Virginia lived to be almost 100 years old, just shy of six months of hitting her century marker. Born on August 20, 1866 in Virginia, she died on February 28, 1966 in El Paso, Texas.
*Recited by great-grandson Ron F. Hagquist
In the early 1870's a wagon train heading for the territory of New Mexico was attacked by Indians, one man of the party killed before they were repulsed. In one of the wagons was Judge Issac Newton Buster, a widower bringing his three young daughters out west. He sought a new life while attempting to leave behind the heartbreak of his beloved wife's untimely death in Virginia.
"Smile, you must smile, you are so beautiful, smile!" implored the photographer as the flash powder exploded. The hand-colored photograph from 1880 shows a poised and radiant 14-year old girl in a gold brocade dress, with bright hazel eyes, long luminous flaxen hair, and with the subtlest hint of a shy smile. The dress was a gift from her father in celebration of her upcoming wedding in just a few days -- when she would become Mrs. Felix Martinez. At age 25, he was already a widely respected businessman in Las Vegas, Territory of New Mexico and the local leader of the Populist Party. he was incredibility handsome, always well groomed, and with dark brown eyes that could pierce like a dagger or melt warmly as a puppy's -- as the occasion warranted. But what she loved best was his soft melodious sigh when he spoke of his feelings -- and the way he looked at her!
The wedding was in Las Vegas, Territory of New Mexico (some years hence Felix would be a member of the Statehood Delegation) on September 24, 1880. It was preformed by Father Conduit. One single precious wedding gift survives -- a small painting of the ceremony by an old artist friend of Felix who was too poor to purchase him a present, so he made this for his dear compadre.
Another good friend of Felix wrote a gently humorous newspaper account of their wedding titled, "Better Late Than Never."
"He never mixed much with the opposite sex and his friends thought he all but made up his mind to live a single life to the end of his days. But at last he succumbed. A fair lady commenced to fire Cupid's darts at him with success. She hit him hard and he surrendered on the spot..."
Virginia Buster Martinez lived a long, full life -- born in the last year of the Civil War, she was 37 when she read the startling news of the Wright brothers' first flight and 75 when the horrors of the Second World War began. And at 97 she sat watching television with he family, electrified as a dashing young President on a wintry day in Washington said, "this nation shall go to the moon and return within this decade." She was four months from 100 when she passed. I was 18, blessed to have known her long and well.
resource: jamesdjulia.com
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MARTINEZ, FELIX (1857–1916). Felix Martinez, businessman, publisher, politician, and diplomat, son of Felix and Maria Reyes (Cordova) Martinez, was born at Penasco, Taos County, New Mexico, on March 29, 1857. He studied for five years at St. Mary's College at Mora, New Mexico. In 1871 he began work as a store clerk, first in Trinidad, Colorado, and, after a few months, in Pueblo, where he also took private business courses for three years. He moved to El Moro, Colorado, in 1876 to work as a clerk but was soon part-owner of a mercantile business. He moved to Las Vegas, New Mexico, in 1879 and entered a business partnership. On September 24, 1880, he married Virginia Buster, who was fourteen years old. They had six children. He sold his business in 1886, feeling that the sedentary nature of the mercantile trade did not agree with him. In its place came efforts in politics, publishing, and real estate. In 1884 Martinez ran for San Miguel county treasurer on the Democratic ticket. Although he lost, he cut sharply into the traditional Republican majority in the county. He won a close race for county assessor in 1886, and he was elected to the territorial House of Representatives in 1888. In 1890 he purchased a small Santa Fe newspaper, La Voz del Pueblo, and moved it to Las Vegas. It became the foremost Spanish-language newspaper in New Mexico. At about this time, he was beginning to take notice of a fast-growing populist party in San Miguel County, el Partido del Pueblo Unido (the United People's party). He soon assumed leadership of the party, but by 1892 he had used his influence to effect a fusion between the Populists and the Democrats. In 1892 he was elected to the Territorial Council (upper house of the Legislative Assembly), where he sponsored legislation to establish what is now New Mexico Highlands University and the state mental hospital, both in Las Vegas. In December 1893 Martinez became clerk of the United States and Territorial Courts for the Fourth Judicial District of New Mexico, located in Las Vegas.
He resigned this position in 1897 and moved to El Paso, Texas, where he found numerous opportunities to use his financial and organizational talents. He owned and published the El Paso Daily News from 1899 to 1909. He was the founder of El Paso Realty Company and the organizer of the Southwestern Portland Cement Company, as well as a small railroad that served the El Paso area. He was the president of the Central Building and Improvement Company and participated in the construction and operation of the Plaza Block and the White House stores. He was on the board of directors of the First National Bank of El Paso but later resigned to accept a position as one of the original directors of the Federal Reserve Board, Dallas District. Martinez's most lasting contribution was his strong support for the construction of Elephant Butte Dam, which still provides irrigation water for the Rio Grande valley in the El Paso area and southern New Mexico. He helped to organize the El Paso Valley Water Users' Association and served as its board chairman.
Although he focused his financial talents on El Paso, his political interests were still in New Mexico. He maintained control of La Voz del Pueblo in Las Vegas, owned the Tribune-Citizen in Albuquerque from 1909 to 1911, and supported the Democratic party through the editorial pages of these newspapers. Martinez lost his bid for a United States Senate seat after New Mexico statehood in 1912, but in the following year, his friend William Jennings Bryan (secretary of state under President Wilson), offered him the presidency of the Panama-Pacific Commission. Commission members had diplomatic status and toured South America with the purpose of inviting each country to participate in the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915. Martinez died in El Paso of pneumonia on March 22, 1916, and was buried on his ranch at Trinchera, near the New Mexico-Colorado border. Although he was probably the most prominent Hispanic in the United States at the time of his death, he would not have liked that designation. He considered himself an American, and he often spoke (as he did at his commencement address at the University of New Mexico in 1915) against race prejudice and race promotion of any kind.
resource: tshaonline.org/handbook
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