Cerrillos, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow by Jacqueline Lawson

Author:Jacqueline Lawson [Lawson, Jacqueline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780865341302
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Sunstone Press
Published: 2007-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Simoni Store, original

The one-story building on the other side of the Simoni Store was leased by the Tiffany owners in the 1970s for their Starlight Cabaret.

A two-lot building next to that, going towards Waldo Street, was Joe Granito's general store. In the early 1920s he leased the store to the Sahd Brothers, Pete and Fitte.

The businesses in the remainder of that block were also owned by Joe Granito: A dance hall/theater, and a garage.

In the 1920s the dance hall building was used for various community events, one memorial occasion being the wedding dance of a Cerrillos couple. Unfortunately, the bridegroom decided to dance at his own wedding with another married woman whom he had been seeing on the sly. Her husband, very upset over this display of boldness, objected and told the new bridgroom, "I'll get you for this!"

The next day they prepared for their honeymoon. The groom was leaving DeLallo's general store on the corner (with a corset for his bride under his arm) as the deceived husband waited between the buildings, gun in hand. Without warning, he shot and killed the new bridegroom, thus ending a marriage before it began.

It was in this area, around the corner on Waldo Street, that the town jail was relocated in 1894.

The lots across Waldo on First Street, beginning at the corner of Waldo, were uninhabitable for many years until the Galisteo River finally changed its course. This section of the block was the site of the road that led to the first bridge across the arroyo. Cerrillos's first Catholic Church was located on the adjacent lots towards River Street.

Iglesia de San Jose (St. Joseph's Church)

Prior to 1881, Cerrillos's Catholic community was served by a visiting priest from Pena Blanca. From 1881 to 1918, a priest from Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Santa Fe serviced the area. Then in 1918, Cerrillos was transferred back to the care of the Pena Blanca Franciscan Fathers. At that time the church building was located in the lot next to its present site.

Then in 1922, the new St. Joseph's Catholic Church was built by a local crew of carpenters headed by Frank Schmitt. A Franciscan from Pena Blanca, Father Jerome Hesse, was the first pastor. The pastor's residence next door was built later in the 1920s on the lot where the old church had been located.

In 1939 Cerrillos was made into a Parish, at which time the priest was Rev. Eugene Rousseau. During the years 1939 to 1959, eleven priests were assigned to Cerrillos, serving one to four years.

Cerrillos saw good fortune when, in 1960, Fray Angelico Chavez became priest of the church.

Fray Chavez's contributions to the literary world is extensive and includes fiction and non-fiction novels, poetry, and literature commentaries. The October 1960 issue of the Catholic Digest featured him as "Poet in a Ghost Town," a brief story of his life and current, at that time, experience in Cerrillos.

While pastoring in Cerrillos, Fray Chavez undertook the restoration of the St. Francis Church in Golden, New Mexico.

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