Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1880-05-01
ice; we protest good faith, md whatever
may be necessary, etc.
GUADALUPE MIRANDA,
CARLOS BEAUBIEN.


acres on which to experiment in the
raising of sugar-beets has
AN ELEMENT OF AUDAcITY
in it which would stagger even the
impudence of La Due himself. But
Gov. Armigo, acting up to the very
spirit of the Spanish proverb quoted
in the petition "Lo que es negocio de
todos, no es negocio de ninguno," and
especially desiring that "the rising
generation" should receive "new inn
pressions," and "be guided by the
principles of pure morality" on Jan.
IL, 1S4l, granted to the petitioners
nearly two million acres of land on
which to rase a crop of sugar-heets
and a new generation of moral young
menl My observations since / ar
rived in this country lead me to think
that, with all the large possibilities
in their favor, the petitioners made a
most lamentable failure in the philan-
thropic, if not the agricultural, part
of their scheme. Perhaps they were
discouraged at the outset, or it may
have required the intervening period
to make t>e preliminary prepara-
tions but, whatever the cause, it was
not until just two years afterward-
Jan IL, l843-that they legally per-
tected their title according to the Gu
rious custom prescribed by the Span
ish law. By this fiction of law the
justice who gives the deed of the
grant is required personally to erect
the mounds and fix the landmarks
showing the limits of the property
granted, and, after proceeding around
the entire tract and returning to the
point of starting, he is required to af-
firm as follows: II took them by
the hand, walked with them, caused
them to throw earth, pull up weeds,
and show other evidences of posses
sion;" after which he declared the
boundaries determined, and so fixed
forever the title Of the vast property
in the names of these two men and
"large families" Of which they ac-
knowledged themselves to be the
heads.
The nsxt year, 1874, we find Kit
Carson testifying that "he saw large
fields of corn, beans, pumpkins, etc. !
but curiously enough, he omits to
mention the crops of "sugar-beets"
and moral "rising generation" prom
ised by Beaubien and Miranda. But,
more important to the development
of the "romance," he does not men
ton that with him was his longtime
friend and companion,
LUcIEN B. MAXWELL,
who, falling in love with one of Beau
bien's daughters-and his real estate
shortly afterward came into the
possession of both. Maxwell is too
bold and towering a figure to pass by
in this mai alive with merely casual
observation-like the great peaks of
this Rocky mountain range, you can't
escape him, for go where you will,
his large figure lifts itself up against
the horizon of affairs until, in all
things pertaining to the history of
the territory since its annexation to
the United States, he stands as the
most prominent land mark.
Maxwell was native of Virginia,
and came from that pioneer stock out
of which heroes are made. He came
to the frontier when but young man
and at time when west of the Miss
issippi was a terra incognita. As
hunter and guide he soon, by his cool
daring and cautious bravery, became
famous among group of great and
noble-hearted Nimrods. He came
into prominence first as a guide and
scout who pioneered Fremont in m any
of his then hazardous expeditions.
After that, when the old Santa Fe
trail from Independence, Mo-, was in
tested by the fercest and most blood
thirsty tribes of Indians, and became
along its entire length the scene Of
the most sanguinary border battles
ever fought with the rowing Indian
banditti, Maxwell, as scout and In
disn-fghter, achie 5ed fame which
brought his services into constant de-
mand: He was fast friend and fire.
quent companion of Kit Carson, with
whom he passed through some of the
most br liant and daring campaigns
ever fought by that chief among In
dian-hunters.
Maxwell is described by his friends
as beinga tall, athletic, fnoly-built