Felipe Ángel

Ben M. Angel's notes: This is supposed to be the first Angel (apparently along with his mother). He supposedly took his name from the plantation in which he was emancipated from, according to family legend. His origin (again, according to family legend - the 1900 Census says otherwise) is supposed to have been from Louisiana (jokingly described among other Angel family members at one time as the family's "French ancestry").

In the 1900 census, Felipe answered the question about his mother's origin as being from New Mexico, while his father's origin was not recorded. In the 1910 census, he describes both parents as being from New Mexico. In 1900, his date of birth was described as being in 1858, while in the 1910 census, it was described as 1852.

Felipe was supposed to have been a black cowboy passing through Las Vegas, New Mexico, who married a Spanish girl named Maria, and settled down there to raise a family.

His children are described in the 1900 census as being black, while in the 1910 census, they are described as being mulatto. His eldest son "Bernardo" had already left home by the 1910 census (or at least no longer living by his father's death in 1929), while second eldest, Juan C., was still at home in his late 20s - he removed to Santa Fe by 1929. Aniceto and Guadalupe were in Denver at the time of their father's death; Guadalupe was buried at Raton in 1940 at age 48. Rita remained in Las Vegas all her life, dying in 1974 at about the same age when her father died.

From the Las Vegas Daily Optico of Wednesday, March 6, 1929:

Felipe Angel, age 75 years, passed away at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Rita Montoya, 306 Valley Street, last night after an illness of long duration. Mr. Angel was a long time resident of this community and will be missed by his many friends. Mr. Angel is survived by

• one daughter, Mrs. Rita Montoya
• and three sons
  • Neceto, and
  • Guadalupe Angel of Denver, and
  • Juan Angel of Santa Fe.

Funeral services will be held from the Church of Our Lady of Sorrows Thursday afternoon at 2 o'clock and interment will take place in the family plot in San Jose Cemetery.

(Note: Based on family stories, Rita was not actually a "Mrs.", but apparently continued to maintain that she was through her life. The Professor Montoya who had fathered her eldest son never acknowledged paternity, and was likely, in fact, married to someone else at the time he fathered him; her daughters were fathered by an Anacleto Montoya, who is likely a wholly other person. Neceto is Aniceto, b. 1887, Guadalupe is Jose Antonio Guadalupe Angel, 1892-1940 buried in Raton, and Juan Angel was the eldest surviving child, b. 1884.)

From the United States Census, 1900 for Felipe Angel https://beta.familysearch.org/s/recordDetails/show?uri=http%3A%2F%2...

Name Felipe Angel

• Residence Precincts 5, 26, 64 South Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Central Las Vegas, San Miguel, New Mexico Territory
• Birth Date May 1858
• Birthplace New Mexico
• Relationship to Head-of-Household Self

Spouse Name Maria Angel

• Spouse Birth Place New Mexico
• Father Birthplace (blank)
• Mother Birthplace New Mexico

Race or Color (expanded) Black

• Gender Male
• Marital Status Married
• Years Married 19
• Estimated Marriage Year 1881

Enumeration District 0101

• Sheet Number and Letter 8A
• Household ID 179
• Reference Number 7
• GSU Film Number 1241002
• Image Number 00129

Felipe Angel M

• Spouse Maria Angel F
• 1. Child Bernardo Angel M
• 2. Child Juan Angel M
• 3. Child Aniceto Angel M
• 4. Child Guadulupe Angel M
• 5. Child Rita Angel

---------------------------

From the United States Census, 1910 for Felipe Angel https://beta.familysearch.org/s/recordDetails/show?uri=http://pilot...

Name Felipe Angel

• Birthplace New Mexico
• Relationship to Head of Household Self
• Residence Las Vegas Ward 1, San Miguel, New Mexico
• Marital Status Married
• Race Black
• Gender Male
• Father's Birthplace New Mexico
• Mother's Birthplace New Mexico

Family Number 214

• Page Number 10

Felipe Angel M 58y

• Spouse Maria Angel F 49y
• 1. Child Juan C Angel M 27y
• 2. Child Aniceto Angel M 23y
• 3. Child Guadalupe Angel M 17y
• 4. Child Rita Angel F 11y

------------------------------

From Ben M. Angel's timeline, general notes for 1848-62, covering the time of his enslavement and emancipation:

1848: In Louisiana, the seat of St. John the Baptist Parish is moved from Lucy to Edgard, a location originally settled by Jesuit priests. James William Godberry (age 44, worth $45,000 according to census two years later) marries Angelina Roussel (age 20) in St. John the Baptist Parish around this time. Godberry intends on starting a plantation in this area.

