Families

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BELL
FORBES
McFARLAND
ROBERTSON

BELL

"I am trying to find information about my great-grandparents, who homesteaded in Quay County, circa 1915. Their names are Oscar Fitzalen BELL and Hattie Josephine (SHRADER) BELL [photo at right]. Hattie was buried in Nara Visa Cemetery, in 1935.

"My grandparents also homesteaded in Quay County. They are Robert Dexter MERRY and Hattie Muriel (BELL) MERRY. Their patent record is dated 1922. Since their deaths, and that of their children (my father being one of them), the land is co-owned by 12 cousins (myself included)." --Tammy Leavitt harvesthome8@msn.com

1. Oscar Fitzalen BELL was born 24 Oct 1864 in Iowa, to parents Elkanah and Tabitha (TERREL) BELL. Oscar married 6 Dec 1884 in Chariton, Lucas County, Iowa, to Hattie Josephine SHRADER. Hattie was born 17 Jun 1863 in Iowa, to parents William H. and Lara (SMEDLEY) SHRADER. Hattie died 21 Jun 1935 in Nara Visa, Quay County NM. Oscar died 08 Jan 1951 in Alameda, California
Oscar and Hattie had at least 9 children, 6 still living in 1910.

1-1. Ezra Elkanah BELL born 23 Apr 1886 in Chariton, Lucas County, Iowa; died 8 Mar 1887; buried in Newbern Cemetery, Warren County, Iowa.
1-2. Ernst Elsworth BELL born 31 Mar 1888 in Chariton, Lucas County, Iowa; died 21 Mar 1908 in Oklahoma.
1-3. Hattie Muriel BELL born 9 Sep 1890 in Humeston, Wayne County, Iowa; died 10 May 1992 in San Joaquin County, California.
1-4. Raymond BELL born 6 Apr 1893 in English, Lucas County, Iowa; died 12 Apr 1893 in Iowa.
1-5. Joy Frank BELL born 13 Mar 1894 in Iowa; died 9 Sep 1983 in King County, Washington.
1-6. Alice Florence BELL born 7 Dec 1896 in Galt, Grundy County, Missouri; died 26 Dec 1991 in Alameda County, California.
1-7. Ocia June BELL born 9 Feb 1900 in Iconium, Appanoose County, Iowa; died 16 Jun 1982 in Stanislaus County, California.
1-8. Mary Ann BELL born 1902 in Iowa; died 5 Feb 1970 in Oakland, Alameda County, California.
1-9. Orest Etmer BELL born 3 Oct 1906 in Indiahoma, Comanche County, Oklahoma; died 7 May 1978 in Newberg, Yamhill County, Oregon.

Sources

Tammy Leavitt harvesthome8@msn.com
FindAGrave.com
FamilySearch.org
1870 Census of English, Lucas, IA [BELL, Elkana, Talitha, David, Sophronia, MaryL, SarahL, OscarF]
1880 Census of English, Lucas, IA family continued on next page [BELL, Elkana, Talitha, OscarF]
1900 Census of Troy, Monroe, IA [BELL, Oscar T, Hattie J, Alice F, Joy F, Hattie M, Ernst E, dau]
1910 Census of Oklahoma City, OK [Bell, Oscar F, Hallie J, Joey F, Allice F, Orese E, Ocy J ,Mary A]
1920 Census of Nara Visa, Quay, NM [BELL, Oscar F, Hattie, Joy, Mary, Forrest]
1930 Census of Nara Visa, Quay, NM [GOODRICH, Thomas A, BELL, Oscar F, Hattie J, Jay F]
1935 Death Certificate for BELL, Hattie J
1940 Census of San Joaquin County, CA [MERRY, Robert D, Hattie M, Orest V, BELL, Oscar F]

Contributed 03 Aug 2026 by Tammy Leavitt

FORBES

Louis Forbes was born 4/8/1887-Sherman, TX; died 11/11/53 Albuquerque, NM buried El Paso, TX; buried Restland Cemetery
Married
Wilo Ann Talley b.2/7/1896 –Silverton, TX; died 4/22/52 El Paso, TX; buried Restland Cemetery

Moved to Tucumcari, NM 1917. Louis was an engineer for Southern Pacific. They first lived on the old McEastland farm 2 miles west of town. In 1928 Louis purchased the 360 acre Doughty Farm. In 1935 it was sold back to Dr. Doughty. They then moved to Cloudcroft, NM. All of the Family were members of the Church of Christ in Tucumcari.

