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Bellview, Broadview, Grady, and Pleasant Hill — eastern New Mexico settlements
Last updated on Monday, December 30, 2002
Though it has a small sign to indicate its location, Pleasant Hill no longer has a post office.
Pleasant Hill. Photo by Phyllis Eileen Banks. Located on NM 77, only one mile from the Texas border in Curry County, it was organized in 1910. Originally it was a part of two ranches, the Brown and Shenault. Lee Barnes was fond of Pleasant Hill, Texas, and suggested that name at a meeting of local residents. During the early part of the 20th Century, this section of New Mexico was settled with hopeful homesteaders who sometimes paid only 10 cents an acre for land. Ranching is still the economic base.
Bellview is 24 miles north of Pleasant Hill at the crossroads of NM 93 and 241. Settled about 1905, the post office dates from 1912 to the present. However, other post offices had been established in the area at places like Legansville and Preston. Originally called Rosedale, Bellview was finally the name decided upon in 1918, inspired perhaps by the name of the school, Liberty Bell. The name Rosedale is not completely lost because of the Rosedale Baptist Church. When a post office still exists it indicates there is a community, although there are little vestiges to corroborate that fact.
Broadview is not at a crossroads, but at a junction of three NM highways: 209, 241 and 275. Although founded in 1925 as Boney Curve, the post office was established in 1931 as Broadview. Residents now receive their mail via Bellview. The reason given for the name Boney Curve was a decided curve in the straight-as-an arrow highway. An addition to the name was a family called Boney. History of this area indicates that people lived in dugouts when they first arrived. The land lends itself well to agriculture, and the ranches in the locale indicate the tilling of the soil is continuing.
Grady is six miles west of Broadview on NM 209, another ranching community. Mrs. Pearl B. Grady was the first postmistress, as well as owner of much of the land in the area. There is a difference of opinion as to who named it, Mrs. Grady or Elizabeth Grady, an early settler in the area. The post office was established in 1907 and continues. The Atcheson, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad was to build a hub in Grady around 1906, but it did not materialize. Again, ranching and agriculture have provided the community's continuance.
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