1852: Godfrey Boudousquie (age 30, worth $15,000 two years earlier according to census) builds a plantation near Garyville, Louisiana, in the St. John the Baptist Parish. He lives there with his family: wife Azelie Dieudonne (age 28), and sons Leon (age 6), Edmond (age 5), Edouard (age 4), and Henri (age 2-1/2). Shortly after, the plantation is bought by James William Godberry (age 48), who names the plantation after his wife, Angelina Roussel (age 24).

August 9-11, 1856: Last Island Hurricane hits the area. New Orleans is inundated with 13 inches of rainfall.

1856: Edmond Bozonier Marmillon completes his San Francisco Plantation (neighboring Angelina) at Lions, Louisiana, on the German Coast. With furniture built by master craftsman John Henry Belter, the manor house (made famous by Frances Parkinson Keyes in her novel Steamboat Gothic) features five hand-painted ceilings, faux marble, and faux wood grain throughout. Its exterior has a distinctive style and color that sets it apart from other manor houses on the Old River Road. The first few years of the mansion featured many changes in décor and remodeling, after which the house remained constant in appearance.

1860: In the United States, this year’s census shows that 393,975 citizens owned 3.95 million slaves, an average of 10 slaves per holder. The total free population of the United States is 27.17 million, or 1 in 70 being slave owners. In the southern states, one family in four owns slaves. One out of 7,000 free persons in the U.S. holds 20-30 percent of total slaves in the country. Of the 3.95 million U.S. slaves, 1,570 are 100 years or older. Of all the black residents of the country, 95 percent live in the southern states, where they comprise a third of the population; only 1 percent of the population of northern states are black.

Across Louisiana, 371 plantations hold 1,000 or more acres, while another 1,161 hold more than 500 acres.

In St. John the Baptist Parish of Louisiana, 23 slave holders existed with more than 55 slaves, accounting for 2,059 of 4,594 slaves in the parish (45 percent). The rest were held by the remaining 332 slave holders. The total population is 3,037 whites, 299 freedmen, and 4,594 slaves. The 23 large slave owners included: W.B. Whitehead with 169 slaves; V.B. Marmillion of the San Francisco Plantation with 142 slaves; A. Deslondes of the Deslondes Plantation with 141 slaves; L. Labranche with 134 slaves; William A. Bondusquie, formerly of Angelina Plantation, with 116 slaves; L. Burrel and brother with 103 slaves; M.L. Davis with 99 slaves; William M. Haydel with 97 slaves; A. Webre with 89 slaves; Joseph LaBourgeois and J.H. Longhbrough with 85 slaves each; A.G. Wrendahll with 84 slaves; E.B. Labranche with 77 slaves; William L. Adams with 76 slaves; J.W. Godberry of Angelina Plantation, S. Hollingsworth, and Thomas May with 66 slaves each; S.W. Burbank and Louis Dizro with 63 slaves each; J.A. St. Martin with 62 slaves; W. Longere with 61 slaves; and S. Ronful with 56 slaves.

In St. John the Baptist Parish, two newspapers are publishing by this time, Le Jeune Americaine and Le Meschachebe. Charles Lasseigne founds the weekly newspaper La Ruche Louisianaise, and serves as its editor. Leon Godchaux, owner of the Reserve Plantation, develops a business plan to centralize his agricultural production. The plan remains mostly untested in the war years to follow.

January 26 (Saturday), 1861: Louisiana joins the southern states and secedes from the Union.

February 4 (Monday), 1861: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana form a union of states that five days later would be called the Confederate States of America. Jefferson Davis is elected President of the new Confederacy, and Alexander Stephens of Georgia is elected Vice President. Montgomery, Alabama, is set as the new Confederate capitol.

