Tag Archives: Mayor Philip Skinner

USA HISTORIAN DARREL NASH AT COLUMBUS FOR RAID DAY

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           Darrel Nash, PA Officer

At left is the featured guest speaker, MSGT – US Army Retired, Darrel Nash. Darrel described the history of his beloved Buffalo Soldiers in the US Army, which of course included their tenure right here in Columbus, and their famous battle exploits during the Punitive Expedition out of Columbus deep into the adjoining state of Chihuahua, Mexico back in 1916 and 1917.

In his address, Sgt. Nash spoke to the audience for just 10 minutes (see video below), but his words were well-chosen and highly educational.  Some more than 150 assembled visitors and special guests (which included a large group of Buffalo Soldier Motorcycle Club enthusiasts from several nearby states, including Arizona and Texas) enthusiastically applauded his inspirational message. The event was opened by Columbus Mayor, Philip Skinner.

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Buffalo Soldier Patch

The annual Raid Day Memorial Services are held in Columbus, NM, and are conducted each year by the Columbus Historical Society (CHS) at the drill grounds immediately behind their popular tourist attraction, the “Depot Museum.”  These services are held on March 9, each year.  The same date on which the infamous 1916 Raid took place by the Mexican Villistas, under the command of the Mexican Revolutionary, General “Pancho” Villa.  As a result of this wanton act of terror, President Wilson ordered American General “Black Jack” Pershing to lead the “Punitive Expedition” into Mexico to capture Villa, “dead or alive.”  Although the Expedition was terminated 11 months later, in 1917, just prior to the entry of the U.S. into the fiery holocaust of WWI in Europe, the Buffalo Soldiers maintained their presence in Columbus until 1922, five years later.

Buffalo Soldier Motorcyclists and their friends pose by the CHS RAID DAY memorial on the Drill Grounds.

The Army units that would come to be known as “Buffalo Soldiers” were created during the post-Civil War Reconstruction Era. On June 28, 1866, Congress passed legislation that allowed Black men to enlist in the peacetime army. Officially called “An Act to Increase and Fix the Military Peace Establishment of the United States,” Two regiments of all-Black cavalry and four regiments of all-Black infantry, commanded by white officers, were subsequently organized and equipped.

What Is a Buffalo Soldier?

Journalist Raechel Running of Bisbee Arizona, an ardent follower of the Buffalo Soldiers

The original Buffalo Soldiers came from these units. The U.S. Army’s 9th and 10th Cavalry were the first. Then came the four infantry units. The 38th U.S. (Colored) Infantry Regiment and the 41st U.S. (Colored) Infantry Regiment, were eventually consolidated into the 24th Infantry Regiment. The 39th and 40th (Colored) Infantry Regiments were consolidated into the 25th Infantry Regiment.

They weren’t the first Black men to serve in defense of the United States. Black men served in the Continental Army and state militias during the Revolutionary War. Black troops served in the War of 1812, and freedmen and former slaves fought in the Civil War for the Union Army. The 1866 legislation was the first to call for specific units composed of Black troops and recruited from Washington, Louisiana, Kentucky, Kansas, and Missouri.

                             Sergeant Dash welcomes CHS member from Deming, NM, Mary Galbraith.

Columbus Historical Society member speaks, Allen Rosenberg, chats with Shirley Garber, President of CHS

Click on the full-screen icon in the lower right-hand corner to see full full-sized hi-res video

Mayor Martha Skinner, one of FASF Founders, Goes West

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One of our small group of FASF Founders, Mayor Martha Skinner, has died.  Martha had been the Mayor of Columbus, NM at the time of the founding of the FASF, had been one of its most enthusiastic supporters, and sat on its Board of Trustees for many years, before retiring to work full-time managing her unique Columbus Hotel, “Martha’s Place.“

Your writer first met Martha on his initial visit to the small Southwest town, in 1999, and within about half an hour, had purchased his home at a nearby AirPark from the charming lady who owned and operated her own local Real Estate Brokerage Firm.  If it happened in Columbus, you would soon discover that Ms. Skinner was right in the middle of whatever it was.

She was an active Thespian, often performing roles in the local dinner-theater, “The Tumbleweed Theater,” Ms. Skinner got together with some of her close acting lady friends to form an investment group called “The Three Blondes.”  Her group, among other interesting investments, purchased  the old Historic Hoover Hotel, which had largely fallen into a ruined relic of its old self.  Within no time at all, her group managed to do some basic repairs to the old place, and soon had parts of it rented out, including to a new Organic Food Cooperative, “Columbus Co-Opportunity,” which she also helped get successfully underway.  She later sold the Hoover to two-time Pulitzer Prize winning Journalist, Paul Salopek and his professional artist wife, Linda Lynch, who managed to turn the now active facility into a beautiful “House Beautiful” caliber residence.  The Hotel is today marked with a metal plaque to signify its historic importance to the town and the infamous raid by Mexican revolutionary, Pancho Villa.

Martha Skinner as a Southern CA teenager.

Martha was born in 1937 in Alamogordo, NM, but soon moved with her family to Southern California, where she graduated from Compton High School, soon married, and remained in the greater Los Angeles area to raise her family.  She later moved to Columbus, where she quickly became deeply involved in local and statewide politics, and became Mayor some years later, after having actively served on the Columbus City Council.  She was also active with various utilities, sitting on the Telephone Cooperative Board of Directors, and also taking part in local environmental and related projects.  She leaves behind her son, Addison Bachman, his children, and her brother, also a former Columbus Mayor, Philip Skinner, as well.

 

_____Mayor Martha Skinner when active with the FASF______

Martha was also an active performer, as a vocalist, during her early years in California, so her transition to acting was not at all difficult.  She immensely enjoyed taking active character roles in many local productions.  She was a talented Bridge Player, too, according to her younger brother, Philip.  Her brilliant foresight led her build her successful Martha’s Place Hotel in 1990, and, shortly before moving to the East Coast in 2017, to be close to her son, Addison and his family in the Carolinas, she sold the Hotel to her brother who renamed it the Los Milagros Hotel, which is still the favored place to stay whenever visiting Columbus or its nearby neighbor across the border in Mexico, Palomas. 

We will miss you, Martha, and are forever indebted to your help in getting the First Aero Squadron Airfield project successfully underway!