Life in a Mountain Town ‘Mayhill, New Mexico’: Memoirs of a Mountain Girl

By Deloris Kay Ward

The memories of a by-gone era of a town full of loving Christian people. The good and wonderful times and the hard and sad times of the 40s and the depression era when it was a tough struggle to line. The story continues into the 50s and 60s when times were somewhat better.
It was also a time when there were good morals and most all of America believed in god and trusted in Him, and showed their love and devotion to God and their neighbors where a hand shake was their contract.
Children were taught to mind and had to suffer the consequences of a bad behavior, and they were made to work the same as adults if they expected to eat. We were not abused but taught how to survive in a tough world.
There were days of laughter and days for tears that close family and friends shared, and the ways that children entertained themselves in the days of no television, and not much in the way of toys.
Some call them the good ole days and others call it down and out hard times, but whatever those days were to others they are embedded in a mountain girls memories as something wonderful to remember, cherish, and share.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jul 12, 2013
• ISBN: 9781481766203

Deloris Kay Ward

A girl born and reared in a mountain community of mostly farmers, loggers, and forest workers. She grew up on a farm that was homesteaded by her great- grandfather, Joel Warner Curtis, and owned by her grandparents during the years of growing up. An era of hard work and determination from the depression of the 40’s. She was born April 18, 1940 in her parent’s home, to wonderful Christian parents. She attended school at Mayhill, New Mexico, in a two room schoolhouse from 1946 to 1952. From 1952 to Dec. 1957 attended school in Cloudcroft, New Mexico in may of 1958. She attended Kearney State University, Kearney, Nebraska for a semester majoring in Art with a 4.0 average. She retired from Tri-County Senior Center in Monte Vista, Colorado in April 2002 where she had held the job of Activity Direction plus a few other jobs on the side. She married Jerry K. Ward on 2/14/88 in Monte Vista, Colorado and between them they had eight children, nineteen grand children and seven great-grand children. She lost her beloved Jerry on May 29 2012 but not before he made provision for this book to be published

Book preview

2013 Deloris Kay Curtis Ward. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 07/09/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4817-6619-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-6620-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013910846

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Introduction

Life in a Mountain Town

About the Author

Dedication

I would like to dedicated this book to all those of my family and friends that contributed to the stories here. Especially to my Sister Louise and others that helped with memories of a wonderful place to grow up.

The mountains that I grew up in will always be in my heart and the people that lived there were very special to me. I only wish my kids could have grown up there and known the joy’s that I did.

I want to thank the family for pushing me to do this and that it will be worth it to them and for others that read this to know what it was like for us that are the ‘old bunch’ now.

Introduction

(To the area and people where the author was born & lived)

The Sacramento Mountains are located at the Southern end of the Rockies, jutting up from a desert floor of sand, cactus and mesquite bushes. The state flower is the Yucca. The desert floor is called the ‘Tularosa Basin’ and here also is the well known White Sands National Monument spreading across approximately 1200 square miles.

•   •   •   

In the early 20th century, the years from 1900 through my childhood, while driving up the mountain from Alamogordo to Mayhill, on what is now highway 82, the country side started changing, and in 18 miles, going from 4,320 ft. to 9,200 ft., on a winding steep road of gravel only wide enough for one car in most places. If you met a car coming down, the one coming down would have to back up to a safe spot for passing. The incline of the road was drastic and one place there is a deep canyon on one side, and high steep cliffs on the other, almost straight up and down.

When you start the climb up you also start the curves and switch backs. Some of the canyons are so deep it is hard to make out what is on the bottom.

After the first deep canyon, and the tunnel, a small town appears called High Rolls, and here there are piñon, oak, and some pine trees.

In a short distance there is another small town, Mountain Park. The little valley towns are nestled between the mountains, and on either side they had groves of apple, pear, peach and cherry orchards. There were also fruit stands on the side of the road that sold fresh fruit and home made apple cider during harvest season.

•   •   •   

Continuing up the mountain the road goes through another little town, called Cloudcroft, where the road tops out.

On the right side of the road and up on the side of the mountain a nine hole golf course was built in the early 1900’s at 9,000 feet above sea level, and at this point the trees are now mostly pine and aspen, and the scent of pine fills the air.