May 2 (Thursday), 1861: The Confederate government of the state of Louisiana forms a new militia called the Louisiana Native Guard consisting mostly of “free persons of color” (“gens de couleur”) between age 15 and 50. The government estimates 10,000 such free persons of color across the state and in the city of New Orleans.

1862: Union Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant is promoted to Major General and given command of the District of West Tennessee. Union Brigadier General William T. Sherman is selected as Grant’s replacement as Commander of the District of Cairo, Illinois. Shortly after Brigadier General Grant’s arrival, most of Mississippi is rendered vulnerable at the taking of Island No. 10 and New Madrid, Missouri, and then Memphis, Tennessee (population 22,600 two years before, fifth largest in the Confederacy).

February 15 (Saturday), 1862, the Confederate government of the State of Louisiana disbands the First Louisiana Native Guard, reassigning many of its white officers to new Confederate regiments.

April 24 (Thursday), 1862: Union Admiral David Farragut sails an armada past two Confederate forts (Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip) at the mouth of the Mississippi River, as well as the Chalmette, Louisiana, batteries on his way to capturing New Orleans.

April 25 (Friday): With the arrival of the Union fleet on the Mississippi River near New Orleans, the Confederate state government of Louisiana abandons Baton Rouge moving northward to Opelousas (and later Shreveport). All cotton in the area is set ablaze to prevent it from falling into Union hands (captured cotton is appropriated by the U.S. Treasury, which controls all cotton trade in the occupied southern territories afterward). Confederate Colonel Alfred Mouton, commanding officer of the 18th Louisiana Regiment, is made interim commander of West Louisiana. Colonel Mouton attempts to protect the sugar cane plantations along Bayou Lafourche, but his greatly depleted forces are pushed aside by Union General Godfrey Weitzel in the Battle of Labadieville.

April 29 (Tuesday): New Orleans, Louisiana (population 168,675 two years earlier, largest city in the Confederacy, sixth largest in the United States), is taken by Union Admiral David Farragut almost without a fight, allowing Union forces to invade farther up the Mississippi. Vicksburg, Mississippi, remains in Confederate control.

May 1 (Thursday), Union Major General Benjamin Butler lands with a 12,000 man Army of the Gulf to occupy the city of New Orleans. Major General Butler appoints Spencer Stafford as the mayor of the city in the absence of its Confederate government. Butler and his forces find many of the residents of the city hostile to Federal troops, in particular the women.

May 8 (Thursday): Union Navy Commander James S. Palmer lands the gunboat USS Iroquois at the town wharf of the Confederate-abandoned Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and takes possession of the town without any resistance from either the Pentagon Barracks or the arsenal; the town administration surrenders to Commander Palmer.

May 15 (Thursday): Union Major General Benjamin Butler (age 43), in response to insults leveled by local ladies against the Union occupation in New Orleans, issues his General Order No. 28: “As the officers and soldiers of the United States have been subject to repeated insults from the women (calling themselves ladies) of New Orleans in return for the most scrupulous non-interference and courtesy on our part, it is ordered that hereafter when any female shall by word, gesture, or movement insult or show contempt for any officer or soldier of the United States she shall be regarded and held liable to be treated as a woman of the town plying her avocation (prostitute).” The order, relayed by Butler’s Adjutant-General and Chief of Staff George C. Strong, stirs a storm of protests in the United States and abroad, earning the general the nickname “Beast Butler”.

May 29 (Thursday): Union Brigadier General Thomas Williams leads 6 regiments of Union infantry, along with two artillery batteries and one troop of cavalry, up the River Road from New Orleans and occupies the already surrendered Baton Rouge, Louisiana (population of 5,429 two years earlier).

At this time, Felipe would be 4-10 years old.

From Ben M. Angel's timeline (and other timelines - my notes are horribly scarce on events in Las Vegas in this important period) from 1878 to 1900 for Las Vegas, New Mexico, covering the time of his marriage and birth of his children (through the 1900 census):

Overview of this period by Ralph Emerson Twitchell, historian: "Without exception there was no town which harbored a more disreputable gang of desperadoes and outlaws than did Las Vegas."

