Financial History Issue 132 (Winter 2020) | Page 13

EDUCATORS’ PERSPECTIVE
The Maxwell house in Fort Sumner, New Mexico.
de Cristo Mountains until gold was dis-
covered in 1867.
Largely ignored until the discovery of
gold, Maxwell’s remote kingdom now
attracted the interest of foreign investors,
and Maxwell suddenly became interested
in determining the exact boundaries of
his grant. Maxwell biographer Laurence
L. Murphy writes, “There is evidence that
Lucien’s interpretation of the [grant’s]
western boundary changed as the size and
value of the mines grew…” In early 1868,
Maxwell employed an agent to collect
leases from mining claims on the western
end of the grant. He also engaged in min-
ing himself, increasing his net worth, and
making himself one of the richest men in
the territory of New Mexico.
In spite of his good fortune, Maxwell was
growing tired of the pressures of adminis-
tering the grant. He was forced to deal with
constant problems at the Indian Agency.
Furthermore, uninvited homesteaders
from the United States began to move onto
grant land after New Mexico became a US
territory. He once offered to sell every-
thing to a couple of his friends for a mere
$200,000. One of those friends, John Dold,
later testified that he didn’t think the prop-
erty was worth it. Gold changed everything.
Maxwell decided to sell the grant, but
Map of the Maxwell Land Grant territory, May 19, 1879.
two issues needed to be addressed before
the sale could be made. First, the grant
needed to be surveyed, and second, Max-
well needed to establish clear title to the
land. A survey undertaken in 1869 found
that the grant contained nearly two mil-
lion acres. The survey was conducted by
parties friendly to Maxwell and would
remain in dispute until a US Supreme
Court ruling in 1887 accepted its findings
and validated the grant.
Maxwell and his associates were able
to sell the grant in early 1870 to a group
of British investors without having clear
title to the land. This was accomplished
by ignoring the opinion of Secretary of
the Interior, Jacob D. Cox, that the grant
by law could be no more than 97,000
acres, and by implying that Congress had
approved the grant. Montoya contends
that, “…the English purchasers and bond-
holders, who were too remote in terms of
both geography and access to information
to grasp the sellers’ duplicity…remained
unaware of their investment’s tenuous
underpinnings.” 2
Maxwell received $650,000 for his
grant holdings, moved to the abandoned
Fort Sumner where he remodeled and
expanded one of the officer’s houses, and
settled into semiretirement. In late 1870,
he helped found the First National Bank
of Santa Fe and became the bank’s first
president. However, a man who spent his
entire life in the outdoors as a mountain
man and rancher found it difficult to
adjust to the world of banking. He soon
lost interest and sold his shares to his part-
ners in the venture.
Maxwell’s subsequent investments in sil-
ver mining and railroads were unsuccessful.
When he died in 1875, his fortune, though
diminished, was substantial and allowed
his wife to live a comfortable life until her
death in 1900. Except for the killing of Billy
the Kid in her Fort Sumner home, Luz lived
out her days in relative peace.
Lucian Maxwell founded towns, settled
a large portion of the southwest, worked
as an advocate for the land’s original
inhabitants and helped establish a banking
system for New Mexico. Although largely
forgotten today, Maxwell deserves to be
remembered for his role in the growth
and development of northeastern New
Mexico. 
Brian Grinder is a professor at Eastern
Washington University and a member
of Financial History’s editorial board.
Dr. Dan Cooper is the president of Active
Learning Technologies.
www.MoAF.org  |  Winter 2020  |  FINANCIAL HISTORY  11