Fort Stanton, New Mexico

Acknowledgments

I want to thank Louise Cooper Engstrom for the names she came up with. Also Billy Hale gave me a name I just could not remember, Willett White for the names of the Spickelmeir boys and to Danna Kusianovich Henderson for the survey she sent and a list of people working at the Fort in 1953. It helped me both with names that I remembered who were still working there and the survey was indispensable in numbering the buildings right and identify what buildings they were.

MEMORIES OF FORT STANTON NEW MEXICO

By Jack C. Brooks

There were two main roads in Fort Stanton, which ran east & west. The one on the north side of the parade grounds came from Capitan along the rear of the buildings and went all the way west to the hog farm. Since none of the roads had names, let's call this North Road. The second road ran from the government garage along the south side of Laundry Row and the buildings on the south of the parade grounds and west past it to two houses. Let's call this road South Road. There were four roads that ran north and south, the first between the North Road & South Road between laundry row and the corrals, carpentry shop and garage and continued on to Devil's Canyon. Let's call this East Road. The second between North Road and South Road ran between the Community House and Seamen's Social Club behind the kitchen, hospital and Bachelors Quarters.  Let's call this road Center Street. The third ran south from North Road between the apartments # 13 for the executive employees and #12 material office and dead-ended just past the office. Let's call this road Center Lane. The material office is where we gathered to catch the bus for high school. The fourth road ran between Buildings 31, 32, 33 on the East Side and Building 34 on the West Side from North Road to South Road. Let’s call this road West Road.

Every building in Fort Stanton had a number to designate each building location for a fire. The steam whistle would sound a long warbling whistle then one long whistle for ten and one short whistle for one. Example: one long whistle and four short whistles would be building 14.

Starting on the southeast corner of the parade ground and going around it to the north, the first building on the East Side was Bldg. 6, the dining hall and kitchen. On the south side of this building in the middle was the Episcopal Church and on the south east end was an apartment where Dad Cavanaugh lived; he was in charge of the dairy. On the north side of this building there was another wing, which was the butcher shop and commissary where the employees could purchase their meat and some canned goods. North of the kitchen was the Powerhouse, which later was moved to its present location.  Bldg. 5, the hospital, was built here in its present location. The next building north was Bldg. 4, the single doctor's quarters, (8 apartments) along with some apartments for single personnel who worked in the office. Also Mr. Smith, the Episcopal minister, and the Catholic priest until they built the new church which had quarters for the priest at the church. When they demolished the building on the Hill just east of the Ambulatory Cottages for the single kitchen help and QS&L workers, the kitchen help moved into a dormitory that formerly was Dad Cavanaugh's apartment. The QS&L workers moved into a dormitory provided in one of the wings going off the back of the single officers quarters, Bldg. 4.

Fort Stanton practiced recycling even then. There was a garbage house 6A behind the kitchen building. They separated the wood, paper, cans and that type from the table scraps and food type garbage. The food type garbage was taken to the hog pens, recooked and fed to the hogs.

Turning the corner on the north side of the parade ground, the next building was Bldg. 3, a duplex that the dentist and a doctor lived in. The second dentist there after we moved in was Dr. Parker; he had two boys--the oldest, my age, Billy, the younger Bobbie.  Dr King occupied the other half of this duplex. Then Bldg. 1 the Commanding Officers house.  When we first came to Fort Stanton the CO was Dr. Allen; they had a daughter Mary, my sister's age. Then Dr. Porter--I don't think they had any children. Then Dr. Kunkel--they had two, Jo Ann, who married Willett White, and John, called Jack.  Then Dr. Weldon; I think they had a daughter, Judy, who liked to ride horses. Then Dr. Kunkel returned and was the CO when I left Fort Stanton . The next, Bldg. 2, was the old nurse's residence and since has been demolished.

Turning the corner there was a small White House, Bldg.14--the Boyd's, daughter Claire lived there later. Then the apartment building, 13--junior officers and office personnel lived there. I don't remember all of them but some were the Howard’s--Margaret, Eva and a brother Guy Thomas.  Fagans--Virginia, and Betty. The Spickelmeir’s (spelling); Mr. Spickelmeir I think was sort of head of all the different departments. They had tree sons, Lee and twins John and Wally. Wally died in 11930 from complications following an Appendix operation. I don't remember the name of the oldest but the youngest was John. The Whites--Willett, Evelyn, George, Jere. Mr. White was in charge of the power plant. The next building 12, was the materiel office but it was on the West Side of Center Lane behind the apartment building. The next building when I first came to Fort Stanton was the Catholic Church. This is the location that the WPA put the stone front on that was later taken down stone by stone, numbered, and rebuilt at the new location just west of the grade school. At that time it was attached to what was then the hospital, a frame building. I think the hospital was L shaped and went around the corner to the south side of the parade ground. Today Bldg. 96, the new nurse’s home, is there.

