New Mexico Statehood History Hike January 6, 2024

New Mexico became the 47th U.S. state on January 6, 1912. At Historic Fairview Cemetery, we have a number of notable “permanent residents” who made great contributions to New Mexico. On Saturday, January 6, 2024, you are invited to take a History Hike to specially-marked graves to learn the history of these people. Look for the New Mexico state flags and red and yellow ribbons marking their final resting places. A map is included to help you find your way around.

SEICHI EMERSON IKEMOTO (1885-1919)

Seichi Emerson Ikemoto was a Japanese participant in the transpacific peace movement in the early twentieth century. He was born December 4, 1885, in Yamaguchi, Japan. He was raised in the Christian faith and arrived in San Francisco in 1904 to pursue religious studies to become a Presbyterian minister. He graduated in 1912 from Park College in Parkville, Missouri. He attended three different seminaries from 1912 to 1915, in Kentucky and New York.

He learned about American language and culture before preaching his first sermon, and he became an advocate of peace in America. He preached to the American people about Christianity, Japanese life and culture, and the importance of peace and understanding between the U.S. and Japan.

He was a featured speaker on the Chautauqua lecture circuit between 1911 to 1915. In 1916, Ikemoto contracted tuberculosis and quit lecturing to retire to a quiet life at Trudeau Sanitarium in New York. In late 1917, he sought a warmer climate in Albuquerque, NM. He died at Methodist Sanatorium on January 31, 1919.

JAMES PRICE  (1839-1901)

There are 14 Buffalo Soldiers, African-American soldiers who served on the Western frontier following the Civil War, buried throughout Historic Fairview Cemetery.

James Price was born 1839 to Brigadier General Thomas Lawson Price and one of his female slaves in Moniteau, Missouri. He died 30 December 1901 of heart failure. He was from Cole County, Missouri when he enlisted on 3 February 1864 at Jefferson City, Missouri at the age of 24 for 3 years. This became his career for 33 years and 6 months. His physical description was he had black eyes, black hair, was a dark mulatto and 5’ 7” tall and a slave of Thomas L Price.

His company was organized at Benton Barracks Missouri in March 1864, 4th Regiment Missouri Volunteer and redesigned in the 68th USCI (United States Colored Infantry) on March 1864. In November 1864 on a company Muster Roll he was listed as a Sergeant and had only served for 10 months. “I believed this happened because of his father’s influence being a Brigadier General.”

He was assigned duty at Tupelo, Spanish Fort, Mississippi, Camp Parapet, Louisiana and reassigned in 1872 to Santa Fe, New Mexico and served in Tularosa, New Mexico. He retired in Albuquerque and was issued a pension 19 August 1897. He never married.

JOHN BRADEN (1822-1896)

John Braden’s story is one of an old-time stagecoach driver (also called a “reinsman” or “whip”) and freighter who, at age 74, sacrificed his life to save countless others during a parade in New Albuquerque. He was born in Pennsylvania or Ohio and left home when he was young. It is unclear if he ever married or had children. In an article from August 2015, entitled “A Forgotten Hero,” stated that he might have been a lifelong bachelor or a widower, may or may not have had a son.

Stagecoach travel was wrought with threats in the American West. Braden’s stagecoach career began in the 1850’s when he was employed by the Northeastern Stage Company, driving in Minnesota and Iowa. He later drove for the Overland Stage, traveling on the Platte River in Nebraska before driving for the Kansas Stage Company out of Leavenworth, Kansas. In the later 1860’s, he drove the Smoky Hill Route for Wells Fargo & Co. Braden also served briefly as City Marshall in Pueblo, Colorado. He traveled to Albuquerque in the 1880’s, where he worked in livery stables and as a freighter for local freighter companies W. T. Trimble Company and Olmstead and Dixon.

After years facing danger throughout the Great Plains and the Southwest, John Braden’s life came to a sudden halt on the night of October 16, 1896, during a parade in downtown Albuquerque.  Braden was driving a wagon loaded with fireworks and other explosives. As the parade headed onto Copper Avenue at Fifth Street, parade goers set off fireworks. Sparks flew into Braden’s wagon, igniting rockets which struck the horse team. As the frightened horses galloped towards the crowd, Braden stayed at the reins, trying to control the team.

