to.. Miquella Post-Bottger

Thomas D. Post
born: 1836, KS or NJ
died: 1893? Albuq, NM


Below: 1880 Census, Abq Geneology Library, Buriel Record,
Daily Citizen Newspaper, Soc History Abq

Albuquerque A Narrative History
by Marc Simmons, University of New Mexico Press, 1982
Chapter 8, "Clarion Notes of Progress" page 203-204

Major Melchior Werner, who had come to Albuquerque with the army back in the 1850s, in 1876 opened a hotel west of the plaza, which he named, appropriately, The Centennial. In addition to lodgers, it housed the post office--since 1867 Werner had been the Albuquerque postmaster--and the telegraph office, after the wire reached town in February 1876. 10 Melchior Werner was a staunch Catholic and a liberal contributor to San Felipe Neri Church. On the feast of Corpus Christi in June 1873, he was one of several prominent citizens erecting altars in front of his place of business so that the religious procession, passing through the streets, could pause for a brief service.11

Hotels were a fairly new luxury for Albuquerque, although The Centennial was not the first such establishment. That honor belonged to the Atlantic and Pacific Hotel, which opened its doors soon after the Civil War. One of its eatliest guests was a Denver newspaper reporter who proclaimed it the "worst-kept hotel in the Territory."12 Perhaps a reputation for slovenliness, with a corresponding shortage of customers, prompted owner John Murphy in 1874 to sell his hostelry to John B. Brophy. Mr. Brophy made a gallant bid to turn the business around by adding modern furnishings, better housekeeping, and by putting his wife in charge of the kitchen. But his best efforts proved unavailing, and the following year he sold out to Thomas D. Post.

Like so many Americans who went west in this era, Tom Post was something of a jack-of-all-trades. When he landed in Albuquerque after the war, he first opened a butcher shop on the plaza. By 1874, he took over the ferry business immediately west of town, and in the following year, he purchased the failing Atlantic and Pacific Hotel. His first act was to change the name to Post's Exchange Hotel, which proved all that was needed to turn its fortunes around. Overnight it became the favored stop in the Middle Valley, and stagecoaches running from Las Cruces to Santa Fe regularly called at its door. In 1879, Post sold the building to Nicolas Armijo, but kept the name which he transferred to a structure, purchased from Paula Montoya, situated just south of the plaza. Much of Post's trade must have followed him, for the second Exchange Hotel, with rates of $1.50 a night, proved to be as popular as the first. It continued to do a banner business until the owner's death in 1893.13

From the moment he entered the ferry business in 1874, Tom Post was alert to the commercial possibilities of erecting a toll bridge on the Rio Grande that could benefit from the growing flow of traffic between Albuquerque and Atrisco. In 1876, the year after opening his Exchange Hotel, he constructed a pontoon bridge on the site of the present Central Avenue Bridge. It was the first such structure to span the river anywhere in the Middle Valley. At the east end he built a two-story house, store, and toll station. A local paper commented that Post, not content to give guests the best accommodations at his hotel, was eager to furnish them with every means to get there. Though a financial success, the pontoon bridge apparently did not long survive the ravages of Albuquerque's annual spring floods. When railroad surveyor Henry Allen Tice crossed at the site in 1880, there was no sign of the bridge and he was obliged to pay $0.25 to be ferried across on one of several clumsy, flat-bottomed barges.15

Albuquerque A Narrative History
Chapter 8, "Clarion Notes Progress" page 209-210

Albuquerque suffered a second major blow during this period which, while not as physically damaging as the flood of 1874, was, nevertheless, almost as dispiriting. The setback was the loss of the county seat to an upstart rival, the town of Bernalillo, second largest community in the Middle Valley. Bernalillo County had been one of the original nine counties created by the territorial legislature in 1852. Initially Ranchos de Albuquerque was designated the seat of local government, probably because of its convenient location near the center of the county. But it soon became apparent that Albuquerque, as the business and military center of the Rio Abajo, was the logical place for county offices, and thither they were moved in 1854.26 The courthouse, a rambling adobe building, was built north of the plaza on Main Street (today's Rio Grande Boulevard) at the corner of Santiago.27 "Our courthouse is nothing to boast of, in the architectural point of view," acknowledged McGuinness in the columns of his Republican Review.28

The threat to Albuquerque's position as the political hub of the Valley first surfaced in the spring of 1875. It came from a coterie of powerful ranching families, led by the Pereas, who were headquartered at Bernalillo. Seeing no reason why their town should be left behind while Albuquerque surged to prominence, they began casting about for some means to make Bernalillo a serious competitor. A good first move, they concluded, would be to gain possession of the county seat. Most Albuquerqueans did not take the challenge seriously, although when word got about, Franz Huning went so far as to place a petition on his store counter asking support in opposing any transfer of the county offices.

