Jim and Jamettie Belle Browning had children: All children of theirs were born in New Mexico USA
Joseph Cole 1 Jan 1904
Mary Jeanette 5 Feb 1905 Mrs. Alvan Harcrow
Vera Lillian (Louise) (known as Mike) 18 April 1906 1. Mrs Harry Harris 2. Mrs Harvey Sadler
Idella Angelina (known as Pat) 14 Mar 1908 1. Jessie Simpson 2. Ray Charles 3. Gordon Sage.
James Edwin 3 Feb 1910
Johnny Albert 21 May 1911
Walter Franklin 14 April 1914
Phillip Harold 16 June 1915
William Browning 21 Nov 1917
Marley Herbert 6 Oct 1921


Mettie was my father's first wife. He had 3 all total. Both the Browning family and the Lafferty family settled near Cloudcroft, New Mexico.
Jamettie (Mettie) Belle Browning born 7 July 1882, Dickens County Texas died 18 Jan 1971 El Paso Texas.
Daughter of Joseph Alansing Browning 1844 Clark Co., Arkansas died in Alamogordo, New Mexico
and Jeanetta Angelina McCarty 1846 White River, Southern Missouri died about 1931 Alamogordo, New Mexico.

Joseph Alansing Browning son of William Fredrick Browning of NC and Mary Lucas Burke.
Mary L. Burke Browning 1820 AR married John H. Stegall 1831 TN.

John R. Browning Stegall 1844 AR. Step son of John H. Stegall . 10 Arkansas Co. Calvary Co. C.
Enlisted July 7, 1863 Lewisville, Arkansas.

Jamettie was one year old when her family arrived w�n log cabin in Cox Canyon, that her father had built. Then in the Agency House on the Mescalero Indian Reservation in New Mexico in 1883.
They first lived in a hand he. Next they moved on the Felix, a small stream. There Joseph built a two story adobe house. They lived there about 4 years, then moved closer to open range and a lower altitude on the Penasco River. There in about 1899. Joseph built an even larger frame house. Jamettie tried for all the education she could get. She lived in Alamogordo for a while, working for room and board with the York Family and going to a school called the Baptist College. The "College" had classes up to 8th or 9th grade lived.
The Lafferty family also migrated from Texas to New Mexico and John Annis, Jim's father, built a place on the Penasco River, down stream from the Brownings. This place was in between the Brownings and the open cattle range. John put in a fence which crossed one of the routes to the range and one of the Browning boys riding home in the dark rode into the fence. The boy, George Browning and the horse were both badly hurt. Relations between the Brownings and the Laffertys were not always good.
Jim was not living with his father at the time. Since he is enumerated on the 1900 New Mexico Census in Las Tablas as working on a ranch.
Jim was considered an outstanding bronc rider and calf roper. It seem he enjoyed displaying his skills at round ups and rodeos where, after roping and tying a calf, he would often lift it up and hold it over his head.
Jim and Jamettie married in 1902 and lived in several places in Lincoln and Chaves Counties. Places with names like Seven Cabins, Pine Lodge, Fox and Fur Lodge, the Dugout, and the Peach Orchard.
There is a more specific information under Jim's notes. You can not tell the Story of Jamettie with out it interweaving into Jim's story.
In 1922 Jim was under a two year contract to take cattle down into Mexico and increase the herds. Before leaving Jim moved his family to the Winston Farm near Rosewell.
Her parents Joseph and Jamettie Browning had moved to Alamogordo, NM in 1912 and had an adobe house built at 823 10th Street. There they bought and operated the little grocery store on the corner of 10th and Virginia.
Joseph died in Jan of 1923 and in February of 1923 Jamettie Lafferty moved eight of her children, ages from 16 to 1 1/2, 2 girls and 6 boys to Alamogordo to live with her mother.
Her oldest daughter Mary stayed in Roswell and in July of 1923 she married Alvin Harcrow.
Down in Mexico Jim had completed his contract and wanted to stay in Mexico. He leased the Rancho Casa De Piedras and in early
summer 1924 Jamettie and the children went to Mexico. They took the train to Hachita, New Mexico, where Jim met them with an open touring car and drove them to Casa De Piedras 80 miles sought of Hachita, New Mexico. it is a ver isolated place.

