Hello Peter. My name is Ken Selph and I live in Aztec, New Mexico. My sister, Glenda, forwarded your query on Messenger to me for response.
Yes, we are related. I am the oldest son of Duncan Hyder Selph, who was the oldest son of Ben Selph, who was the son of Duncan Hyder Selph, who was the son of Duncan Hyder Selph, a Baptist minister and women's college president in Tennessee
My great grandfather, Duncan Hyder (son of the Baptist minister) was a blacksmith who ventured into New Mexico when the Santa Fe Railroad extended their operations to that Territory. He remained and established a blacksmith in Santa Fe, before moving to Cimarron, New Mexico. There he established another blacksmith shop and married my great grandmother, Carlotta Rodriguez.
When Woodrow Wilson opened New Mexico to settlement under the Homestead Act, he moved to his family to the Blanco Canyon area (now Crow Canyon) some twenty or so miles south of present day Bloomfield, New Mexico. There is a canyon immediately adjacent to and north of the present day Crow Canyon (site of the Selph homesteads) named Selph Canyon on present day BLM maps. There are deeds for Iley Nunn Selph (your grandfather and my great uncle?) and Virginia Selph (my great aunt) in the immediate area of the Duncan Hyder Selph homestead.
The weather was at first favorable, but changes in climate made subsistence extremely difficult as time wore on. A catastrophic winter froze most of the cattle and sheep of a majority of the settlers in the area and they were forced to abandon their settlements.
Duncan moved North along Blanco Canyon to present day Blanco, New Mexico, some 10 miles east of Bloomfield where he set up a trading post of the South side of Largo Canyon and resided with his family in Animas City, a Hispanic community along the San Juan River some 2 miles from his trading post. It is rumored by Navajo acquaintances of my brother Chuck that he (Duncan) was killed by Navajos during a robbery at the trading post. He is interred at the Aztec, NM cemetary. I believe that Carlotta and his oldest son Duncan are buried on the old homestead in Crow Canyon.
My fathers family is: Lucille Utilia Jaquez (wife) Kenneth Duncan Selph (Ken, earlier K.D.) Charles Vincente Ben (Chuck) Robert Vernon John Henry (Rick(Enrique Spanish for Henry) Glenda Loretta (Bass-Johnson)
I may have some very interesting information on your mother's family, as I have discovered a deteriorating cemetary north of present day Counselors, NM (general Crow Canyon area) with a number of Sandoval markers. If you will pass on your mother's lineage, I will some if I can find some matches.
Ken - This actually Kathy, Peter's wife. I'm happy to hear from another Selph. I have some information on your Duncan H. Selph that I have not posted to the blog. I knew that he had a blacksmith's shop in Taos, but did not know about Santa Fe. His shop was located in what is now a gift shop across from St. Francis de Assisi. I stopped at the UNM library once and tried to get your Duncan H. Selph's obituary or death notice. They had Aztec newspapers for the right time frame, but while I was there they were remodeling the library and the fire alarm kept going off. The last time, we were outside for so long that I had to give up and get back on the road home. Then the library burned. Since the fire was in the area where the microfilms were, I've always assumed that the microfilms of Aztec papers were destroyed. Interesting that he may have been killed during a robbery.
You asked about the Sandovals. Iley's wife was Carolina Sandoval. Iley and Carolina also went to the Largo area while Duncan Hyder was out there, but they returned to Taos. I've heard that Iley sheared Carolina's flock right before an unseasonable snow storm, and she lost them all. Carolina's father, Ramon Sandoval also went out to San Juan County, and died out there. His death notice in the Taos papers says that he was in Largo. I have suspected for a long time that he is probably buried in a Canyon out there. So, yes, I am interested in the Sandovals buried out there. I've written a bit about Ramon here on the blog.
Of more interest to you will be the information on Rev. Duncan H. Selph and on his father Peter Self.
I sent a friend request to you through facebook. I do want to exchange information with you. My email address is in my profile.
I will always try to respond to your comments. If you are anonymous and cannot be reached by email and if you do not choose to follow responses to your comments, then please check back here for a response.
