Vancleave - Joseph Albert Wright
Source: The Way it Was by J. Saunders, netherland park
This is the story of
Albuquerque's march to the mountains as lived by me and my family.
Before any of us arrived in New Mexico or the Rio Grande Valley,
the University of New Mexico was conceived and building began
on a section of school land set aside by the early government
surveys. Hence it first opened in 1892 at its present location
which at that time was a full mile east of the town of Albuquerque.
A vast expanse of arid land called the East Mesa lay beyond
the school and the only easy passage through the Sandia Mountains
Tijaras Canyon. By the time my Grandfather, Joseph Albert Wright
Van Cleave, arrived in Albuquerque via train Nov. 3, 1903, the
Heights Huning Development was well established and growing.
Central Avenue extended over the great hills of river rock to
the University and the Presbyterian Sanitarium built on those
rocky mounds was beginning to show promise of becoming the hospital
that Presbyterian now is. But the accepted way out of the Rio
Grand River Valley to the recreational areas of the mountains
like Bear & Embudo Canyons or Tijaras itself was over a break
in the sand hills that was called Mountain Road (present Mountain).
Picnicers to Whitcolm Springs and the soda springs in the Manzanas,
along with the horde of wood haulers, used this road and none
other prior to the 1920s. The East Mesa lands were open for
homesteading and soon after grandpa arrived in Albuquerque he
filed on a section of land midway between the University and
the mountains.
The Van Cleaves had
come to Albuquerque because their eldest son, Errett, then eighteen,
was afflicted with tuberculosis and they were seeking a cure.
Their first line of defense was the sunny climate and they chose
a rather unique method of approach. Instead of confining him
to a sanitarium, they built a canvas covered porch on their
newly acquired home [at 112 Edith Street]. To maximize his contact
with the dry hot air, they purchased a buggy for him and equipped
it with a patient nag who would meander over the mesa top where
Errett could explore this new home without much exertion. They
filled the buggy with his books so that he did not grow bored.
His disease soon became arrested. No doubt Grandpa sometimes
rode with him and perhaps (I cannot be positive because JAW
Van Cleave died in 1916, a few years before I was born) eyed
the land in a special way for he selected a plot that was especially
well suited & level as I shall show later. It was many years
before all the East Mesa homesteads were picked up because water
was a problem. When I was a little girl we had almost no neighbors
on the mesa. Our nearest homesteader was Emil Mann. He built
a homesteader's house near ours and erected with farm equipment
a rather large pond which he hoped would store sufficient water
for him to have a garden and stock water, but I believe I can
safely state that this pond never held water, except perhaps
for a short time after a severe rainstorm. The mesa soil gave
up its water easily. Over in the canyon which we called the
Canada [tilda over the 'n'], which is today behind the fences
of Sandia Air Base, lived the Pearce family. Their water plan
was to collect the Tijaras stream waters into a conduit and
bring it to their homestead. A great amount of time and money
was spent on the concrete flume and its supports as the Pearces
worked to accomplish their dream. But the flowing stream seldom
flowed beyond Silva's Dance Hall in the canyon but rather lost
itself underground. For years evidence of the flume was rediscovered
by young children who found them challenging aerial trapeze
for practicing balancing feats. Most of the homesteaders hand
dug wells fifty or sixty feet deep. Some found a water source
but it was marginal and vanished in a dry year.
JAW Van Cleave with
his sons collected all the information they could find that
might help them solve the East Mesa water shortage. They learned
that Albuquerque & vacinity were built on layers or strata that
was actually seven underground rivers, each successive one spreading
out in a wider basin. Whether the information was accurate,
I do not know, but they put their faith in it and bolstered
it by learning to witch for water. Uncle Errett was the most
successful witcher of them all & soon with peach wood witch
[END OF ACCOUNT]
saunders@frontier.net
Writes: Subject: [inmontgo] Joseph Albert Wright VAN CLEAVE
The two granddaughters of Joseph Albert Wright VAN CLEAVE (the
"Wright" is a nod to an associated family which eventually added
Orville and Wilber) are one from each brother. Marjorie Jane
VAN CLEAVE (our branch of the family makes two words of the
surname) was Errett's (and his wife Mabel CAMPBELL) only child.
Aunt Effie VAN CLEAVE FRAHM PETERSON was the eldest of Grandpa
Otto Bowers VAN CLEAVE's 5 children. Effie's middle name is
somewhat in doubt. Before this obituary, the candidates were
"Katherine" [source: The Genealogical Records of William E.
Van Cleave, with Memoranda and Additions by Harley J. Van Cleave,
and Notes and Additions by Errett Van Cleave (Effie's father)],
"Katheryn" [source: the widow of Effie's youngest son, Teodor],
and "Kathryn" {sources: (1) Donald Paul Van Cleave, son of Effie's
next sibling, Chester Thomas; (2) two partially charred (Bible?)
pages labeled Family Record: Births & Marriages]. Undoubtedly
the intent was to name Effie after her father's mother but my
Grandmother Laura May BOYLE may not have spelled it the same
way.