Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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On this date … 1940: A man known “from the Pecos River to the Texas line as a character of the old days of the West,” died in a Clovis hospital at age 75. The Clovis News-Journal reported that Frank H. “Doctor” Childs died from injuries suffered when he was “slugged and robbed” in El Paso a few days earlier. Childs, who homesteaded near Melrose in 1908, was easily recognized throughout the region because he was always “well dressed ... with a cane slung over his arm,” CN-J reported. 1946: Movies playing in local theaters in...
On this date … 1946: A man had been arrested on allegations he made “improper advances” toward a young girl in a Clovis movie theater. Police were called to the theater after the girl’s father threatened to beat up the suspect. When police arrived, the suspect ran from the theater. Police captured him a few blocks away. “A local physician said that the man was either intoxicated or under the influence of dope, but that he was probably temporarily insane,” the Clovis News-Journal reported. 1961: Portales consumers were cuttin...
On this date … 1952: Three Roosevelt County businesses had been hit by burglars, but the only significant loss was $40 from a Portales farm supply store’s cash drawer, soft drink and candy dispensers. An Elida service station reported two old automobile batteries were missing, but new batteries were left behind. The service station was also missing a gallon of milk. A Roosevelt County Sheriff’s deputy said it wasn’t clear if the three burglaries were related. 1952: Authorities were investigating the poisoning of 16 head of...
On this date … 1966: Clovis police investigator Cliff Wirtjes had earned the highest score in the annual policeman’s shooting competition. Wirtjes scored 663 out of a possible 800 to take the top-gun trophy for the second year in a row. 1969: The Clovis Junior Women’s Club had announced its annual home tour. Five Clovis homes were scheduled to be decorated for the holidays and open for public viewing. The homes were located at • 701 E. 21st • 1744 Baronne Court • 1617 Courtland Circle • 2824 Axtell • 1921 Enloe Drive. Ti...
On this date … 1950: A 54-year-old tenant farmer was found dead in a ditch about 12 miles southwest of Muleshoe. Officials said the man tied a rope around his neck, fastened the other end to the steering wheel of his car, and jumped out of the car while it was in motion. Investigators estimated the car traveled 200 yards after the man’s body hit the ground; it was found stalled in a field. 1956: Officials at Clovis Air Force Base were asking residents to avoid trespassing on the Melrose Gunnery Range. Lt. Col. Bernie Bas...
On this date … 1940: Two young male lions were sold to a circus by the Clovis zoo. Cole Bros. Circus purchased the lions and a monkey in a cash transaction following its Clovis performances, the Clovis News-Journal reported. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. 1940: Clovis High School band members needed new uniforms and they were willing to work for them. Band members said Nov. 9 was going to be “Hobo Day,” during which they would mow lawns, clean up trash, wash dishes or perform just about any other task in excha...
On this date … 1937: A.L. Watson of Clovis was fined $100, with $50 suspended, after pleading guilty to riding with a drunken driver. The driver pleaded not guilty to the allegations and was going to trial. 1940: More than 100 blocks of Clovis city streets had been paved since March, city officials said. Eight more blocks were expected to be paved within the week — two on East Fifth, one on North Wallace, one on West Eighth, two on West 12th, one on North Reid and one on North Hull. 1941: An overnight drenching left far...
On this date … 1941: New Mexico’s state game commission had announced the 1941 quail season had been canceled. The decision was made “reluctantly,” wire services reported, because quail populations had suffered from heavy rains and flooding during the nesting season in the spring and again in September. Game Warden Elliott Barker said the birds had been recovering nicely until the September storms “virtually wiped them out.” 1960: David Thompson and Marsha Simms, both 11, were among Parkview Elementary School students pr...
