April 15, 1920 “Will Drill at Blackdom”

“This is a chronicle of the life of a black woman-child in America.”

Elaine Brown, A Taste of Power

Mittie Moore Wilson was an infamous madam who ran her empire from 201 S. Virginia Ave in Roswell, New Mexico. Mittie used her influence, money, and land to buy herself Blackdomite status. Mittie’s original entrance into Blackdom’s business may have begun in 1909 with the 40-acre land acquisition for the Townsite. Nothing about the land acquisition was clear. By 1915, in the middle of a New Mexico Supreme Court case, Mittie fully invested in #TheAfrōFrontier® when she began her first of two 320 acre land patents. Nevertheless, as a woman of ill repute, #MittieMoore was in the margins of Blackdomite society.

Mittie was an independent woman but needed 4 Blackdomites to sign affidavits testifying to her integrity in the completion of her homestead claim. Lucky for her, in the summer of 1919, Blackdomites were in talks to pool their land to create and incorporate the Blackdom Oil Company. Before the official launch, Joe Blue, Clinton Ragsdale, Henry Smith, and #ErastusHerron agreed and signed off on Mittie’s homestead patent. Coincidentally, within a year, Blackdomites sold the church, reassembled the townsite’s business operation to Roswell, and Frank Boyer left Chaves County.

Roswell Daily Record: Thursday, April 15, 1920 [Pg2]

Mittie’s money and land proved her worthy by enhancing the size of Blackdom Oil’s land holdings. The dirty business of oil extraction often left the environment unfarmable. Oil exploration began in 1920, and Blackdom’s existence as a functioning town went virtual once more. The town physically existed on occasions. For example, Blackdomites celebrated Juneteenth with a grand feast and invited neighbors from nearby towns to play baseball. The rest of the time, Blackdom was quiet, except for wildcatters. The homestead-class remained and more so interacted with Rosewell.

Mittie’s participation in Blackdom was a sketchy development for the Roswell Daily Record and they memorialized the moment. During this time, speculating on oil exploration and extraction was risky, lucre, full of shady characters, and associating Blackdom Oil Company with a gun-toting bootlegging negress could discredit the whole operation, in infancy. 

For 31 days, the Roswell Daily Record unprecedentedly reprinted Mittie’s Notice for Publication. Homestead land patents were reported as a “Notice for Publication,” and the Department of the Interior used to document land ownership. The U.S. Land Office at Roswell, New Mexico reported and the Roswell Daily Record reprinted the notice every day through September to October of 1919.

On New Year’s Eve of 1919, the Roswell Daily Record reported that Blackdomites “Will Pool Acreage.”  They made arrangements to pool about 10,000 acres. The land was put in an account at a Roswell bank and kept there until a drilling company came to lease land plots to begin exploration. Word on the street, The National Exploration Co. out of New York, months earlier, had secured land in Orchard Park between Blackdom and Roswell.  

Mittie led a contentious life in Chaves County. Must have felt good to open the daily newspaper on April 15, 1920, and read, “Will Drill at Blackdom.”

by Dr. Timothy E. Nelson ©

“[The following article was written by Kathryn Henry, a reporter for the  Clovis News-Journal, and appeared in the News-Journal last week.]

With a Grandchild or great-grandchild for every one of his 77 years, Frank M. Boyer, resident of Vado, lays claim to being the head of the largest Negro family in New Mexico. He had been a resident of New Mexico 50 years and was a member of one of the survey gangs which laid out the city of Clovis. The aged man is well known to many of the early day residents of Eastern New Mexico.”

Las Cruces Sun-News, Sunday, March 30, 1947

Roswell Daily Record Tuesday, May 4, 1920

In March of 1947, Kathryn Henry, a reporter for the Clovis News-Journal, interviewed a “Vado Negro Leader” named Frank, who claimed to be head of the largest Black family in the State of New Mexico. Francis (Frank) Marion Boyer lived many lives in the Borderlands, and the Blackdom Oil Company was one of them. In Mexico’s northern frontier, Frank co-founded and helped build Blackdom; an institution to generate sovereignty for free people under the condition of Blackness.  He delivered on his promise of sovereignty and the evidence showed in him being the head of the largest “Negro” family in New Mexico. Kathryn was the last known person to interview Frank before he passed away two years later in 1949. 

by Dr. Timothy E. Nelson ©