Winter 2014 - The Lea County Museum

The Paisano
Lea County Museum Newsletter
Winter 2014
Join Us
Lea County Museum Mission:
The mission of the Lea County Museum is to collect,
document, interpret, preserve and display historic, cultural, and natural artifacts from lea County and the
surrounding areas of Easter New Mexico and West Texas. As an educational institution serving the people of
our area, the museum presents informative and entertaining exhibits and programs on the region’s historical,
culture and natural heritage.
LCM Board of Directors:
Gene Murphy, President
Phillip Ozborn, Vice-President
Belinda Hardin, Secretary
Tueredia McBride, Treasurer
Joe Byers
Carrie Swenson
Dorothy Runnels
Peter Mladinic
John Lathrop
Freida Owens
Debi Feltman
Anne Behl
Two young ladies at the Mexican American Festival
Museum Director:
Jim Harris
Museum Staff:
Nancy Bailey, Assistant Director
Rosa Doporto, Hostess
Contact Us:
Lea County Museum
103 S. Love St.
Lovington, NM 88260
575-396-4805
Email: leacomuseum@leaco.net
Website: leacountymuseum.org
A colorful little one during
Halloween on the Plaza
Lovington HS National Honor Society Members
Makayla Ozborn and Alexis Shorter helping Santa!
SAY HELLO TO OUR NEW LOOK
After several years of the same style
for the Lea County Museum newsletter, we have decided to give our publication a name and a new look. We
hope our readers will like the new. Let
us know what you think!
tral in what was the 1928 Johnson
Store and later Beverly’s women’s
clothing store.
As most readers will already know, the
Spanish word “paisano” means friend
or fellowman and it also the Spanish
name for one of the most recognizable
and beloved creatures inhabiting the With seating and standing room that
includes adjoining rooms in the twoSouthwest, the roadrunner, also
story Lister Building, the Town Hall will
accommodate approximately 200 visitors. There is additional space that
can be used as a dance floor.
Four concerts have been planned for
the initial offerings in the Hall, from
January through early May. These will
be to “test the waters” for the new setting, and most likely there will be other
known as the chaparral bird. We hope
musical programs scheduled in the
the LCM newsletter, The Paisano, becoming weeks.
comes a beloved addition to the mail
In another part of this newsletter, look
you regularly receive.
for information about the concerts currently scheduled for this year.
NEW CONCERTS FORMAT IN 2014
The new year brings a different approach to a LCM set of programs that
have become a museum tradition in
the last 10 years. Instead of producing outdoor concerts and dances on
Love Street in the summer, the museum will be inviting guests to free indoor concerts and dances to be held
in the LCM Town Hall, the performance center located at 114 E. Cen-
MILITARY AND VETERANS EXHIBIT RECEIVING A FACELIFT
Since the acquisition of the 1931 Lister Building
a number of years ago, LCM staff members
have been working to create a Lea County Veterans and Military Exhibit to honor the men and
women from the county who have served the
country with armed forces duty. There is light at
the end of the tunnel for this long-overdue work
with the coming of a new volunteer at the museum. Former long-term Lea County employee
Anne Behl has taken the leadership role in developing the exhibit. Anne brings much experience to this curatorial and labor-intensive project. She is a writer who has published fiction
and non-fiction, a journalist who worked for the
Hobbs News Sun for several years, and her
most recent job was 16 years with Lea County
as the director of Human Resources. Anne conAnne Behl developing the Military Exhibit
tinues to work as a consultant for both government and private organizations. Lea County and
the Lea County Museum are very fortunate to have this talented and enthusiastic woman
on the LCM team of volunteers. She is especially excited about the subject of exhibit, acknowledging the county heroes who have served the nation with their work and their lives.
YOU TOO CAN SERVE AS A VOLUNTEER
The LCM has three new programs for volunteers
ADOPT A BUILDING OR EXHIBIT: Come to the LCM once a month to care for one
of the many buildings or exhibits. Help us preserve our historical heritage. Did you
know we have dozens of history exhibits and 12 different historical structures at the
LCM in downtown Lovington?
GREET VISITORS FROM AROUND THE WORLD: Come to the 1918 Commercial
Hotel once a month to serve as a greeter for the LCM and visit with men, women, and
children who have come from every state and many countries to view exhibits on the
history of Lea County.
