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Family History Stories Paraphrased
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Mrs. Flora Miller Martin V. Corn Martin V. Corn II Martin V. Corn III May Bailey Jackman Bill the Kid's Horse

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Mrs. Flora Miller, daughter of M. Whiteman
By Georgia B. Redfield
Paraphrased by C. W. Barnum
Counties: Chaves
Surnames mentioned: Miller, Whiteman, Levey, Carrie

Opened First Exclusive Grocery Store in Roswell. Which Has Continued Operating Half a Century. Now Owned by A. L. Whiteman, Son of M. Whiteman. M. Whiteman, is said by old timers to have been more widely known, and, because of his interesting personality and experience gained by extensive world-wide travels, to have possessed more friends than any other pioneer settler of Roswell. He was ever ready to impart to others from his large store of experience, any information, either for their pleasure, in entertaining his friends, or the financial or educational benefit of his fellow man.

Mr. Whiteman, of German-Jewish descent, was born in Germany, near Berlin, in 1817. He was married to Mary Levey who was of the same nationality of Mr. Whiteman, and also was born in Germany near Berlin in 1852. They were married in New York in 1876 1868. Of the six children born to the union: Joe, Louis, Charlie, A. L., Carrie, and Flora, only three are living: Louis, who lives in San Francisco, California, A. L., who lives in Roswell is married and has a son and daughter, and Flora, who is Mrs. Flora W. Miller, now widowed, and living in Roswell.

Mr. Whiteman when twenty-one years of age, while making his second tour of the world, was taken captive by South Sea Islanders. Before his escape from captivity, he learned much of the customs and characteristics of the people of that country which did not compare favorably with other foreign countries visited by him. Mr. Whiteman has the distinction and honor of becoming a charter member of the greatest national fraternal organization, the Masonic Lodge of New York City.

In 1878 Mr. Whiteman and his family moved to the White Oaks, New Mexico and was engaged in the mercantile business, at that place until he re-moved to Roswell in 1889 where he established the M. Whiteman Grocery business, in the store built by him in which the Roswell Seed Company operates at the present time. Here he continued in business for seventeen years, until his death at eighty-nine years of age. His store became the favorite rendezvous of the young men of the town, as well as prominent business men and his brother lodge members who enjoyed his stories of adventure and information of resources and business activities of foreign countries.

Several years before the gold rush to Alaska in the late 90's Mr. Whiteman had talked to the younger men in Roswell of the great opportunities for making a fortune, they might find, where he had discovered gold when he had visited that country some twenty years before it was discovered by others.

With the exception of Louis Whiteman, who went to California before the Whiteman family moved to Roswell, all of the children were educated and grew to be valuable men and women citizens of in Roswell. A. L. Whiteman is manager and owner of his father's old grocery business, which is now operated under the name of Whiteman Brother's Store, conducting a successful business with patronage largely from families of the pioneer settlers and ranchmen in the Pecos Valley. Mr. M. Whiteman's death occurred in Roswell in 1906 and Mrs. Mary Whiteman's, his wife, in 1931.

Mrs. Whiteman was known and loved as Mother Whiteman. She was never happier than during the first hard years of settlement in the new wild country of Southeast New Mexico, when she hospitably opened her doors to all new comers. The young people of Roswell in the early days enjoyed all the privileges and pleasures of her home, with her own boys and girls, who were popular during their school life and with their schoolmates and later in the social life of the city. The Whiteman family stand high in the affectionate regard of the Roswell people.

Mr. M. Whiteman and his wife Mary Levey Whiteman will always be remembered and honored among those who contributed most to the development and progress of Roswell and to the best interests of the people of Southeast New Mexico. 

