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Show 418 FACTS LEADING NEW HISTORY MEXICAN NEW OF 1873, as acting governor, the duties of the governor being performed by him until the appointment of Samuel B. Axtell, who was inau. curated July 30 of the same year.*** Samuel B. Axtell was inaugurated governor of New Mexico on the 30th day of July, 1875. During his administration the United States completed was telegraph military south to La Mesilla. At this period in ADMINISTRATION OF the history of New Mexico the territory GOVERNOR SAMUEL B. AXTELL was the asylum eagerly sought by nearly all of the desperate men on the southwestern frontier. Colfax county on the north, particularly the Elizabethtown mining district, and Lincoln county in the southeast, were the catch-basins for In the last named county a the reckless and criminal element.*** feud was begun which, in the annals of New Mexico, is known as the County ‘‘Tiincoln The War.’’ cause of this trouble and era of crime may be traced to the rivalry existing between prominent cat$44 During the administration of Governor Giddings, February 12, 1875, — arch-diocese of Santa Fé, with the vicariates apostolic of Arizona and Denv “ as suffragans, was created by papal bull of Pius IX, and the bishop of San : Fé, Rt. Rev. J. B. Lamy, was made metropolitan of the province. On ae 16th, while Secretary Ritch was acting as governor, Bishop Lamy receive Sho pallium, and was consecrated to this arch-episcopal see in the presence 0 i assemblage of distinguished divines and civil and military officials from 4 parts of New Mexico. eo 845 Hough, Emerson, says: ‘‘There was no one part of the remoter W' : which could claim any monopoly in the product of hard citizens, but there _ be small challenge to the assertion that southeastern New Mexico, for piper years after the Civil War, was without doubt, as dangerous a country os e nd lay out of doors. The Pecos valley caught the first of the great west- per Texas cattle herds at a time when the maverick industry was at its heig a Old John Chisum had perhaps sixty to eighty thousand head of cattle. ete easier to steal these cattle than to raise cows for one’s self. As for re a there lay the central mountains of New Mexico. As for a market, there was ae military post of Fort Stanton, with the beef contracts for a aban, is Mescalero Indian reservation. Between the market and the Pecos cow e ran the winding valley of the Bonito, like a cleat on a vast selene on caught bad men naturally. Thus the Lincoln County war of 1879 to 18 hen a matter of topography rather than of geography. It was foregone a it should be factional fighting in that country sooner or later. Some z Peat Chisum cow-punchers turned out as thieves and gradually from these an aia complications became evolved the famous Murphy and McSwain — a wa engaged in fighting so bitter that the government of the United States 00 ‘a hand, deposed Governor Axtell of New Mexico, and sent out General Lew ail lace with extraordinary powers, and others to stop the killing. ee 75 to perhaps two hundred men killed in southeastern New Mexico from 1881,’ Mr. Hough in Lincoln is mistaken county and in the number the Pecos valley of men during the killed during period the mentioned. troubles MEXICO DURING THE CIVIL WAR 419 tlemen at the time living in Lincoln and the Pecos valley, respectively. Both were furnishing cattle for the Mescalero Indian agency and each accused the other of stealing from their respective herds. This was the basis for the war, although the acts and depredations in which the sympathizers of these two principals were involved may have brought on the crisis. Others believe, and not without reason, that the turbulence that terrorized the entire community, was the result of the outlawry established by such desperadoes as Billy the Kid. During Governor Axtell’s *** administration the prefect system of county government was abolished and the present system of boards 846 Samuel Beach Axtell was born in Franklin county, Ohio, October 14, 1819. An ancestor was an officer in the Revolutionary army and his grandfather was colonel of a New Jersey regiment during the war of 1812. His father was a farmer. Governor Axtell was a graduate of the Western Reserve college at Oberlin and was admitted to the bar in Ohio. In 1851 he went to California and engaged in gold mining and upon the organization following year was of the transferred to counties of the state was elected district attorney of Amador county, holding this office three terms. He removed to San Francisco in 1860, was elected to He changed his political faith at congress in 1866 and 1868 as a democrat. this time and allied himself with the republican party of which he was a In 1874 he was appointed governor stanch supporter to the time of his death. of Utah by President Grant and in the He was superseded New Mexico, being inaugurated governor July 30, 1875. in this position by General Lew Wallace, appointed by President Hayes in appointed chief justice of the supreme court of New In 1882 he was 1878. In 1885, Mexico, assuming the duties of the office in August of that year. Grover Cleveland having been elected president, he resigned the office in May On He was a man of high principles, absolutely without fear. of that year. the bench he endeavored at all times to secure what he saw fit to designate as ‘‘sustantial justice’’ for all litigants and judicial precedents which interfered with the main object of trials in his court, or with equity from his standpoint, In 1890 he was elected chairman of the territorial were ruthlessly cast aside. republican committee. He died August 7, 1891, at Morristown, New Jersey. Conditions, methods, and practices obtaining in the courts of New Mexico during Judge Axtell’s ineumbeney, and the fearless character of this jurist are well exemplified in the relation of incidents occurring in one or two cases In a celebrated criminal trial at Las Vegas, although Judge tried before him. Axtell had been warned that his life would be forfeited if he dared to sit in On this occasion he compelled the case, promptly on time he opened court. the sheriff to search all of the court attendants and the spectators before he allowed the case to proceed. As a result forty-two revolvers were piled on the Each man table, some having been taken from the attorneys in the case. Carrying a weapon into the court room was fined ten dollars for contempt of Court, and no show of resistance was made when the fine was collected. In another case before him the defendant, a poor young man, whose farm was in jeopardy, had no attorney. Seeing that the case was going against the Man unless he could obtain legal counsel, Judge Axtell descended from the It bench and began conducting the cross-examination with the remark: takes thirteen men to steal a poor boy’s farm in New Mexico.’’ Upon the con- clusion of the submission of evidence, he instructed the jury to find a verdict |