Clyde Forbes (brother of Louis) worked for SP in Tucumcari.

Children Born:

Buford Orville Forbes b. 4/25/1916 El Paso, TX - lives in Georgetown, TX. Married Mary Alline Stanford of Shamrock b. 4/13/22 Shamrock, TX d. 6/5/96 Georgetown, TX. She was living in Tucumcari with her aunt Thelma Carter. 1st child- Roylene –stillborn-6/12/44 buried in Tucumcari same grave as Willie Forbes.

Clarence Edward Forbes b. 12/18/1917-Tucumcari d. 12/27/1987-Albuquerque

Lorena Forbes b.4/5/1920-Tucumcari Married John Vernon Gossett- Lives in San

Diego, Ca. 1 child-Patricia Annette Gossett Rolla b. 8/9/44-Tucumcari-Lives in San Diego

Flora Alice Forbes b. 4/29/22 –Tucumcari- d. 1/29/90 Reno, NV

Louis Forbes JR b. 11/1/23-Tucumcari-d. 8/15/99 Arlington, WA

Robert Lee Forbes b. 6/16/28-Tucumcari- Lives in CA

Arlie Ruth Forbes b. 12/30/31-Tucumcari d. 9/7/86 Albuquerque, NM buried in El Paso

Willie Forbes- died at 1 year buried in Tucumcari

Jack Forbes-died still born-buried in Tucumcari

Contributed by Larry Forbes

McFARLAND

Robert Simeon McFARLAND

From the Enchantment (a Quay County, New Mexico Newspaper), August, 1978, page 4:

If Sim McFarland were living today, you would probably find him inside the McFarland Brothers Bank at Logan, New Mexico. He spent more than two-thirds of his long life looking after this banking business which he and his brother, Fred, established here in 1904. If he were not too occupied, he could tell you how he became a banker, and why he promoted Logan's Ute Dam.

But he might be busily composing a letter inside the red sandstone building which has housed the banking firm for more than 70 years. His typewriter would be an old Oliver machine with a worn-out keyboard.

"When my typewriter wore out several years ago, I couldn't get another one like it," he once explained. "Finally, I found this one at a junk dealer's place during the depression days of the Dust Bowl. He wanted two dollars and a half for it, so I bought it."

After Mr. Sim repaired and adjusted the typewriter he used it for another 25 years. Wastefulness and welfare bothered him. "Some of us have to produce," was the philosophy which he firmly typed in a letter concerning government doles.

McFarland always intended to be a producer, but he didn't really intend to be a banker. That came through various steps.

Born in Illinois, February 26, 1875, he was Robert Simeon McFarland, whose father had been born in Scotland. Simeon's family moved to Colorado while he was yet a baby, bringing him and his small, older sister. Here, near La Junta, the third child, Fred, was born. A few months later in 1878, the father died. When young Sim's mother married John Ritter, the family moved to La Veta. Eventually, there were eight Ritter children also.

Sim loved and respected his Papa Ritter so much that he worked with him and stayed near Colorado until he was 19. Then he came to New Mexico "on a little gray horse with $23 in my pocket." He went to work on a ranch near Nara Visa, for Coots and Ritter (his step-uncle) for $30 a month and his board.

Out of his wages, Sim was able to save enough money to do some profitable cattle trading. By the time he reached age 24, the cowboy-trader decided that he needed more education. Consequently, with a thousand dollars cash, he resigned from his ranching job to go to Kansas City where he enrolled in business college for nine months. He signed up for the regular course which included a class in banking.

"I had no thought of ever using banking knowledge," he said, although he applied himself to all the instruction offered.

Besides the business information, the tall, slim erstwhile wrangle found another attraction at the college. Her name was Cynthia Irene Brayton from Logan, Iowa.

