100 years ago in Gallup

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — Boom times are coming!!!!

Yes, it may be hard to believe with the struggles Gallup businesses have had during the past several months but Mr. Busser, who is general manager of the Santa Fe Reading Room entertainments, visited Gallup in early February and told anyone who will listen that “Gallup will experience a boom, inside of the next year.”

He’s so positive of Gallup’s bright future that he said his company is looking at building a reading room that will be “equal in size, beauty and equipment” with the one that now exists in Needles, Calif.

So what makes Bunner so positive about Gallup’s future.

It seems he has been given word that the railroad plans to set up its trains through Gallup which will mean a lot more railroad families will be moving here in the next 12 months.

But there’s a downside to all of this and that was why Busser urged Gallup to get its act together and start creating some more rental property.

“There is not an empty house in town and quite a number of families are boarding at hotels and rooming houses,” he said. “Gallup needs now about 75 houses for rent and they would be occupied before six months.”

So how bad is business?

Well, it is bad enough that the whole town is still in an uproar of C. G. Truitt and what he did several months ago.

Truitt came to town in late 1907 and started a business laying cement sidewalks around town. Reports were he did a good job but not all of his workers were paid and he didn’t pay for the cement and had a big bill at a local grocery store.

So it was a big surprise to everyone when he and his family got on a train in Gallup and left for parts unknown, leaving a lot of creditors in the lurch.

“Truitt is a young man,” wrote The Elk, “and had gained the confidence of the business men of town. He appeared to be ambitious to do good work and make a little money honestly, but from appearances the temptation to get away with a good sized roll was too strong.”

Anyone with any information about Truitt’s location is asked to call the Merchant’s Association or local police officials.