Martin V. Corn
By R. L. Corn
By Georgia B. Redfield
Paraphrased by C. W. Barnum
Counties: Chaves, Lincoln
Surnames mentioned: Corn, Poe, Bonney

My father with my mother and the seven of us first children, came to New Mexico from Texas in 1879. I was five years old.  We came in a caravan with four or five other families in covered wagons. I never will forget that trip. I remember we had tin type pictures taken, and after we got to New Mexico we made camp at Seven Rivers and most of the men went on to Roswell and Lincoln, prospecting. While they were gone, Hudson killed Ike Teeters when they got into some kind of argument.

My father liked this part of the country so we settled east of Roswell, on South Spring River, five miles southeast of Roswell, just south of Lover's Lane. Father set out the trees of Lover's Lane, on the south side, and Oregon Bell set them out on the North side, on what is now the L.F.D. Ranch, which Bell owned and afterwards sold to John W. Poe.

Pat Garrett contracted to have the adobes and walls of our house made. The house is still there. You can see it looking south from Lover's Lane. While we were waiting for our house to be built, all nine of us lived in a dug out and one tent, and for a while in a sod house on the creek of South Spring River.

In 1881 I went to school to Judge Rogers. He was the first teacher in this part of the country and taught in this the first school built three miles out East Second Street. The school was a one room dirt floored adobe. I afterwards went to Miss Sara Lund, who is now Mrs. C.D. Bonney, who taught in a better and larger building, built in 1885 across the Hondo a half mile southeast of Roswell.

In 1900 I was married to Miss Maggie Bowden, a teacher, and we have six sons Fred, Richard, Irwin, Alton, and twins, Donald and Roland. There are ranches enough for all of them spread all over the country. The Roswell people say the Corn men are bound to be ranchmen. No matter how much education they get they finally go back to ranching. The children born to Father's first marriage to Mary Jane Hampton were four girls Mary, Minty, Eva and Sally who was a baby when we came to New Mexico and four boys, John, Bob (that's me) Mart, and George. George was born after we came to New Mexico. Fathers second marriage was to Julie McVicker on October 14, 1886. The children of the second marriage were three girls, Minnie, May and Lillian, and eight boys, Waid, Lee, Charlie, Jess, Roe, Hub, Poe, and Clarence, nineteen children in all and a few extra ones our parents raised with us.

The family has multiplied considerably and helped swell the population of this part of New Mexico. Father died at the age of seventy-six years. He was buried as he requested, at his Eden Valley Ranch, twenty miles north of Roswell. Source: R. L. Corn

Martin V. Corn
By Georgia B. Redfield
Paraphrased by C. W. Barnum
Counties: Lincoln, Chaves, Eddy
Surnames mentioned: Corn, Hudson, Holloman, Spencer, Tooters, Chisum, Lea, Hampton, Ollinger, White, Bonney, Rogers, Garrett, Hagerman, McVicker, Lund, Ballard, Buck, Lafayette, Morrow, Snyder, Dills

Martin V. Corn, and his wife and seven children came to the Territory of New Mexico in 1879. They came in a covered wagon caravan with seven other stockmen and their families. The men of the caravan who shared the expenses and responsibilities of the journey, were Bill and Ed Hudson, Bill Holloman, Lon Spencer, Ike Tooters, and a man by the name of Horn who drove the cattle and was leader of the caravan.

While it was a long tiresome journey across the dry treeless plains and especially trying on the women, there were camp pleasures shared by all members of the caravan in frequent stops, and around camp fires in the cool of the evenings, when they would tell stories of adventure and sing rollicking songs and hymns. The children played games and explored around, but never ventured far from sight of the men who were prepared to protect their families with six shooters and Winchesters kept loaded and close at hand in case of sudden attack by hostile Indians.

While other stockmen lost entire herds, that were driven away by the Indians, and even teams used by some travelers for their wagons were stolen, the caravan of which Mr. Corn was a member, lost nothing, because of their preparedness against attack.

Children or Mr. Corn's now grown and heads of families, tell interesting stories of incidents of that caravan journey. At the beginning of the never forgotten trip they had their first tin type pictures taken, and at the end. Tragedy overtook them after they made camp at old Seven Rivers, Nearly all the men had gone on to Roswell and Lincoln prospecting, when the man left in charge got in a quarrel and Ike Tooters was killed by one of the Hudson brothers which caused much excitement and furnished a victim for the widely known Boot Cemetery at Seven Rivers where many murdered men were buried with boots on.

