Starting the Family Log

Welcome to AllFamilyOne Log site. Please create a user account and submit your information, stories, folk lore for us to share with the families. This Web Site is dedicated to my parents, Carlos Martinez and Lucia Lucero and to family.

Reynaldo Lucero died on 14 Jul 2006 and was buried on 20 Jul 2006 at Garden of Memories, Hatch, DA, NM.

Bonnie Martinez Bustamante died at a young age of 68 on 1/11/2005. Services were held in Albuquerque NM.

Sister RoseMary, Maria Carrera 9 may 1910-25 Jul 2005

9/9/2006 Gutierrez Reunion Silver City, NM - relatives of my granmother Rafaela Martinez Martinez.

9/2/2006 Sedillo Reunion Silver City, NM -relatives of my grandmother Rafaela Martinez Martinez. Eulalia Sedillo was Rafaela's grandmother. Rafaela was my paternal grandmother.

Wow this has been fun! I connected with several cousins this past year.

RALPH WIDNER:

Ralph Widner was a quiet man who became blind in later years and played the piano for the silent movies. The piano was in the barn at the Rincon farm which was just recently sold (last year-2005?). Rincon is located 5 miles from Hatch.

Ralph would go fishing at Butte and throw a sick of dynamite into the water to stun the fish. He would take home his catch from his "fishing" trip and leave the rest behind.

Ralph would tell his son John to teach his kids Spanish 'cuz they would learn English in school.

Ralph ran a pump station in Engel, NM, where the locomotives stopped to get their water for their steam engines. Several of his sons would eventually work on the railroads also, and cook in the Harvey House cafes that were attached to various train stations throughout the country. They worked in the Rincon Harvey House. (Picture to come.)

Children with Mariana: Thomas, Alberto, Juan (John), Desiderio (Lester), Daniel, Benjamin (Ben).

MARIANA CARIAGA WIDNER-ARREY:

Ralph and Mariana divorced at some point and she remarried an Arrey. Rudy (John's son) they used to stop at his father's step-father's house between Hatch and Deming to visit.

Her and her 2nd husband had a little girl named Annie. Annie Cariaga Arrey. Annie married Tony Chavez.

THOMAS WIDNER-(First born):

Per Nat (Nathaniel) Martinez-Violet's Brother whose mother is Thomas' oldest daughter:

Thomas married Flora Carreras and was a border patrol pilot with a bi-wing plane. (Picture in existence). He also bought an Indian motorcycle in North Carolina and rode it back to New Mexico.

Tom would go to see his oldest daughter (Versave-born 1913) at her school. He would be across the street and she would would see him. She remembered he flew an airplane.

The house I (Stacy) visited of Tom's was in Arrey, Rudy Widner thinks. (I have two pictures) It was basically an old junk yard with stuff everywhere and with dirt floors and a chicken in the kitchen. One person told me he made a living stealing. Maybe that's where all the stuff came from.

These Widner boys lived on the frontier, and were really boisterous. John Jr. remembered a story about how his uncle Tom received that bump on his cheek. If you knew Tom you know about this bump.

It seems that Albert Sr. told Tom that he was going to shoot him with his shotgun and they started horsing around and Tom got shot in the face!! However, Rudy Widner states that Tom was shot, yes, but that the bump was a goiter or some other disease. Tom was very self-conscious about it in later years and refused to see anyone.

ALBERTO CARIAGA WIDNER, SR.:

Grandpa Widner sold his old 1950 truck to Gilbert, Sr. (per Rudy Widner)

My Grandpa is buried in the Hatch cemetary and Petra was bothered that he didn't have a headstone. Before she died she asked her boys to put up a headstone for him. Rudy's brother Gilbert was going to do this, but a little headstone was already there. Thank you to whomever did that. Maybe it was Elsie's family who put it up.

When Grandpa Albert and Elsie (my step-grandmother) moved back to New Mexico from Harbor City they moved in with John and Petra.

JOHN CARIAGA WIDNER - Per his son John, Jr. (Born: 3/31/32):

Ralph Widner was a quiet man who became blind in later years and played the piano for the silent movies. The piano was in the barn at the Rincon farm which was just recently sold (last year-2005?). Rincon is located 5 miles from Hatch.