The horses eventually came to a stop at Third and Railroad Avenue (now Central) when his wagon collided with another cart carrying four little girls. The wagon was engulfed in flames and Braden fell to the ground, calling to the spectators to remove his clothing. His only concern was for the young girls and other parade participants. His last words were “Did I save the little girls and the queen of the carnival and her attendants?” Braden was badly burned over his entire body and died the next morning.

By staying with his wagon and team, John Braden saved the lives of many Albuquerque citizens. His act of heroism was honored on October 19, 1896, as Albuquerque schools and businesses closed for the afternoon for his funeral, reported to be the city’s largest up until that time. The funeral line to Fairview was nearly three miles long, with Albuquerque Police, the Parade Marshall and staff, the Fire Department, the First Regiment band and company, school children, and all civic organizations. Every minister in the city participated and every school closed its doors to allow all children to attend.

About two years after his death, a memorial fountain was constructed and paid for by the citizens of Albuquerque in City Park, then Albuquerque’s only park. City Park is known as Robinson Park today and is at Eighth Street and Copper Avenue. The Braden Memorial Fountain has been refurbished several times, most recently in 2004.

Chaplain Ted Howden Jr. (1902-1945)

Frederick Bingham ‘Ted’ Howden, Jr. was the son of Rev. Frederick B. Howden, Sr., Bishop of the Missionary District of New Mexico and Southwest Texas.  The younger Howden had been the Rector at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Roswell, New Mexico prior to shipping overseas with the 200th Coast Artillery as its Regimental Chaplain.

Captain Howden had the opportunity to leave Bataan when injured personnel were evacuated to Australia, but he refused to go, saying, “They are my boys and I’ll stay with them.” When Bataan was surrendered, Chaplain Howden was forced to endure the March of Death. He died at Davao Penal Colony on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines.

Suffering from pellagra and dysentery, Chaplain Howden had repeatedly given his meager rations to other starving prisoners of war, bringing about his own demise. His old friend, Father Albert Braun, a Catholic priest serving with the 91st Coast Artillery prior to capture, who had served for many years on the Mescalero Apache reservation about 70 miles west of Roswell, ministered to Chaplain Howden in his final days. After the war, Reverend Howden’s remains were returned to New Mexico and laid to their final rest in the Howden family plot in Albuquerque, New Mexico on August 31, 1948.

December 11th is the date of the annual commemoration of the life and work of the Rev. Frederick B. “Ted” Howden in the liturgical calendar of the Diocese of the Rio Grande and in the calendar of Lesser Feasts & Fasts of the American Church.

ALBERT G. SIMMS  (1882-1964)

A native of Arkansas, he moved to Monterrey, Mexico in 1906 at the age of 24 and worked as an accountant. He moved to Silver City, NM in 1912, the year New Mexico became a state. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1915 and practiced law in ABQ until 1919. He was a member of the city council and the Bernalillo County Commissioners. He was president of Albuquerque National Bank and a mortgage company.

He served in the NM House of Representatives 1925-1927 and was elected to the US Congress as a Republican 1929-1931. He met Ruth while they both served in Congress, and they married in 1931. In addition to being a banker, farmer and rancher, he and Ruth made Albuquerque Academy possible with a gift of more than 12,000 acres of undeveloped land and 7,500 shares of Albuquerque National Bank (now Bank of America) stock.

RUTH HANNA MCCORMICK SIMMS  (1880-1944)

Ruth was born into the privileged family of Republican Senator Mark Hanna and Charlotte Rhodes Hanna of Ohio. As a youth, she was educated at elite private schools but elected not to attend college.  Instead, she became her father’s private secretary in D.C. She married Joseph Medill McCormick, son of Chicago Tribune family, in 1903. The couple lived in Illinois where he was the paper’s editor for eight years. Ruth was President of Rockford’s Consolidated Newspapers, Inc.  The couple raised three children; one of whom needed a special type of milk. Unable to purchase the milk and appalled by the unsanitary conditions of Illinois dairies, Ruth opened her own dairy near Byron, Illinois.

Ruth was appointed director of the Republican Women’s National Executive Committee in 1918 She was the first elected national committeewoman from Illinois in 1924. After her husband’s death in 1925, Ruth continued her political career and won the election in 1928 to the US House of Representatives and served one term. Being defeated in the 1930 election for the U.S. Senate, Ruth returned to her newspaper interest.

She met married Congressman Albert G. Simms from New Mexico in 1932. They purchased an 800-acre ranch in Albuquerque’s north valley which became their home, dairy, farm, cultural, and education center named Las Poblanos. Ruth commissioned architect John Gaw Meem to renovate the house and build La Quinta as a cultural center for the community.

