Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1888-08-30
SETTLERS FIGHT.
The Maxwell Land Grant Settlers
Besiege Number Of Deputy
Sheriffs.
Eight or Ten Settlers Wounded and
the Deputies Escape-The Build
ing Riddled
By the E1asperated Bssiegers-Governo,
Adams R-fuses Militia to the Land
Grant Company.

TRINIDAD, Col, Aug. 2T.-What may
prove long and bloody struggle opened
Saturday on the Maxwell grant at Stone.
wall, seven miles west of here.
The sheriff's posse sent to keep the peace
was met by armed settlers in number:
estimated at from 300 to 500 men, who de.
manded the arms of the posse, which wa.
refused, and the latter took quarters in
the Poole House, large frame building.
The settlers endeavored to force an en-
trance when the posse opened fire, and
several settlers were wounded.
The building was literally riddled with
balls. The eyewitness who gave this in
formation left while the conflict was still
going on.
The citizens here were greatly excited
and the sheriff commenced gathering men
in numbers to go to the relief of the be-
sieged posse as it was believed that the
building would be burned and the dozen
besieged deputies put to death before
morning.
The settlers came from the tributaries
of the Purgatoire river from Vermejo, N.
NJ, and also from the Costilla grant in
those mountain districts.
Public sentiment in Trinidad is entirely
with the settlers. The settler cavalry is
composed of both Americans and Mexicans.
The Mexicans are painted as if for war.
Late Saturday night L. R. W ooton and
d. d. Finch left for Stonewall to arbitrate
matters with the settlers, if possible, and
allow the six deputies to return to Trini-
dad. On arriving at Stonewall the be-
sieged house was found vacant, the depu-
ties having escaped.
In the fracas Saturday Francis Cope
leigue was shot through the head, r. D.
Russell severely wounded and eight or ten
settlers more or less disabled. Two doc
tors were on the ground.
The settlers, it is claimed, do not want to
injure any one, but are determined to hold
out to the last They are determined and
will demand what they consider their
rights.
A dispatch from Denver says Governor
Adams has refused the request of the
managers of the Maxwell grant to order
the State militia out to suppress the trouble
at Stonewall. The Governor declines to
interfere unless called upon by the sheriff
for assistance.
The trouble on the Maxwell land grant
has been brewing for some time-in fact
ever since the Supreme Court of the United
States confirmed the tirle to the grant
and therefore the violent outbreak of Sat-
urday was not unlocked for. Title to the
grant has been in litigation for years, and
the ownerships of such questionable title
has passed from hand to so often that his
tory on this point is rather vague. 1t is
now owned, however, principally at least,
by a company of Holland capitalists who
style themselves the Maxwell Land Grant
Company. The grant was originally made
by the Mexican Government to Beaubien
and Miranda, two Mexicans who were
given two square leagues of land provid-
ing they would establish colony and cul-
tivate the land. Two square leagues are
equal to about *, 900 acres; the boundaries
of the grant now contain l, 40, 900 acres.
The manner in which the grant grew to its
present proportions is one of the chief
causes of the present trouble. The settlers
living within what are now the boundaries
of the grant charged that the original
property was enlarged by fraudulent
means. The highest tribunal in the land
has held, however, that there was no fraud
and refused to set aside the patent which
was granted by Congress. The decision
of the United States Supreme Court was
made about year ago and ever since that
time some of the settlers have been agitat-
ing trouble. Hundreds of them have i'm
proved their homes and lived in them for
so many years that they considered them
selves in rightful possession and they look
upon their threatened ejectment as high
handed outrage.