An official USGenWeb Project site Dedicated to Free Information for Home Family Genealogy use only.
Excerpts from Abe Peña's  Memories of Cibola

All material used with the kind permission of the author, given to me personally.

from AT THE MOUTH OF THE CANYON
"William McKinley was President of the United States when Pablo Peña, my father, was born in the village of San Mateo, Territory of New Mexico, on December 28, 1898. He died September 24, 1986, at the age of eighty-seven. He was the firstborn child of Abelicio and Manuelita Ortega Peña and had two sisters, Eufemia and Leticia, and two brothers, Antonio and Abelicio, as well as a half-brother, Lalo Salazar.


His early youth was spent with his paternal grandparents, Don Pablo and Doña Benita Mariño Peña. They were among the first settlers who came from Seboyeta to settle San Mateo, in 1862. When he was in his eighties, he remembered with fondness those early years, when he 'played with sticks and picked some pretty colored rocks in the arroyo.' The pretty rocks were his sheep and cattle. He played alone in a plazuela (patio) surrounded by high walls. His brothers were about ten years younger and lived with their parents. He attended the Congregational mission school in San Mateo and recalled 'playing tag, hide and seek, and other popular games' with his classmates.


After he finished the mission school, his parents sent him to boarding school at St. Michael's in Santa Fe. He adapted quickly and did well in his studies, as evidenced by a 'Testimonial of Merit for Term ending June 16th 1916... Special Distinction in General Excellence,' signed by one Brother Edward. Although he was not very sports-minded, he did enjoy baseball and boxing. He made the baseball team at St. Michael's and later was a devoted fan of Joe DiMaggio and the world champion New York Yankees. He was also an avid fan of Joe Louis, the heavyweight boxer and champion of the world. I remember him glued to the kitchen radio listening to Joe Louis fights.


At age nineteen, while he was still at St. Michael's, his father, Abelicio, died of a massive cerebral hemorrhage at the young age of forty-three. Pablo returned home to help his mother manage their sheep and cattle ranch north of San Mateo. His father had purchased the 23,000-acre ranch from the Santa Fe Pacific Railroad two years before he died. The payments on the ranch were quite heavy, and his mother felt they should let it go, afraid they would not be able to pay for it. My father suggested that they keep it and make the next payment by selling the cattle but keeping the sheep to graze the ranch; with future lamb and wool crops they could make further payments until they paid it off. Fortunately prices of livestock went up after the First World War, and by selling most of the cattle they were able to make the payments. Good management of the sheep enabled them to pay off the ranch by 1921.


In those days there were no fences, and cattle roamed the open range from San Mateo to Ambrosia Lake to Chaco Canyon and Pueblo Pintado. Roundups took the various owners and hired hands about four weeks during calf-branding in the spring, and about two weeks to gather and deliver them to the railhead in Grants in the fall.


In 1921 his young widowed mother, Manuelita, married Don Lizardo Salazar, the ranch foreman. The following year Pablo married Pablita Márquez, the attractive daughter of Don Fermín Márquez and Doña Beneranda Chávez Márquez in Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church in Seboyeta. The young bridge and groom struck out on their own with an inheritance of a house in San Mateo and about 225 sheep. They leased grazing land wherever they could. From Don Lizardo and Grandma Manuelita, from the Fernandez Company, from Anastacio Márquez, and others. Their sheep flock grew slowly.


They homesteaded a section of land in the Canyon Largo country and mother, who passed away in 1991 at age eighty-seven, used to say, 'The hardest years were the Depression years of the 1930s. Besides the low prices for sheep and wool, the drought produced little or no grass for the livestock... One year out on the homestead we made it through the winter mostly on rabbits that Pablo killed with his 22 rifle.' Pablo harbored an interest in politics like his Republican father Abelicio, who had served as an alternate delegate to the State Constitutional Convention in 1910 - 12, as well as a Valencia County commissioner from 1907 to 1911. Pablo was elected to the Board of County Commissioners in 1928 for two terms and again in 1950 for an additional two terms. He always considered well maintained county roads a top priority. At that time most of the roads were dirt and needed frequent blading. Cars and trucks were revolutionizing transportation, and roads were essential to the progress and development of Valencia County.


His father-in-law, Don Fermín Márquez, also a Republican, had also served two terms as a county commissioner and was a model for Pablo, who idolized him. Young Pablo sought advice and received it from the older and more experienced man, a successful businessman and livestock grower.


The stately old courthouse in Los Lunas, built at the turn of the century and torn down in the 1960s, was constructed during Don Fermín's tenure as county commissioner. His name was inscribed on the bronze plaque that graced the building while it stood dominating the center of Los Lunas.


San Mateo had about 50 families when I was growing up, for a total of about 250 people. Most of the men farmed or worked as sheepherders or cowboys, both locally and away in Arizona. Other sheepherders in the village were Mariano Ortega, Román Sandoval, and Nabor Márquez. Among the cattlemen were Nazario Sandoval, Merhage Michael (Don Miguel), Reymundo Barela, and Prajeres Candelaria, all of whom had forest permits. Others with smaller herds grazed the 'common lands' surrounding the village. Salaries for herding sheep or punching cattle were about thirty-five dollars per month, with groceries and a tent or house included. The largest employer was the Fernandez Company, La Compañía, about one mile west of the village.


