SANTA FE Special History Study

¹It is somewhat tangled, but it is a way to make money. Letter by Damaso Robledo to Manuel Alvarez, October 29, 1846, Manuel Alvarez Papers [hereafter MAP], roll 1 # 598.

²Council Grove Press (Kansas), August 17, 1863; ibid., Sep 14, 1863; MAP, roll 2 # 557.

³Westport Border Star, July 15, 1859; Westport Border Star, Aug 12, 1859; Barry, The Beginning of the West, 1037-1038; Missouri Republican, September 8, October 21, and December 17, 1858; June 8, July 18, and August 15, 1859; Fort Dodge (KS) Records, frame # 227, July 23, 1867; frame # 272, Sep 1867; Sister Lilliana Owens, "Jesuit Beginnings in New Mexico, 1867-1882," Jesuit Studies - Southwest, Number 1 (n.d.), 32-35; "Preliminary Report of Survey of Inscriptions Along Santa Fe Trail in Oklahoma," Chronicles of Oklahoma (Autumn 1960), 310-322. The inscriptions, however, do not reveal if the names belonged to owners or freighters.

⁴The commercial activities of Felipe Chávez provide an excellent example of operations associated with the Santa Fe trail, see Chapter VI for the specific details.

⁵Barry, The Beginning of the West, 117.

⁶Twitchell, Leading Facts of New Mexico History, vol. II, 118; MANM, roll 5 # 575-576, 846-847; Barry, The Beginning of the West, 117, 132; James W. Covington, "Correspondence Between Mexican Officials at Santa Fe and Officials in Missouri: 1823-1825," The Bulletin, Missouri Historical Society (October 1959), 20-32; William R. Manning, Early Diplomatic Relations Between the United States and Mexico (New York: Greenwood Press, 1968), 177-186; Moorhead, New Mexico's Royal Road, 66.

⁷Franklin Intelligencer, June 9, 1826, p 3. Unfortunately there are no official records listing the merchandise Escudero introduced in the Santa Fe custom house at the end of his trip.

⁸MANM roll 6 # 486.

⁹Franklin Intelligencer, June 9, 1826, p 3.

¹⁰MANM, roll 11 # 346.

¹¹This is the last guía that records the introduction of foreign merchandise through Chihuahua, MANM, roll 24 # 802.

¹²The postscript of Cordero's letter requested information on the effects brought on the caravan, their prices and quantity, MANM, roll 24 # 1039-1040.

¹³U.S., Congress, House, Committee on Commerce, To Establish Ports of Entry in Arkansas and Missouri, 26th Cong., 1st sess., May 1840, p. 14-16. On the other hand fluctuations in the mining industry in Chihuahua might have caused a decrease in the demand for foreign goods.

¹⁴MAP, roll 1 # 458-461; roll 2 # 618.

¹⁵For Cordero's manifest, see MANM, roll 27 # 603-12; for the guías see MANM, roll 21 # 341-342.

¹⁶Barry, The Beginning of the West, 383; information from surviving manifests and guías indicate that at least three leading New Mexican merchants participated in this trip—José and Mariano Chávez and Antonio José Otero, MANM, roll 28 # 698-699, 700-704, 730, 736-738, 750; see Appendix II for a list of all surviving manifests presented by Hispano merchants.

¹⁷MANM, roll 28 # 710-750. It is difficult to estimate the value of foreign merchandise coming to Santa Fe because neither manifests nor guías generally include an assessment of the value of the goods; a comparison of the loads from this period with those from the 1860s and 1870s reveals that with time their size and value improved dramatically. Another notable Mexican who brought a substantial amount of merchandise from the United States that year was Francisco Elguea (eleven bultos), but unluckily the value was not indicated.

¹⁸Barry, The Beginning of the West, 449, 455.

¹⁹MANM roll 34 # 1176, 1182, 1203, 1204, 1205.

²⁰Moorhead, New Mexico Royal Road, 124-125.

²¹MANM, roll 27, 603-12, 613-618. The customs official sometimes referred to the derecho de internación as derecho de alcabala, which is technically incorrect; it is not possible to ascertain how they assigned import duties; derecho de consumo was 15 percent of the derecho de internación, MANM, roll 28 # 702, 730 738, 750.

²²MANM, roll 28 # 699, 702-204. Gregg confirms that only five merchants traveled that year; he claims that only $50,000 worth of merchandise was shipped that year, the fourth lowest since 1822, The Commerce of the Prairies, 332. Information on the amount of import duties merchants paid in other years is sporadic and does not allow for a comparison.

²³Barry, The Beginning of the West, 430, 438; Gregg, The Commerce of the Prairies, 332.

²⁴Webb, Adventures in the Santa Fe Trade, 111.

²⁵In 1841 Texas Governor Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar believing that public sentiment in New Mexico favored Texas in its dispute with Mexico City, sent a party of over three hundred armed men across the plains to assert Texas jurisdiction over New Mexico. Governor Manuel Armijo was warned of the Texans' intent and easily forced the surrender of the weary, hungry and thirsty Texans, Webber, The Mexican Frontier, 266-269; Gregg, The Commerce of the Prairies, 337-345.

