THE GLADSTONE (NEW MEXICO) STORY Stanley, F. Author - 1972

Privately Publisher, 1972. paperback. Good. 0x0x0. Privately Published, March, 1972. Booklet, 22 pp. One of 400 unnumbered copies. In good+ condition. Yellow paper covers with red lettering and design on front. Very light aging and soiling to edges of covers. Binding tight (staple bound). Pages browned with age but otherwise clean and unmarked. NOT Ex-library. NO remainder marks. A brief history of the town of Gladstone, New Mexico, founded in 1880 by William H. Harris, an Englishman, who hoped to set up a Utopian religious community called "Gladstone Colony". He named it in honor of William Ewart Gladstone, a Liberal politician and the British Prime Minister at the time. A fair number of settlers came to Gladstone, but many left disillusioned shortly thereafter. The town's population peaked at around 200 in the early 1880s, but it declined steadily thereafter. The town's history is a reminder of the many utopian communities that were founded in the American West in the 19th century. These communities were often short-lived, but they left their mark on the landscape and the people who lived there. Father Stanley Francis Louis Crocchiola (1908 - 1996) was a Franciscan friar and grass roots historian who wrote under the pen name F. Stanley. He was passionate about the Wild West and developed a keen interest in the often ignored people and communities in the southwestern parishes where he began serving soon after his ordination in 1938. Beginning in 1948, he wrote over 170 books and booklets that chronicled the history of many towns in the Texas Panhandle and New Mexico. Although penniless he often financed his own printings. Never tiring in his passion, he spent his vacations in small western towns gathering research materials for his books. A big part of Father Stanley's research was done by visiting the older residents of the communities he wrote about. His series of books on small towns in New Mexico which were often limited to a few hundred copies are now quite collectible and can be easily recognized by their bright yellow covers with red lettering.