On this date … 1951: Ramona Griego had been unable to celebrate her fourth birthday because she was in Clovis Memorial Hospital. The child, who lived at 205 Cameo, was suffering from polio, doctors said. She’d been admitted over the weekend with severe weakness in her arms and legs and was confined to bed. She was listed as Curry County’s 10th polio victim of the year. In August 1955, the Clovis News-Journal reported Ramona and a Tucumcari child had been flown to a hospital in Truth or Consequences for treatment. Ramon...
On this date … 1941: One robber was dead and three more in jail after a Grady hardware store owner fought off an attack. R. C. Knowles, operator of the store, told authorities two men entered the store and asked about purchasing bullets for a rifle. When Knowles, 74, reached for the bullets, one man jumped him and the other hit Knowles on the head. Knowles said he fought off his attackers, then opened fire on them with a pistol. A Portales man died on the sidewalk outside the store. Three other Portales men were arrested a d...
On this date … 1944: A Parmerton woman was recovering from an accident involving a pressure cooker. Mrs. G.H. Brock was cut by glass when a jar in the cooker exploded. Several stitches were required to close the wound. Parmerton was in central Parmer County, Texas, and was the county seat for seven months in 1907 before that distinction went to Farwell. 1946: Republican candidates had made “a strong bid for the veteran vote” at a rally in Portales. Gubernatorial candidate Ed Safford “declared flatly that he favored the sam...
On this date … 1969: The Eastern New Mexico University Symphony was preparing to make its season debut at the annual Pops Concert Banquet in the Campus Union ballroom. Symphony director was Arthur Welker. He planned to present selections from “My Fair Lady,” “South Pacific,” “Sound of Music” and “Carousel.” The banquet menu called for prime rib, baked potato, fruit cup, a vegetable and dessert. Admission was $2.75. That included the meal. 1970: The Portales Rams, fresh from a surprising 20-14 win over previously unbeat...
On this date … 1914: Model Grocery in Clovis advertised pie peaches for 10 cents per can, 20 bars of soap for $1 and 12 pounds of sugar for $1. 1933: New Mexico Gov. Arthur Seligman died and Andy Hockenhull, a Clovis lawyer, banker and Central Baptist Church Sunday school teacher, was appointed his successor. Hockenhull, 56, had been the state’s lieutenant governor. Seligman died after complaining of a sharp pain in his chest, just minutes after speaking at a state banker’s convention, The Associated Press reported. 1941:...
On this date ... 1910: Miller & Luikart, a Portales dry goods store, offered men’s black derby hats for $3. 1931: Pearson Valley school 26 miles west of Portales was wrecked for the second time in two weeks. Teacher Ruth Isham opened the school to find desks crashed to splinters, blackboards demolished and school records torn to bits and scattered over the floor, the Clovis Evening News-Journal reported. 1941: De Baca County homes were being evacuated and broomcorn farmers feared heavy crop losses after torrential rains f...
On this date ... 1946: Almost every Portales business had plans to close its doors for a city-wide cleanup planned the following Thursday. “Only postage stamps will be for sale,” area media reported. The Portales City Council was encouraging everyone volunteer to help clean up the town and had drawn up an ordinance that would increase garbage collection fees and require health inspections of cow lots, chicken pens and open toilets. 1947: Clovis Police Chief Nelson Worley, Officer Herschel Pendley and City Hall Janitor Cha...
On this date ... 1915: Area drug stores advertised Doan’s Kidney Pills, a “tested and proven remedy” for kidney and bladder problems. They were 50 cents per bottle. 1951: Eastern New Mexico residents scrambled to dig out their coats and sweaters as temperatures dropped 35 degrees in 24 hours. Winds were clocked at 23 mph, with 30 mph gusts, as temperatures fell from the low 80s to the mid-40s. Weather forecasters were predicting lows in the upper 30s over the next day or two, but said there was little danger of a freez...
