Thomas B. Catron

Thomas B. Catron

Infobox Senator
name = Thomas B. Catron


imagesize=150px
jr/sr =United States Senator
state = New Mexico
term_start = March 27, 1912
term_end = March 3, 1917
preceded = (none)
succeeded = Andrieus A. Jones
date of birth=birth date|1840|10|6|mf=y
place of birth=near Lexington, Missouri
dead = dead
date of death=death date and age|1921|5|15|1840|10|6
place of death=Santa Fe, New Mexico
residence=Las Cruces
spouse=
profession=Attorney
religion=
party=Republican|

Thomas Benton Catron (October 6 1840–May 15 1921) was an American politician and lawyer who was influential in the establishment of the U.S. state of New Mexico. He later represented the state in the United States Senate.

Early life

Catron was born near Lexington, Missouri, and was named after Missouri senator Thomas Hart Benton. He was educated in Lexington's public schools, and at the Masonic College in Lexington. He graduated with a degree in law from the University of Missouri in 1860 .

During the American Civil War, Catron served four years in the Confederate Army. With his home in Missouri destroyed, he sought to move west after the end of the war. Following other Confederate veterans, he arrived in the Territory of New Mexico in 1866, and settled in Las Cruces.

Move to New Mexico

Catron decided to pursue his original career choice, law, and was admitted to the bar in 1867 . Due to the area's lack of lawyers, he quickly became District Attorney for the territory's third judicial district (1867-1868), and was appointed New Mexico's Attorney General in 1869 . He resigned the post to take the position of United States attorney, to which he had been appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant.

Early political career

After getting involved in territorial politics in the 1870s, he impressed the Republican Party. He was a member of every New Mexico Territorial council from 1884 to 1909, and was an unsuccessful candidate for election as New Mexico's Congressional Delegate in 1892 . He was elected to the office in 1894, but was defeated for re-election in 1896 .

Land Acquisitions

Catron was a lawyer familiar with Mexican land grants and through a variety of measures he gained an interest or clear title in 34 grants totalling convert|3000000|acre|km2. [Old Santa Fe: A Brief Review of HIstory 1536-1912, James B Raciti] He became an influential member of a group of land speculators known as 'The Santa Fe Ring' and was the largest single land owner in New Mexico [Melzer, Richard, Buried Treasures re] and one of the largest land owners in the United States.

Advocate for statehood

Catron was an early advocate for New Mexico's statehood. Many credit him as the single driving force within the territorial Republican Party which brought together all the necessary people and resources to call for the national Republican Party to push for the admission of New Mexico as a state. Though he was not actively involved in politics from 1897 to 1910, he was the go-to for Republicans in the territory on almost every issue, and even moved his law practice to the territorial capital of Santa Fe to be closer to his friends in the legislature.

Upon New Mexico's 1912 entry to the union as the 47th state, Catron was elected the state's first senator by a wide margin on the merit of his efforts to admit the state. He was sworn in on March 27, 1912.

Alliance with Fall

Perhaps more than any other person, Catron is responsible for the Republican Party's dominance during New Mexico's first decade of statehood. However, he made one mistake that would inevitably sink his career, and the entire New Mexico Republican Party.Fact|date=May 2007 He made a personal alliance with a good friend, Albert Fall, to ensure Fall the state's other senate seat.

Fall would go on to be one of the most corrupt individuals in Congress, and was utterly despised by the New Mexico Republican Party. In 1916, the party, ashamed with Catron's actions in helping Fall, asked him not to run again. He acquiesced, and retired to Santa Fe.

He died in May 1921, long enough to see Fall appointed as U.S. Secretary of the Interior. Three years later, Fall was involved in the Teapot Dome scandal which inevitably sunk the Republican Party in New Mexico Catron had painstakingly shaped.Fact|date=May 2007

Monuments and memorials

Catron County, New Mexico is named in his honor.

References

* Westphall, Victor (1973) "Thomas Benton Catron and His Era" University of Arizona Press, Tucson, ISBN 0-8165-0341-9
* Duran, Tobias (1984) "Francisco Chavez, Thomas B. Catron, and Organized Political Violence in Santa Fe in the 1890s" "New Mexico Historical Review" 59: pp. 291-310;
* Westphall, Victor (1988) "Thomas Benton Catron: A Historical Defense" "New Mexico Historical Review" 63: pp. 43-57
* Jacobsen, Joel K (1993) "An Excess of Law in Lincoln County: Thomas Catron, Samuel Axtell, and the Lincoln County War" "New Mexico Historical Review" 68: pp. 133-51
* Garraty, John A. and Carnes, Mark C. (eds.) (1999) "American National Biography" Oxford University Press, New York, ISBN 0-19-520635-5
* Lamar, Howard R. (ed.) (1998) "The New Encyclopedia of the American West" Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, ISBN 0-300-07088-8

ee also

Albert Jennings Fountain


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