Friday, April 16, 1920 “Will Drill at Blackdom”

“How do you solve the situation? By staying outside the system, living alone. I found that to be an outsider is to be alienated and unhappy. In the Party, we have formed a family, a fighting family that is a vital unit itself.”

Huey P. Newton, Revolutionary Suicide 

The Herron Family Dynasty began a homestead in the time of Blackdom’s revival (1909-1919). In 1913, Erastus, patriarch of the Herron family, migrated to the area and stayed with the pastor of Blackdom’s church, Crutcher Eubank. The process of homesteading provided a fairly predictable five-year plan, which helped shape a Blackdomite cult of agronomy around dry-farming. Erastus started his journey on a homestead patent in January of 1914. World War I ended and his two sons came back to Blackdom from France, Erastus submitted his final set of proving-up documents in September of 1918 and sparked a legal dispute. 

Roswell Daily Record: Friday, April 16, 1920 [Pg 3]

Clayborn Stephens got his ass whipped by one of Erastus’ sons and the humiliation turned him petty. Clayborn filed an application to contest Erastus’ homestead entry claiming Erastus never established a residence on the land; a major requirement to earn the homestead patent. Clayborn attempted to commandeer the land by employing land reclamation and demanded the rights to Erastus’s land once the case was over; as a finders fee.

Erastus built a 2-room framed house 6ft by 24ft. Aside from the storm house and cellar, there was also a 2-wire fence surrounding a field 900ft by 1200ft. It included an enclosure of 300ft by 400ft that had a 3-wire fence. The land could have been plowed with 2- mules but the droughts as well as, the learning curve of dry-farming rendered Herron in need of capital. 

Special agent Mason Leming interviewed all of the witnesses on Erastus' final proof to resolve Clayborn’s dispute. On February 8, 1919, Leming interviewed Nick Gates on his homestead less than a mile away from Erastus’. Gates substantiated Herron’s claim to cultivate 12 acres. Leming also interviewed George Malone, the 1st lawyer under the condition of Blackness to argue in front of New Mexico’s Supreme Court.  In 1919, Malone was also Blackdom Townsite’s postmaster and teacher. Significantly, the interview took place in the federal space of the Post Office. Malone came to Blackdom in September of 1915 and lived with his family half a mile from Erastus. Malone stated that he too witnessed Erastus continuous residency. R. Gilmore agreed and Erastus received his patent, May 20, 1921.  

In 1919, the investigation showed the Herron Family Dynasty established residence on February 11, 1915. Raising livestock was the only way to make a profit at the time. Clayborn’s claim evolved from Blackdomite’s virtual existence, which caused homesteading Blackdomites to temporarily abandon the land. Herron proved-up by cultivating, plowing and planting a patch of land 410ft by 250ft in the 1914 season. The land didn’t produce well enough in the short term and he was more productive laboring on Pastor Eubank Family set of homesteads. The process continued and Erastus' absence was a cultural effect from raising capital to reinvest in Blackdom.   

Sovereignty was hard to gain and even trickier once achieved. It would be interesting to know how Clayborn, with his petty ass, felt opening the Roswell Daily Record on Friday, April 16, 1920, to read “Will Drill at Blackdom.”

by Dr. Timothy E. Nelson ©

APRIL 12, 1920, “WILL DRILL AT BLACKDOM”

“Bourgeois values define the family situation in America, give it certain goals. Oppressed and poor people who try to reach these goals fail because of the very condition that the bourgeoisie established.”

Huey Newton, Revolutionary Suicide

In 1903, Albert Hubert was one of thirteen founders of the Blackdom Townsite Company who didn’t fully invest and stayed “a servant,” his whole life. According to (3) decades of census records, Albert was a stable head of household in Chaves County, New Mexico. Abiding was no easy feat. Albert’s life strategy sustained him as a Black man at the chaotic intersection of Mexico’s northern frontier, and America’s Western frontier as borders crossed people.

As late as 1930, Albert didn’t homestead and had invested his labor in Roswell, New Mexico (20 miles north of Blackdom) where he lived on East Third Street (for 30 years). Blackdomites occupied space virtually by maintaining a home “in town” and proving-up a homestead connected to the idea of Blackdom. At the will of the people, dual existence allowed Blackdom to assemble, disassemble and reassemble. Blackdom’s nimble concept allowed the township to weather times of tumult and thrive in boom times.

In 1914, Blackdom Townsite’s original 40-acre plot was officially patented, but the process began in 1909 after a lackluster attempt in 1903. The homestead class dictated Blackdom Township’s agenda; meanwhile, the townsite languished for years while they struggled to produce a sovereign life on subsistence dry-farming. Many Black men had to leave their families on homesteads for long periods of time to make ends meet.

Roswell Daily Record: Blackdom Oil Company Monday, April 12, 1920 [pg 2]

Albert’s side-hustle in the city became his main-hustle and Blackdom Township lost him to a consistent paycheck as well as the responsibility to his blossoming family. He was a literate Texan, who according to the 12th U.S. Census of 1900, was “about 30” married to 20-year-old Pearl. The Hubert family included their two-year-old daughter Sadee, and possibly a nine-year-old daughter Bernice from a previous relationship. From 1900 through 1930 the Hubert family steadily grew every 3 to 5 years. 

By 1920, the Hubert family consisted of Pearl and six kids—Bernice (24), Juanita (18), Linwood (son 14), Valerie (daughter 12), Burt (son 10), and Mattie (daughter 7). Albert worked for the Travis Ellis family whose patriarch was a railroad auditor who migrated from Kentucky. In 1900, Travis was 29 and his Indiana-born wife Maude was 27. With the help of Albert, Maude worked from home taking care of two daughters.

Southeastern New Mexico had developed into a Southern-styled Confederate society and some Roswellians embraced visiting lecturers who promoted the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. In 1924, the Pioneer Klan of Roswell inaugurated its existence with a cross-burning in the city. Albert’s Kentucky-born employer may or may not have been a Klan sympathizer, but Albert was risk-averse and not likely to test those limits. For him, Blackdom may have appeared both dangerous financially and physically. 

Albert was both a “servant” and co-founder of Blackdom. One can only wonder what he felt on April 9, 1920, when he read in the Roswell Daily Record, “Will Drill At Blackdom.”

by Dr. Timothy E. Nelson ©