Image001.jpg

Cloudcroft Tunnel

After leaving Cloudcroft the road starts down hill and winds its way down James Canyon for 16 miles into the town of Mayhill. This little town is 6,400 feet above sea level, and just before you get into Mayhill, at the merging of James Canyon and the Rio Peñasco River, there is a bridge over James Canyon.

Also out of Cloudcroft, turning to the right just before entering the town, this is highway 130, Cox Canyon that eventually converges with the Upper Rio Peñasco, and ends up in Mayhill too.

When traveling down Cox Canyon you come to a road on the right, highway 24, that takes you to Weed, Sacramento, and Piñon, New Mexico.

Just before arriving in Mayhill traveling down James Canyon, turning right across the bridge over James Canyon, this is the Upper Rio Peñasco road, highway 130.

There are mountains on either side of the Rio Peñasco River, and on both sides of James Canyon. The rivers converge just past the bridge.

Mayhill was being built through a time spanning from 1881 to the present, on a mesa, in the corner where the 2 rivers converged.

James Canyon was named after one of the first settlers.

As you leave Mayhill continuing on down highway 82, the canyon is called the Lower Rio Peñasco, because the Peñasco River runs the length of the canyon, starting at the Old Marcia Road where Cox Canyon ends.

Mayhill started out as one home, by the side of a horse and wagon beaten path, leading out of the mountains toward Artesia, New Mexico, then north to Roswell. When going the other direction southwest, takes you to El Paso, Texas.

The first home was built around 1881, by Albert M. Coe, for him and his wife, Mollie ‘Mahill’ Coe. The path (roads) eventually turned into well traveled highways. But in those days it lead to the towns that the old settlers of the Sacramento Territory were traveling by horse and wagon for supplies, to trade their harvest and other goods.

During the days that I remember in the 1940’s there were quite a few homes in Mayhill. There were two grocery stores across the road from each other. The first one was run by several different people. One man that I remember running it was Vernon Helms. Vernon owned a store and ranch near Denton, New Mexico (between Mayhill and Artesia). He was known to drink pretty heavy some times, and didn’t run it very long.

Later Clay and Josephine Tomason took it over. It was part of the rock building that had replaced the first wood one that Uncle Monroe Brantley built. It housed a Café and Inn that was owned by Bill Stirman, he and his daughter Mary Beth lived in a part just behind the stairs that went up to the rooms for rent. The post office was in the lower end, and a filling station was on the upper end. The post master was Doyle Scott and Cara (every one called him Cary) Curtis ran the filling station.

Clay and Josephine had two sons, Kenneth and Clay Jr. and one daughter Marjorie. They lived on James Canyon across from the Calentine place. Kenneth married Lora Frizzell, Willie and Mamie ‘Brantley’ Frizzell’s youngest daughter.

The café in the stone building was run by Orval Worley for a while. Orval was a brother to Lois ‘Worley’ Williams, and he and, his wife Mable lived in a house on the hill, across the road from Johnny and Lizzie Posey, on the Upper Rio Peñasco, for awhile.

Lizzie was a Dockray and so was Edna the mother of Orval and Lois, and they also had a brother Jack, but he left Mayhill when he was very young and roamed around the country for years. After Orval’s family moved to Alamogordo Jude and Lois moved into the house they had been living in.

The other grocery store was built and ran by Leonard ‘Lynn’ W. Vreeke that was married to Elizabeth (Beth) Mahill and their home was at the back and side of the store. This house was originally the Pendergrass house.

Going toward Artesia from Vreeke’s store, a short distance was Jimmy Mayhill and his wife Frances’s Ranch. Jimmy and Frances Mayhill were Beth and John Mayhill’s parents. They built a Baptist church building just past Vreeke’s store and also above Lynn and Beth’s house was Ray Hill’s home. Ray had lived on the lane when I was very small and later moved down on the main road. He was an elderly bachelor, a carpenter, and handy man. He ran his business out of his home.

Past Ray’s home was Loyd Curtis and his wife Eunice’s bar and their home was in the back of the building that housed the bar. In the early days they also had an automotive garage. At some point in time it was torn down and a service station was built close to where the garage was.

