The Colfax County War

The Colfax County War PDF Author: Corey Recko
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
ISBN: 1574419412
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
When New Mexico became part of the United States, the territory contained 295 land grants, the largest of these being the Maxwell Land Grant. The size and boundaries of the grant were disputed, with some believing that much of the land was public domain. Settlers on this land were fought not only by the land grant owners but also by a group of corrupt politicians and lawyers—known as the Santa Fe Ring (most notably Thomas Catron and Stephen Elkins)—who tried to use the situation for personal profit and land acquisition. The fight escalated in late 1875 with the assassination of Reverend F. J. Tolby, an outspoken critic of the Santa Fe Ring. In a confession one of the assassins stated that men connected to the ring had paid to have Tolby killed. Outrage, civil unrest, and more murders followed. The town of Cimarron alone was the scene of a lynching, a barroom gunfight in the St. James Hotel involving legendary gunman Clay Allison, and a nighttime murder of a prisoner. For a time the troubles in New Mexico were ignored by the federal government. But in 1878 the murder of John Tunstall set off a wave of violence known as the Lincoln County War. Following that, a letter came to light that appeared to show that the governor of the territory, Samuel B. Axtell, planned a mass execution of critics of the Santa Fe Ring, who he considered to be agitators in the Colfax County troubles. Finally, officials in Washington took notice and sent Frank W. Angel with orders to investigate the violence, murders, and corruption that plagued the territory. Following his investigation, Angel concluded, “It is seldom that history states more corruption, fraud, mismanagement, plots and murders, than New Mexico, has been the theatre under the administration of Governor Axtell.” The actions taken as a result of Angel’s investigation wouldn’t end the violence in New Mexico, but they did lead to the end of the Colfax County War.

The Colfax County War

The Colfax County War PDF Author: Corey Recko
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
ISBN: 1574419412
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 241

Get Book Here

Book Description
When New Mexico became part of the United States, the territory contained 295 land grants, the largest of these being the Maxwell Land Grant. The size and boundaries of the grant were disputed, with some believing that much of the land was public domain. Settlers on this land were fought not only by the land grant owners but also by a group of corrupt politicians and lawyers—known as the Santa Fe Ring (most notably Thomas Catron and Stephen Elkins)—who tried to use the situation for personal profit and land acquisition. The fight escalated in late 1875 with the assassination of Reverend F. J. Tolby, an outspoken critic of the Santa Fe Ring. In a confession one of the assassins stated that men connected to the ring had paid to have Tolby killed. Outrage, civil unrest, and more murders followed. The town of Cimarron alone was the scene of a lynching, a barroom gunfight in the St. James Hotel involving legendary gunman Clay Allison, and a nighttime murder of a prisoner. For a time the troubles in New Mexico were ignored by the federal government. But in 1878 the murder of John Tunstall set off a wave of violence known as the Lincoln County War. Following that, a letter came to light that appeared to show that the governor of the territory, Samuel B. Axtell, planned a mass execution of critics of the Santa Fe Ring, who he considered to be agitators in the Colfax County troubles. Finally, officials in Washington took notice and sent Frank W. Angel with orders to investigate the violence, murders, and corruption that plagued the territory. Following his investigation, Angel concluded, “It is seldom that history states more corruption, fraud, mismanagement, plots and murders, than New Mexico, has been the theatre under the administration of Governor Axtell.” The actions taken as a result of Angel’s investigation wouldn’t end the violence in New Mexico, but they did lead to the end of the Colfax County War.

Frank Springer and New Mexico

Frank Springer and New Mexico PDF Author: David L. Caffey
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 9781603440042
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
The country Frank Springer rode into in 1873 was one of immense beauty and abundant resources - grass and timber, wild game, precious metals, and a vast bed of commercial-grade coal. It was also a stage upon which dramatic and sometimes violent events played out. A lawyer and newspaperman for the Maxwell Land Grant company and a foe of the speculators known as ""the Santa Fe Ring,"" Springer found himself in the middle of the Colfax County War. A man of many sides, he typified the Gilded Age entrepreneurs who transformed the territorial American Southwest. As president of the Maxwell Land Grant company, Springer led in the development of mining, logging, ranching, and irrigation enterprises. His Supreme Court victory establishing title to the 1.7 million acre Maxwell grant earned him a reputation as a brilliant attorney.

The Mason County "Hoo Doo" War, 1874-1902

The Mason County Author: David D. Johnson
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
ISBN: 1574412043
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 361

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Book Description
A haunting story of ethnic strife, human frailty, betrayal, vengeance, and the harrowing repercussions of mob justice.

Chasing the Santa Fe Ring

Chasing the Santa Fe Ring PDF Author: David L. Caffey
Publisher: UNM Press
ISBN: 0826354432
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
Anyone who has even a casual acquaintance with the history of New Mexico in the nineteenth century has heard of the Santa Fe Ring—seekers of power and wealth in the post–Civil War period famous for public corruption and for dispossessing land holders. Surprisingly, however, scholars have alluded to the Ring but never really described this shadowy entity, which to this day remains a kind of black hole in New Mexico’s territorial history. David Caffey looks beyond myth and symbol to explore its history. Who were its supposed members, and what did they do to deserve their unsavory reputation? Were their actions illegal or unethical? What were the roles of leading figures like Stephen B. Elkins and Thomas B. Catron? What was their influence on New Mexico’s struggle for statehood? Caffey’s book tells the story of the rise and fall of this remarkably durable alliance.

The Colfax Massacre

The Colfax Massacre PDF Author: LeeAnna Keith
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195393082
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
Drawing on a large body of documents, including eyewitness accounts and evidence from the site itself, Keith explores the racial tensions that led to the Colfax massacre - during which surrendering blacks were mercilessly slaughtered - and the reverberations this message of terror sent throughout the South.

