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Family History Stories Paraphrased
Page 7 of 38

Jesus Sanchez Carabajel Dave Runyan William H. Eisele Dick Eaton J. R. Carver Dr. Newton E. Charlton

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Jesus Sanchez Carabajel
By Edith L. Crawford
Paraphrased by C. W. Barnum
Counties: Lincoln
Surnames mentioned: Carabajel, Aguilar, Torres, Ollinger, Bell, Chaves

I was born at Lincoln, New Mexico, December 12, 1872, and have lived in Lincoln County continuously since that time. My father, Jesus Sanchez Carabajel, was born at Tome, New Mexico, which was just across the Rio Grande river from Belen New Mexico, in the year 1819. My mother, Dolorita Aguilar, was born in Belen, New Mexico, in the year 1807. My father and mother were married in Belen, Now Mexico.

My father joined the army about 1862 and served part of his time at Fort Stanton, New Mexico. While a soldier at Fort Stanton father moved his family from Belen, New Mexico, to Lincoln County in 1870. They lived at the Torres Ranch, which is about three miles southeast of Fort Stanton, New Mexico.

I have heard my mother tell about the ox teams they drove from Belen to Lincoln County and how slow they traveled and were always on the lookout for Indians, as the Indians were pretty bad at that time. Soon after moving his family to Lincoln County my father was discharged from the army. He farmed on the Torres place and plowed his fields with ox teams and used a forked stick for a plow.

My father died about a month before I was born. I was the youngest of seven children, all of whom are dead except myself. My mother moved to Lincoln, New Mexico, soon after my father's death and I grew up there. I remember seeing Billy the Kid leave town the day he killed Bob Ollinger and J. W. Bell, his guards at the old courthouse in Lincoln. We lived just below the old Torreon in Lincoln at the time. I was up town playing with some boys just across the street when he killed the guards. We hid behind a picket fence and watched Billy ride out of town. We were too scared to go and see the two men that he had killed, we were afraid that he would come back and shoot us. All the people in Lincoln were afraid to come out for a long time after Billy the Kid rode away towards Fort Stanton. I wanted to go and see the men he had killed, but I was afraid to go.

I was married to Lugerdita Chaves, November 3, 1898, in Lincoln New Mexico, by Father Jose. There were eleven children born to this union, Juan, Juanita, Yaa, Aurora, Rufine, Aurora and Rufina were twins, Leborio, Baldimar, Regina, Adelia, Bonny and Manuel. All of our children were born in Lincoln, New Mexico. Seven of them are still living and all live in Lincoln New Mexico, except Bonny, who is in the C. C. Camp at Carrizozo, New Mexico. I have farmed, cut wood and herded sheep to make a living for my family.

Dave Runyan
By Katherine Ragsdale
Paraphrased by C. W. Barnum
Counties: Lea
Surnames mentioned: Runyan, 

Never have buffalo been found on the west side of the Pecos river, but there have been many herds of them on the east side. Antelope were like you find rabbits now everywhere, and we killed them anytime and all of the time, and we sure got tired of eating them. One day me and my brother went across the river hunting, well sir, we hunted all morning and about noon we saw a large bull so we started toward it, now this happened just about a mile east of the river, well just as we got close enough to shoot him we heard a yell, yes sir, and we saw coming down on us to the north east a bunch of Indians.

There was a pretty deep hole with a cave in one side of it not so far from where we were, so we made a run for this cave and made it, soon we heard the Indians ride around this hole several times and then they left. About dark we came out and found our horses down by the river. We caught them and rode on to the ranch. Now the only reason we weren’t captured and scalped was because the Indians didn't know how many of us were hiding in the cave and they were afraid to come down and find out.

William H. Eisele
By Mrs. Mildred Jordan
Paraphrased by C. W. Barnum
Counties: Socorro
Surnames mentioned: Eisele, McGee, 

Some hair raising stories of experience with the Indians as told by Mr. William H. Eisele in his travels by wagon train, when Indians were plentiful and the train with Eisele was connected had many thrilling encounters with them, but no serious trouble. Perhaps the most exciting one when they reached the Arkansas River and were preparing to ford it. Some fierce looking red skins in breech clouts and war paint rode up and watched the proceedings with interest and when the team Eisele was managing balked in midstream and refused to budge, the Indians charged into the water with blood stirring yells, apparently, bent on taking advantage of the situation. To the surprise and relief of the wagon men, however, they proved to be interested only in getting the refractory oxen in motion and they did this with the use of English oaths, probably the only English words they knew.

