Alice J. VanWinkel

Edith L. Crawford, Carrizozo, N. Mex. 

Date: September 15, 1938 	Words: 2431 	Subject: Pioneer Story 

Source of Information: 	Mrs. Alice J. VanWinkel. 

SEP 19 1938	1st

I was born in Carlinville, Illinois, August 26, 1857, in a three room log cabin, 
on my grandfather Bill Whitney's farm. 

My mother was Mary Whitney. She was married to my father, John Collins, about the 
year 1855, in Carlinville, Illinois. My maiden name was Alice J. Collins. I was 
married to John H. Shears in Carlinville, Illinois, in 1876. (I do not remember 
the date). We went to housekeeping in a two roomed log cabin on my grandfather's 
farm. My grandfather Whitney, on whose place we lived, raised corn, wheat and 
hogs. 

My husband worked on the farm while we lived there. He took the corn and wheat to 
Litchfield, Illinois, and had it ground into corn meal and flour. We killed our 
own hogs and cured all of our own meat, hams, shoulders and side meat. We had a 
garden and raised all of our vegetables. About the only things we bought were 
sugar and coffee. 

We made our own candles in those days. I made mine out of mutton tallow and 
twisted twine string, and moulded them myself. I had my own moulds. Nobody had 
kerosene lamps in those days. 

My grandfather Whitney had some sheep on the farm and my grandmother Whitney 
washed the wool from the sheep, card and spun it, and would weave it into cloth 
to make our clothes. I never saw a calico dress until I was ten years old. 

My husband and I lived on this farm for about two years. We then took a notion to 
go to Texas, so in September 1878, we left Carlinville, Illinois, in two covered 
wagons, drawn by two horses to each wagon. We had five head of horses and led the 
extra horse. 

My husband drove one wagon and I drove one. We had our chuck box in the back of 
one of the wagons and kept our dishes and supplies in it. We had our own flour, 
corn meal and meat and bought the rest of our supplies. I did the cooking. I used 
a Dutch oven for baking and made hot biscuit and corn bread. We used Mesquite 
roots for fuel until we got on the plains in Texas and then we had to use buffalo 
chips. 

We slept in one of the wagons. We had a pair of bed springs in the bottom of the 
wagon with our beds on that. We burned candles that I had made on the farm before 
we left. 

We had our drinking water in water kegs tied on the side of one of the wagons. We 
always tried to drive to water each day for the horses. 

We enjoyed camping out. We saw lots of antelope and coyotes. We did not have any 
trouble at all on the trip. I do not remember the names of any of the towns we 
passed through. We had good weather and the country was beautiful all the way. 

We were on the road just two months when we reached Weatherford, Texas, the last 
of October, 1878. 

We rented a two roomed lumber house in Weatherford, and my husband got a job 
plowing up prairie land. He used three horses to a fourteen inch plow. He made 
good money plowing for other people. 

While we were living in Weatherford our first child, Minnie Irene, was born on 
June 6, 1879. We continued to live on in Weatherford, Texas, until about the first 
of February, 1881. 

We left Texas then for New Mexico, with our two covered wagons, drawn by two 
horses to each wagon, the baby and I in one wagon and my husband in the other. 

We started out with enough provisions to last us on the trip, except for fresh 
meat. My husband would kill a nice fat antelope and we would have plenty of meat 
for awhile. It was cold weather and the meat would keep for several days. We had 
lovely weather and no trouble on our trip. 

At Midland, Texas, we picked up a young fellow by the name of Frank Jackson, who 
wanted to come to New Mexico, so we brought him along with us. 

At that time all there was to the town of Midland, was a pump and a tank for the 
Texas and Pacific Railroad Company. There was a man there who took care of the 
pump. He lived in a ten foot lumber shack. 

We left Midland and drove out about ten miles west, to a beautiful natural lake, 
with the prettiest clear water, and cotton wood trees all around the lake. We got 
there about noon and I began to cook dinner. My husband and Frank Jackson took 
their guns and said that they would go out to see if they could kill an antelope, 
as we needed fresh meat. I finished dinner and waited and waited for them to 
return, but they did not come. Just before it began to get dark I saw a string of 
horseback riders but they were too for away for me to see whether they were white 
men or Indians. I was just scared to death but they did not come by where we were 
camped. I rounded up the three remaining horses and put ropes on their necks and 
led them up to the back of the wagon that we slept in, and tied them. I put my 
baby to bed and got a six shooter that my husband had in the wagon and I sat in 
the back of the wagon with the six shooter in my lap and the ropes that held the 
horses in my hands. I sat there all night. I was so afraid some one would slip up 
and steal the horses and I would be a-foot with my baby. I just could not imagine 
what had become of my husband and the young man, but just at day-break they came 
riding in. They had gone farther away from camp than they realized and when they 
started back they got lost and dark overtook them and they just wandered around 
all night long. When day light came they were about three hundred yards away from 
our camp. I was so glad to see them that I cried with joy. 

The rest of the trip to Pecos City was very pleasant considering it was in winter 
time. We saw some live buffalo and lots of buffalo carcasses and hides that had 
been staked down to dry. 

While crossing the plains we had to burn buffalo and cow chips altogether for 
fuel. When we came to a place where there were lots of chips we would gather them 
up, several tow-sacks full, and put them in the wagons, so that if we came to a 
place where there was no fuel, we would have something to burn. 

When we got to the Pecos River, at Pecos City Texas, we had to cross on the 
railroad bridge, as the river was up too high for us to cross any other way. 

We traveled almost due north, up the Pecos Valley and passed through what is now 
Carlsbad. It was nothing but a cow ranch then.  