Going east from the hospital on the south side of the parade ground was building 9.  The Movie Theater was on the second floor and on the first floor, West End, was the store run by an ex-patient Mr. Smith.  Then some storage rooms and the telephone equipment room, stairway to the theater, last the Post Office. At the top of the stairway on the left opposite the door to the theater was a watch repair shop run by a patient. Movies were usually about ten years old and shown every Tuesday and Friday and cost 5 cents under 12 and 10 cents over 12. Patient’s movies were shown Mondays and Thursdays. The boys from the C.C.C. camp had an early showing on Tuesdays and Fridays. Then Bldg. 8, x-ray and Dental building. Next Bldg. 7; this was the administration building. The pharmacy actually was in a wing attached to and behind 7.  There was a bell outside that was rung to call the patients to get their medications.  Next to the pharmacy across a sidewalk from the Episcopal Church (part of Bldg. 6) was the Seaman's Social Club, Bldg.15; you could go there to buy candy and pop but could not stay, eat, drink or hang around. The patients played pool and all types of card games including poker for money. On paydays one of the pool tables was converted to a craps table for that one night. This building is no longer there. Across the street to the East of the club was the Community House (for some reason this building is not shown on the 1940 survey or is a number designation given) run by Mr. Smith. This building is now the Museum.  Mr. Smith always had a party for every kid in Fort Stanton regardless of race, color or creed on Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. He also played Santa Claus and sometime the week before Christmas personally delivered a present to every child in Fort Stanton.

Continuing on north was Laundry Row, which had ten apartments, or today would be town houses. The first one on the west end, Bldg. 17 was Sam & Lyda Hale, Katherine, Elise, Billy, Ana May, Mary Sue, Lillian, and a late arrival who was just a one or two years old when I left Fort Stanton. Mr. Hale was the chief cook. Then the Cavanaughs, children Jim and Bill. Mr. Cavanaugh was in charge of the kitchen and commissary. Jim worked in the commissary and Bill was in high school. When the Cavanaughs left, their house was remodeled; a door was cut through to the Hale's apartment and they occupied both units.  Bldg. 18, Mr. Pitts was head carpenter when we first came to Fort Stanton and lived next to the Cavanaughs.  Mrs. Pitts taught in the grade school for many years.  Mr. Lott came shortly after we did--they had two children Mary Beth and Jimmy.  Mr. Lott was the head carpenter.  When Mr. Lott moved, the Abbys moved into this apartment. They had two children. Mr. Abby was a cook.  Then the Hobbs --Mr. Hobbs was the butcher. Their children were Henry, Bill and Bob.  Henry and Bob worked in the kitchen after they graduated from school and Bill worked in the butcher shop with his father.  Bill married Lena May McFarlen class of 1940. Bob married Alice Pierce class of 1939.  Lonnie and Nell Cooper, children Louise and Ray--Mr. Cooper was a cook.  Bldg. 19, Sam and Blye Cox, children Mary Ann and Dick.  Mr. Cox was the baker.  Dick still lives in Nogal on the ranch Mr. Cox had back then.  Mary Ann had polio and was in an iron lung in the Fort Stanton hospital for a long time.  She died a few years ago in an auto accident.  The Anderson’s--Mr. Anderson was in charge of the farm and corral, Jim, Betty and Jim’s wife Ruth.  Jim worked as a mechanic in the garage. Bldg. 20--the Tom Burlesons, children Velma and Tommy. Mr. Burleson was in charge of the garage. The Brockwell’s, children Gene and Inez; Mrs Brockwell was in charge of the laundry. Earl & Irene Brooks, children Dorothy and Jack--Mr. Brooks was a chauffeur. Today Building 20 has been demolished.

On the East Side of East street starting at the north end was a warehouse, where they stored the grain for the dairy and horses. This building is not shown on the 1940 survey and is now gone.  The Granary is now shown behind the carpenter shop and designated as Bldg. 54. The corrals, Bldg. 55 and 56. The dairy buildings were 57, 58, 59, 60. Your regular bottled milk was delivered to your door; this you paid for and came out of your $20.00 commissary allotment. You could take a container of any size to the dairy before about 10 a.m. and get skim milk for free.  At a later date you had to pay ten cents for a gallon of skim milk. The skim milk left over from separating the cream for the kitchen was then taken to the hog farm and fed to the hogs. Carpenter shop Building 61; in the same building, East End , was the paint shop.  There were two painters, Percy Parker, who married Gene Brockwell, and Manuel, an Apache Indian.

