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Mari. Carter
Anthony, N. M.
OLD TIMERS STORIES
Volney Potter (Wife; Clara Mundy Potter
Interview; June 10, 1937
When I called on Volney Potter at La Mesa he told me some
interesting facts about his family and the old house in which they
live.
"La Mesa, like the adjoing town of San Miguel," he said,"has
not undergone any great change since I was a boy. With the exception
of a few modern houses and stores it looks about the same. My parents
moved here from Weir, Kansas. I shall never forget the day our family
of five got off the train at Anthony. My cousin, R.C. Bails -70 met
us, and the kindly station agent, Royal Jackman, was amused because I
stuck so close to my dad. He never dreamed that beneath my jacket
my heart was racing madly with expectation. I am sure that sister Ana,
who is now Mrs. Charley Davis of Anthony, guessed what was passing
through my youthful mind, for she smiled as she gave my hand a re-
assuring squeeze.
"My father, who was a great reader, had told me many a thrilling
story about the Southwest, hence the moment I landed I was prepared
keyed up and waiting for the startling events he had narrated to start
popping around me with the snap of a cap pistol. Every moment I expected
yet feared to see the cruel face of an Indian slowly rise above some
of the mesquite bushes at the side of the road, suddenly brandish a
tomahawk, send forth a wild yell and leap upon us. To this day I
am unable to define my feelings when the expected Indian failed to
materialize. But on a whole I believe was both disappointed and
relieved.
Carter --2
"Then unexpectedly I received a ginuine thrill. The Rio Grande
as I remember it got pretty rough in the old days. It was wider than
it is now and the current was strong and swift. But, then, that was
prior to the building of the Elephant Butte Dam. On this particular
day --the day we arrived in Anthony --I overheard the station agent re-
mark that the river was umisually high. When we entered R.C. Bailey's
skiff it began to rock from side to side, and when he took the 41;t9
and began to tow us across my sensation of fear was almost unbearable.
No one, not even Anna, guessed that it was all I could do to keep from
leaping overboard.
"14.4) first went to Ohamberino where we remained for awhile and then
moved to La Mesa. I was real happy when father bought a ranch for I
was at 'the age when boys have visions of themselves costumed as cowboys
with nothing to do but ride horses, but my boyish dreams were quickly
.shattered for my first experience with horses was limited to the work
team hitched to the plow which I followed. We all worked hard that first
year, but father had been a mining man all his life and knew very little
about farming. At the end of the year we were in debt and forced
to turn over everything we had raised to Charley Millery at Anthony, and
yet, we lacked eight hundred dollars of having made a living.
"This old house is one of the show places of the valley. It is two
hundred years old. I bought it from Holier° Moreno, whose father was
one of our early day sheriffs. Holiaro was over eighty when he sold me
this house. His father and grandfather live here before him, died and
were bulkied in the back yard. Incidently the largest and most beautiful
f(HAR.464.
roses we X30.0°1578 the ones growing above their graves:
"We have tried to preserve every bit of the architecture in its
original form. Look etiolate doors and these window frames the jeints
Catter -3
are connected with wooden pegs --not a nail anywhere. The doors are
heavey oak and hand carved. For a long time there were only three
buildings in La Mesa, of course that was before my time, the Catholic
Mission down the street, the Dusseler house on the other side of town
and this one.
J/
"N)te the oeil,ling in this house; they are rare and seldom found
_n the so called 1p .neer homes." Most of the old Spanish and Indian
-louses have —the brush ceilings but very few ha,: -e the genuine La Tillas
like this one. They are made from trees a bout three inches in diameter,
peeled and hand polisL.ed. Then they are fitt0d7close,Aogether in a
herring -bone design. The large beams crossing the la tilias are vigas.
"There was no lack of timber in the early days. The fact of the
matter is this whole valley,was bosque or woodland. Perhaps that accounts
for the building of a fire -place in every room. They are small but must
have been built by an expert for they draw perfectly. I have been told
that some of our furniture, which is over a hundred years old, was made
in Zacatecas and brought through Mesilla by ox team oter the Santa Fe
Chihuahua Trail. We have preserved the original water spouts on the roof
of this house and quite a number of vigas on the roof of the shed in the
patio. That old ox yoke above the gate was given to y wife's father by
Geronimo the Apache Chief.
"La Mesa was once a favorite camping place for the roving tWANyof
Indians. That is the reason the old timers built such substantial houses.
These walls, as you can see, are three times the thickness of an ordinary
adobe wall. In the early days the front part of this house didn't have
any doors or windows and the only entrance was a trap door on the roof.
Hence it made an excellent fort for protection against the Indians.
Carter --4
"Holiaro's grandfather Moreno was a man who believed in being prepared;
so he had portholes made in his private fort and stocked it with plenty
of food, firearms and &munition. The rope ladder leading to the roof
could be ussdby the inmates of the house then pulled up and concealed.
After getting the members of his household safely inside gis *Tooting
old Spaniard would follow them and lock the trap door, which was a clever
arrangement running the full length of the roof, de-rling detection by the
keenest eyed Indian on the warpath.
"(XLe evening, it was just about sunset, so Holiaro told ms. Moreno was
warned that the Indians were going to make a raid an his place. Moreno
immediately sa7,1'ans his family and servants, telliqg them to make haste
and enter the fort for the Indians would soon be upon them. Finally the
moon came up. Some of the servants stationed at the portholes reported that
they saw shadowy forms skulking behind the trees across the road. Presently
another outlook reported that the skulking forms were Indians, of that he
was quite positive, or they had built a fire and as was their custom
formed a circle around it. He then reported that they seemed to be holding
a council.
"The council held by the Indians must have been of short duration for
following the servant' report the Indians sent forth a blood -curdling
whoop and charged NorenoliVort. Six rifles in the hands of six Spaniards
exploded through the portholes, and six braves hit the dust. The remaining
Indians looked at their 4Sad brothers in amazement and returned to the firs.
Moreno figured that their next move would be the hurling of fire bands to
set the house an fire and brn the inmates. And all the time more Indians
kept comfmg and increasing the circle around the fire. Moreno knew that
the Indians Were so superstitious that the least thing with a supernatural
trend would have more cower to drive them away than a thousand armed men.
Carter --5
"Along about midnight the Indians piled more mesquite on the fire and
started to. dance around it singing he weird uncanny notes of the death
song working themselves into that frenzy which I have been told preceeded
the massacre. Suddenly some of them slowed down in the dance to stare
at something on the roof of the fort, others followed suit, then pande-
monium broke loose. With screams of terror they fled in a body, and not
wonder. The cause of their fright was a ghost so tall that it seemed to
meet the sky, with eyes as black as coal and as big as saucers. After
the Indians left old Moreno, who had been lying on the flat of his back
juggling a ten foot viga wrapped in a sheet, let it fail to the roof of
the fort with a thud."