Lucien Bonaparte Maxwell (September 14, 1818 – July 25, 1875) was a
mountain man
A mountain man is an explorer who lives in the wilderness. Mountain men were most common in the North American Rocky Mountains from about 1810 through to the 1880s (with a peak population in the early 1840s). They were instrumental in opening up ...
,
rancher,
scout
Scout may refer to:
Youth movement
*Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement
**Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom
**Scouts BSA, sectio ...
, and farmer who at one point owned more than . Along with
Thomas Catron and
Ted Turner
Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American entrepreneur, television producer, media proprietor, and philanthropist. He founded the Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour United States cable news, cable news ch ...
, Maxwell was one of the largest private
landowners
In common law systems, land tenure, from the French verb "tenir" means "to hold", is the legal regime in which land owned by an individual is possessed by someone else who is said to "hold" the land, based on an agreement between both individual ...
in United States history. In 1959, he was inducted into the
Hall of Great Westerners
The Hall of Great Westerners was established by the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in 1958. Located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S., the Hall was created to celebrate the contributions of more than 200 men and women of the American W ...
of the
National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is a museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, with more than 28,000 American West, Western and Native Americans in the United States, American Indian art works and Artifact (archaeology), ar ...
.
Background
Maxwell was born in
Kaskaskia
The Kaskaskia were one of the indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands. They were one of about a dozen cognate tribes that made up the Illiniwek Confederation, also called the Illinois Confederation. Their longstanding homeland was in t ...
,
Illinois Territory
The Territory of Illinois was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 1, 1809, until December 3, 1818, when the southern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Illinois. Its ca ...
, about three months before Illinois became a state. He was the son of Hugh Maxwell, an Irish immigrant, and Odile Menard, daughter of
Pierre Menard
Pierre Menard (7 October 1766 – 13 June 1844) was a fur trader and U.S. political figure. Pierre Menard was born at St. Antoine-sur-Richelieu, near Montreal, Canada, third in a family of ten children. His father was Jean Baptiste Ménard, ...
, a French Canadian fur trader who was serving on the Illinois Territorial Council and who became the first Lieutenant Governor of the State of
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
shortly after Maxwell's birth. Lucien Maxwell learned something of the fur trading business from his maternal grandfather during his early teens, and his grandfather was Maxwell's role model. And, like his famous grandfather, Maxwell left home at the age of fifteen. Maxwell's cousin,
Michel Branamour Menard
Michel Branamour Menard (1805–1856) was a Canadians, Canadian-born trader and merchant, first active on the upper Mississippi River and later in Texas. He co-founded Galveston, Texas. He represented Galveston County, Texas, Galveston County i ...
established a trading post that ultimately grew into
Galveston, Texas
Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galvesto ...
, and early neighbor
Stephen Austin was the namesake of the capital of Texas. At age 17, after two years at the Vincentian college in Missouri, Lucien struck out on his own, heading west.
He met and became fast friends with
Kit Carson
Christopher Houston Carson (December 24, 1809 – May 23, 1868) was an American frontiersman. He was a fur trapper, wilderness guide, Indian agent, and U.S. Army officer. He became a frontier legend in his own lifetime by biographies and n ...
, who was almost nine years older. Both were to sign up with
John C. Frémont
John Charles Frémont or Fremont (January 21, 1813July 13, 1890) was an American explorer, military officer, and politician. He was a U.S. Senator from California and was the first Republican nominee for president of the United States in 1856 ...
in 1841 for western expeditions, with Carson serving as guide, and Maxwell as chief hunter.
Beaubien and Miranda
In 1844 Lucien Maxwell travelled to
Taos, New Mexico
Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Nuevo México Governor Fernando Cha ...
(then part of Mexico) where he married
Carlos Beaubien
Charles H. Beaubien (October 22, 1800 – February 6, 1864), also known as Alexis Beaubien, Don Carlos Beaubien and Charles Trotier, was a Canadian-born American fur trader who was one of two investors who owned of northeastern New Mexico and sou ...
's daughter, Luz Beaubien. It was a dual wedding as Kit Carson was also married. In 1843 Beaubien and his partner,
Guadalupe Miranda Guadalupe Miranda (1810-c. 1890) was a Mexican public official who was mayor of Ciudad Juárez and recipient of the Beaubien-Miranda Land Grant.
