The Streets of Carlsbad - Eddy Street

Charles B. Eddy in trimmed beard plaid
bowtie, top-buttoned coat. Eddy was the
original La Huerta ranch owner and
project promoter.

Of course, the most prominent name in early Eddy/Carlsbad was that of cattleman turned promoter, Charles B. Eddy.  None of the first streets were named for Mr. Eddy. However, the town took Eddy’s name, and in 1889 when two new counties were formed from the southern part of Lincoln County, one was named Chavez and the other, Eddy.

            Charles Bishop Eddy was born in 1857 in Milford, New York. In the early 1880s, he and his brother, John Arthur Eddy, came to Colorado to try cattle ranching. John was the day to day manager, and Charles, the promoter.  They soon moved south and purchased the Pecos Valley Ranch along the Pecos in the southeast part of the territory. 

            Charles and John, with the financing from a New York banker, began developing the Eddy-Bissell Ranch in 1881.  At first, cattle ranching seemed profitable.  The first few years there was enough grass and rain for the cattle in the valley.  However, rainfall in southeast New Mexico was never dependable. The drought of 1885 and 1886 was severe.  Eddy lost one third of his herd and he was lucky, many other ranchers were wiped out.

            Always a promoter, after the drought of 1885 and 1886, Eddy began an irrigation development.  In 1887, he and other investors formed a company and incorporated the town of Eddy from a portion the Eddy-Bissell Ranch.  Charles Eddy was responsible for planting the cottonwood trees that were one of the early attractions of the town.  Despite Eddy’s effort promoting the town, the company was in financial trouble until Robert W. Tansill introduced Mr. Eddy to James John Hagerman.  Mr. Hagerman became a major factor in development, bringing the railroad from Pecos to Roswell.

            Starting in 1893, there were economic difficulties, and in 1895 a serious flood destroyed a major portion of the canals, dams, and railroad.  New money was needed and the major investors disagreed over business matters.  Eventually, Mr. Eddy moved on to develop other projects in the El Paso area. He never returned to the area he had given his name.  Carlsbad has an Eddy Street, Eddy Elementary School, and is the county seat of Eddy County.

The Streets of Carlsbad - Tansill Street

Robert Weems Tansill

When the Pecos Land and Ditch Company formed in 1887, the first investors were cattlemen.  The drought of 1885 and 1886 was severe; there wasn’t enough grass for the cattle and the shrinking river was the only water. One rancher said so many cattle died you could walk on the backs of dead cattle from Seven Rivers to Pecos.  Charles B. Eddy, of the Eddy-Bissell Cattle Company, lost one third of his herd.  Many of the other ranchers were completely wiped out. This drought convinced Mr. Eddy that to raise cows or anything else in the Pecos Valley serious changes would have to be made.

            Mr. Eddy envisioned an irrigation project fed by the Pecos River along a canal he named, "Halagueno".  Charles Eddy and his brother John formed a corporation and began looking for investors.  Soon after, Eddy met with Pat Garrett, who was operating a ranch south of Roswell.  Garrett was also trying to raise funds for a canal he called "The Great Northern Canal.”  Garrett’s project, if extended southward, would provide irrigation for up to 40,000 acres.  These two teamed up with Charles W. Greene and began their venture.  They hired engineers and had plans drawn up.

            In searching for capital, they made the acquaintance of Robert Weems Tansill.  Tansill had made a fortune manufacturing “Punch” cigars in Chicago, the first cigars to the use concept of branding.  His cigars were advertised on billboards and were the first to use cigar bands.  Due to health problems, he had come west on the advice of his doctor and settled in Colorado Springs. Tansill joined “the Company” and later moved to Carlsbad to better manage his investment. Along with his money and business sense, he also had connections. Tansill introduced “the Company” to James John Hagerman. Mr. Tansill loved the community and stayed here until his death in 1902.   Tansill Street, Tansill Dam, and Lower Tansill Dam are evidence of his significant influence in the development of our community.

The Streets of Carlsbad - Canal Street

View Southward from the Alonzo Luckey tower at
206. N. Canyon; Second section of Hagerman
Hotel completed, National Bank Building on Canal
Street completed. 

