USA > New Mexico > History of New Mexico : its resources and people, Volume I > Part 22
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Carson made Fernando de Taos his headquarters for many years. When General Kearny took possession of Santa Fé and the priest, Antonio Martinez, began inciting the native population in that section to revolt, Carson made every effort to stem the tide of public sentiment, but without avail. He always regarded this priestly revolutionist as a tyrant, and real- ized the strong anti-American sentiment which actuated him during the first years of American occupation. Though he was a man who seldom made a threat against another, his hatred of Martinez impelled him to remark on more than one occasion that he would like nothing better than the faintest pretext for killing him.
He was never known to become excited in a fight with Indians, in many of which he was compelled to engage. When the struggle had reached the most central stage he was coolest and in the best humor. In 1851 a young woman named Mrs. White, while traveling to Santa Fé was captured by Apache Indians on the breaks of the Red river in Emplazada Canyon. When they were pursued by a party of Americans led by Carson, they mur- dered their captive. The killing was witnessed by members of the pursuing party, who informed Carson. The latter killed the Indian who had com- mitted the deed, shot at least two others, and never uttered a word regard- ing the act until the rescuing party were on their way home.
In the spring of 1850, while at his home on the Rayado ranch, with
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his wife and his niece, Teresina Bent, afterward the wife of Aloys Scheu- rich, a large party of Comanches, Cheyennes and Arapahoes suddenly ap- peared before the house. Their actions appearing to indicate an intention to attack the house, he called his wife and niece into a rear room, told them his pistol contained but two shots, and that the moment he heard the door crash in, something he momentarily expected, he should kill them both. But the house was not attacked.
In 1859 word was brought to Taos that the Comanche Indians had with them on the Arkansas a white boy whom they had stolen. Giving to one of the men serving under him a quantity of merchandise, his private property, he directed him to proceed to the point where the boy had been seen and buy his release, placing no limit on the amount to be given in ex- change for the captive's liberty. The boy was brought back to Taos, where it was ascertained that he was the son of early German settlers in Texas and had been captured while helping to herd cattle. A few months later Carson sent the boy back to his parents.
In 1854 Carson received from the Department of the Interior a com- mission as agent for the Utes, Apaches and Pueblo Indians, with head- quarters at Taos. This post he filled until the beginning of the Civil war. In 1860 he accompanied a party on a trip from Taos to the San Juan Val- ley, his last journey as a guide to others. During this trip his horse fell and rolled down the mountain side with him, crushing him badly. For some time it was thought that he was dead. He never fully recovered from the injuries received at this time, and believed that this accident was the prime cause of his death.
When the news of the outbreak of the Civil war reached Taos, Carson, who was still filling the position of general Indian agent, at once set to work, with Colonel Ceran St. Vrain, to enlist a regiment of native soldiers. This command, the First New Mexico Cavalry, was composed principally of residents of Taos, Rio Arriba, Santa Fé and Mora counties. It was or- ganized in June, 1861, with Ceran St. Vrain as colonel, Carson as lieuten- ant-colonel, and J. Francisco Chaves as major. It was mustered into the service at Fort Union soon afterward. Colonel St. Vrain resigned his com- mission within a few days, and Carson was promoted to succeed him. This command participated in the battle of Val Verde, and after that engagement a portion of the regiment, with Carson in command, occupied Fort Craig temporarily. Subsequently he helped to garrison Fort Stanton, and Fort Bascom, where the Comanches had been giving considerable trouble. Late in 1863 he commanded an expedition against the Navajos, whom he en- gaged and defeated at Canyon de Chelly, Rita Quemado, on the Little Col- orado, near the San Francisco mountains, at Pueblo, Colorado, near Oraibe, and at Mesa La Baca. He mustered out part of his troops at Albuquerque late in 1865, retaining in the service four companies whose terms had not expired, for the purpose of occupying Fort Garland, in Colorado, then the centre of a threatened uprising of the Utes. Traveling alone to a point near the site of Alamosa, he met Conniach, chief of the Utes, persuaded him that should his tribe continue on the warpath the fate of the Navajos would overtake him, and finally succeeded in coming to terms of peace with this brave Indian warrior. The four companies remained at Fort Garland until October, 1867, when they were ordered to Santa Fé to be mustered out.
