Worley family: a part of NM since 1929

For anyone curious about the history of the concrete grain elevator being demolished in Portales, this vignette about the Worley family business in Portales is being posted.

The demolition is of the last remnants of the lifework of Olan, Clarence, Bob and Victor Worley in the form of the concrete elevator on Commercial Street in Portales near its intersection with Abilene Avenue.

The Worley family became a part of New Mexico history beginning in 1929 when Olan and Clarence put the guts of a cotton gin to work that their father, Chester Arthur, or "C.A." Worley, had operated in Adair County, Okla., in the early decades of the 20th century.

They operated it for two harvest seasons in Quay County, on the High Plains east of Logan.

Beginning in 1931, they relocated the gin to Dora, where they operated it for at least two more years before relocating again to Portales, county seat of Roosevelt County.

From 1934 forward, they lived in Portales. Clarence was married to Lois by that time, but Olan was single. C.A. Worley moved his wife Maud, my grandmother, and their younger daughters, Ruby and Lela, by 1934 as well. Daddy, Olan, lived with C.A. and Maud, Grandma and Grandpa, in one of the apartments. Daddy had land at the intersection of Abilene and Commercial about this time. They built a flour mill to follow in their footsteps of their grandfather, Julius Caesar, or "J.C." Worley, who had been a flour miller as well as cotton ginner in Adair County, Indian Territory, which became Oklahoma in 1907.

During the mid-1930s, after building the flour mill, Olan and Clarence acquired a small wood-and-sheet metal grain elevator to receive and buy wheat during the late spring harvest to use to make flour.

Their primary flour brand was "Portales Best Flour," which they marketed locally to grocery stores in eastern New Mexico.

After World War II, they expanded their market to include southern New Mexico down U.S. 70 all the way to El Paso, Texas. Olan served as the primary traveling salesman for this aspect of their business. Clarence and C.A. stayed in Portales to oversee processing and grain storage. Early in World War II, they agreed to have a large concrete grain elevator constructed with financing by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on land they owned near the flour mill facing Commercial Street. Olan & Clarence purchased the concrete elevator from the USDA at the end of World War II for a nominal price.

Initially, the combined flour milling, grain storage and growing livestock feed manufacturing plant operated under the name of Worley Brothers, usually abbreviated to "Worley Bros." By the late 1940s, it was renamed "Worley Mills." In 1982, Olan, Bob, Victor and I purchased the Portales, Elida and Goodland, Texas, locations from our cousin and aunt, Dick and Lois Worley who continued to operate Worley Mills from the Clovis headquarters.

Olan and his three sons operated the Portales plant and two other locations as "Sunmark Grain" from 1982 to 1987. They were required to merge that with a west Texas operator by bank order in the late 1980s.

This concrete elevator, constructed to support the World War II effort in 1942, is what is now being taken down in the Portales location it has occupied for over 75 years. The remains of C.A. & Maud, Olan, Roberta, Bob and Victor Worley are now at rest in the Portales cemetery.

Bill Worley grew up in the Portales/Clovis area. He is now retired, living in the Kansas City, Mo., area after retiring from The Metropolitan Community Colleges of Kansas City. He's on Facebook.