HOST SPECIAL SPEAKERS & ARTISTS: Come to the LCM Town Hall and Art
Gallery for special programs, such as concerts, lectures, book signings, and art openings, in which you can serve as host or hostess for the afternoon or evening events.
Come by, call, or email the museum if you want to join the LCM team!
Giles Lee and Jimmie B. Cooper
Inducted into Lea County Athletic Hall of Fame
Lea County ranchers and rodeo superstars Giles Lee and Jimmie B. Cooper
were inducted into the Lea County Athletic Hall of Fame this past November 12th
at the sixth annual induction held at the
Lea County Event Center in Hobbs.
Introducing Giles was the former director of the Lea County Cowboy Hall
of Fame, Sylvia Mahoney. Introducing Jimmie was former state senator
Bill Lee who also has been a Lea
rancher all of his life.
Red Steagall and Sylvia Mahoney
Giles Lee in Cheyenne, Wyoming 1988
The two men, who have lived on their
family ranches all of their lives, were
honored as rodeo standouts in a celebratory evening that included Red Steagall
as master of ceremonies and with songs
and music by Red and by Levelland,
Texas singers and musicians Rusty
Hudelson and his daughter Tania Moody.
Jimmie B. Cooper in Las Vegas, Nevada 1985
Giles and Jimmie join an outstanding
group of athletes who have been inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame
since its inception six years ago. Visit
the Hall of Fame exhibit at LCM!!
The Hall is located in the museum's
1928 Johnson Store located on the
south side of the courthouse square
at 114 E. Central. It is adjacent to the
LCM's 1931 Lister Building.
Inductees
Jimmie B. Cooper and Giles Lee
November 2013
AFTER 18
YEARS JAMES
SOUTH
RETIRES AS
LCM HOST
Thank you
James for all
of your years
of service to
the LCM!
ROSA DOPORTO JOINS THE
LCM TEAM AS NEW HOSTESS
Lea County and Lovington residents will see a
new but familiar face when they enter the lobby
of the Lea County Museum's 1918 Commercial
Hotel.
Rosa Doporto is now the hostess for the museum's primary building.
Rosa has served as a member of the LCM Board
of Director's for the last four years. She will
step down as a member of the board to become
the hostess.
Board President Gene Murphy says the directors are sorry to lose Rosa as a board member,
but very happy to have her take this very important job of greeting visitors to the museum,
taking them through the exhibits in the museum's several buildings, and telling those visitors
about the history of Lea County.
Welcome aboard, Rosa!
From Southern Lea, Chloe Sims
Has Witnessed Much County History
Over the last few years I have visited with a number of Lea County residents who have lived long, productive, and happy lives in Southeast
New Mexico, some of them here from 1900 when the first town was created in Monument, some of them here in the teens when the state became a
state and Lea became a county, and still others born in the 1920’s when county residents took their first steps toward modernity.
Not one of the dozens of interviewees I have visited has had a more refreshing and heartening outlook on life than Eunice’s Chloe
Sims. Not one of those dozens of men and women who lived here in earlier times is more articulate and full of good memories as Mrs. Sims was
when I talked with her in her home on January 13.
Now, I am not implying that someone who
devoid of memories.
In fact, it’s my understanding that ninety is
is 92 years old is supposed to be less than articulate or
the new seventy, or the new sixty as some tell me.
I will say this: If Mrs. Sims could describe
she described it for me in our afternoon conversabook in the Health and Happiness genre, or per-
her ninety-two years of life in written words as well as
tion, she would have a Barnes and Noble bestseller
haps in the Southwest History section of the bookstore.
Now, those complimentary words about
donated to the Lea County Museum some valuable
her own writings going back to the 1960’s in which
of Lea, and dozens of photographs of Lea neighmoved to Lea in 1909.
Mrs. Sims have nothing to do with the fact that she
historical artifacts--lists of the names of early residents,
she was interviewing certain of the oldest of old timers
bors and of the Sims family, the members of which
After she gave the artifacts to me, Mrs.
Eunice Room on the second floor of the museum’s
that floor which tell the history of Lea’s towns, in-
Sim’s donations quickly became part of the LCM
1931 Lister Building, a room like the several others on
cluding Monument, Tatum, Lovington, Hobbs, and Jal.
