USA > New Mexico > History of New Mexico : its resources and people, Volume II > Part 68
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& R Urton
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they would be more tangible property and they could realize more on them. Mr. Urton is well known among the cattlemen of the southwest, and as a pioneer in the introduction of this industry into New Mexico, as well as one of its present representatives, he deserves mention in this volume.
John Simpson Chisum, for many years known as the cattle king of America, made his home in the eastern section of New Mexico for a long period, and his strenuous career was so closely interwoven with the pio- neer history of the Territory that it is almost impossible to separate the personal and the general history into two distinct narratives. For this rea- son we find it advisable to enter more fully upon the details of his excit- ing life than will be found the case in referring to most of his contem- poraries. The story of his life, however, has never half been told, and, if written in detail, would present a clear, correct and forceful picture of pioneer times with the various characteristics of frontier life with all of its dangers, its privations, its horrors, its pleasures and its prosperity.
John S. Chisum was born in Hardeman county, Tennessee, August 15, 1824, the eldest son of Claiborne C. and Lucy (Chisum) Chisum. He died December 23, 1884, at Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and was buried at Paris. Texas, on Christmas day. The family comes of Scotch ancestry and was founded on American soil in Virginia, but representatives of the name removed to Tennessee during the colonial epoch in our country's history. The name was originally spelled Chisholm, but was changed by an army officer to the present form, through the war department, at the battle of New Orleans in the war of 1812.
John S. Chisum, who undoubtedly was the most extensive cattle dealer of the United States, and probably in the world during his time, removed from Tennessee to Texas with his parents in 1837. and from that time forward until his death was closely associated with the development and upbuilding of the southwest. He was the first contractor in Paris, Texas, and built the first court house there. He owned the town site and a vast area of land adjoining. He was county clerk of Lamar county, Texas, for eight years, and in 1854 he embarked in the cattle business on a limited scale in connection with a partner. He first purchased beef with another man, who furnished most of the money, and the cattle were driven to Louisiana for sale. He was thus engaged for two or three years and was then trading in cattle on the shares for others, all under one brand, in north central Texas. About 1857 he began operating in the cattle interests in Denton county, Texas, where he remained until 1863, when he drove some stock, about ten thousand head, to Concho county, Texas, placing them on a ranch which he had purchased there. He was interested in this enterprise on shares with E. B. Peters, Christopher Fitzgerald, John Orr, Decatur Clampett and Marcus and Otley. In 1867 he located on a ranch on Four-Mile Bend on the Pecos, thirty-one miles north of Roswell, and four miles below Bosque Grande.
That winter Mr. Chisum had a contract with the government for ten thousand head of beef for the Navajo Indians at Fort Sumner. He suf- fered heavy losses through Indian depredations, for the red men were constantly making raids upon his herds, stampeding them and driving off a large number of cattle. He wintered at the Bosque Grande camp
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and returned to Coleman county, Texas, in the spring of 1868, to get the cattle to fill his contract, which he did at a heavy financial loss.
Mr. Chisum took up his abode permanently in New Mexico in 1872. At Bosque Grande he had general headquarters, built good houses, estab- lished a store, and otherwise perfected arrangements for conducting an extensive cattle business. He also had a store at Trickham, Coleman county, Texas. Other men who had cattle near him in New Mexico at the time were Frank Wilbern, who built the first house in Roswell, and Van Smith, also of Roswell. They were partners in a general store there in 1870. In 1873, Mr. Chisum conducted a ranch two miles above Carls- bad, on which he had eleven thousand head of cattle brought in from Concho county, Texas, and fifteen thousand at Bosque Grande. In 1874 he drove some cattle to Arizona, but as they were not paid for by the man who had contracted for them, he sold them to the United States govern- ment for the Indians. He had previously had several contracts with the government for supplying beef to the red men. In 1874 he was awarded a contract for about four hundred head for the Mescalero Apaches, and in 1875 had a contract for about six thousand head for the San Carlos Apaches in Arizona.
