Our quest in reaching Las Cruces was to find the church in which John's parents were married in 1943.
June 19th at noon, to be exact in an area called Mesilla Park. The last time we were through here, we didn't have the name of the church, and wondered around Mesilla Park for a day and a half before we finally got onto an onramp, and saw the church below. At that point, John said we weren't going back!
So we are looking again. We have it on google maps, but still made wrong turns. Finally after a detour that took us nine miles out of our way before we could turn around and try again. We recall Jane and Bud trying to find the church on their travels. Preoccupied, Bud ran a stoplight, and when pulled over, they explained their mission. The policeman forgot the ticket and escorted them to the church!
The church was empty, and we took some pictures outside. However, a car pulled up and there was going to be a choir practice. They let us in for a few minutes and said we should come back in the morning when someone was in the office. And so we did.
John's father was attending Lehigh University in Allentown Pennsylvania when he and his fraternity brothers joined the service. He was sent for training at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. What prompted the two of them, Bud and Jane, to decide to get married there is a story now lost to us.
Jane boarded a train in either Philadelphia or New York with her future mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law, for what was at least a three day trip. As the story goes, the future in-laws were dressed in their furs and jewels, and spent their time warding off the soldiers on this troop train as they headed across country.
Their wedding was the first military wedding held under this program at the St. James Episcopal Church.
The church looks much the same as it did in the pictures and newspaper articles we have of the wedding.
We have a picture of them standing in front of this beautiful altar!
The woman at the church directed us to another building which housed archival material, the Institute of Historical Survey Foundation to see if we could find their wedding information. It was a large, nondescript lilac-colored building with no windows. But an impressive name!
The door was open and inside were a number of volunteers cataloging all kinds of materials. Sure enough they found the reference.
There were a few minor problems with this record. Like -- no name of the bride, or any reference to her at all. And, his residence is listed as Garden City, Kansas, instead of Garden City Long Island, New York. The Margaret Blake listed was indeed a witness, the groom's mother. But the other family witness, Bessie Spath, his grandmother, is missing. This is a genealogist's nightmare!
The woman looking at this material humphed, "Oh, that was probably recorded by Preacher Lewis. He never did get anything right. He even had people down as being baptized before they were even born!"
Preacher Lewis was indeed the minister who married them. This minister is a legend in Las Cruces, having served there for many decades. He was the one who married Bud and Jane.
The rest of the story remains a mystery to us. How long did the in-laws stay after the wedding? And where did the bride and groom live? How long were they there? Questions you would ask if you could.
We got back on the road around 11:30 - such a late start but well worth it. We head through El Paso, and follow route 10 right along the border. We can see the border fence and the Mexican hovels on the other side. Such a strange phenomenon that a fence creates two different worlds. We see boot and saddle shops, one called "Serapes and Saddles", and as we travel for many miles along this border area, it is so hard to imagine that we can't make peace with the issues the divide these two countries.
Further down the road, the only word to describe the area is "desolate." John says even the junk yards look desolate. The wind is on our nose, which makes for slow going, and lots of fuel mileage loss. We come to a Border Patrol stop, and all the trucks, about 75 by our count, are lined up for inspection. We are glad we don't have that wait.
There is one redeeming factor to this landscape. The Palo Verde trees. This is the official tree of New Mexico, and it is in bloom. They are prolific along the roadside and a welcome relief to this empty landscape.
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