Mary Ann Deming Crocker (1829-1889) “Namesake of Deming”
Born in 1827, Mary Ann Deming was married to Charles Crocker, one of the founders of the Central Pacific Railroad. A “silver spike” was driven here in 1881 that commemorated connecting the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe railroads, and signaled completion of the nation’s second transcontinental railroad. The new settlement was christened Deming in Mary’s honor for her generosity and benevolence to many charitable causes for the poor.
Roadside Marker Location: Luna County, US Hwy 180
You can view a county by county list of the Historic Women Mile Markers in this pdf.
Palace of the Governors Photo Archives Abandoned railroad tracks and buildings in Shakespeare, New Mexico Creator: New Mexico Tourism Bureau Date: 1950 – 1960? Negative Number: HP.2007.20.508
Women of Shakespeare: Emma Marble Muir (1873–1959), Rita Wells Hill (1901–1985), Janaloo Hill Hough (1939–2005)
Emma Marble Muir arrived at the mining town of Shakespeare in 1882. She and her daughter, Rita Wells Muir, learned to appreciate and preserve the town’s history. Rita and her husband bought Shakespeare as part of their ranch in 1935. Rita passed the ranch to her daughter, Janaloo Hill Hough. Janaloo and her husband continued fighting for the history and preservation of Shakespeare. Investing their own resources, they rebuilt some of the buildings destroyed by a fire in 1997. Without the dedication of this mother, daughter and granddaughter, the ghost town of Shakespeare would not exist today.
Roadside Marker Location: Hidalgo County, I-10, Mile Marker 20
You can view a county by county list of the Historic Women Mile Markers in this pdf.
A black, alpaca wool jacket with velvet and rick-rack trim around the neckline and along the shoulders, c. 1904-1913. This object represents one type of merchandise sold in a general store on the plaza in Chimayo, NM that was owned by Victor Ortega and later his son, Ben. Victor Ortega was heavily involved in the community. He was also a notary public, a postmaster, participated in the 1st constitutional convention of NM and also acted as the director of the local school and served as a probate judge.
Read more about Victor Ortega in this Spring 2012 El Palacio article titled “Don Victor Ortega.“ NMHM/DCA 11731.45
Photo Credit: Palace of the Governors Photo Archives Aviator Katherine Stinson Otero on airmail route, Calgary, Canada Photographer: W. V. Ring Date: July 9, 1918 Negative Number 047669
Katherine Stinson Otero (1891-1977)
Katherine was the fourth American woman to earn a pilot’s license and the first female skywriter. She overcame pioneering aviator Max Lillie’s reluctance to teach her to fly, and became the “Flying Schoolgirl,” nicknamed for her youthful looks, small stature, and derring-do. Katherine marveled spectators, rolling her plane, skywriting at night with flares attached to its wings, and maneuvering risky loop-the-loops. With her family she founded the Stinson Aviation Company, designed aircraft, and operated a flight school. She was the first aviatrix to fly the Orient and set a record in 1917 for the longest West Coast solo flight.
Roadside Marker Location: Santa Fe County, US Hwy 284
You can view a county by county list of the Historic Women Mile Markers in this pdf.
Photo Credit: Palace of the Governors Photo Archives Concha Ortiz y Pino de Kleven and Sheepherder With Caracul Lambs Jose Ortiz y Pino Ranch, Galisteo, New Mexico – 1939 Photo By: New Mexico Tourist Bureau Negative #059021
“Concha” was a rancher and the first female Majority Whip of a state legislature in the nation. She helped implement legislation for women’s rights, the handicapped, and bilingual education and also championed the arts and Hispanic culture. She served on sixty local and national boards helping to improve the lives of others. Vista Magazine honored her as “Latina of the Century” in 1999.
Works Progress Administration sculptor Oliver LaGrone casting “Mercy” for installation at the Carrie Tingley Children’s Hospital for Crippled Children in Hot Springs (Truth or Consequences), NM, ca. 1936. Palace of the Governors Photo Archives 019936
Oliver LaGrone (1906-1995), younger brother of Hobart LaGrone, is a nationally-recognized artist, educator, and poet. After moving with his family from the Midwest to Albuquerque in the early 1930s, Oliver LaGrone quickly became involved in his community. In 1933, both Oliver and Hobart became members of the first African American Boy Scout troop in Albuquerque. Oliver was also the director and member, along with Hobart, of the Harmony Four, a quartet that regularly sang at the Grant Chapel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, where they were also members with their family.