Again and again the Indians made raids upon his ranches, and his men had constantly to be on the alert to protect the cattle and horses from the thieving propensities of the red race. In 1863. on the Concho, thieves took between eleven and twelve hundred head of cattle owned by Mr. Chisum and others, and started for old Mexico. Near Horsehead Cross- ing, on the Pecos river, Mr. Chisum. Frank Tanksley, Abe Hunter and Robert K. Wiley, in pursuit, overtook the thieves and had a fight there. The thieves ran, leaving all they had. Three of their number, however, were killed and the cattle were brought back. One of the most serious losses he sustained was in June, 1868, when eleven hundred and sixty-five head of cattle were stolen by the Mescalero Apaches. He had a contract to deliver to the government, at thirty-five dollars per head, this number of cattle, and had bought them at Trickham, Texas, for eighteen dollars each in gold. He started to drive the herd to Fort Sumner, there to re- ceive the agreed sum of thirty-five dollars per head, and he lacked but two hundred miles of reaching his destination when he was attacked by the Apaches and the entire herd was stolen in the Guadalupe mountains. Previously he had had several losses, as a lessee of cattle, and had also lost many horses. On the 18th of November, 1874, Indians stole seventy- five of his horses at Comanche Spring in Chaves county, New Mexico. On the 15th of July. 1874, they stole one hundred and fifty horses at Bosque Grande, and on the same day stole sixty-five horses twelve miles above Bosque Grande. In every case the Indians swarmed in hordes, there being too many to be fought. On every raid the Indians went in large numbers, so that the ranchmen, who were widely scattered, had little or no opportunity to protect themselves against their enemy. Mr. Chisum also had one hundred and thirty-five head of horses stolen by the white men south of Roswell. In 1877 four hundred head of cattle were stolen at Seven Rivers by white thieves, some of the cattle being owned by Mr. Chisum and some by Robert K. Wiley. It was not only the stock, but also the ranchmen and their employes who were frequently in danger. On various occasions Indians killed men working for Mr. Chisum. On
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the 18th of August, 1873, they murdered Newt Huggins on Huggins ar- royo, and in October, 1874, they killed Jack Holt.
In 1876, Mr. Chisum drove six thousand head of steers to Fort Dodge, Kansas, and four thousand head of cattle to Arizona, and he had 8,226 calves branded in 1876, besides between four and five thousand on the range which he could not get to brand. His brand was a long bar on the side called the "Rail," and an earmark, called the "Jinglebob." After leaving Denton county his first brand was a half circle P, which he had used before he came to New Mexico. He also had a brand in 1865 of two parallel bars. In 1879 he changed his brand to a capital U, high on the left shoulder. Among the slaves owned by Mr. Chisum was a young negro, now known in Roswell as Frank Chisum. He was purchased by Mr. Chisum in 1861, at the age of four years, and when liberated elected to remain with his old master, to whom he was very devoted. He was an eyewitness to many of the tragic and stirring scenes in the pioneer history of the Pecos valley, and at the present time, on account of his remarkable memory for names and dates, is regarded by the citizens of Roswell as the most reliable authority on the early history of that section.
Mr. Chisum never married and left an estate, in value, amounting to about five hundred thousand dollars. In 1875 he owned seventy-five thou- sand head of cattle, besides 9,231 calves and six thousand mavericks or unbranded calves. He was unquestionably the largest individual cattle owner in the United States, and possibly in the world. He started when only eight years of age with absolutely nothing, and in his boyhood he picked cotton for a living. He continually extended the scope of his activities, investing more and more largely in land and cattle, until his operations exceeded those 'of any other cattle dealer of the United States, and pos- sibly of the entire world.
In many of the accounts of the troubles, known as the Lincoln county war, the writers have made it appear that Jolin S. Chisum was person- ally a participant in that bloody struggle. Careful research on the part of the writer of this history has resulted in the accumulation of convinc- ing evidence that not only was Mr. Chisum not a participant in that con- flict, but that at no time, from the killing of the first man to the end of the so-called war, was any man employed by him engaged in any manner in the outrages referred to with his sanction or with his permission. It is true, however, that certain individuals who had been associated with him in the cattle business were either drawn into the war or entered the fight voluntarily, but at no time during the years 1877, 1878 or 1879 did Mr. Chisum take any part whatever in the bloody scenes inaugurated by "Billy the Kid," in revenge for the killing of the latter's friend and bene- factor, Tunstel. The account of the Lincoln county war, which will be found elsewhere, is based entirely upon the most trustworthy information obtainable from eve-witnesses and participants, who are still living in New Mexico and Texas. Mr. Chisum was a Royal Arch Mason.
