The Tomé jail was built
in 1875. A man named Antonio Salazar, who lives in Albuquerque,
New Mexico, currently privately owns it. The building is 15 feet
by 25 feet. Today, it is one-story, with a flat roof. Originally
the jail was a single room inside of a 50-foot by 25 foot two
story adobe building. The existing jail building is all that
is left of the larger courthouse. The stone walls are four feet
thick and constructed from black igneous rock. The stone was
brought from a small volcanic formation three miles east of Tomé.
The entire jail building is covered with a thin layer of adobe
plaster. The inside walls of the jail are sheathed and stabilized
with unpainted 2.5 inch rough sawed boards. Made of rough lumber,
the roof of the jail was originally the floor for the second story
of the courthouse. Locally, the courthouse was know as Casa Consistitorial,
and represented the traditional authority of both Church and State.
There are two small windows near
the roof on the south and west walls. The both have iron bars
set in stone sills and lintels. There are also stone jambs.
They have double sills and frames. Wood on the inside is drilled
to hold seven 3 1/4 inch iron bars. Red sandstone on the outside
holds an additional five 1.5 inch bars. The sandstone was quarried
in the Nazano Mountains to the east of the valley. Sandstone
was also used for the doorjambs and lintels.
Originally, the entrance to the
jail had two doors, three feet apart. The inner one is still
there. The outer door was an elaborately inscribed heavy iron
door, manufactured in St. Louis and brought to Tome. In 1876
the outer door was removed and taken to Los Lunas. It was later
re-hung in a home 15 miles from Tome. There are three vigas (beams)
over the front entrance. They are all that remains of a first
floor porch that extended the full length of the original courthouse.
The door has stone jambs and a stone lintel overhead on which is carved the following inscription in both Spanish and English:
A.D. 1875 A.D. 1875
Manuel A. Otero Manuel A. Otero
Probate Judges Juez de Pruebas
The term, "Juez de Pruebas,"
or probate judge stood for the chief county official. The fact
that his name is carved into the lintel indicates that Manuel
A. Otero may very well have authorized construction of the building.
Historically, the town of Tomé is very old. It was first
settled in the 1600s. Abandoned in 1680 during the Pueblo Revolt,
it was resettled again in 1739 and has continued through today.
In 1776 the census of Tome listed 135 families with 727 persons.
For a time, Tomé was the county seat of Valencia County.
One local legend has it that to
the Indians, Tomé is known as The Town of the Broken Promise.
It is said that when Don Ignacio and his people first settled
in Tomé the Comanches, the Navajos and the Apaches made
frequent raids along the Rio Grande River. The dread of these
Indian attacks hung constantly over the struggling settlement.
Finally, Don Ignacio decided to make friends with the Comanche
leader.
Legend has it that the Spaniard
had a young daughter named Maria and the Indian had a son a few
years older. The two children became attracted to one another.
The Comanche leader suggested to Don Ignacio he thought it would
be good if the two children married when they were old enough.
In the interest of peace between the two peoples, the Don agreed.
Years later, when the time came
for the wedding, Don Ignacio lied to the chief and said that Maria
had died that winter. Singing songs of lament, the Indians left
Tomé. A short time later they learned of the trickery.
Angered, the Comanches swept back to Tomé and killed every
man in the village before they carried off the young Maria. The
legend says Maria became very happy with her husband and that
together, they had many children. Many of those descendants still
bear Maria's name of Baca.
How to get there: Take State Highway 6 east out of Los
Lunas and cross the Rio Grande River. From there, turn south
on Highway 6. Valencia is three miles down the road. Three miles
farther sits Tomé. The jail is located on the southwest
corner of the Tome Plaza, which is east of State Road 47.
If you have information about jails in this New Mexico County or in any other area of the United States, please contact us via e-mail at HistoricJails@cs.com or you may call us at 505.541.1557. Thank you.