From New Mexico Legends - Las Vegas, as wicked as Dodge City:

• http://www.legendsofamerica.com/nm-lasvegas.html

The Santa Fe Trail offered jobs and the many town merchants prospered during this time, growing to over 1,000 people by 1860. During the next two decades its population quadrupled as it established itself as a major trade center.

But the era was also riddled with disagreements between the Spanish, the new Anglo emigrants, and the local Apache.

When the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad reached the settlement in 1879, it was the biggest city between San Francisco and Independence, Missouri, having modern utilities such as waterworks and a telephone company. The tracks were laid east of the Gallinas River, a mile from the Plaza.

When the iron horse finally arrived on July 4, 1879, hundreds of citizens gathered around, including merchants, professionals, desperados, and dance-hall girls.

Overnight, a new town was born on the east banks of the Gallinas River, a mile east of the Plaza. At first, a settlement of tents, sheds and makeshift shelters were built, but within just a few short years, many permanent buildings had been established, as well as a competing commercial district. At that time, the town became so large that it rivaled Denver, Tucson and El Paso in size.

The six trains that stopped there daily opened up yet another era of prosperity, bringing with it both legitimate businesses, but also introducing even more new elements into the town's already distrustful environment. Before long, outlaws, bunko artists, murderers and thieves were becoming so common that the eastern part of the settlement had become utterly lawless.

Soon, the rail terminus policed the new arrivals with a group of "peace officers” called the "Dodge City Gang." However, these members were almost as lawless as the rest, including such members as J.J. Webb, who was the current marshal; "Mysterious Dave Mather,” Joe Carson, "Dirty Dave” Rudebaugh; and "Hoodoo Brown,” the Justice of the Peace.

It was during these notorious days of Las Vegas’ history that the town was called home or visited by the likes of Doc Holliday, Big-Nose Kate, Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Bob Ford, Wyatt Earp, Rattlesnake Sam, Cock-Eyed Frank, Web-Fingered Billy, Hook Nose Jim, Stuttering Tom, Durango Kid, Handsome Harry the Dancehall Rustler, Vicente Silva and his gang, and Belle Sidons (alias Monte Verde).

It was in the summer of 1879 that Doc Holliday rode into Las Vegas, where he hung out his shingle for the last time. However, this idea was short lived, and only a few weeks later he bought a saloon on Center Street. His partner and financial backer, John Joshua Webb, once a Dodge City lawman, was by then a part of the notorious Dodge City Gang.

On July 19, 1879 Doc got into an argument with a local gunman, named Mike Gordon, who was rather popular with the locals. The two took the argument to the street where Doc politely invited Gordon to start shooting whenever he felt like it. Gordon obviously accepted this invitation and wound up dead, laying in the dusty street with three shots in his belly.

After a lynch mob formed with plans to lynch Holliday, Doc headed back to Dodge City. However, he arrived only to find that Wyatt Earp had gone to a new silver strike, in a place called Tombstone , Arizona.

---

1880: The Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad arrives in the vicinity of Las Vegas, New Mexico. It sets up a rival New Town, but the Old Town booms nonetheless, partially from the presence of Las Vegas Hot Springs (a stone hotel had been erected last year, and a railroad-owned hotel will be constructed in another couple years, to be replaced by a castle-like luxury hotel six years into the future).

Not long after, at Alburquerque, the railroad is built 2 miles east of the Old Town (to the benefit of Franz Huning, German immigrant and trader), with a terminal located near the terminal in what rapidly becomes known as New Town (which rapidly fills with newly arrived Anglos; this is the present downtown). Both towns exist separately for 60 years. The thriving agricultural communities in the South Valley begin exporting cattle, sheep, and other agricultural products by way of the new railroad.