Mr. Corn on arriving at South Spring five miles southeast of Roswell was favorably impressed with that section of the country as being what he desired for stock raising, and farming. John Chisum had established the Jingle Bob Ranch at the head of South Spring River and had built a comfortable twelve room adobe home. Between fifteen and twenty thousand head of Chisum cattle, marked with the dangling ear bob, roamed the unfenced plains for hundreds of miles, and fed on fine grazing lands of the Pecos River Valley.

Roswell then, with its two Adobe buildings, the store and hotel, both owned by Captain Joseph C. Lea, was no more inviting than the country around South Spring where Mr. Corn decided to remain. He took out homestead and timber culture claims, just north of the Chisum holdings, and later bought adjoining land, making 384 acres in one tract.

During the fall of 1879 Mr. Corn, A. O. Spencer, Bill Holloman, and James H. Hampton took out the old Texas Irrigation Ditch from South Spring River, below the Chisum Ranch. The irrigated soil proved very productive. In 1890 John Chisum went to Mr. Corn one day, and said, Corn I'll make you a proposition, if you will set out trees along your ditch I'll get the trees, for we need then for shade on these hot dry plains. 

Mr. Chisum, on securing Mr. Corn's agreement to his proposition, sent two ox wagons to Alpine, Texas, in the Davis Mountains, and got the cottonwood and willow tress. Mr. Corn set them out on the south side of the lane and Oregon Bell on the north side, on land he owned and afterwards sold to John W. Poe and is now L. F. D. Ranch of the J. P. White estate. The trees grew and Mr. Corn and his daughter Mary and their old Negro servant called Dick, cared for them and set out pruning until the beautiful lane extended for over a mile, from east to west, and has been a beauty spot and favorite drive for young people, especially lovers, for nearly sixty years.

It was told by J. P. White just before his death, that of all the thousands of cattle he drove through the lane, not one ever injured the trees that were so carefully tended and watched by the Corn family. After John W. Poe introduced and successfully raised alfalfa in the valley Mr. Corn procured seed and soon there were wide green fields growing on the south side of Lovers Lane. One of the first apple orchards was also planted on twenty acres and first prizes and blue ribbons were awarded Mr. Corn on all the early displays of pioneer farm, garden, and orchard crops.

Three hundred head of cattle and a hundred head of horses brought from Texas by him, multiplied and grew fat on the fine grazing lands. He loved horses. The splendid horse named  Black Hat for Mr. Corn was one he sold to Pat Garrett and was used by Billy the Kid when he shot Ollinger and Bell and made his escape from jail in Lincoln where he was held for execution for the murder of Sheriff Brady. Pat Garrett contracted to make the adobes and walls for the Corn home which is still standing, and can be seen just south of Lovers Lane. While the family waited for the home to be built Mr. and Mrs. Corn and the seven children lived in a dugout and one tent. For a while they lived in a sod house on the banks of the creek.

In 1881 the Corn children attended school in the first adobe school building three miles east of Roswell an East Second Street which was taught by Asbury C. Rogers. They afterwards attended the school taught by Miss Sara Lund (now Mrs. C. D. Bonney) who was teacher in the larger building built in 1885, a half a mile southeast of Roswell.

In 1893 Mr. Corn sold his 384 acres farm to J. J. Hagerman and in 1894 he established the ranch home Eden Valley twenty miles north of Roswell, where he spent the last years of his life, and where after his death at the age of seventy-six years, he was buried, as he had requested. Mr. Corn was born in North Carolina. When he was a small child he moved with his parents to Kerr County, Texas where he was educated and on April 23, 1867 was married to Mary Jane Hampton.

