Christine Cohen’s paternal grandparents owned a 24 section ranch on the west side of the rugged Cabellos Mountains and the Rio Grande Valley. The Boles ranch stretched from Palomas Gap to the edge of Hot Springs (in 1950 renamed Truth or Consequences), New Mexico. Christine and her four siblings lived in Las Cruces, close enough for weekends and carefree summers at the ranch. She has many fond memories of roaming the property, searching for Indian artifacts and Spanish treasure. The Rio Grande flows through the area and has been home to native Americans for centuries. Arrowheads, beads, pottery, metates and grinding stones are easily found. The kids explored Palomas Gap, a canyon with a wagon road carved by early settlers. It was a paradise for adventurous youngsters.

Thelma O’Neal Ferris Boles (1913-1991), Christine’s grandmother, was the granddaughter of Warren A. Ferris’s son Henry. “Fimmer”, as she was called by the children, was a great storyteller who described Ferris’s exploits in the Rocky Mountains as told in his journal. Thelma felt that her ancestor’s journal was the inspiration for the movie “Jeremiah Johnson”. She entertained the young people with stories of her own colorful past.

Thelma Holding First Granddaughter, Therese Marie Boles

Thelma was the oldest child of Tom Allen Ferris and Effie May Baty Ferris. She, her brother Joe, and younger sister Eddie May were raised in Muleshoe, Texas. They had a difficult home life and Thelma, at age fourteen, eagerly accepted the local postal carrier’s proposal of marriage and the chance to leave Muleshoe. Lloyd Thomas Boles (1907-1988) was a good man and the best thing that ever happened to Thelma Ferris. He was steady and hardworking with a deep sense of integrity. They left Texas and homesteaded land near Pie Town in central New Mexico. It was mountainous country with silver mines. Tom, who was a water dowser, found water on his land and sold out to a neighboring rancher who needed the water. Thelma and Tom eventually bought a ranch near Hot Springs from their lifelong friends, Buster and Callie Slater. By then, they had two children, Bobby Kenneth (Christine’s dad) and Noel “Tootsie” Kay.

Bobby Boles in front of Pie Town Homestead

The ranch near the Rio Grande and the Cabello Mountains was rocky and dry. Raising cattle here was challenging, but there was adequate native grass to graze 500 head of cattle. It was comprised of privately owned land and land leased from Bureau of Land Management. Roundups were difficult as the cattle were scattered over a large area, but the neighbors came to help. It was a community effort. Tom Boles was known as a good neighbor and generous man who stepped up to help those in need. He hunted deer and shared the venison with families in need. The Boles lived off the land, always hunting and gardening, canning food for future hard times. Thelma was an integral part of the ranch life. She worked beside Tom in his ranch responsibilities; she cooked three meals a day, gardened, milked cows, made butter, tended the chickens and pigs, helped brand, fixed fence, and anything else that needed to be done. It was a hard, but satisfying life for Christine’s grandparents, until in their 70s, the ranch became too much and they had to sell. After selling, they bought land on a mesa overlooking the former Boles Ranch. Tom and Thelma built a home on the mesa using two old military dorm buildings purchased from New Mexico State University which they placed around a free-standing fireplace/chimney left from an old settler’s home. On the mesa is a centuries old settlers’ graveyard and abandoned schoolhouse. When the Boles children visited their grandparents, they loved roaming the cemetery, examining stones and artifacts piled around the ancient graves. Thelma and Tom had a magnificent view of the ranch, the Caballo Mountains, Palomas Gap, and the Rio Grande. There they enjoyed retirement and lived out the remainder of their lives.

Cohen Family on the Mesa - 2015, Left to right: Ethan, Noah, Christine, and Fiona

Thelma claimed to have Native American Indian ancestry. Her beautiful looks were distinctively different from the English-Scotch-Irish appearance of others in the Boles family. Her hair was black and she had a darker complexion. Thelma’s maternal grandmother Alice Baty was a Ray (from Rey or Reyes), descendant of a family who owned a Spanish land grant in southeast Texas. The story told by Thelma was that the Ray family land was taken by the State of Texas; it became part of Angelina National Forest. Thelma’s stories changed over time. Sometimes she claimed to be of Kiowa/Apache ancestry; sometimes she denied Indian heritage. Her attitude toward Indians was conflicted. Thelma served as a mid-wife to natives in the Pie Town area. She was given beautiful woven blankets in gratitude for her help and she treasured them. She was fond of a Navajo couple who came annually to pick pinion nuts in the harvest near PieTown, but she was critical of the husband who earned a college degree only to return to the reservation and the “old ways”. She admired the artistry of the wife’s weaving of Navajo rugs, but deplored her lack of sanitation in not washing her hands when cooking. Thelma was the storyteller in the family, but her stories could vary. The validity of the stories of Indian heritage were a source of family conversation. After Thelma’s death, her daughter Noel had a DNA test performed and found that she was 4% Mongolian, not American Indian.

By Susanne Starling and Christine Cohen - 2022

Based on stories written by Mary Knox Boles, reminiscences and photos from Christine Cohen and Dulce Boles (February and March 2022).