Hello Peter. My name is Ken Selph and I live in Aztec, New Mexico. My sister, Glenda, forwarded your query on Messenger to me for response.
ReplyDeleteYes, we are related. I am the oldest son of Duncan Hyder Selph, who was the oldest son of Ben Selph, who was the son of Duncan Hyder Selph, who was the son of Duncan Hyder Selph, a Baptist minister and women's college president in Tennessee
My great grandfather, Duncan Hyder (son of the Baptist minister) was a blacksmith who ventured into New Mexico when the Santa Fe Railroad extended their operations to that Territory. He remained and established a blacksmith in Santa Fe, before moving to Cimarron, New Mexico. There he established another blacksmith shop and married my great grandmother, Carlotta Rodriguez.
When Woodrow Wilson opened New Mexico to settlement under the Homestead Act, he moved to his family to the Blanco Canyon area (now Crow Canyon) some twenty or so miles south of present day Bloomfield, New Mexico. There is a canyon immediately adjacent to and north of the present day Crow Canyon (site of the Selph homesteads) named Selph Canyon on present day BLM maps. There are deeds for Iley Nunn Selph (your grandfather and my great uncle?) and Virginia Selph (my great aunt) in the immediate area of the Duncan Hyder Selph homestead.
The weather was at first favorable, but changes in climate made subsistence extremely difficult as time wore on. A catastrophic winter froze most of the cattle and sheep of a majority of the settlers in the area and they were forced to abandon their settlements.
Duncan moved North along Blanco Canyon to present day Blanco, New Mexico, some 10 miles east of Bloomfield where he set up a trading post of the South side of Largo Canyon and resided with his family in Animas City, a Hispanic community along the San Juan River some 2 miles from his trading post. It is rumored by Navajo acquaintances of my brother Chuck that he (Duncan) was killed by Navajos during a robbery at the trading post. He is interred at the Aztec, NM cemetary. I believe that Carlotta and his oldest son Duncan are buried on the old homestead in Crow Canyon.
My fathers family is:
Lucille Utilia Jaquez (wife)
Kenneth Duncan Selph (Ken, earlier K.D.)
Charles Vincente Ben (Chuck)
Robert Vernon
John Henry (Rick(Enrique Spanish for Henry)
Glenda Loretta (Bass-Johnson)
I may have some very interesting information on your mother's family, as I have discovered a deteriorating cemetary north of present day Counselors, NM (general Crow Canyon area) with a number of Sandoval markers. If you will pass on your mother's lineage, I will some if I can find some matches.
Ken - This actually Kathy, Peter's wife. I'm happy to hear from another Selph. I have some information on your Duncan H. Selph that I have not posted to the blog. I knew that he had a blacksmith's shop in Taos, but did not know about Santa Fe. His shop was located in what is now a gift shop across from St. Francis de Assisi. I stopped at the UNM library once and tried to get your Duncan H. Selph's obituary or death notice. They had Aztec newspapers for the right time frame, but while I was there they were remodeling the library and the fire alarm kept going off. The last time, we were outside for so long that I had to give up and get back on the road home. Then the library burned. Since the fire was in the area where the microfilms were, I've always assumed that the microfilms of Aztec papers were destroyed. Interesting that he may have been killed during a robbery.
DeleteYou asked about the Sandovals. Iley's wife was Carolina Sandoval. Iley and Carolina also went to the Largo area while Duncan Hyder was out there, but they returned to Taos. I've heard that Iley sheared Carolina's flock right before an unseasonable snow storm, and she lost them all. Carolina's father, Ramon Sandoval also went out to San Juan County, and died out there. His death notice in the Taos papers says that he was in Largo. I have suspected for a long time that he is probably buried in a Canyon out there. So, yes, I am interested in the Sandovals buried out there. I've written a bit about Ramon here on the blog.
Of more interest to you will be the information on Rev. Duncan H. Selph and on his father Peter Self.
I sent a friend request to you through facebook. I do want to exchange information with you. My email address is in my profile.