The children born to this marriage were: Zelpha, deceased, Mary, deceased, Eva, and Sally, and four boys, John Robert, Mart, and George, now deceased who was born in New Mexico. Mr. Corn after the death of his first wife, Mary Hampton Corn, was married an October 14, 1886 to Julia McVicker.

The children born of this second marriage were three girls and eight boys, namely: Minnie, May, and Lillian, and Waid, Lee, Charlie, Jess, Roe, Hub, Poe, and Clarence, making nineteen in all. There was one stepson Jim Hampton, deceased, son of Mary Hampton Corn, who was raised as one of the family of Corn children. John R., Robert L., Martin V., and George, sons of Mr. Corn, all established and developed large ranches and other sheep and cattle ranches are scattered over hundreds of miles of Southeast New Mexico.

It is a standing joke among the Corn men that no matter how high an education any of them have received for a professional career, they all return to ranch life in the end. The family has multiplied rapidly, and has very materially increased the population of this section of New Mexico. In the outstanding event: Old Timers' Parade of Eastern New Mexico State Fair, the Corn family in always largely represented in the interesting section of Crops Raised in New Mexico.

Considering the conceded fact that, Martin V. Corn was the founder of the largest family of worthy and respected citizens of which Chaves County can boast, and that they have proved, important factors in the progress and development of Roswell and the Pecos Valley it is fitting that all names of the grandchildren and great grandchildren as well as those of the children be given here. They are listed below:
The grandchildren of Mr. Corn and Mary Hampton Corn, Children of Mary Elizabeth Corn, Mrs. Ed Hudson are: Archie, Steve, Carl, deceased, Edna, deceased, Mildred, Bessie, James, Lulu, and Martin.

Great grandchildren of Mr. Corn and Mary Hampton Corn, Children of Archie: Evelyn, Elizabeth, Margaret, Willis, Mildred, Clayton, Norma, and Well. Children of Steve: Lester and Merritt. Children of Carl: One son, Harold. Children of Edna: Donald and Wilma. Children of James: one girl, Loyse. Children of Lulu: Jack and Barbara. Children of Martin: Lera and Lela, twins and a boy named Leon.

Great great grandchildren of Mr. Corn and Mary Corn,  Great grandchildren of Mary Elizabeth Hudson: Children of Evelyn: Gerald, James, Laurel, and Clyde. Children of Elizabeth: Dunward and Charles. Grandchildren of Mr. Corn and Mary Corn ,  children of Minty Corn, Mrs. Charles Ballard are Syble, Mabel, Willie Buck deceased, Theodore, Jack and Katherine.

Great grandchildren of Mr. Corn and Mary Corn - Children of Syble: one girl, Irene. Children of Mabel: one girl, Christina. Children of Theodore: one boy, Theodore Jr. Children of Katherine: one girl, Patsy. Great great grandchildren of Mr. Corn and Mary Corn, Great Grandchildren of Minty Corn Ballard: Children of Irene: one son, Norman.

Children of John Roland Corn: Ester and Pauline. Grandchildren of Mr. Corn and Mary Corn, Children of Robert Layfayette and Maggie (Bowden) Corn: Fred, Fayette, deceased, Richard, Irwin, Alton, and Ronald and Donald twins.

Great grandchildren of Mr. Corn and Mary Corn, Grandchildren of Robert Lafayette and Maggie Bowden Corn. Children of Fred: Regene, Robert, Fred Jr., and Billy. Children of Richard are: Dick and Marlene. Children of Irwin: one girl, Barbara. Children of Alton: Graham and Marilyn.

Grandchildren of Mr. Corn and Mary Corn, Children of Martin Jr., and Myrtle Stewart Corn: Earl, Hazel, and Ted deceased. Great Grandchildren, Children of Earl: Elinor Jean, and Katherine. Children of Eva Corn (Mrs. Will Morrow are: Rosaline, Carson, Ralph, Chester, Roy John, Kitty deceased, Dorothy, and Mary.

