Pictured here are father and son, Dennis and Dennis Liddy shortly after the Liddys took over Bode's Mercantile in 1993.
The Bode’s patriarch Martin and son Karl, our namesake benefactors taken outside the store just after Karl returned from the Korean War.
Abiquiu was the jumping off point for The Old Spanish Trail that originated in Santa Fe as it headed north and west to Los Angeles, California during its heyday between 1830 and 1848. The “Trail” was a busy highway of commerce and culture that followed ancient, American Indian trade routes. Our store, then called Grant Brothers, served the King of Spain as jail, post office, stagecoach stop and store during those times. The original buildings still stand in the Pueblo of Abiquiu.
Bode's started as Grants Mercantile in 1890 as a general store, post office, stage coach stop and jail. The King of Spain gave the post office and jail to the Grant Brothers from New York. The Grants were successful merchants who owned three general stores that are still in business in Northern New Mexico.
In the early 1900s, the Grants sold their stores to the Gonzales and Sargent families and moved to Santa Fe where they were involved in the process of making New Mexico a State.
The Gonzales and Sargent families, holders of large tracts of land in El Norte, were successful sheep and cattle ranchers and their families are still active in the rural life of northern New Mexico.
Martin Bode, our namesake, was a fresh immigrant visiting a family member from Germany in the New Mexico Territories. He stopped by the store looking for a job and ended up the owner in 1919. The Bode family ran the store until 1994 when the current owners, Dennis and Constance Liddy, took over as keepers of a long and proud legacy as well as being one of the most popular bathroom stops between Espanola and Chama.