Ruth Hanna McCormick Simms’s concern for superior education and culture is active today.  She founded Manzano Day School, still operating, and Sandia School for Girls, known today as the coeducational Sandia Preparatory School.

On June 25, 1938, Ruth’s son, John Medill McCormick (age 21) went hiking with another young man, Richard Whitmer (age 20) in the Sandia Mountains. The boys appeared to have been climbing a cliff and fell from the top. The story, though not confirmed, is that they were struck by lightning and fell from a 2,000-foot cliff. Also, part of the story is that Congresswoman McCormick had the boulder brought down from the mountains because it was where they found her son’s lifeless body.

HERBERT LOUIS GALLES SR.  (1890-1951)

The Galles family has been an intricate part of transportation in New Mexico since Nicholas Galles arrived in the territory via the Santa Fe Trail and set up business as a wagon-maker in the mid 1800’s. The family’s leading role in the state’s emerging automotive industry was cemented in 1908, when H.L. (Herbert Louis) Galles, Sr. founded Galles Motor Company, eventually selling the first 11 cars in the New Mexico Territory, and laying the foundation for what is now the oldest and largest family automotive business in the State.

Through the years, Galles franchised with Chevrolet, and then Cadillac and Oldsmobile. For decades, Galles was one of Albuquerque’s leading automobile retailers. It was the third oldest Cadillac dealership in the county and remained in operation for over 100 years.

Herbert was very active in the community and an astute business man. He was one of the first members of the University of New Mexico football teams. He belonged to several organizations such as the Shriners, the York Rite, the Scottish Rite, Masonic Lodge #6 and the Elks Lodge #461.

GOV. JOHN F. SIMMS (1916-1975)

John Fields Simms was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on December 18, 1916. His education was attained at the New Mexico Military Institute, at the University of New Mexico, where he graduated in 1937, and at Yale University, where he earned an LL.B. degree in 1940. During World War II, he enlisted as a private in the U.S. Army, and later rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. After his military service, he established his legal career, as well as becoming involved in the ranching business.

Simms first entered politics in 1947, serving as a member and speaker of the New Mexico House of Representatives, a position he held for two years. He also served on the New Mexico Commission for Promotion of Uniform State Laws from 1950 to 1954. Simms next secured the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, and was elected governor by popular vote on November 2, 1954. During his tenure, manufacturing within the state was promoted; and federal jobs in the state continued to flourish. After running unsuccessfully for reelection, Simms retired from politics. He continued to stay active in his ranching interests, as well as in his legal practice. Governor John F. Simms passed away on April 11, 1975.

CLINTON P. ANDERSON (1895-1975)

Clinton Presba Anderson, statesman, businessman and rare book collector, was born October 23, 1895, in Centerville, South Dakota. He attended Dakota Wesleyan University and the University of Michigan. A broken back put his father out of work in 1916 and Anderson quit school to help support his family. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Mitchell, South Dakota until he became seriously ill with tuberculosis. Given six months to live, Anderson headed for the favorable climate of New Mexico and arrived in Albuquerque in October 1917. He convalesced at the Methodist Sanitarium where he occasionally wrote for the Herald of the Well Country. When he was well enough to leave the sanitarium, he went to work as a reporter for the Albuquerque Herald. In 1919 he was sent to Santa Fe to cover the legislature. Unimpressed with how the Republican party was running the state, he befriended some Democrats and gave them his ideas on bills before the legislature. Some of those ideas eventually became state law and Anderson began a life long association with the Democratic Party. He became State Chairman in 1928.

His long career of public service began as Executive Secretary of the New Mexico Public Health Association in 1919. There he raised money to fight tuberculosis, established county health programs and was instrumental in founding the state public health department.

In the early 1920s Anderson pursued private business affairs. Newspaper work seemed to offer a poor future, so in 1922 he started in the insurance business of the New Mexico Loan and Mortgage Company. He was soon able to buy the business and change the name to the Clinton P. Anderson Agency, a successful and enduring enterprise. Actively involved in the Rotary Club of Albuquerque since 1919, he was elected to the International Board in 1930 and became president of Rotary International in 1932, a position that introduced him to many business and political contacts.