When Cimarron Meant Wild

When Cimarron Meant Wild PDF Author: David L. Caffey
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806192380
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
The Spanish word cimarron, meaning “wild” or “untamed,” refers to a region in the southern Rocky Mountains where control of timber, gold, coal, and grazing lands long bred violent struggle. After the U.S. occupation following the 1846–1848 war with Mexico, this tract of nearly two million acres came to be known as the Maxwell Land Grant. WhenCimarron Meant Wild presents a new history of the collision that occurred over the region’s resources between 1870 and 1900. Author David L. Caffey describes the epic late-nineteenth-century range war in an account deeply informed by his historical perspective on social, political, and cultural issues that beset the American West to this day. Cimarron country churned with the tensions of the Old West—land disputes, lawlessness, violence, and class war among miners, a foreign corporation, local elites, Texas cattlemen, and the haughty “Santa Fe Ring” of lawyerly speculators. And present, still, were the indigenous Jicarilla Apache and Mouache Ute people, dispossessed of their homeland by successive Spanish, Mexican, and American regimes. A Mexican grant of uncertain size and bounds, awarded to Carlos Beaubien and Guadalupe Miranda in 1841 and later acquired by Lucien Maxwell, marked the beginning of a fight for control of the land and set off overlapping conflicts known as the Colfax County War, the Maxwell Land Grant War, and the Stonewall War. Caffey draws on new research to paint a complex picture of these events, and of those that followed the sale of the claim to investors in 1870. These clashes played out over the following thirty years, involving the new English owners, miners and prospectors, livestock grazers and farmers, and Native Americans. Just how wild was the Cimarron country in the late 1800s? And what were the consequences for the region and for those caught up in the conflict? The answers, pursued through this remarkable work, enhance our understanding of cultural and economic struggle in the American West.

Charles Goodnight

Charles Goodnight PDF Author: William T. Hagan
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806183950
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 178

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Book Description
Charles Goodnight was a pioneer of the early range cattle industry—an opinionated and profane but energetic and well-liked rancher. Goodnight’s story is now re-examined by William T. Hagan in this brief, authoritative account that considers the role of ranching in general—and Goodnight in particular—in the development of the Texas Panhandle. The first major reassessment of his life in seventy years, Charles Goodnight: Father of the Texas Panhandle traces its subject’s life from hardscrabble farmer to cattle baron, giving close attention to lesser-known aspects of his last thirty years. Goodnight came up in the days when much of Texas was free range and open to occupancy by any cattleman brave enough to stake a claim. Hagan shows how Goodnight learned the cattle business and became one of the most famous ranchers of the Southwest. Hagan also presents a clearer picture than ever before of Goodnight’s business arrangements and investments, including the financial setbacks of his later life. As entertaining as it is informative, Hagan’s account takes readers back to the Palo Duro Canyon and the Staked Plains to share insights into the cattleman’s life—riding the range, fighting grass fires, driving cattle to the nearest railhead—the very stuff of cowboy legend and lore. This fascinating biography enriches our understanding of a Texas icon.

Tall Tales and Half Truths of Clay Allison

Tall Tales and Half Truths of Clay Allison PDF Author: Donna Blake Birchell
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1467151033
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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Book Description
Sort outlandish fiction from no-less-outrageous fact in this wild ride with the West's Gentleman Gunfighter. Robert Andrew Clay Allison was a jumble of contradictions. Mentally unstable and mean as a rattlesnake, he was also a fierce defender of the innocent. A hard drinker but a quiet-spoken man. A hell raiser who was an impromptu preacher. He was as feared for his prowess with pistol and Bowie knife as he was famous for loving whiskey and dancing. Largely forgotten today, his legend once sprawled across the frontier from Cimarron to Mobeetie, where he was known to careen drunkenly through the streets wearing only his gunbelt and his boots. Donna Blake Birchell places one of New Mexico's most fascinating figures back among his more well-chronicled peers.

Buried Treasures

Buried Treasures PDF Author: Richard Melzer
Publisher: Sunstone Press
ISBN: 0865345317
Category : Cemeteries
Languages : en
Pages : 477

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Book Description
Melzer offers an impressive new book about famous New Mexico gravesites, usually the only monuments left to honor the human treasures who helped shape state, national, and often international history.

The Horrell Wars

The Horrell Wars PDF Author: David Johnson
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
ISBN: 1574415506
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
For decades the Horrell brothers of Lampasas, Texas, have been portrayed as ruthless killers and outlaws, but author David Johnson paints a different picture of these controversial men. The Horrells were ranchers, and while folklore has encouraged the belief that they built their herds by rustling, contemporary records indicate a far different picture. The family patriarch, Sam Horrell, was slain at forty-eight during a fight with Apaches in New Mexico. One Horrell son died in Confederate service; of the remaining six brothers, five were shot to death. Only Sam, Jr., lived to old age and died of natural causes. Johnson covers the Horrells and their wars from cradle to grave. Their initial confrontation with the State Police at Lampasas in 1873 marked the most disastrous shootout in Reconstruction history and in the history of the State Police. The brothers and loyal friends then fled to New Mexico, where they became entangled in what would later evolve into the violent Lincoln County War. Their contribution, known to history as the Horrell War, has racial overtones in addition to the violence that took place in Lincoln County. The brothers returned to Texas where in time they became involved in the Horrell-Higgins War. The family was nearly wiped out following the feud when two of the brothers were killed by a mob in Bosque County. Johnson presents an up-to-date account of these wars and incidents while maintaining a neutral stance necessary for historical books dealing with feuds. He also includes previously unpublished photographs of the Horrell family and others.