabled, worked shining shoes at Simpson’s barber shop. He is said to have later moved to Hobbs where he worked for the Postal Service.
Rev. Jones was a pentecostal minister and a carpenter and remained in Lovington the rest of his life. The article stated that he had built some seventeen churches and many homes. Rev. Jones is said to have named the neighborhood Rock Hill. Rev. Jones also was the first garbage collector for the neighborhood. He would drive around and pick up garbage in his pickup truck.
In addition to Jones and Martin, the article also mentions other early residents: the Cottons, Andover Williams, Olene Fillmore. The article also mentions B. W. “Overcoat” Williams as being an early resident.
Rev. Robert L. Jones died in 1986 and is buried in Lovington Cemetery along with his wife, Annie.
[This article about Sister Mary Fides was transcribed from the Hobbs Flare issue of March 1, 1984. It was written by Patricia Breyman.]
This week’s old timer is 80 years old, is devoted, compassionate, courageous, loving, caring — all of these plus dedication personified. However, what this reporter also quickly recognized in her beautiful face is happiness, contentment, laugh lines from a marvelous sense of humor, warmth. tenderness, eyes alive and alight with expectation, and a readiness for helpful escapades that has about worn out her guardian angel!
She is sister Mary Fides, Dominican Order, serving St. Helena’s Catholic Church in Hobbs in a full-time and very active position as Director of Religious Education.
She was born as Agnes Cecelia Gough on June 22. 1903 to George Joseph Gough and Ophelia (Pickard) Gough. Her father was from Kentucky and her mother from southern Illinois. They met at a small Baptist College in Illinois, married. and Agnes Cecelia was born into a mixed marriage home – half Catholic and half Baptist. It later became an all Catholic marriage and home. They lived in Uniontown, Kentucky.
CATHOLIC/YANKEE
The family moved from Uniontown to Oceola, Arkansas, smack in the middle of the Bible-belt and into a southern stronghold. Young Cecelia found herself as she put it, with two strikes against her she was Catholic and a “damnyankee” to boot.
She was timid and shy but at seven, assured her mother she knew the way to the home of an aunt and uncle in Oceola and was perfectly capable of walking there alone. She didn’t get far from home when she realized she was hopelessly lost. Lost to such an extent she could not find the home of the relatives nor could she find her own home again. She finally gathered her courage, marched up to the front door of the nearest home, and asked for help. It was the Methodist parsonage and the minister’s daughter walked her around and up and down streets until she recognized her own home. She said she always had respect for people of other faiths and the memory of that event only strengthened that respect.
Agnes Cecelia attended public schools until she was a junior in high school. Her mother was afraid she would become “wild” so she sent her to St. Agnes Academy in Memphis, about 60 miles away. The good sister was quick to assure she definitely was not “wild” and has no idea what criteria her mother used to arrive at that fear.
SISTERHOOD REJECTED
She said the last thing on her mind was to enter religious training in any form, much less to become a nun. When asked by friends and family if she considered that as an avocation, her stock answer was ”No, I am not about to wear all those clothes.”
She said “the Lord finally had enough of her foolishness and moved her to the decision to enter training.” Soon after she finished high school, she entered the Mother House at Bardstown, Kentucky to train as a Sister of Dominican Order.
Dominican Sisterhood was founded as a teaching order in 1822. Dominican priests working in the area, started a school for boys (in those days, boys and girls were educated from separate accommodations. They quickly saw the need for sisters to teach the girls. An appeal was soon made from the pulpit on a Sunday morning and eight young ladies answered the call.
The father of one of the eight gave a parcel of land with a log cabin on it as the beginning of the Dominican Sisterhood, with the priests training the eight original young ladies. The first years were a hard struggle but they grew into an order with a magnificent Mother House that covers many acres and they are now one of the most active orders.
When Agnes Cecelia entered the Mother House in January of 1923 to begin training, the Mistress who accepted her had the list of names for the twelve young ladies in that class. Since Agnes Cecelia was first to arrive, she was given her choice of names. She chose Diana, but the Mistress said that had been spoken for; second choice was Mary Thomas, again that had been spoken for by one of the young ladies, because Mary was her mother’s name and Thomas was her father’s name; finally. Agnes Cecelia said, just give me Mary Fides, no one else would choose that anyway. She learned that Fides is Latin for Faith and has been happy with that choice since.
BEGINS TEACHING
After a year and a half, she was sent to the missions and taught at Matoon, Illinois. She spent her longest time – ten years – at St. Catharine of Siena in Memphis, Tennessee.
