Ancestors

Estevan Sanchez

Estevan Sanchez was born at San Luis, Colorado, on 30 January 1907. His name was also written Esteban, the Spanish form, and in English he went by Steve. San Luis is the old Hispanic town in Costilla County, in the San Luis Valley, and the oldest town in the state.

In 1910 a boy named Esteban Sanchez, aged 3, was living at San Luis in the household of David Sanchez, 41, a native of New Mexico, and his wife Francisca, 34, born in Colorado. His brothers and sisters there were Epifanio, 17, Manuelita, 16, Herminda, 12, Izau, 1, and Julian, a baby. That boy is very probably Estevan. He was the right age in the right town, and he later named a daughter Erma, written Erminda, after the sister Herminda.

By 1920 Esteban, 13, was living in Costilla County with his sister Manuelita, 26, and her husband Adrian Valdez, 35. He was entered in their household as Adrian's brother-in-law, alongside their daughter Elvira and a boy, Roberto Montoya. His parents were not with him.

He married Emiliana Gonzales, called Emily, who was born in New Mexico on 23 November 1895 and was eleven years older than he was. Their eldest daughter, Maria Clorinda, was born on 20 May 1925, when Estevan was eighteen. No record yet names him as her father, and she may have been Emiliana's child by an earlier marriage. In 2012 her own obituary called Max "one brother" and Maria Edwards "one sister".

The family stayed at San Luis through the 1930s. Their son Maclovio was born there on 21 May 1931 and baptized on 2 June 1931 at Most Precious Blood Parish. Their daughter Erla followed about 1932 and their daughter Erma on 3 May 1934.

The 1940 census found them still at San Luis, living in the same house as in 1935. Estevin, as the enumerator wrote it, was 33. Emelina was 34 and born in New Mexico. Their children at home were Clorinda, 14, Maclovio, 9, Erla, 8, Erminda, 6, Virginia, 5, Marie, 2, and a baby boy, Edrick.

On 16 October 1940 Esteban registered for the draft at San Luis. He was working for the WPA, the Works Progress Administration, the New Deal program that gave relief jobs on roads and public buildings during the Depression. The clerk described him as 5 feet 6 inches tall and 138 pounds, with gray eyes and black hair. The person who would always know his address was his wife, Emelina G. Sanchez.

The family later lived at Walsenburg, the seat of Huerfano County, south of Pueblo. Maclovio grew up there and graduated from St. Mary's High School. After school he studied for two years at the seminary at Antonito before he was drafted into the Army.

By April 1950 Steve Sanchez, 43, was living at Pueblo and working as a welder in the steel mill. Pueblo's mill was the Colorado Fuel and Iron works, the largest steel plant in the West and the city's biggest employer. At home with him and Emily, 53, were their daughters Frances Valdez, 20, Erla, 17, Erma, 15, Virginia, 14, and Mary, 12, and their son Patrick, 3.

When Erma died in 2004, her family named one living brother, Maclovio Sanchez of Denver, and three living sisters: Clorinda Bruno of Colorado Springs, Erla Duarte of Pueblo West and Mary Edwards of Pueblo. One brother and one sister had died before her.

Estevan Sanchez died at Pueblo in October 1967, aged 60. Emiliana lived on in Pueblo until March 1980. They are buried side by side in lot 437 of the Calvary section of Imperial Memorial Gardens in Pueblo. Their stone carries the words "Together Forever".

Their son Maclovio, called Max and Mac, married Mary Frances Marquez at Holy Rosary Parish in Denver on 24 April 1954. He worked for the Midwest Liquor Company and was ordained a permanent deacon, a married minister of the Catholic Church, on 22 March 1975. He served St. Joseph's Redemptorist Parish in Denver for the rest of his ministry. In 1989 his own son Martin was ordained a deacon too. Max died at Olathe, Kansas, on 30 April 2019, aged 87.

Their daughter Erma married Jimmie C. Benavidez and settled at Sublette, in Lee County, Illinois. She had four sons and three daughters. She died at her home there on 23 September 2004 and was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery at Mendota, Illinois. Their daughter Clorinda married a Bruno, raised seven children and died at Colorado Springs on 22 April 2012, with 13 grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren and 13 great-great-grandchildren.

If Estevan Sanchez is in your family, start your own tree.

Cite: Heirology, "Estevan Sanchez (1907-1967)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/estevan-sanchez-1907-1967-b8ad85.