Did you ever wonder about the names of the streets in Carlsbad?  Here in the desert our busiest street is named Canal.  Most towns have streets named Main, Center, or Park, and tree streets, like Oak, or Elm.  Some were platted with named streets one direction and numbered cross streets.  How did Carlsbad’s streets get their names?  This column will reveal a little of the history of our town and how it grew to be the place we live today. 

            The town of Eddy was conceived by a group of promoters in 1887.  Charles B. Eddy, co-owner of the Eddy-Bissell Cattle Company, envisioned an irrigation project fed by the Pecos River.  Another irrigation promoter was Pat Garrett, the lawman famous for killing Billy the Kid.  These men teamed up with Charles W. Greene, Robert W. Tansill, along with Arthur Mermod, Joseph Stevens, and Elmer Williams to found the Pecos Land and Ditch Company.

            In 1888, The Ditch Company hired B.A. Nymeyer to survey and plat the first eighteen blocks of the municipality.  Six streets ran east-west and four streets ran north-south. The six east-west streets were named after investors or their friends. The four north-south streets were Canal, Canyon, Main, and River Streets.  Mr. Greene supposedly insisted the town be named for Mr. Eddy.  On September 15, 1888 they christened the venture by breaking a bottle of Champagne on a rock at the Pecos River crossing.  Mr. Eddy began planting cottonwood poles and marking out streets. The first town building was The Land and Ditch Company building, a wooden structure on Greene.  A few lots were sold for $50 each and construction began.

            The purpose of the venture was to create an oasis so inviting that people from back east would purchase lots from the Land and Ditch Company.  Advertisements placed in eastern newspapers lured people to move to Eddy.  The ads described the lush greenery made possible by the canals and ditches that delivered water from the Pecos River to almost every property in town.  These successful ads brought people from as far away as Switzerland to settle in the town with the “Canal.”

Surrender

I have not come to this conclusion lightly, but the war is over, and all is lost. The 1% - 4% won, and though we would not admit it to even ourselves, we always knew they would. I do not think this is a surprise. Think back to the late 60s and early 70s. Everything predicted by the counterculture gurus has come true. Not in the apocalyptic manner we were so innocently expecting, but insidiously, slowly, like the leak in the dyke, slowly eroding the foundation of whatever was true and light and good in the world. We closed our eyes and pretended it was all going to be fine.

And no, we didn't just get old - while we were raising our children, working, teaching, and trying to make a difference in our own small ways, SOMETHING went wrong, and we were so distracted by LIFE, that we barely noticed. We were given bread and circuses, lotteries, fancy electronics, concerts, sports, and amazing toys. The church casinos of Stranger in a Strange Land that seemed so impossible are commonplace. The Population Bomb actually exploded, seven billion people are crowding our planet. The hidden street cameras of 1984 take our pictures an average of 14x's every day. We allow ourselves to be poked and prodded by quasi-officials to fly through the air to destinations that are logged onto government computers. We meekly allow concert security teenagers search our purses, no grumbling, just find our seats and try to enjoy.

Those who are still able to THINK, can post, grumble and complain. We can write about it, we can rail and expound and protest, but ultimately - it will do no good. Freedom is an illusion. Free will is limited to those who volunterly stay within the fence. Freedom of the press, freedom of religion, freedom to assemble, and the rest of the guarantees of the Bill of Rights are illusions maintained by the Haliburton, GM, AIG, B of A, Wells Fargo, Proctor and Gamble, ABC/Disney/GE and all the rest of the 500 to maintain order and keep profits headed the right direction on the nightly graph. It doesn't matter which political party is in power, because they are just different images, no different than Punch and Judy. They have the same hands up their dresses or manipulating their strings. The political play is merely another distraction.

Our children are not and will never be upwardly mobile. Our grandchildren will not live better than their parents. Those of us with children and grandchildren, if we do not wish to be driven totally insane by this realization, must encourage them to learn to enjoy the small beauties left to us. Music, art, gardens, flowers, poetry, sunrises, sunsets, rainbows, mountains, lakes, streams, and good books - those are the pleasures left, as long as we don't make waves and stay inside the fence. Do not lightly dismiss my surrender, it matters.

