Arrival in the Hondo Valley (Thomas 1)
SRB: Mr. Thomas, when did you first come to this area, what year?
JT: 1929
SRB: What brought you here?
JT: Well, I come out here to trap, now I was working on the Shoebar Ranch in Texas and I didn't like my boss, he was mean as the devil you know, he was hard to get along with, and this old boy come out hunting a job, Troy Boykins, and I already had a winter job. I had taken the winter job feeding the cattle and so I got to talking to Troy and we was talking about New Mexico. We was talking about trapping and we decided to come out here to trap. So, I spent all my money, he said he didn't have any money, and I had 2 – 3 months wages, so I drew my money and we headed to New Mexico. I bought traps and a gun in Lubbock and got to Roswell and they stole my gun, somebody stole my gun, and I had to buy another gun and when I bought the other 22. I only had seven dollars left when I got here in [19]'29. And we went out to the Escondida area and run onto to Cecil Massey there, he had a house and water and everything, and he said we could live in that shack. He had a goat ranch and I caught a coyote the first night, but hides wasn't worth anything. I had to quit trapping and went to work for him. Oh, this ole boy went to work for Cecil and he didn't trap with me. Troy Boykins did, so he thought he'd quit, went over there and got a job at the Pfingsten’s and I got his job. Fifteen a month. That's what brought me here. I came out here to trap, I thought I was going to get rich trapping.
SRB: Where did you live?
JT: Where did I live? I lived at Kress, Texas.
SRB: When you came to New Mexico?
JT: Oh, you mean when I came here? In Escondida off of Tinnie, 10 miles out from Tinnie.
SRB: When did you move to the Hondo Valley area?
JT: Well, I worked a year out there, then I come down and got a job with Bert, Bert Pfingsten. And I worked for Bert for seven years before I got married. I got married in 1934.
Making a Living (Thomas 2)
SRB: What did you do to make a living?
JT: To tell you the truth, I plowed everything else for Bert. Now when I was out at Cecil's, I herded goats for awhile. And then I use to go, they had these goat ropings, dollar jackpot ropings down the river. I use to come to those jackpot ropings and make more roping than I did at working on weekends you know. And that helped me to get started roping.
SRB: Last time I was here, you said there was a dairy business in Picacho?
JT: See, I'd worked on a dairy in Texas, when I was a boy and I thought there was a lot of money, I bought a dairy, that was one of the things I did that we shoulda never did here, because feed costs so much and we lost a lot of money in that. But see, I had that orchard and I guess it was about [19]'34 then, we made a lot of money, Mickey and I did. We had 15 thousand bushels of apples, and I bought these cows with part of the money I made over the orchards.
SRB: And that was in Picacho?
JT: That was Picacho, where I had the dairy. Now I had my cousin, I let them run the place down there. I rented a farm down there at the Louise Massey and I thought, well I can make money, so I went down and took over the dairy, but I didn't do much better than he did.
SRB: What did you do after that?
JT: I bought my farm in San Patricio there in [19]'41 I believe, and we planted apple trees. Jerald Tully inherited an orchard from his dad. He sold the apples and bought that land out there, about three or four sections of land with the money made off the orchard, so I decided to plant our orchard. Our ranch was a long ways off, so we planted trees to try to get money. It was the first land I ever bought.
SRB: Where did you sell the produce?
JT: I sold it at the fruit stand.
SRB: Where was that?
JT: San Patricio is where I had mine. Now when I had the orchard leased it was in Hondo. I was working for Bert Pfingsten, and then we put in a stand that said San Patricio and sold our apples through the stand. You couldn't make any money selling through the sheds. I tried that and I'd get $2.50 a bushel, you might get 80 cents a bushel at the shed.
SRB: How long?
JT: 28, 29 years I believe, I had the place there and sold it. I sold it to Miss Cole and moved over here and bought the ranch.
SRB: Was business doing well at the fruit stand when you sold it?
JT: It was pretty good, yes, Course we had a flood, it washed out a lot of our trees there. That was [19]'65. It washed a lot of apple trees up, that was one of the reasons I sold it. I also raised trout fish there too
Social Events (Thomas 3)
JT: San Patricio--They use to have some wild parties there. And there everyday a big fight. I didn't enjoy those fights. [referring to San Patricio Dance Hall]
SRB: How often did they have the dances there? Every week?
JT: About every week yeah, they had dances there all the time. The White Cat Bar.
SRB: Did you play polo on the polo team? Did you play polo with Peter Hurd?
JT: Oh yeah.
SRB: What were the polo games like?
JT: Well to tell you the truth, I always rode a quarter horse and you needed a thoroughbred horse playing polo. My horse, my horse would give out right quick. Tom Babers use to love to play and Billy Babers was awful good. He played at an institute at Roswell, Billy did, but I never was too good, I never did care for it too much cause it knocked my horses out. Too much running, my horsed were quarter horses and they couldn't run with the thoroughbreds.
SRB: How often were the polo games held? Was that every week?
JT: Most every week.
SRB: Was there just one team in the Hondo area? Just Peter Hurd's team?
JT: Yeah, that's the only team around here. We use to play at the institute in Roswell.
SRB: You had also said you were on the Hondo baseball team. Can you talk a little bit about that.
JT: Well, I was, we use to play everybody, we'd play Carrizozo, the Indians, you know the Indians had never been beaten and we had a professional guy, he'd gotten into trouble back East somewhere. His name was Justus Ridge, and he wore bib overalls and I mean he could really fan those guys out. We was the only ones who beat the Indians. They really shook their heads, but we had this professional pitcher from back East. He had got into trouble back there, he's kinda on the high net out here. But we use to play White Oaks. We beat everybody except, uh, I don't think anybody ever beat us to tell you the truth. We had a good team. And Henry Montgomery was our Coach and then Bert Pfingsten was a coach one year.
SRB: How many years were you on the team?
JT: Oh, 3 or 4 years.
SRB: Which years were those?
JT: To tell you the truth, I don't remember right now, It was in the [19]30s though.
SRB: Were there any other social activities in San Patricio other than polo or baseball that people went to?
JT: Just the dances at the White Cat Bar.
Making a Living (Thomas 4)
SRB: Can you tell us a little about your roping career in the Hondo Valley, where these events were held and how often?
JT: Well, when I was out at Cecil's, he talked, got me into roping goats, and I had herded these goats, I'd tie their legs and get me a new goat. First roping I went to I won 2nd and then every weekend you know, they'd have a roping in Tinnie or Picacho and I always rode my horse off to where it was, I didn't have a trailer in them days. I got to winning more money than I did working. Didn't get much working, fifteen a month, and I'd go to the jackpot ropings every Sunday. Cecil would let me off. At first I use to have to work, but he got somebody to herd the goats on Sunday, so I could go to the ropings.
SRB: Did a lot of people go to those to watch them?
JT: Oh yeah, we use to have these goat ropings in the arena and they'd line up around and they'd have the ropings. That was about all there was to go to, to tell you the truth.
SRB: How long did you do that?
JT: Well, I roped for several years. I won the roping in Silver City, than I use to go every weekend to rodeos everywhere. I went to Pendleton, Oregon one year, I won the roping there. I won multiple ropings, I won 9 to 10 hundred dollars there.
SRB: How many years did you do that professionally?
JT: Oh about 20 years.
