the Enchantment Chronicles
Chronicling the stories of the enchanting people, places, and events from New Mexico - the Land of Enchantment.
the Enchantment Chronicles
Live and Let Die: The Death of Charles Bent, first American Governor of New Mexico
The Taos Revolt established New Mexico as a place distinct from from the political and ethnic constructs that shaped it. Like our varied geography, the people of New Mexico made distinctions within and among their groups as to whether and how to resist absorption by the United States.
This episode should be considered part of our "Hard History" series, notes are included in the link below.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1me1Dbv2KTWEkGRYMCoEIHr5dZt3iQcQqrFU3Ww_ILk8/edit?usp=sharing
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SPEAKER_01:Welcome to the Enchantment Chronicles. Today we're gonna talk about Governor Charles Bennett and his life and death.
SPEAKER_00:He's a famous fellow here in New Mexico, right? The first American territorial governor of a eventually to be state.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. The first governor of New Mexico, the first civilian governor of New Mexico, arguably Kearney was the first governor, depending on how you look at it. But definitely the first civilian governor under the military rule, not elected, appointed by Stephen Kearney, just prior to Kearney's departing the state in 1846.
SPEAKER_00:But how did he get to New Mexico, Johnny? How how does Governor Bent wind up an American governor of a Mexican territory?
SPEAKER_01:Well, Governor Bent was like many early American New Mexicans or Americans, United States in the New Mexico Territory, was from Missouri. And he came out here in the early 1800s after the Santa Fe Trail had opened up. He came out here and I want to say 1828 or 1829 established his first expedition from Missouri.
SPEAKER_00:93 wagon loads he takes. And it's not his first trip to the West, though. He's he's in on the fur trade early on, right?
SPEAKER_01:Well, I I I know he came out in 1828 or 1829 some at some point, and I know he started to establish at some point, whether it's before or after that time, he started to establish and tried to get into the fur trade out here.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that was before he he kind of gave up. And so it it's kind of a crazy period in American history, you know that by the 1820s, you know, Missouri is this huge entryway to the West. You know, it's commemorated by the St. Louis Arch now. But it's just a remarkable how much this country has expanded just in its first few decades. Kind of ruthlessly expanded. But he he at first thought he was gonna get in on the fur trade, which was a huge trade, but John Jacob Astor basically has an Amazon monopoly on it. And so it doesn't really take off. He he and a partner try to open up some trading stations, but the American fur company and its subsidiaries just basically are crushing all the competition. So yeah, eventually he winds up trying to make a trip to New Mexico, selling goods essentially to the trappers and the traders and the settlers out here from the factories out east.
SPEAKER_01:So he established himself in Taos at some point.
SPEAKER_00:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01:18, the late 1820s. You know, he he originally came, like I said, he came from Missouri. His father was a relatively prominent lawyer and land surveyor in Missouri. His father served on the Missouri Supreme Court, so he it was a well-to-do family, and I think that gave him and his brother brothers the leeway to explore and gamble, if you will, with the trades. He and his brother moved out here out west. There is a national historic site named or called Bent's Fort, where he and his brother established a trading post, a fort for his trading post at some point that is now a national historic site.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and that fort wasn't huge, it was like 170 feet long and almost that wide. It's just Adobe Walls and a Torreon around tower.
SPEAKER_01:So they came out here and he established for good a place, a way to way to live, a northern New Mexico Taos area. Um but they had forts all along the way from here to Missouri all along the way to protect from various raiders and the like. But what what point did the fur trade start to die out?
SPEAKER_00:Well, uh it it's kind of collapsing because there's this hunting, you know, you you're killing all the beavers essentially, you're killing all the all the best fur animals, and so the other thing that kind of kills off the trade is that fashion changes. People aren't as excited about wearing fur. And so John Jacob Astor, that prominent New Yorker, that he drops out of the American fur company in 1834, and subsequently it just almost collapses. The subsidiaries became independent companies and they're just kind of eking their way along ghosts to what they once were. So he, you know, Charles Bent was almost right in his timing, but he was almost completely wrong, too, because the whole industry's gone by the time he's, you know, trading and establishing himself in Santa Fe. So he has to turn to other pursuits.
