Lafayette Head

Lafayette Head (9 April 1825 - 8 March 1897) was the first Lieutenant Governor of Colorado, serving from 1876 to 1879 under John Long Routt.

Lafayette Head was born at Head’s Fort, Howard County, Missouri. [Colorado State Archives [http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/doit/archives/offic/ltgov.html#Head] ] His parents, Alfred R. Head and Margaret Heard, both died by about 1840 and Head was raised by his paternal grandparents, William Head and Susannah Livingston. [Biography of Finis E. Downing [http://genealogytrails.com/ill/schuyler/Downing,FinisEbio.html] ] Head had one sister, Eliza Jane, who married Nathan Hall Downing, a Cumberland Presbyterian minister. In 1842 the couple settled in Virginia, Illinois. [Downing, Finis E. “With the Ute Peace Delegation of 1863, Across the Plains and at Conejos,” The Colorado Magazine, September 1945.]

New Mexico Settler

Head enlisted as a Private, Second Regiment, Missouri Volunteers and saw battle at La Canada, Embudo Pass, Taos and Santa Clara Springs during the Mexican American War (1846-1848). He rose to the rank of Major. After the war he settled at Abiquiu, New Mexico Territory as a merchant. About 1851 he married Juanita Martinez. The couple had two children – Piedal and Jose. Head served three years as U.S. Marshall for the northern district of New Mexico Territory and a term as Sheriff of Rio Arriba County. [Bancroft, Hubert Howard and Frances Fuller Victor. [http://books.google.com/books?id=OekNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA444&lpg=PA444&dq=Lafayette+Head+History+of+Nevada,+Colorado,+and+Wyoming,[phone]&source=web&ots=gNp5zaGu4k&sig=PJbXl5HQ23ATc9ByZL_5ugOZeQE&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA440,M1] History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888, The History Company, 1890, page 444 footnote. accessed September 29, 2008-->]

In 1854 Head moved into the lower part of the San Luis Valley with fifty Mexican families who formed the village of Guadalupe along the Conejos River. [Fritz, Percy Stanley Ph.D., Colorado The Centennial State, Prentice Hall, 1941, page 68.] He established a large sheep ranch nearby. He was a pioneer in irrigation and built one of the earliest flour mills in Colorado. [Colorado State Archives [http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/doit/archives/offic/ltgov.html#Head] ] Head’s nephew, Finis Downing, described the Head home at Conejos as it looked in 1863 – “It was a town of ‘dobe houses. Uncle’s was the largest and best, built like a fort around a square plat of 200 feet, with solid walls outside, windows and doors all inside the square. A lookout was two stories up.” [Downing, Finis E., “With the Ute Peace Delegation of 1863, Across the Plains and at Conejos,” The Colorado Magazine, September 1945]

Head was commissioned a Lieutenant in Colonel St. Vrain’s regiment of volunteers in 1855 and served six months fighting the Utes and Apaches. In 1856 he was elected to the New Mexico Territorial Legislature representing Taos. He was chosen to fill a vacancy on the council and servied as president in 1857. [Bancroft, Hubert Howard and Frances Fuller Victor. [http://books.google.com/books?id=OekNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA444&lpg=PA444&dq=Lafayette+Head+History+of+Nevada,+Colorado,+and+Wyoming,[phone]&source=web&ots=gNp5zaGu4k&sig=PJbXl5HQ23ATc9ByZL_5ugOZeQE&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA440,M1] History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888, The History Company, 1890, page 444 footnote. ]

About 1859 two Catholic priests, Father Machebeuf (later the first Bishop of Denver) and Father Ussell, traveled from Santa Fe to visit the little town of Guadalupe. On arrival they were met by Lafayette Head and Don Jesus Velasques, “the principal men of this miniature commonwealth.” In his account of the trip, Father Ussell noted that Head was a convert to Catholicism, had been baptized by Bishop Lamy, and married a Mexican lady from a very good family. Ussell described the houses of Head and Velasquez as having only two rooms each - a kitchen and a large hall. Head’s home served as a temporary church for two days while Fathers Machebeuf and Ussell heard hundreds of confessions and offered communion. Guadalupe sat in lowland along the river and was subject to flooding. The residents had selected a better site on high ground between the Conejos River and San Antonio Creek and laid out plans for a new town called Conejos. During the visit Father Machebeuf selected a site for a church in the new town. [Howlett, William J. [http://books.google.com/books?id=UzIDAAAAYAAJ&printsec=titlepage#PPA236,M1] Life of the Right Reverend Joseph P. Machebeuf, D.D., The Franklin Press Co., 1908, pages 236-237. ]