Anderson returned to public life with an appointment to the State Treasurer’s office in 1933. That was followed by appointments as director of the Bureau of Revenue, Relief Administrator for the State of New Mexico, Western States Field Coordinator for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, State Director of the National Youth Administration, Chairman of the New Mexico Unemployment Security Division, and Managing Director of the Coronado Cuarto Centennial Commission, among others. It was Anderson’s style to take on a newly created position or an emergency situation, organize it, and then leave when he felt that all was running smoothly.

A conflict among members of the state Democratic Party convinced Anderson to run for the House of Representatives in 1940. Utilizing his many business and political contacts throughout the state Anderson won the election. For the next three decades he would divide his time between Albuquerque and Washington, D.C.

Anderson became known for his thorough investigative work and during his three terms in the House, was assigned to several special committees, including the chairmanship of the Special Committee to Investigate Food Shortages in 1945. The committee argued for a streamlined food distribution system and emphasized long-range planning for increasing food production. It was his success in that assignment, along with their personal friendship, that led to his appointment by Harry Truman as Secretary of Agriculture in June 1945.

As Secretary of Agriculture he faced his biggest challenge. The United States faced serious food shortages and much of the rest of the world was starving. Utilizing his organizational skills, Anderson incorporated all existing food and agricultural activities under his office and, in a controversial move, brought in Herbert Hoover to head the Famine Emergency Committee.

U.S. food production and world wide distribution was stabilized by 1948. Anderson considered leaving the Cabinet and retiring from public life altogether. However, state and national representatives of the Democratic Party convinced him to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Carl Hatch. Anderson won the election and went on to serve four full terms as U.S. Senator from New Mexico. He served on the Agriculture Committee, the Interior Committee, the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, the Finance Committee and the Aeronautical and Space Sciences Committee. The causes that he worked for, often with far reaching results, included water resources and distribution, land conservation and a wilderness preservation system, the peaceful use of nuclear energy and Medicare.

Anderson retired to his home in Albuquerque in 1972 where he pursued his interest in collecting rare books and historic research materials. He died at home on November 11, 1975.

CLYDE TINGLEY (1881-1960)

Clyde Tingley was born in London, Ohio, on January 5, 1882. His education was attained in the public schools of his native state. In 1910, he moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he became interested in politics while his wife Carrie recuperated from tuberculosis. From 1912 to 1920 he served as alderman of the Albuquerque City Council; and from 1925 to 1926 he served as the Albuquerque district superintendent of the New Mexico State Highway Department. He also served as a delegate to the 1928, 1932, and 1936 Democratic National Conventions.

Tingley next secured the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, and was elected governor by popular vote on November 6, 1934. He was reelected to a second term in 1936. During his tenure, the New Mexico Relief and Security Authority was created; a highway connecting Santa Fe with Mexico City was reopened; oil wells were discovered in the southeastern part of the state; and the New Mexico state police was founded. Also, several new hospitals were established, one of which treated children with tuberculosis and was named Carrie Tingley Hospital in honor of Tingley’s wife. After completing his term, Tingley served as chairman of the Albuquerque City Commission, a position he held from 1940 to 1953. He passed away on December 24, 1960, and was buried in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

MARGARET KENT MEDLER  (1873-1942)

Margaret (Marguerite) Elizabeth Kent Medler (nee Kent), Albuquerque real estate agent and socialite, was born in 1873. She came to New Mexico in a covered wagon in 1880. Her father, Frederick H. Kent, built the family home in Albuquerque’s New Town. He was a pharmacist and Realtor who ran a drug store in Albuquerque’s Old Town and was regarded as one of Albuquerque’s oldest and wealthiest residents. Medler attended Albuquerque High School and Kentwood College in Illinois. She married lawyer Edward L. Medler in 1901, who at the time was an assistant to U.S. attorney W.B. Childers. The couple divorced in 1906, although Medler continued to use her married name in association with her maiden name throughout her life.

Margaret Medler devoted her time to moving in Albuquerque’s social circles and to running her father’s realty business, the F.H. Kent Agency. The F.H. Kent Agency was established in 1882 to sell real estate and insurance. Medler clerked for her father prior to her marriage and continued to work in the office throughout her life. She became manager of the F.H. Kent Agency in 1919. At that time the office specialized in insurance, real estate, rentals, loans, and surety bonds. The F.H. Kent Agency ceased operations in 1942, shortly after Medler’s death. Socially, Medler was involved in the lives of many Albuquerque residents, as newspaper clippings attest to her role in organizing and attending social events. Medler died suddenly in 1942 in her Albuquerque home.

