Page 241 - Cooke's Peak - Pasaron Por Aqui

Chapter 8
End of an Era, 1893 Through World War II
Most of the exciting times in the Cooke’s Peak
area were over
Apaches had been shipped, by train, to southeastern
United States federal prisons, and most travel had
a day from Florida Station, at an estimated value of $600perton. Anglominersearned$3perday,but Mexican laborers drew only half that amount. There was also a daily stage and mail to Florida Station, a
1
distance of 14 miles.
It was also in 1897 that James Judson Hyatt moved
by 1890. The last raiding
shifted south to the new road that
Southern Pacific Railroad line. Mining around Cooke’s Peak was the only activity of any sig- nificance because the military stationed at Fort Cummings, throughout the Indian Wars and during Geronimo’s last wild fling
at freedom, had departed. The Community of Cooks played the majority role in the remaining story around Cooke’s Peak. How- ever, there were other significant events that took place nearby. Ranching developed and in a few years herds of cattle and goats surrounded the mountain. Two World Wars created the need for domestic flourite and manganese. Both these ele-
2 Hyatt attended New Mexico State University at Las Cruces in his mid and late teens and partially offset his room, board, and tuition costs by taking care of Professor Hiram Hadley’s team and buggy and by driving the rig for him. He married Emma Holden in 1895, and in March 1897, they moved to a ranch northwest of Cooke’s Peak.
ments were found near Cooke’s Peak.
The wars also brought the necessity to train young
men to fight against new enemies. The water at the spring was important during the first war because the artillery units training at Camp Cody frequently conducted field exercises that used the old fort as a campground. During the second war, soldiers trained not on but over Fort Cummings. Bombar- dier trainees from the Deming Army Air Base used several simulated ground targets to hone their skills in the use of the new secret Norden bombsight.
Mining and Ranching Around Cooke’s Peak
During the early and mid- 1890s, Cooks continued to grow with only a temporary setback in 1893 caused partially by the silver depression. The area was so active that Hadley had its own post office from April 22, 1890, until May 13, 1895, with James Martin serving as the first of four postmasters. In 1897 Cooksapparentlyhititsapogeeofproductionwith 12 active mines shipping 20 tons of concentrated ore
Although Hyatt later built a cabin for his wife and infant son, Harry Shipley Hyatt, their first home was a simple dugout.3 This ranch was the first acquisition in the slow but steady process by which the Hyatt family, two generations later, in the early 1950s, through the lineage of James Judson’s brother, Able Thomas, eventually encircled the mountain with their holdings. Two years after moving to the Cooke’s Peak area, James Judson’s and Emma’s second son, Calab Judson “Bill” Hyatt, was born at
4
Mule Draw near Cooks.
By 1889 Upton Elwood McDaniel had already
moved to Cooks, established a grocery store and saloon, and was operating the post office. On November 28, 1889, he married 30-year-old Winnie Ann Lee George (Figure 61), allegedly a distant cousin of Robert E. Lee. She had been previously married to William George in Missouri and had three children, Riley, James, and Lula, before divorcing him in 1886. Using two oxen and a covered wagon, she moved herself and her three children from Llano (or Brownwood), Texas, to Deming in 1887 and thence to Cooks. Her first daughter by McDaniel, Myrtle “Mertie”, was born at Cooks on September26,1890. Mertiewasbornwithacrip- pled foot, and Newton Bolich of Deming fashioned
paralleled the
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to the Cooke’s Peak area. He was born in Mason County, Texas, and his family had moved to the vicinity of present day Cloudcroft, New Mexico, in 1882.