After the close of the war Carson went to the ranch of Thomas Boggs,
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in the Arkansas valley in Colorado, near the month of Picketwire creek. In this section he established a ranch for his family, a modest place. He had four or five head of cattle, but as he had had no experience in the stock industry his success was slight. He also owned a small interest in a land grant, the principal proprietors of which were Colonel St. Vrain and Cor- nelio Vigil, both intimate friends. Here he spent the remainder of his life. During the last two years of his life he suffered intensely at times from angina pectoris, which he believed to have been superinduced by the acci- dent referred to in the foregoing. His wife died April 27, 1868, and his death occurred May 23 following. During the last weeks of his illness he lay in the private quarters of Dr. Tilton, surgeon at Fort Lyon. While re- clining and smoking a pipe given to him by General Frement, he coughed once or twice, expectorated a quantity of blood, and grasping the hand of his intimate friend Aloys Scheurich, who had been watching with him, gasped, "Good-bye, Compadre," and died.
Carson had frequently expressed the wish that his body be buried at Taos, and in the fall of 1868 his remains were removed from their temporary resting place at Fort Lyon and, with those of his wife, interred at the cemetery at Taos. Efforts were subsequently made to have the body re- moved to Santa Fé, but these very properly have failed. Strange as it may seem, but one monument, a small one at Santa Fé, has ever been erected to the memory of this greatest of American scouts. A small headstone erected by the Masons at Taos was destroyed by souvenir-hunting vandals, and in its place another has been erected-a plain gray stone whose corners are gradually being chipped away.
Carson never received a pension, and when he resigned the Indian agency at Taos the government was two hundred dollars in arrears on his salary. This balance he never received, and he left his family almost noth- ing. He was utterly uneducated, and when it was necessary for him to write his name he performed the labor with effort. He was the most ab- stemious of men in the use of liquor, and was never known to become even slightly intoxicated. While a great lover of cards, he never gambled with mechanical devices, such as dice, roulette and faro, but confined his gaming chiefly to poker and "old sledge," playing with none but his friends. He was generous to a fault. Though not religiously inclined, he was baptized in the Roman Catholic church at Taos at the time of his marriage. But he was a devoted Mason, and one of the earliest members of Bent Lodge at Taos, the first to be instituted in New Mexico. He was one of the most expert riflemen of the frontier, and has been known to toss a silver dollar thirty or forty feet in the air and shoot it before it struck the ground.
Carson's wife was Josepha Jaramillo, a native of Taos county. They were the parents of seven children. most of whom were reared after the death of their parents, in the home of their cousin, Mrs. Thomas Boggs. Of these children, William, the eldest son, was killed by the kick of a horse while the family was at Fort Garland, the impact of the horse's hoof dis- charging a pistol which the young man had in his pocket. Charles, the second son, is now engaged in the cattle business at Nine-Mile Bottom, Colorado. Christopher, Jr., the youngest son, lives at Del Agua, Colorado. Of the four daughters, Teresina married DeWitt F. Allen, and now resides at Raton. Estefina, deceased, became the wife of Thomas Woods of La Junta, Colorado. Rebecca married John Lewis and poisoned herself while
Kit Carson's Old Home, Taos
Kit Carson's Grave at Taos
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temporarily insane. Josefa, who died at Las Vegas, married, divorced her husband and married William Squires.
"Carson's word was accepted by all his men as truth, and they rendered him implicit confidence and obedience," is the tribute paid the great pioneer by Captain Montoya of Taos, who served under him during the Civil war. "He never got angry except when finding his officers or men in a lie. In stature about five feet six or seven inches, slightly bowlegged, fleshy, with immense forehead and honest face, Kit Carson was brave both physically and morally, and when he knew he was right nothing would intimidate him. Although uneducated, he had strong native intelligence and being a good listener often had his officers read to him, and thus stored away in his retentive mind a wealth of knowledge that few of his compeers could equal."