When Mayhill first started growing, there was a house that sat on the side of the hill that was behind where the bar was built. We lived in this house for about a year when dad was working in Uncle Loyd’s garage. I was probably about three or four years old.

After you went around the corner going up into Mayhill, on the left of the road was what they called the ‘camp houses’. Turning left here and continuing past them is what was called The Lane (the only ‘street’ in Mayhill) that turned off the main highway.

Going up The Lane, just past the camp houses on the left, there was a drive way that went to Allen and Onie Clayton’s home. On the upper side of their drive way was Cara and Ellie Curtis’s home. Across the street (lane) from Cara’s was a house, owned by the Stirman’s, that was Bill and Claire ‘Brantley’ Stirman’s home before Claire passed away. Another one owned by the Stirman’s right next to Bill’s was a very small cabin, and Cara and Ellie’s son Ivon and wife lived in it for a while then, Sis, a colored lady, and her small son Phillip lived in it.

Past those houses was the driveway to the right that went to the church of Christ building, and past that driveway was David and Josephine Stirman’s house.

Other homes on The Lane were Uncle Lee and Aunt Ethel ‘Latham’ Brantley in a two story on the upper side of Uncle Cara’s. On the other side of the lane was the Peterson brothers, and past it the school cafeteria. The back part of it was Mr. and Mrs. Sheppard’s quarters. Mr. Sheppard was the school teacher for the big room. After the cafeteria was closed Doyle and Annie Scott remolded it and moved there.

The Hammond’s also lived in the two story house that the Petersons had lived in at some point in time, and past the cafeteria were the Allen’s then Grandma and Grandpa Samford’s home that Raymond and Thelma Samford moved into after moving Grandma Samford to Carlsbad. This home was on the edge of the hill at the end of The Lane on the right.

Past Uncle Lee’s on the left there was a big empty lot all the way to the driveway that went to the school. On the right side of the school driveway was Jacob’s house, they had a son named Tommy, and then Aunt Mamie Frizzell, (Eva, Thelma, Aris, and Lora’s mother), and her home was past the Jacob’s house across The Lane from the Samford’s, the last on the left.

Turning to your left just before Jacob’s house, off The Lane, going toward the school, on the right side, was the home of Doggie and Anne Scott then turning left, and driving past the school house and the base ball field was the house that Ralph and Jane Hooten lived in, and in later years Bill and Ruby Morgan lived there.

The School house was white, and had two rooms with 4 classes per room from the 1st through the 4th in the "little room" and 5th through the 8th in the "Big room". After 8th grade graduation the kids were then bussed to Cloudcroft to the high school, 9th through the 12th. Cloudcroft also had an elementary school for children that lived in, and around, Cloudcroft.

The baseball field was near the Mayhill School, and on the edge of the hill past it were two outhouses, one for boys, and one for girls. The baseball field was between the outhouses and the school building.

The surrounding area of Mayhill had many ranches and farms. The folks that lived outside of Mayhill were, to name a few, Posey, Brantley, Miller, Dockray, Scott, Dove, Ragan, Lewis, Barkley, Philpot, Hooten, Wynona, Varbal, Hadley, Cox, Derrick, Wimsatt, Potter, Powel, Chandler, Bounds, Latham, Bain, House, Ivy, Williams, Gililland, Payne, Curtis, and Joy, and some I’m sure I’ve missed.

There were ranches and farms throughout the region until the smaller owners were no longer able to make a living on their land as the times were changing as trade with stores stopped and in come the middle man that was the go between from the farmer to the market. About 1951-52 all of the farms started becoming pasture land and only the ones that ran cattle were able to sustain their living.

Cloudcroft was a bustling, busy place in those days, ‘a tourist town’. They had a lot more to offer in the way of supplies, medicine, farm items and other. It was a place for the people in the surrounding valleys to have a nice cool fun vacation. In the summer the basin would get very hot, and the mountains were a nice place to visit, even in the winter when the snow piled up it was a place to sled, toboggan, and ice skate.

•   •   •   

Leaving Mayhill on your way to Cloudcroft by way of James Canyon, in about two miles, there was a camp ground that had tables and camping spots. This was a very popular place for people from Mayhill to have picnics, Easter egg hunts, and Bar-B-Qs.