A quote from the play JB, by Archibald Macleash:

"If God is god, he is not good.

If God is good, he is not god.

Take the even, take the odd.

I would not sleep here if I could,

Save for the green grass in the wood,

And the wind on the water."

How to Behave - Really?

Okay, I am about to get on my bandwagon. Most people know I'm a staunch Women's Libber. However, I'm taking a stand on this Herman Cain nonsense that might surprise you. I am not a Cain supporter. I agree with Rachel Maddow - that his candidacy cannot be serious, even on his part.
BUT --- what ever happened to just slapping the snot out of someone that makes an unwelcome pass at you? Even if it is your boss, and this doesn't look like he was supervising any of them. Why in the hell would you go to a lawyer because someone tried to stick his hand up your skirt? First of all, why did you put yourself in a position where that was an option? This smells of money. I'm sure these women are professional women - how else do you get that close to a big bucks CEO. Wouldn't you just label the man involved as a pig, and make sure you were not in his reach again?

I'm not defending Cain, I'm sure he is a pig, but the whole thing smells of Nixonish (GOP) dirty tricks. And if that is true, then the source of this mess needs to be identified. What I see in my head are back rooms with researchers sitting at laptops digging through every publicly filed action with the man's name on it. Which one of his opponents was using back room investigations? He is blaming it on the Democrats, and I am sure that is a possibility. But that doesnt make much sense, because I think the Dems would rather run against Cain over the rest of the very poor field of candidates.

The Joy of Being a Grandparent

I was a terrible mother. Really. The results speak for themselves. My oldest son passed away at 25. My youngest son had the hardest adolescence imaginable. He survived it, and is now a real grownup person, a little rough around the edges, but has an excellent handle on who he is and what he wants. He is intelligent, hardworking, and kind.  And I am very proud of the man he has become.


I stayed home with my two boys until they started K and 1st. I did everything thing that Dr. Spock and the other experts said I was suppose to do. They never missed a doctor checkup or a vacination. I made homemade babyfood; and they took their vitamins. I made Halloween costumes on my sewing maching.  My kids went to baby play dates, church, Sunday school, Tuesday school, Cub Scouts, swimming lessons, vacation bible school, community college classes, day camp, educational vacations, community theater, little league, and everything else I could find or imagine. We made homemade Christmas ornaments and gifts for the grandparents. I read to them every night - every night until they were passed old enough to read to themselves. They had at least heard most the classics before they started school. They always scored at the top 5% of all the national testing. They went to school in clean clothes, and with home cooked breakfasts in their tummies. Their homework was done and stacked by the door. No matter how long the battle the night before had lasted.

When I started teaching, I made sure I was home with them when they were sick.  I started working on my Master's and their grandmother took care of them. I took them to college with me sometimes and we went on great vacations. By the time they were in High school, they had been to the bullfights on Easter in Juarez, a Dallas Cowboys game, Ringling Brothers Circus, Sea World, and every historic site in NM and TX. They had been deep sea fishing, to football camp, to rodeos, the State Fair, and Disneyland.  They had attended the theatre in El Paso, Cats, Camelot, Fiddler, and all the community concerts and local community theatre plays in Carlsbad. They had been to museum exihibitions in serveral cities, the Ft. Worth Zoo, the Aquarium and Zoo in ABQ, the Natural History Museums, Art Museums, and just about anything else we could find.
What did I do wrong? Lots. I gave them too much, and did too much for them. I over parented. I agonized over all the details. I smothered. I wanted perfection. I didn't get it.