We arrived in Roswell, New Mexico, about the last of February, 1881, after having 
been on the road for six weeks. All there was of Roswell at that time were three 
adobe houses and a blacksmith shop, run by Fred Gayle. Captain J. C. [Lea?] owned 
the three houses, and he and his family lived in the largest and used part of it 
as a hotel.  

We stayed in Roswell for about three days and then my husband got a job aa a 
ranch hand on the Phelps White ranch, on the Bosque Grande, about forty miles 
east of Roswell. We stayed on this ranch about two months. 

We moved from this White ranch to Las Vegas, New Mexico, where we heard there was 
a big saw-mill. My husband bought six head of oxen and started hauling logs for 
the saw-mill. We did not like this country as well as we did Lincoln County, so 
about August 1, 1881, we sold out our oxen and moved back to Roswell, New Mexico, 
and stayed there until the next spring.

In the spring of 1882 my husband rented a small place in the Sacramento 
mountains, where we farmed and raised a few cattle. We lived in a two roomed log 
cabin. The nearest town was La Luz, New Mexico, where we got our mail. We did 
real well while we lived on this place. It was a beautiful country. We had no 
close neighbors and I was awfully scared of the Indians and my husband was away a 
good bit looking after the place. 

In November, 1884, I went to Roswell for a few weeks and on the 22nd of November, 
1884, our second child was born. He was a boy and we named him William Milan. 

One night while I was alone with my two children, I heard the dogs barking about 
midnight. I got up and got the six shooter and looked out the window and could 
see three dark objects prowling around the house. I went to the doors and windows 
to make sure they were all fastened tight. My husband had fixed our doors with 
two by four bars across them, when we first moved to this place because I was 
afraid to stay at night by myself. Pretty soon I heard somebody knock at the 
door, but I kept quiet and just let them knock. When I did not answer who ever it 
was tried to break down the door. That frightened me so badly that I asked what 
they wanted. A voice asked for some person that I had never heard of and I said 
there was nobody of that name there. Instead of going away they kept on trying to 
get in. I told them that the first person that came through the door would 
certainly get shot. After finding that they could not get in they finally went 
away. I was very much frightened.

My husband thought that it was some one trying to rob us as he had sold some 
cattle just a few days before and as there were no banks we kept the money in the 
house and we thought they were after this money. When they rode awry I could see 
that they were three men but whether they were Mexican, Indian or Americans we 
never knew. 

We had a pet deer while living on this place and one morning the deer and the 
children were playing out in the yard. All at once the deer came bounding into 
the house and jumped up on the bed. I knew at once that the deer was scared by 
something unusual so I stepped to the door to see where the children were. To my 
horror I saw five Indians all dressed up in their blankets and war paint, coming 
towards the house. I stepped out in the yard to meet them for the children and I 
were all alone. The Indians knew that I was afraid of them for one of the Indians 
said to me: "Indians no hurt white squaw she give Indians something to eat." I 
was baking light bread that day so I went into the kitchen and got two loaves of 
bread and gave to them but they still wanted something. We had a half of mutton 
hanging up out in the [shed?] room and I decided I would give them a piece of it 
so they would leave. I went and got the butcher knife and went to the shed room 
to cut a piece of the mutton and when the Buck saw that I was going to give them 
just a piece of the meat, he grabbed the knife and if I had not turned it loose 
he would have pulled it through my hand and cut my hand open. He laid the knife 
down and picked up the whole piece of meat and walked away. I did not say 
anything for I was only too glad to get rid of them. 

In 1886 I went to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, and our third child was born on June 
9, 1886. We named her Carrie. 

We lived on the place in the Sacramento mountains until the year 1890, and then 
moved back to Roswell. We did not stay there very long and then we moved to the 
Hondo River Valley, about twenty miles southeast of Lincoln, New Mexico. My 
husband worked at odd jobs on farms, plowing and planting for the farmers. We 
lived in the Hondo Valley until the late nineties, but I do not remember the 
exact date. 

We moved to Arizona for my husband's health after we left the Hondo Valley. He 
was not able to work very much but did such odd jobs as he could. We lived in 
Douglas, Arizona, and my husband, John H. Shears, died there on April 28, 1902. 

My oldest daughter, Minnie, had been married before we went to Arizona, (I do not 
remember the exact date) and after my husband died I came back to Tinnie, New 
Mexico, to stay with my daughter, Minnie, and her husband, West [Purcells?], who 
lived at Tinnie on a ranch. 

My son William Marlin Shears, married and he and his wife and little girl lived 
near there. One morning my son left home and we have never seen or heard of him 
since. That was in 1908, about thirty years ago. After he went away I took his 
little girl and raised her as my own. 

In August, 1912, I was married to Jess Van Winkel. He owned a ranch on the east 
side of the Capitan Mountains where we lived until he died in February 1920. 
After Mr. Van Winkel's death I went to live with the grand-daughter whom I 
raised. Her name was Minnie Shears and she had married a man named Ernest 
[Purcells?]. I have lived with them for all these years as I am too old to live 
alone. They live on the old Torres place, about six miles northwest of Lincoln, 
New Mexico.  

My daughter Minnie, who married West [Purcells?], had fifteen children, eleven of 
whom are still living. They still live at Tinnie, New Mexico. 

My youngest daughter, Carrie, married Sanford Backus, and they live at Roswell, 
New Mexico. I do not remember dates very well and I can't remember when they 
married. 

NARRATOR: Mrs. Alice J. Van Winkel, Aged 82 years. Lincoln, N. Mex. 

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

Chaves, Lincoln, San Miguel, Otero, 

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