Driving on up the road towards Cloudcroft about 4 or 5 miles on the right was a big orange wood building. This was a full country store where you could buy clothing, groceries, shoes, farm supplies, and just about anything you had to have. It was called the ‘Wimsatt and Son Store’ owned by Mr. and Mrs. Gorden G. Wimsatt. They had two daughter’s Rita Fay, and Sheila, and two sons Steve and Allen.

There were a few home’s built around the vicinity of the store.

For Rodeo’s you had to drive to Cloudcroft, and for movies you had to go to Alamogordo or Artesia. Sometimes the Elk School would put on movies like, Hop-along Cassidy, The Lone Ranger or Lash Larue.

In the early days you only went to Alamogordo, Artesia, or Roswell if it was a dire necessity because of the dirt roads, and it was hard to get away because of the work that always had to be done from dawn until dark. Folks in those early days who lived in the mountains, didn’t have days off, or vacation’s, as the work of taking care of a farm or ranch with animals had to be tended daily.

The rock building my Great Uncle Monroe Brantley built is still standing with a few changes done to it through the years, but the service station is gone and the post office was done away with when a new building was built for it to move into. The inside stores and café were also remodeled several times.

My great grandfather, Joel Warner Curtis, homesteaded a l60 acre ranch, in 1880, about three miles northwest of Mayhill on the Upper Rio Peñasco River, and my Grandfather Tony became owner of this homestead after his father Joel passed away.

Tony and Maggie built a home on the homestead after they were married and there were twelve acres put into farm land. Below a painting of what I remembered it to look like. All the old buildings were torn down and replaced with new buildings by the new owner in the 1990’s.

Image002.jpg

Tony & Maggie’s Place; Oil Painting By Author

Image003.jpg

Margaret Adelia ‘Maggie’ & Antonio Malush ‘T.M.’ or ‘Tony’ Curtis

Life in a Mountain Town

‘MAYHILL, NEW MEXICO’

Memoirs of a Mountain Girl

I t was the 18 th day of April, 1940 and a morning of drizzling rain. There was an eerie fog hanging over the country side that wrapped itself around the trees and buildings like a blanket.

Carrie awoke feeling some discomfort in her lower back. She had been through the birthing of two children so she knew the signs. She reached over to her side and shook Veolan awake, and told him It’s time! You need to go down to your folks and call Doc Shields.

Veolan’s parents were Tony and Maggie Curtis, and Veolan and Carrie lived on their place, just a ‘hop, ‘skip and ‘jump, from their house. The home was on the opposite side of the road from Tony’s and Maggie’s place and sat upon the side of the hill. The road that went up to the little house was parallel to the main road for a short way going toward the big house. All the roads at this time were dirt or gravel.

Several other family members of Tony and Maggie had lived in this little house at one time or another and other grandchildren had been born here.

Veolan, coming awake, and getting his bearings, realized what she was telling him, jumped out of bed and quickly began putting on his clothes. Are you all right for me to leave? he asked. She nodded her head and told him I’ll be all right, just go, but hurry. He ran out of the house still putting his jacket on, and down the little lane from our house that connected with the main road, not even conscious of the drizzling rain or fog. He had walked this road, to his parent’s house so many times he could have done it blindfolded.

As he approached the house he could see the light from the fire place flickering on the window, and knew someone was up.

Tony and Maggie were early to rise and early to bed. They were usually up by five a.m. every morning. Veolan was usually up by 5:30 so he could help his dad with the chores, such as feeding the milk cows, milk pen calves, and to do the milking. They also had hogs, and old Steak (Tony’s horse) to feed. Sometimes they had to carry in wood for the morning fires if they didn’t have time the night before.

Image004.jpg

Veolan – Forking Carrots For Tying

Veolan helped his dad farm during the farming season and after harvest he would find work with the Forest Service, State Highway Department, REA, Driving the school bus, or what ever else he could find during the winter. He was a good man with a heart as big as the world and would give anyone the shirt off his back if he deemed it necessary. He was a hard worker at what ever he was doing, and taught his children the same.