One of those artifacts in the Eunice Room
the first one hundred or so settlers to the frontier
has had the reputation of being the Lea community
town that has persisted in celebrating that history
Old Timers Reunion and Fiddlers’ Contest, events
regularly for over 50 years.
is a handsome 3’ by 4’ plaque that lists the names of
town that had its first building erected in 1909. Eunice
that most values its frontier heritage and history, a
with annual events, such as, traditional rodeos and the
at which many residents and past-residents have met
In a long list of individuals attending the 1960 reunion, I found the signatures of individuals who had come to Southeast New Mexico in the
first decade of the 20th century, some here before Eunice developed and the towns of the future Lea County were Monument, Knowles, and Lovington, which had its post office established in 1908.
Contemporary Eunice has received much more publicity in the last decade for being the new home of one of Lea’s most important businesses, URENCO, USA, the uranium enrichment facility located on the town’s east side. Everyone takes pride in the fact that URENCO is in Lea
and is about as modern and contemporary in its mission as a business could be.
However, with residents such as Chloe Sims living in Eunice, no one will be surprised that Eunice continues to celebrate its past at the
same time it revels in the present.
To be honest, in her life and in her collection of memorabilia, Mrs. Sims is a treasure trove of narratives from earlier times when residents
here struggled to survive in an unforgiving, semiarid land where only the strong remained.
Before she married and came to Lea, she was one of 14 children of Dru and Ollie Slayton who struggled to get by on a dry land farm east
of Lubbock. The Sims Ranch to which she moved to after her 1942 marriage to R. D. “Dee” Sims is a few miles southeast of Eunice, and life on that
ranch in the early 1900’s was no cakewalk.
Just walking outside the front door could be dangerous since the land in and along either side of Monument Draw was--and still is-infamous for being the stomping grounds for some of the biggest rattle snakes in all of the American West.
With modern communication and transportation, the Sims Ranch Headquarters, where Chloe’s son Floyd lives and works, is not as isolated
as it was a century ago. But before and after World War I, that isolation could easily have cost family members their lives.
Even in more recent times, the hazards of living on a Lea ranch were not to be taken lightly. Mrs. Sims recalled a time near the end of
World War II when the Sims family members and their neighbors were loading over 800 cattle at a railroad side track located just a few miles west of
the ranch headquarters. As a passenger train on the main track roared by going north, the San Simon cattle became agitated and restless. When
the train came back through going south, with the whistle blowing, the big herd stampeded, and for a short time with children and grownups alike
attempting to stem the flow of cattle in all directions, men, women, and children could have easily been caught under the thousands of hooves roaring through the dirt and filling the sky with a thick cloud of dust.
Mrs. Sims has plenty of stories to tell of the hard times of the last century, but she chooses to focus on the incredibly good and long life
that, as she phrases it, “God has given her.”
It’s obvious that Mrs. Sims loves history. She notes that amazing as it sounds, her grandfather fought in the Civil War. Her parents and her
husband’s parents were pioneers in West Texas and Eastern New Mexico, men and women who occupied the West’s “last frontier,” as historian Gil
Hinshaw puts it.
Dozens of the photographs she has donated to the Lea County Museum tell the stories of earlier times that demanded men and women be
tough physically, mentally, and spiritually.
Mrs. Chloe Sims is a model of how a hardworking, active life can give a person much satisfaction, a good memory of the past, and
much comfort even in his or her ninth decade.
African-Americans
Myrtle Farquhar and
Jessie James
Moved to Lea 1930’s-40’s
Article by Jim Harris
As published in the Lovington Leader
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Jessie and Princella James
Myrtle Farquhar
The cardboard boxes that Eunice’s Chloe Sims recently donated to the Lea County Museum are filled with scrapbooks and photos, newspaper clippings and personal notes from her 71 years of life in Lea County, she having come to Southeast New Mexico in 1942
when she was 21 and after her marriage to rancher Dee Sims.
The materials focus primarily on the town of Eunice, but there are interesting bits and pieces of memorabilia from the history of all
of the towns in Lea, some of them having disappeared decades ago.
There is enough information in these old boxes to fill a year’s worth of History Notebook essays, but on this Martin Luther King
holiday, my initial survey of the materials brought two newspaper clippings to my attention, narratives of Hobbs of 60 and 70 years ago.
In one set of newspaper stories, I learned about a man named Jessie James, an African-American who was born around 1890 in
Bastrop, Texas, and a woman named Myrtle Farquhar, also an African-American born in Texas, who was a teacher at Booker T. Washington Elementary School when it was a two-room building.
