When New Mexico Was Young – Harry H Bailey His Autobiography
When New Mexico Was Young: His Autobiography
By Harry. H. Bailey (Author), Homer E. Gruver (Editor)
A firsthand account of New Mexico’s transformation from frontier territory to the modern Southwest.
When New Mexico Was Young is the autobiography of Harry H. Bailey (1868-1954), a pioneer businessman, horticulturist, builder, preservationist, and developer who played an important role in the growth of the Mesilla Valley, El Paso, and southern New Mexico.
Bailey established the Mesilla Valley’s first nursery and supplied the first trees planted at New Mexico State College, now New Mexico State University. In El Paso, he built the Natatorium, the city’s first public swimming pool, in 1900. Three years later, he constructed the Angelus Hotel, part of which became the Crawford Theatre in 1906.
After returning to New Mexico, he helped develop Radium Springs as a health resort and built its hotel and bathhouse. Recognizing the historical importance of Fort Seldon, he purchased its decaying adobe buildings to preserve one of New Mexico’s most significant frontier landmarks for future generations.
Yet this is far more than the story of one man’s accomplishments. Bailey’s memoir preserves vivid recollections of the people, places, and events that shaped southern New Mexico during the closing years of the frontier.
Among the men he knew were Sheriff Pat Garrett, Colonel Albert J. Fountain, attorney and future senator Albert B. Fall, Oliver Milton Lee, Sheriff Mariano Barela, Demetrio Chavez, Humbolt Casad, and George Griggs. He was also a close friend of celebrated Western author Eugene Manlove Rhodes.
For several months, Bailey lived in the historic Mesilla courthouse where Billy the Kid was tried, convicted of murder, and sentenced to hang. His stories of early settlers, local personalities, business ventures, frontier communities, and everyday life offer an intimate view of a region undergoing extraordinary change.
Part autobiography, part pioneer chronicle, and part social history, When New Mexico Was Young is an invaluable firsthand account of the Mesilla Valley, El Paso, Radium Springs, Fort Stanton, and the remarkable men and women who helped build the modern Southwest.
Essential reading for anyone interested in New Mexico history, El Paso history, Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett, Eugene Manlove Rhodes, Fort Stanton, Western pioneers, and the development of the American frontier.
Radium-Springs-Hotel-Radium-Springs-New-Mexico-1931
186 pages, 10 images.
Reprint of 1946 Edition.
Paperback ISBN: 978-1952580017