²⁶MANM, roll 32 # 1598-1603; see Appendix II.

²⁷MANM, roll 32 # 1607-1628; see Appendix II.

²⁸For Alvarez's manifest see, MANM, roll 32 # 1604-1606; for John McKnight, # 1590-91; for James Magoffin, # 1588-1589; see Appendix II.

²⁹Gregg, The Commerce of the Prairies, 332.

³⁰Marc Simmons's Murder Down the Santa Fe Trail: An International Incident, 1843 (El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1987) provides the most complete account of the incident in which Antonio José Chávez lost his life; Barry, The Beginning of the West, 475-476.

³¹MANM, roll 34 # 1171. Import duties had increased dramatically following the disposition of a decree issued June 27, 1842 with some fabrics paying up to 80 reales (10 dollars) per vara. The special tax on knitted fabrics was dropped and the derecho de consumo fluctuated between 15 and 20 percent, # 1176-1199.

³²MANM, roll 34 # 1180-1181, 1190; see Appendix II.

³³MANM, roll 34 # 1176-1177, 1193-1195.

³⁴MANM, roll 37 # 413417, 418436, 437-442, 443-455, 456-458; see Appendix II.

³⁵MANM, roll 40 # 287-292, 294-311, 322-323, 325-327, 349-351. For other guías issued to traders carrying foreign merchandise see MANM, roll 40 # 392, 393, 394, 395, 396, 397, 399, 400, 402, 408, 472.

³⁶Barry, The Beginning of the West, 571, 580, 591, 600, 628, 638, 642, 685, 702, 827-828, 874.

³⁷Barry, The Beginning of the West, 512-513, 527, 565; David Lavender, Bent's Fort (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1954), 230-231; for the Armijo trip to New York, see New York Weekly Tribune, November 15, 1845, p. 4; see Appendix II.

³⁸Pittsburgh Daily Commercial Journal, April 6, 1846, April 7, 1846, and April 16, 1846; Tom Thomas, "The Evolution of Transportation in Western Pennsylvania," unpublished manuscript, 56-59.

³⁹ Gregg, The Commerce of the Prairies, 331-332.

⁴⁰Wyman, "Freighting in the Santa Fe Trail," 19-25; Missouri Republican, August 15, 1859; O'Brien, "Independence, Missouri's Trade," 98-108; Hall, Social Change of the Southwest, 150.

⁴¹Cooke, "A Journal of the Santa Fe Trail," 254. Cook is saying that he did not see ten wagons that belonged to Americans who resided in the United States. But of the 200 wagon loads that Cook mentions, several belonged to Americans who lived in Mexico. For example, Henry Connelly, a naturalized Mexican citizen, partially owned twenty-two wagons on the trail that year. Information from Mark Gardner, personal correspondence, 11/1/94.

⁴²Eugene T. Wells, "The Growth of Independence, Missouri: 1827-1850," Bulletin of the Missouri Historical Society, vol. XVI (Oct 1959), 33-46; Moorhead, New Mexico's Royal Road, 110; Barry, The Beginning of the West, 438, 455, 486, 565; for Armijo's guías, see Appendix I.

⁴³A cart laden with foreign goods could carry $3,390 worth of merchandise, see MANM roll 21 # 352; MANM, roll 28 # 730, 736-738.

⁴⁴Westport Border Star, July 15, 1859, Aug. 12, 1859.

⁴⁵1841 and 1842 were not good years for keeping records associated with the Santa Fe trail; in 1841 the Texan Santa Fe expedition disrupted the trade and as a punishment the Custom Offices in Santa Fe and Chihuahua were closed for seven months, between August 7, 1843 and March 31, 1844, Gregg, The Commerce of the Prairies, 344; Moorhead, New Mexico's Royal Road, 124-125; for American guías in 1843 see MANM roll 34 # 1202, 1206, 1211, 1212, 1216; roll 37 # 392, 405, 407; roll 39 # 287-292, 294-311. Possibly as result of the drawback bill passed by the U. S. Congress in 1845 American traders showed renewed interest in the trade. James Magoffin took $26,000 in merchandise, Albert Speyer close to $70,000, MANM, roll 40 # 294-311.

⁴⁶Sandoval, "Trade and the Manito Society in New Mexico," passim.

⁴⁷Atherton, Lewis E., "James and Robert Aull—A Frontier Missouri Mercantile Firm, "Missouri Historical Review 30 (1935), 3-27; "Business techniques in the Santa Fe Trade," Missouri Historical Review 34 (1940), 335-41; "The Santa Fe Trader as Mercantile Capitalist," Missouri Historical Review 72 (October 1982), 1-12.

⁴⁸Parish, Robert J., The Charles Ilfeld Company: A Study of the Rise and Decline of Mercantile Capitalism in New Mexico (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1961), 3-10, 11-82; "The German Jew and the Commercial Revolution in Territorial New Mexico, 1850-1900," New Mexico Historical Review XXXV (1960), 3-29; 129-143.