The Victorio Land and Cattle Company, of which H. A. Jastro, of Bakersfield, California, is president, and which has its main office in Deming, is the greatest corporation operated in cattle in the southwest. The range covers most of the country from Silver City south into old Mexico, and includes many different ranches. This company raise, pur- chase and ship from 15,000 to 20,000 head of cattle per year. The number
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of head on the ranges can only be estimated. The company has effectu- ally "frozen out" all competition in the territory it occupies.
Cattle Organizations and "White Caps" of the Early Eighties .- In the early eighties the cattle men of Bernalillo, Santa Fé, San Miguel and other counties in the central portion of the Territory were continually aggravated, and not a little alarmed, at the bold and wholesale thieveries perpetrated on their herds and flocks. The Mexicans were very bitter to- ward the Americans, who were coming in large numbers and threatening to monopolize the ranges and the business generally. Among the strong- est organizations formed in these tronblous times by live stock raisers, irrespective of nationality, was that known as the Central New Mexico Cattle Growers' Association. It was formed at Albuquerque in April, 1884, and although its purposes were represented to be for the general development of the industry, it was tacitly understood that primarily it was an organization for defense against cattle thieves.
At that time the largest company operating in central New Mexico, and one of the most important in the Southwest, was the Fort Bascom Cattle Raising Company, which had been organized in New Haven, Con- necticut, during the year 1883. It was heavily capitalized, had for its chief spirit Wilson Waddingham, and for ten years after its organization conducted extensive cattle operations on the ancient Montoya Grant. It finally consolidated with two other companies, and with them controlled over a million acres of choice grazing land. The business of the company in New Mexico was placed under the management of Stephen E. Booth, who had come to the Territory with Mr. Waddingham in 1883.
After the sale of the entire New Mexico interests of this corporation to two residents of New York City, Mr. Waddingham and others visited Europe with the expectation of floating the bonds of a new company ; but Baring Brothers, the banking firm upon which they had relied for the promotion of the gigantic enterprise, failed soon after their arrival, and further negotiations ceased. A committee on liquidation and reorganiza- tion was soon afterward appointed, and the interests of all concerned were finally consolidated.
When Judge. Booth first came to the Territory in the interest of the Fort Bascom Cattle Raising Company, the sheep men, mostly Mexicans, were engaged in a bitter conflict with the cattle men. The natives, having resolved to maintain the open ranges, were everywhere cutting the fences which had been erected by the cattle ranchmen in their endeavors to con- fine their stock within some kind of limits and partially protect it against the alarming inroad of thieves. Soon after becoming a resident of New Mexico and San Miguel county, Judge Booth was elected chairman of the Board of Commissioners, thereby wielding a wide influence in what was then the largest county in the Territory. An organization known as the "White Caps," was formed among the natives, its objects being to manage their interests systematically, and "cut out" the disorder and riot. But it soon became the tool of Felix Martinez and other Mexican politi- cians, and the public peace and the cattle interests were threatened more seriously than ever. Many miles of fence were cut, and the Mexicans began quarreling among themselves and murdering each other, as well as threatening the lives of Americans. At this crisis Judge Booth and others appealed to Governor Thornton, who lent them one hundred arms,
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to be used in case of dire need. The County Commissioners called a meeting to devise means of protection, but the convention was captured by Martinez and his White Caps, and although Judge Booth was chair- man and the governor made a speech, the subject matter was postponed. The proposed action of the meeting aroused the worst element among the Mexicans against Judge Booth, and his escape from personal violence was most remarkable.