As the first step in their battle strategy, the Bernalillo faction managed to persuade the territorial legislature to pass a bill annexing Santa Ana County, adjoining on the north, to Bernalillo County. The maneuver was touted as an economy measure, but what it did was place the town of Bernalillo close to the geographical center of the newly enlarged county. That paved the way, during the next session of the legislature in 1876, for the Pereas and their friends to ask for a change in the county seat. Albuquerqueans, now thoroughly alarmed, mustered their forces at the capitol and managed to block a bill providing for outright removal. They had to accept a substitute bill, however, which required that the issue be submitted to county voters for a final decision. That gave Albuquerque a breathing spell, but not much more.

After a series of delays, the county commissioners called an election for March 23, 1878. The votes of citizens in Albuquerque and Bernalillo were a foregone conclusion, so it was clear that the question would be decided in the small villages and rural areas of the county. At a public meeting on February 27, Albuquerque's town fathers gathered to form their own plan of battle. Salvador Armijo's energetic young son-in-Iaw, Santiago Baca, was selected presiding officer, and when he delivered a ringing speech denouncing the "Bernalillo conspirators," his words were greeted with enough cheers and shouts to shake the roof.

A balanced committee of Hispanos and Anglos, twenty-three persons in all, was appointed to draft resolutions expressing the sentiments of the meeting. Franz Huning won the chairmanship hands down, and the membership included such community stalwarts as Thomas Post, James L. Hubbell, William Hazeldine, and Elias Stover. One of the resolutions they presented for adoption clearly shows that they entertained grave fears for their pocketbooks. It read: RESOLVED that, as by removal of the county seat from Albuquerque serious loss will incur to its citizens . . . and that the value of real estate in and within a circuit of fifteen miles of Albuquerque will necessarily become depreciated and of very little value, that existing business enterprises will be comparatively ruined, that it will be the means of stopping all improvements and the investiture of capital, and that it will deprive the poor of employment and a market for their labor and its products."29

Another worry expressed was that, should the county seat be lost, the United States District Court might be the next to leave, thereby depriving Albuquerque of one more source of employment, money, and trade. The town, just as it was beginning to recover fully from the flood, now confronted a new peril that once again could plunge the economy into a tailspin.

In the weeks before the election, Albuquerqueans fanned out over the county, from the mountain villages on the east to the Rio Puerco settlements on the west, trying to line up votes. Passions ran high and two Albuquerque supporters were severely beaten when they attempted to speak at a rally in a small community on the Puerco. The fact was, the Pereas had most of the county residents firmly in their corner. Many owed them debts or favors; few were willing to incur their displeasure. When people from Bernalillo rode down river to shop at Albuquerque, they traveled in groups and went heavily armed. On election day, Editor McGuinness wrote somberly, "Happily there were no lives lost as was anticipated by many."30

But the election was lost-by Albuquerque. Los Ranchos, Los Griegos, and Barelas voted with it, as did the villages beyond the Sandias and Manzanos. Every other place in the county, however, went overwhelmingly for Bernalillo, even Albuquerque's neighbor across the river, Atrisco. It was a bitter, stinging defeat. After an effort fizzled to stop the removal through court action, the county records and offices were quietly transferred to Bernalillo.31

Albuquerque A Narrative History
Chapter 11, "The Finer Things" page 304

Ashley showed up in Old Town in March 1879. His eldest son, Alfred, appeared to be suffering from terminal consumption, and the father had brought him to New Mexico in hopes the mild climate would ease his last days. Alfred, to everyone's surprise, made a moderate recovery, allowing the Reverend Ashley to turn his attention to the organizing of a Protestant congregation.2

It was an uphill task, not only because the Reverend found few members of his sect in Albuquerque, but also because his strident anti-Catholicism earned him the enmity of the local priests. In a letter to his cousin in London, Ashley remarked with bitterness, "The people are blind Catholics and the Jesuit Priests have complete control over them. There are about a dozen of them here and you may see one or another of them, with their long black robes in the street at any time." And he added that the fathers were mostly Italians who had been kicked out of their own country (which was patently untrue), and they would be kicked out of Albuquerque if they did not behave themselves.3

As it happened, it was the Reverend Ashley himself who suffered expulsion-from temporary quarters in which he had begun services in Old Town. As he tells it, "I commenced a mission. ..first preaching in the County Court room; but the Catholics soon got us out of there. Then we furnished a room partly built, leasing it for six months and they got us out of there as soon as our lease was up, and for a time we could find no place to preach in, except now and then a dark hall."4

The birth of New Town the following year, peopled mostly by Protestants, gave the beleagured Ashley a chance to find a place for himself. The small, white-framed church he raised there was a deliberate and glaring departure from the architectural style of New Mexico's Catholic edifices. Completed and dedicated in April 1881, the Congregational Church opened its doors with a total membership of three persons.

