MORA COUNTY - New Mexico
If you have information that you would like to
share with other researchers and would like to submit that
information to the Mora County site,
please contact Susan Parras, the County Coordinator
If you would like to adopt a county in New
Mexico, please contact the New
Mexico State Coördinator, Leon Moya or the Assistant
State Coördinators, Tom Bombaci, Jr. and Beverly Duncan
Mora County ... The Early Years
Before the Spanish conquest, Mora County was primarily Indian Country, Mora Valley having been used by the Utes, Navajos, and Apaches. After Spanish conquest, it was primarily a travel way for Spanish explorers, and was not really settled until the beginning of the 19th Century.
The earliest records of Mora County come from 1817, when a group of settlers from San Juan de los Caballeros petitioned the Catholic Church. They had wanted a church to be built in Lo de Mora, the former name of Mora County.
28 September 1835
Albino Pérez, Governor of New Mexico
Territory, gave over 800,000 acres of land to 25 families.
"Mora" today is actually three plazas and three villages;
Mora, Cleveland (originally San Antonio), and Chacon. Holman
(originally Agua Negra) lies between Chacon and Cleveland.
Historical and genealogical records for Mora are difficult to
obtain for a number of reasons. One is that Mora was destroyed
by Americans in 1848 in the course of the rebellion against
the new government, and most of the archives were lost. "Not
until artillery was brought up (by the United States Army) and
Mora practically destroyed did the insurgents yield." A US
Government Proclamation at the time (February 15, 1847) wrote
that the US Army " proceeded with a body of men and one canon
to Moro and razed the towns (Upper and Lower Moro) to the
ground."
Revolt of 1847
The Mexican War with the United States was fought between 1846
and 1848, and, following the ratification of the Treaty of
Guadalupe Hidalgo, New Mexico became part of the United
States. Mora was affected by the war. In 1847, Manuel Cortez
and Pablo Montoya began stirring up the northern counties to
revolt against the occupiers. Governor Charles Bent was
assassinated in Taos on January 19, 1847. On that same day, a
group of eight traders passing through Mora were murdered. On
January 24, 1847, a band of American volunteers headed from
Las Vagas to Mora planning to exact retribution. The band
lacked sufficient ammunition and powder for facing the
well-defended village. Private John Hudgins described the
village:
". . . about 250 or 300 yards square, with lines of adobe
houses joined together except in two places which was occupied
by cedar pickets eight feet high, one two-story L adobe
building at the northwest angle and a wood block (house) at
the southeast angle. The two-story building was pierced with
loopholes for small arms and one embrasure for cannon (but no
cannon) all in the upper story."
The attack failed when Captain Israel Hendley, commander of
the group, was killed, and the group left the area. This
failed attack was followed on 1 February 1847 by another
expedition under Captain Jesse I. Morin. Armed with cannon,
this group succeeded in destroying the village and proceeded
to burn ranches and grain fields. An eyewitness gave the
following account from the vantage point of Morin's position:
"As they lived all scattered in their fields, they joined
together as soon as they were appraised that they would be
attacked by the American soldiers, and fortified themselves
with whatever kind of logs they could find ready, at the foot
of the mountain on the road going from Mora to Cebolla, there
they were attacked by the soldiers, who killed one of their
own men, Manuel Gallegos and wounded another named Juan
Guillen. After this attack the soldiers turned to the houses
and destroyed them by fire before leaving the Valley." (from
Jose Ramon Pacheco, The Mora, New Mexico Story.)
In 1860, Mora County was established. Before this time, most
of the county had been part of Taos County and San Miguel
County. The new Mora County was nearly twice the size of what
it is today. A process of take away was begun, and, by 1900,
it had been reduced to a size only a little larger than it is
now. Since then, some of the eastern county was added to
Harding County.