Knowles, Benjamin and Mary Matilda

Lea County Families, "Then and Now" Vol I, 1979

Submitted by: Ruby Knowles O'Bannon

Knowles, New Mexico was named for my grandfather, Benjamin Liker Knowles, who was born and raised in Mississippi and came to New Mexico in the early 1890's. He came to that area of Lea County when it was only desert country; homesteaded, and lived in a dugout until he finally got a house, one-room, built. He put in a store there with provisions and other articles that the few people had to have. B. L. Knowles had a post office which was called the Knowles Post Office.

Benjamin Liker Knowles was married to Mary Matilda ______. He died at the age of 92 and is buried at his old house in Texas. His wife lived to be 70 years old and is buried in the Knowles cemetery.

Benjamin had a son, R. B. Knowles, "Rube" as we called him, who built and owned the telephone line from Lovington to Carlsbad. Rube had two sons, Winford and Whit, who rode the line horseback and kept it up. Rube was a rancher and owned a general merchandise store in Monument. He left Monument in 1914 and bought the S Cross Ranch near Lakewood, New Mexico.

Rube Knowles had seven boys and three girls: Winford, deceased; Whit, who now lives in Beaumont, Texas; Wes, who lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado; Bill, deceased; Walter, deceased; John, who lives in Wichita Kansas; and Buster, deceased; Ruby, Mary, and Georgia Lee.

Mother said she had so many children she assigned my brother, Walter, to me to take care of. I have written a separate story about Walter Knowles and his accomplishments, in the Lea County Families, Then and Now, Vol I, 1979.

Rube Knowles was a very active, healthy man who did not believe in doctors. He was the "doctor" for our family until we all got married and began to believe in doctors. He died at the age of 101 and is buried in Artesia beside his wife, Mary Elizabeth. She died young, at only 54 years of age.

I, Ruby, have two sons and one daughter: Douglas Glen O'Bannon, who is a rancher at Del Norte, Colorado; Mary Francis O'Bannon who lives in Artesia, New Mexico; and G. W. O'Bannon who is living in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. G. W. is a rug dealer who owns his own store and makes yearly trips to the Orient for a new supply of oriental rugs. He has also written a book on those rugs and the people who weave them.