Lucien Maxwell

Lucien Bonaparte Maxwell (September 14, 1818 - July 25, 1875) was a rancher and entrepreneur who at one point owned more than convert|1700000|acre|km2. Along with Thomas Catron and Ted Turner, Maxwell was one of the largest private landowner in United States history.

Maxwell was born in Kaskaskia, Illinois. He traveled west in 1834 after the death of his father and encountered Kit Carson. Both were to sign up with John C. Frémont in 1841 for western expeditions with Carson serving as guide and Maxwell chief hunter.

In 1844 he returned to Taos, New Mexico, where he married Carlos Beaubien's daughter, Luz Beaubien. It was a dual wedding as Carson also married. [ [http://www.sangres.com/history/characters.htm sangres.com Characters] ] . In 1843 Beaubien and his partner, Guadalupe Miranda, had received a land grant of a million acres (4,000 km²) in northeast New Mexico. Beaubien's wedding gift to Maxwell was convert|15000|acre|km2.

In 1847, Maxwell was at Fort Bent when Governor of New Mexico Charles Bent was killed in the Taos Revolt. Maxwell's wife survived but her brother (Beaubien's son) was killed. Miranda was wounded and fled to Mexico. Maxwell began more active management of the land grant.

In 1848 Maxwell survived an ambush while delivering supplies to a cabin on the Ponil River.

In 1849, at the conclusion of the Mexican-American War, Maxwell and Carson proposed building a fort on the Rayado River at Rayado, New Mexico, on the Santa Fe Trail. Maxwell built a large house and Carson had a smaller adobe hut.

In 1850 the Army moved its fort convert|30|mi|km further south to Fort Union on the Mora River. Maxwell sold his Rayado property and moved to Cimarron, New Mexico, which was on the Cimarron River.

In 1858 Miranda, who was still in Mexico, sold his share of the convert|1000000|acre|km2|sing=on land to Maxwell for $2,745. After Beaubien died in 1864, Maxwell acquired much of the original estate that he had not inherited; his landholdings then peaked at convert|1714765|acre|km2. The entire area is referred to as the Maxwell Land Grant.

At the conclusion of the American Civil War, gold was discovered on his property at Baldy Mountain (Colfax County, New Mexico). Maxwell leased land to the miners and sold them supplies.

In 1870 he sold most of the land for $1,350,000 to a British company, which incorporated it under the name of the Maxwell Land Grant and Railway Company.

Maxwell moved to Fort Sumner where he died in 1875. He is buried in Mountainview Cemetery in Cimarron, New Mexico.

ubsequent events

Patrick Garrett killed the outlaw Billy the Kid at Maxwell's Fort Sumner home in 1881, which was then owned by Pete Maxwell, son of Lucien Maxwell.

After Maxwell sold the grant, the armed struggle between the new owners and squatters came to be known as the Colfax County War. Litigation over whether his land claims were legitimate would continue until 1887 when the United States Supreme Court ["Maxwell Land-Grant Case", 121 U.S. 325, "reh'g denied", 122 U.S. 365 (1887).] approved a clear title.

Today, the land grant is broken into many private and public landholdings. These large private landholdings include the Philmont Scout Ranch, Ted Turner's Vermejo Park Ranch, and the National Rifle Association's Whittington Center.

References

* [http://www.clanmaxwellusa.com/lucienb.htm Clanmaxwellusa.com]
* [http://www.legendsofamerica.com/HC-Maxwell1.html The Largest Land Grant in US History - The Maxwell Land Grant - legendsofamerica.com]

Further reading

cite book
last = Freiberger
first = Harriet
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Lucien Maxwell: villain or visionary
publisher = Sunstone Press
date = 1999
location = Santa Fe, New Mexico
pages = 160 p
url =
doi =
id =
isbn = 0865342865

cite book
last = Montoya
first = Maria E.
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Translating property: the Maxwell Land Grant and the conflict over land in the American West, 1840-1900
publisher = University of California Press
date = 2002
location = Berkeley, California
pages = 299
url =
doi =
id =
isbn = 0520227441

cite book
last = Murphy
first = Lawrence R.
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Lucien Bonaparte Maxwell: Napoleon of the Southwest
publisher = University of Oklahoma Press
date = 1983
location = Norman, Oklahoma
pages = 275 p
url =
doi =
id =
isbn = 0806118075