After this stormy meeting the chairman of the County Commissioners stored the 100 rifles and 1,000 cartridges he had received from the gov- ernor in the court house, which the White Caps had threatened. Sheriff Don Lorenzo Lopez had orders to fire upon them if they appeared with lawless intent; but it seems that he used the men furnished him for the protection of county property, to guard his own home. At midnight the White Caps, to the number of 122, bravely appeared at the court house, thence quietly repaired to the sheriff's house, and thence marched back to East Las Vegas without committing any depredations ; thus showing their defiance of the constituted authorities. But up to the time of the fol- lowing election there was considerable fighting among themselves. That even passed without serious results, although armed men were present and a railing had been erected in the court room, where Judge Booth and his fellow commissioners were to canvass the returns. Perhaps the open preparations which had been made for trouble averted it, and it may be that the victory of the Mexican element at the election had something to do with ending the worst of the trouble.
John van Houten, who has general charge of the affairs of the Max- well Land Grant Association, which he directs from the office of that cor- poration in Raton, is a native of Holland and a son of one of the principal stockholders of the company. He came to America as a youth, and for some time "rode the range" and roughed it generally. As he became better acquainted with the western country and the characteristics of its people, and principally with the affairs of the famous Maxwell Land Grant, his love for the work grew, and when he was finally asked to take charge of the practical operations of the company he was well qualified for the task. He has demonstrated unusual executive ability and during the past two or three years, since the St. Louis, Rocky Mountain & Pacific Railway Company entered the field and purchased a vast coal district upon the grant, he has been one of the busiest men in New Mexico. He has since occupied the position of vice-president and general manager of the St. Louis, Rocky Mountain & Pacific Company.
New Mexico finds its chief source of revenue in its mining and cattle interests, and John W. Turner is connected with the cattle industry, being well known as a rancher of Elizabethtown. He was born in Sangamon county, Illinois, and was reared to the occupation of farming, early be- coming familiar with the duties and labors connected with agricultural interests. His preliminary education was supplemented by four years' study in the University of Michigan, where he pursued a literary course. He afterward engaged in teaching in Missouri and Kansas. In 1874 he arrived in Moreno valley above Elizabethtown, removing to this section of the country for the benefit of his wife's health. He then engaged in teaching school for one winter and in mining for four years, when, recog- nizing the possibilities of the country for cattle raising, he turned his at-
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tention to ranching. He has been a leader in progressive movements which have wrought a wonderful development in agricultural and kindred inter- ests in this part of the country. He introduced the first mowing machine into the valley, also the first thresher and binder, and he has carried on his work along most modern lines of progress. He purchased his land from the Maxwell Land Grant Company immediately after the confirma- tion of the grant, securing twenty-five hundred acres, of which three hun- dred acres is under irrigation and produces splendid crops, while upon the ranch he has large herds of cattle. His family comprises eight chil- dren.
As an example of what is possible by the application of correct meth- ods in the cultivation of formerly arid and unproductive land when placed under irrigation, the noteworthy record made by Oscar C. Snow, of Mesilla Park, known as the "Alfalfa King" of New Mexico, will serve sufficiently. In 1893, at the age of twenty years, a year before his graduation from the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, with borrowed money he leased a small tract of land near Mesilla Park-about one hun- dred acres-part of which he set out to alfalfa. In 1896 he made his first purchase-one hundred and six acres-all of which he irrigated and put under alfalfa. Some years he cut four crops of this staple from each acre, some years five crops-oftener the latter number. The average total annual cutting per acre is from five to six tons. This, it should be borne in mind, has been the result of the employment of the very uncertain waterflow of the Rio Grande before the United States government undertook the con- struction of the gigantic irrigation planned in 1905. Sometimes he would secure sufficient water for his needs-oftener he would not. When the supply was abundant a yield of two tons per acre per cutting sometimes resulted.
Starting with a trifle over one hundred acres in 1896, with the profits from his alfalfa culture, Mr. Snow purchased an additional hundred acres in 1897, another hundred in 1898 and another hundred in 1899. Nearly every acre of the land he bought was "wild," arid, uncultivated desert land, with its only value for agricultural purposes in the prospective. He has thus cleared, cultivated and irrigated nearly eight hundred of the thousand acres that he owns and is now ( 1906) preparing to place under water as much more as he is able to purchase. At a conservative estimate his prop- erty is worth about one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars.