SPEAKER_01:But at least by that point he had established himself somewhat with various trade routes, and he got into bringing goods more so from Missouri and established himself. Didn't he uh undergo a partnership in the 1830s with a another trader from St. Louis? Yeah, Saint Saint Vrent. So I I don't know if St. Brain, Saint Vrent. Yeah, I don't know how French pronunciations are. Saint Ron, St. Vront. Taos had a bunch of when it was the Mexican period and I guess pre-Mexican period, Taos had a bunch of French influence. Yeah, doing the French traders and the French trapping, and they came in and so there was strangely enough a even a religious split that we can chat about later, but between the different flavors of Catholicism in New Mexico during the during the years.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, very different, very different philosophies and approaches. Just like the French had a very different approach to the New World, you know. They they kind of were establishing trade as opposed to conquest, you know, working to form commercial relationships as opposed to claiming dominion over large swaths of territory.
SPEAKER_01:So so few of them in comparison, they had to kind of get along. But you know, one interesting thing, or not interesting thing, just as what people did, is a lot of these folks in intermarried with the locals, the local prominent families that gave them a leg up in trade and in politics and what have you, and that's no different with Governor Charles Bent. He started calling himself Carlos Carlos Bent, I guess. He married into a local prominent Taos family. He married Maria Ignacia Jaramillo in the mid-1830s. Excuse me. He started having relations with her, but never formally married her, but was for all intents and purposes married to her. Everybody knew them to be significant others.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and in fact, her younger sister does actually marry Kit Carson. Yosepha Haramil. She's the one that for whom Kit Carson converts to Catholic Catholicism, and she's the one that was also 14 years old when he marries her. So I guess that makes uh Charles Bent and Kit Carson brothers in common law, right?
SPEAKER_01:Brothers in common law, yeah. So anyway, so Bent gets here, it's in mid-1830s, he's somewhat related to Kit Carson, and he's trying to figure it out. What does he do? What are they starting? What starts happening in New Mexico in the 1830s?
SPEAKER_00:Well, uh, there's a governor, Armijo, that you'll hear a lot more about later. But as as uh the Mexican government's representative, he's writing off land grants to friends. And Kit Carson kind of cleverly marries into and exploits relationships with certain members of the native New Mexican community, but he's definitely not an open-minded guy. You'll hear a little more about his attitudes later, but he exploits his relationships with uh Governor Armijo to eventually get some land grants. But first, he's dealing in a number of things. He's accused by Padere Martinez in a letter of selling whiskey to indigenous people.
SPEAKER_01:And is this is this Governor Bent or Carson or both?
SPEAKER_00:Oh, sorry, this is Governor, this is the future Governor Bent. This is Charles Bent at his at his various trading posts. Padere Martinez, who's a pretty prominent figure in New Mexico, widely varying reputations, depending on which historical community you're asking about. But he writes a letter saying you're poisoning these people. And that's probably consistent with the kind of practices he dealt with. He also made some money with stolen horses and stolen sheep. So not a super scrupulous guy. And of course, he's working in Missouri, the Santa Fe Trail back to Missouri, getting those manufactured goods out here. And you you made a note that he was also accused of running guns to the natives. He's he's related to the Southern Cheyenne, who eventually kind of form a peace treaty with the Comanche. And that kind of opens a window for him to be possibly providing weapons to indigenous people. Is that is that true, Johnny?