John, Sr. played the piano for the farm hands during their lunch breaks. They would go into the adobe farmhouse and he would play for them. It seems that many Widners were musically/instrumentally inclined. Albert Widner, Jr., (my father) played many instruments. The first four he played well: Piano, Organ, Saxophone, Violin - harmonica, clarinet, guitar.

John, Sr. went to France in WWI after working in the Harvey House Restaurants (see Exhibits) as a cook. Because he had cooking experience he was made a cook in the service (army?)

He was working in a copper mine when he signed up for military service and when he was drafted. (I have a military document).

In France he had to kill a lot of geese to cook for the troops, and when he returned he just couldn't kill any more animals. He had to hire someone to butcher their animals on the farm. (A man after my own heart!....Stacy)

John Sr. also had odd jobs to feed his family and worked for the International Boundary Commission for awhile. That agency was a predecessor to the Corps of Engineers.

John, Jr. was born 3/31/32 and was the Captain of the football team the year he graduated from High School (1949). I have that yearbook and Hatch High was awful. Will post that page later. :-))

He remembers the Cricket Coogler case very well, so I sent him a copy of a DVD Documentary covering the controversy involving Happy (Alfonso) Apodaca. John left NM and served in the Air Force for 4 years.

John Sr. would take his kids to Engle, NM, which was a little train stop where they would load cattle. He used to walk 5-10 miles barefoot on the wild range to school. No, really!! The artesian well and foundation is all that is left of the old farm.

John Jr. remembers being taken to Uncle Tom's mine in Socorro, NM, and that Tom would collect rattlesnake heads in glass jars. John Jr., would get embarrassed when Tom would come into town in his Hillbilly Model A truck that had a gun in it. He was a mountain man type coming into town to pick up salt and flour and supplies.

John Sr. died from heart failure at 95 years of age in a rest home his last year.

PETRA COLEMAN WIDNER (John Sr's. wife) Per Rudy Widner-their son:

Petra's Mother was Vincenta (Aragon) Coleman who was short & heavy with Indian blood.

Patrick Coleman was Petra's grandfather and he knew William H. Bonney (Billy the Kid), or else Billy worked on the Coleman ranch. The ranch was close to Radium Springs and was a small place. They eventually moved to Rincon where Patrick died.

He was a R.R. Conductor and then returned to become an ice deliverer.
John Widner met Petra when she was born and he held her in his arms. John was 12 years older than her! He was in his 30's when he married her.

Petra had a sister named Helen Coleman who has a daughter named Suki. Rudy Widner went out to visit her here in California and she took him to visit Pat Coleman Jr's. son Charlie Coleman. Charlie asked Rudy if he knew Ernie Chavez Jr., Annie's Arrey Chavez's son and Rudy said "yes." It seems that Charlie and Ernie accidentally met at a San Pedro Longshoreman's Union meeting. We'll get to Annie farther down the story.....

DESIDERIO (LESTER) WIDNER:

John Widner's kids called Lester Tio-Lito and Rudy states that he lived on the farm in Rincon and that Rudy adored him!! But then he went away and they never saw him again. He was the musician in the family and could play just about any instrument.

Sally Widner (Aranda) seems to think that he may have had a deaf/mute child (love child) and that the mother may have been deaf/mute also. The child's name may have been something like Jack 5?

John Widner's kids called Lester Tio-Lito and Rudy states that he lived on the farm in Rincon and that Rudy adored him!! But then he went away and they never saw him again. He was the musician in the family and could play just about any instrument.
Sally Widner (Aranda) seems to think that he may have had a deaf/mute child (love child) and that the mother may have been deaf/mute also. The child's name may have been something like Jack 5?

DANIEL WIDNER:

Played the violin for a cruise line in San Francisco? I have a picture of him. Need to scan it still.

BENJAMIN or BERNARDO WIDNER (Married to Paola)

Was born in Rincon, N.M.

PAOLA PONCE WIDNER-(Be Wife):

Her mother was Maria Martinez who had Poncho Villa on her ranch.

ANNIE CARIAGA ARREY (CHAVEZ):

Annie always stayed closed to John, Sr. and eventually ended up in Harbor City/San Pedro, CA.

Still trying to reach her children.

MISC. STORIES AND FACTS:

Rudy Widner stated that Rincon still has a small train depot and the old brick building that was used as a school that Rudy
went to until the 3rd grade.

Nestora Martinez - (b. 19 Feb 1899, Derry, NM)
9/9/2006 Met Tina and Jean Lopez from Silver City, NM.