Bernard Shandon Rodey (1856-1927)

Bernard Shandon Rodey, founder of the Rodey Firm and father of the University of New Mexico, was born in 1856 in County Mayo, on the west coast of Ireland. This was during the great potato famine that claimed a million Irish lives (more than 100,000 of them in County Mayo) and launched a million more Irish citizens into exile. His parents joined the exodus in 1862, emigrating with six-year-old Bernard to Sherbrooke, Quebec, where they sought a fresh start as farmers. For the next fifteen years, one of his eulogists noted, Bernard “had little chance for education, and spent altogether perhaps a little over three months in school.” Yet at some point (according to the late Don Dickason, who became a name partner in the firm that Rodey established), Bernard studied at a seminary in Spain, where he developed the fluency in Spanish that later served him so well.

Around 1877, Rodey “came to this country as a poor and friendless young man and settled in Boston, being equipped then with little more than a healthy body, a stout heart, clean life, bright intelligence, strength of will, and determination to succeed in the land of his adoption.” Eventually he turned to the study of law, though not within the confines of any law school. He was a self-made man; there would be no Harvard degree, nor any other gaudy educational credentials, for him.

Within a few years of arriving in Boston, the young man went west. He moved to Albuquerque in 1881 to take a job as a private secretary for the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company, which was building a line between Albuquerque and Needles, California. Albuquerque was a town of 5,000 at the time, but the railroad was about to change its fortunes.

Rodey’s stenographic skills later earned him a job as a court reporter. Through on-the-job osmosis and after-hours study, he acquired a comprehensive knowledge of the law; and on December 11, 1883, he was admitted to practice before the District Court of Socorro County in the Territory of New Mexico. It is on the strength of Rodey’s 1883 license from the Socorro district court that Rodey, Dickason, Sloan, Akin & Robb proudly proclaims its status as one of the oldest law firms in New Mexico.

Territorial Politics and Education

In 1888, Rodey was elected to the territorial legislature from Bernalillo County. He served in the legislature for a single term – comprising one two-month session – but he made it count.

Though Rodey himself was almost entirely self-educated, he had run for office with the goal of securing a university for the town of Albuquerque. Rodey had sought to create a single University of New Mexico, but his bill had prompted other representatives to propose colleges for their own communities. With all such bills headed for defeat as the session drew to a close, Rodey recognized that the only chance for passage lay in rolling the various measures into an omnibus bill that would smooth over the competing parochial interests. He proceeded to pull an all-nighter – and then some – to accomplish that feat. Cloistered for 36 consecutive hours at Santa Fe’s Palace Hotel with fellow lawyer and legislator Neill B. Field and soon-to-be-supreme-court-justice John R. McFie.

Rodey pulled together the bill’s various strands and dictated its 73 sections to his African-American secretary, Fred Simms. In addition to establishing the University of New Mexico as a coeducational, nonsectarian institution of higher learning on high ground in Albuquerque, Rodey’s bill located a school of mines in Socorro, a college of agriculture and mechanic arts in Las Cruces, and an insane asylum in Las Vegas. It passed on the last day of the session. With only hours left before adjournment, Rodey then threw himself into the task of championing a bill that would give the territory its first system of public schools. Although he failed in that endeavor on that particular day, the same bill – slightly amended – became law in the next legislative session.

National Politics and Statehood

Public service beckoned Rodey again in 1900, when the Republican Party nominated him as its candidate for Congress, and he defeated future governor and United States senator Octaviano Larrazolo in the general election. (He won reelection, over a different opponent and by a wide margin, in 1902.) This time his platform was New Mexican statehood – and he pursued the objective with characteristic fervor.

He led fellow congressmen on tours of New Mexico and Arizona, hoping to win their hearts and minds; he lobbied Teddy Roosevelt before a crowd of New Mexicans who had gathered to witness the first visit to Albuquerque by an American President. Indefatigable as Rodey was, however, he was initially no match for a bloc of senators who considered the admission of Western territories to statehood inimical to the interests of Eastern states. “Liberty of speech is a grand privilege,” he would later write, “but … as I learned [in the Senate] when they talked eighty-two days to kill my statehood bill, there can be such a thing as too much of it.”

