Page 246 - Cooke's Peak - Pasaron Por Aqui

old Graphic at Hadley that he arranged to lease McDaniel’s ore concentrator and move it to the site. Jasper (also known as Jap) Onstott, C. H. Tuckwood, and Charles H. Gearhart were among those extracting and shipping significant amounts of ore, some grading as high as 65 percent or better. Even 58-year-old Edward G. Orr was again active doing assessment work and getting some good in- dications. Not all was good news, however. The exploratory crosscut in the Cleveland Mine, owned by the Nagle brothers, was being contaminated by more water than their pump could handle, forcing a
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temporary shutdown.
In 1902 and 1903 mining news continued to be
mixed. The old Graphic Mine was soon reported to be played out and that a great deal of effort would be required to open it. However, production of the Faywood Lead Company, which bought its Jose property from Onstott, had increased, and they doubled the horsepower of their Hooper pneumatic-process concentrator so that it would have a capacity of 100 tons per day, yielding a product averaging an extremely high 72 percent. The Faywood Lead Company was most likely as- sociated with Richard Faywood, of Faywood Hot Springs, who was reported visiting Cooks about
thecavernthatitcouldnotstandtherudejostle of human work and the first view of it was the only one, . . . Thefirst blast that was exploded after the room was opened crumbled it to dust
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Cleveland pumps had finally cleared the mine, and
A sufficient number of school age children (Figure 69) were at Cooks to warrant the establishment of an educational facility there. By 1910, the 72 students (23 percent of Cooks’ population) included some that were the second generation to attend Cooks’ school. School usually started in September and recessed in May. The children had one-week vaca- tions for Thanksgiving and Easter and two weeks for Christmas. The only other holiday was
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Washington’s Birthday.
At the end of the school term in 1901, Miss Janie
Robertsen organized commencement exercises that were held along with a social gathering. Three school directors were elected for the coming year, with Anson J. Burleson, Henry R. Nunn, and Upton E. McDaniel getting the nod. John E. Grover was declared defeated by the judges, even though he had asmanyvotes. Grover,however,hadbeenrecently appointedNotaryPublic. Heapparentlyreplaced Judge Joseph Boone who, with his wife, would soon
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move to Santa Rita.
There seemed to be a rapid turnover of school-
teachers at Cooks, probably because of the shortage
of marriageable women. Miss Janie Robertsen, who
had been the teacher in 1901, was replaced by 1903
by Miss Emma Wilson. Wilson would not last too
long either. Within a two-week interval, the Deming
newspaper noted that she went to Las Cruces for a
visit of a week (during the school term) and married
W. C. McDermott, also of Cooks, in El Paso before
both returned home. Subsequently a new teacher, a
Miss Norcop, was employed for the following
April 1, 1904.
Also, after several months delay, the
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Graphic Mine was reopened by George and John
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Grover.
the Luna Lead Company initiated efforts to con- struct a smelter at Deming, thereby reducing the
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shipping distance.
An interesting phenomenon occurred frequently
during tunnel development in the mines. Caves would be encountered that contained not only high- grade ore but beautiful formations as well. William Cotton reminisced about such a discovery:
We were sinking on a narrow stringer when we broke through into a broad open room perhaps 50feet across and 12feet high, . . . and in the center, as though it were the last dream of the gods, wasaperfecttreerisingfromthefloorof the cavern and extending to the roof, with limbs andfoliageofthepurestmilkywhiteandpen- ciled as delicately as thefem and thrown over this, like a lovely bride, was a veil of the finest gossamer web; but so delicate was this child of
work was proceeding.
After about a year, the old
Further good news was indicated when
MiningandRanchingAroundCooke'sPeak
232
and only the memory of it remains. . . .
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By 1910, at least one more new school
term.
teacher had taken over as the census recorded
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Bessie G. Quantrell as holding that job.
Many of the community social functions were con- ducted at the schoolhouse. Mary Daisy Baker (who would later add Grover, Cain, and Gregg to her name) recalled that her mother, Nancy Ellen Baker, took her and her sister Malinda to the dances at the schoolhouse. People would come from as far away as Deming, Lake Valley, Las Cruces, Hatch, Hachita, and the settlements along the branches of the Mimbres River. The revelers pushed the school