Last updated: June 25, 2021
Person
Geronimo Segura
NPS
Quick Facts
Significance:
Geronimo Segura's story tells how an early rancher, and his family, lived and worked off the land that would eventually become part of Guadalupe Mountains National Park.
Date of Birth:
September 30, 1880
Date of Death:
1935
The story of Geronimo Segura is a testimony to the tenacity and resourcefulness of the pioneer ranchers. It is typical of many of the early ranchers who settled in this part of West Texas. In his rough life Segura worked as a cook, butcher, baker, carpenter, ranch hand, sheep herder, and fence and corral builder. The life of this hard working man is just one story woven into the tapestry that makes up the rich cultural history of Guadalupe Mountains.
Geronimo Morales was born on September 30, 1880 to Roque Segura and Refugia Morales. His mother, Refugia Morales, was a Mescalero Apache, while his father Roque also claimed Indian Heritage. Roque Segura spent much of his time with the people indigenous to the Texas and Ojinaga, Mexico, border. It was here that he met and married Refugia.
Roque was a well known story teller and medicine man who made his own herbal remedies from local plants. He was a religious man who taught his family and friends to read the Bible and to live by its teachings. As his son Geronimo was growing up, Roque taught him the art of basket weaving as well as the gathering of agaves and the baking of mescal.
Geronimo grew up in West Texas in the area around Marfa and Valentine. He worked around the small towns of Marathon, Alpine, Ruidosa, Fort Davis, Kent, and Shafter. In Shafter, Geronimo met and married a Mexican girl named Estanislada Bustamante Duran on February 2, 1902. At the time, Geronimo was 22 years old and Estanislada was 17.
After getting married, Geronimo went to work for a rancher named Bill Runnels at a canyon deep in the Davis Mountains. He and Estanislada lived in the dugout that Geronimo built in the canyon. Their new home was a mud and rock dwelling with doors and windows covered with canvas, which was later replaced with split logs or pine posts. The couple used burros to travel up and down the canyon. While living in the dugout in the Davis Mountains, Estanislada gave birth to three children; Leon in 1903, Carmelita in 1904, and Refugia “Cuquita” in 1905. All three children died at very young ages.
In 1906, after the deaths of their three children, Geronimo and Estanislada build a home in Valentine. There Estanislada gave birth to six children; Matilde in 1907, Luisa in 1909, Eusebio in 1910, Sesaria in 1912, Guadalupe in 1914, and Refugia #2 in 1916. The children attended public school in Valentine while Geronimo started up a business. He used his wagon and team of mules to go up into the Davis Mountains to cut, haul, and sell pine timber posts to ranchers to use for fencing.
In 1918, Geronimo sold the house he had built in Valentine and moved his family to Loving in Eddy County, NM, where he built another dugout at a location known as Rabbit Hill. Geronimo first went to work farming for a grocery store owner named Mr. Pardue. Later he worked for Mr. Snyder, who owned a slaughter house and grocery store. He and Estanislada, who were both excellent cooks, ran a small bakery specializing in home-made pastries, bread, rolls, Indian bread, pumpkin or sweet potato empanadas, and Mexican food. While living in Loving, Estanislada gave birth to three more children: Santiago in 1918, Roberto in 1920, and Rosa in 1922. In 1923, Geronimo and Estanisalda moved to Black River Village, where they lived until 1925. Two more children were born there, Jose Luis in 1924 and Enrique in 1925.
Geronimo began to grow tired of working other people’s land and dreamed of one day owning his own land. After hearing about land for sale in Fabens, Texas he made a trip south. He only got as far as the XT Ranch, where he found out there was rangeland available for homesteading at Washington Ranch, just a few miles north of the New Mexico State line. In 1929, Geronimo began working for Bill Washington, farming land and planting beans, corn, and cattle feed. On October 28, 1929 Mr. Washington drove Geronimo to Roswell to make a claim with the General Land Office for 158 acres near Washington Ranch. Geronimo immediately set out to build a home on his newly acquired land, while Estanislada gave birth to the couple’s 15th child, Lily. The ruins of their two room dwelling can still be seen on the left side of the road leading to Washington Ranch.
Eventually Bill Washington and Geronimo had a falling out and Bill began to harass Geronimo to give up his land. Several disputes and even a couple of gun fights over land and water rights ensued.
In 1929, Geronimo Segura went to work for Dolph Williams. Williams was a rancher who owned cattle, horses, and goats on the west side of the Guadalupe Mountains. Geronimo cared for Dolph Williams’ goats by moving them around to better pastures and conducting wool shearing. During this time, Geronimo built a two room dugout at the base of El Capitan near Guadalupe Spring. The remains of this dugout can still be seen today under a huge alligator juniper tree. Geronimo’s oldest children came to the Guadalupe Mountains to help him care for the goats.
They all lived in the dugout and would periodically travel back to Washington Ranch to check on the rest of the family. During the five years that Geronimo worked for Dolph Williams he acquired over 600 goats.Geronimo taught his children to work for what they needed in life. His oldest daughters, Luisa, Sesaria, Guadalupe, and Refugia, found work at the Pine Springs Café located in Guadalupe Pass. Walter and Bertha Glover operated a small grocery store, gas station, and rental cabins. The girls helped clean the cabins and sold gas. The Segura children all grew up to be hard workers like their parents. Some of the children saved money from their jobs to order clothes from Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs.
In 1933, Geronimo decided to leave the Guadalupes and head east to Kent, Texas where he started up a goat sheering business. With the help of his older children and his brother-in-law, Casimiro Florez, he moved his goats toward Van Horn and then on to Kent. He had purchased a truck to move the smaller goats, while the adult goats walked the entire way.
In 1935, the long, hard struggles in his life finally caught up with Geronimo when he caught double pneumonia and died at the age of 55. He Left his family with a rich cultural heritage and an appreciation for work and success in life. Today, the ruins of Geronimo Segura’s dugout still stand as a monument to the resourcefulness and pioneering spirit of the early ranches.