When Rodey realized that he could not win statehood for New Mexico alone, he persuaded Congress to admit New Mexico and Arizona to the Union as a single state. But the bill that ultimately cleared Congress called for approval of this proposal by the voters of each territory. While New Mexicans voted in favor of joint statehood, Arizonans rejected it. Not until several years after Rodey’s service in Congress did the political climate permit the two territories to achieve separate statehood. Rodey then suggested – “earnestly,” as was his style, though perhaps in jest – that New Mexico re- christen itself “Acoma,” because that name “would bring it to the top of the list at roll call.”

In something of an upset, New Mexico’s Republican Party dumped Rodey at its 1904 convention and nominated another candidate for Congress instead. Rodey ran for the seat as an independent candidate but was trounced. The experience temporarily embittered him. It also invigorated his advocacy of primary elections – a system that the legislature eventually mandated, though not until after his death.

In 1906, President Roosevelt appointed him to a federal judgeship in Puerto Rico, less than eight years after Spain had ceded the island to the United States in the wake of the Spanish-American War. Rodey was, according to his biographers, the first person ever – and perhaps the only one – to be named the territorial judge of another territory. The appointment was a testament not only to Rodey’s legal acumen, but also to his ability to speak beautiful Spanish through a lifelong Irish brogue. Four years later, President Taft selected him to serve as a United States District Attorney for the Second Division in the Territory of Alaska. Based in Nome and accomplishing much of his travel by dog sled, Rodey prosecuted coal fraud and enforced various local laws.

Rodey returned to Albuquerque in 1913 and resumed private practice in a series of second-floor offices on Central Avenue. He had come home to a New Mexico that was a territory no longer. When his son Pearce graduated from Harvard Law School in 1915, the firm became known as Rodey & Rodey; and it was Pearce Rodey, after Bernard Rodey’s death, who gradually added Don Dickason, Bill Sloan, Jack Akin, and John Robb to the firm name. When he died in March 1927, at age 71, the University of New Mexico closed for his funeral. (For more details about Bernard S. Rodey, read this blog post.)

Governor Edmund Gibson Ross (1826-1907)

Edmund G. Ross was born in Ohio, third of fourteen children. At eleven he began an apprenticeship with the Huron (Ohio) Commercial Advertiser newspaper. Ross married Fannie Lathrop Ross in 1948, and in 1949, the couple moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he worked for the Milwaukee Daily Sentinel and the Milwaukee Free Democrat.

An abolitionist who abhorred slavery, Ross moved to Kansas in 1856 to ensure it remained a free state. He became interested in politics and switched to the Republican Party. He was delegate to the Wyandotte Constitutional Convention in 1859. He was part owner of the Kansas Tribune and founded the Kansas State Record.

Ross joined the Union Army as a private in 1862. He was commissioned as a captain in command of Company E, 11th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry Regiment. The regiment took part in several battles in the southwestern and western United States, including Second Battle of Lexington, Battle of Little Blue River, Second Battle of Independence, Battle of Byram’s Ford, Battle of Westport, Battle of Mine Creek, and Battle of Platte Bridge Station/Battle of Red Buttes. He was promoted to major during the war and was mustered out after the surrender of the Confederacy in 1865. The regiment lost a total of 173 men during service; 61 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded, 2 officers and 110 enlisted men died of disease.

Ross was appointed to the U.S. Senate in 1866, to fill the seat of deceased Kansas Senator James Lane, who died by suicide. There was a political campaign in 1868 to impeach Democratic President Andrew Johnson. Senator Ross cast the deciding vote for acquittal. Johnson’s presidency was saved, and the stature of the presidency was preserved. Ross became a pariah, was heavily criticized, and felt pressured to leave the Republican Party.

He returned to his newspaper interest in 1871. A tornado destroyed his newspaper building and home. In 1882 he came to New Mexico as a political exile. He was immediately given a position with the Albuquerque Morning Journal by editor, W.S. Burke.

Senator Ross was appointed Territorial Governor of New Mexico by President Grover Cleveland in 1885 and served until 1889. Before leaving office, he signed the bill creating the University of New Mexico, New Mexico State University, and the School of Mines in Socorro.

Governor Ross learned before his death that Kansas had forgiven him, and his name was no longer blemished. He was alleged to have said, “I will be a bigger man dead than I have been alive.” Ross was featured in John F. Kennedy’s 1956 Pulitzer Prize winning book, Profiles in Courage. The book profiles senators who defied the opinions of their party and constituents to do what they felt was right and suffered severe criticism and losses because of their actions.