Albuquerque Tribune 21 February 1952
Oliver LaGrone began his studies at the University of New Mexico, and refined his skills in the fine arts. In 1936, the WPA hired Mr. LaGrone to create a sculpture for the future Carrie Tingley Hospital for Crippled Children in Hot Springs, NM. Upon graduating from UNM in 1938 with a Bachelor of Science degree, Mr. LaGrone met and married Irmah Cooke and moved to Michigan shortly thereafter, though he moved back to Albuquerque briefly in 1977.
Oliver LaGrone continued making sculptures throughout his life, while he worked as a representative for the American Federation of Labor (AF of L) in Detroit’s auto industry, while he worked as a teacher in Detroit public schools, and throughout his tenure as a faculty member at Pennsylvania State University.
Oliver LaGrone was also known for his activism and wrote poetry on Black history, identity, and the fight for civil rights in the United States. His sculptures can be seen at the Albuquerque Museum sculpture garden, the Schomberg Center at the New York Public Library, and Pennsylvania State University, among other locations.
Photographer and former Rough Rider, Royal A. Prentice, 1950? Neg. 006017. Palace of the Governors Photo Archives, New Mexico History Museum
Photographer and former Rough Rider, Royal A. Prentice was also an early volunteer who contributed valuable archeological information to the Museum of New Mexico.
The live presentation can be seen on YouTube and via Zoom.
Richard Ford, Allison Colborne, and Gary Hein have undertaken a study of Royal A. Prentice, an early volunteer who contributed valuable archaeological information to the Museum of New Mexico in the first three decades of the 20th century. Although he published several useful research papers during those years in El Palacio, the quarterly magazine of the Museum of New Mexico, Prentice remains generally unknown today. The presentation will provide an overview of his life focusing on his archaeological research, stressing that the value of this work has earned him a well-deserved place in the history of New Mexico archaeology.
Our speakers for this event are:
Richard I. Ford Arthur F. Thurnau, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology and Botany, University of Michigan Research Associate, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture
Several of Royal A. Prentice’s photographs are currently on exhibit in our Working on the Railroad Exhibition which remains open until October of 2021.
You can also visit the exhibition from home via the Virtual Version .
Friends of History is a volunteer support group for the New Mexico History Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Its mission is to raise funds and public awareness for the Museum’s exhibitions and programs. Friends of History fulfills its mission by offering high quality public history programs, including the First Wednesday Lecture Series. For more information, or to join the Friends of History, go to friendsofhistorynm.org
Clara Belle Drisdale Williams [1885-1993] was the first African-American graduate of New Mexico State University. Many of her professors would not allow her inside the classroom, she had to take notes from the hallway; she was also not allowed to walk with her class to get her diploma. She married Jasper Williams in 1917; their three sons became physicians. She became a great teacher of black students by day, and by night she taught their parents, former slaves, home economics. In 1961, New Mexico State University named a street on its campus after Williams;
in 2005 the building of the English department was renamed Clara Belle Williams Hall. In 1980 Williams was awarded an honorary doctorate of laws degree by NMSU, which also apologized for the treatment she was subjected to as a student. She died at 108 years old.
More information on Clara Belle Drisdale Williams in articles on NMSU.edu
Did you know that the Albuquerque chapter of the NAACP was established in January 1915 – nine years after the national organization was founded in 1906?
Albuquerque Journal 4 May 1952
Though many notable Albuquerque residents served and continue to dedicate their time to the NAACP, we want to highlight Mr. Hobart LaGrone, a devoted member and former president of the both the local and state chapters of the NAACP throughout the 1950s and until his death in 1966. Under Mr. LaGrone’s leadership, the NAACP Albuquerque Branch welcomed nationally and internationally known African American scholars and artists, namely Dr. W.E.B DuBois, Langston Hughes, and Dr. Ralph Johnson Bunche to speak in town regarding urgent sociopolitical matters. Mr. LaGrone (center) is pictured above in this Albuquerque Journal photo with Dr. Bunche (left of center) from his lecture on the United Nations in May 1952.
Albuquerque Journal 18 February 1953
A postman by day, Mr. LaGrone’s NAACP work shed light on discrimination and racial justice issues in Albuquerque and New Mexico more broadly. He attended GI Forum meetings, worked with state senators to end school segregation in New Mexico, and was instrumental in spearheading the Albuquerque Civil Rights Ordinance in 1952, to name a few key accomplishments. Just three years before his death, the city honored Mr. LaGrone for his dedication to civil rights causes.
Albuquerque Tribune 16 May 1963
Hobart LaGrone and his brother Oliver, a renowned artist, are two members of a dynamic family we’re currently researching at the museum, though we look forward to learning about more family members and their community in Albuquerque. Look for another post this week on the life and work of Oliver LaGrone.