Jessie James came to Hobbs in 1942 after his marriage to Princella in Joplin, Missouri. And yes, he was named for the famous
Western outlaw whose life inspired hundreds of folktales, movies, and books. I’m sure the outlaw was still on the minds of Texans when
James was born in the still undeveloped woodlands east of Austin 124 years ago.
James’ grandfather, Elick, was brought to America from Africa as a slave, and he was purchased by the James family of Missouri,
taking the family name as his own. With emancipation, Elick James moved to Texas where he raised his family, including his sons, one
named Frank and the other named Isaac, Jessie’s father.
Before he moved to Hobbs, Jessie lived in a number of places and worked at several different jobs. He worked on farms around
Bastrop. He picked cotton in Plainview, Texas. He worked as a chauffeur in Oklahoma and traveled to many states as the driver for his
wealthy employer.
When he married his wife Princella, she had a sister who was living in Hobbs, and that is what prompted them to move to Lea
County. While he was in Oklahoma City, he had managed a cafe, and when he came to Hobbs he took a job as a chef at Tate’s cafe on
Broadway Street. Later he worked at the Chuck House cafe on Turner and the Shamrock on Broadway.
Myrtle Farquhar, a teacher in her home state of Texas, moved to Hobbs in 1935 when her husband George was transferred to
New Mexico by Humble Oil Company, the company for whom he worked. Myrtle had studied music at Texas College in Tyler, and wh en
she came to Hobbs she continued her studies with Mrs. B. A. Rea. She became the go-to and popular person in town when churches or
other organizations needed a piano player at their meetings. She was a member of the Lovely Ladies Club and worked on many projects
that benefitted the Black community in Hobbs, including the Washington Heights Nursery School.
I first learned about Mrs. Farquhar in an article written by Hobbs News-Sun reporter Kathryn Morris. Farquhar and another Hobbs
educator, Lola Rae Heizer, had just been named to the Southeast New Mexico Education Association Hall of Fame. Mrs. Heizer, a member of a pioneer Lea County family, had one Hobbs school named for her family. Morris wrote glowingly of the two women, but there was
not as much about Farquhar’s early life as there was about Heizer’s.
The Lea County Museum, with the help of several individuals in Hobbs and Lovington, is creating an exhibit in the Lister Building
to tell the story of African-Americans in the county, and I would not be surprised to find both the stories of Myrtle Farquhar and Jessie
James in the exhibit.
Myrtle was a member of Lovely Ladies, an organization that is still very active in Lea, and I would guess the organization will have
much recorded about the life of Mrs. Farquhar. Reporter Morris wrote in praise of her contributions to Hobbs: “From the time of their arrival, the Farquhars established themselves as respected and contributing members of the community, always interested in civic betterment,
in helping children....”
The stories of Jessie James and Myrtle Farquhar are just two of the many individual, family, and community
stories that add to the history of Lea County.
The James and Farquhar families arrived three and four decades after the earliest of Lea pioneers, but without their biographies Lea’s historical narratives would be incomplete in character and plot.
What’s Happening
Around the Museum
After School Adventures visits LCM
with Director Elizabeth Graham and other helpers
More Fall Fiesta Dancers
Fall Fiesta Dancers
Visitors during Lovington’s
Halloween on the Plaza
Keith Walters, artist, and Max Evans
signing new book Max Evans’ Animal Stories
LCM supporter Carl Johnson (right) with Red
Steagall at Hall of Fame Induction Banquet
Santa (aka Jerry Lambert) and
little visitor
Mary Haarmeyer at booksigning with
Rep. Stevan Pearce
Tueredia McBride, Christian Betencourt
(Hobbs News Sun), Peter Mladinic &
Evelyn Rising consulting on the new
African-American exhibit
Father Manuel Ibarra & LCM Board Member Pete Mladinic
The Lea County Museum has been awarded a $2500 grant from
the Monsanto Corporation’s “America’s Farmers Grow Communities” program
The grant was received through a nomination by northern Lea County farmer Jimmie McKown who
singled out the Lea County Museum as a nonprofit organization “vital to the development of rural communities across America.” LCM board president Gene Murphy says board members and museum
staff are very excited about receiving the grant which will be used in landscaping projects which will
take place in connection with the building of the new Lea County judicial complex just across the
street from the museum.
Lea County Museum staff members Rosa Doporto (left) and Nancy Bailey hold an enlarged
check that will be used in a presentation at the LCM on Feb. 28 program.
