James Volentine Linam and Ellie Elizabeth Thorp
Lea County Family and Histories
Excerp from Max Clampitt's "Fact, Fantasy & Fiction", printed 8 November, Hobbs News Sun
James Volentine Linam was born in Kempers Bluff, Texas, on March 28, 1863, and married Ellie Elizabeth Thorp in May of 1890 at Paint Rock, Texas. Their son James Virgil, was born 22 Jan 1895. He married Thelma Alta Taylor on Dec. 25, 1921.
During the summer of 1905, the Linam family came to visitCreed Thorp, who had homesteaded three miles southwest of Knowles, New Mexico. It was a good summer, plenty of grass and lake water. New Mexico was open range so it looked really good to them. They visited several weeks.
So in the spring of 1907 the Linam's sold their ranch in Tom Green County, Texas, loaded up all their belongings in wagons and headed west. They drove their horses and cattle to New Mexico and settled five miles north of Monument, New Mexico, on a broad draw.They drilled a well at the top of the north ridge and built a tank on the side of the slope to the south. A cold northern wind blew in on the 14th of May and it started raining. The next day there was an inch of snow on the ground.
A cold reception for a family living in a tent an their 17th wedding anniversary! However: the Linams managed to tough it out. They hauled in lumber from Midland, Texas to build a house, where the Linam Ranch and museum stands today. Their first house was made of adobe bricks and was renovated in 1935. Eventually it was the center of a cattle operation that would cover more than 28,000 acres. The Linams featured Longhorn and Scotch Highland cattle.
Thelma was born in Eddy County, Teritory of New Mexico, October 7, 1906, her parents were J. Will Taylor and Nellie Ellen Taylor. They were living in a two room mud house which had been built by an earlier settler, John Underwood. She was born without a doctor: There was a midwife and her grandmother Eller.
Her father J. Will Taylor was running a good size sheep ranch located near Humble City and was working with several hundred sheep. In the fall of 1906 he delivered a heard of mutton to the market in Midland, Texas. He had one helper named J.P; the trip would take 18 to 20 days driving the sheep and five or six days coming back with a load of supplies.
Thelma married Virgil Linam in 1921.
Shortly before his passing on 20 Dec 1959, Virgil Linam contributed to the drive led by Dr. B. Clarence Evans, to establish the New Mexico Baptist College.
Max Clampitt a local historin and Thelma Weeber were talking one afternoon, Thelma said in her sweet way, "The lord has blessed me in giving me heath and a clear mind. It was not my goal to establish a legacy. It was just that dring my life, whatever I did, I tried to do the best that I could." What a strong, simple pattern for anyone to follow!
Note:
Thelma chronicled her life in a book called: "Life on the Prairies: Settling the LLano Estacada.", at the Linam Ranch, she and Virgil collected and established a museum housing, Indian Artifacts, a covered wagon, ranching tols and a mounted Bison head. The Linam had at one time, a heard of 36 buffalo, it was not uncommon to pass the ranch and see travellers parked along side the road watching and photographing the buffalo.
Upon her death on May 14th, 2005, the Linam Ranch museum which she started was given to the New Mexico Junior College, where it will be displayed.
Thelma and Virgil are buried at Prairie Haven cemetery in Hobbs, New Mexico.
