Turley Mill and Distillery Site

The primary structure was about 140 x 50 yards and took over a year to complete with more than 100 laborers. It was at least two stories tall plus a cellar, with the first floor consisting of basalt stone masonry and the second story adobe. The walls were for each floor were about one yard thick and 13 feet tall.[6] James Josiah Webb said that he knew of only three stores in New Mexico that had wooden plank floors and one of those was Turley's Mill and Distillery[7]

The mill dam on the Rio Hondo was created by building a fitted-stone abutment from each side of the wall of the canyon bottom and filling it in with earth. High waters would wash the earth away leaving the abutment, thus lessening flooding. The earth was relatively easy to replace when the waters receded.[8]

On the south side of the Rio Hondo on a bluff overlooking the large Turley Mill and Distillery was a long building housing the various employees, e.g., the coopers, the millers, the blacksmiths, the weavers, the farmers, the ranchers, etc. Nearby is the Taos Trapper Trail and the Kiowa Trail.[9]

Simeon grew various crops for flour and meal in the long valley on both sides of the Rio Hondo. Wheat was the basis for the famous, strong whiskey, “Taos Lightning,” produced at the distillery.[10][11] Simeon also mined small quantities of gold on his property.[12]

Simeon Turley, founder of the Turley Mill and Distillery, was born in Madison County, Kentucky to Benjamin Turley (1762-1812)[13] and Nancy Ann Marllor (Noland) Turley (1765-?).[14] Benjamin Turley had served as a private in the American War for Independence under Colonel Archibald Orme's Regiment, Middle Battalion, Montgomery County, Maryland.[15]

Simeon’s older brothers, Stephen Turley (1786-1851) and Jesse B. Turley (1801-1861) were instrumental in arranging Simeon’s move from Kentucky to New Mexico. In 1811 Stephen and Jesse settled in the Lamine township of the Boone’s Lick region in Missouri[16] where they soon actively engaged in Santa Fe Trail commerce from Franklin, Missouri to Santa Fe and Taos.[17] Stephen and Jesse are purported to have led an 1826 merchant caravan that carried 16-year old Kit Carson, a longtime family friend, from Franklin, Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico.[18] Simeon’s role in the Santa Fe Trail commerce was that of setting up a trading post in New Mexico thus creating a steady flow of business for the Turley brothers to transport goods to and from Missouri. Accordingly, about 1830, Simeon established a home, trading post, mill, and distillery on the Rio Hondo. By all accounts, the site was hugely successful and was recently referred to as “the Walmart before Walmart.”[19]

Simeon was apparently well-liked by locals and traders and was described by George Ruxton, who had visited the distillery just a couple of days before it was destroyed, as one who would open up his granaries to the hungry and his purse to the poor.[20] However, on January 20,1847, the Taos Revolt shifted to Turley’s Mill and Distillery which was besieged by about 500 Mexicans and Taos Puebloans. Eight to ten men were trapped inside the walls of the mill and distillery. Turley's Mill and Distillery was destroyed the following day. Simeon, who suffered from a bad leg since childhood had escaped the distillery at night only to be encountered a short distance away by a local friend who instead of getting help for Simeon, revealed Simeon’s hiding spot to the insurgents who murdered him on January 21, 1847.[21] Only a few of Turley's men successfully escaped the attack on the mill and distillery: John David Albert, who escaped on the night of the 20th and fled to Fort Bent; Thomas Tate Tobin;[22] and, Charles Autobees who escaped before the insurgents arrived and rushed to Santa Fe to inform Colonel Sterling Price.[23] Help did not arrive in time. Among those who died were the following mountain men: William Hatfield, Louis Tolque, Peter Roberts, Joseph Marshall, William Austin, and Albert Tarbush.[24][25][26]

The site was never rebuilt by friends or family.[27][28] Simeon and his common law wife Maria Rosita Vigil y Romero had seven children who were identified in his 1847 estate papers as: Maria Alvina, Maria Pabla, Jose Andres, Thomacito, Juan de Dios, Jose Manuel, and Jose Narsisco Vigil y Romero. Maria Rosita was granted $2098.50 and she and her named children were “granted all the rights titles and interest to all the land accumulating eleven hundred varas, likewise the houses, distilleries, mills…” Jesse Turley was the Legatus of the Estate and Charles H. Beaubien was the judge. They signed the estate settlement papers on October 11, 1847[29]