George William McCoy San Juan County, New Mexico

George William McCoy, a rancher and fruit grower of Aztec, was born in Virginia in 1844. In his youth he became a resident of the west, and at the time of the Civil war joined the Second Nebraska Cavalry as a private, serving for fourteen months, from September, 1862. He then re-enlisted in the Third Colorado Cavalry and served for six months. He participated in the Chivington massacre under Colonel Chivington, and did other frontier service. Both before and after the war he crossed the plains with bull teams, making nine trips from Missouri River points to Montana, Salt Lake and Nevada. He abandoned that work in 1870, and in 1878 began cattle raising in the Animas valley. He turned his attention to farming in 1884, having entered his present place from the government in 1880. He helped build the first general ditch a community ditch constructed in 1889.

He helped put in the first fruit in this part of the valley, being associated with Peter Knickerbocker, the work being done in the spring of 1889. He was thus a pioneer in the inauguration and development of the horticultural interests of this part of the Territory, and has since been well known as a rancher and fruit raiser.

Fraternally a Mason, he was initiated into the lodge in New Albany, Kansas, in 1870, and has since assisted in organizing a number of lodges in New Mexico.

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