In between her years of teaching, Sister Fides found time to earn a bachelor degree and two masters. She attended De Paul University at Chicago and got her first degree, a B.S., in Chemistry in 1935. After teaching that subject for some time, she became interested in mathematics, went back to De Paul, built up her prerequisites, and got a masters in mathematics in 1940. She was asked later if she had any interest in home economics, and thought that would be an interesting field. She returned to school, this time to the University Of Wisconsin and got a masters in Home Economies in 1949.
Prior to the Vatican Council II in 1969, Sisters in the Dominican Order (and most other orders as well) were sent where their church felt they were needed – they had no choice.
After Vatican Council II, the late Pope John was said to have thrown open the window and declared the church needed fresh air. To begin this process, he asked the Orders to update themselves.
From that edict, came a gradual modernization “by degrees” of their habit and finally, the greatest change of all, permitting the Sisters to choose their field, the location, and to make their own contracts.
After the 1969 decision to leave regular teaching for religious education. Sister Fides went to Notre Dame Seminary at New Orleans, Louisiana for several summers to prepare herself for yet another branch of her profession.
NEBRASKA
Her first self-contracted job was at the Diocese of Grand Island, Nebraska where she had the entire western half of the State of Nebraska. While there, she got her first drivers license.
In 1973, she left Nebraska for the Diocese of Little Rock, Arkansas and her territory was the entire state of Arkansas. She visited 50 different parishes, some of them several times, where her primary work was in the field or teacher training in church, not in school. She was in Little Rock for three years and loved her work, but realized she was spreading herself thin. She decided to work for one Church so she could devote more time to her new profession. She chose West Memphis, Arkansas and went to work at St. Michael’s where she spent six happy years and made some dear friends. She visits there and Grand Island for vacations when she gets the chance.
In 1979, at the age of 76, she was all set for retirement because she crippled from arthritis and two minor falls. She had resigned from St. Michael’s where the congregation was furious with the pastor for accepting her resignation – the poor man asked them what was he to do other than accept it? Father John, now pastor at St. Helena’s, persuaded her to come to Carlsbad to the religious center and she agreed to if it was not teaching. She had served more than 40 years in that capacity and said times had changed so she did not want to enter that field again. Too, she accepted, because she thought this climate might help her arthritic knee.
HOBBS
She visited Hobbs several times while working at Carlsbad and when the opportunity came to work at St. Helena’s in religious education, she accepted. However. She’s retiring, again, come June of this year, and I am sure it will be with deep regret that this resignation is accepted.
She said religious education is very different from teaching in Catholic schools but that it is very satisfying work. She is responsible for retreats, discussion groups, preparations for confirmations, baptismal preparations, conducting classes on Sundays for approximately 230 children of Kindergarten through sixth grades. a variety of programs for junior and senior high school age, and the 5:30 Sunday Mass which is designated “youth mass.”
She teaches a sexual education class – careful never to the word “sex” as opposed to “sexual” and bases every statement on scripture. She seems to enjoy the reaction her appearance always brings when she enters this classroom – a nun and one who is 80 years old teaching sexual education!! She laughs to herself, not just for the fun of it, but in conjunction with her classes. She uses a book which she wrote. “My Sexuality – A gift of God” in these classes and feels it is helping some to combat the ideas these children and youth are getting from their peers, from television, and from the streets. She is distressed that they are missing the moral implications and stresses love in all that she teaches. She said they need dwell on the different kinds of love – love Of God, love of parents, love of friends, and romantic love.
This serene lady has many happy memories of her years of teaching and in religious education, among them taking a group of children to Little Rock to visit the Cathedral of St. Andrew where their Bishop, who knew the children were coming, spent extra time explaining each vestment and sacrament to the children. Later he met with them and gave Sister Fides money to treat them to lunch at McDonalds. He said they might have happy memories of the day if he, Bishop McDonald, sent them to McDonalds for lunch!
She still has contact with many of her former students and parishioners – one, Philip Wray from St. Michael’s had called the day of this interview to report success in his first real job.
CHURCH FAMILY
She said only recently, she was thinking how alone she was with most of her family gone, when she looked around at the huge church family she has and realized she was not alone and never would be.
She celebrated her golden jubilee in 1976 when friends sent her on a trip to Paris, Vienna, Belgium, Italy, Isle of Capri, and highlighted by a group audience with Pope Paul. She has traveled to Mexico City more recently for a pilgrimage and mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe celebrating the new diocese of New Mexico, headed by Bishop Ricardo Ramirez.
