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Dora, New Mexico
We were going to the Senior
Citizens on July 10, 2008 and they were bulldozing the old Dora School down. As we went they lacked only the Gym and as
we returned home in about 4 hours, it was all gone. After shedding a few tears we went by the
school to ask Mr. Barron, the current superintendent of the Dora Consolidated Schools if we might have a brick. Mr. Barron asked us in to check out a time
capsule found in the old 1926 school building behind the old plaque close to
the front door of the old school. They
had to do lots of chipping to get the plaque out. The names of the 1926 school board members
were on the plaque. The school board
was composed of; B.F. Bennett, President:; Ollie
Powell, clerk; and J.A. Chapman.
The faculty is Herbert E.
Richards, principal;
W.H. Wilhite and Miss Lucy Cathey, primary teacher.
Miss Jessie Richards is an auxiliary member of the faculty and at any
time the enrollment reaches a certain number of pupils classes are to be
organized under her charge.
Mr. Barron and Kenneth Cox, a
current school board member, decided there might be a time capsule in this
school somewhere. They continued
chipping away behind the plaque and chipped through two other walls and behind
that, they found a time capsule. It
was a copper rectangler box that had been welded
together to seal it. They sawed it
open and inside was a Dora Daily News paper from Dora, Roosevelt County, New Mexico July 29-30, 1926.
This was a four page newspaper and had been published by the Portales,
Valley News. This paper was where the
school board members and the faculty came from. Dora was having a big picnic for all the
surrounding people to get acquainted with the people of Dora.The
people of Dora had a great attitude toward education. The paper stated that in this respect Dora
takes her place in the forefront by recently voting a bond issue of $5,000
for the construction of a fine brick school house. The bonds have been sold for par to J.B.
Sledge, of Portales, and the contract for the structure has been awarded to Ison and Jones of Portales. Construction of the building is to start as
soon as the plans have been approved
by the State Board of Education and is expected to be done in plenty time for
the fall term. The building is to be
of brick, 48 by 60 feet and will contain, in addition to a large entrance
hall, four class rooms. Two of these
rooms are arranged in such a way that they can be thrown into one large room
for use as an auditorium. In one end
of one of the rooms is a large stage equipped with a full set of scenery for
all sorts of plays.
At this time Dora had two general
mercantile stores, two filling stations, a drug store, postoffice,
I.O.O.F. Hall; bonds have been voted
for a fine high school building, and a first class cotton gin is in immediate
prospect, with other things coming the Dora way.
J.R. Richards came to New Mexico in November 1920 and since then
has been engaged in farming. He is
another booster for Dora, Roosevelt county and New Mexico.
He was made a member of the picnic committee and has taken that up as
another thing to be boosted.
There were several coins in the
time capsule. A 1900 quarter, a
Victory nickle, several other quarters, dimes, nickles and pennys. The latest date being 1913. There was a Bible and the condition was
outstanding. There were about 13 names
in the Bible of officers that were Masons at that time. There was an agriculture pamphlet with
rules in it. I do not know if this was
for farming or for teaching agriculture.
This was an amazing
thing to see.
Written by Peggy Prater, Saturday,
26 July, 2008
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