Michael Says - for January 2, 2014 - Governor McDonald

1st elected NM Gov W C McDonald

@ 2014 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. -  Here on the second of January, 2014 I was thinking about the first elected New Mexico Governor William C. McDonald. He was born July 25, 1858 in Jordanville NY, and admitted to the Kansas bar at age 22.
Later that year he moved to White Oaks, Territory of New Mexico where he started as a miner, progressed to store clerk, civil engineer and manager of the Carrizozo Cattle Ranch Co. He used the Bar W brand. He became the first elected Governor State of New Mexico 7 November 1911. His inauguration occurred 14 January 1912 in Santa Fe. It is interesting to note that the final Territorial Governor, William Mills left office technically when the territory became a state January 6, 1912 and William McDonald was not sworn in until January 14, 1912. The state had no governor for eight days and seemed to do fine. McDonald served as the state created the state 

Got the dates wrong. 1912 to 1917

infrastructure and also was serving doing the attack by Pancho Villa and the start of the first World War. He died April 11, 1918 and was buried in the Cedarvale Cemetery at White Oaks, NM. My friend Glen Ellison, a Lincoln County Historian, remarked, “He watched a town be born, watched it crawl, stand up, and run. Then he graced this country with his grave.”

Michael Says - for January 2, 2014 - Governor McDonald