Mrs. Lena Kempf Maxwell Interview

Mrs. Belle Kilgore 718 Wallace Street Clovis, New Mexico 	2 [?]

JUN 26 1937 1150 Words 

MRS. LENA KEMPF MAXWELL, 

School Teacher Museum Manager, Clovis, New Mexico 

Mrs. Lena Kempf Maxwell was born in Adamsville, Logan County Kentucky [?]. She 
came with her father C. J. Kempf in 1908 to New Mexico and took up land 
according to the fourteen month plan at that time. They could take up only 160 
acres. They filed four miles north of Grady, New Mexico, west of state highway 
#18. 

"Yes, I have had sorrow and privations mixed with the pleasant things that 
come to the life of a pioneer. I had been a bride, a mother, and a widow all 
within the space of one year. I came with my father, C. J. KEMPF, and settled 
near Grady, in 1908. 

I had been prepared for a teacher and had taught four years when we came to 
New Mexico. I was a high school graduate, had training in the teacher normals 
in Kentucky and attended [Bethel?] Female College and held a sixteen year 
state certificate from Kentucky, but I had to begin again to prepare for 
teaching [in New?] Mexico, for nothing but work from accredited [colleges from?] 
other state will be recognized in this state. I entered the college at Las 
Vegas and continued my work until I acquired a college degree and thereby a 
life time certificate. I have taught sixteen years in New Mexico and have been 
principal of some of the best rural schools in New Mexico and incidentally in 
the United States. C18 - N. Mex.

{Begin page no. 2}

The equipment for these schools was purchased by money made from pie suppers, 
tackey parties and festivals common in this state. There were also some 
private donations. 

Yes, we have had 'hard times', cold weather, hot weather, storms snows and 
fires and other inconveniences common to people on the frontier. These have 
been years when peopled were compelled to use a great deal of ingenuity to be 
able to stick to their claims. 

One story is told of a family, after years of dry weather, ground maize in a 
coffee mill because there was not enough of the maize to pay the toll, if it 
was taken to the mill to be ground. At one time there was no [fuelso?] the 
mother soaked her beans several days in water and then they ate them without 
seasoning or salt. But these were rare instances, for the homesteaders were 
thrifty people and even instances like the above were caused by circumstances 
and not because the people were thriftless. 

I remember about the prairie fire that swept everything from the face of the 
earth reaching from the south west [of ?] and Belleview to the north west and 
as far as Clayton New Mexico. One boy was caught out with his mules. The 
child's face was burned so badly and only his teeth on one side was left. The 
mules were so badly burned that they had to be killed. 

Storms, [?] electric storm where we lived, four miles south of the caprock. It 
was [??] in August, a big cloud stretched from east to west which was the 
blackest and angriest that I have ever 
 
{Begin page no. 3}

seen. The horses had come up and waited across the road. I knew that something 
had to be done to get them away from the wire fence The cows were against the 
fence too. "My little daughter and I got buckets of grain maize heads and went 
across to where the horses were. After flashes of lightning we crawled under 
the wire and ran down to the other end of the pasture and scattered the heads 
of grain. After the horses began to eat we went back to the house, leaving the 
bars of a lot down. When we went into the house and closed the doors, there 
were little sparks of electricity all through the room just like sassafras 
wood sparks from an open fire place popping from the fire. The lightning got 
continually worse. We took the metal hairpins out of our hair and I took off 
my corset which had steel staves in it, put on our night dress and [crawled?] 
into a 50 pound feather bed. My daughter put her arms around me. [I said?] 'do 
not do that dear, if I am struck and killed it will kill you too'. She cried, 
'Mama if you are killed I do not want to live.' So we lay clasped in each 
other arms until the electrical display had passed over, which seemed at least 
an hour. That is the most terrible experience that I have ever gone through 
with. That was perhaps in 1914 Or '15. 

I think that it was in 1910 that we had a very severe snow storm. It was 
necessary for my father to send some money to the bank. He saw a man who was 
going to Clovis from Grady so he gave the money to him. That night after he 
had given the money to the man he heard of some of his dishonest dealings, so 
he awoke me about twelve o'clock, and told me to get a horse from the stable 
and lead him to my brother-in laws about three quarters of a mile and tell my 
brother to go to Grady and get the money and take it himself. 

{Begin page no. 4}

The snow had been on the ground for seven weeks, and the reason I had to lead 
the horse, the ice was so slippery that my father was afraid for me to ride. I 
had to go across the pasture and open the gates. I was nearly frozen when I 
arrived. I [awakened?] the family and my brother-in law set out for Grady at 
once. My sister begged me to stay until morning, but I knew that my father 
would be uneasy, so after resting a half hour, and drinking some coffee, I 
started home. Just outside the yard gate, I heard the wolves, but I went on. I 
found a stick and waved them back, but they came to within fifteen feet of me. 
I waved the stick and flung my bonnet around my head several times and halloed 
at them. I was at the pasture gate and I thought that they would get me, but 
as I went through, I yelled at them and threw the stick and ran with all my 
might to the house. The wolves were famished for they could find nothing to 
eat in the two or three feet snow. They had eaten several young calves and 
colts in the pastures and human flesh would taste just [as?] good to them. 
They attacked some school children at San Jon a small school not far away but 
the older children fought them off. 

During the same time my sister and I climbed a snow bank 15 feet high to reach 
a feed stack on the other side. At one end of the [st?] stack the snow was not 
very deep. We would tie a rope around the bundle of feed [and draw?] it up I 
would hold the feed and she would climb a little farther up. 

During the snow storm, a ferocious Jersey bull that was chained in a pen was 
covered up in about five feet of [now?] except just a breathing hole. We had 
to dig down and get the chain, and turn him loose. We shoveled the snow from 
around him [andby?] the time we got him 

{Begin page no. 5}

out of the snow some of the [fight was?] taken out of him. Stock [suffered?] 
a great that year and several different times we have had some severe snows. I 
taught school several miles from home and often I have had to shovel two or 
three feet from out of the schoolroom before I could even get a fire built. 
My brother-in-law, W. I Simms, was offered some lambs from the DeOliveria 
ranch near Grady. There was not much feed for the sheep and the snow was so 
deep that the sheep could not graze, so if the owners kept the [lambx?] they 
run the risk of [loosing both?] ewes and lambs. So they gave the lambs to Mr. 
Simms if he wanted them. He took a number home with him. He had five good 
cows, and letting these lambs milk the cows was easier than to milk them 
himself or to try to feed the lambs. So he built two platforms far enough for 
the cows to walk between and just right for the lambs to stand on and he would 
drive the cows between the opening and then turn the orphan lambs in on the 
platform. I have always been sorry that I did not have a kodak. Each lamb 
knew its place at the table. In this way the cows got a milking about three 
times a day. I am not sure, but the wagging of the lambs' tails would have 
frustrated the camera man. He had a flock of [twenty?] of these lambs that 
spring.

Yes, I enjoy the work in the museum. There is a great deal to do, but it is 
interesting and I am classifying the different sections, and have a great deal 
of information written about the different archaeologic finds especially those 
of recent discovery in New Mexico. Some of the out-of-state visitors say that 
it is the best one (museum) they have have ever seen in a town of this kind." 

Mrs. Maxwell is a very interesting person and is glad to give any information 
that she has concerning the Clovis Museum, [which is?] 

{Begin page no. 6}

Mrs. Maxwell is a very interesting person and is glad to give any information 
that she has concerning the Clovis Museum, which is located in the Public 
Library on 8th and Pile Street. 

Her address is 402 Connelly Street, Clovis, New Mexico. 

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

Curry

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