Although the Reverend Ashley remained at loggerheads with the Jesuit priests, he got along well with other Protestant ministers, especially the Reverend Nathaniel Hawthorne Gale who organized a mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church (later the First Methodist Church) on April 18, 1880. The previous year, Ashley and Gale had held services jointly in the court house before being turned out of those quarters. Once the Congregational Church was up in New Town, Ashley allowed the Methodists to share use of his building until they could get one of their own. Under the Reverend Gale's dedicated guidance, a structure was finished late in 1881, the funds coming in part from contributions made by employees of the A&P Railroad. Land for the church, located at Lead and Third, was donated by the Townsite Company.5

The Episcopalians were another Protestant denomination that showed an early interest in Albuquerque. Ordained clergymen made occasional visits to Old Town in the 1870s, but between those visits Judge Hezekiah S. Johnson, whom we first encountered as editor of the Rio Abajo Weekly Press in the Civil War years, conducted lay services each Sunday in the dining room of Tom Post's Exchange Hotel.6 In February 1880, a separate room was furnished as a chapel, representing the beginnings of St. John's Episcopal Church. Two years later, the congregation acquired its own building in New Town, and thereafter, under the ministry of the Reverend Henry Forrester, became one of the most solid religious denominations in the community.7

Other Protestant sects soon made their presence felt in Albuquerque. The Reverend Sheldon Jackson, a celebrated missionary, formed the first Presbyterian congregation in 1880 by assembling five members who met regularly in a private home in Old Town. Shortly, the Reverend James A. Menaul arrived and led a drive for construction of the first Presbyterian Church in New Albuquerque on lots given by the Town Company at Silver and Fifth. The Baptists chartered a church in 1887, and were followed by the Lutherans, who established St. Paul's Church in 1891. The Lutheran congregation was spearheaded by two residents of German ancestry, Herman Blueher, famed for his bountiful truck gardens near the plaza, and Jacob Korber, a blacksmith and carriage maker, who later developed one of Albuquerque's most prestigious mercantile firms.8 Blacks, though few in number at the beginning, managed in 1882 to form an African Methodist Episcopal Church with the Reverend Spotwood Rice as pastor. The congregation floated about, using temporary quarters, until a permanent church could be built in 1892.9

Albuquerque's Jewish community went without a place of worship until 1897, when fifty families organized a congregation and laid plans for erecting a synagogue. Three years later (September 14, 1900), the new Temple Albert, at Seventh and Gold, was dedicated in solemn services presided over by Rabbi Pizer Jacobs. The ceremony included handing of the temple key to the president of the congregation, Henry N. Jaffa, first mayor of Albuquerque.10

The Catholic Church, given new life by Bishop Lamy in the 1860s, and enspirited by the tireless ministry of the foreign Jesuits during the 1870s, continued to dominate religious life in Old Town where the population remained predominantly Hispano. But in 1882, it followed the lead of the Protestants, and opened the Immaculate Conception Church in the fast-growing town beside the tracks. The new parish attracted members from all levels of the business community, from the families of railroad workers, and from the few Hispanos who took up residence in New Town.

Information on file under “Families.“ at the Albuquerque Special Collections (Geneology) Library:

POST, THOMAS D.
born 1836 in Kansas

came to Albuq from Kansas City in 1860's

1874 operated ferry boat

Sept. 1876 had built and operated a toll bridge across the river about where the Central avenue bridge now stands. It was a pontoon flotilla and he had a two story house, store and toll house at the bridge.

1875 bought John Brophy's Atlantic and Pacific hotel

1876-9 bought the old hotel in Albuq from Paula Montoya. This building had housed the Armijo Bros. store prior to the Civil war and formerly been operated by W.T. Strachen and stood just west of San Felipe N.W. between Central and the plaza.. The hotel was called the Post Exchange.

1879 sold the Exchange hotel property to Nicholas Armijo and he built a new hotel on the part of the property formerly occupied by the quartermaster's storehouse*.

drove stage coaches in New Mexico

bought a 40-room adobe house southeast of the plaza from Francisco Armijo. It was formerly owned by Gov. Manuel Armijo and his nephew Juan Cristobal Armijo and Francisco Armijo. The building stood at 110 San Felipe NW and was torn down about 1912.

1880 his wife was Gertrudes Garcia, born in 1840 in N.Mex. dau of Antonio Garcia, and widow of a Baca. Her home was in Atrisco.