Captain Donaciano Montoya, whose death occurred at Taos, June 23, 1906, had been closely connected with many events which frame the civic, military and legislative history of this part of the country, and through his intense and well directed efforts contributed in large measure to the pioneer development of the west. He was born in El Rito, Rio Arriba county, Feb- ruary 28, 1841, a son of Marcos and Maria Ignacia ( Martinez) Montoya, the latter a native of tlie city of Taos, in which the captain made his home. He was a young man of about twenty years at the time of the outbreak of the Civil war and in response to the call for troops to preserve the Union he enlisted in Company D, First New Mexico Cavalry, in which he became second lieutenant. He was mustered in at Fort Union, July 4, 1861, and was promoted to the captaincy of Company F, of the same regiment, in August, 1864, thus serving until the close of hostilities.
Following his return home Captain Montoya became a leading factor in political circles and in 1869 and 1870 represented his district in the leg- islature, being elected on the Democratic ticket. He afterward spent two years in campaign work delivering many addresses in support of the prin- ciples in which he believed, and in 1868 he acted as interpreter for the sen- ate of the territory of Colorado.
In the same years Captain Montoya also engaged in freighting in Colo- rado, going as far east as St. Louis, and for some time continued the busi- ness at Denver and Cheyenne. He also secured the contract for carrying the government freight to Navajo and Fort Defiance, being thus engaged for two years. In 1871 he drove horses to California.
Again entering the field of politics, Captain Montoya was appointed . and served for three years as guard of the New Mexico penitentiary. He resided in Taos county from 1894 and in the city of Taos from 1899, and within this period filled appointive positions in the legislature and was in- terpreter in the courts and to the United States grand jury, while in 1902 he was translator in the legislature. He had a wide acquaintance among the leading men of the Territory and the southwest and was a prominent and honored representative of pioneer life west of the Mississippi.
Captain Montoya was married, July 7, 1873, to Miss Leocadia Le Blanc, and they had one child, Josefina. The Captain was a member of Carleton Post, G. A. R., at Santa Fé.
Colonel Ethan W. Eaton, living retired in Socorro, was a pioneer of this part of the Territory of 1840. He was born in Montgomery county, New York, October 10, 1827, and is descended from English ancestry, the
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family having been founded in America in early colonial days. The first of the name in the new world crossed the Atlantic soon after the Mayflower made its historic voyage, and for many years thereafter representatives of the name lived in Connecticut and the family furnished a number of soldiers to the patriot army in the war of the Revolution.
In early manhood, attracted by the discovery of gold in California, Colonel Eaton started from New York city to the Pacific coast in the spring of 1849, traveling by rail to Buffalo and thence to Cincinnati, where he built a boat, thence proceeding down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to the mouth of the Arkansas and thence up that river by steamer. He thence traveled overland from Little Rock by ox teams and up the Canadian river to Santa Fé, but never continued from that point on the journey to Cal- ifornia. He remained in Santa Fé and vicinity until 1875 and was first employed at clerking. Soon afterward he was married and purchased a land grant at Galisteo, where he engaged in farming and stock raising until he entered the army. He served through the Navajo and Apache wars and under Kit Carson in the Civil war. Early in 1861, responding to the call for troops to preserv the Union, he became captain of Company D, First Regiment of New Mexico Volunteers. He was with that company until it was reorganized as Company F, First New Mexico Cavalry, com- manded by Kit Carson, and he was promoted from the rank of captain to that of major and later to lieutenant-colonel. He joined his company at Albuquerque and went to Fort Sumner. After the battle of Val Verde, he went up the river with General Canby to Albuquerque. He had very in- timate acquaintance with the notable Kit Carson, a warm friendship spring- ing up between them. Colonel Eaton is thoroughly familiar with the history of pioneer life in New Mexico when the settlers were in constant danger of Indian attack. On one occasion the Apaches raided his place at Galisteo, killing one man and wounding Mrs. Eaton's mother. Colonel Eaton com- municated with General Garland at Santa Fé, who sent men out with Colo- nel Eaton and they overtook the Indians at the foot of Capitan Mountains, killing nine of the ten redskins. One soldier was also killed and Colonel Eaton shot in the thigh. However, he obtained the scalp of Chief San- tanita, who had shot him, and he also killed two other redmen. The troops recovered the stock that had been stolen.
