Document text
B. A. Reuter
Pecos, N. Mex.
ill ferule 14).5
OLD WELL ON prams RANCH
Date: April 28, 1939
Words: 2300
Subject: Old Well on Pigeon
Ranch now owned by Tom Greer.
Source of information;
Octavian° §6gura of Pecos, N. M.
now deceased. Teodosio Ortiz,
Pecos, N. M. Charles Erickson,
Pecos, N. M.
The well about a mile east of the town of Glorieta, close to and on
the south aide of highway 85 and situated on, what was once known as the
"Pigeon Ranch" is the subject under consideration.
This well, advertised by the present owner, Mr. Tom Greer, as the
"Most Historical, Indian, Spanish, American Well," had drawn much comment
from the local inhabitants, in and around Glorieta and Pecos. This well
attracted no special attention, more than that it was one of the early wells
of this section, until Mr. Greer became its possessor and acclaimed it as
being of great antiquity.
Fortunately for Mr. Greer most of the old men whose memories hark
back to the time when the well was dug have passed from the scene and their
direct testimony can no longer be had. Some of the descendants of these old
men of the past can remember hearing their fathers tell about the digging
of the well and the man who owned the property at the time and had the work
done but such testimony is too far removed to establish the case as a histor—
ical fact. Whatever may be said of this handed down testimony from "mouth
to ear" as the Indians call it, it is so mai believed in all their section
that all of the old timers, smile in derision at Mr. Greer's claims that the
well is of great antiguity.
About three or four years ago I began interviewing some of the older
men in the Pecos district to see if I could find any definite evidence about
the old well, however, I was unable to get any more than, that it was the
2.
talk of their fathers that the well was the product of a Frenchman by the
name of Alexander Valle. At that time I only interviewed such men as occasion
presented itself and made no notes of their testimony. I did at that time,
however, find one man who gave me such a clear line of facts, as given to
him, by Alexander Valle and one of the men who had a hand in digging the
well that I was convinced that the story he told actually revealed the facts.
This man was Octavian° Segura, who unfortunately died about a year after I
last talked to him on the subject.
Mr. Segura told me that he could not give the date of the digging
of the well or any personal testimony concerning it, but that he had it
directly from Mr. Valle that he (Alexander Valle) who was at that time the
owner of the ranch on which the well was located, had the well dug to obtain
clean water for his people at that ranch, because his herds of cattle and
sheep were polluting the little stream close to the well, on which they
previously had to depend for water. Mr. Segura also told me that he had
talked to one of the men who helped dig the well. In the course of our
conversation he said it was, unfortunate that Mr. Greer did not start his
advertising ten years earlier while Antonio Roybal was still alive for, he
had once heard Antonio say that he remembered seeing the actual digging of
the well. Mr. Segura was an outstanding man in this community and was respect-
ed by all for his intelligence and integrity. I have every reason to believe
that Mr. Segura gave me a faithful account of what he had heard from part-
icipants in the digging of the well and from the eye witness who saw it in
the making.
Since I have been asked to write a manuscript on the subject I have
looked around in search of some one who could furnish additional reliable data
on the subject of this old well.
3.
The difficulty is that before Mr. Greer, for reasons of his own, saw fit
to paint the "Hoary head" of antiquity on it, it was just a well on the old
Pigeon Ranch by the side of a cross country road. had almost despaired
of getting any first hand positive facts about the origin and time of the
digging of the well, when a friend of mine asked me if I had talked to
Teodosio Ortiz.
When 1 was asked if I had talked to Teodosio, as we call him, I felt
like a simpleton, for I have known him for nearly seventeen years. I have
known all about his worth as an intelligent and reliable citizen and neigh-
bor, and that his word is never questioned but somehow I had so far overlooked
him as a possibility for the information I was seeking. My friend who called
my attention to him, said that, Teodosio in his earlier years lived not far
from the old well and if he did have any information on it I could rely on
it as being correct. I, however, needed no proof of Teodosiols manhood,
intelligence and intergrity for I havekeard naught but praise ofthis man's
virtues in these respects and I know enough about him personally to warrant
my complete confidence in him. He is well known in this section for his
prodigious memory and accuracy of statements.
This man, Teodosio Ortiz, is now eighty-six years of age, and though
the long years of toil have slowed down his bodily movements his fertile
mind is still active and dependable. I have during the last ten days, had
several interviews with him, and in these I have subjected him to consider-
able cross examination. The result of my talks with Teodosio have been that
he can tell only what he knows and that he tells what he personally knows
with accuracy and assurance.
4.
When J- first asked Mr. Teodosio Ortiz what he thought of Mr. Greer's
claims about the age of the well that he 18 so elaborately advertising, his
reply, of what he thought about Mr. Greer's claims, need not be repeated
here, but Wapp I asked him how he knew that Mr. Greer was advertising false
claims about the history of the well, his answer was very diract, as follows:
"Because I remember seeing the final work on the well and I knew the very
men who dug it and the man for whom it was dug and the reasons why the owner
of the ranch had the well dug. The names of the three men who dug the well
were: Luis Moya, Rafael Lucero and Antonio Gabaldon. The ranch on which the
well was dug was owned by a Frenchman, Ir. Alexander Valle. ihi s Frenchman
spoke a peculiarly accented Rnglish which they called "Pigeon English" and
so the i!anch got to be called the Pigeon Ranch."
