b'FUR TRAPPER BECOMESHUGE LANDOWNERBy Bill Roberts Reprinted from The TravelerT HE FUR TRAPPERS OF THE 1840S were an elite group of adventurers and frontiersmen whose trails west blazed in search of beaver were followed by many who set out from the Mississippi River ports for land and gold later in the decade. Men such as Jim Bridger, Bill Williams, Pauline Weaver, Kit Carson, and others of this elite group of trappers who blazed the way for the great western migration at various times of any given year, gathered around Taos, New Mexico, and became known as the Taos Group.Lucien B. MaxwellOne young man from Illinois, Lucien B. Maxwell, wasTHE LAND GRANT Beaubien for expenses he incurred in investigating 23 when he arrived in Taos. Lucien liked the smallMiranda and Beaubien were seeking a land grantthe legality of the land grant to date.Mexican frontier town and decided to make it hisfrom the governor of Mexico. Three days later, home. About five feet and eleven inches, stickily built,Governor Armijo granted the petitioners the landLucien B. Maxwell had become half owner of the fair complected with curly brown hair and brightgrant they sought. What had the governor given togrant for $2,745. Charles Beaubien had become blue eyes that looked deep into a man, Maxwell was aMiranda and Beaubien? What they had asked for inprominent in New Mexico affairs and was appointed young man who had never turned down an adventure.their petition, and that was described as: a judge in 1846. He died in Taos in February of He had drifted into Taos in 1841 for the first time.1864. Narcisse Beaubien, Charles Beaubiens son, Like the others, he drifted in and out of Taos, goingThe tract of land we petition for to be dividedwas appointed by his father to look after the family on long trapping expeditions, dealing with the variousequally between us commences below the junctionland interest. Narcisse was killed by Indians in the Indian tribes to sustain himself, and at times takingof the Rayado River with the Colorado, and in aRevolution at Taos in 1847 and Charles Beaubien then his pelts to St. Louis and market. direct line toward the east to the first hills, and fromnamed his son-in-law, Lucien Maxwell, to manage the there running parallel with said river Colorado in afamilys landholdings. JOINS FREMONT northerly direction to opposite the point of the Una It was in the spring of 1843 that John Charles Fremontde Gato, following the same river along the sameTRAPPER PUTS IT TOGETHERThe Great Pathfinder engaged Lucien Maxwell andhills to the summit of the tableland, from whence,After buying out Miranda in 1858, and the death of Kit Carson in St. Louis for the Fremont Expeditionturning northwest to follow along said summit untilhis father-in-law in 1864, Maxwell started buying through the country west of the Missouri River to theit reaches the top of the mountain which dividesup parts of the land grant that Charles Beaubien had Rockies along the Kansas and Platte Rivers. Fremontthe waters of the rivers running towards the eastgiven to his children and other relatives earlier. When hired Carson as a guide and Maxwell as a hunter forfrom those running toward the west, and fromMaxwell was through consolidating the grant, he had the expedition. thence following the line of the said mountain ininvested somewhat less than $50,000 to become the a southward direction until it intersectsthe firstsole owner of an enormous land grant. He still had no It is known Maxwell accompanied Fremont on hishills south of the Rayado River, and following theidea how large his holding was.first and second expeditions. By the third and fourthsummit of said hills toward the east to the placeexpeditions, Maxwell had settled down on land heof beginning. HOW MUCH LAND?was cultivating around Taos. Six years later, the trailIt took many years, a tremendous amount of litigation Fremont blazed would be traveled by wagon loads ofVASTNESS OF GRANT NOT KNOWN that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and a settlers heading for the 49er goldfields of CaliforniaHow large was this chunk of land granted to Beaubienlot of fighting by different factions around Cimarron, and land in Oregon. and Miranda? It took years for that to become known.New Mexico, before the land grant was finally It is doubtful that Beaubien and Miranda had anysurveyed and its boundaries set and upheld by the A FATEFUL MARRIAGE idea of the vast expanse of land they had asked becourts. The land grant Maxwell owned encompassed In June of 1844, Lucien dropped into Taos for agranted to them or had ever traveled all of it. Yet they2080 square miles, twice the size of the state of Rhode break from the Fremont Expedition and married Luzhad their grant. Island, and included a huge chunk of northern New Beaubien, the daughter of Charles Hipolite Trotier deMexico and lower Colorado.Beaubien, a Canadian, and Paulita Jaquez Lavat, whoIn April of 1858, Charles Beaubien received a letter was part French and part Spanish. Charles Beaubienfrom his partner, Guadalupe Miranda, seeking toMaxwell did not know how much land his grant had settled in New Mexico in 1823 and made Taos hissell his half of the land to his partner. Beaubien didencompassed. A patent on the land grant was not home. He married Paulita in 1827. not buy his partner out but turned over the offer toissued by the United States until May of 1879. Lucien his daughters husband, Lucian B. Maxwell. MaxwellMaxwell had been dead for nearly four years. He Beaubien, a Canadian who had become a Mexicanbought out Miranda. The price was $1,000 cash, adied on July 25, 1875. Maxwell had built the town of citizen and who lived in San Fernandez de Taos,$1000 note to be paid in 30 days, an additional $500Cimarron in 1857. He had lived next to his mountain and Guadalupe Miranda, a citizen of Mexico, filed ato be paid when the Congress of the United Statesman friends and his close friend, Kit Carson, had petition with Governor Manuel Armijo in Santa Feshould pass favorably on the Beaubien/Miranda landbuilt a home on the Rayado River on the grant. While dated Jan 8, 1841. grant legal status and the sum of $245 to Charlesbuilding a grist mill and entering into other business 56 December 2021'