On this date ... 1923: Jerry “Bruiser” Nuzum was born in Clovis. The son of Mr. and Mrs. W. N. Nuzum became the first Clovis High School graduate to play in the National Football League. The halfback spent four seasons — 1948-1951 – with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He died in 1997, at age 73. 1952: The Clovis Mattress company was featured in the business review section of the Clovis News-Journal, and noted for having the only felting machine in the city. "The felting machine felts cotton giving you a mattress free from lumps a...
On this date ... 1914: The Barbara Worth Hotel in San Diego advertised “A room with a bath for a dollar” in The Clovis Journal. 1941: Portales city officials were making plans for a Sept. 12 statewide blackout. About 80 “special police” were appointed to help organize the civilian defense drill in which all lights were to be shut off and windows covered. The drill was mandatory across New Mexico because military leaders considered border states “of strategic importance from the standpoint of an invasion possibili...
On this date ... 1918: Workers were just about finished paving the north end of Clovis’ Main Street, between Fourth and Eighth streets, with bricks that remain today. A Plainview company did the work after a winning bid of $32,846.20, the Clovis News-Journal reported. 1936: A convicted Clovis rapist’s home was destroyed in a fire while he awaited transport to the state penitentiary. Curly Reynolds had lived at 204 Edwards St. in a small adobe house. Neighbors alerted firefighters to the blaze. Reynolds had pleaded guilty to s...
On this date ... 1910: The Roosevelt County Herald readers learned 2,000 “of those special lemonades” had been created in a week at the Dobbs Confectionery — a record. “Better get in for one or more early in the week in order to avoid the rush,” the newspaper ad claimed. 1941: The Clovis News-Journal asked area judges about the strangest wedding ceremonies they had performed. Justice of the Peace W. E. McConnell said he married a couple on horseback at a riding academy and married a couple at the county jail just before th...
On this date ... 1939: John Sparks, the son of Mr. and Mrs. J.C. Sparks, had learned a valuable lesson about riding his bike alongside a car. The boy was riding to the Portales swimming pool alongside a car driven by his friend Billie Kenyon when the bicycle “dumped him underneath the car,” according to the Portales Daily News. “His arm was run over,” the paper reported. Fortunately, both boys were Boy Scouts and they used their first-aid skills to stop the flow of blood from John’s arm. He was rushed to the Portales hospital...
On this date ... 1905: A post office was established at Tolar in Roosevelt County. It closed April 5, 1946, according to a study by L. Keith Payne, less than two years after a train carrying 46 tons of military explosives leveled or caused major damage to nearly every building in town when it blew up. 1916: Portales was preparing for its annual city picnic, with 2,000 people expected to attend. The Clovis Ladies’ Band was scheduled to kick things off with music at 10 a.m., followed by a few short speeches and then more m...
On this date ... 1941: A Wichita Falls teenager was charged with killing two traveling companions and placing their bodies on the train tracks four miles south of Clovis. Officials at first believed J.V. Harden and Arthur William Hall had fallen from the tracks and been run over by the train. Charles Alexander then told authorities that the dead men had been traveling with him and Jess Fuller, but went ahead without them when Alexander and Fuller decided to rest for the night. Alexander, 15, theorized the dead men had...
On this date ... 1941: Clovis was about to become the “most important cold storage point” in New Mexico, according to Railways Ice Co., which was constructing cold-storage lockers. Facilities under construction in Clovis would ultimately contain storage for 55 carloads of produce, including butter, eggs, poultry and fresh vegetables, the Clovis News-Journal reported. Nearest comparable cold-storage facilities were in Oklahoma, Denver and El Paso, officials said. 1942: Bob Wills, the King of Western Swing, was hon...
On this date ... 1940: More than 6,000 New Mexico farms were being serviced with electricity. “This means that nearly 15% of the farms of the state or about one farm out of seven is now receiving high-line service,” a New Mexico Extension Service spokesman said. 1941: Farmers Electric Cooperative announced plans to string 35 miles of power lines over the next year. “All the new wire will be laid in territory immediately around this area and will be designed to fill up the gaps in the existing coverage,” said project Superin...