Then on the south side of South Street , Bldg. 63, the garage and plumbing shop. West on the south side of the street opposite the Community house, Bldg. 67 the wood shop, Bldg. 68 the shoe shop, Bldg. 69 the cleaning shop, Bldg. 70 the photo shop--Blakley's Studio--Bldg. 71 the barber shop run by a patient who was a Filipino. Patients operated all the shops. Opposite the Social club was what they called the hill--A1 through O5 Ambulatory Cottages (75), two-person cabins for the patients. The windows had no glass in them but canvas; weather permitting these windows were supposed to be open all the time. There were two patients to a cabin. These ran west to the end of the theater. West off these cottages, usually called shacks, was a dormitory building where the single men who worked in the kitchen lived and the young men on QS&L-- Quarters, Substance and Laundry. In the wintertime they received very little pay but they worked after school and Saturdays. In the summer they worked full time eight hours a day and received more pay.

There were two houses on the road to the hog pens west of the materiel office.  One, #36, was Louis (Red) Merrell, sons Eugene and Bill.  He was superintendent over the departments under Spickelmeyer.  The other house, #37, was Hendren’s; they had no children, and he worked in the materiel office.  Mrs. Hendren taught piano to lots of the children in her house and they gave recitals. Also at about this time Mr. Lott retired and Templeton took his place as head carpenter, children Emma Lou, P. C. and two other children. 

They moved into the first house on South Street where Merrell had lived and Burleson moved into the house Hendren had lived in.

I am not sure about the chronological order of these next remarks but there was a boy named John Sellers, he was Dad Cavanaugh's grandson. His mother was divorced and had something to do with the state department of education. He lived with his grandparents. He had a problem with his right hip and was in a cast around the waist and right leg down just before the knee. He could really fly on his crutches. He missed a lot of school but was home schooled. When he started school again he started out in the fourth grade where he left off. From his home schooling he was too far advanced and was put in the fifth, then sixth, then the seventh grade in about two months and spent the rest of the year in the seventh grade. It was about the time we graduated from grade school that Dad Cavanaugh retired and their apartment was converted to the bachelor quarters for the employees in the kitchen and the building those employees had been in was torn down. The QS&L boys then had a room in the rear of Bldg. 4. Some of the boys in QS&L were Byrd Parks , Eulon Womack, Ben Chavez, Fred Chavez, Isabel Aldaz, Jack Gilland, Joe McBride and Douglas Howell, all of whom went to Capitan High School while working there. Mr. Cavanaugh then lived next door to the Hales and when he moved or retired that apartment was remodeled with a door into the Hale's apartment and they had both apartments as their home. The Fergusons then moved into Burleson's apartment on Laundry Row. Mr. Ferguson was a carpenter.  They had four sons; John worked in the kitchen, Doc, Jim and Jack. Jim joined the Navy before he graduated from high school and Doc joined upon graduating. I think they were both at Pearl Harbor on December 7th but I cannot say that for sure. But that was their homeport.

On the north side of Laundry Row the whole block was vacant. Starting on the north side of North Street was the new power plant, Bldg. 16. On the East End of the power plant was the laundry. East across the street was the Gas Station, Bldg. 65, run by a patient, Mahla. I worked there as my first job out of high school. Going west from the power plant the Occupational Therapy/Gift Shop, Bldg. 21, and the Grade School, Bldg. 22. The school was a two-room school with the first four grades in one room and the last four grades in the other room. When I graduated eight grade Mr. W. C. Rockwell was teacher of the upper grades and principal of the school. Then the new Catholic Church, Bldg. 95.

Continuing on west past the Merrell and Hendren houses to the hog pen there was a house there, Bldg. 79. Hobbs , a brother to the other Hobbs the butcher, lived there and ran the hog farm. I know they had children but I didn't know them. I met one of the daughters at the 2000 Reunion but don't remember her name.  Later Bert Minter took over the hog farm.  They had daughters Annie, who died recently, and Judy.

