Former military building historic monument

A Clovis friend told me in July the old military stable near Bell Park might soon be torn down. He said one part of one stable has been torn down in the last few months. The one that is still up at Sixth and Ash is the last one standing. It is currently being used for storage for the city street department.

If the remaining building is torn down, Clovis looses an historic monument. The building was part of the 111th Cavalry unit of the National Guard of New Mexico, the same unit that was changed to the 200th Coast Artillery and sent to the Philippines at the start of World War II. Over a third of our men died in the infamous “Battan Death March.”

The building was the first building at the site to be used by the cavalry unit, according to the late “Chick” Taylor Sr., who was in the cavalry unit, and worked up to a captain. He said the city built the building which was used to house exhibitions and such. The building is at least 80 years old. (At one time the Curry County Fair used this site.

It would be a shame to all veterans and their families to see this building torn down.

“The 111th Cavalry was formed in early 1921, “Chick” told me, “but Clovis didn’t get this unit until April 1, 1926. Capt. John C. Luikart of Clovis organized this first unit with the aid of 1st Lt. Ray Harrison. In 1929, the War Department changed the status of the unit to a machine gun troop, but kept the cavalry unit.”

Soldiers using horses were kind of a throw back to the 1898 Spanish-American War in Cuba, and in 1916 the entire National Guard of New Mexico, which included Clovis’ Company K of the 1st Regiment Infantry, were called to Columbus after Pancho Villa’s raid.

The cavalrymen in Clovis treated their mounts with great care. Early one Sunday morning a 1st lieutenant was called from his home and was told that his horse had broken its leg in the iron railing of the fence. He immediately came to the stables there on Sycamore Street and tended to his horse.

This mare, badly crippled, had to be put out of its misery. The officer did his duty and had the unpleasant task of shooting the animal. It was Taylor Sr.

Taylor Sr., Fred Crook, and E.J. Splinter Dorris told me about the 111th Cavalry in 1984.

Taylor joined the unit in about 1926-27. Crook joined the unit at 22 years old in 1933.

“There were three men to each tripod-mounted machine gun,” Cook said, “and when we moved them, it’d be by horses with the guns, ammunition and supplies all packed on the horses. We often practiced in the old caliche pit south of town on what is now the Swift Plant road. We drilled every Sunday morning, and for that one-half day get $1 pay.”

“I worked my way into the outfit,” said Dorris, “and I was in it until November of 1932 when I joined up with the regular army and got sent to Fort Bliss to break saddle mules. Say, we got $21 every month.”

In the fall of 1939 the 111th Cavalry was converted to an anti-aircraft unit and named the 200th Coast Artillery.

At 6-foot-4 inches only 155 pounds, Taylor Sr. was turned down by the medics as not being heavy enough. He had to resign, but later he joined the New Mexico State Guard. In 1941 the Clovis State Guard (9th Company) was sent to guard the dam at Alamogordo Lake from attack.

Don McAlavy is Curry County’s historian. He can be contacted at: [email protected]