Pablo was appointed to serve on the committee that built the first public school in San Mateo, in 1929. It was an attractive four-room adobe structure, built at the north end of the village, to house the first through eighth grades. All of us attended grade school there. Those were wonderful and growing years, where we were all raised by a caring community.


In 1942 Pablo's mother Manuelita and Don Lizardo Salazar put up the ranch for sale. My father had a lease on half of the ranch, where he was grazing his growing flock. He didn't know whether he and my mother could find the money to buy it, since the sellers wanted full payment in cash. While they had some savings, they were far from enough--but they needed the land to run their flocks. Grants had no banks at that time, but after looking far and wide, Pablo found a lender in Socorro, J. N. Mounyo, who loaned them money in return for a mortgage on the ranch. At this point they increased their number of sheep and were able to secure a Forest Service permit for the north side of Mount Taylor for summer grazing...


Prices for wool and lambs went up during the Second World War. Wool was a strategic fiber, used in warm clothing, worn by the Allies fighting the Axis powers in Europe. With increased prices and good rains in the 1940s, Pablo and Pablita were able to repay the loan before the end of the decade. With a lot of hard work and determination, they were also able to send their children to high school, and some even went on to college.


In the early 1950s, Al Williams, from Socorro, was looking for a building to use for a 'supermarket' in Grants. My father had four lots on east Santa Fe Avenue, and was approached to see if he was interested in building to suit the tenant and then leasing it. A contract was drawn up, and 'Stop and Shop' became the first supermarket in Grants. A couple of years later, the aggressive chain of Barber Supermarkets from Albuquerque purchased 'Stop and Shop' from Williams and continued the lease. Later on as Grants grew with the mushrooming uranium industry in the 1960s, Barber's moved to a much larger building at the Hilltop Shopping Center, built by the Gunderson family. The building on Santa Fe Avenue was then leased to Bob Daugherty and remodeled to become the Daugherty Cafeteria. It operated for about three years and a cocktail lounge was added, but then the owners got into financial trouble. The business closed and the equipment offered at a public sale. My father, in consultation with the family, decided to bid on the equipment and continue to operate the cafeteria.


At that time he was semiretired, taking care of other real estate investments while I managed the ranch. When he decided to operate the cafeteria, he and my mother moved from San Mateo to Grants. Mother, always the devoted wife, left her beloved San Mateo with a heavy heart, to join her husband in a new venture twenty-three miles down the road. But in time she also became an enthusiastic supporter of Grants.


Pablo hired Escolástico 'Esqui' Mazón, an experienced restaurant man and founder of the Monte Carlo Cafe, to manage the business. Dad liked the name 'Starlite,' and that's the name he gave it. After a year Esqui left to start another restaurant, and Dad decided to manage the cafeteria and lounge himself. The 'Starlite' became a landmark in Grants and a well-known stop on historic Route 66.


He was again working full-time and enjoying it. He and mother made many friends from near and far who repeatedly stopped to eat and say 'hello.' The Starlite became a gathering place for businessmen on their coffee break, as well as for 'snowbirds' on their way to southern Arizona from frigid northern climes in the fall, and back again when it thawed out in the spring. Californians stopped in droves when the schools let out in June. In midsummer it was not unusual to see the large parking lot filled with California license plates. In the evenings the softly lit and thickly carpeted cocktail lounge offered a respite for travelers as well as for a fine local clientele. Dad had made the Starlite a successful business that helped the local economy with jobs, sales, and services. With the bypass of Grants by Interstate Highway 40 and the demise of the famous Route 66 in the 1970s, the Starlite closed and the building rented, first as an auction center and later to a church group. In the 1980s the building that had served for so many functions over the years burned down. Larry and Angela Baca purchased the four lots in 1991 and built the attractive and popular 'El Cafecito' restaurant on the site of the old Starlite.


Dad and mother traveled to Europe to visit their daughter Sister Lydia, who was doing graduate work in Spain, and together they traveled through France and Italy. Later they traveled to Central America to visit my own family in Honduras, later in Costa Rica, and after that in Paraguay, in South America, when I was in the foreign service. They enjoyed their travels and wisely paced themselves to come back home rested rather than exhausted--and that is an art.


Among other activities in his full life, he served as president and founder of the Paisano Senior Citizens. He was a member of the Knights of Columbus, a member of the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) board, a director of the First National Bank of Grants, a member of the board of the Good Samaritan Center, a member of the Grants Chamber of Commerce, and a member of the New Mexico Wool Growers Assocation. He and mother were honored one year as grand marshals in the Grants Fourth of July Parade. In San Mateo they helped obtain electricity, running water, and telephones for the village.


An era was coming to an end. Pablo Peña, a dedicated, successful, and most gracious man, held in high regard by the community, passed away on September 24, 1986. He died of pneumonia after a short illness, at age eighty-seven. His wife, Pablita, joined him in death on June 24, 1991, also at the age of eighty-seven.


In an editorial the Grants Daily Beacon said, 'Pablo Peña never stopped working for his community... until Wednesday, when he died at the age of 87. Pablo Peña contributed to his community and kept right on contributing until the end. He was also a gallant gentleman of the old school of etiquette and ethics. With his presence the community was a better place. With his passing, the community suffers a great loss.'"