I am going to write several articles about family ancestors, beginning with Gale’s family.
She had a great grandfather, Casimiro, who must have been a very interesting fellow. This is her mother’s grandfather. Gale’s mothers mother was Pilar Candeleria, and Gale’s mothers father was Epifanio Ferman Ayala. Pilar was born June 5th, 1901 in Alamogordo New Mexico. Epifanio was born April
7, 1895 in Abasolo, Guanajuato, Mexico. He and Pilar married 18 Feb 1887 in San Francisco, CA.
Pilar’s father was Casimiro G. Candelaria. He was born In March 1864 in New Mexico. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Candelaria-17 Casimiro is the interesting fellow I referred to above. Gale and I became interested in him, and prompted
me to do this research primarily because there is a main street in Albuquerque, NM named Candeleria Ave. Gale and I go to New Mexico often as I have family in Santa Fe. To get to Santa Fe you fly to Albuquerque and drive to Santa Fe; in doing
so you cross Candelaria. Gale frequently told me that she had relatives named Candeleria, who lived in New Mexico, and she wondered if there was a connection between her relatives and the street in Albuquerque. Spoiler alert: in doing my
research I dd not find any connection. But on to what I did find out about Casimiro and his ancestors is interesting.
First let me give a few facts
about his ancestors. The research led me to a web site called wikitree, and ultimately to Blas delaCandelaria (1657 – 1734) who is Gale’s ggggggggggrandfather. (9greats). And even to his mother’s father Mateo De Sandoval Manzanares
who was born in Santa Fe NM in 1615. (10 greats). https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Manzanares-6 Note: Santa Fe was founded in 1610. It sure would
be interesting to know a bit about his life, unfortunately, we don’t. I also do not know who or why the web site has this information. I wrote the profile manager with these questions but got no response.
We have several old papers, curtesy of Gale’s mother never throwing anything away.
One of his children, and Gale’s great
grandfather, Epifanio Ayala wrote a very touching letter (or probably dictated to someone with beautiful handwriting) asking Pilar’s mother and brother, Cipriana and Florencio Candelaria if he might be allowed to court Pilar. The letter was
written to them in Los Angeles, CA and dated May 22, 1920. It is of course written in Spanish, and according to a well-educated Spanish speaking person, is written in a very flowery formal style. I am attaching a copy of this letter for any of
my readers who are fluent in Spanish to enjoy reading. See above.
Although we have no record of the reply, his request was granted, because although we don’t
know the date they were married, their first child, Gale’s mother Stella was born April 12, 1921. She was the first of three children, the younger children being Albert born 1 Nov 1922 in Los Angeles, California and Gilbert, born6
Mar 1925 inLos Angeles, California.
Back to Casimiro; as stated above, he was born in 1864 and was married to Pilar Candeleria in February 1887. The first document that Gale’s
mother had concerning Casimiro is Dated December 3, 1914. It is a letter Certifying that Casimiro is an agent of R. H. Throne in the cattle business. This is interesting enough that I am including a copy.
It authorizes him and his partner Leonardo
Zorrilla to purchase cattle and guarantees that The Texas Bank and Trust of El Paso will guarantee payment for cattle bought in from Mexico to El Paso, TX up to $100.000 US dollars or equivalent in gold. So Casimiro
was a cattle buyer.
After this letter, we have several Documents showing that he was definitely in the cattle business. One of the first is dated December 18, 1915 from
a broker in Chihuahua, Mexico, written in Spanish:
To Whom it May Concern,
The bearer of this Mr. C. Candelaria,
is my representative to collect and herd all the branded cattle that belonged to him, and he has expressed permission to transport these cattle. The letter is signed by V. B. Andres, President of the Chihuahua Exchange.
Next are several invoices dated July and August 1918 for cattle, totaling 72 cattle and the amount is $3,132.65. Th invoices are on the letterhead of the Ross-Camp Packing Co. Custom
Killing, Wholesale Beef, Pork and Provisions, 106 S. Florence, Phone 2371. Note that the invoices do not say what city the Ross-Camp Packing Co. is in, but I think it was in El Paso.
The next document concerning Casimiro is dated Oct 15, 1920. It is also written in Spanish. It is a letter from the Santa Fe, NM sheriff George W. Armijo. It is addressed to Sr. Don. Casimiro G. Candelaria of Golden
N.M. It is written in Spanish and begins with the salutation “My Esteemed Friend.: It is welcoming Casimiro to the Republican Party. It says that he, the sheriff will be in his office and invites Casimiro to come see him there.
In 1923 he bought a $500 life insurance with Maria Candelaria, his youngest daughter born October 6, 1903 as the beneficiary. The policy cost $2.30 per month.
In 1927 we see several documents that show that Casimiro was the Justice of the Peace in Golden, N.M. These consist of letters from John J. Kenney, District Attorney in Santa Fe, and arrest warrants for
various individuals. Note that Golden NM is a small town on the east side of Sandia Peak, between Santa Fe and Albuquerque.
In 1934 we see that he lived in Albuquerque
N.M. There are several letters and telegrams that were returned because the address was wrong. These include a letter written by Gale’s mother Stella, written when she was 13 years old, and was written to establish contact with her grandfather.
She tells a little bit about herself and family in Los Angeles. (Too bad he never got the letter, it is cute.) Also returned due to an incorrect address is a telegram from Pilar, Mary and Florencio, his children, saying that” MOTHER DIED
AT 8:20 AM TODAY” dated March 13, 1934.
September 8, 1934, Albuquerque NM. In a notarized Letter of Agreement, Casimiro sold the mining rights to a
bat guano cave to three men. Casimiro believes there is 500 tons of bat guano in the cave. He gives the purchasers 60 days to examine and sample the guano, and if they find that it is as stated, they will pay $500 cash and a 5% royalty on all guano
sold. Too bad the letter does not say where the cave is, nor is there a record of how this business deal turned out.
In 1939 he went through several
methods to establish how old he was. He received two affidavits from acquaintances stating that they have known him for 40 years. He also wrote to his life insurance company asking for their records. It is interesting that we have his New
Mexico driver’s license that gives his birthday as May 4, 1874, but the year is scratched out and hard to read. Note that the date per other records is May 4, 1864. The license gives his height as 6 feet and weight as 140 lbs. His address
was 510 S. New York, Albuquerque NM. The license fee was $1.00.
Gale says per family history Casimiro and his wife Pilar did not live together all of the
time. There is evidence that this is true, in that he had two children that were born 5 months apart. Florencio was born April 16, 1894, and Pablo Luna was born in September of the same year. Like I said in the beginning of this article,
Casimiro was an interesting guy.