Early life
Guadalupe de Miranda was born in Ciudad Juárez (then called El Paso del Norte). His fath ...
, had received a land grant of a million acres (4,000 km²) in northeast present-day
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...
. Beaubien's wedding gift to Maxwell was .
During the
Mexican–American War
The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1 ...
, in 1847, Maxwell was at
Fort Bent
Bent's Old Fort is an 1833 fort located in Otero County in southeastern Colorado, United States. A company owned by Charles Bent and William Bent and Ceran St. Vrain built the fort to trade with Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho Plains Indians and ...
in Colorado. He was there when the newly-installed New Mexico Territorial Governor
Charles Bent
Charles Bent (November 11, 1799 – January 19, 1847) was an American businessman and politician who served as the first civilian United States governor of the New Mexico Territory, newly acquired by the Military Governor, Stephen Watts Kearny, ...
was killed in the
Taos Revolt
The Taos Revolt was a populist insurrection in January 1847 by Hispano and Pueblo allies against the United States' occupation of present-day northern New Mexico during the Mexican–American War. Provisional governor Charles Bent and several ...
. Maxwell's wife survived but her brother (Beaubien's son), Narciso Beaubien was killed. Maxwell's mother-in-law, Miranda, was wounded and fled to
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
. After that, Maxwell became more active in the management of the Beaubien land grant.
In 1848 Maxwell survived an ambush while delivering supplies to a cabin on
Ponil Creek
''Fallugia'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants containing the single species ''Fallugia paradoxa'', which is known by the common names Apache plume and póñil. This plant is native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, wh ...
.
In 1849, at the conclusion of the
Mexican–American War
The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1 ...
, Maxwell and Carson proposed building a fort on the
Rayado River at
Rayado in the new
New Mexico Territory
The Territory of New Mexico was an organized incorporated territory of the United States from September 9, 1850, until January 6, 1912. It was created from the U.S. provisional government of New Mexico, as a result of ''Santa Fe de Nuevo México ...
, on the
Santa Fe Trail
The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century route through central North America that connected Franklin, Missouri, with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell, who departed from the Boonslick region along the Missouri River, th ...
. Maxwell built a large house and Carson had a smaller
adobe
Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for ''mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of e ...
house.
In 1850 the Army moved its fort further south to
Fort Union on the
Mora River
Mora River, also known as Rio Mora, is a stream in Mora and San Miguel County, New Mexico. Its headwaters are on Osha Mountain of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The river flows downstream primarily through private land, but there are areas for fi ...
. Maxwell sold his Rayado property and moved to
Cimarron, New Mexico Territory, which was on the
Cimarron River. Here he built a large adobe mansion where scores of people would often be luxuriously entertained and fed by many servants.
Maxwell Land Grant
In 1858 Miranda, who was still in Mexico, sold his share of the land to Maxwell for $2,745. After Beaubien died in 1864, Maxwell acquired much of the original estate that he had not inherited; his landholdings then peaked at . The entire area is referred to as the
Maxwell Land Grant The Maxwell Land Grant, also known as the Beaubien-Miranda Land Grant, was a Mexican land grant in Colfax County, New Mexico, and part of adjoining Las Animas County, Colorado. This 1841 land grant was one of the largest contiguous private landhold ...
.
Discovery of gold
At the conclusion of the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, gold was discovered on his property at present-day
Baldy Mountain (Colfax County, New Mexico)
Baldy Mountain (official name), Baldy Peak, Mount Baldy, or Old Baldy is the highest peak in the Cimarron Range, a subrange of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico. It is located in Colfax County, about northeast of Eagle Nest. It rise ...
. Maxwell leased land to the miners and sold them supplies.
In 1870 he sold most of the land for $1,350,000 to a British company, which incorporated it under the name of the
Maxwell Land Grant and Railway Company. A portion of the land was purchased by Matthew Lynch who became the father of placer mining in the region.
Maxwell moved to
Fort Sumner
Fort Sumner was a military fort in New Mexico Territory charged with the internment of Navajo and Mescalero Apache populations from 1863 to 1868 at nearby Bosque Redondo.
History
On October 31, 1862, Congress authorized the construction of For ...
