Ranch boy goes from peace officer to city manager

Don McAlavy: CNJ columnist

T his is briefly how Joseph C. Thomas, a ranch boy, from Norton in Quay Valley, some 25 miles southeast of Tucumcari, came to be in Clovis.

Isom H. Thomas and three of his sons, sometime between 1912 and 1913, came from Roger Mills County in Oklahoma to homestead in New Mexico. Isom was Joe’s great-grandfather. Homesteading in Artesia didn’t work out, so back to Oklahoma they went. By 1914 two of the sons, George and Joe, now with wives, came back and the wives filed on land on Plaza Largo Creek, where they built dugouts to live in, a mile apart.

The following story comes straight from the Clovis city manager:

“My grandfather Joe was successful as a rancher and farmer and accumulated approximately 3,500 acres of land by buying it from other homesteaders who were unable to live off the harsh land. When he died the land was divided between the children. After my grandfather’s death I too earned a stock in the land by spending many long cold hours on a horse tending, and feeding the cattle, with my father.

“My great-uncle George was not cut out for the farm and ranch life so he and his wife Stella moved to Tucumcari, where George found work as the superintendent of the City’s water department, and Stella opened a nursing home.”

“My father was Joseph Henry, born in 1923. He was the youngest of three children. The other two were I.H., and Naomi Tawanna. Everyone called my father “Dink.” He continued to live in Tucumcari and was married in 1949 to Salludie ‘Sally’ Falkner. Sally had been married previously and had two sons, Andrew and Pat. In 1950 I was born.”

“I have many vivid and happy memories about life on the ranch as I grew older. Although I loved the ranch I was driven by a stronger desire to become a police officer. I can remember when I was very young that that was what I wanted to be. I met my wife Mearl while in school in Tucumcari in the late 1960s and we were married in 1970. I was able to get a job with the city of Tucumcari as the assistant city engineer.”

“In 1971, Mearl and I were blessed with a daughter, T’Mara. I still had that desire to enter law enforcement. In 1975 we had another daughter, Brandi.”

“In the summer of 1972 my dream came true when I was hired by the Clovis Police Department. I moved my family to Clovis. I continued my law-enforcement career and was promoted to detective in 1978.

“I have worked my way to the top in my profession, having served as acting chief of police and then assistant chief of police. After serving over 21 years as a police officer I became public works director for Clovis. After that I became assistant city manager. Here at the end of 2004 I was selected as the new city manager. I owe a lot to the former City Manager Raymond Mondragon.

“Shortly after I was hired as a police officer in Clovis I had the occasion to visit with my great-uncle Harlan in Oklahoma and he told me that I was not the first member of the Thomas family to serve as a peace officer. He said that his father’s cousin (or possibly his uncle) was a U. S. Marshal in the late 1800s in Texas and Oklahoma. This man’s name was Henry Thomas. It was not until many years later that I learned that Henry Thomas was probably Henry Andrew “Heck” Thomas, one of the most famous lawmen of that era who worked for Hanging Judge Isaac Parker in Fort Smith, Arkansas.”

“Although my ancestor’s roots are in Texas and Oklahoma, I have never regretted the fact that my grandfather chose to come to New Mexico, and I am very proud to call Clovis and New Mexico my home.”

Don McAlavy is Curry County’s historian. He can be contacted at:

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