WPA Mrs. Sarah Hughes
Writer: Edith L. Crawford
Carrizozo, N. Mex.
MAY 24 1938
PIONEER STORY
Interview
with: Mrs Sarah
Hughes
I was married to George Madison
Hughes, October 22, 1882, in
We lived on a ranch seven miles
north of
The country was wide open in those
days, there were no fences, our hogs fattened on pecans and acorns.
All of our children were sick most
of the time, so Mr Hughes decided to move to
In the spring of 1902, we sold our
ranch and hogs, kept eighty head of cattle ten horses and three hound dogs. We
loaded our bedding clothing and provisions into three covered wagons, and left
One wagon had a chuck box in the
back and where we kept our dishes and food, we had a cow hide streched under
the wagon to carry our cooking utensillis and our water kegs were tied on the
side of the wagon, this wagon carried our provisions and beddingThe other two
wagons were for the family, I drove a spring wagon and had a pair of bed
springs in the back of the wagon for the smaller children to play and sleep on
during the day.
The three oldest boys were the
cowboys and drove the cattle Mr. Hughes and one of the other boys drove the
other two wagons, we traveled very slowley on account of the cattle, we slept
out in the open at night as the weather was very warm when we left
I did all the cooking with the
help of the oldest girl we made biscuits and corn bread and baked them in dutch
ovens I used cream of tartar and soda to make my bread with, we had three cows
in the herd with young calves the boys milked the cows and we had plenty of
fresh milk for the children to drink.
We brought all of our meat that we
had smoked before leaving Texas, we also brought a ten gallon keg of home made
syrup that we traded hogs for we lost a lot of our syrup while crossing the
plains it got to warm and boiled over.
The only two towns that we stopped
in between
When we stopped to camp at night
the children would run wild on the flats, we were always afraid they would get
bit by a rattle snake, as we saw so many on the road during the day.
Our stock suffered quite a bit for
water and feed while we were crossing the plains, one day in paticular I
remember the cattle were badley in need of water we noticed a ranch house in
the distance with a wind mill and tank we drove by with the wagons to see if
they would let us water the cattle, but when the horses smelled the water they
made arun for the tank we just couldn't hold them back and about that time two
women came out of the ranch house and ordered us off of the place they said
"they only had water enough for their own stock."
We couldn't get the horses away
until they got enough to drink, we didn't even ask them to let us fill our
water kegs after they acted so rude towards us the children all got a drink and
we drove on, I thought those were the meanest two women that I ever heard of.
We drove on and found a watering
place that night it was the Concho river and we camped on the banks of the
river for two days and let the cattle rest and get all the water they wanted.
We drove on across the plains with the cattle when we struck the line between
As we crossed the line into
There was lots of hard work and
responsibility for me on this trip looking after ten children keeping them
clean and fed.
But the trip was well worth all
the hardships that we had as the children became healthy and [taned?].
One evening while we were camped
on the Pecos River we were cooking supper, I heard a shot and a woman scream I
told Mr. Hughes "to run quick as I just knew some one had shot Mrs.
Turk," Mr. Hughes went over to the Turk camp found that one of the Turk
boys had shot a big rattle snake that had coiled and was just ready to strike
his mother on the ankle when he shot.
We moved our camp that night for
we were afraid there was another rattle snake around.
We left Eddy and came on to
Mr. Hughes began to look around
for us a place for us to live he found a place on the Bonito River three miles
northeast of Angus New Mexico, which is located twenty six miles southeast of Carrizozo New Mexico, we moved our
cattle over to this place and turned them a loose as the ranges were wide open
in tho'se days.
We did some farming and sent the
children to school at Angus we also got our mail at Angus, the children rode
horse back to school. We landed on the Bonito May 12, 1903; we lived on this
place about four years.
We needed better schools for our
children so we sold our place and cattle and moved to Carrizozo, New Mexico in 1907, where I have lived ever since.
I was born twelve miles north of
Narrator: Mrs. Sarah Hughes, Age
81 Carrizozo,
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