Great great grandchildren of Mr. Corn and Mary Corn, Grandchildren of Eva Corn Morrow. Children of Rosaline: William, Evelyn, Sammy, and Eugene. Children of Carson: Pearl and Hazel, Children of Ralph: Audrey and Wayne. Children of Chester: one boy Arthur. Children of Roy, deceased, three: Betty, June, and Maxene. Children of Dorothy: one girl, Nancy Lee. Children of Mary, one boy, Robert. Children of Sally Corn Pearson, Mrs. Will Pearson, one boy named Lilliard. George born after coming to New Mexico had two children, Lola and Curtis and one grandchild, Lola Nell.

Grandchildren of Mr. Corn and Julia McVicker Corn, Children of Minnie Corn Mrs. Walker Snyder: Elizabeth, Frank, and Earl. Children of May Corn, Mrs. C. A. Marley: Inez deceased and Clyde. Children of Inez, one boy Bert. Children of Clyde, Francis Kay and Robert.

Children of Waid and Grace Garrett Corn: Clark Garrett, deceased, Waid Jr., and Billy. Children of Lee and Alice Alexander Corn: Martin and Harold. Children of Charlie and Dorothy Gifford Corn: One daughter, Sandra. Children of Jess and Ruth Huff Corn: Laura Ruth, and Bronson. Children of Clarence and Dora Richardson Corn: one boy, Edwin. Children of Poe and Margery Rollins Corn: Betty Jane, and Rollins. Children of Jim Hampton, Stepson of Mr. Corn, son of Mary Hampton Corn and Ella Meek Corn: one daughter Burr. Children of Burr: one daughter Fay Jeanette. Sources: Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Corn, Mrs. May Corn Marley, Lucius Dills.

May Bailey Jackman
By Marie Carter
Paraphrased by C. W. Barnum
Counties: Dona Ana
Surnames mentioned: Jackman, Bailey, Meads, Hatton, Mossman, Rhodes, Bruce, Morley, Baggs, Hibbard

Whenever newcomers have occasion to mention, Mrs. Royal Jackman, Mesilla Valley folks favor them with a blank stare and exclaim: Oh, you mean, May Bailey!

May Bailey laughed as she observed: You can't get away from a name folks have known you by since you were a kid. My parents, Dr. and Mrs. C.A. Bailey, moved their family from Cherokee, Kansas to the Mesilla valley in 1884. At that time father was the only practicing physician between Las Cruces, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas. Dr. G.H. Bailey, father's brother, came here in the same year, But G.H. liked horticulture better than medicine so he located at Mesilla Park and started a nursery.

The Baileys lived in Old Mesilla a year then we decided to move, May Bailey explained. Father bought a ranch over at Chamberino and put ten acres of it into grapes. The Mexicans raised the small Mission grapes but father wanted to try a larger variety so he sent to California for cuttings. Two years later his vines were bearing and when they were ready to market he had no trouble disposing of them. He expressed grapes to northern New Mexico and other points. Farmers didn't ship fruit in car loads like they do today. The flood waters from the Rio Grande caused us lots of worry, for the river would flood every spring. We either had to be ferried from one side to the other or ford the old stream. Prior to the building of the Elephant Butte Dam, the Rio Grande was strong, swift and very unsafe. It was always best to make sure your horse could swim before attempting to cross it. Following a flood the water would stand in the sloughs draw mosquitoes and start an epidemic of malaria, or as it was commonly called in the old days; chills and fever. I had it so bad that my parents sent me back home to go to school. I remained away two years. During my absence the rest of the children were so ill that my father moved the family over to La Mesa.

In recalling some of the old timers living in La Mesa, May Bailey Jackman said: Major Mossman and his family lived in La Mesa the same time we did; also the Mead Family. Meads ran a broom factory. They were the C.E. Meads. Mrs. Hatton, who became Mrs. Robert Bruce, had two sons, Bob Hatton by her first marriage and Cado Bruce by her second marriage. Cado married Eva Mossman and Bob Hatton became County Superintendent of schools. Funny, Too, she laughed. Bob held an exam' for teachers and I made out the examinations questions. I took the exam and passed. You see, there are more ways than one, to get a school.