Below the hill I will try but I don't know if I remember everyone. There were seven houses, Buildings 80, 84, 85, 87, 90, 93, and 94. The Aldaz's, children Lorenzo and Isabel, there may have been other children but I don't remember them. Mr. Aldaz worked in the dairy. Hute Marr, Childern Evelyn, Don and Gerald. Gerald at one time was calf roper champion of New Mexico . He had two older sons by his first wife who lived in Tularosa with their grandfather; Mr. Marr worked at the corral or the dairy. The Durants, children Lloyd and Elsa; Mr. Durant was the plumber. The Durants moved about when Lloyd would be a sophomore. At that time the new plumber's name was Young and they had one son that I know of. Don't know his name and don't remember seeing him around. The Chavez's, children Bennie (a girl), Ben, Fred and Cecilia, Helen and Nickey.  Mr. Chavez worked in the dairy. The Emmett Womack's, children Jenell, Emmett, LT, Joe Don and Eddie. The Womacks moved into the apartment that the Burlesons and Fergusons had before they moved. The Henry Sanchez's, children Henry, Earnest, Alfred, and Jean. Mr. Sanchez worked as an orderly in the hospital. The Solsberry's, children Louise, Emma, and Augustine. I don't know whether Mr. Solsberry worked as an orderly or in the dairy.

When they built the new hospital it was in the location of the old power plant and the location of the old hospital is the new nurse’s home, Bldg. 96. The new power plant was at the location as described above. At this time they also built seven new houses in the general location of where Templeton and Burleson lived; they moved into two of these houses and Jack Shaw, children Diane and Jeff, moved into the third one. Shaw was second in charge at the power plant at that time. The Coopers--I don't know who lived in the other three and Louise Cooper Engstrom doesn't either. Buildings 97, 98, 99, 100, 102, 104, and 105 Married Attendants Quarters.

Some of the other people I remember. Isabel (Al) Aldaz worked in the garage. Elice (Jiggs) Marr; Mr. Marr had a daughter who for a couple of years lived with the Abbeys on Laundry Row and two sons who lived with their grandfather in Tularosa. Bert Minor (Billy Hale married one of his daughters but is now remarried) and there was a third Cowboy Jack Werner. Baca was the do-everything around the dairy and farm, basically he spread a lot of manure. They said his toes were almost rotted off. Charley Zamora , the garbage man, and he delivered the supplies you ordered from the materiel office. Mr. Hightower an orderly, was the father of Genevieve class of 42 and Grover class of 42.  Dan Kusianovich worked in the administration office; Daughter Danna Lives in Albuquerque class of 51. Charley Ferris kitchen help, Irving (Ike) Brooke kitchen help, Brian Dockray kitchen help, Jeff Dockary kitchen help. Red Ramey a laborer, and Fred Chavez worked in the laundry.

My father Earl Brooks started to work at Fort Stanton on 1st of August 1931 and we moved to Fort Stanton on 1st of September 1931. We moved from Wolf Creek, Montana, and stayed the first month in Capitan in a cabin. My father's salary was $125.00 a month with $50.00 deducted from his pay, $27.50 for rent, $2.50 for laundry of dad's work clothes and $20.00 that we could draw groceries from the government commissary. The milk from the dairy, meat and canned goods made up the majority of this $20.00. If you ran over you would pay the difference the first of the month at payday. The apartment was completely furnished--beds, chairs, tables, dishes, silverware, linens, towels, cleaning materials, brooms, mops, buckets, soap bath and laundry, toilet paper, everything you can think of to run a household. Considering that we were in the middle of the depression this was a very good situation. On Mondays you would take the order slips to the Materiel Office with your order for the expendable items on one slip. If you broke a dish that went on a different colored slip and if you needed any work done such as repair or plumbing work that went on another slip. Then on Tuesday the supplies you ordered were delivered to your door. Besides my father's work clothes being laundered we would take the linens used every week to the laundry and they would give you a clean item for each dirty item you brought to the laundry. All my mother had to wash was our own personal clothes. Until the late thirties we had an icebox; ice was delivered every day and wood and coal was delivered as needed. A fireplace in the living room heated the apartment and a wood cook stove in the kitchen; there was no heat in the bedrooms or bath. I guess this is why I have never had a desire to own a home with a fireplace. Even though the wood was delivered to a woodpile in the rear I had to cut and bring in the wood and haul out the ashes. Dad rated Quarters because he was on call 24 hours a day. He would pick up and take patients to the train in Carrizozo at odd hours. A trip at lease once a month to take patients to Roswell to the eye doctor, picked up the freight at Capitan and drove the school buss. Dad was transferred to the air base in Deming , New Mexico , January 1943.

I apologize to those who I have left out and could not remember. I know I have made mistakes but it has been 61 years since I left Fort Stanton and revisited only in recent years.