I am participating in 52 ancestors in 52 weeks. The other day I was researching some of my Baldwin line and came across the article below. It is always interesting that since I now live in New Mexico to find a connection.
BELIEVE IT OR NOT, STRANGE LIGHTS LEAD CHILDREN TO ANCIENT RELICS OF INDIANS
Children who saw strange lights on a hill near their ranch each evening are responsible for the finding of a collection of 35 prehistoric stone-age implements or weapons, recently, says the truthful Taos Valley News. It continues, Mrs. Anna Reddick, mother of Mrs. Floyd Santistevan, who is at present living in Taos, is now in possession of the unique collection.
Authorities in Santa Fe have been unable to classify or "place" these relics, as they are unlike any ancient Indian implements which have been found in New Mexico. They are fashioned of red and white volcanic glass, probably an obsidian or similar substance, and are extremely rough and unfinished, although obviously have been chipped and shaped into their present forms. They were all found in one spot in a region where no other stones of that nature have ever been seen, and Mrs. Reddick is anxious to find out all about them, but has had little success with New Mexico anthropologists or archeologists.
The story of their finding sounds like a myth. Three children on the ranch who brought in the sheep each evening claimed that they saw lights every night on a crumbling rocky cliff some distance from the ranch house. Sometimes there was one light, sometimes two, sometimes three. On being questioned, they said the lights were like balls of fire, and the children were sure that the lights indicated the presence of buried treasure. They were so sure of this that they spent days searching the spot and finally they returned triumphantly with one of the largest of the red-and-white striped stones of Mrs. Reddick's collection. Later with the help of their father, a large square stone about 14 inches across, was lifted from the opening of a blackened, cave-like hole, and 34 more pieces of the chipped and fashioned red obsidian were found. Since then, the children have never seen the lights on the crumbling sandstone cliff.
Mrs. Reddick says that the collection falls roughly into 17 pairs, there being two of each size and general shape among the smaller ones, and one large wedge or axe. She has compared them with illustrations of early stone-age implements and finds them remarkably similar to the spear-heads, wedges and flint-flakes or knives found elsewhere as relics of that period. There are other similarly blackened holes adjacent to the one which contained the implements and Mrs. Reddick believes they were once caves before the cliff crumbled, and that the relics belonged to an early race of cliff-dwellers there.
The collection may be placed on display somewhere in Taos soon, if a suitable place can be found for them.
This record doesn't tell us if the collection was ever displayed or donated.
The article doesn't explain the lights
The children aren't identified.
However, they were most likely Anna Reddick's grandchildren. She was living with her daughter's family at the time - Marian, Robert, Helen, or Ana Sanistevan. This was a sheep and cattle ranch outside of Taos Pueblo
Who is Anna Reddick to me?
Anna Belle Baldwin Reddick is my 3rd Cousin, 2x removed.
Who is Anna Reddick?
When Anna Belle Baldwin was born on May 22, 1874, in Michigan, her father, Henry, was 30, and her mother, Nancy, was 31. She married Edmond Martin Reddick on August 10, 1898. Both Edmond and Anna were teachers. They had two children during their marriage, Daphne and Venus. Daphne would also become a schoolteacher. Anna taught in Oklahoma and New Mexico. When in New Mexico, Edmond had a sheep and cattle ranch. Edmond would pass away in 1933. In 1940 she taught at the Indian School in Bernalillo, New Mexico. She died on August 12, 1950, at the age of 76, and was buried in Taos, New Mexico.
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