When asked the length of a school term in the old days, May Bailey replied: That all depended on the amount of money the county had. I rarely ever taught less than three months in each place, sometimes, four. I usually managed to work from six to seven months out of each year. My salary was thirty dollars a month, and I never received more than forty dollars. Some of the towns had what they designated, a school house, a small one room adobe with a dirt floor, straight wooden benches and a desk for the teacher.

Regarding her school teaching days, May Bailey explained: You see teachers, were scarce and since I was the only one teaching in this part of the country, my services were in constant demand. As soon as I was through teaching in one community I was called to another. I first taught at La Mesa, then, my parents moved back to the ranch at Chamberino and I taught there. Vado, or Earlham, as it was called at that time, was my next venture. While I was teaching at Earlham the Spanish influenza broke out and I was taken down with it. In 1890 I attended the first New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts at Las Cruces, when Professor Hiram Hadley was its president. The college opened in January, 1890 with thirty-five students and a faculty of eight. This institution is now located at Messilla Park. It is one of the Federal land-grant colleges provided for in the Morrill Act of Congress, July 2, 1862, and is the oldest of the State educational institutions.

In mentioning her father, May Bailey Jackman, asserted: The year of 1890 was the saddest in my life, for the dearest father a girl ever had took pneumonia and died. Following my father's death the Mexicans crowded into our yard and between sobs repeated over and over, Por Dios, our father has left us!' The natives were very poor in the old days. When they had money they would pay the doctor and when they didn't have money they would bring the doctor whatever they had to trade on their bill. Such as beans, fresh vegetables, eggs, chickens, chili or Mexican squash. Whether they had anything or not father took care of them just the same. We shipped father's body back to our old home for burial. And the Mexicans, poor things, whenever they'd have an attack of chills and fever they would came to our house and ask for quinina, meaning quinine. Father had left a good supply so we dosed them with it as long as it lasted, and they would thank us and say: Muy bueno medicina!

In referring to the Rio Grande, May Bailey, exclaimed: That freakish river! It was the bane of our lives! We were always battling that turbulent stream. It was like playing a game of construction and destruction. For as soon as our Mexicans finished a piece of work the Rio Grande would rise and destroy it. Prior to the building of the Elephant Butte Dam, our spring floods were traditional, we knew just what to expect.

After father died I undertook to direct the construction of a dam and the Mexicans were doing their best to complete it before the flood broke. But progress was slow because the river, which was exceptionally active, seemed determined to hinder their work. To tell you I was tired would be putting it mild; I was fairly worn out, for I had been in the saddle all day, but I didn't hesitate one moment when the workmen told me that I'd have to find more men or they couldn't finish the dam.

Following a slight pause, May Bailey, resumed: I wonder now that I wasn't afraid with night coming on and a treacherous river to ford. Bending over old Betsey, and telling her it was up to us, away we sped. We brought home the bacon though. May Bailey laughingly asserted. For when we returned from Anthony, where we found several Mexicans willing to work, we brought enough of them back to finish the dam. How that same stream factored in my romance I will tell you later, she promised.

Concerning food, May Bailey, said: Now days people have more money but less food. In the old days we didn't run to the grocery every time we needed a loaf of bread, or phone to the grocer and have it delivered. We may have worked a little harder during the summer than women do today but it was well spent. I don't think, however, we fully appreciated our own work until winter, when we opened the pantry door to gaze with pride at our well stocked shelves. Row after row of canned fruits, preserves, pickles, jams and jellies. We cured our own meats; baked our own bread; we had plenty of milk, butter, eggs, turnips, sweet potatoes, chickens, turkeys and hay for the stock. In the old days we were not like grasshoppers dancing in the summer and wondering what we were going go eat in the winter. We were more like the common garden ants who work in the summer to store up food for the winter. We never bought a store cake or cookies in the old days. As for pies and doughnuts, well, I suppose you think your mother made the best pies and doughnuts you ever ate, that's only natural. she assured me, with a laugh. But I feel certain that you would have changed your mind if you had been lucky enough to taste my mother's doughnuts and pies.