Shortly after his return from Las Vegas, Mr. Eisele joined another wagon train bound for Virginia City, Montana over the Oregon trail. This time he drove mules, which were more to his liking as he could ride one. He returned to West Port in 1865 by way of Salt Lake City, and Denver. In the Utah city he saw Brigham Young and at Denver he joined a record breaking wagon team train.

Men from all over the Western country had assembled there for protection from the Indians on their trip. They had 445 wagons in going out of Denver, a train more than four miles long. There was an average of four to six men to the wagon.

He went to Paola, Kansas in 1857 and to Los Angeles, California in 1873 when the city had a population of 3,000. From there he freighted to the gold mines of Nevada in 1873 and in 1874 went to Trinidad, Colorado where he operated a bakery fourteen years. Later living in Kansas City, in Missouri, and in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. He lived as Fort Bayard thirteen years, now living in Silver City.

In all the nine states in which Mr. Eisele lived he remembers best the frontier and steamboat landing on the Missouri that was to develop into Kansas City. Many a night he heard the wolf and the wildcat holler at Westport in the early days. Many times he has seen the old Concord coaches go through there from Independence bound for Santa Fe, loaded with passengers. It took seven days to go to Santa Fe, one way.

He remembers the somewhat famous incident of Milto McGee's ride behind an ox hitched to a buggy, when Mr. McGee was serving as the second mayor of Kansas City. McGee was a lover of horses and owner of several fast ones and he was both angered and humiliated at being arrested for fast driving while serving as the City's chief executive, perhaps one of the first cases of an arrest for speeding in the city's history. In derision he hitched the ox into his buggy and hired a Negro boy to lead it through the streets while he sat solemnly holding the reins.

Another event Mr. Eisele recounts in the burial, in 1859 or 1860 an Indian Chief. The Indian was buried on the prairie near Independence with his dog, horse and gun in the same grave, according to the Indian custom. Horse and dog were slaughtered just before the burial. He gives an account of a man who had been scalped by the Indians at Westport. He did not see it done, but saw the man when he was brought in for treatment. The Indian had cut around the scalp, placed his foot on the head and jerked off the scalp, leaving him for dead. He did not remember if the man fully recovered. With all his exciting traveling from place to place, Mr. Eisele was a family man, who found time to rear four children. Except for the loss of his wife several years ago, after a happy married life of forty-seven years, he has never had a death in his immediate family.

Dick Eaton
By Mrs. Mildred Jordan
Paraphrased by C. W. Barnum
Counties: Socorro
Surnames mentioned: Eaton, 

During the wild and wooly days of the Rivera, the cowboys from various ranches would come to town and eat, drink and gamble. They would generally find someone to fight too. It so happened there was a wrangler’s camp across the muddy river and the camp cook the camp, called a youngster named Dick Eaton and told him to come over and work for him. He was only 10 years old and loved to wear the old hats that belonged to some of the cowboys, and one of the boys had given one of his old hats to him which was several sizes too large for Dick. He was proud of it even if he did have to tie it on. It was his only hat.

Dick tied his hat on, got on his horse, crossed the river and rode into Rivera for the groceries. Just as he was getting off his horse, eight or ten cowboys came out of the saloon and came over and asked him where he was from. He told them from a county in Texas. They laughed and told him he did not know where he was from.

Then one of them remarked about his good looking hat, and asked to see it. He took it off and handed it to the cowboy. After looking at it for some time the cowboy threw it in the air and shot a hole through it, another fellow spoke up and said he only hit it once, so again and again it was thrown in the air and shot through. Poor Dick was almost in tears when one of the fellows said, Is that the best hat you have? and Dick answered It's the only one I have. They took him in one of the stores and bought him the best hat they could find.

