Santa Fe Ring
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The Santa Fe Ring was an informal group of powerful politicians, attorneys, and land speculators in territorial New Mexico from 1865 until 1912. The Ring was composed of newly-arrived Anglo Americans and opportunistic Hispanics from long-resident and prominent families in New Mexico. Acquiring wealth, both groups realized, lay in owning or controlling the millions of acres of land which the Spanish and Mexican governments of New Mexico had granted to individuals and communities. The acquisition of grant lands by members of the Santa Fe Ring was facilitated by U.S. courts unfamiliar and unsympathetic to Hispanic land practices which featured allocating most of the land in grants to the common ownership of the first settlers and their descendants.
Many prominent people in
Background
The United States conquered New Mexico in 1846 in the
In the Spanish and Mexican documentation, the acreage and boundaries of the land grants were often vague and record keeping erratic or non-existent.[3] The Hispanic system of designating and describing land ownership was different than that of the Anglo, relying more on custom and actual usage of the land than precise legal descriptions. Typically, settlers on grants were allocated small plots of land for agriculture and residences but most grant land was designated as common land for the joint use of all the settlers and their descendants.[4] The genesis of the Santa Fe Ring was in the 1850s when lawyers in New Mexico (of which there were only a few) realized "that a fortune lay in the legal process of quieting [obtaining] title to the disputed Spanish and Mexican land grants. Or, if not that, in securing for themselves or clients control of these lands for the purpose of speculation."[5]
Hispanic claimants of land in the land grants often did not speak English and were suspicious of and unfamiliar with the American legal system -- so different from the Hispanic. Many of the claimants were poor and unable to pursue the lengthy and expensive legal process of getting a claim confirmed. Moreover, the Surveyors General appointed by the U.S. had little knowledge of Hispanic land practices and customs. "The situation was ripe for fraud."[4][6] The results were "large grants owned by speculators were erroneously confirmed; other grants which should have been confirmed were not...[and]...some valid grants were confirmed, but to the wrong people." The Santa Fe Ring of lawyers and politicians, often in league with the Surveyors General, abused the adjudication system for their own benefit.[7]
Lincoln County War
Businessman and
Murphy and Fritz were able to obtain false deeds to land, then sold that land, not actually owned by them, to newly arriving farmers and ranchers. When payments were missed, Murphy and Fritz would foreclose on the land, cattle, or crops. Within a very short time they were wealthy men. During that same period they acquired government contracts to supply beef and vegetables to Apache Native Americans living on the reservation, which they typically did not supply, at least not in the quantities called for in the contracts. However, as they were protected by their political contacts who also were tied into the ring, complaints by the Native Americans went with little notice or attention.
In 1869, Murphy hired
He, Dolan and Riley hired the Jesse Evans Gang and the John Kinney Gang, both outlaw gangs of the time, to goad Tunstall into a fight. Both gangs began rustling Tunstall's cattle, and to counter them Tunstall hired numerous small-scale ranchers and cowboys as bodyguards. Former Murphy employee Dick Brewer served as Tunstall's foreman, with gunmen Doc Scurlock, Charlie Bowdre, and ranchers Frank Coe and George Coe rounding out the group. Frank McNab would also hire on, as would Billy the Kid and Ab Saunders.
This set the stage for what would become known as the Lincoln County War, sparked by the February 18, 1878 murder of Tunstall by
New Mexico Territorial Representative Juan Patron became an advocate for Susan McSween, becoming involved as opposition to the ring following the murders of two local
According to legend the rerouting of U.S. Route 66 to avoid Santa Fe and instead pass through Albuquerque was done at the behest of Democratic Governor Arthur T. Hannett to punish the ring.[8]
Footnotes
- OCLC 15629305
- JSTOR 3744837. Retrieved 18 November 2023.
- ^ Gonzales 2003, pp. 302–303.
- ^ a b "History: Land Grants". Albuquerque Historical Society. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
- JSTOR 45059003.
- S2CID 154377195. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
- ^ Gomez, Placido (1985). "The History and Adjudication of the Common Lands of Spanish and Mexican Land Grants". Natural Resources Journal. 25 (4): 1039, 1070–1071. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
- ^ New Mexico Route 66, New Mexico mother road, old Route 66
Further reading
- David L. Caffey, Chasing the Santa Fe Ring: Power and Privilege in Territorial New Mexico. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 2014.
- Kathleen P. Chamberlain, In the Shadow of Billy the Kid: Susan McSween and the Lincoln County War. 2013.
External links
- Santa Fe Ring and the Lincoln county War
- Crime Library, Lincoln County War
- Lawrence Murphy
- Lawrence Murphy, Scoundrel of the Lincoln County War
- Juan Patron
- Juan Patron, Lincoln County
- Billy the Kid, Juan Patron, Santa Fe Ring
- New Mexico History, Santa Fe Ring
- Friends and Enemies to Billy the Kid
- Hale, Annie Riley (1912). Bull Moose Trails (Chapter IV "How T. R. Fought The "Bosses" Of New Mexico In 1906–7"). New York. pp. 78–102. Retrieved May 13, 2012.
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