Financial History Issue 132 (Winter 2020) | Page 12

EDUCATORS’ PERSPECTIVE Wild West Finance: The Maxwell Land Grant By Brian Grinder and Dan Cooper The hungry young fugitive scampered down the dark street in his stocking feet, a butcher knife in his left hand and a pistol in his right. A freshly butchered bovine hanging on the porch of the Max- well house was his destination, but as he neared the home, he stumbled upon two strangers waiting outside. “Quien es?” he asked as he leapt to the porch and backed into the open door lead- ing to Peter Maxwell’s bedroom. Near- ing the bed, he queried Maxwell, “Who are those fellows outside, Pete?” Maxwell bolted upright in his bed and shouted, “That’s him!” The startled intruder, noticing another figure lurking in the shadows, sprang back and shouted, “Quien es? Quien es?” The response was a blast of gunpowder as sheriff Pat Garrett, recognizing the voice of William H. Bonney, aka “Billy the Kid,” got off two shots at the confused outlaw who hesitated in the dark. Garrett and Maxwell 1 both bolted from the room and re-entered it only after the Kid’s death was confirmed. The next morning, Bonney was buried in the same cemetery where Lucien Bonaparte Max- well, Peter Maxwell’s father, had been laid to rest six years earlier in an unmarked grave. Peter reportedly had one of his employees fashion a crude wooden slab to identify the Kid’s grave. The slab was soon replaced with a “handsome headstone.” While thousands still flock to Billy the Kid’s grave every year, very few know Lucien Maxwell’s story. Maxwell’s grave remained unmarked for decades. When a headstone was finally erected in 1949, histo- rian Herbert O. Brayer lamented, “If you’re a famous bandit, they’ll build a monument to you, but if you’re a builder they won’t do a thing.” Lucien Maxwell was a builder. The elder Maxwell began his adult life as a mountain man working in the fur trade and consorting with fellow moun- tain man Kit Carson, whom he probably met in Taos, New Mexico. Both Car- son and Maxwell accompanied John C. Fremont on his first western expedition. Carson served as a guide and Maxwell as a hunter. Maxwell joined Fremont on at least one additional expedition before settling down in Taos. In 1844, the penniless wanderer met and married María de la Luz Beaubien, the 13-year-old daughter of prominent Taos merchant Charles Beaubien. Beau- bien and his partner, Guadalupe Miranda, had recently negotiated an agreement with New Mexico’s territorial governor, Man- uel Armijo, granting them title to a huge tract of land in northeastern New Mexico and southeastern Colorado known as the Beaubien/Miranda land grant. The land grant was to play a huge role in Maxwell’s life and would eventually bear his name. Charles Beaubian’s eldest son, Narcisco, was killed in the Taos Rebellion of 1847. The following year saw the end of the Mexican-American War and the trans- fer of New Mexico to the United States. Miranda, a loyal citizen of Mexico, sold his interest in the land grant to Maxwell and left the territory. Developing the grant now fell to Maxwell. Maxwell’s five sisters-in-law, who had clear property rights under Mexican law, all sold their interests on the grant to Max- well at below market prices. Under US law, according to historian Maria E. Montoya: …the Beaubien sisters would not have retained control over the estate at all: their husbands would have had legal control over the land. Their right to use the land in any manner they thought proper would have been worthless if conflict ever arose between the sisters and their respective spouses. This would have been particularly true for Elea- nor Beaubien Trujillo, whose marriage ended in divorce… The sisters may have sold as a rational reaction to the likeli- hood that US law had already stripped them of the rights they were waiving with quitclaim deeds to the Maxwells. While the women could hold cash as their own personal property, they could not hold land. 10    FINANCIAL HISTORY  |  Winter 2020  | www.MoAF.org Lucien B. Maxwell In all, Maxwell paid about $50,000 for a land grant of uncertain size. The borders were ill-defined in the original grant and had never been surveyed. Moreover, it was not clear whether the grant, which was created under Mexican law, was valid under US law. Maxwell moved on to the grant in 1848 and began developing it. Initially he settled in Rayado, but he later moved his operations to Cimarron. At first Maxwell had no interest in determining the exact borders of the grant. There was plenty of land to support both Maxwell and the settlers he encouraged to move onto the grant. Maxwell made a decent living ranching. He was the primary supplier of beef and grain to the Cimarron Indian Agency and to US Army troops stationed in north- eastern New Mexico. Maxwell’s spacious homes in Rayado and Cimarron were well known for hospitality. No one was ever charged for a meal or overnight accommodations. He was generous but imperfect. He was often harsh with his Mexican employees, but he built a solid reputation among the local Jicarilla Apache tribes as a friend and ally. There was no doubt who was in charge of the vast area east of the Sangre