Now, grandkids are a whole different story. The pressure is off. I can entertain without guilt. I can buy what I want or not. I can feed her junk food. I can dress her for school in 2 different socks without having an anxiety attack. Lots of things that I thought really mattered with my kids, are not really all that important. Now, I can see that she will be what she will be, and both of her parents love her very much. She is happy sometimes and unhappy sometimes, but now I understand that life cannot be perfect. And she might not be perfect. But I can enjoy being with her. And pretty soon, we can do some of those things I did with my kids, but without all the stress. I can give her some of the same advantages, and not worry about the results. I look forward to it - a lot. And I look forward to the second grandkid too. He will be here around Dec. 30th and I intend to spoil the heck out of him too.

Lavern and Voncile

These two women planted seeds,
And watered their garden,
So we could blossom and grow.
They gave little girls an amazing gift,
A gift of time, and being so young
We didn’t know the cost.
We only knew that they were there,
With hugs, laughter, and words of wisdom
With Elmer’s glue and glitter.
They shared their life experience,
And love, and homemade cookies
They patched up our fights,
And dried our tears, with Kleenex,
Sympathy and good advice.
They were dependably there
Throughout our forming years,
For Box Suppers, Candy Sales,
Car washes, and Style shows;
For pecan pies and Campfire Camp.
And as we grew, they guided.
They were there to teach us
About Service, Kindness, Duty,
And the importance of Friendship
We learned Pride and Humility
And how to walk with heads held high.
They watch over our childhood and
Endured our adolescence, and
Then ushered us into adulthood.
They taught us to reach for stars,
But to be there when someone falls,
And to cheer for each other’s success.
They deserve a large part of the credit
For the women we have become,
Nurses, bankers, teachers, artists,
Writers, homemakers, and business leaders
And after all these years, still real friends.

Too Early to Be Focused - Occupy Together / Occupy Wall Street

The Occupy Wall Street movement does not need to be focused yet. Right now they need to organize and energize. They need to get across the idea that people are sick of the way Wall Street and our Government is circle jerking each other. As soon as they come up with a list of specific demands, someone, the SSDD Dems, or, heaven forbid, the Tea baggers will try and co-opt their energy and their agenda. They will be pigeon-holed, minimalized, and forgotten – just like the One World protestors in 1999. If they keep the Occupy Together movement going, they will be able to force the media (or the media not controlled by Murdoch) to either jump out of the way or jump on board. Some of their best ideas are: getting rid of corporate money in politics, prosecuting the bankers responsible for the Bank Debacle and the Mortgage Meltdown, student loan forgiveness, infrastructure jobs, supporting universal health care, forcing true fair world trade, and getting the military the hell out of the Middle East. I voted for Obama on the promise that he would get the troops out of the Middle East. I don’t care if he is black, white, or green. Right now, I am not happy with his compromising attitude. However, I don’t see anyone in the potential GOP candidates that could do any better. And neither do the people in Liberty Park. We need better answers. Better answers will not come from the same old talking heads. This has been the best thing I have seen on the news in years. I had lost all hope of things ever changing. Now maybe there is a flicker of a light at the end of the tunnel.

Why Public Education is in Peril

Not long after I retired, I was packing away and throwing out education books I had collected over the 25 years. I came across a tattered paperback copy of Teaching as a Subversive Activity, and was struck by how deeply my teaching had been affected by this book: Early in my career, I had vigorously attempted to adhere to these principles. At my very best, I tried to teach students to question everything they were told – even the things I told them. The public education system is not friendly to this kind of teaching. And by the end of my career, I still had the attitude and tried to pass it on to my students. But today public education will beat the inquiry out of you.

According to Postman and Weingartner, students should be encouraged to ask questions meaningful to them, and ones that do not necessarily have easy answers; teachers should be encouraged to avoid giving answers whenever possible, and to avoid giving direct answers in favor of asking more questions.

The method of teaching students to ask questions is motivated by the authors’ understanding that learners need to center their attention on the process of inquiry itself, not merely on the end products, or facts. They list certain characteristics that they think are common to all good learners (Postman and Weingartner, 31–33), saying that all good learners have:
• Self-confidence in their learning ability
• Pleasure in problem solving
• A keen sense of relevance
• Reliance on their own judgment over other people's or society's
• No fear of being wrong
• No haste in answering
• Flexibility in point of view
• Respect for facts, and the ability to distinguish between fact and opinion
• No need for final answers to all questions, and comfort in not knowing an answer to difficult questions rather than settling for a simplistic answer

In attempting to imbue students with this approach to their education, a teacher who adheres to the inquiry method must act in ways that are startlingly opposed to traditional teaching styles.