May 1891 a flood wrecked the bridge over the Rio Grande

?died 1893 survived by his wife

Children:

1. Miquella
born 1864 in N. Mex.
marriage lst: Max Stein
marriage 2nd: Charles Boettger

2. Florence
born 1868 in N. Mex.

References:

Albuq Tribune, Jan. 21, 1954, Dec. 4, 1951, March 22, 1954, Jan. 6, 1958,
June 25, 1964, Sept. 10, 1964, Jan. 12, 1965, May 23, 1968, May 25, 1970,
Sept. 5, 1972, Nov. 21, 1974, March 31, 1975

Albuq Journal June 27, 1954, June 12, 1960

Westphall: History of Albuquerque 1870-80, UNM Thesis 1947, p.61

Stanley: Duke City p. 38, 46

1880 U.S. Census-Albu No. 152

Keleher: Turmoil in New Mexico p. 129

Revised: Sept. 1977

*Note: On Sept. 20, 1866 Col. H.W. Enos forwarded to his superiors a ground plan of the commissary and quartermaster store rooms, Albuquerque, N.Mex. This building was 120 feet wide and 212 feet long. This size corresponds roughly to the Post Exchange building outlined by the Stanborn Map Co. issue of 1891 although the interior had been modified.--National Archives consolidated correspondence file of Record Group 92.

The Social History of Albuquerque, 1880-1885:

As the town extended east and west, crossing the river more easily became necessary. The Albuquerque Bridge Company, incorporated in 1879, built a bridge across the Rio Grande at a point just south of Melchoir Werner's residence in the west end.44 A tollhouse was located in the center of the structure. All bridge traffic walked; no trotting was allowed. Any pace faster than that would be heavily fined. Mrs Clara Fergusson says that the bridge was not a good business venture because people usually forded the river rather than pay a toll.45 During the rainy season when the bridge was needed most, floods damaged it beyond use.

44 Albuqerque Evening Review, August 15, 1882
45 Personal interview--Mrs. Clara Fergusson, June 26, 1947. Hereafter see Bibliography for the date of the interview.

The Daily Citizen, January 3, 1880 Advertisement:

SAN PEDRO STAGE LINE
THOMAS D. POST, PROPRIETOR
___

Will leave Monday and Friday mornings at 7
o'clock, starting from Favor's store.
Faire to San Pedro, $8.30

The Daily Citizen, Feb 24?, 1882?:

Thos. D. Post is repairing and other-
wise improving the Exchange hotel, old
town, while Mrs. Musio, near by, is ar-
ranging her place for a summer resort.

The Daily Citizen
Feb. 28, 1890
Historic Ground.

The site now occupied by one of the public schools in old town is historic ground. For many years before the late rebellion the Armijo brothers --- Rafael and Manuel---had there the most extensive commercial establishment in the Rio Grande valley. The insurgent Texans took most of the goods and money. Later the property was confiscated by the government and United States Marshall Abraham. Cutler embezzled the funds received from the sale. Dr. W. T. Strachan occupied it as a hotel and stage station; ---Lamb, John Brophy and Thomas D. Post all kept hotel there. Other occupants were Don Martin Quintana, once sheriff of Bernalillo and Santa Fe counties, and now a resident of Santa Fe; M. Aupson, now of Lincoln county, and at one time publisher of the Rio Abajo Press at old Albuquerque and Don Nicolas T. Armijo also lived there. Two men commited suicide there in bygone days, and it is reported that one was murdered.

Further north on the same street was the Confederate hospital where many of the Texans died and were buried in 1862.

South on the same street were the government corrals, shops, stables, etc., and there are now stored the brass howitzers abandoned by the Texans and unearthed in August last.

Nearly opposite on the corner a building stood once occupied as barracks for United States troops.

The Daily Citizen, Sept 27, 1890:

Tom D. Post of the Exchange hotel,
is in Kansas, being called to that state
by the announcement of the death of his
father, who was 84 years old. Mr. Post
is expected to return home October 1.

1880 United States Census
Albuquerque, Bernalillo, New Mexico
FHL Film 1254802 National Archives Film T9-0802 Page 458
Name Occupation Relation Sex Marital Race Age Born Father Mother
Th. D. POST Hotel Keeper Self M M W 44 KS KS KS
Gertrudes POST Wife Wife F M W 40 NM NM NM
Miguela POST At Home Dau F S W 16 NM KS NM
Florence POST At Home Dau F S W 12 NM KS NM
W. B. SANDERSON Agent St. Co. Other M M W 47 NH ME NH
G. W. SHARPLESS Agent R.R. Other M M W 38 PA PA PA
H. C. DOON Express Agt. Other M S W 23 MO MO MO
S. J. SANDERSON At Home Other F M W 47 ME ME ME
Note: buriel record birth (date & place) does not agree with Census

Buriel Records
Church of the Immaculate Conception
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Santa Barbara Cemetery 1876-1924

DECEASED DEATH DATE AGE S REMARKS
POST, Thomas 12 Jul 1893 54y - b. NJ  d. Alb