Following the close of the Civil war Colonel Eaton engaged in con- tracting for the government in Santa Fé and vicinity until 1875, since which time he has made his home in Socorro. He engaged in the drug business for a time, but his attention has largely been given to mining in the Kelly district, where he has taken an active part in the development of the rich mineral resources of the Territory. Formerly active in politics, he was a Lincoln Republican during the progress of the Civil war, but in later years became a Democrat on account of the demonetization of silver. He belongs to the Knights of Pythias fraternity and the Grand Army post at Albuquer- que and his military service did not cease when mustered out of the United States army at the time of the Civil war or end with his connection with the troops that subdued the Indian outbreaks, for he also became captain of a company of militia which was organized in Socorro in the early '80s. He also, in the early 'Sos, took an active part in quelling the disorders of the bad element and desperadoes in and about Socorro and had with them
Mrs. Ethan W. Eaton
Ethan W. Eaton
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several personal encounters, in one of which he was shot in the arm, leaving it almost useless up to the present day.
Colonel Eaton was married to Miss Marcelina Chaves, a daughter of Joaquin Chaves, of Santa Fé, New Mexico. Their sons and daughters are as follows: Nestor P., a stockman of Socorro; Joseph I., who is connected with the smelting company at El Paso, Texas, in charge of the sampling department of all the plants; Ed C., who is in the service of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé Railroad Company; William J., a lawyer at Clayton, New Mexico; Robert C., who is in the employ of the El Paso Smelting Company in old Mexico; Mrs. Maria Miquela Owens, of El Paso, Texas; Mrs. Teresa Gildersleeve, of Santa Fé; and Mrs. Sarah T. Abernathy, the wife of Dr. H. J. Abernathy, of old Mexico, who is surgeon on the railway between Aguax Calientes and Tampico.
John Lemon, one of the most widely known of the early American inhabitants of the southern portion of the Territory, came to Mesilla, Doña Ana county, a year or more prior to the opening of the Civil war, probably in 1859. He became intimately identified with public affairs and was one of the few prominent citizens of that section who remained loyal to the Union cause during the troublous times preceding the advent of the "California Column." He was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, about 1831, and died at Mesilla, August 27, 1871. He was left an orphan at an early age and was reared by an uncle in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, to the age of fourteen years, when he ran away from home. He obtained money from a sister, and thence started across the plains with a train of emigrants for northern Cal- ifornia. While in that part of the country he met an uncle, who was a physician and who had a contract with the government for carrying the mail and express. In the employ of this uncle Mr. Lemon made two or three trips to Oregon and after his uncle's death he settled at Pope Valley in Napa county, California. He was there employed as a cowboy and while there, at the age of eighteen years, he met Luciana Pope, whom he after- ward married. Pope Valley was the concession by the Mexican government to her father, William Pope.
Just prior to the outbreak of the Civil war Mr. Lemon came to New Mexico with his wife and two children, John and Julia. He had for some time previous conducted a large hotel in San Bernardino, California. On coming to New Mexico he first settled at Warm Spring, in Grant county. He opened a spring there and got a tract of land, remaining at that point for a year, but the Indians and the rebels occasioned him considerable annoyance, and in the spring or summer of 1861 he came to Mesilla, Doña Ana county, where he engaged in business, taking government con- tracts for furnishing hay, grain and other supplies. Not long afterward the Confederate forces came to this part of the Territory and he was arrested by General Baylor's troops because he was a strong Union man and refused to serve in the Confederate army. He was sentenced to be hanged, but was released after a rope had been placed around his neck, and finally was exchanged. W. W. Mills, in his volume, "Forty Years in El Paso," thus describes this incident. John Lemon, Jacob Applezoller and Crittenden Marshall were arrested at La Mesilla as "Union men." One midnight these three men were taken from the courthouse by the guard and a party of citizens. Marshall was hanged by the neck until he was dead. Applezoller was also suspended by a rope, but for some
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reason was cut down and revived. He and Lemon were taken back to the courthouse. Some time later Lemon made his escape and joined the Union people at Fort Craig. Lemon "possessed all the best qualities of the frontiersman with none of their vices. He was strictly temperate, perfect in habits and morals and yet a genial, sympathetic companion and faithful friend. Bchind a manner almost as modest and quiet as a Quaker's, there rested a personal courage and resolution equal to that of Andrew Jackson." Official reports of the United States army show him to have been a man of strong Union sentiment, outspoken and brave. Rebels confiscated all his property and stock which he had brought from California. All this occurred early in July, 1862.
