Letter from Rhea Kuykendall

Thanks to the Menaul Historical Museum of the Southwest, we have this snapshot of activities of Hillsboro's Union Church, as remembered by one former Presbyterian minister. Reverend Rhea Kuykendall documents his recollections in April 1937, of who served the church when.

A hand-written letter by Rev Rhea Kuykendall. Menaul Historical Library of the Southwest.

Reverend Kuykendall was very much interested in New Mexico history. He wrote about the "Hillsboro massacre" of 1879, as some termed it, in New Mexico Magazine.  The event occurred during the Victorio War at McEver's Ranch near the first townsite of Lake Valley; the numerous men who dies were from Hillsboro. Kuykendall served on the board of the New Mexico Historical Society, and his papers were deposited in the Fort Worth Public Library.  But not all of them.  You can read his diaries surrounding his work as a young Sunday school teacher at Hillsboro's Union Church. They are held at the Menaul library in Albuquerque. 

The Union Church in Hillsboro, NM, was chartered in 1892. Craig Springer photo