Indian Agent

In 1859 Head was appointed Special Agent for the Ute and Apache Indians. He continued as an Indian Agent for nine years, primarily with the Ute Indians, using his home at Conejos as the agency headquarters. Head spoke Spanish but not the Ute language. On the recommendation of Kit Carson, he hired a Ute named Ouray as his interpreter. Ouray spoke fluent Spanish, some English, Apache and Ute. [Smith, P. David, Ouray: Chief of the Utes, Wayfinder Press, 1990, pages 59-66.]

Head accompanied the 1863 Ute delegation to Washington, DC to discuss a treaty. While there, the delegation met with President Lincoln, who made his traditional presentation of a silver tipped cane to Ouray, the delegation leader. In October of that year Head served as a member of the Commission appointed to finalize the treaty with the Utes. A handful of government representatives, accompanied by a military contingent, met at Head’s ranch with 1,500 Utes. [Smith, P. David, Ouray: Chief of the Utes, Wayfinder Press, 1990, pages59-66.] Head signed the October 7, 1863 “Treaty with the Utah - Tabeguache Band” as U.S. Indian Agent and Commissioner. Also present to sign as parties to the agreement was John Evans, Governor of Colorado Territory. John G. Nicolay, President Lincoln’s Private Secretary and Secretary to the Commission, signed as a witness along with J.M. Chivington, Colonel First Cavalry of Colorado, Commanding District (who later led the San Creek Massacre). [Ute Treaties [http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/vol2/treaties/ute0990.htm] ] Head returned to Washington, DC with another Ute delegation in 1868 and signed the March 2, 1868 treaty as a witness, listing himself as U. S. Indian Agent. Signing as Commissioners for the United States were A. C. Hunt, governor of Colorado Territory, and Kit Carson. [Ute Treaties [http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/vol2/treaties/ute0990.htm] ]

Colorado Legislator

When Colorado Territory was formed in 1861 out of parts of the territories of New Mexico, Utah, Nebraska, and Kansas, Head’s ranch became part of Colorado. In 1872, he was elected to the Colorado Territorial Legislature from Conejos. [Bancroft, Hubert Howard and Frances Fuller Victor. [http://books.google.com/books?id=OekNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA444&lpg=PA444&dq=lafayette+head+colorado+legislature&source=web&ots=gNp5zbMndi&sig=7gYp1TAfpMmRckKc2xd-rUTpjHM&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result#PPA440,M1] History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888, The History Company, 1890, page 440, footnote. ] He was one of 39 delegates, and one of the four Spanish speakers, elected to the 1875 constitutional convention in preparation for statehood. [Fritz, Percy Stanley Ph.D., Colorado The Centennial State, Prentice Hall, 1941, page 246.] Head drafted significant portions of the Colorado constitution related to agriculture and irrigation. [Colorado State Archives [http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/doit/archives/offic/ltgov.html#Head] ]

Colorado became the Centennial State on July 1, 1876. Head was chosen Colorado’s first lieutenant governor in the October 3, 1876 general election. He received 14,191 votes to 13,003 for his opponent, Michael Beshor. Head served as lieutenant governor from 1877-1879. In that capacity he was the presiding officer of the State Senate, which included 26 elected senators. [Bancroft, Hubert Howard and Frances Fuller Victor. [http://books.google.com/books?id=OekNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA444&lpg=PA444&dq=lafayette+head+colorado+legislature&source=web&ots=gNp5zbMndi&sig=7gYp1TAfpMmRckKc2xd-rUTpjHM&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result#PPA440,M1] History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888, The History Company, 1890, page 440 footnote. ]

Head was elected one of six Colorado delegates to the 1880 Republican National Convention in Chicago which nominated James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur as candidates for President and Vice President. [http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/head.html]

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