"Mr. Ortiz, how old were you when you saw this well being finished?"
Hi was five years of age at the time, but the memory of it stands as
clear in my mind as any other event of my younger years. Ida, not only have
the memory of the work itself but throughout my growing years I was much in
association with the men who did the work and I remember on several occasions
hearing these men tell the whole story about the wall."
I then asked Teodosio to tell me all he knew about it.
"The well was begun and partially dug in 1851, two years before I was
born, but for some reason Mr. Valle suspended work on the well for seven years.
My birth was in 1853, and it was not until 1858, when I was five years old
that he again put his men to work on it and finished it. The unknown reasons
of the interim of seven years between the beginning and the finishing of the
well furnished food for fireside chats and helped keep the subject alive for
a time.
5.
It was on such occasions and others that I heard the three men who dug the
well tell the whole story about it. These three men I have named as the dig—
gers of the well were regular employees of Alexander Valle over a long period
and thus i saw much of them during my early years.
"Mr. Valle was at that time the owner of the present Valley Ranch. He
also had several outlying ranches, of which the "Pigeon Ranch" on which this
well was dug, was one. He was the owner of many cattle, sheep and goats and
herds in the Glorieta region were polluting the little stream from which his
ranch house had to be supplied with water. Mr. Valle was a very fine man and
much concerned about the welfare of the people who worked for him, and when
he saw the filthy condition of the little brook he decided to dig a well to
furnish clean water for his ranch."
I have often wondered why the present well was of such great diameter.
-All kinds of stories have circulated from every quarter since Mr. Greer started
his flashy advertising of its great antiquity. Some people have told that told
that the well was out of use for many years and got filled up with silt and
has of recent years been dug out anew. I. have run down several of such tales
only to find them without foundation. The reason that the well is of such
great diameter is a simple tale. i have the story from both Teodosio Ortiz
and Charles Erickson of Pecos.
The years of 1903 and 1904 were very dry years in this state and the
water from Canyonsito that supplies the Santa Fe Railroad, at Lamy, was
giving out. Mr. M. R. Williams who had charge of the water supply for the
road, on this division, made arrangements with the then owners of the well
to enlarge it and sink it deeper, in the hope of finding an adequate supply
to splice out their needs. Mr. Williams took over a crew of men and en—
larged the hole but for some reason abandoned the enterprise. This work was
done in 1904.
6.
In the latter part of that season generous rains came to this section and
replenished their supply and this may have been the cause for the suspension
of the work.
I have, so far, not found a man who has ever seen the little stream that
flows close by the well, witheut running water. Teodosio Ortiz in his 86 years
has never seen it dry. It is therefore out of the question that Indians dug
a well high on a dry bank close to a running brook, and more, when the peren—
nial springs that feed it are not far away. Even with the absence of histor—
ical evidence to the contrary, the claim of Indian origin for this well would
be utterly ridiculous.
It may be questioned by some people that the testimony of a man about an
affair when he was five years of age, could be held as reliable. My parents
emigrated from Europe when I was a month under three years of age. On the
voyage across the Atlantic a school of porpoise in their over and under motion
in almost uniform arrangement, moved by our ship. It was a great sight to me
and the picture it presented has never faded from my memory.
In connection with the memory,of the digginglof the old well by Mr. Ortiz,
it was perhaps the first well digging the child ever witnessed and having a
marvelous memory, the affair has never faded from his mind. We must also
remember that he grew up in the association of the men who did the work and
their occasional converstions about it assisted in getting all the facts and
fixing the event for good upon his memory. The further fact that the well
was dug for the outstanding man of the little world in which the boy than lived
had its weight in making it an outstanding affair.
When we take into consideration this testimony of Teodosio Ortiz as it
parallels the testimony gathered by Mr. Segura as he delivered it to me, I
feel that it is needless to look for more testimony unless there is somewhere
a man who was an eye witness to the digging like Mr. Ortiz.
7.
In the light of the testimony I have presented, and the fact that all
the rumbling of the echoes of the past generation, are against the idea of
ascribing a great age for the Pigeon Ranch. Well, I am satisfied that the well
was the product of Alexander Valle and dug for the purpose of having clean
water for his people. According to the evidences i have presented, the well
is now 81 years old and does not go back into remote times as is claimed by
Mr. Tom Greer.
I think we should have a law in this state, making it mandatory for a
person wishing to commercialize a historical landmark, to submit a brief in
support of the historicity of his claims, and that such recital of histor—
ical matter should receive special investigation by a proper committee. if
such a committee finds that the contentions in the brief have proper histor—
ical support the applicant should be granted a license, upon paying a proper
fee, to advertise such a.landmark and exploit it under certain legal provisions,
however, his advertising should not embrace contentions beyond the established
facts of history. If on the other hand the claims of the brief do not have
the proper historical support, then no license should be granted.