Albuquerque evening citizen., 1907-01-28

on. travelled to the fort to ask the
surgeon to amputate the thumb.
which was causing Maxwell great
suffering Declining anaesthetics in
any form. he maintained an appar-
entity stolid Indifference to the great
pain resulting from the operation;
then. Just after the ligatures had
been tied. as Carson placed glass
or whiskey to his lips he tainted.
a few weeks after this disastrous
celebration. gold was discovered near
the head Of Cimarron canon. near the
site of the present town of Elizabeth
town. The announcement was natur-
ally followed by a great influx OF for
tune hunters and adventures from
all parts of the country, and by scien-
thc prospecting by representatives.
OF capital. The discovery of the
prescious metal in easily worked
placer-fields marked the beginning OF
the end of Maswells barouial reign.
Feeling secure in his possession of
the grant, n region OF vaster extent
than some OF the Kingdoms of Eu-
rope. and anticipating untold wealth
from the development Of the mining
properties at the base of Mount
Baldy, he spent fortune i'm the con-
struction of ditch forty miles long
extending from the source Of the Red
river to the new placer diggings
But this undertaking was stupend-
Gus failure, the water entering the
ditch at its head being lost by evapo-
ration and seepage before it reached
the proposed field of operations. Re-
alizing the fact that his title to this
addition" to his grant could find
no status i'm the law. however, valid
the original grant might be, Max
well endeavored to keep the news of
the discovery of gold from obtain
Ing too wide n circulation. But he
might as well have attempted to stay
a whirlwind Litigation to determine
titles to the squatters claims follow
ed. and i'm order to save what he
might from his now decaying for
tune, he sold his title to the grant
to an English syndicate for n million
and quarter dollars, through the
agency of Wilson Waddingham.
David r. Moffatt and ]. h. Chaffee.
These men retained six hundred
thousand dollars for their services.
turning the remainder over to the
former proprietor.
The deposed monarch of all he
surveyed" whose right there had
been none to dispute until 1867, was
in IA state of perplexty as to what
he should do with all this money.
But he soon found plenty of adj
visers. and, at the behest of men in
whom he had confidence, he invested
something like a quarter of n mill
81
poration formed for the construction
OF the Texas Pacific railroad, which
proved complete loss. In 1870 9TH
er advisers suggested to him that it
would be profitable to establish a
bank at Santa Fe, inasmuch as there
in either New Mexico or Arizona.
The idea appealed to him, and he APP
piled for a charter, with capital of
one hundred and fifty thousand dol
lars, furnishing all the money him
self and generously dividing ten
shares among a sufficient number of
his friends to constitute the directory
required by the federal banking law.
Thus was the First National bank of
Santa Fe founded in December, 1870.
The original stock certificates of this
bank were unique in one respect,
cigar in his mouth. SO great was his
confidence in his friends that he
signed in blank more than IA hundred
of these stock certificates. in order
that their anticipated sale might not
interfere with his pursuit of pleasure
i'm other haunts
Lucien Maxwell was "A man Of un
bounded generosity, and possessed
lttY n, in,
whom he trusted at all. His chari-
ties must have amounted to con-
siderable fortune.g John Burroughs
has aptly described certain frontier
characters as wild civilized men"
The term fits Maxwell. He was one
of the best representatives of the un-
defiled frontier, before the days of
the bad man." a type which passed
with the extinction of the frontier in
its original purity. He was eccentric.
to a degree that was widely remark
ed even i'm those days of extreme lib
eralty and good fellowship, man
who was a constant marvel among
his fellows. Those who knew him
best-Carson, st. Vrain, Beaubien,
Scheurich, Pley and a multitude of
American traders and native Mexi-
cans-found in him an object of un-
dying affection. The solitude of the
mountains and the remoteness from
scenes of civilization infatuated him.
His love for the wild was uncon-
querable. Though rough in manner,
and quick to resent the slightest in
reference with what he regarded as
his sovereign rights, there was moth
ing of the desperate about him. Nor
was there in his makeup the slight
est tinge of bravado.
Maxwell's wife was Luz Beaubien,
a daughter of one of the original
proprietors of his grant. Three of
their nine children are living. The
last years OF his life were spent at
Fort Sumner, where he died in COM
parative poverty July 25, 1875.
Strange as it may seem there is in
existence no monument to the mem
ory of this most striking figure of
the mountain frontier period; nor to
the memory of his chief friend and
companion, Christopher Carson-two
of the really big landmarks of the
romantic period in the history of
New Mexico.
Los Angeles.