Dr. J. R. CARVER
By Mrs. Belle Kilgore
Paraphrased by C. W. Barnum
Counties: Curry
Surnames mentioned: Carver, Garrett, Maxwell 

Dr. Carver lives alone in his beautiful white stucco two roomed home. It contains three apartments. Dr. Carver had just come from an address given over the radio, he in one of the ministers of Clovis who given short addresses every day at 9:30 concerning some vital topic both in spiritual and national interest. The subject of this sketch was born near Cleveland Ohio in 1870. He was educated at Franklin College in Cleveland Ohio. He and his mother came to New Mexico in 1907 and filed on land west of Clovis near Grier. He circulated a petition to organize the first Presbyterian Church in Clovis and was the pastor who was called to this church, but he did not serve as the first pastor.

I am what is called a Missionary in the Presbyterian church. Almost all of the churches in the New Mexico towns were through my instrumentality. The hardships and pleasures were common to the settlers of this country, who came from the eastern states. I do not recall any legend or folk lore of this immediate section of New Mexico. Of course, you are familiar with the Saga of Billy the Kid as told by the romantic and heroic writers, in whose writings there seems to be evidence that Billy the Kid was not killed by Sheriff Garrett, but that he lived to be an old man down near Marfia, Texas, and died only a few years ago.

There are three, reasons why so many people think that he was not killed, one is that his sister came out to see him and then did not go to his grave, but went directly east. That his horse was never seen again, is another reason. Third, is that Pete Maxwell and Pat Garrett were his friends, and that a Mexican was buried instead of Billy the Kid, and that he Billy the Kid went down in Texas on the Rio Grande. I should have had another interview with Dr. Carver, but I did not get to fill the appointment.

Dr. Newton E. Charlton
By Carrie L. Hodges
Paraphrased by C. W. Barnum
Counties: Union
Surnames mentioned: Charlton, McGregor, Messenger

One of the most honored and respected citizens, as well as a highly distinguished member of the medical profession, was Dr. N.E. Charlton of Clayton, New Mexico, who practiced his profession at this place for a period of thirty-three years.

He was born on a farm near Vevay, Indiana in November 1851, where he was reared. In 1866, at the age of fifteen years, the Charlton family moved to the town of Vevay, where he attended the public schools. He also attended Hanover College, after which he followed the profession of instructor of schools for two years. He then began the study of medicine under direction of Dr. Holland at Bennington, Indiana, but completing the course in the Medical College of Ohio at Cincinnati, graduating in 1876. He practiced for several years at Forest Hill, Indiana, when the allure of the West fascinated him and he wended his way westward to Trinidad, Colorado, where for about twelve years he practiced his profession.

In July 1898 he located at Clayton, New Mexico, and at that time was preceded by only one other physician. At this place he actively engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery and was always interested in civic welfare. At an early date, he homesteaded 160 acres on the outskirts of Clayton on which he lived and received a Patent from the United States Government. After a few years, as the village grew, this property was included in the corporate limits. Dr. Charlton, always of a generous nature, gave liberally to all enterprises of a worthy nature. When Clayton was struggling to build a hospital, it was this generous man who came forward with a donation of land on which to erect the building. Then again, when the town of Clayton by this time, had became an incorporated town, was in need of a highway through its center, it was Dr. Charlton who furnished a generous share of land for same, and today, one travels for approximately a half mile on paved Highway 87, as it enters the town from the South, on a portion of the former homestead of this progressive pioneer.

He had the destination of being elected the first Mayor of Clayton, serving in this capacity from April, 1910 to April, 1914, and during the litigation which resulted in the isolation of the corporation. Later the town was again incorporated, and again Dr. Charlton was elected Mayor, serving from April, 1918 to April, 1920. It was during his term of office that the municipal light and water plants were installed, and in many other ways, the town was benefited by his wise leadership.

During the World War he was examining physician for the local selectors service board, and since coming to Clayton, has owned and had financial interest in several drug stores and was a stockholder in two of its banks, and held the position of director. He was an honored member of the Masonic lodge, joining when Dr. N.E. Charlton was married to Miss Susan McGregor in Falmouth, Indiana, January, 1878 and to this union were born three children, Madge, now Mrs. Earl Messenger, Alice and Dale, all living in Clayton, New Mexico. Dr. Charlton passed to the Great Beyond September 5, 1931, and though only a few years have elapsed since his passing, Clayton yet feels the great loss of his guiding hand professionally, Civilly and individually.