Federico/Fred Arellano: Mora Union
Replies: 5
Federico/Fred Arellano: Mora Union
| Andrew Arellano (View posts) | Posted: 24 Feb 2001 9:50PM GMT |
Does anyone know more about my grandfather???Any relatives in here? My father is Fred Jr. Here is my grandfather's bio from a history of union county book published in 1980:
------------------------
I Frederico, Arellano was born February 2, 1893, in El Rito near Chacon in Mora County where people built their homes close together and farmed small patches in the valleys. We small boys herded their cows, sheep and goats into the mountain grasslands, bringing them home each evening, penning them at the right homes. We seldom had adult help and spent our days in the open, rain or shine.
When I was 11, the family, including my mother Porfiria; my grandmother, Marie de Garcia; and an uncle, Filipe Arellano, moved to what later became the Pennington community in union county. Until I was 23, I worked for Uncle Filipe and neighboring ranchers taking care of stock.
A Presbyterian minister, A.B. Lucero of Raton, helped me to go to the Menaul School in Albuquerque. A lady (I never met nor knew her name) in Altuna, Pennsylvania, sponsored me the seven years it took me to receive a high school education.
Mother had taught me to read and write Spanish, but I had never gone to school before and could not speak English. We boys did our own housework, cooking, and laundry and we worked on the school farm.
I returned home only once when I was drafted into the Army. After visiting my family briefly, I was at the depot waiting for the train when a telegram arrived saying send no more boys to Ft. Travis as influenza was raging. I was never called again. Returning to school, I graduated in 1922. That summer I worked for a dairy in Albuquerque.
I taught school that winter at Ute Canyon about 15 miles north of Buyeros. The school was located in union county but the children lived in Harding County. The pay was $50 a month. Room and board cost me $15.
It was a one room school with only a few student desks, an old teacher's desk but no chair for teacher. I sat on a pile of rock. There was also a stove but it was getting chilly before my pleadings for fuel were answered. The school received a load of wood in the rough and an axe (for teacher).
I married Telesfora Romero of Ute Canyon in 1923. We raised five children: Adelina Archuleta now of Hougoton, Kansas; Mary Jane Garcia, now of Colorado Springs, Colorado; Fred Jr., now of Albuquerque; Porfiria Garcia, now of Colorado Springs; and Bennie also of Colorado Springs. I have 25 grandchildren and 17 great grands.
I worked two years for J.B. Fernandez in the Barney Post Office then moved back home to farm and I did very well for myself, I think, until drought and depression. Fortunately, in 1934, I landed a WPA job teaching adult Spanish and English classes at Pennington School. Later, I was a WPA bookkeeper and time keeper. Leaving my family on the farm, the work took me to Sofia, Raton, Farley, Cunico and back to the lakes and canyons around Sugarite working on the Raton water and sewer system.
When the farm home burned in 1945, I sold the property and moved to Clayton where I worked for Bonny Lujan in his feed store and hatchery and did carpentry work until I retired.
By Federico Arellano
------------------------
I Frederico, Arellano was born February 2, 1893, in El Rito near Chacon in Mora County where people built their homes close together and farmed small patches in the valleys. We small boys herded their cows, sheep and goats into the mountain grasslands, bringing them home each evening, penning them at the right homes. We seldom had adult help and spent our days in the open, rain or shine.
When I was 11, the family, including my mother Porfiria; my grandmother, Marie de Garcia; and an uncle, Filipe Arellano, moved to what later became the Pennington community in union county. Until I was 23, I worked for Uncle Filipe and neighboring ranchers taking care of stock.
A Presbyterian minister, A.B. Lucero of Raton, helped me to go to the Menaul School in Albuquerque. A lady (I never met nor knew her name) in Altuna, Pennsylvania, sponsored me the seven years it took me to receive a high school education.
Mother had taught me to read and write Spanish, but I had never gone to school before and could not speak English. We boys did our own housework, cooking, and laundry and we worked on the school farm.
I returned home only once when I was drafted into the Army. After visiting my family briefly, I was at the depot waiting for the train when a telegram arrived saying send no more boys to Ft. Travis as influenza was raging. I was never called again. Returning to school, I graduated in 1922. That summer I worked for a dairy in Albuquerque.
I taught school that winter at Ute Canyon about 15 miles north of Buyeros. The school was located in union county but the children lived in Harding County. The pay was $50 a month. Room and board cost me $15.
It was a one room school with only a few student desks, an old teacher's desk but no chair for teacher. I sat on a pile of rock. There was also a stove but it was getting chilly before my pleadings for fuel were answered. The school received a load of wood in the rough and an axe (for teacher).
I married Telesfora Romero of Ute Canyon in 1923. We raised five children: Adelina Archuleta now of Hougoton, Kansas; Mary Jane Garcia, now of Colorado Springs, Colorado; Fred Jr., now of Albuquerque; Porfiria Garcia, now of Colorado Springs; and Bennie also of Colorado Springs. I have 25 grandchildren and 17 great grands.
I worked two years for J.B. Fernandez in the Barney Post Office then moved back home to farm and I did very well for myself, I think, until drought and depression. Fortunately, in 1934, I landed a WPA job teaching adult Spanish and English classes at Pennington School. Later, I was a WPA bookkeeper and time keeper. Leaving my family on the farm, the work took me to Sofia, Raton, Farley, Cunico and back to the lakes and canyons around Sugarite working on the Raton water and sewer system.
When the farm home burned in 1945, I sold the property and moved to Clayton where I worked for Bonny Lujan in his feed store and hatchery and did carpentry work until I retired.
By Federico Arellano