---

From New Mexico Legends - Las Vegas, as wicked as Dodge City:

• http://www.legendsofamerica.com/nm-lasvegas.html

Townspeople soon tired of the escapades of the lawless people of their city and took matters in their own hands. The Las Vegas Optic on April 8, 1880 posted this notice:

TO MURDERERS, CONFIDENCE MEN, THIEVES:

"The citizens of Las Vegas have tired of robbery, murder, and other crimes that have made this town a byword in every civilized community. They have resolved to put a stop to crime, if in attaining that end they have to forget the law and resort to a speedier justice than it will afford. All such characters are therefore, hereby notified, that they must either leave this town or conform themselves to the requirements of law, or they will be summarily dealt with. The flow of blood must and shall be stopped in this community, and the good citizens of both the old and new towns have determined to stop it, if they have to HANG by the strong arm of FORCE every violator of the law in this country." - Vigilantes

Soon after this notice, most of the outlaws headed for new locations with less resistance. However, the lawlessness wasn’t entirely done. In 1881, after Billy the Kid was killed at Fort Sumner, New Mexico, his index finger was sent in a jar to the Las Vegas newspaper. The Las Vegas Optic reported about the incident:

"It [his finger] is well-preserved in alcohol and has been viewed by many in our office today. If the rush continues we shall purchase a small tent and open a side show to which complimentary tickets will be issued to our personal friends."

Lawlessness continued in Las Vegas, though it was just not so apparent to the town’s citizens. Distracted by the earlier times of shoot-outs in the streets, they didn’t notice a marked increase in cattle rustling. By the late 1880's entire herds were disappearing.

---

1890: In Las Vegas, New Mexico, Lorenzo Labadie is said to have unknowingly hired a witch to watch over his infant son, and eventually dismisses her after the nurse and baby appeared at a gathering in Puerta de Luna, about 100 miles south of the town. Given that she could only have appeared at the gathering if she had flown at night, the nurse was dismissed. (Witches in New Mexico often are said to ride fireballs in the night sky.)

---

From New Mexico Legends - Las Vegas, as wicked as Dodge City:

• http://www.legendsofamerica.com/nm-lasvegas.html

Secretly led by a man named by Vicente Silva, a respected saloon owner of the Imperial Saloon, the group was called the Silva's White Caps, or Forty Bandits; or sometimes, the Society of Bandits. Often meeting in Silva's saloon, the gang held the area in a virtual stranglehold until October 1892. At this time the Las Vegas citizens hanged a fellow gang member named Pat Maes. Soon thereafter the bandit group gradually disintegrated. Silva was eventually murdered by former members of his gang and was buried at Camp de los Cadillos on May 19, 1895.

Finally, the town began to settle down and in 1898, Las Vegas provided 21 Rough Riders to Teddy Roosevelt, most of whom were at his side during the famed charge up San Juan Hill. The town hosted the first Rough Riders reunion--attended by the soon-to-be-president himself.

---

1900: The railroad town of Las Vegas, New Mexico, has all modern amenities, including an electric street railway, a planned Carnegie library (to be finished in three years), a Harvey House hotel (the La Castaneda, already two years old), and the New Mexico Normal School (later Highlands University). The city hall is eight years old, and the Masonic Temple is five years old. To the northwest of the city is a Queen Anne castle called the Las Vegas Hot Springs (later Montezuma), built by the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroad as a luxury hotel (the YMCA will buy it in three years).

---

From the Marriage Registry of Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Las Vegas, New Mexico:

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS7M-ZQC3?i=94&cat=369015

Felipe Angel y Maria Salazar

9bre 18 despues de las diligencias prescritar, no habiendo resultado ningua impedimento, per dispensados las tres bannes, case y vele a Felipe Angel solt., hijo de Rita Angel.

Con Ma. Salazar solt., hija leg. a Jose dela Cruz Salazar Salazar y de Margarita Aragon.

Ps: Ramon Patron y Gloria Trujillo. P. F. M. Lestra (Padre François M. Lestra, one of Bishop Jean-Baptiste Lamy's French priests)

---

Document Source: Baptisms: Our Lady of Sorrows RCC, Las Vegas, Territory of NM, January 2, 1872 thru December 31, 1900. Microfilm LDS 0016-811.

Page 506.

• No. 1. January 17 of 1881. Baptized Antonio Silva born on the 15th, legitimate son of Vicente Silva and of Telesfora Sandoval, from Las Vegas. Padrinos, Felipe Angel and Maria Salazar.

Page 544.

