Santa Fe Living Treasures – Elder Stories

Although her name is inevitably associated with Los Alamos, where her father, Ashley Pond, Jr., ran the Los Alamos Ranch School that was taken over by the Manhattan Project in 1942, Peggy Pond Church's roots are deeply entwined with other regions of New Mexico.

Peggy was born in Watrous, New Mexico, in 1903, where her great-grandfather raised Clydesdale horses. Her great-grandfather arrived on "one of the first trains through Raton," and at one time managed a ranch for the notorious Senator Stephen Dorsey in the northeastern part of the state. The family also ranched in the Roswell area for a time.

Although Peggy was discouraged by her parents from writing poetry, she remained deeply influenced by their readings of King Lear, Mother Goose, and the works of Rudyard Kipling.