Born in Hackensack, NJ on June 22, 1872 to Abram B. and Rebecca Banta (maiden name, Westervelt) as the third of five children of that couple. Raised and schooled in Bergen county, NJ. In 1894, at the age of 22, pulled up stakes, headed west, and used seed money from the family's burgeoning retail grocery business to purchase 50 acres of land in remote Aragon, Catron county, NM (see Note below) to start a sheep ranch.
Married a local Hispano-Mexican woman, Inez Delgar Trujillo, in 1901. The couple had two children: William Andrew (b. 1908) and Inez (b. 1910). (Abe and his two children are shown in the first photo.) Sadly, after his wife died 5 months following the birth of their daughter, Abe sent the children "back east" to be raised by Banta family members in Hackensack. Records indicate he subsequently purchased another 160 acres of land in 1915 to expand his ranch in Aragon.
By 1918, however, he had migrated farther west to Magdalena Island in Baja California. Tragically, on Sunday, October 6, 1918, he and an associate, Clifton Powell ("C.P.") Barrowdale, were killed when the car in which they and two other friends were traveling was struck by a train at an ungated railroad crossing in Santa Monica, CA. While his demise at the age of 46 was certainly untimely, his life personified the bold American pioneer spirit by eschewing a comfortable life in his family's successful business and staid civic clubs in the Garden State for the rustic life in the open expanses of a still not fully tamed rural American west.
Note: Aragon is located on the site of former Fort Tularosa and was known as Joseph from circa 1887 to 1906. Since 1906, it has been known as Aragon (named for an old Spanish family who still live in the area). Additionally, Catron county was actually considered part of Socorro county until around 1920.
Married a local Hispano-Mexican woman, Inez Delgar Trujillo, in 1901. The couple had two children: William Andrew (b. 1908) and Inez (b. 1910). (Abe and his two children are shown in the first photo.) Sadly, after his wife died 5 months following the birth of their daughter, Abe sent the children "back east" to be raised by Banta family members in Hackensack. Records indicate he subsequently purchased another 160 acres of land in 1915 to expand his ranch in Aragon.
By 1918, however, he had migrated farther west to Magdalena Island in Baja California. Tragically, on Sunday, October 6, 1918, he and an associate, Clifton Powell ("C.P.") Barrowdale, were killed when the car in which they and two other friends were traveling was struck by a train at an ungated railroad crossing in Santa Monica, CA. While his demise at the age of 46 was certainly untimely, his life personified the bold American pioneer spirit by eschewing a comfortable life in his family's successful business and staid civic clubs in the Garden State for the rustic life in the open expanses of a still not fully tamed rural American west.
Note: Aragon is located on the site of former Fort Tularosa and was known as Joseph from circa 1887 to 1906. Since 1906, it has been known as Aragon (named for an old Spanish family who still live in the area). Additionally, Catron county was actually considered part of Socorro county until around 1920.
Born in Hackensack, NJ on June 22, 1872 to Abram B. and Rebecca Banta (maiden name, Westervelt) as the third of five children of that couple. Raised and schooled in Bergen county, NJ. In 1894, at the age of 22, pulled up stakes, headed west, and used seed money from the family's burgeoning retail grocery business to purchase 50 acres of land in remote Aragon, Catron county, NM (see Note below) to start a sheep ranch.
Married a local Hispano-Mexican woman, Inez Delgar Trujillo, in 1901. The couple had two children: William Andrew (b. 1908) and Inez (b. 1910). (Abe and his two children are shown in the first photo.) Sadly, after his wife died 5 months following the birth of their daughter, Abe sent the children "back east" to be raised by Banta family members in Hackensack. Records indicate he subsequently purchased another 160 acres of land in 1915 to expand his ranch in Aragon.
By 1918, however, he had migrated farther west to Magdalena Island in Baja California. Tragically, on Sunday, October 6, 1918, he and an associate, Clifton Powell ("C.P.") Barrowdale, were killed when the car in which they and two other friends were traveling was struck by a train at an ungated railroad crossing in Santa Monica, CA. While his demise at the age of 46 was certainly untimely, his life personified the bold American pioneer spirit by eschewing a comfortable life in his family's successful business and staid civic clubs in the Garden State for the rustic life in the open expanses of a still not fully tamed rural American west.
Note: Aragon is located on the site of former Fort Tularosa and was known as Joseph from circa 1887 to 1906. Since 1906, it has been known as Aragon (named for an old Spanish family who still live in the area). Additionally, Catron county was actually considered part of Socorro county until around 1920.
Married a local Hispano-Mexican woman, Inez Delgar Trujillo, in 1901. The couple had two children: William Andrew (b. 1908) and Inez (b. 1910). (Abe and his two children are shown in the first photo.) Sadly, after his wife died 5 months following the birth of their daughter, Abe sent the children "back east" to be raised by Banta family members in Hackensack. Records indicate he subsequently purchased another 160 acres of land in 1915 to expand his ranch in Aragon.
By 1918, however, he had migrated farther west to Magdalena Island in Baja California. Tragically, on Sunday, October 6, 1918, he and an associate, Clifton Powell ("C.P.") Barrowdale, were killed when the car in which they and two other friends were traveling was struck by a train at an ungated railroad crossing in Santa Monica, CA. While his demise at the age of 46 was certainly untimely, his life personified the bold American pioneer spirit by eschewing a comfortable life in his family's successful business and staid civic clubs in the Garden State for the rustic life in the open expanses of a still not fully tamed rural American west.
Note: Aragon is located on the site of former Fort Tularosa and was known as Joseph from circa 1887 to 1906. Since 1906, it has been known as Aragon (named for an old Spanish family who still live in the area). Additionally, Catron county was actually considered part of Socorro county until around 1920.
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"AGED 46 YRS. 3 MS. 14 DS."
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