UNION

NAME: Union COUNTY: Roosevelt ROADS: 2WD GRID: 6 CLIMATE: Pretty darned nice BEST TIME TO VISIT: Valentines day would be a good time !

COMMENTS: Union. Right in the NE corner of Roosevelt County. Northeast from Portales a distance of 20 odd miles. It is in an area described by one settler as being in "Plum Nelly". He said he lived plum out of Texas and Nelly out of New Mexico.That is a right clever saying. Nothing to see at Union. My big reference book does not even give it a mention. Just a small dot with the notation that it is an abandoned settlement. REMAINS: Nothing

Union. Had its beginning about 1906, which was the beginning of a world beater drought that lasted for six years. These little settlements were to busy eeking out a living from whatever means to make much of a writtenrecord of their activities. They never had a post office and there is no written record of having built a school house. That generally happened tho. A church and school had the first priority in most of these settlements.It is sad to attempt to uncover something written about the people, with names and dates but in this case I am really empty handed. They just did not have a chance in that tough and mostly brutal environment. The governmentheld out the land as an incentive to pack up and move but then they did not provide any backing of any sort to make the homestead act really work. The little banks, few in numbers that they were, were on capitalized for $25,000or so and bankers have not changed all that much since the drought of 1906/1912. Remember that I told you that. Submitted by: Samuel W McWhorter

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