She reads incessantly, enjoys crafts such as crochet, making banners, and ojo de dios; she is doing for others – such as the wild trip at Christmas to drive the vehicle of another Sister to Tennessee and then fly home. Before long, the terrible winter blizzard conditions overtook them, she had three very close calls, but with God’s help (and that poor frazzled “guardian angel” watching over her) they arrived safely.
She relatively good health now except for a broken wrist she got the day before Thanksgiving, and it is still in a cast. For several years she was crippled to the point of having great difficulty in getting around until she came to Hobbs and Dr. Maldanado operated on her knee. He inserted a plastic one, and now walks without even a cane.
In facing her retirement, she says her one dream for religious education is training on an ungraded basis. She hates leaving without accomplishing this but hopes others will carry on the programs to that goal.
This serene lady’s only concession to “old age” (and even the mention of the word in conjunction with this active person seems sacrilegious) is sleeping late. She said she arose at 5 o’clock each morning for almost all her life but now sleeps “late.” Late to her is 7 o’clock at which time she arises, goes to her office for prayers, then Mass, and another day at work.
Dr. Terrell served as a medical doctor for many years in Lea County. In 1941, he purchased the Shuler Hospital from Dr. A.C. Shuler after Dr. Shuler announced that he was relocating to Carlsbad to join the Womack Clinic.
The building where the medical practice and hospital was located was going to be renamed the Terrell Hospital. It had been built in 1931 and was once of the first brick buildings to be built in Hobbs. It could accommodate six patients.
An article in the Hobbs Daily News-Sun on February 16, 1941 recounted that Dr. and Mrs. Terrell had lived in Hobbs for the past eleven years and that the former owner, Dr. Shuler had lived in Hobbs for five years. The article continued that no changes were anticipated in the operation of the hospital following the change of ownership.
Dr. Price was the son of Albert Pinkney Terrell (1852 – 1914) and Bennora Trabue Terrell (1861 – 1942). He was born to the couple in Kentucky on December 16, 1884. Allen P. Terrell was living with his parents and four siblings in Missouri in the 1900 census. By 1910, he was about twenty-five years old, single and was working as a physician in Dallas, Texas. He was living with his parents and two siblings. Dr. Terrell served in the field artillery during World War I at the rank of major. By 1920, Dr. Terrell appears to have been living in Wichita Falls, Texas, was single at the time and was practicing as a physician. He relocated to Hobbs, Lea County, New Mexico in 1929.
Dr. Terrell was last married to Maude Hawkins Terrell (1888 – 1967). Mrs. Terrell was a nurse by profession and during the time in which they owned the Terrell Hospital in Hobbs worked and helped to manage the facility.
Dr. Terrell passed away in 1947 while still living in Hobbs, New Mexico. Mrs. Terrell survived him by another twenty years and both are buried in Riverside Cemetery near downtown Wichita Falls, Texas.
Howard Hamilton (1885 – 1963) was the son of William B. Hamilton and Josephine Missouri Melton Hamilton. He was born in Paint Rock, Concho County, Texas on May 22, 1885. Berenice (or Bernice) Garrett (1891 – 1988) was also born in Texas. She was the daughter of John Thomas Garrett (1868 – 1928) and Carrie Ella McMillan Garrett (1873 – 1916).
Mrs. Garrett was interviewed by the Hobbs Flare in 1979. She recalled moving to Lea County in 1902 with her family when she was twenty-one years old. They lived in a dugout until they could build a house. She and Howard were married in 1925.
Howard was interviewed by the Hobbs Flare in 1959 as he recalled the first drift fence built in the area. A drift fence is usually thought of today as any long continuous fence designed to keep cattle or horses from straying. In Lea County, the drift fences were the first type of fencing used to confine cattle to a certain area, to keep them from drifting away. Prior to the use of drift fences, the area was what was called open range. Mr. Hendrix referred to the fence as being the first drift fence between Amarillo, Texas and Carlsbad.
Mr. Hamilton passed away in 1963 and Mrs. Hamilton survived him until 1988. Both are buried in the Lovington Cemetery.
[Transcribed from the Jal Record, Jal, New Mexico, 27 Apr 1950.]
