Document text
Marie Carter
Anthony, N. M.
cl 1400
OLD TIMER STORIES
Royal Jackman (dife: May Bailey Jackman
Interview: May 6
1937
Hegarding the early days of Anthony and the Mesilla Valley Royal Jackman
said: "I located in this valley when I was a young man. Funny, too, I thought
I knew it all. That was in 1892. I was sent here from Nevada by the Santa Fe
Railroad company as station agent and telegraph operator. Prior to leaving
Nevada I had heard that the settlers down here got the Mexicans indebted to
them then took their land. Consequently, I was surprised, to find the settlers
to be honest hard working folks with no inclination to be outstanding as land
sharks in the history of the Southwest."
Mr. Jackman paused then resumed: One day I saw Charley Miller walking
up and down in front of his store On the old business street of Anthony, west
of the Santa e Tracks. He was worried and told me that if some of the
Mexicans didn't pay up he wasn't going to carry them on his books any longer.
Then I looked at him and said:
":Judging from what I have heard you fellows down here get all that's
coming to you and a great deal more.:
'4e11,1 Charley chuckled, 'maybe we're not as bad as we're reputed to
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be. jhen it comes to trading land for merchandise, if that's what you mean, well
the natives are more than willing to settle their accounts that way. But most of
the merchants prefer cash.'
'But,' I suggested, 'land is better than nothing and some day it will
bring a good price.'
'You're right,' he agreed, 'I guess I've been two kinds of a numb -skull
after all.'
nirior to his death," Mr. Jackman asserted," Charley Miller was one of
the biggest lanJ holders in the Lesilla Valley."
In recalling the past Mr. Jackman commented: The greatest epoch in my
life was the day I met May Bailey. After seeing the young lady a number of times
I became obsessed with a desire to make her acquaintance. The river, incidently,
gave me that opportunity. The Aio Grande was unusually high and there was no
way to cross it, for we didn't have any bridges. Consequently people either
forded the stream or were ferried across. May was standing on the river bank
waiting for someone to come along with a bcst,,unaware that I stood at one of the
windows of the Santa fe station trying to get up nerve to approach her. Finally
I made a start for the door, swung it open, hurried to the lady's side, removed
my hat and introduced myself. After telling her who I was I offered to launch
my boat and ferry her across the big bad river. And the moment she accepted me
as a ferryman, I decided, to ferry that young lady the rest of my life."
Following a short interval Mr. Jackman resumed: "May Bailey lived on
a ranch at Chamberino, and her father, Dr. C. A. Bailey, brought his family
to the Mesilla Valley from Oherokee, Kansas in 1884. I met May in 1892.
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For five years, on an average of twice a year, I asked her to marry me, but
she didn't consent to be my wife until 1897. Then when the day was all set, and
our railroad tickets had arrived for our weeding trip to San Francisco, the Rio
Grande began to rise. On the morning of our wedding day I was in Anthony on the
eastern bank of the river impatiently walking up and down, with a preacher at my
heels, and my bride-to-be was on the western bank waiting for her brother, R. C.
Bailey, to launch his new boat and row her across. May must have been awfully
excited, for when I asked her for her suitcase she handed me a shoe box. Then the
preacher shouted:
'Make haste or you'll miss that train!'
We joined hands and were married in a jiffy. Then the train signaled
its approach, and sihultaneously an old Irish doman opened her door and called
to us:"
'Wh: don't yez come into th' house an' be married bike dacent folks?'
Regarding the the natives Mr. Jackman observed; "The Mexicans were wise. They'd
farm a little and rest a little, for they knew the distroying power of the Rio
Grande; they had learned b.;, experience that it was a lost of time and money to farm
on a large scale. When I first came to Anthony I homesteaded 172 acres, hired six
-Jexicans and put them to work. I told them that they could have the wood for clear-
ing the place. Then I sold the wood, which amounted to several car loads, at a
dollar fifty a cord and gave them the money. Finally I rented them the land for
three years, but I paid for the water, seed and fencing. I also built them an
adobe house. One day I found them all taking their noon -day siesta, or after
dinner nap and said:
'Why don't you fellows work like us Americans?'
"One old fellow smiled, finished rolling his cigarette, sealed it with
a lick of his tongue and explained:"
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'Yacky, the more you have the more you lose.'
He referred to the Hio Grande. I didn't understand the full meaning
of his sage remark until the flood of 1905, when I lost everything I had.
hundred and fifty acre crop was ruined; my house swept away, twenty-five head
of stock and a head of horses. During that same flood there was a Mexican
family morooned on top of a pole house. I rowed out and rescued them just as
the poles began to give way."
In the course of his conversation Mr. Jackman mentioned the house where
Mrs. Blevins lives, southeast of the Santa Fe office. "That house belonged to
Professor Carrea, but he sold it to me. It was our home fot several years. I
laid out the townsite of La Tuna, just across the line from Anthony. I bought
that whole section for one thousand dollars. Most of it lay east of the tracks.
My west line ran to the Andreas ranch. I still own 250 feet on the highway in the
business section. I used to own the Dairy Farm Ranch west of Anthony, also the
rachamey 1:-anch northwest of town. The ranch I owned back on the desert north-
east of Anthony was sold to me by an old hiexican who claimed that the Indians
buried a treasure there in the early days, and he was always digging around try-
ing to find it.
***-IHt
In recalling old times Mr. Jackman said; One of the funniest things
that ever happened to me was the time I borrowed my brother-in-law's horse.
Jay wife had asked her brother if Dick could swim. He told her yes, 'just like
a log.' She knew that a log would float so took it for granted that Dick could
perform the same feat. 4hen I asked her if Dick could swim she answered in the
affirmative; so I decided to borrow the horse and ford the Rio Grande. My
wife had crossed to the west side by boat earlier in the day to see her mother,
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and I was to join her later. dell the moment Dick slid into the water I realized
what I was up against. For instead of swiming like a log he sank like a rock,
and left me flaundring. Then I grasped his tail, an action that must have fright-
ened him, for he turned up -side -down and began kicking his feet. The moment I
released him he floated down stream just like a log. In the melay I lost my
Lexican sombrearo and found myself in a whirlpool going 'round and 'round.
HE)alizing that I was going to have to battle to save my life I discarded every
bit of clothing but my shirt, and just as I managed to escape the pool, my hat
came floating back to me. My old dog was still with me and barked joyfully as
I crept up the western bank of the Rio Grande. My wife told me later that she
never saw anything so comical in all her life as the picture I made when I
appeared at the ranch. I didn't have a thing on but my shirt and sombrearo.
In the meantime, Dick must have learned to swim, for he escaped from the Rio
Grande, entered a Mexican's corn field, and distroyed so much corn that we had
to pay damages."
Royal Jackman was born at loodstock, New Hampshire August 6, 1863;
Mr. Jackman came to the Yesilla Valley in 1892; he married May Bailey of Cham-
berino, ':4:w Mexico June 30, 1897. Mr. Jackman is the father of Winifred Dear-
born Jackman, wife of A. T. Aldro Hibbard, prominent artist of Roskport, Mass.
Alice Aldrich Jackman, wife of A. E. Nelson of El Paso, Texas, and Royal
Bailey Jackman, Mining Engineer, employed by the Serro Pasco Copper Corporation
of Peru. Jith headquarters at New York.