Other Colorful Characters of the Old Wild West

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Peter Maxwell (1848-1898) - The only son of New Mexico land baron, Lucien B. Maxwell and his wife, Ana de la Luz Maxwell, Pete was born in in Taos, New Mexico on April 27, 1848. In 1870, the elder Maxwell purchased the old Fort Sumner buildings and surrounding land for some $5,000 and the following year, he relocated his family from northeast New Mexico and refurbished the buildings into proper housing. The family lived in a large house, which was once the officers' quarters. Lucien Maxwell soon turned over his affairs to his son Peter and passed away a few years later. Following the Lincoln County War, Peter became friends with Billy the Kid and other members of the Regulators, who had fled to Fort Sumner, even hiring Charlie Bowdre and Doc Scurlock to work on his ranch as cowboys. However, their friendship began to deteriorate when Peter found out that Billy was having a relationship with his little sister, Paulita, and was allegedly the father of her unborn child. It was in Pete's home that Pat Garrett shot Billy the Kid on July 14, 1881 and has been theorized that Pete himself betrayed the Kid in order to put a stop to the relationship between Billy and Paulita. Pete died at Fort Sumner on June 21, 1898.

Joseph Smith (1805-1844) - The founder of the Mormon Church, Joseph Smith was December 23, 1805 in Sharon, Vermont. Though the family moved ten times during his youth, Smith spent the majority of his childhood near near Palmyra, New York, in the heart of what was called the "burned-over district" for its frequent and fervent Protestant revivals. At the age of 14, he claimed to have had an intense spiritual revelation of God and Jesus Christ. At the age of 20, Smith claimed that an angel called Moroni had directed him to a collection of engraved golden tablets that had been buried in a hill near Palmyra. He said that a prophet named Mormon had produced the tablets over a thousand years ago and he was instructed to translate the history. In 1930, he completed the work and published the "Book of Mormon," which together with the Old and New Testaments and some of Smith's later revelations became the sacred scripture of Mormonism. Later that year he founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Fayette, New York.

In 1831, they moved their headquarters to Kirkland, Ohio, but there, they found persecution, especially due to spreading rumors of polygamy. In 1837, Smith moved the group to Missouri. But, they would find no peace in the Show me State," as within a year, all out "war" broke out with their fearful neighbors. Missouri's governor soon ordered all Mormons to leave the state, and when the Mormons refused, their stronghold in Far West, Missouri was surrounded, and Smith, fearing an imminent massacre, surrendered.

The Mormons then fled back eastward, founding the city of Nauvoo near Quincy, Illinois in 1839, where the community thrived. In 1844, Smith announced that he was running for the Presidency of the United States and this, coupled with the practice of polygamy within the church, prompted his arrest. He was charged with inciting a riot after he attempted to destroy a newspaper that exposed the Mormon's practice of polygamy and imprisoned in Carthage, Illinois. However, before he could be tried on these charges, a mob broke into his cell and brutally killed both him and his brother.

Polygamy was avidly endorsed by the both Smith and his religion, but was practiced in relative secrecy. Smith is thought to have married more than 30 women, producing numerous children, the details of which are uncertain due to the secrecy surrounding his plural marriages. His first, and only "legitimate" wife, Emma Hale Smith; however, bore him nine children.

When Smith was murdered in 1844, the Mormons were temporarily left without a leader, but continued to grow and by the next year, Nauvoo boasted some 10,000 inhabitants and church membership increased to nearly 35,000.

In 1846, Smith's successor, Brigham Young, moved the community westward, first to Winter Quarters, Nebraska, and the next year to Utah's Salt Lake Valley, where young hoped the Mormons would at last find the freedom to worship and live as their faith decreed.

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From the Rocky Mountain General Store

Vintage Magazines - Legends of America and the Rocky Mountain General Store has collected a number of Vintage Magazines, including True West, Frontier Times, Treasure and more for our Old West and Treasure Hunting enthusiasts.  For most of these, we have only one available.  To see this varied collection, click HERE!