*****Note: Marley and Edwin made a "Roots" trip into the area in 1980. We traveled through the Janos, Ramos, Ojitos area where the Block/Corn herd was kept and then on to the Casa De Piedras. In 1980 the closed thing to the ranch was a village of about a dozen houses about six miles away. The owners were not there, but among the men working there was a man who had known Dad and had worked for him. The fellow in charge showed us all through the house. It is a
large building probably 75-80 feet square, enclosing a large open patio with a well. High, thick stone exterior walls and two towers, with gun slot windows, on opposite corners. A heavy double door is large enough for wagons to drive through into the patio. The rooms around the patio were large and comfortable and had been modernized with electricity and a pressurized water system. Power was from a big diesel generator, and there was a landing strip and outside the stone walls a swimming pool.
In the summer on 1924 it was just a large well fortified house, in a very large valley, a long way from anything. Jim had a cook and a housekeeper and promised to provide a teacher for the children. Jamettie was probably seeing a lot of disadvantages. No schools, no doctors, no stores, no one to visit with, no church and a language problem. What ever may have been going on in the battle of keeping the family together in Mexico, Jamettie had a reason to leave and did. In August Edwin had an attack of appendicitis, so after three months in Mexico. Jamettie and the children returned to Alamogordo.

They lived, with Jamettie's mother, at 823 10th street. All of the older children worked and contributed to the support of the family. For a few years Joe, Vera, Pat, and Edwin visited their dad in Mexico and Jim made two trips to Alamogordo, the last in 1930 for Johnny's funeral.
Jamettie lived at their location until the late 1940's, when Walter, needing money to expand his drug store, arranged to sell the house and vacant lot on 10th street and moved Jamettie to a smaller more modern house on Vermont Ave. She lived there until the early 1960 after Walter had died, then moved to El Paso to live with Vera. She died 13 Jan 1971, she was 89.

The Browning family lived across the Brazos River from the Lafferty family. There Jammettie would watch Jim when he worked with the cattle. She was impressed by Jim's ability to rope a calf and pick it up and hold it above his head. She fell in love with him. After Jim and Mettie married they moved around always living out on the Ranch. All the children grew up around cattle and horses and were good horsemen. In 1921 Jim took a large cattle herd down into Mexico. He left his son Ed in charge of the Ranch and took his son Joe with him. In 1923 he relocated his family. They went by train to Colombus New Mexico, then Jim took them by Model T. ford into Mexico.
There Mettie found life out on the ranch difficult. The language was strange There were no schools for her children. Life was desolate. When Eddie got ill she took him up to El Paso, Texas for medical care. He had appendicitis. They did surgery on him a total of 3 times before they find his appendix. Mettie decided not to return to join Jim. She urged him to return to New Mexico. She went to live on the ranch for a while. Then went to live with her parents. Address there was 823 -- 10th Street, Alamogordo, New Mexico. They never lived together again. She never married again.
There in Alamogordo, New Mexico she finish raising her children and lived out the remainder of her years. Her children contributed to her income and she never seemed to get over the loss of her husband. She was an active member of the Methodist Church. Lived out her days in the home that had been her parents. There is a book written about Metties mother Jamettie B. that a copy is in the possession of her William B. Lafferty (1992). She lived out her years in the home that had been her parents 823 10th St. Alamogordo New Mexico. and Walter, who lived close by. She later went to live with Walter and his family. In her last years after Walter died she eventually went to live with Mike (Vera) in El Paso, Texas.

Marriage Certificate
Territory of New Mexico, County of Chaves
To all whom these presents shall come, know ye
That, on the ninth day of February 1902,
Mr James A Lafferty and Miss Mettie B. Browning,
Were by me, the undersigned, legal and duly recognized authority, United in the Bounds of Matrimony, In the County of Chaves, and in Conformity with the laws of the Territory of New Mexico.
Witness my hand and lawful insignia the day and date above written:
Witnesses:
Minnie McNatt Geo. Ward Pastor A. Tutou M.E. Church of South Cloudcroft Filed for record March 17, 1902, at 4 o'clock P.M.
F. P. Gayle
Recorder

Marriage Certificate in Marriage Book located in Records of Court House in Roswell New Mexico. page 103.

written by mary Josefina lafferty Wilson b 1942

Name on Mettie's mothers marker is incorrect She was Janette Angelina McCarty Browning