James Lawrence “Santiago” Hubbell (1824-1885)

James Lawrence “Santiago” Hubbell was born in Connecticut May 26, 1824, to an Anglo father and a Spanish mother. Santiago is James in Spanish. He came to New Mexico in 1848 as a trader. He married Julianita (a.k.a. Juliana) Gutierrez in 1849 when she was 16 and he was 25. He died February 5, 1885 and is buried in Historic Fairview Cemetery. She died in 1898 and is buried in Parajito Cemetery.

At the age of 21, Hubbell served as a lieutenant and captain under General Stephen Watts Kearny in the U.S. Army during the Mexican-American War (1846-1848).

When the Civil War began, Hubbell organized a company of volunteers for the Union called Hubbell’s Cavalry Company, with himself in command. The company saw some hard fighting and only a few returned. At the war’s end, he returned to his family and ranches in New Mexico.

Santiago, Juliana and their 12 children built a hacienda in the South Valley that became a stagecoach stop, trading post and a post office. The Gutierrez-Hubbell House is listed on the State of New Mexico Register of Cultural Properties and the National Register of Historic Places. It is managed by the National Park Service. Watch a video with more information about the Hubbell family here.

U.S. Territorial Representative Francisco Perea (1830-1913)

Francisco Perea was born to the influential Juan Perea and Josefa Chavez de Perea in 1830. He attended Albuquerque and Santa Fe schools in his young years, a Jesuit college in St. Louis, Missouri from 1843-1845, and New York City’s Bank Street Academy in 1847 – 1849. Pursuing a career in New Mexico imports of manufactured goods and exports of sheep to California, Perea invested in the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad.

Perea, a staunch Republican, was elected to New Mexico’s Eighth Legislative Assembly in 1858. Perea advocated for New Mexico to remain in the Union. In 1861, at his own expense, he organized a volunteer battalion. He was commissioned as a regimental lieutenant colonel. “Perea’s Battalion” was stationed near Albuquerque where he led campaigns against the Apache and Navajo Indians believing that the two cultures could not coexist. He resigned his commission in 1862 and returned to civilian life.

Still interested in a political career, Perea won the Republican nomination for the position of Territorial Delegate to the U. S. House in the 38th Congress (1863-1865). His platform was to remove the Indians to reservations which would open more land to settlers and allow exploitation of New Mexico mineral resources. He was re-elected in 1865 on the same platform. Perea’s continued political influence won him election to the Territory’s Sixteenth and Twenty-Sixth Legislative Assemblies (1866–1867, 1886-1887) representing Bernalillo County. In addition to his political career, he owned a resort hotel (1881) and served as postmaster in Jemez Springs (1894-1905).

After being introduced to President Abraham Lincoln, by New Mexico Territorial Delegate John Watts, Perea became close friends with the President. He claims that while in office, he met with the president many times. Perea was at the theater sitting in the pit directly below President Lincoln on the night of April 14, 1865. He heard the shot fired by John Wilkes Booth that fatally wounded the President.

FRANZ HUNING (1827-1905)

Franz and Charles Huning immigrated from Hanover, Germany to New Orleans in 1849. They made their way to St. Louis, Missouri for a brief stay. Then working their way down the Santa Fe Trail, Franz settled in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  In Albuquerque, Franz established several businesses such as F & C Huning Mercantile and a steam powered flour mill. He was involved in several endeavors such as the placement of the railroad, Santa Fe Trail trade and the Albuquerque Board of Trade Commission.

In 1863 while in St Louis, Franz married Ernestine Franke, also a native of Germany. Franz returning to New Mexico in 1864 with his new bride settled in their first home, La Glorieta (now Manzano Day School).  There they raised their four children: Clara Mary, Arno, Lina and Elly. Franz gifted Clara and her husband Harvey Fergusson the Glorieta home.

In 1883 the Huning family moved just down the street to Castle Huning. Franz had this home built for his wife in the manner of homes in Huning’s German homeland. It was located on Central and 15^th Street. She lived there until her death in 1923. Only two of their children outlived them: Clara and Arno.  Elly died in 1880 at six years of age and Lina died in Los Angeles in 1894, two weeks short of her 22^nd birthday. Clara and Franz made the voyage to Los Angeles to bring Lina’s remains home.

From Fairview’s cemetery records, it appears that Franz, Elly and Lina were buried on the family property/properties, all three being moved to Fairview on December 20, 1907.  The obituary for Franz, dated November 7, 1905, states that his body was sent to Denver for cremation at the time of his death. This agrees with the cemetery records that his cremated remains were interred in Section: 10C Family, Plot: 61 as well as those of his daughters, Elly and Lina.

