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From: MILTON DAVIS <>
Subject: [FOLKLORE-L] Some Tales of Lea Co. NM
Date: Wed, 01 Jul 1998 13:47:26 -0500

Sparks and my father and mother lived in NM and was instrumental in
settling the area. Hobbs is where they chose to raise their family.
Although at different times dad's job took us to different parts of the
United States our home was always Hobbs. We might spend a year here or
there but for the most part it was Hobbs, NM. The following is from a
newspaper article that was written about him. I will give my mother's
part tomorrow.

The reporter had originally went out to their house to write about dad.
She found out that mom also was a pioneer family and ran her story the
next week. Here is Dad's.

Kornegay, born March 25, 1912 in Miles, (Runnels Co.) Tx east of San
Angelo to C.D. Kornegay and Addie Opheila Boatwright, has been involved
in building everything from bridges to igloos (yes, igloos, but not in
Alaska) to football stadiums to Army Barracks to refineries to air bases
and much more. Before his building and carpentry career began, however,
he worked along with this father and brothers on their cottom farms near
San Angelo and later in Terry Co as his father was on the frontier of
cottom farming everywhere they went when Kornegay was a youth.

They also raised Hegari and he remembers his fathergetting an old Model
T, using the frame and rubber tires for the basis of making a wagon.
Every week during the harvesting season young Kornegay would load the
wagon with 1,000 bundles of Hagari, set out for Hobbs, a three day round
trip, where he would sell all the feed bundles to Lee Hancock for 4
cents a bundle. Hancock teamed for the oil fields and could use all the
Hegari the Kornegay's could provide.

Young Kornegay also got acquanited with Hobbs at a very early age
because he hauled products from their farm into town and peddled them
door to door as Hobbs was a pretty good market for the eggs, butter,
chickens and other farm fresh items the Kornegay's could spare for extra
money. This was the latter part of 1929 and early 1930's.

Raised up east of Tatum, Kornegay helped on the farm until 1929 when he
was 17 and went into carpentry in the housing trade and has been doing
some form of building since that time.

When the war came, he did defense work construction and worked in
Texaskana, Gallup where he built igloos--dome shaped, half barrel round
storage units with drain trenches for powder storage; he did contract
fence work in Eastern NM working on referrals from the late Claude Hobbs
for the First National Out of Roswell. In his life he has worked in
construction of missile bases in Montana, Arizona and Colorado.

Kornegay, who came here during the boom of 1928 and 1929, says he
remembers Hobbs when big wagons and teams pulling and hauling heavy
equipment for the oil fields rumbled down what is now Broadway. Said
you just about took your life in your hands if you had to cross the
street as you might make it and and you just might not!

He said there were knee deep chug holes in the unpaved streets, made
even worse by the often and torrential rains that hit this area then.
If there were any walks, they were the old board ones, known to be less
than reliable.

He laughed at one memory, that of the practice of chaining the
numerousarrested men together and simply fastening the chain to a nearby
post as there were no jails here then. Said one such incident alsmost
resulted in a drowing when one of the downpours came and caught the
"chain-gang" down and out in the elements. Fortunately, no one actually
drowned but I guess he surely thought he was going to!

>From all indications, most any night but Saturday night especially,
things were pretty wild and there were fights, killings, knifings and
goingons in the many bars that would not be tolerated now. It must have
been a wide open town and there seemed to be only one fear and that was
of "Pop" Gray, a deputy with a big handle bar moustache. Kornegay said
when he came to town delivering the Hegari to Hancock he didn't dare
stay in town.

He married the former Allie Marie Allen in 1940.

This was written by Patricia Breyman of the Hobbs Flare in 1980
something. At the time this was written Kornegay had four grown
children (me being the youngest and Sparks older than me by 5 years) all
girls and married. And had 16 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren.

Since then mother died in 1984, our oldest sister in 1988, and our dad
in 1994. That leaves Carolyn, Sparks, and my self--Glitz. The legacy
they left us in these beautiful stories are more than words can tell.
It is something about the life they lead before they got married.
Something very little of us have about our parents. I hope you enjoyed
reading it as much as I enjoyed rereading and typing it. Mom's story is
also very interesting--how they collected cow chips for fuel, how her
mother found a rattlesnake in her kitchen. Want to hear it??? Glitz

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• [FOLKLORE-L] Some Tales of Lea Co. NM by MILTON DAVIS <>