Community History

On March 9, 1893, the Pecos Valley Town Company, incorporated in 1889 by Joseph C. Lea, Charles B. Eddy, Arthur A. Mermod, Patrick F. Garret and Edgar B. Bronson, purchased the land upon which the future town of Hagerman would be founded.

In 1894, J.J. (James John) Hagerman, who was building the railroad from Eddy (Carlsbad) to Roswell, had become president of the Pecos Valley Town Company and had decided on the location of the town. The town site is situated in the southeast quarter of Section 10, Township 14, south of Range 26 east of the New Mexico Principal Meridian (near the junction of the Felix and Pecos Rivers, about halfway between Roswell and Artesia). Mr. Hagerman had the land surveyed and platted; it contained 67.02 acres.

The post office was also established in 1894 as Felix, New Mexico; the name was changed to Hagerman on February 27, 1905.

In 1905, the residents petitioned the Chaves County Commissioners for the incorporation of Hagerman. On the 5th day of July 1905, Hagerman was declared and incorporated town.

An election was held and the following trustees were elected: N.J. Fritz (mayor), Edward C. Miller, M.C. Moore, J.W. Langford and O.R. Tanner.

When W. E. Utterback began compiling the history of Hagerman, New Mexico in 1968, he asked Mrs. B. W. Curry to help. The two of them were doing fine, but soon discovered that Hagerman had more history than they had bargained for. It had become such a tremendous undertaking the others in the community offered to aid the struggling historians--and the Hagerman History Book Club was born. From the efforts of the Club has come this book. It is a unique achievement. No professional writers set about to search library stacks or interview 'old timers.' No professional writers, in fact, even saw the manuscript until it was finished. The Hagerman pioneers and their descendents have written their own stories, weaving them into a colorful history. Each has become an author in his or her own way. So this is the story of Hagerman as it was with a new foreword by Katherine Kitch Hagerman. It is history remembered by those who lived it.

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