Records, 1865-1947.

ArchivalResource

Records, 1865-1947.

The Red River Valley Co. collection contains the records of the daily activities of the Bell Ranch. It contains the legal records of the Pablo Montoya Grant, and the correspondence of Bell Ranch managers Arthur J. Tisdall, Charles M. O'Donel, and Albert K. Mitchell, covering the years 1894 to 1943. There are monthly employee lists, payrolls, business books and annual reports, tax records, receipts for equipment and supplies, maps, surveys, cattle and horse breeding records, marketing and transportation records, details on drilling wells and installing windmills, and records of road building, fencing, and improving buildings, corrals, and shipping pens at the Bell Ranch. The collection also contains a great deal of miscellaneous material, including the notes of manager Tisdall and his assistant Jack Culley as they moved Hispano settlers off the Bell in the 1890's. The Red River Valley Co. collection is one of the largest collections of ranch records in existence.

144 boxes (96 cu. ft.) + 77 journals, ledgers, invoices, and receipt books + 1 oversize folder.

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 7535957

University of New Mexico-Main Campus

Related Entities

There are 4 Entities related to this resource.

Tisdall, Arthur J., d. 1898.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6f77zxm (person)

Red River Valley Co.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6dz7fzs (corporateBody)

The Red River Valley Company, formerly the Bell Ranch, was a three quarters-of-a-million-acre ranch lying along the Canadian River in northeastern New Mexico. Bell Ranch was originally two Mexican land grants, the Baca Location No. 2 and the vast Pablo Montoya Grant of 1824. After the war with Mexico in 1846-1847, the Pablo Montoya heirs applied for confirmation of their grant. John S. Watts who led the confirmation process took a large part of the grant as his legal fee; he later acquired the a...

Mitchell, Albert G.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6h43bj9 (person)

O'Donel, Charles M., 1860-1933

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6252k1d (person)

Charles M. O'Donel, ranch manager, was born in County Mayo, Ireland in 1860. Following his education "on the continent", he graduated from Sandhurst Military College, Britain's "West Point". O'Donel resigned a position as captain in the British army to come to the United States with his brother, Manus. They arrived in New Orleans; Charles continued on to Texas, where he started working as a cowboy in 1885. O'Donel arrived at the Bell Ranch on June 2, 1898 as general manager, succeeding Arthur J....