Mrs. Gertrude (Lea) Dills

Interview	Redfield, Georgia B. 	Words 240 	4/8/38 

MRS. GERTRUDE (LEA) DILLS

Mrs. Gertrude (Lea) Dills, wife of Lucius Dills, stands high in the respect of 
the citizens of Southeast New Mexico, and in the affections of the early settlers 
of Roswell where she has lived continuously since early childhood. 

As a child she attended the first Sunday School of Roswell organized in 1885, by 
Mrs. Helen Johnson, the first services of which were held in a tent. Gertrude Lea 
was one of the Sunday School class who repeated the Lord's Prayer when there was 
no Minister of the Gospel to conduct funeral services for another member of the 
same class, the son of Mrs. Johnson - the teacher - who conducted the funeral 
services. 

After the tragic death of the youth by drowning, and the conducting of the 
funeral services by his own mother, plans were made for securing a minister and 
building a church, which materialized in the erection in 1887 of the little adobe 
church building for the Methodist Church South - the first church built in 
Roswell which still stands at 311 North Pennsylvania Avenue - in use at the 
present time as an apartment dwelling house.  C 18 [6/5/? N. Mex.?] 

Mrs. Dills has been a member of the Methodist Church South since 1891. However, 
she had attended church services and Sunday School at the adobt church building 
since the first days of its erection in 1887. She has been a member of Roswell 
No. 10, Order of Eastern Star since 1904, was worthy Matron in 1909, and Worthy 
Grand Matron for the State of New Mexico, in 1921 and 1922.

Source of Information [?] 

Personal knowledge of writer and Mrs. Gertrude Lea Dills - Roswell, New Mexico 

Credit: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Federal Writers' Project 
Collection.

Chaves

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