Housewife's plea: "Let's build on a room"

Max Clampitt, Hobbs Daily News May 17 2009, Printed with permission

 Max Clampitt, former Hobbs mayor, city commissioner and long-time resident, is a local freelance writer and historian, he publishes "Fact, Fantasy & Fiction" a weekly story combining  Lea County history and Southeastern New Mexico humor.

Newcomers to New Mexico Territory during the turn of the century so came to realize that   probably their biggest challenges were to build living quarters for themselves. The high desert county offered only adobe mud to build a home with and many folks had no experience in learning how to make and use adobe blocks. There are hundreds of stories told by pioneers about finally getting a wall built, or even an entire room, and then a rain would come along and everything would collapse and turn to mud. I have been told of a school building having this happen in the early days in Lovington, New Mexico.

After a time some of the ranchers would hire Mexican cowboys, and these guys who had been raised in Old Mexico or the northern parts of New Mexico Territory would very soon show builders how to mix straw or grass with caliche and the right amount of water, and the problem was solved. Of course there was an alternative of a five- or - six day day round trip to Midland, Carlsbad or Roswell to buy lumber, provided you had the money and even a little bit of carpenter experience.

Carpenters and most laborers in those days wore "overalls" that were rigged up with suspenders over the shoulders. So it was that if you were that if you were not a very good carpenter, you only wore one suspender on your shoulder and you were known as "a one-gallus carpenter." A good "finish" carpenter probably wore both galluses!

The first thing the homesteader had to do was to chose their new home place and mark it, sometime by plowing a furrow around the boundaries or driving stake with his name on it at all four corners. Since this southeast corner of New Mexico Territory was still part of Lincoln County, the claim had to be filled in Lincoln, New Mexico, a round trip of almost 200 miles.

Now came the time to create a shelter to live in and choices were limited. Many folks began work digging a dugout. Much of the area called for getting down into the caliche rocks and the best tools you had were pick and shovels. Dig out a square 10 or 12 feet square and maybe 4 feet deep. Then pile caliche rocks around the edges, say about 4 feet high, and you had walls 8 feet high. Hustle up some mesquite limbs and lay a tarp or buffalo hides on top unless you brought some scrap lumber with you.

Leave half of one end of the wall and dig steps up to ground level. Fill in the rock walls with dirt and sweat it out until the next rain washed it away. If a draw ran across your property, you could dig your into the side of the draw. The digging was much easier and putting on a roof much less trouble.

Some of the first one room camp houses, known as "choseys" were built completely of caliche rock, with only a shallow ditch around the four walls. Sometimes these walls were 2 or 3 feet thick, stacked together without any sort of mortar. They were surprisingly warm during cold weather, but somewhat uncomfortable in the summer months. A few of these homes are still standing and used as storage units for animal feed.

A few of the early day ranchers with a bit more money than the average settlers would sacrifice some of their finances to build plank houses of boxing lumber. These houses seldom lasted very long since they were usually not painted. With the rough winds and the blazing hot sun of the plains climate, the boards would warp and shrink, leaving cracks wide enough to fling a jackrabbit through.

An exception of the general riles of construction was the builders of the Four Lakes ranch structures. These men had come from the Pecos Valley and the South Texas country. Many of their employees were of Mexican descent and they knew very well how to build adobe houses.

They built the Four Lakes setup as well as the houses at Ranger Lake, along with much of the LFD spread. They also enjoyed the luxury of plenty of water. Although much of it was alkali water, caliche was not to proud o be mixed into good adobe blocks!

The unmarried cowboy or homesteader could tough it out in whatever adobe he could come  up with because most of the guys were more at home outdoors than cooped up in a house. He felt that houses were more useful as storage rooms and a place to keep him and his horse out of the storms.

But the wife of a married man presented altogether different values and needs! She still had fresh memories of how it was at home and she wanted comfortable arrangements as soon as humanly possible. These different wants and needs sometimes saw the man and wife in the throes of disagreement and very lively "nagging" conversations.

A few of these homesteaders simply could not make a go if this lifestyle, and they would sell their property to one of their neighbors and return home.

A rock path barely visible leads into what is left of the Jim Cook dugout located south of the present day Monument, New Mexico post office. This dugout was the beginnings of the community of Monument.