REV. THOMAS HARWOOD  (1829-1916)

Born in Maryland, Thomas Harwood was licensed to preach in 1855. He joined the West Wisconsin Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1868.  By 1870 Reverend Harwood had traveled nearly 10,000 miles as a circuit preacher. He was appointed to New Mexico in 1869 where he served with his wife, Emily for nearly thirty-three years. Education was a high priority to them both, they founded or helped to establish six elementary schools, two academics; in particular The Harwood School for Girls and the Albuquerque Boy’s Industrial School.

Reverend Harwood made a determined effort to learn Spanish, being assigned to a primarily Spanish speaking area. The Methodist mission conference in 1880 elected Harwood to edit and publish a bilingual newspaper; El Abogado Cristiano. He and Emily equally shared the duties of the newspaper. The newspaper was in circulation until 1901.

Reverend Harwood strongly believed that all men were equal. He wrote in El Abogado Cristiano that the General conference of 1880 failed to:

1. Elect a Colored Bishop
2. Did not provide for the ordination of Women
3. Did not provide for the publication of Methodist Literature in Spanish

Watch this video with Will Steinsiek speaking as Reverend Harwood, talking about his life.

TABYTHA WATSON  (1856-1918)

Tabytha Watson moved to Albuquerque in early 1898 from Gainesville, Texas. A widow, she moved to New Mexico with her son Green and daughter Anna.

Finding no Baptist church, Mrs. Watson began conducting Sunday school and prayer meetings in her home, located on Fourth and Copper Avenue. For five months, they worshipped at the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1899, she was instrumental in organizing Mount Olive Baptist Church.

With help from Reverend Gladden from Colorado, the members raised $135 to purchase a lot at 510 W. Lead Avenue. They built a white frame hall at the back of the lot where services were then held. Baptismal services were conducted in the Rio Grande River until a pool was built in the hall. Additional funds were raised and by 1909 they were able to erect a brick building on the front of the lot.

Every Fourth of July, the church held a picnic for the children and adults at the Rio Grande Park, Witcomb Springs area or Bear Canyon area (located in the Sandia Mountains). In those early days, the transportation was by stagecoach. Everyone especially enjoyed riding the Jumbo Stagecoach line. The African Methodist Episcopal Church and Mount Olive Baptist Church enjoyed many social events together.

By 1934, the church purchased a lot at 508 W. Lead Avenue, where the parsonage was built and a house at 512, which provided Sunday school rooms, rest rooms, kitchen and a dining area. These properties were sold in 1970 and Mt. Olive purchased a lot at 2401 University Boulevard S.E.

The first building, the Ralph Bunche Cultural Center was completed the same year. The present sanctuary was dedicated on February 17, 1977. Mount Olive Baptist Church had a humble beginning in Mrs. Watson’s home and has been a vital part of the Albuquerque community for over 120 years.

 

At the age of 61, Tabytha Watson died at home of kidney disease in the early morning on January 17, 1918. The obituary in the Albuquerque Journal stated:

“She is survived by one son, Green Watson, who is the city jailer, and one daughter, Mrs. Anna Anderson of San Francisco. The daughter arrived here Wednesday Morning. Her body was taken to Fred Crollot’s undertaking rooms.”

Tabytha Watson is buried in Historic Fairview Cemetery in Section 17B, ST-West, Grave 13. This is located near the wall that separates the Congregation Albert cemetery from Historic Fairview Cemetery, north of Springer Walton Road. Look for her headstone on the west side of the walking path. Thank you to Serenity Stone monument makers in Los Lunas for the donation of her headstone.

About Historic Fairview Cemetery

Historic Fairview Cemetery is owned by a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that is dedicated to restoring and maintaining the grounds and sharing the history of Albuquerque and New Mexico through the lives of the people buried there.

Before becoming a nonprofit, ownership of the cemetery changed several times over the past 50 years. The grounds fell into disrepair, the irrigation system failed, headstones were vandalized, and homeless and drug users camped out in the cemetery. The nonprofit is working to restore markers and improve the high desert landscape with low water use plantings.

Thank you to historian Susan Schwartz for her research and blog posts about so many notable people buried at Historic Fairview Cemetery.

Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to help support the cemetery! Join the Meetup Group to be kept apprised of events.