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I don't know much about it. I just uh heard about it in that presentation by that uh that author. Um University of Nebraska. Who wrote the Blood in the Borderlands, he mentioned something of it. I don't know much about it, but you know, I would say probably I would I would believe it, given given what else this guy did uh and how he behaved. It seemed that he was very how do I say he thought himself superior to the natives and the native New Mexicans. Yes. Uh you know, so he cared about himself, it appeared like, and I would believe that he was probably doing unscrupulous trading behaviors.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. And that would that would probably be, you know, consistent with some of the approaches of a lot of people out there. And so by 1841, he's kind of exposing himself in writing, as he describes the the population of the New Mexico that he's chosen to live in and that he's chosen to marry into. He says they have no opinion of their own. They are entirely governed by the powers that be. They are without exception the most servile people that can be imagined. The Mexican character is made up of stupidity, obstinacy, ignorance, duplicity, and vanity. And you know, boy, sounds like there's a little bit of projection by the end with that duplicity and vanity. Because 1841 is also when he manages to backdoor himself into the largest land grant from the Mexican government. What would eventually first it was the Bobia Miranda land grant of almost 2 million acres, 1,715,000 or so acres in northeastern New Mexico and southern Colorado. But because of his association, his business association, I wouldn't call it a friendship with Governor Armijo, he gets 25% of that land. So he's getting 400,000 acres or so. Meanwhile, his partner, Saint Vrand, and another partner managed to get themselves about 4 million or so acres in a separate grant farther north, all the way up into Colorado. And that one was controversial because business partners by Mexican law, if you only have two partners, you were only supposed to get 96,000 acres. So there's later going to be a court case about this. And there's a court case about the Maxwell land grant, too. But when it becomes a Maxwell land grant, Ben gets paid off, or his family gets paid off 25% of that of the proceeds. So it's it's quite a deal for him. And that that land grant covers Cimarron, Raton, Elizabethtown, you know, that that huge swath of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado.
SPEAKER_01:And there's you reference a court case, Drew. I'll give you the site. 122 U.S. 365 1887 Maxwell land grant talks about the history of the grant and whether it was valid based on how big it was. And and essentially, I believe the court found that Congress should have known or would have known when it granted back in the 1840s the um approved the grants coming into the country as part of the war.
SPEAKER_00:So the Maxwell Land Company that buys out Maxwell in 1870 continues to operate in New Mexico all the way until the 1960s. But remember, you know, remember that attitude that uh Bent had about the the native people because it's gonna be important just like his fort's important. Because what what happens in 1846?
SPEAKER_01:Stephen Kearney. Stephen Kearney comes to town in what May of 1846, or at least comes to Las Vegas, and probably at some point, Drew, Stephen Kearney either stopped at Bent's fort or knew Bent or met Bent, definitely probably knew Bent's or knew of Bent's father, who was on the Supreme Court there in Missouri until 1817 to 1821. At some so Ben Bent and Kearney knew probably each other on some level.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, in fact, I guess there's a definite recorded stop back in the year before in July of 1845. Kearney was on an expedition to Wyoming. So, you know, the United States is kind of checking out this territory that at best could be charitably described as disputed territory, and on their way back, they stop at Ben's Fort. He might have even met him earlier that year on his way out in St. Louis, because Bent had been, you know, occasionally going back to St. Louis in this time as to manage his business affairs. So he might have met him twice, and essentially Bent impresses Kearney. Kearning says, Wow, you know so much about New Mexico. You know, he might be the man I need.
SPEAKER_01:You know, you know Spanish. You know Spanish. You'll do a great job. You know Spanish. Yep. Yep. You're well, not so much.