⁴⁹Parish, "The German Jew and the Commercial Revolution in Territorial New Mexico," 18-23; Parish, The Charles Ilfeld Company, 33-35.

⁵⁰Parish, "The German Jew," 9.

⁵¹It is possible that Henry Connelly, George and Charle Bent, and others could have developed similar commercial techniques as Alvarez; Parish, "The German Jew," 5.

⁵²The life of Manuel Alvarez has received a splendid treatment at the hands of Thomas E. Chávez, Manuel Alvarez, 1794-1856: A Southwestern Biography (Niwot: University Press of Colorado, 1990). Unfortunately this biography does not explore in sufficient detail Alvarez's economic activities. His extensive ledgers and correspondence in Spanish, French, and English deserve a more careful reading; they might provide a better understanding of the economic system which developed in New Mexico prior to the Mexican War; for a discussion of his transactions that involved other Santa Fe trail merchants. See also O'Brien, "Independence, Missouri's Trade," 231-247.

⁵³MAP, roll 1 # 441-443.

⁵⁴Parish, "The German Jew," 18.

⁵⁵MAP, roll 1 # 458-461, 479, 480, 481.

⁵⁶MAP, roll 1 # 1-102; roll 2 # 557, 546, 618; O'Brien, "Independence, Missouri's Trade," 231-247.

⁵⁷Parish, "The German Jew," 19; MAP roll 1 #441-443, 560-561, 574, 576, 594, 598, 600-601, 603, 634-635, 654-655, 694-695, 697, 723-724.

⁵⁸MAP, roll 1 # 441-443, 576, 723-724.

⁵⁹MAP, roll 1 # 594, 598, 600-601, 603, 694-695.

⁶⁰Parish, The Charles Ilfeld Company, 8.

⁶¹Eighth Census of the United States, rolls 712-716; Ninth Census of the United States, rolls 893-897; for a listing of New Mexican merchants listed in the 1860 and 1870 Census, see Appendix III; unfortunately, the 1850 and 1880 censuses include no information on personal property. Darlis A. Miller presents the best analysis to date on cross-cultural marriages, "Cross-Cultural Marriages in the Southwest: The New Mexico Experience, 1846-1900," New Mexico Historical Review 57 (1982): 335-59. See also Nancie L. González, The Spanish-Americans of New Mexico: A Heritage of Pride (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1967), 80.

⁶²Eighth Census of the United States, rolls 712-716; Ninth Census of the United States, rolls 893-897; see Appendix III.

⁶³Lincoln County was created in 1869 out of the eastern part of Socorro County. Colfax County was created out of Mora in the same year. Grant County had been created the year before (1868) out of the western fourth of Doña Ana County. Both Valencia and Bernalillo Counties ceded their eastern third to San Miguel County.

⁶⁴Eighth Census of the United States, rolls 712-716; Ninth Census of the United States, rolls 893-897; see Appendix III.

⁶⁵Surviving stationery from the Perea family indicates that they owned at least one store in Bernalillo, Felipe Delgado Business Papers, 1864-1881; Webb, Adventures in the Santa Fe Trade, 92-93.

⁶⁶In 1844 Simón Delgado wrote to his brother Pablo, "a estos individuos no les aflojen un momento hasta que te paguen el último medio, (don't let up until these individuals pay you the last cent)," Delgado Papers (Dingee Collection), 1837-1853, 1843-1851.

⁶⁷Delgado Papers (Dingee Collection), 1837-1853; Delgado Papers (Jenkins Collection), 1828-1876; Felipe Delgado Business Papers, 1864-1881.

⁶⁸A note on the back of one receipt said, "Apunte de los carneros que tiene cuidando Nicolás Casados pertenecientes a esta tienda," (Note on the wethers that Nicolas Casados is taking care that belong to this store), Delgado Papers (Jenkins Collection), San Miguel del Vado Accounts, 1837-1853; the document has no date.

⁶⁹Delgado Papers (Dingee Collection), 1851-1854; according to Agnes C. Laut, José Chávez was one of the foremost miners in New Mexico, Pilgrims of the Santa Fe (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1931), 272.

⁷⁰Correspondence (May 17, 1844) from José Zubía to Manuel Delgado, Delgado Papers, Dingee Collection, 1842-1846; correspondence from José Leandro Perea (1865, 1877, and 1881) shows both Perea and Delgado doing favors for each others, Felipe Delgado Business Papers, 1864-1881; correspondence (Sep 9, 1877) from Juan García to Martín Amador, a merchant from Las Cruces, Martín Amador Papers, Río Grande Historical Collections/Hobson-Huntsinger University Archives, Las Cruces, New Mexico, box 15; O'Brien, indicates that cooperation was also crucial to the success of non-Hispano merchants; see "Independence, Missouri's Trade with Mexico," passim.

⁷¹Felipe Delgado Business Papers, 1864-1881.

⁷²MAP, roll # 2 1076-1078.

⁷³In 1854 Fernando Delgado sold 101 ounces of silver in St. Louis for which he received $360.09, Delgado Papers (Dingee Collection) 1851-1854; see Chapter VI for a more detailed discussion of Felipe Chávez's shipments outside New Mexico.