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Grenville, New Mexico, is supposed to be the smallest (in area) incorporated village in New Mexico. I wouldn't be suprised if it was the smallest in population, as well.
Robert Julyan, in The Place Names of New Mexico, states that it has had a post office since 1888, and owes its existence to the arrival in 1880 of the C&S railroad. By 1921 the population was 700.
Please pick up any trash you see nearby -- there usually isn't much and the cemetery visitors usually pick up whatever they see inside the fence. The Grenville New Mexico Story. by F. Stanley
December - 1969
P. 0. Box 107 Nazareth, TX 79063
"If anyone in the whole country should know who Grenville, New Mexico, is named for that man is Dr. Monroe of the Clayton Abstract Company in Clayton. A scholar, historian and public speaker, he searched the courthouse records and brought plats, abstracts, old files to the attention of the author. It was long the contention that the town was named for an old settler but no one seemed to know much about the settler. Dr. Monroe is definite that the name honors Grenville M. Dodge, soldier, politician and promoter turned railroad man.
. . .
"After the [Civil] war he gained some reputation as an Indian Fighter. He kept up his political and railroad connections. As a congressman he was also associated with the Union Pacific. After the death of E. M. Hoxie (there is a community between Springer and Raton named Hoxie) Grenville decided to turn his engineering and managerial skills to completing the railroad dear to the heart of the ex-marshal. He pushed construction of the Fort Worth & Denver. The last spike was driven 280 miles from Denver on March 14, 1888. Without going into particulars suffice it to say this road after changes in names, titles, partnerships and the like became part of the Burlington system. It's section from Clayton to the Colorado line is historic. General Dodge received recognition in the town Grenville. The fact that the plat for the town was not filed with the Department of the Interior until July 19, 1888 is convincing enough that there was no oldtimer around named Grenville for whom the town could be named. Railroad people gave Grenville life. Here is how the report in the Department of the Interior reads:
"Grenville on the D. T. and F. W. in the W 1/2 Sec. 11 T. 27 North of Range ZIE Territory of New Mexico being on public lands and over ten miles from any other station on public lands filed with the Department of the Interior on July 10, 1888."
Railroad advertising inducing homesteaders to file on the land was very much like the promotion posters in and around the theatre district of New York after World War I spelling out the benefits of Miami in Florida. There wasn't one settler coming to Grenville that didn't think he was moving next door to paradise. Sometimes you had no choice but to remain once you realized you were even a bigger dreamer than the townsite promoters, and you were very broke indeed. ... Some found steady employment during the winter months and used the other time for planting, cultivating and harvesting if there was anything to harvest. Finding water was also a drawback. The new town was close enough to Clayton for supplies, Saturdays in the big town, for medical care, and education. Soon the town had its own school but the boom failed to click. Perhaps too many towns were starting. All along the right of way at certain intervals a town was planted so that the area was beginning to know people rather than cattle, jackrabbits, antelope, deer, coyotes, skunks, rattlers, and prairie dwellers. The trek from Grenville to Des Moines, Capulin, Raton always seemed as long as to Kansas City. During the early days Springer was the county seat. Later Raton was made the county seat so that when Elisha H. Coigny was named postmaster of Grenville on November 10, 1888, he was under the direction of the postmaster at Raton. Meantime the little town joined hands with Clayton, Des Moines, Folsom to cut away from Colfax county for the new Union county. Here again some difficulty was experienced since Clayton and Folsom decided to put on the gloves and battle it out for county seat honors. Clayton came out ahead and Grenville was much closer to the new county seat than before. The post office was closed and a new petition sent in for a postoffice in the new county. The post office opened again on December 24, 1888 with the same postmaster the mail now coming in by way of Clayton. There was little or no expansion during the years until 1916 when it was thought that black gold flowed underground and Grenville would boom as an oil town. Boom it did, with an impact it has not known since. All roads terminated in Grenville. So it seemed. There were the years of prosperity from 1916 to 1923. Tomorrow the well would come in. Every day they said that. Everyday there was a certainty that tomorrow Grenville would be the oil center of New Mexico. County officials at Clayton wrote to the Department of the Interior for any and all papers relating to Grenville. Government officials obliged and wished Grenville luck with its new boom. Property values rocketed overnight. Before the boom you could practically name your own price for a lot but now with oil ready to flow it would cost you plenty to live in Grenville. Oddly enough with the influx of new townsmen no one brought along a printing press. It is likely that no newspaper man wanted in until he saw the oil soaring skywards. Curren at Folsom would have come to Grenville had he any vision of the prosperity that would flow with the oil. The promotors failing to put the oil where their mouth was convinced him that Clayton was the place for his newspaper. He had many experiences with promotors at Kingston, Hillsboro, Lake Valley, in Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico. He founded more newspapers than any other person in the Land of Enchantment. Readers received this every week to learn about the various events taking place in and about town. Fortunately the editor of the CLAYTON NEWS found a willing and able correspondent to send in the news each week which proved beneficial to both the townspeople and the historian or recorder of the town's early days. "Howard L. Meyers went to Trinidad last week. Mr. and Mrs. Beecher of the Patterson community were in Grenville Monday. Mrs. N. C. Light has been very sick the past week, but is better at this time. Last week the mail car driven by Edward Oldham on the Sofia route caught fire and was completely destroyed. Two mail sacks and their contents were lost. Mrs. Matthew Tait made a business trip to Clayton last week. Frank Torres returned home Friday from military service in France. He brought with him the gas mask used by him in battle. Mr. and Mrs. E. U. Scott and Mr. G. W. Scott went to Clayton Monday. The bean cleaner in the new warehouse in Grenville is now installed and ready for business. B. C. Froman, of Patterson, who is doing the carpenter work on the Harry Goodall home is spending the weekend at home. Url Harman, who has been employed at the Grenville garage, for the past two years, left Thursday for Denver. He expects to take an electrical course there. Mr. Harman is one of Grenville's best young men. Charles Atchly, of Patterson, is now employed at the Grenville garage." (o.c. Feb. 22, 1919) "A son was born to Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Jones September 20. Miss Greason (the school teacher) was absent from school Friday and Ruby Howell substituted for her. The Snorty Gobbler Oil Company will give a bar-beque and a general good time to all present at the derrick Thursday, September 9. Special excursions will be run into Grenville. Mr. Cushion had his hand badly crushed Tuesday. Dr. Mumey dressed the wound. (Dr. Mumey was a young man recently out of medical school, and was so impressed with Grenville that he started plans for the Grenville General Hospital. All seemed to be working nicely until failure to obtain oil as well as crop failures disheartened so many people that they moved to other parts. The doctor himself later moved to Denver where he became widely known not only as a medical man but also as a collector of Americana, a publisher and writer. He interested himself in Southwestern history and in the Denver Westerners Posse serving as editor and in various other offices. His hobbies proved so interesting that he often published some rare finds long out of print. His works are collectors items and are known to historians all over the nation. Although long gone from Grenville he never lost interest in the town and in New Mexico. Had Grenville been fortunate enough to boom and prosper as an oil town he many [sic] have come up with a large medical center. He still speaks with affection for the town) ... (For a complete rundown on Grenville news through the years see the Clayton, Roy and Raton papers. These are given to acquaint you with names, people and events of recent vintage in Grenville.) ..." Congratulations to Bob8Bear for the FTF!
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