WW I Recruits ~ Taos County

WW I Recruits ~ Taos County

During the years immediately following World War I, Lansing Bloom was hired at the Museum of New Mexico charged with directing the Museum’s War History Service. In this capacity, he was responsible for compiling the biographical records and information about New Mexico’s 16,000 World War I veterans. Toward this end, Bloom conducted a survey of surviving WWI veterans of NM. Approximately seventy-percent of the surveys were returned and are housed today at the New Mexico State Archives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

In 2018, Colorado resident, Dr. John Valdez began doing research on World War I Veterans from Taos County. During his research at the state archives, he located the surveys and from the information contained in them, began to disaggregate the names of the respondents and their respective communities.

This combined research can be found in a spreadsheet developed by Dr. Valdez. This spreadsheet includes Taos County WWI Veterans on the first tab and tabs for the following villages: Costilla, Chamisal, Rodarte, Taos, Sapello, Valdez, Questa, Ranchos de Taos, Cerro, Pina, Red River, Tres Pedras, Peñasco, Talpa, Arroyo Seco, Arroyo Hondo, Trampas, and a tab that includes some names from Carson, Dixon, Holman, Naranjos, Ojo Caliente, Prado and Rio Pueblo.

5 thoughts on “WW I Recruits ~ Taos County

  1. Is this archive easy to access? I am currently researching my g-grandfather and would love to know if his survey is included.

  2. The postcard picture is of Pvt. Julian Gonzales. He was born in 1895, in Poleo, Nuevo Mexico Territory, one of several Pueblitos of Costilla, NM. He lived in Poleo until he was 7-years old. His parents were Higinio Gonzales and Jesusita Santistevan. In a conversation with him, probably in the early 1970’s, he told me that he had been raised “Out West” in Poleo. I was able to verify that much more recently by looking through the US Census for that period which showed his family living there. As I recall, there was not a US Census in the year 1900.

    The picture in the postcard was made at Camp Funston, Kansas while he was in military training. He sent it to his younger sister Rosita Gonzales in Pina, New Mexico on October 14, 1917, he would have been 22-years old. He went on to fight in France during WWI along with his fellow “Norteños”.

    In about 1902 Julian and his family moved the 8-miles east up to Pina, NM (Amalia) where he lived the rest of his life through his late 90’s. Like many other Norteños, he too made the sheep-herder pilgrimage to Wyoming to work as a “Borregero” in the area of “Roque Springs” for several years.

    “Camp Funston was a U.S. Army training camp located on Fort Riley [military reservation], southwest of Manhattan, Kansas. The camp was named for Brigadier General Frederick Funston. It was one of sixteen such camps established at the outbreak of World War I.”

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