• No. 8. April 23 of 1882. Baptized Sotera Castillo born on the 22nd of this month, legitimate daughter of Juan Castillo and of Bridget Rival. Padrinos, Felipe Angel and Maria Salazar.

Page 551.

• No. 3. June 11 of 1882. Baptized Bernardo Angel born on the 3rd of June in Las Vegas, legitimate son of Felipe Angel and of Maria Salazar. Padrinos, Juan Chavez and Josefa Salazar.

Page 25.

• No. 5. November 18 of 1883. Baptized Luis Castillo born on the 11th in Las Vegas, legitimate son of Juan Castillo and of Prasedes Ruival. Padrinos, Felipe Angel and Maria Salazar. (Note: The mothers first name could be: Prajedes instead).

Page 49.

• No. 1. April 7 of 1884. Baptized Juan Angel 9 days old, legitimate son of Felipe Angeland of Maria Zalazar, from Las Vegas. Padrinos, Juan Maes and Antonia Roival.

Page 74.

• No. 4. August 17 of 1884. Baptized Camilo Chavez 5 days old, legitimate son of Juan Chavez and of Josefa Salazar. Padrinos, Felipe Angel and Maria Salazar.

Page 212.

• No. 1. March 30 of 1887. Baptized Aniceto Angel born on the 20th of this month, legitimate son of Felipe Angel and of Maria Salazar, from Las Vegas. Padrinos, Andres Ruival and Apolonia Montoya. Note on Record: Died November 1, 1947 and buried November 3, 1957 in St. Joseph’s Cemetery.

Page 363.

• No. 5. November 24 of 1889. Baptized Luisa Angel born on the 19th of this month, legitimate daugthter of Felipe Angel and of Maria Salazar, from Las Vegas. Padrinos, Leandro Mares and Catarina Maes.

Page 47.

• No. 1. January 15 of 1893, baptized Jose Guadalupe Antonio Angel born on the 8th of this month in Las Vegas, legitimate son of Felipe Angel and of Maria Salazar. Padrinos, Raymundo Angel and Juanita Angel.

Page 98.

• No. 7. August 19 of 1894, baptized Maria Josefa Chavez born on the 16th of August in Agua Sarca, legitimate daughter of Anastasio Chavez and of Perfiria Anaya. Padrinos, Felipe Angel and Maria Salazar.

Page 130.

• No. 5. December 15 of 1895, baptized Dionisio Angel born in Las Vegas on the 25th of November, legitimate son of Felipe Angel and of Maria Salazar. Padrinos, Clemente and Trinidad Angel.

Page 199.

• No. 7. June 22 of 1899, baptized Maria Rita Angel born in Las Vegas on June 7, legitimate daughter of Felipe Angel and of Maria Salazar. Padrinos, Lorenzo Rael and Perfecta Angel.

Page 214.

• No. 5. March 25 of 1900, baptized Maria Matilde Tenorio born in Agua Zarca on March 14, legitimate daughter of Pedro Tenorio and of Emiteria Chavez. Padrinos, Felipe Angel and Maria Salazar.

---

Uncertain if this relates to this Felipe Angel, from the Las Vegas Daily Optic of East Las Vegas, New Mexico Territory of May 4, 1892:

Las Vegas, NM, March 22d, 1892, the commissioners met at 10 o'clock a.m. pursuant to adjournment. Present, full board and clerk. Minutes of previous meeting read and approved. Following bills were approved:

Felipe Angel, watching small pox patient (Pierce) $50.45, and payment for clothing destroyed on account of being infected.

---

From the Liber Defunctorum Ecclesiae of Our Lady of Sorrows Church (Ecclesiae Nuestra Senora de los Dolores) in (Civitatis) Las Vegas, New Mexico, Nov. 1 1929 to July 26 1943:

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSQB-93C1-3?i=349&cat=...

• No. 4
• Nomen: Felipe Angel
• Filius vel Filia (left blank)
• Conjux: Maria Salazar
• Aetas (Annos., Mens.): 75 years
• Ex Leco: Las Vegas
• Obiit (Dia Mensis Anni) 5-3-'29
• Sepult. (Dia Mensis Anni) 7-3-'29
• In Coemeterio: San Jose