But when his term of study ended, Sim McFarland returned to Nara Visa, still single, broke and jobless. He always said, however, that his education paid off, for soon he got a job with the New Mexico Sanitary Board as a cattle inspector at $75 a month. In this position, he rode over the open range getting better acquainted with "all these fine people," often eating beans and potatoes with them, and occasionally buying some of their livestock. In later years, McFarland counted 35 years spent in the saddle.

In 1902 he became more sedentary when he and Fred filed on each side of the railroad track at Nara Visa. here, they formed a partnership and opened a box-car-sized store in which they installed a safe for their money. Soon, they began in the service of keeping their customers' money in the safe also, and paying it out when written orders came in. The crude checks, scrawled with a lead pencil on scraps of envelopes or brown paper sacks, were always honored because the McFarlands were familiar with every signature.

Although business was good, Sim kept remembering the opinion of M. Bishop, the superintendent of the gang that had built the railroad bridge across the Canadian River 25 miles southwest where the little town of Logan had developed. Bishop said that in order for a town to amount to anything it had to be located on a water course. Logan had that advantage.

The McFarland brothers decided to move their enterprises there, where they continued their money exchange service. This quickly became so important that they opened the private McFarland Brothers Bank in 1904. Now, Sim McFarland was a banker, almost 30 years old, and still a bachelor.

Fred was married, but Sim was still thinking about the girl he had met in Kansas City. Suddenly, he concluded that he would visit the World's Fair in St. Louis, and make a special side trip to see Miss Brayton in Iowa.

That was a successful call, for the following year the fair lady became Mrs. Sim McFarland, in her home town, June 20, 1905. After the honeymoon, Sim brought his bride to Logan, New Mexico where they made their home all the rest of their lives. There may have been some qualms that first year when Mrs. McFarland had to wait for her husband to haul their drinking water home in a wooden barrel. But together they overcame the inconveniences, and extended their interests to the community. She wanted a church for the Sunday School which was meeting in the railroad depot. He was ready to help. When they aided the organization of the First Baptist Church of Logan, the McFarlands became charter - and life-long - members.

He became a school director who promoted a new building in 1910. Between banking duties, Sim discussed ways to develop the water course with depositors and county officials. A dam across the river to create a recreation lake seemed to be the answer. Still, it didn't develop.

The McFarland brothers continued their banking business, lending money and guarding checking accounts. As the business grew, it appeared to be so well funded that in the early 1920's, a couple of hold-up men entered the bank and demanded money. The robbers forced bank' President Sim, his sister-in-law Mrs. Fred McFarland, and others who were present, into the vault, and slammed the door which they tried to lock. Then they scooped up bills and heavy silver coins, and left town in a stripped-down Model T Ford.

Meanwhile, the president yelled and hollered inside the vault, trying to attract attention and help. Then he leaned against the heavy door and shoved mightily. Slowly, the door swung open. McFarland, intent on catching the thieves, grabbed a gun which was inside the bank, and ran into the street. He located a fellow with a car who was willing to follow the cloud of dust that rose up from the dirt road leading northward. Sim climbed in and directed the driver.

After several miles the pursuit car sputtered and quit running at a farmer's gate. The determined banker borrowed a saddle horse from the farmer and continued the chase alone.

"I didn't intend for them to get away," he explained afterward.

Some miles ahead, the hold-up men reached a creek where they stopped to bury their loot in the sandy bank.

Back in Logan, Fred's wife had alerted officers to the north by telephone. Before the day was over, the temporarily rich bandits found themselves confronted by a sheriff in front and a demanding horseman in the rear. They surrendered.

The cash was recovered. Later they were tried and convicted.

In succeeding months, the McFarland Brothers Bank progressed so that it became a state bank in 1924. After another 20 years of bank work, brother Fred died. Sim kept on, operating the bank as a family concern. He often talked about the benefits a dam would bring to the town of Logan and the surrounding area. He sat at his trusty typewriter to compose dozens of letters to influential people.

As the years advanced, Sim's son Robert assumed many of the banking duties, but the president still liked to open the front door every morning to greet the customers and mention the need for a dam.

