TreeAlive Map your family tree
← All New Mexico markers

Cathay Williams (ca. 1850 – Unknown)

Cathay Williams (ca. 1850 – Unknown) is a New Mexico historical marker in Luna County.

NM Highway 26 -- mile marker 10.285

Get directions ↗Start a road tripHistorical trails

Born into slavery, Cathay was liberated in 1861 and worked as a cook for the Union army during the Civil War. In 1866 she enlisted in the U.S. Army as Private William Cathey serving with the Buffalo Soldiers at Fort Cummings and Fort Bayard until 1868. She is the only documented woman to serve as an enlisted soldier in the Regular U.S. Army during the 19th century.

The Historic Preservation Division notes that its marker spreadsheet may be out of date and in places inaccurate, and that it does not know where every marker now stands. These pages carry the spreadsheet’s record; a marker listed here may have moved or may no longer stand. the program’s page ↗

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

Sketch of Public Surveys in New Mexico 1860, 1860, covering the location of Cathay Williams (ca. 1850 – Unknown), with a pin at the marker's coordinates
Sketch of Public Surveys in New Mexico 1860, 1860, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.
Example

For example, one family's tree showed the Articles of Confederation marker in Pennsylvania standing under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s.

What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

From one family's 77-marker roster

Upload your family tree and TreeAlive finds the markers near where your own ancestors lived.

See your family's markers

Start with a tree file, a FamilySearch sign in, or a WikiTree ID.

Report a problem with this page

We may pass what you report to the state's marker program. Please don't include personal details.

Marker data: Official Scenic Historic Markers program, New Mexico Historic Preservation Division, Department of Cultural AffairsMarker texts come from the Division’s published marker spreadsheet, reproduced with the Division’s written permission. Where that spreadsheet records a coordinate, the pin is the Division’s own; where it records only a highway and mile marker, an address, a junction or a named place, or where its coordinate contradicts its own highway, mile and county, the pin is ours, resolved on public road and place data and marked approximate.

More markers nearby

Privacy Policy · Accessibility