May Bailey mentioned the price of land, It was cheap, she said. Land sold anywhere from three dollars to twenty-five an acre. We made all of our own clothes in the old days. To go into a store and buy a ready made dress was impossible not to mention no stockings at all. We had good times and I think we enjoyed ourselves just as much as the young folks do today, for we had lots of parties, picnics, barbecues, dances and ponies to ride. Our party dresses were very much like the long full dresses so popular at the present time. I recall a party I attended in Anthony at Charley Miller's house. It was a big Christmas tree party. One of the guests, who was a youth at that time, became a famous writer of western stories. His name was Ugene Manlove Rhodes.

In talking over old times May Bailey recalled a sad event. It was a tragedy, she affirmed, quietly, and an unsolved mystery, concerning a family by the name of Morley. Mrs. W. K. Morley came from the East, located in Chamberino and bought the Baggs' ranch. At that time it was one of the show places of the valley. The Morley family had plenty of money and kept a stable of fine race horses. The Morley boys, Rowland and Harold, were my pupils. One day Harold told his mother he was going for a ride. She was so used to seeing the boys come and go that I don't suppose she paid much attention to the fact that he didn't return that evening. But the following morning, when she learned he hadn't slept in his bed, she became alarmed and began to make inquiries. Feeling sorry for her, my brother, R.C. Bailey, volunteered to search for the missing boy. R.C. had been searching quite awhile and was about to return home when he was confronted by the gruesome sight of Harold Morley's dead body dangling form a tree. Some of the neighbors thought it was suicide, but my brother thought otherwise, for when he found Harold his hands were tied behind him.

Returning to the subject of the Rio Grande May Bailey asserted: I have a great deal of respect for that old river after all. For it helped Royal and me to find each other and to convince me that I was really in love. Ah, Romance! Show me the woman, young or old, who will turn her back on it. I was no exception to the rule, especially, when a certain young man who had been watching me from the office of the Santa Fe Station, approached holding his hat, they removed them in the old days, and introduced himself as Royal Jackman, station agent and telegraph operator for the Santa Fe Station. You see, I was teaching school at Anthony. The river, which had been rising for several days, was pretty high, consequently, I was marooned on its eastern bank waiting for someone to come along with a boat to ferry me to the other side. Royal, who told me later, that he had been waiting for an opportunity to serve me, offered to be my escort. Before parting he asked permission to call at my home in Chamberino, not forgetting to add the customary courtesy due parents in the old days:

I shall look forward to becoming acquainted with your mother. I knew by the inflection of his voice that he expected me to repeat what he had said to mother, which I did, thereby creating a friendly feeling for Royal even before she had met him. You see, future son-in-laws weren't slow in the old days. My family liked Royal Jackman from the very beginning of our courtship, but they were often provoked at me for making him wait so long. You see, I met him in 1892 and didn't consent to marry him till 1897. In recalling hot wedding day May Bailey remarked: It would be next to impossible for me to forget my wedding day. We had planned a June wedding with a honeymoon to San Francisco. Royal had received our railroad passes and June 30, was to be our wedding day. But old man river began to rise and to widen till it was five miles from one bank to the other. Hence when our wedding day broke my husband-to-be was in Anthony stamping up and down, with a preacher at his heels. While I, the future bride, was stranded on the western bank, waiting for my big brother, R. C. Bailey to launch his new boat and row me across to my waiting bridegroom. Upon reaching the eastern bank I was told that we barely had time to get married and catch our train. Then Royal asked me for my baggage; I meekly handed him a shoe box. My suitcase was in Chamberino. Suddenly the preacher cried,  Make haste or you'll miss that train!