At the age of twenty five he was a very handsome man. His hair was very dark brown and lay in thick waves. When the light touched it, it had a shimmer to it. He was five feet eight inch’s in height and had a slender build about one hundred and forty pounds.

Tony was sixty one and still in good health. He could work long and hard days beside the best of them. He stood about five feet eight inches with a sturdy frame and was used to hard work. His hair was showing some signs of gray at the temple and his skin was brown and tough like leather from the days in the sun. A man well liked throughout the area but was known to have a little bit of a temper if crossed. He had been a very striking young man, as some would say, quiet handsome.

For many years Tony wore a mustache and at one time had, what they called, a handlebar mustache. In his younger days his hair was dark brown, almost black.

•   •   •   

Veolan ran in through the front door and seen his mother in the kitchen starting a fire in the wood cook stove. Tony was sitting in his chair in front of the fireplace, where a nice hot crackling fire was burning, putting on his socks and boots.

As Veolan opened the door and burst into the room, Tony jumped and turned around to see a frightened look on his sons face. He was breathing hard as if he’d been running. What’s wrong…has something happened to Carrie or one of the kids? Tony asked with a serious look on his face.

•   •   •   

Carrie had been married before and had two children by her first husband, Clyde Emmet Showers. She had married him on August 16, 1932 in Lawton, Oklahoma at the age of 11. Richard James Showers was their first born and going to be four on July 31st and Minnie Louise was their second child and had turned two on December 24th of 1938, when Carrie married Veolan, so Tony was worried that something had happened to one of them.

Veolan, still trying to get his breath, hurrying toward the telephone on the wall by the front window, shaking his head, said the… baby’s coming, Carrie told me to call Doc Shields.

The telephone was a wooden box about 1 ½ feet in height, 10 inches in width, and 5 inches in depth with a crank handle on the right side and a long black mouth piece came out from the front of it. Tony and Maggie’s phone number was a long two shorts and a long.

Maggie would turn fifty eight in October and the hard years were beginning to show on her. Her hair was white and kept in a rolled up bun on the back of her head. I remember watching her wash her hair using lye soap for her shampoo and a bit of bluing (that was used to whiten clothes after washing them), in her rinse water. Her hair was never cut in her life time.

She was a proud woman and carried herself so. She was about five feet six inches in height with a well built frame, but she had had some health problems through the years. At some time along the way she had starting having heart problems among other things. She did not let her health get in the way of getting things done though. She was an excellent cook, which most of the mountain women were, and could fry the best chicken you’d ever want to eat, ‘finger lick’n good’.

She worked hard long hours where ever she was needed and kept her home as clean as possible. With the fire place and the wood cook stove she had to battle the chips and droppings from the wood that was carried in and her floors were just raw boards that she would scrub on her hands and knees, with a pail of hot water, home made lye soap, and a hand brush and old rag. They had become slick and smooth from the years of washing.

When she was in her teens, and early pre-marriage years she was a very beautiful girl

As Maggie overheard the conversation from the living room she hurried in from the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron. Did you say that Carries having the baby? looking at her son with anxiety written on her face. Veolan nodded as he turned the crank handle on the telephone. She told him I’ll get my coat and go on up to be with her until Doc gets here. Veolan turned toward her and said You’ll need your hat and some kind of light, its drizzling rain and foggy. As she opened the door to the bed room she answered Okay.

As she closed the front door going out, Doc Shields answered the phone. Veolan told him about the baby and he said he would be there as soon as he could.

Maggie hurried up the road as fast as her body would allow and was glad when she reached the steps to the house. It was still a little misty, but the drizzle had slackened and the fog wasn’t quiet as dense. As she put her hand on the door knob a little shiver went up her back, and she paused long enough to say a prayer.

Veolan and Carrie’s bed was in the living room, as there was only one bedroom in the little house, and that was where they all had been sleeping until time for the baby to be born, then decided it would be better to move their bed for privacy of the birth.

"When first moving into the little house on the Curtis place, Veolan and Carrie’s bed had old box springs that didn’t have a covering on them. They were just bare metal springs, with an Iron head and foot rails, and had wooden slats that went across the frame in about five places to hold the springs up. The mattress