SPEAKER_00:No, no. Remember. That attitude that, oh, they're they're just gonna obey whoever comes along. That's they're servile, you know. Well, that that might not have turned out to be accurate. So Kearney comes with the Army of the West, and they're charged with taking New Mexico and California from the Mexican government as part of the war, which you know famously starts supposedly because of a skirmish and incursion of Mexican troops, but it really starts because we have an eye on this interconnection between the East and the West Coast as our manifest destiny. And so Kearney comes in with the army of the West, and they arrive in Santa Fe, and they are helped significantly by our friend Governor Armijo, who is recorded as having said, he was kind of a witty, if corrupt, guy. He'd said earlier in his life, it's better to be thought brave than to be so. And he has a history of this. He he doesn't get himself involved in some of the conflicts that that could happen. So he retreats immediately to Mexico, and because of that, there's not a lot of resistance. So Kearney gives what he thinks is this brilliant speech. Essentially, the the proclamation is hey guys, welcome to America. You're all American citizens now. And we promise to honor your faith, your language, and your lands. That's the three big promises that he's making in this proclamation. But there's a problem, and the problem is with those land grants. Remember the ones that Armijo's given away, that Bent and his partner are profiting from. Those land grants already are stepping on prior land grants. They're already touching on Taos Pueblos granted land, as well as lands that various Pueblos and tribes uh had traditionally used. So when he's given that speech and then he's picking Charles Bent, people are kind of remembering that Charles Bent has this attitude, and he also is definitely not going to be the guy that's gonna respect these historical brands that go back to the Spanish rule or the Mexican rule. So there's a lot of suspicion.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So Kearney comes in May, he promulgates, or the Kearney Code is promulgated in September 22nd of 1846, and by September 26, General Kearney takes off and departs to Alta, California or to California. California, along with Kit Carson, Bent's brother in common law, and goes to established in in in and that might be also a good reason why Governor Bent was appointed because Kit Carson was apparently decent friends with decent enough friends with Kearney to go with him to California.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So, you know, people are kind of looking around and they're saying, okay, that army's gone. And they leave just one colonel along with I don't know what how many troops he has under him, but they leave just one colonel behind, Colonel Price, and people start kind of thinking, maybe uh maybe this is a good time to take back New Mexico. And their big hope is that they're going to be hearing about these victories down south with the Mexican army in Chihuahua, and eventually that some Mexican troops can come forth and help. But some of the leading families from Santa Fe and Albuquerque start plotting. They work together. They have about nine or so big ringleaders, but two of the biggest ones are Diego Archuleta and Tomas Ortiz. Tomas Ortiz. Yeah, sorry. Tomas Ortiz.
SPEAKER_01:You're not from around here, Drew.
SPEAKER_00:That's true. But I but I definitely should know I'm safe for Moses. I'm just squinting a little too much at my notes here. So Archuleta was the military officer and the son of the former military commander of New Mexico, Juan Andreas Archuleta. And Ortiz is the brother of the Vicar of Santa Fe, Father Juan Felipe Ortiz. So they're prominent. But the rebellion kind of gets sniffed out pretty quickly. Seven of the plotters are caught. They're executed for treason after, you know, trials, but the trials, the juries or business associates of Bent, and various uh connections to the American occupation. But Archletta and Ortiz escape. Bent again gives another proclamation. He says, Some foolish and imprudent men were urged to follow the standard of rebellion. Their treason was discovered in time and smothered at its birth. And he goes on. And he tells everyone, Remain quiet, mind your own affairs, and ignore the notorious and ambitious persons. I am your best friend. Nice. So you know, once he's given his proclamation, he's given his speech.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, didn't he say something you have here in your notes? Quote, what help could the Department of Chihuahua, which is torn by factions and reduced to insignificance, afford you? Certainly none.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So there's there's nothing. There's there's no help coming, and in fact, they do get some news of defeats in Chihuahua, so they understand that. And so Bent is this is over, you know? Sure, a couple of them escaped. But he wants to go home. And so he does. He heads back without an escort to Taos on January 14th. But we already talked about how the Taos Pueblo people feel about how much respect is being given to their ancestral lands and their ancestral land grants, their communal land grants.
SPEAKER_01:So what happens, what happens to Governor Bent on the way back to Taos?
SPEAKER_00:Well, on the way back, he's okay. He gets there, but when he gets there, there's three Pueblo men in jail. And five days later, on January 19th, 1847, there's a crowd around the jail demanding the release of the Pueblo men that are held there. Bent? What's his reaction? Does he negotiate? Does he compromise? Does he seek peace? No, he says, go home. You know, I've already won this. Get home. But they the crowd returns and repeats their demands, but Sheriff Stephen Lee is about to give in because he's like, this is ugly. But Cornelio V. Hill arrives and denounces the assembly as thieves and scoundrels. And they killed him. So it's on now. And then they they head over to Ben's house, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, they want to see him. They want him.
