John Y. Hewitt (10-11-1836 to 1-8-1932) saw Union military service in New Mexico during the Civil War. He returned to the state in 1879 and started practicing law in White Oaks. Hewitt's professional career was responsible for his becoming a judge, owner and president of Old Abe Mining Company, owner and editor of the Old Abe Eagle newspaper, first president of the Exchange Bank of White Oaks, financial backer of the White Oaks Academy Association, Democratic party member, active participant in territorial politics, and Departmental Commander in New Mexico of the Grand Army of the Republic from 1887 to 1888.
Andrew H. Hudspeth (10-23-1874 to?) was born in Hunt County, Texas, educated in Greenville, Texas, and attended law school at Cumberland University in Tennessee. He came to Lincoln County, New Mexico, in December of 1894 and was until 1902 the secretary to the Angus V.V. ranch. Thereafter, until 1913, he became a member of the Hewitt and Hudspeth law firm in White Oaks. Afterwards, he began his own practice in Carrizozo. A Democratic party member, Hudspeth was elected and served one term in the state legislature, acted as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention of 1908, served as a delegate to the New Mexico Constitutional Convention, sat as chairman of the Democratic State Control Committee of New Mexico in 1912, and received an appointment the following year from President Woodrow Wilson to a position as United States Marshal for New Mexico.
Richard Wightman's New York City based firm of White Oaks Mines Consolidated, Inc. - Gold, Silver, Tungsten, Coal - Baxter Mountain, White Oaks, New Mexico succeeded the Old Abe Company.
Melvin G. Paden (2-4-1851 to 1943) was born in Wetzel County, West Virginia, and was educated as a physician. By 1886 Paden practiced medicine in White Oaks, and by the 1920s moved to Carrizozo to continue his practice and operate Paden's Drug Store. He was the president and director of Rico Gold Placers Company of Lincoln County and was associated through business with Edward L. Fernsten, Trustee, of Lincoln Gold Placers of Jicarilla.
W. M. Lane, acting as agent for the Sonora Gold Mining Company of El Paso, Texas, transferred to the same firm his mining holdings in Mexico in exchange for stock and cash considerations.
William Calhoun McDonald (7-25-1858 to 4-11-1918) was born and raised on a farm near Jordanville, New York. In the 1880s he moved to New Mexico. From 1881 until 1890, he pursued a career of surveying and civil and mining engineering about the White Oaks mining district. In 1890 he became the manager of the Carrizozo Cattle Ranch Company then owned by an English syndicate and later managed the El Capitan Land and Cattle Company. Being a well respected Democrat and public servant, McDonald held several offices before becoming the first elected governor of the State of New Mexico on November 7, 1911 and served one five year term before returning to private business affairs in Lincoln County. Failing health and Bright's disease resulted in his death in El Paso, Texas.
George Curry (4-21-1862 to 11-28-1947) was born in Bayou Sara, Louisiana, lived in Dodge County, Kansas with his family, and came to Fort Stanton in 1880. He assumed his first public office in 1888 in Lincoln County. During the Spanish American War, Curry served as a captain in the Rough Riders. He went on to the Philippines to act as chief of police in Manila and then governor of two Philippine provinces for eight years. He left the Philippines in 1907 to become the last territorial governor of New Mexico; a position which he resigned from in 1910. From 1911 to 1913, Curry served as the first elected Republican Representative to Congress from New Mexico. Only two years before his death due to kidney failure and chronic illness, Curry was named state historian in 1945 and custodian of the Museum at Lincoln.
William Taylor Thornton (2-9-1843 to 3-16-1916) was born in Calhoun, Henry County, Missouri, educated in a private school near Sedalia, and graduated in 1868 with a law degree of the University of Kentucky. He then practiced law in Clinton, Missouri until failing health in 1877 induced him to relocate in Santa Fe. Thornton was involved in New Mexico mining, land, and ranching interests; ownership of the Santa Fe New Mexican from 1894 to 1897; partnership in the law firm of Catron, Thornton, Clancy and Cockrell (see New Mexico Interpreter, 7-1-1887); and public service as an elected member to the Territorial Council in 1890, the first elected mayor of the city of Santa Fe in 1891, and appointed Territorial Governor of New Mexico from 1893 to 1897.
John J. Cockrell was the son of Francis Marion Cockrell, a former Confederate general, attorney, uncompromising Democrat, and Senator from Missouri from 1875 to 1905. John Cockrell became an attorney and practiced law in Warrensburg, Missouri until the 1880s when he removed to Lincoln, New Mexico.
From the guide to the Lincoln County, N.M. Collection, 1885-1976, (Museum of New Mexico. Fray Angélico Chávez History Library.)