This proclamation, made, issued and published this 24th day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and fifty, by the undersigned, Thomas J. Mabry, governor of the State of New Mexico, that:
Whereas, on 6th day or February, 1950, the incorporated town of Jal, Lea County, New Mexico, by resolution duly enacted expressed the desire through its board of trustees, to apply to the governor of the state or New Mexico to make, issue and publish a proclamation of the fact that the said town desires and is entitled to become a city as provided by section 14-317 and 14-318 New Mexico statutes annotated 1941 compilation, and
Whereas, the mayor of said town of Jal was designated by the said board of trustees to act as chairman for the purpose of making a sworn statement showing the facts and matters required by law to be stated in such application, and
Whereas, the said chairman, by sworn statement and with the unanimous approval of the said board of trustees and with the attestation of the town clerk, did state and show following facts, to-wit:
l. That the name of the proposed city is the City of Jal.
2. That the boundaries of the proposed city and the lands to included therein as shown by the attached plat are as follows:
Jal townsite: Section 17, 18, 19, 20, 29 and 30, township 25th south, range 37 east, Lea county, New Mexico.
Beginning at the southeast corner of Jal townsite said said point being the southeast corner of said section 29, thence west along the south boundary of said section 29 and 30 a distance or 8940.0 feet to the southwest corner of said townsite, thence north to a distance of 9355.9 feet, thence north 19 degrees and 46 minutes east a distance of 688.5 feet to the northwest corner of said townsite, thence south 89 degrees and 52 minutes east along the north boundary of said section 18 a distance of 1321,2 feet to the common corner between said section 17 and 18 and section 7 and 8, said township and range, thence north 89 degrees and 37 minutes east along the north boundary of said section 17 a distance of 5280.0 feet to the northeast corner of said section 17 and the northeast corner of said townsite, thence south 0 degrees and 02 minutes east along the east boundary of said 17, 20 and 29 a distance of 15840.0 feet to the point of beginning, containing 3075.44 acres, more or less.
3. That the center of said proposed city as heretofore established by the Board of trustees of the town of Jal is as follows:
Commencing at the point where the NE corner of the SE 1/4 of section 19, and the NW corner of the SE 1/4, section 20, township 25 south, range 37 east N. M. P. M, coincide for a point of beginning, which point is the center of the proposed city of Jal.
4. That the boundaries of said proposed city do not exceed one and one half miles from the center of the proposed city as set forth above.
That the estimated assessed valuation of all property within the limits of said proposed city as shown the official record of Lea county is $595,203.00.
6. That the population of the proposed city is in excess of 2000.
7. That the town of Jal is entitled to become and desires to become a city.
NOW, therefore, in accordance with the laws in this case made and provided, and the power vested in me as governor of the state of New Mexico, the said town of Jal be, and is hereby proclaimed to be a city, to be designated as the City of Jal, with all the powers, privileges, duties and the liabilities of the cities in the State of New Mexico, and that the lands, areas and territory hereinabove described be, and the same are hereby declared be within the corporate limits and jurisdiction of the said city of Jal, and that this proclamation shall be conclusive evidence of all the facts herein contained and recited.
In witness whereof I have hereunto affixed by official signature on the day and year this proclamation first above written.
Thomas J. Mabry, Governor of the State of New Mexico
The headline in the Hobbs Daily Flare issue of January 27, 1961 read “Death Takes Pair of Old-Timers From Lea Scene.” It related the recent passing of John W. Green and Archie Dow Wood. A. D. Wood was 79 years of age and lived south of Lovington on the Arkansas Junction Road. It added that he moved to Lea County as a boy, started his own ranch and also said that he had served as a deputy sheriff for fifteen years during the oil boom. Survivors included his wife and son as well as numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Archie Dow Wood was the son of George Washington Wood and Jessie Lucinda Cauble Wood. He grew up in Texas and Oklahoma before coming to New Mexico when he was fourteen years old working on ranches for others until he “filed on a government claim” of his own. After Lea County was formed, he worked as a deputy sheriff from about 1922 to 1933 and served as a New Mexico cattle inspector for nearly forty years. He retained a title as special deputy of Lea and other counties for many years as well.
A. D. was one of the organizers of the Open Range Cowboys Association. They started meeting informally in the early 1930s and were more formally organized around 1940. He was known as a great story teller and enjoyed relating the early days of the area even before Lea County was formed.
He was first married to Jessie Pearl Markley and secondly to Mary Beth Wilf. A. D. passed in 1961 and was interred at Lovington Cemetery. Mary Beth survived him until 1986. She is also interred at Lovington Cemetery.
Old Lea County, N.M. 