ARTFUL HANDS PRESENT
PATRIOTIC QUILT TO
LCM MIITARY AND VETERANS EXHIBIT
Ladies of The Artful Hands quilting group, through
the Lea County Extension Service with New Mexico
State University, presented a quilt to be displayed in
the LCM Military and Veteran exhibit. Each member
contributed their talents in what they describe as a
“labor of love” to demonstrate their pride in America
and their respect and love for the men and women
who have served in the US armed services.
Quilters pictured left to right next to quilt are Missie
Wright, Shirley Choate, Sharon Fair, Sabrina Erickson. Left to right in outside row are Robin Mack
Haynes, Vestal Lair, Caroline Roane, Cindi Sanchez,
and Suzanna Reed
The Lea County Museum Bookstore has hundreds
of books on the history, culture, and folklore of
Lea County and the Southwest. Many are also
available on Amazon by searching “Lea County Museum” storefront.
Special thanks goes out to Lea County State
Bank and Bobby Shaw Realty for sponsoring the
recent republishing of Gil Hinshaw’s Lea: New
Mexico’s Last Frontier which is now available in
our bookstore
2013-2014 Exhibits in the Art Gallery
2013:
January-February: Lubbock Photographers
May-July: Raton, NM & Trinidad CO, Art Group
August-November: Photographer Tim Keller
Nov.-January 15: Carol Hammond Mixed-media,
and watercolors
2014:
January 17-March 17: Animal Art by Joan
McMahan
Photographer Tim Keller with Libby and Danny
Barry admiring Tim’s photo of Libby’s father
Giles Lee
March 21-June: Sculpture by David Sadler
LCM ART GALLERY
114 E. Central Street
Across from the Courthouse
Bottom Floor of 1931 Lister Building
Raton Artist Terry Bumpus with his unique
clock art, now a permanent piece at the LCM
Artist Joan McMahon (right) with Best Dressed Dog,
"Honey" and owner Rickie Adams during the opening reception for Joan’s Pets and Animals art exhibit. The proceeds of all sales during Joan’s show will be donated to
the Lea County Animal Shelter
Visitors during Carol Hammond’s opening reception
Free Concerts — a Tradition at Lea County Museum
New Winter/Spring 2014 Concert and Dance Series
January 31 Lea County Review featuring
Buck Vandermeer, Russell White and Arnold Cardon
March 28 Anthony Ray Wright & Band
from Alpine, TX
February 28 Jazz musician Wayne Salzmann & Band
Direct from Austin
May 10 W. C. Jameson from Llano, TX
Musical Memories from the Past
The Bellamy Brothers
Rusty Hudelson
Tania Moody
Jody Nix
Asleep at the Wheel
Darrell McCall
The Derailers
Dave Alexander
Alejandro Escovedo
Duck Soup
Bobby Florez
Billy Joe Shaver
Will Banister
Red Steagall
Tish Hinajosa
The Texas Playboys
Johnny Bush
Spring Creek
Brad Leahli
Darnell Smith
Steve Smith & the Hard
Road Band
Jay Patton
Victoria Dominguez
Spring Creek
Hot Club of Cowtown
Michael Martin Murphy
The Quebe Sisters
Jimmie Dale Gilmore
Special appreciation goes to the J. F Maddox Foundation, Lodgers Tax Boards of Hobbs and Lovington,
and numerous county businesses, organizations and individuals for their generous support which has
allowed the Lea County Museum to bring many fine musicians here for your enjoyment
Join the Paisano Club
The Lea County Museum Support Group
Membership Levels
Paisano: $25
Paisano Grande: $50
Paisano Patron: $100
Paisano Grand Patron: $250+
About our orgAnizAtion…
The Lea County Museum was founded in 1969 when the Lovington Women’s Club purchased the 1918 Commercial Hotel on the southeast corner of the town square. With the help
of many volunteers, the rundown old building was refurbished and folks started to bring artifacts for the museum’s collections.
The Paisano Club is the support group providing financial and volunteer services to the
museum. Memorial donations, dedicated to the person, persons or organization of your choice,
provide additional support to the museum while honoring members of our community.
The Lea County Museum is a non-profit, tax-exempt 501(c)3 organization. All contributions to the museum are tax deductible.
Lea County Museum
103 S. Love ST.
Lovington, New Mexico
88260
PRESORTED
STANDARD
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
Lovington, NM
Permit No. 53