Red River Valley Company Photograph Collection
Collection
Identifier: PICT-000-086
Scope and Content
Collection consists of one album, formerly the property of C.M. O'Donel, of mounted prints related to life on the Bell Ranch. O'Donel managed the ranch from 1898 to 1933. Photographs in the album and loose prints in the folder depict the O'Donel family, ranch personnel, buildings, and livestock. Mounted prints are 26 x 33 cm. and unmounted prints are 25 x 20 cm. or smaller.
Album has identification list.
Album has identification list.
Dates
- 1889-1933
Creator
- O'Donel, Charles M., 1860-1933 (Person)
Access Restrictions
The collection is open for research.
Copy Restrictions
Limited duplication of print and photographic material is allowed for research purposes. User is responsible for all copyright compliance. For more information see the Photographs and Images Research Guide and contact the Pictorial Archivist.
Biography / History
The Red River Valley Company, formerly the Bell Ranch, was a three quarters-of-a-million-acre ranch lying along the Canadian River in northeastern New Mexico. Bell Ranch was originally two Mexican land grants, the Baca Location No. 2 and the vast Pablo Montoya Grant of 1824. After the war with Mexico in 1846-1847, the Pablo Montoya heirs applied for confirmation of their grant. John S. Watts who led the confirmation process took a large part of the grant as his legal fee; he later acquired the adjoining Baca Location No. 2. Watts later sold a major part of this huge property to Wilson Waddingham. Waddingham invested in gold and silver mines in the West as well as land grants in the Southwest. In 1898, E.G. Stoddard, president of the New Haven Bank, founded the Red River Valley Company to buy the Bell Ranch. From then until 1946, this company, headed first by Stoddard and after 1923, by Julius G. Day, survived the ups and downs of the cattle markets of the 1920's and 1930's. Building on former ranch manager, Arthur J. Tisdall's new awareness of modern ranching practice, Bell managers Charles M. O'Donel (1898-1933) and Albert K. Mitchell (1933-1947) saw land and grasses as resources that must be kept in balance with the size and distribution of the herd. In 1947, the Bell Ranch was broken up and sold.
Charles M. O'Donel, ranch manager, was born in County Mayo, Ireland in 1860. Following his education "on the continent," he graduated from Sandhurst Military College, Britian's "West Point." O'Donel resigned a position as captain in the British army to come to the United States with his brother, Manus. They arrived in New Orleans; Charles continued on to Texas, where he started working as a cowboy in 1885. O'Donel arrived at the Bell Ranch on June 2, 1898 as general manager, succeeding Arthur J. Tisdall who had died 2 months earlier. Shortly after O'Donel operated the ranch primarily as a cow and calf ranch, with the priority of continually improving the quality of the herd. For most of his tenure, O'Donel had the opportunity to shape policy and develop his own interests, essentially molding the operations of the Bell Ranch. He is credited with using technology and science to turn the Bell into a forward-looking, well-planned modern cattle operation.
Charles M. O'Donel, ranch manager, was born in County Mayo, Ireland in 1860. Following his education "on the continent," he graduated from Sandhurst Military College, Britian's "West Point." O'Donel resigned a position as captain in the British army to come to the United States with his brother, Manus. They arrived in New Orleans; Charles continued on to Texas, where he started working as a cowboy in 1885. O'Donel arrived at the Bell Ranch on June 2, 1898 as general manager, succeeding Arthur J. Tisdall who had died 2 months earlier. Shortly after O'Donel operated the ranch primarily as a cow and calf ranch, with the priority of continually improving the quality of the herd. For most of his tenure, O'Donel had the opportunity to shape policy and develop his own interests, essentially molding the operations of the Bell Ranch. He is credited with using technology and science to turn the Bell into a forward-looking, well-planned modern cattle operation.
Extent
283 items (1 box) : Album with 261 mounted photographic prints, 22 photographic prints
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Collection consists of one album, formerly the property of C. M. O'Donel, of mounted prints related to life on the Bell Ranch, New Mexico.
Physical Location
B2. Shelved in Big Box Location by Pictorial Number.
Separated Material
Photographs separated from the Red River Valley Co. Records.
Creator
- O'Donel, Charles M., 1860-1933 (Person)
- Title
- Finding Aid of the Red River Valley Company Photograph Collection, 1889-1933
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Pictorial Collections Staff
- Date
- © 2007
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid is in English
Revision Statements
- Monday, 20210524: Attribute normal is missing or blank.
Repository Details
Part of the UNM Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections Repository
Contact:
University of New Mexico Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections
University Libraries, MSC05 3020
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131
505-277-6451
University of New Mexico Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections
University Libraries, MSC05 3020
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131
505-277-6451