Willard, New Mexico – Thriving Commercial City and Future County Seat

As of November 1908, Willard had nearly 1,000 inhabitants, sixty houses, several of the largest mercantile houses in the Territory, four large hotels, churches, schools, and two lumber yards ^[1]. It lay on the main line of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway and the Santa Fe Central Railway, and the Santa Fe System had expended a million dollars on its depot yards ^[1]. The city was in the center of the best agricultural and grazing section of New Mexico and served as the shipping and distributing point for all merchandise, cattle, sheep, and wool ^[1].