Farther upstream, Conchas Dam had been erected on the Canadian. But a dam below the mouth of Ute Creek after it poured into the Canadian, would catch a lot of water for fishing, boating and skiing. Finally, the possibility of that dam became a certainty.

In 1962, Sim McFarland, now slightly stooped, stood beside Governor Edwin L. Mechem, who is presently a federal judge, while the governor broke the ground for Ute Dam with a gold-plated shovel. Then the bank president received the shovel as a gift of recognition for his many years of effort and promotion of this project.

Mr. Sim was there again for the dedication of the dam in 1963, located about two miles west of Logan. During the next two years, McFarland saw the lake develop, the visitors come, and the town improve. He watched the start of a housing growth around the lake shores. And he still checked the bank.

In June of 1965, Mr. and Mrs. Sim McFarland celebrated their sixtieth wedding anniversary at their home in Logan. Five of their six children were living to pay homage to their parents. One of them, Robert, who was active in the bank at that time, is presently Logan's retired banker.

A few days after the happy anniversary occasion, the spry couple took a friend out to the reservoir behind Ute Dam to enjoy the scene. Here they got out of the car to look at the lake which Mr. Sim had helped to create. Without warning, the car started its tragic movement toward the embankment. The banker tried desperately to stop it, but the momentum of the vehicle took Mr. Sim with it over the edge into deep water, where he drowned. He was 90 years old.

Mrs. McFarland's death came a year later.

Today, you can walk into the McFarland Brothers Bank and see the pictures of the founders with their wives: Mr. and Mrs. Fred McFarland, and Mr. and Mrs. Sim McFarland.

Courtesy of Donald R. and Robert F. Harrold II http://www.harrold.org/

ROBERTSON

John Dodson Robertson, Settler and builder of 1st post Office in Dodson, Quay Co., NM
Eliza Clarissa Robertson, 1st Postmistress of Dodson, NM

In 1888, being advised to take an invalid son to New Mexico [from Alvarado, TX], he [John] started in a wagon following the Ft. Worth & Denver RR. which was then under construction. Passing Amarillo, which at the time consisted of only 2 or 3 shacks and a boxcar for a station. At Tascosa they turned into New Mexico, where they entered a valley of wonderful possibilities and grand scenery. They passed Mesa Rotunda, with its many caves, and found a location in the Charco Valley, where they built a cabin of pine and cedar logs. This was 140 miles from Amarillo--their nearest railroad point, and there were only two other families in the whole community. It was a "health country", but occasionally there was a death; there was no doctor, preacher or priest.

[John's wife] Mrs. Eliza Clarissa Robertson conducted several funerals as best she could, one of them being for a neighbor living 40 miles away. At another time she was called to visit a sick lady 60 miles away, and thus she served her people, far and near as doctor, nurse, minister, and midwife, and she was the postmistress. On one occasion they were returning from Liberty, their post office 23 miles away, and were attacked by a large pack of wolves. Mrs. Robertson shot into the bunch, which checked them, and by plying whip to their horse managed to escape.

Later he [John] built a large and substantial rock house, hauling the doors, windows, flooring and shingles from Amarillo 140 miles away.

During the summer months he followed his trade, and worked two seasons for the big syndicate "A. I. T." ranch on the Texas plains, and spent one season building coke ovens at coal mines in New Mexico.

More settlers came into the valley, and the need of a post office was met by the appointment of Mrs. Robertson as Postmistress, and she named the Post Office Dodson [in Quay Co., NM], Mr. Robertson’s middle name. (The writer finds the place yet on the map, about 20 miles southward from Tucumcari.) Mrs. Robertson had to drive 20 miles to the nearest Justice of the Peace to make her bond as Postmistress, and the post office was in her home.

While Mr. Robertson was away at work, as above stated, Mrs. Robertson and children were alone most of the time, but had good neighbors, even the cowboys proved to be quite gentlemanly and kind to them. Some of these were graduates from eastern colleges, and one was the son of a well known Texas U. S. Senator.

Copyright © Billie J. Richter
Contributed 2009 Feb 07 with permission for posting on Quay County NMGenWeb by Billie J. Richter