Back in years 1937-1939, as part of the New Mexico Federal Writers' Project, Edith Crawford, the representative in Lincoln County, collected a number of interviews of Lincoln County pioneers. These were never published and were lost until the collection was brought to the attention of the Lincoln County historical Society. This vignette is based on that work and taken from the actual words spoken by the subject.
Albert Ziegler came to America from Coblenz, Germany in September of 1884. After thirteen days at sea, Ziegler landed in New York City and left at once by immigrant train for Albuquerque, New Mexico, where his brother Jake was clerking in the Jaffa Brothers' store.
In 1885, Albert clerked for Price Brothers in Socorro, NM and visited his brother Jake, who was by then living in Manzano, New Mexico.
"He and a man named Herman Goodman ran a small store there, selling dry goods, groceries and liquor," Albert Ziegler explained. "The town of Manzano was a Spanish-American town."
"My brother, Mister Goodman and a fellow by the name of Kountz were the only white men living there at the time. This fellow Kountz ran a newspaper which was called the 'Gringo and Greaser'."
It seems that this rather politically incorrect pejorative for those of Hispano descent goes back further than you may have thought.
"He (Kountz) did not like the Spanish-Americans and was always making dirty remarks about them in his paper. One night while he was eating supper someone shot through a window and killed him instantly. That ended the 'Gringo and Greaser' newspaper!"
I suppose the reader is to assume that the assassination of the newspaperman was in retaliation for naming his newspaper a derogatory slang word, and still further supposition to assume the assassin was of Mexican descent. In any event, it makes for a good story...
ReplyDeleteFeel free to assume...just remember...according to Ziegler, it really happened.
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