(Standing L to R) sisters Olivia Garcia (youngest), (oldest) Estela Macias, Julia Pinedo, (not pictured,
Irene from Pecos); (front) brother, Guillermo Ortiz Jr. and (mother) Elisa Ortiz seated. Julia’s mother,
Elisa, provided a laundry service to support the family.
cooking over a wood stove and
washing clothes boiled in an iron
pot. Ventura gave up the freight
line in 1934 and died in 1935.
Angela moved the family to Marfa
and provided washing and ironing
for the soldiers at Ft. Russell, and
passed away at age 105
surrounded by family.
Angela’s daughter, Elisa, was
born in Shafter, later marrying
Julia’s father Guillermo Ortiz.
Elisa moved with her husband’s
work from picking cotton in Big
Spring, Texas to Marfa, Texas, to
the railroad town of Haymond
about 15 miles south of Marathon
off a junction of what is now
Highway 90 toward Sanderson. It
was a thriving community with
the largest railroad express office
between San Antonio and El Paso,
in addition to a post office, and
several businesses. Guillermo
worked for the railroad. Families
like Julia’s lived in “section”
houses made of lumber. There is
no mention of running water and
electricity.
Southern
Pacific
provided
section houses which had five
10
Cenizo
Winter 2020
rooms to a building. Each family
had a room. When Julia was six
years old, she began attending
school in Marathon. Staying in
Marathon during the week, she
attended the “Mexican” School on
the south side. Life changed when
her father no longer was employed
by the railroad.
With Guillermo moving to
Wisconsin to work, at 10 years of
age, Julia had to quit school to
help her mother. Her mother,
Elisa, provided a laundry service
to support the family. In order to
wash clothes, water had to be
hauled to the house. Jesus Ramos
(referred to in The Magnificent
Marathon Basin by AnneJo P.
Wedin) charged 10 cents a barrel
and would bring water to the
house from a well down the road
filled by a windmill. Anglo and
Hispanic neighbors supported
each other, while segregated in
life by politics and cemeteries in
death. Fortunes waned and flowed
like the life-giving waters of the
Rio Bravo (Rio Grande) for
ranching families and laborers,
alike.
(Standing L to R) (youngest daughter) Mary Lou Estrada, (granddaughter) Monica Sanchez, (not
pictured, twin son, George) (twin daughter) Jacobina Gonzalez, (son) Javier Pinedo. (bottom L to
R) Julia Pinedo, (granddaughter, Jacobina’s daughter lives in Odessa) Julie Gonzalez, Elisa Ortiz.
Railroad families like Julia’s lived in “section” houses made of lumber (perhaps board and batten
construction).
“El Camino Real,” of which the
Chihuahua Trail is a subset, is the
old Spanish Trail and the official
map and guide can be ordered
from caminorealcarta.org. It has a
timeline starting with prehistory
4,000 BP through Juan de Onate’s
expedition in 1598, to 1821 when
Mexico is freed from Spain. “El
Camino Real (the Royal Road) de
Tierra Adentro” becomes known
as the “Chihuahua Trail” for
traders moving goods through
Santa Fe from the Eastern U.S.
“Images of America, Alpine,
2010” by David W. Keller,
archaeologist and historian with
the Center of Big Bend Studies at
Sul Ross, provides a peek
specifically into early life,
prehistory and post-railroad in
the Alpine and Marathon areas.
Keller writes, “…the nearby
spring (then known as Charco de
Alsate, then Burgess Water Hole
and later Kokernot Springs) was a
favored
campground
for
prehistoric nomads and later for
Spanish explorers and freighters
along the Chihuahua Trail. When
the Southern Pacific unfurled its
line down from Paisano Pass in
1882... Alpine was born a railroad
town,”
‘originally
named
Murphyville.’ Keller says, “THAT
is the spring that caused Alpine to
be born and that was on the
Chihuahua Trail.”
Keller continues to explain,
“Secondly, the Chihuahua Trail,
like many trails, branched and
converged in different places. It
was mostly a single trail, I believe,
once it entered the Alamito creek
area. Above that, there seems to
have been several routes through
the Davis Mountains area,
including that of the lower cut off
trail
which
was
probably
prehistoric in origin,” but he says
he can't be certain about that and
defers to other sources. Keller
clarifies that “Alamito Creek is a
different drainage system that
heads WEST of Paisano Pass, not
in Alpine Valley.”