The Chronicles Of Grant County:
Santa Clara, New Mexico

August 5, 2020

The municipal headquarters of the Village of Santa Clara is the Santa Clara City Hall.
(The photograph was provided courtesy of the Village of Santa Clara.)

The Village of Santa Clara was initially named after Saint Clare (Santa Clara) in the early 1860s, according to the Village. A few years later, though, the town was re-named as “Central City”.  At some point, the name became simply “Central”.  A map produced in 1914, for example, uses “Central” as the name of the town.  When the community was incorporated as a distinct municipality in 1947, the name was officially shortened to “Central”.

The population of the initial settlement was modest, according to Inventory Of The County Archives Of New Mexico, No. 9 Grant County (Silver City)  This archive reported that in the 1870 census, a total of 89 people lived here;  in 1880, 126 people;  and in 1890, 257 people.  By the time of the census in 1920, almost 1,000 people lived here.

The first published mention of “Central City” was found in a letter to the editor at The New Mexican.  The letter was dated
December 22, 1867, and was printed on January 7, 1868, in that newspaper.

“The name ‘Central City’ was applied to the settlement of Santa Clara by military and postal officials,” explained Richard Bauch, Mayor of the Village of Santa Clara.  “We don’t know exactly who made the decision to re-name the community, but the re-naming occurred shortly after Fort Bayard was established nearby [in 1866].  Our community was ‘central’ to much of this region at that time.  We became the initial county seat when Grant County was created [in 1868].  For people at that time, ‘Central City’ likely made sense as the name for this settlement.”

(According to the Silver City Grant County Chamber of Commerce, the county seat of Grant County moved from Central City to Pinos Altos in 1869.)

In 1996, coming full circle, local citizens voted to change the name of the town back to its earlier name – “Santa Clara”.

“People had the choice of four names for our community during that election,” noted Mayor Bauch.  “Among the choices were ‘Santa Clara’, ‘Central’, and ‘Central City’.  An earlier effort to change the town’s name did not succeed, but the effort in 1996 did.  This was likely because many of our citizens felt they had never been given the opportunity to name their own community.  That the decisions of the United States military and the United States postal service in the 1800s had taken that decision from them.  People wanted the opportunity to select their own name for their own community.”

The Mayor also detailed how mail deliveries were difficult in some cases.  He indicated that some mail destined for “Central Corrections” would instead be delivered to the Village of Central, while mail addressed to local folks in the Village of Central got delivered to people in the Albuquerque area.

The Village of Santa Clara began as an outgrowth of the Santa Clara Mission that was established by the Roman Catholic Church, according to Mayor Bauch:  “Santa Clara was on a major trade route that connected the region with the areas to the north as well as with Mexico City to the south.”

According to news reports, Santa Clara Parish celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1990.

While it is not certain for whom the mission was named, it was likely named in honor of Saint Clare of Assisi;  Assisi is located in the Umbria region of central Italy.  Another mission – this one in California that was named “Santa Clara de Asis” by the Franciscans – was named in honor of that specific saint.  A third mission, this one in northern New Mexico, was also named for Saint Clare of Assisi.  The Indian Pueblo Cultural Center indicated that the Roman Catholic Feast Day of Santa Clara (Saint Clare) is celebrated annually in August in the Santa Clara Pueblo.

According to several reports, Saint Clare left home to follow Saint Francis of Assisi in his message of Roman Catholicism, and she helped to found the Order of the Poor Ladies in 1212.  Saint Clare died in 1253.  After her death, the Order was eventually re-named in her honor as the “Order of Saint Clare”.  Today, you’ll see the name used for this order is the “Poor Clare Sisters” in the United States.

A statue of the image of Saint Clare.
(The photograph was provided courtesy of Mr. Robert Cheaib through Pixabay, 2016.)

Do you have questions about communities in Grant County?

A street name?  A building?

Your questions may be used in a future news column.

 Contact Richard McDonough at chroniclesofgrantcounty@mail.com.

© 2020 Richard McDonough