Obeying his command we made double haste, by joining hands right there in the open, on the banks of the bonny Rio Grande. Following the ceremony three things, which I shall never forget, happened with clock-like precision. The preacher gave us his blessing. The train signaled its approach, and an old Irish woman opened her door and called out to us, but ten minutes too late: Why don't you all come into the house and be married like decent folks? 

May Bailey Jackman was born in Cherokee, Kansas, April 17, 1871. They came to the Mesilla Valley in 1884, where she lived with her parents Dr. and Mrs. C.A. Bailey for a year. Then Dr. Bailey bought a ranch and moved his family to Chamberino. Bailey family moved to La Mesa where they remained two years. 1885 to 1886. During 1885 to 1886, May Bailey was attending school in Cherokee, Kansas, when she returned the family moved from La Mesa back to their ranch at Chamberino. Dr. and Mrs. C.A. Bailey were the parents of Pearl Bailey of Canutillo, Texas; R.C. Bailey of El Paso, Texas; Blanch Bailey of El Paso; Eva Bailey, Mrs. W.H. Glenn of Glendale, California, and May Bailey, who is Mrs. Royal Jackman of Anthony, New Mexico. The Jackmans recently moved to El Paso, Texas, but still own property in Anthony. The former May Bailey became the wife of Royal Jackman in 1897. Prior to her marriage May Bailey Jackman taught school in the early days at La Mesa, Chamberino, Earl Ham, Vado, La Union, Mesquite and Anthony. Mr. and Mrs. Royal Jackman are the parents of H.H. Bailey of Radium Springs, New Mexico; Winifred Dearborn Jackman, wife of A.T. Aldro Hibbard, prominent artist of Rockport, Massachutes, Alice Aldrich Jackman, wife of A.E. Nelson of El Paso, Texas; Royal Jackman, mining Engineer, employed by the Serro de Pasco Copper Corporation of Peru, with headquarters in New York.

May Corn Marley: Bill the Kid's Black Horse
By Georgia B. Redfield
Paraphrased by C. W. Barnum
Counties: Lincoln
Surnames mentioned: Garrett, White, Chisum, McVicker, Brady

I am May, the second daughter of my father's marriage to Julia McVicker. We have a son and had a daughter who died two years ago. There has been much discussion about who set out the trees on Roswell's old landmarks landmark and place of interest, Lover's Lane, about five miles southeast at Roswell. I know who set them out and who cared for them for many years, and it should be written now as one of the important subjects to be preserved in the records of Chaves County.

Soon after my father settled an the old home site of the Corn family south of Lover's Lane, John Chisum came to him one day and said, Corn I'll make you a proposition if you set out trees here along this ditch I'll get the trees. We need trees, lots of them on these hot dry prairies. My father said he would plant them and care for them so Chisum sent two Ox wagons to Alpine Texas in the Mountains and got the cottonwood and willow tress. My father set them out and he my sister Mary and the old Negro we called Dick whom every one knew, would watch trim those trees and set the trimmings out. They grew fast and soon made the beautiful lane which has been a favorite drive for young people, especially lovers, for nearly sixty years. Oregon Bell set some of the trees out on his land on the north side of the land.

J.P. White told me just before he died that every time he started to drive cattle through that lane my father would say, be sure to keep the cattle from destroying any of those trees White. Mr. White said he would always promise to watch them and all of the thousands of cattle he drove through the lane, not one ever touched those trees that my father and John Chisum loved and tended so carefully.

When my father and family came to New Mexico they brought three or four hundred head of cattle and a hundred head of horses. He loved horses. He raised the horse that Billy the Kid made his escape on, when he broke jail in Lincoln after killing Brady. It was a black horse. Pat Garrett bought him from my father and named him black Bart after my father.

My father loved his Eden Valley Ranch home, where he died and is buried. All of his sons like ranch life and have ranch homes scattered overall southeast New Mexico. I am like all the rest of the Corn children, I prefer my ranch home and only come for short visits to this nice home you see here in Roswell.