After the war Mr. Lemon engaged in raising sheep and later con- ducted an ox train and under contract furnished hay, grain, wood, etc., to Forts Seldon, Cummings, McRae, Craig and Bayard. He was thus en- gaged from about 1866 until near the close of his life. He lost his oxen in 1866 through the Indian depredations, and afterward purchased a mule train. With this train he made one trip to Kit Carson, Colorado, at the west end of the railroad, about 1868, in order to obtain goods. It was while on that trip to Colorado that he decided to pay a visit to his old home in Pittsburg, and did so, but found that he knew no one there and that no one knew him, for all of his old friends and acquaintances had either removed or died. In St. Louis he bought a large stock of merchandise, which he brought to Mesilla and opened a general store, which he con- ducted successfully until his death.
Mr. Lemon also had other business interests in the southwest. In 1869 he owned a number of flocks of sheep through the country, but on the 14th of November of that year the Apaches attacked his sheep half way between Mesilla and El Paso and killed Agapito Padilla's son, who was herding with his father, and drove the sheep away. Mr. Lemon followed the Indians with two different parties and obtained three Indian scalps. Soon after this he lost his entire herd of mules in the mule train which were being sent on an expedition under care of an employe. At La Mesa they broke out of the corral and there was a hard chase through the desert, which continued for many days, but at length he recovered all. Mr. Lemon also met with many difficulties and hardships in his sheep ranching through the southern part of New Mexico, and his mind on one occasion became temporarily unbalanced because of thirst and exposure. His business interests were of a nature that contributed to the develop- ment and improvement of his section of the Territory, and he was also recognized as a political leader, being a strong and active supporter of the Republican party.
About 1866 or 1867, Mr. Lemon served as deputy collector of cus- toms under W. W. Mills, with headquarters at Las Cruces. In the early days after the war he served in the New Mexico militia. Mr. Lemon filled the office of probate judge for two or more terms, and was again a candidate for the office at the time he was killed, on the 27th of August, 1871. The campaign had started early and was a very bitter one. Many political speeches were made to big crowds, and on this day Mr. Lemon was speaking in front of his store in Mesilla. The Democrats were there in force. About 10:30 in the morning quarreling arose between the two factions, and there was a narrow escape from general shooting. Between
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4:30 and 5 o'clock in the afternoon the Lemon forces made a circle of the town headed by a band and entered the Plaza, where the Democrats were massed. A man named Eracluo (probably hired by other Demo- crats) made a grab for the flag which was carried by Renaldo Camunes, and the trouble started. A man by the name of Kelley struck Mr. Lemon on the head with a heavy club and broke his skull. He fell, but in doing so pulled a pistol and shot Kelley through the shoulder. After falling he grabbed his pistol in both hands and shot Kelley again, this time, through the heart. The crowd was so enraged by the attack on Mr. Lemon that they cut Kelley all to pieces. Mr. Lemon survived for only a few hours, passing away at eight o'clock that night. In the general fight which fol- lowed the disturbance in the Plaza ten or eleven were killed outright and double that number were injured. Among the killed was Felicitos Arroyos. Most of the killed were Republicans, as the Democrats were posted on the houses and other points of vantage. When Mr. Lemon fell two men, Jesus Barela and Jesus Qasada, came out to pick him up. They were attacked by the crowd and shot, but not killed. The shooting that oc- curred on that occasion was never investigated. This was the most tragic and greatest event of the character that ever occurred in Doña Ana county or southern New Mexico.
Mr. Lemon had the following children in Doña Ana county: Frank, who died in infancy; Cadelaria, the widow of Nicholas J. Kennedy, of Las Cruces; Julia, the deceased wife of Albert L. Christy, of Las Cruces ; Katie, unmarried ; and Katie and Julia, both deceased (there being two of each name in the family). Mrs. Lemon married William L. Rynerson in December, 1872, and died June 29, 1900.
By nature Mr. Lemon was peaceable and law abiding. He was a man, however, of strong character, was always ready to help others, but was quick to resent an insult. He believed that he had the right to up: hold his honest convictions within the province of the law, but the des- peradoes of those early days robbed Doña Ana county of one of its valued citizens, his efforts having proven of direct benefit in the county's devel- opment.
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