Postman and Weingartner suggest that inquiry teachers have the following characteristics (pp. 34–37):
• They avoid telling students what they "ought to know".
• They talk to students mostly by questioning, and especially by asking questions that are divergent.
• They do not accept short, simple answers to questions.
• They encourage students to interact directly with one another, and avoid judging what is said in student interactions.
• They do not summarize students' discussion.
• They do not plan the exact direction of their lessons in advance, and allow it to develop in response to students' interests.
• Their lessons pose problems to students.
• They gauge their success by change in students' inquiry behaviors (with the above characteristics of "good learners" as a goal).

Good teaching can be subversive because, among other things, it challenges students to think, to question things as they are, to envision and consider possibilities. To be "subversive", we must encourage students to think outside the box. We need to teach students to desire to be life-long learners. We need to create a thirst for knowledge. The evidence that we have failed in this mission hits us in the face with every new government educational report. We have bright students, but what are we doing that causes the quality of education to continue to degrade? Why is America not at the top of the list of educated, developed nations?

I don’t know when I stopped using inquiry with conscious effort, but I know there were years I didn’t do it as well as Postman and Weingartner would have liked. I could blame my failure on burnout, or on No Child Left Behind, Madeline Hunter and five page lesson plans with stated objectives, checklists, state standards, and benchmarks. I cannot even explain how discouraging it was knowing that Central Office (my bosses) wanted every 8th grade History or Language Arts teacher to be on the same page, on the same day, teaching the exact same enumerated State Standard. I do know that NCLB was why I retired after the minimum 25 years.

The book's authors predicted that much in American education would be changing. In some respects, and it has; but not for the better. I was blessed with a good mind and an excellent public school education. The elementary and secondary teachers I remember best did encourage their students to ask questions. They also taught from the heart and with a love of the curriculum, not from a list of objectives provided by the state or central office. I can’t imagine exactly what some of them would have thought about the inane hoops I was required to jump through after the implementation of NCLB.

We have a wealth of educational technology today. The average 8th grader holding an iPhone has more information at his or her fingertips that all of the previous U.S. Presidents. But if they do not have the ability to sift through the information provided by this technology and recognize what is valid, it doesn’t do them any good. All the technology in the world will not produce an inquiring mind without someone modeling the process of inquiry.

The results of not having a questioning mind are evident in the attitudes and actions of a large majority of adults today. They hear something on TV and immediately take it to be a fact. Our society has become too accepting. We don’t ask why. We don’t ask how. We get in line and do as we are told. We give up our basic rights. We have become sheeple.

Why Education is Failing

This is the gorilla in the room that no one talks about. One of the reasons the quality of K-12 education is failing because of the opportunities for women have expanded since 1972. The demographics of college bound female students that are choosing to major in education have changed greatly since 1972. In 1970, the year I started college, most of my female friends that went to college majored in education, nursing, or business. And that was after the start of the women's liberation movement. When I started elementary school in 1958, even the best and brightest females had basically the same three choices. And many of the brightest females had chosen education. I had a great deal of respect for 98% of my female teachers. Today we find the middle to bottom of female high school graduates chosing eduction as a major. My teachers encouraged me to ask question and think for myself. My son's teachers rewarded conformity. My granddaughter has the same second grade teacher that my son had 21 years ago. And she is teaching in the same format that she used when she was teaching my son. The entire school system since NCLB has focused on rewarding conformity. Conformity is one of the keys to high national test scores. One of the reasons I quit teaching as soon as I made my retirement was that I was disgusted with an administration that wanted every teacher teaching 8th grade history in the district to be on the same page on the same day. The entire system had been altered to provide proof that we were teaching all of the standards and benchmarks. There is no room for creativity. There is no respect for the teaching profession, even from educaional administrators. Many parents have no respect for teachers, because the education system failed them also.