,
New Mexico Territory
The Territory of New Mexico was an organized incorporated territory of the United States from September 9, 1850, until January 6, 1912. It was created from the U.S. provisional government of New Mexico, as a result of ''Santa Fe de Nuevo México ...
which he purchased from the US government in 1869, when Fort Sumner was abandoned. Maxwell and his family renovated the former officers' quarters into a beautiful Spanish Colonial house surrounding a large inner courtyard. Maxwell died there at
Fort Sumner
Fort Sumner was a military fort in New Mexico Territory charged with the internment of Navajo and Mescalero Apache populations from 1863 to 1868 at nearby Bosque Redondo.
History
On October 31, 1862, Congress authorized the construction of For ...
in 1875, and he was buried nearby.
Colfax County War
Patrick Garrett Patrick may refer to:
*Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name
*Patrick (surname), list of people with this name
People
*Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint
*Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick or ...
killed the outlaw
Billy the Kid
Billy the Kid (born Henry McCarty; September 17 or November 23, 1859July 14, 1881), also known by the pseudonym William H. Bonney, was an outlaw and gunfighter of the American Old West, who killed eight men before he was shot and killed at t ...
at Maxwell's Fort Sumner home in 1881, which was then owned by Pete Maxwell, son of Lucien Maxwell. Billy was later buried a few feet from Lucien Maxwell in Fort Sumner, New Mexico Territory.
After Maxwell sold the grant, the armed struggle between the new owners and squatters came to be known as the
Colfax County War
The Colfax County War was a range war that occurred from 1873 to 1888 between settlers and the new owners of the Maxwell Land Grant in Colfax County, in the U.S. state of New Mexico. The war started when the new landowners tried to remove the lo ...
. Litigation over whether his land claims were legitimate would continue until 1887 when the
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
[ ''Maxwell Land-Grant Case'', 121 U.S. 325, ''rehearing denied'', 122 U.S. 365 (1887).] approved a clear title.
Philmont Scout Ranch
Today, the land grant is broken into many private and public landholdings. These large private landholdings include the
Philmont Scout Ranch
Philmont Scout Ranch is a ranch located in Colfax County, New Mexico, near the village of Cimarron; it covers of wilderness in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains on the east side of the Cimarron Range of the Rocky Mountains. Donated by oil baro ...
,
Ted Turner
Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American entrepreneur, television producer, media proprietor, and philanthropist. He founded the Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour United States cable news, cable news ch ...
's
Vermejo Park Ranch
Vermejo Park Ranch, Vermejo Ranch, or Vermejo, is a nature reserve and guest ranch in northeastern New Mexico and southern Colorado. Ted Turner Reserves, the luxury hospitality company founded by Ted Turner, includes conservation research and e ...
,
Chase Ranch, CS Ranch, Express
UU Bar Ranch, and the
National Rifle Association
The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is a gun rights advocacy group based in the United States. Founded in 1871 to advance rifle marksmanship, the modern NRA has become a prominent Gun politics in the United States, gun rights ...
's
Whittington Center
The NRA Whittington Center in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of Colfax County, New Mexico, is one of the largest and most comprehensive shooting facilities in the United States. Ten percent of the site has been developed to include twenty-three sh ...
.
See also
*
Cimarron Historic District
The Cimarron Historic District is a historic district on the south side of Cimarron, New Mexico, United States. The district is located south of US Route 64 on the east and west sides of New Mexico Highway 21. In 1973, the district was added ...
*
St. James Hotel (Cimarron, New Mexico)
*
Villa Philmonte
The Villa Philmonte is a large ranch home located outside of Cimarron, New Mexico, on Philmont Scout Ranch, owned by the Boy Scouts of America. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995 as part of Villa Philmonte Historic ...
– Built in 1926 by oil magnate
Waite Phillips
Waite Phillips (January 19, 1883 – January 27, 1964) was an American petroleum businessman who created a fully integrated operation that combined petroleum producing, refining and marketing. With headquarters in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he also develo ...
* Charles A. Curtis. Army Life in the West (1862–1865). CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, April 20, 2017. .
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Clanmaxwellusa.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maxwell, Lucian
American people of French-Canadian descent
American people of Irish descent
Ranchers from New Mexico
19th-century American landowners
1818 births
1875 deaths
People of the American Old West
Philmont Scout Ranch
People from Kaskaskia, Illinois
People from Colfax County, New Mexico
People from De Baca County, New Mexico