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- Southeast New Mexico
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- Bellview, Broadview, Grady, and Pleasant Hill - eastern New Mexico settlements
Bellview, Broadview, Grady, and Pleasant Hill - eastern New Mexico settlements
- By Phyllis Eileen Banks
- Published 12/30/2002
- Southeast New Mexico , Curry County
- Unrated
Phyllis Eileen Banks
Phyllis Eileen Banks is both writer and artist.Her articles have appeared in Southern New Mexico Magazine, FYI, Vision Magazine, Roswell Daily Record, New Mexico Magazine, Ranger Rick, Concern, Anchorage Daily News, and other periodicals. In addition, with Cynthia Smith she authored The Anchorage Fun Book.
Much of her experience has been as an editor.Her editorial experience includes The Alaska Presbyterian, The Alaska Heart, newsletter of the Alaska Heart Association, the book COCAHINIA (Consultation on Church and Human Need in Alaska), and Roaming Southern New Mexico.
"I have invisible antennae that 'vibrate' when something doesn't seem right.Of course editing someone else's work is easier than editing one's own," she says.
People stories, historical pieces, and travel writing are her favorites.She and her husband, Hal, moved to New Mexico from Alaska.
"New Mexico has some of the same mystic of Alaska – wide open spaces, different cultures.The transition was easy," says Eileen."It is truly The Land of Enchantment and no matter where you reside you carry it with you."
Phone:727-544-3713
View all articles by Phyllis Eileen Banks
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Located on NM 77, only one mile from the Texas border in Curry County, it was organized in 1910. Originally it was a part of two ranches, the Brown and Shenault. Lee Barnes was fond of Pleasant Hill, Texas, and suggested that name at a meeting of local residents. During the early part of the 20th Century, this section of New Mexico was settled with hopeful homesteaders who sometimes paid only 10 cents an acre for land. Ranching is still the economic base.
Bellview is 24 miles north of Pleasant Hill at the crossroads of NM 93 and 241. Settled about 1905, the post office dates from 1912 to the present. However, other post offices had been established in the area at places like Legansville and Preston. Originally called Rose
Broadview is not at a crossroads, but at a junction of three NM highways: 209, 241 and 275. Although founded in 1925 as Boney Curve, the post office was established in 1931 as Broadview. Residents now receive their mail via Bellview. The reason given for the name Boney Curve was a decided curve in the straight-as-an arrow highway. An addition to the name was a family called Boney. History of this area indicates that people lived in dugouts when they first arrived. The land lends itself well to agriculture, and the ranches in the locale indicate the tilling of the soil is continuing.
Grady is six miles west of Broadview on NM 209, another ranching community. Mrs. Pearl B. Grady was the first postmistress, as well as owner of much of the land in the area. There is a difference of opinion as to who named it, Mrs. Grady or Elizabeth Grady, an early settler in the area. The post office was established in 1907 and continues. The Atcheson, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad was to build a hub in Grady around 1906, but it did not materialize. Again, ranching and agriculture have provided the community's continuance.