SPEAKER_00:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01:And then do they get him?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. A combined group of Hispanic and Taos Indian rebels, led by Pablo and Montoya and Tomas or Tomasito Romero, little Tomas, who is a member of the Taos Pueblo. They broke into Ben's house and killed him. Along with his brother-in-law. Maybe it's another brother in common law. His Taos Sheriff, Stephen Lee, who had escaped that earlier mob that killed Cornelio Vegil, is killed. Narciso Bobian, who's the 19-year-old son of Charles Bobian, is killed. And there's different accounts of how he's killed. In some versions, he's shot at his desk as he's writing a letter. In other versions, he gets shot by arrows and he tries to crawl through a tunnel and they're breaking off as he's crawling through the tunnel. But in the end, what we have are accounts where he is scalped, whether dead or alive, in front of his family. And there's some discussion about whether or not the women should also be killed. And his daughter, Tarasina Bent, who later marries a Shurik, so it's Tarasina Bent, wrote down in a notebook a five-page account. She said she remembers that some of the crowd wanted to kill the family, but some of the Mexicans said, no, women, folks, and children, we must not kill. And some kind of standby. And some men menaced her, but others stepped up. They actually did intervene and said, She's one of their people, and then since the Americans had been driven out of the country, she's she's harmless. And so other local women took the family into their homes and protected them. So Charles Bent's common law wife, Ignacia Hanamino, will live all the way into her sixties and doesn't pass away until 1883. And again, we hear these different accounts. Uncle Dick Wooten, who you'll hear of as a mountain man, the guy that built the Ratone Road that became the Ratone Pass, you know, where I-25 passes through. He claims it's a race war. But he's kind of got some Charles Bent-like attitudes. In fact, the people that are getting killed and the people that are doing the killing are often interrelated. And as you see from the fact that the women are spared, it's really what they see as collaborators. You know, if you look at the results, that you know, that it's described as an assassination of Charles Bent, but you know, could call it a revolt. He would call it treason. It's definitely murder. Yeah, it's definitely murder. It's definitely uh premeditated. You know, the degree of provocation depends, I guess, on the point of view.
SPEAKER_01:But but it and it very well may be, like we were talking about earlier, it very well may be the first governor to ever have been scalped, uh, whether dead or alive. Uh first and maybe only. I don't know.
SPEAKER_00:I don't I yeah, I don't think there's any other examples.
SPEAKER_01:There's certainly I don't none in New Mexico, that's for sure. And then there's a few trials, there's more hangings, they quell this, they quell this again. A guy by the name of Donciano or V Hill is appointed governor, and then I believe there was another uh governor before before the territory was accepted as a territory where they were then appointed by the president.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. Yeah. And in in the meanwhile, in the immediate aftermath, there's a couple of skirmishes because the rebels are feeling pretty good about themselves after taking over Taos. And they're heading south to Santa Fe, but they meet Colonel Price's troops first at a crossing of the Canadian River and then at Mbudo Station. The rebellion will continue for a few months, but we'll hear more about that later because most of the rebellion will culminate in a siege up at Taos Pueblo. And that's worth another discussion on another day, right, Johnny?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, what date was that? It's in February, I believe. February.
SPEAKER_00:Well, all right. All right. Yeah, early February. The they they get in around the 2nd of February and lay siege. So we'll hear about that.
SPEAKER_01:Well, all right, all right, Drew. Sounds good. Let's until next time. Let's thanks for listening to the story of Governor Bent and his life and death in New Mexico.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Until next time. Adios. Adios. This episode of the Enchantment Chronicles was brought to you by the Law Office of John Osbour. Land of Enchantment Law, offering free consultation in the areas of criminal defense, expungement, licensure defense, or business law in the states of New Mexico and Texas. 505 585 1235. Land of Enchantment.
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