Document text
B. Reuter
Pecos, 'r:ew Mexico
Zune 16, 1939 A*i
41
Words: 798
Corrections to my manuscript on A1 1193(4,
the Pigeon Ranch All now owned
and advertized by Mr. Tam Greer Eki I
as the oldest well in the U. S. A.
Information source for this
correction of manuscript
Teodosio Ortiz of Pecos, N. Mex.
in my first interviews with Mr. Ortiz, i was served with an interpreter
who failed to give me the full value of all that Mr. Ortiz had to say an the
subject. In my past experiences with old Spanish Americans and Indians I
have found it profitable to go over a subject matter several times and thrash
out all angles of the subject carefully, however, since my interpreter trans-
lated the story of Mr. Ortiz in such precise details, with such an easy flow
of competent English, I accepted the work of the interpreter at face value, not
realizing that he was omitting some important details as well as making some
dates too positive.
Some days ago, when I went over the subject of the Glorieta War with Mr.
Ortiz, the subject of the Pigeon Ranch Vfell came up for comment, and I dis-
covered that my notes were not complete enough, and partially in error. My
interpreter en this occasion was not so gifted with a beautiful flow of
English as the one I had in my first interview with Mr. Ortiz but he was faith-
ful in translating the full text of what Mr. Ortiz had to tell.
In my statement in the manuscript that the Valley Ranch was Mr. Alexander
Valle's headquarters ranch and that the Tigeon Ranch was one of his outlying
ranches. I was misled by the interpreter as well as in my previous information
on the subject, for I had been so informed by several people in and aroumd
Pecos, That the Valley Ranch was forialong period Mr. Valle's home ranch is
quite correct, and it is also natural that many people who did not know all
the facts came to believe it. Mr. Ortiz says that, the Valley Ranch did
not become Valle's home ranch until after he sold the Pigeon Ranch, shortly
after the Glorieta Battle, of 1862. That from what Mr. Valle told Mr. .rtiz
later, he came to the Glorieta country in about 1844 or 45, and that the
Pigeon Ranch was his home ranch until a year or two after the War when he
sold it to another Frenchman by the name of,
Mr. Ortiz says that he did not intend to make it emphatic, as the
interpreter gave it to me, that the first digging on the well by men
working for Mr. Valle was done in 1851 but that from what he was told it
was about th3t time or at any rate just a few years after Vall4ad establish-
ed himself in the country and was beginning to accumulate a bunch of cattle
and sheep. The little streamlet that flowed by the ranch and still flows
there was being poluted by cattle and sheep and was often made muddy over
long periods when the rains were copious in the summer season. It was
this condition that caused LT. Valle to start the digging of a well in
,fronilbf his ranch which he had developed into a sort of Inn for travelers
on the Santa Fe Trail. The story of Mr. Valle's early in this section,
Mr. ortiz got from ar. Valle himself and from neighbors who worked for Mr.
Valle over a long period.
The first knowledge that Mr. Ortiz can remember of the well was when
he was about five years of age, when he happened to be at Mr. Valle's
Ranch and was playing out in front of the house near the little stream.
ae remembers the hole which was the starting of the well some years previous.
The hole was not very deep for one could jump in and climb out of it, however
it was soon after that event of his playing around this hole that Mr.
Valle undertook the completion of the well. In my first talk with him
he did not go into all the detailOnd the interpreter evidently got the
wrong inpressioOnd got his first memory of the well, mixed up with the
completion of it.
1Zr. artiz says that he can not be certain of the exact year when Mr.
Valle had his men complete the well, but he is sure that it was finished
before the war of 1862. The finishing of the Well was done by four men
one of the names of whom( he could not recall in his first conversation
with me. This work of finishing the well was done sometime between his
,fift4hnd eighth year, and of this final work by Valle's men he has personal
memory and knowledge. 2he first digging and completion of the well was
evidently a square hole for when the hole itself was completed it was walled
out,log-house fashion, with a pole cribbing, on top of which was mounted
a boxed frame with pasts, cross -piece and well pulley. The four men
who finished the work on the well were: Rafael Lucero, Luis Moya, Antonio
Gabaldon, and Crus Cebolles.
In about the year 1866 when Teodosio Ortiz was a boy of thirteen
the new owner of the Pigeon Ranch for some reason, decided to remove
the pole curbing, somewhat enlarge the well, and wall it out rith rock.
For this job of enlarging and curbing out with rock, the owner of the
ranch hired the tea older brothers of Teodosio _Ttiz and he as a boy of
thirteen assisted his brothers in the work. The final enlarging of the
well to its present unusually large dimention was done in 1904 as I have
set forth in my manuscript on the well.