F. H. Kent, Bernalillo County, New Mexico

F. H. Kent, who became well known in connection with the development of the old town of Albuquerque, settling there in 1878, in which year he opened a drug store, was born in Massachusetts, in 185 1, and the first ten years of his life were spent in Boston. In 1861 he was taken to Kansas by his parents, and from 1874 until the year of his removal to Albuquerque, he resided in Colorado. In 1881, soon after the founding of the present town, he established himself in the same business on the east side of Third Street, south of Railroad Avenue, this enterprise being the first drug store in the new town. In 1882 he succeeded Major Harry R. Whiting as agent for the New Mexico Town Company, looking after the interests of that important promotion company until 1892. This company, of which Henry L. Waldo was president, and Colonel William Breeden, secretary, owned not only the Albuquerque town site, but also the town sites of Raton. Springer, Lamy, Socorro and Las Cruces. E. S. Stover, W. E. Talbert. Mariano Armijo, Judge W. C. Hazledine, Franz Huning, were also among the stockholders.

When the Albuquerque post office was established in the new town of Albuquerque, in 1881, Mr. Kent became the first postmaster, his commission bearing date February 19, 1881. When he took charge of the affairs of the Town Company he closed out his drug business and opened a real estate and insurance office, the oldest in the city. His only predecessors in this line were Charles Etheridge and Jesse M. Wheelock. In 1886 Mr. Kent was elected probate clerk of Bernalillo County, holding the office two years. In politics he has always been a Republican, and has been a recognized leader in the local ranks of his party. He was made a Mason in Temple lodge, has passed all the chairs in that body, is a member of the local commandery and is past grand master of the grand lodge of New Mexico. He still conducts the real estate and insurance business which he founded, and is one of the oldest business men of Albuquerque in point of years of residence in that city.

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Source: History of New Mexico, Its Resources and People, Volume II, Pacific States Publishing Co., 1907.