Lordsburg

Lordsburg

Several explanations exist for the name of the town of Lordsburg. One version is that the town took the surname of a man who had a chain of eating places along the railroad. Another is that it was the name of the engineer in charge of the construction crew here. The version most widely accepted is that it recalls Dr. Charles H. Lord, New York native, who came west during the Civil War and stayed to become one of Tucson's leading citizens. He and a partner started a banking and wholesale business, Lord and Williams. When the freight handlers at the new southern New Mexico camp, still unnamed, came to a piece of the company's merchandise, they simply called out "Lords," a code name eeveryone knew, and in time the camp took the name Lordsburg. But the most likely explanation is that the town was named for Delbert Lord, Southern and Pacific Railroad chief engineer during the construction of the main line.

Sources Used:

Julyan, Robert. The Place Names of New Mexico. 2nd ed. UNM Press, 1998.

Lordsburg was born on October 18,1880 when the Southern and Pacific Railroad reached here from the west, and fledging camp soon had a population of workers, freighters, cowboys, gamblers, and merchants.