At the request of the department of agriculture, Mr. Snow has made experiments with other products, notably with macaroni wheat. In 1900 he sowed eleven bushels of the seed of this wheat furnished by the gov- ernment, on about twelve acres of land. With imperfect irrigation the yield was above forty bushels to the acre. In 1905 he made a similar ex- periment in dwarf milo maize (commonly known as Kafir corn), and the results attained led him to believe that this product ultimately will be even more valuable than alfalfa as a general stock feed.
The success which has attended the labors of Mr. Snow is exceptional, it is true, but for two principal reasons only. First, he made a careful scientific study of one subject-alfalfa culture. Second, he became one of a relatively small number of agriculturists who found he could secure from the very poor irrigating system upon which he depended a reasonable volume of water part of the time-though not all that he wanted part of
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Oscar @. Anous
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the time, nor a modicum all of the time. The lack of water at the proper moment has been a serious drawback to him, though not so serious as in the cases of farmers more remote from the source of the heretofore limited and very uncertain supply.
Mr. Snow was born in Atchison county, Missouri, November 24, 1872, and is a son of Oliver K. and Susan ( Poe) Snow. From 1876 to 1878 he lived in Denver with his parents, and from 1878 to 1882 he lived in various parts of Texas. Settling in El Paso in 1882 he attended school there, and at Addsan College, at Weatherford, Texas. In 1888 the family removed to Chamberino, New Mexico, and in 1880 to Mesilla Park. Entering the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, he made a special study of the comparative nutritive value of stock foods, being graduated with the first class leaving that institution in 1894, his thesis being upon the subject of food value in alfalfa. November 4, 1891, he married Marie Macgregor, a native of Beaufort, South Carolina, and a daughter of James E. Macgregor, now of Mesilla Park. Mr. Snow is a member of the Mesilla Valley Chamber of Commerce, a charter member and vice-president of the Water Users' Association of Doña Ana county, and is a trustee of the New Mexico Institute for the Blind at Alamogordo. Mr. Snow is president of the First National Bank of Las Cruces, the only national bank in Doña Ana county. He is one of the most conspicuous examples of the self-made young man now living in the Southwest, and his career offers great en- couragement to other young men who start out in life with no greater equipment than he possessed at the outset of his career.
Clifton Chisholm, one of the most prominent business men of Chaves county, has been a resident of New Mexico since the IIth of February, 1901. Soon after his arrival here he purchased of Frank Divers the old J. M. Miller place, located ten miles southeast of Roswell, consisting of eight hundred acres, and there he embarked in the business of raising swine. Three years ago, in 1903, he added a tract of twelve hundred acres to his original purchase, thus making him the owner of a valuable farm of two thousand two hundred acres, all in one tract, and which is watered from his own ditch, four miles long, the water being taken from the North Spring river. The nucleus of his present large business was one hundred and eighty brood sows, but in the following year this number was increased to six hundred, and from that time on his possessions have gradually in- creased until he is now the owner of three thousand head of hogs, while in 1905 the number reached as high as sixty-five hundred head. During the past ten months he has marketed in Kansas City about five thousand fat hogs. He feeds on alfalfa and fattens on grain, and no finer animals can be found than those from the Chisholm ranch. This is the largest hog ranch in the world where the animals are kept up in quarters. It is Mr. Chisholm's intention, however, to close out this branch of business, on account of the lack of food, and turn his attention to sheep raising. Over four hundred acres of this large ranch is devoted to orchard pur- poses, where apples alone are raised.
W. J. Borland. manager of the Las Animas Land & Cattle Company at Las Palomas, Sierra county, was born and reared near Oakland, Cali- fornia, and his preliminary education acquired in Oakland public and high schools, was supplemented by study in Berkley College, in that state. He became acquainted with the cattle business in California by actual experi-
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ence on the ranch, and in 1900 accepted the position of manager with the Las Animas Land & Cattle Company, which was established in Sierra county in 1882 and incorporated the same year. The home ranch is at Las Palomas and Nathan Grara, the first manager, was succeeded by W. S. Hopewell, the predecessor of Mr. Borland. The company has been breed- ing up the cattle of the country and has introduced some fine strains, mak- ing a hardy beef cattle. Mr. Borland has the business well systematized, knows the number of head of cattle on the ranch and is closely studying the best methods of improving the breed, so that higher market prices may be obtained. He belongs to Silver City Lodge No. 14, B. P. O. E.
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