Weir Family Lore Sedgwick Co Kansas Genealogy Trails

Some family notes and "lore" per Ellen Dean Bolding Haynes and Linda Kay Sparger Armstrong:

William Fletcher saw the Hat Ranch when he was a Texas Ranger, about 19 years old. He told his captain he would own (some of) it one day. He bought 2 sections (640 acres each) and in 1906 he moved his wife and eight children (four boys and four girls) to Monument Hat Ranch. The boys must have bought some of the range as it ended up 12 sections. All the boys probably ranched in the area and are buried in Lovington.

The Weir Ranch (or perhaps the Hat) was also known as the Monument Springs Ranch. It was about five miles west of Monument, Lea, NM. Weirs lived in a rock house near the Indian Springs, presumably the headquarters house of the Hat Ranch.

Linda said that the Indiana Monument was on Indian Hill, related to Geronimo's Apaches, presumably to show the location of Monument Spring. This spring "was the only natural water between Big Springs, TX and Carlsbad, NM in the early days. The monument was moved to the town of Monument, but ended up in the center of the road and was moved again, this time in front of the Geronimo Hut bar. She said they hunted for arrow heads a lot at the ranch. She does not believe that the monument stones were used for forting and corrals as one history states.

The first oil well drilled in Lea County was on the Weir Ranch, and is still producing.

There was a female suicide in the Weir Ranch house. Dean will be able to give the details, as she supposedly had to "clean up the mess." The suicide was Willie Almna Weir….apparently shot herself in the bathroom at the ranch.

William Fletcher and Ellen Johnson are buried just to the left of the entrance at Lovington Cemetery.