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Ten days later, Manuel Cardenas, the
man who Vega had implicated prior to his death was arrested and
questioned in
Elizabethtown. He claimed that Vega had shot the minister,
adding that
Santa Fe
Ringers Mills and Longwell were also behind the killing.
Mills barely escaped a furious lynch crowd in
Cimarron
as he alighted from a coach and was later arrested. Longwell
fled in a buggy to Fort Union and safety just ahead of pursuers Clay
and John
Allison.
Mills was granted a trial, but during the
trial, the state governor was informed of the events by telegraph and
the cavalry was dispatched from Fort Union, arriving just in time to
end the proceedings and release Mills.
Cardenas, during his protracted hearing, retracted his earlier
accusations against Mills and Longwell, thus clearing the two men.
Furthermore, he stated that in
Elizabethtown
he had been coerced at gunpoint into implicating the two when he was
"questioned" at gunpoint by Joseph Herberger. Evidently Herberger had been promised a political position by Ring men Mills and
Longwell, during the earlier elections in 1875.
When the two had failed to follow through, Herberger
reportedly forced Cardenas to implicate them. While Cardenas was
escorted back to the jail when court adjourned one evening he was shot to
death. It was never known who killed Cardenas, though many
thought that it was the vigilantes fighting against the
Santa Fe
Ring, lead by
Clay Allison.
The truth about Tolby's murder later suggested that the parson
unfortunately witnessed a man by the name of Francisco Griego shooting a
man in an argument. When the man later died, Tolby planned to seek
an indictment against Greigo, who set up Tolby's murder to silence him.
Cardenas later retracted his statement about the Ring men. To this
day, the murders of Tolby, Vega and Cardenas are officially unsolved.
The reign of terror had begun in
Cimarron
and the town was out of control. Violence, lawlessness and
apprehension fed the residents and many packed their belongings and left
the area. At one time, guards were posted at all entrances to
Cimarron
and no one was allowed to leave town without the Colfax County Ring's
permission. By November 9, 1875 the
Santa Fe New Mexican
informed the public that Cimarron was in the hands of a mob. The
Reverend McMains was the self-appointed commander of the vigilantes,
though most felt like the leader was
Clay Allison.
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The Grant Owners petitioned the courts to allow them to demand purchase or
rent monies from the settlers and on January 14, 1876 Governor Samuel
Beech Axtell, a member of the
Santa Fe
Ring, granted the petition. The court's decision allowed the owners
to kick the settlers off the land if they didn't pay the required rents or
purchase the property from the Land Grant owners. Heaping more fuel
on the fire, the decision attached Colfax to Taos County for judicial
purposes, which forced the settlers to attend court in Taos 50 miles away,
a trip which caused the settlers much hardship in time and money. Governor
Axtell claimed the change would mean improved law and order. The citizens
reacted in a fury over the bill, correctly surmising the interference of
the Santa Fe
Ring.
Sheriffs served eviction notices and
further retaliation began. Grant pastures were set on fire, cattle
rustling increased and officials were threatened at gun point. Grant
gang members made nighttime raids of area homes and ranches with threats
of violence to encourage their cooperation with the grant owners. It
is estimated that as many as 200 people were killed in the Colfax County
War.
In August, 1877 the Minister McMains was tried in Mora county for his
participation in the Vega murder. Up until the very date of the
trial he stormed up and down the valley speaking out against the
Maxwell
Land Grant Company. The minister was found guilty in the 5th degree
and fined five hundred dollars. The Minister McMains dedicated the
rest of his life in keeping alive the war against the grant company,
hoping to have the grant land declared open to settlers as was done with
the
Oklahoma
Territory. Barns, homes, crops, and fences came under the torch of McMains
and his vigilantes as he sought to bring the Grant Company to its knees.
In 1878 the law judicially attaching Colfax to Taos County was repealed
and an honest governor, Lew Wallace, replaced the corrupted tenure of
Governor Axtell. In 1879, the Grant was surveyed once again and was
declared to include the total 1,714,764.93 acres (2,679 square miles),
though the matter was in the courts for years.
So powerful were the Grant Owners that in 1884 they persuaded the
territorial governor to field a force of 35 "militiamen," which were led
by Jim Masterson (Bat Masterson's brother) from Trinidad,
Colorado. However, George Curry, a resident of nearby Raton, rounded up a posse of
ranchers, bought up all the guns and ammo for sale and when the "militia"
arrived, they marched them at gunpoint back to the
Colorado
line.
The guns roared for another several years until, in the spring of 1887,
the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the survey and reaffirmed
the decision of 1879, thus legitimizing the
Maxwell Land
Grant Company in its efforts to drive out the settlers. Abandoned by
their government, many of the homesteaders bought or leased their places,
some just gave up and left, and a few continued the struggle, in the
forlorn hope that the government might once again reverse itself. The Dutch Firm continued its exploitation of the many resources of the
grant and it thrived for several decades.
During the 1900's the land was gradually subdivided, and ranchers,
loggers, and private organizations bought the property. Five
Hundred thousand acres became the hideaway home of Chicago grain baron,
William Bartlett who built three mansions and a railroad for his guests'
convenience. Later 200,000 acres of the private retreat were
purchased and became the Vermejo Park Club, whose members included
celebrities and the wealthy, such as Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks,
Cecil B. DeMille, Herbert Hoover and Harvey Firestone. However, when
the depression was evident, the club closed and the property reverted to
ranching.
Continued Next
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