Thomas Oliver Boggs
by
Priscilla Shannon Gutiérrez

If you happen one day to find yourself in Clayton, New Mexico you might inquire about the old boot prairie cemetery where one of the key, yet little-known figures in Southwest history is buried along with his wife. Thomas Oliver Boggs, although mentioned in the historical record of well-known figures such as the Bent brothers, Lucien Maxwell, and Kit Carson, remains virtually unknown by many Western history buffs. By all accounts, Boggs was in fact a contemporary and close friend of many famous men and their families during the pivotal years preceding the Mexican-American War and the subsequent decades afterward. Boggs, during the course of his life, played an important role in the history of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. His is a remarkable story that indeed illustrates the adage, “truth is stranger than fiction.”

Boggs was born on August 22nd, 1824, on the Neosha River in Missouri. The exact location is not known. At the time of his birth, his father, Lilburn Boggs was a trader amongst various tribes in the area. His mother, Panthea Boone, was the granddaughter of the famous frontiersman, Daniel. He was the eldest of 10 children from her marriage to Lilburn, who later served as the governor of Missouri from 1836 to 1840. Lilburn Boggs secured a place in Mormon history when he issued the infamous executive order of 1838 ordering their expulsion from the state.

Thomas' mother, Panthea was Lilburn's second wife. His first wife, Julianna Bent; was the daughter of Silas Bent. Her siblings included William and Charles, the brothers who would later build their adobe castle on the plains and become so intimately entwined with the Santa Fe Trail and the history of both New Mexico and Colorado.

At an early age, Thomas went to live with his mother's brother, Albert G. Boone, who also was a trader among the Osage Indians. The reasons why Boggs went to live with his uncle are not exactly clear in the record, but evidently the seeds of exploration and adventure were sown during the trading years with Albert. At the age of 16 or 17, fluent in several Indian languages, Boggs left home, headed west and wound up at Bent's Fort where he would work for and with the Bent brothers and Ceran St. Vrain for the next 16 years. He would come to be known as “White Horse” among the Cheyenne and other tribes who traded with the Bents and their partner, Ceran St. Vrain.

According to his own dictated manuscript, Boggs entered Mexican territory for the first time in 1844 as part of a pack train of goods that the Bents and St. Vrain were freighting over the Santa Fe Trail. However, some sources such as Murphy and Garrard, have him farming with John Hatcher on the Poñil north of Cimarron as early as 1842. Stanley, who probably is the most accurate, has Boggs and Hatcher farming on the Poñil at the same time that Lucien Maxwell and Kit Carson were trying to establish a settlement at Rayado around 1845. Both Rayado and Poñil were on the extreme frontier of the vast Beaubien-Miranda-Maxwell grant on the east side of the Sangre de Cristos.

In any event, Boggs wound up in Taos as an employee of the Bent-St. Vrain enterprise. In Taos, he became acquainted with the customs and language of the country, thanks in large part to Charles Bent who resided in town and handled the unloading of goods to be sold at the Bent-St. Vrain store, as well as his friend Kit Carson, who had married into the well established Jaramillo family in Taos, and had a residence there a short distance from Charles' home.

During Boggs' return trips to Taos he became familiar with Bent's common-law wife, Ignacia Jaramillo Luna Bent and her young daughter Romalda Luna. Made a widow by the death of her husband, Juan Rafael Luna, Ignacia brought her young daughter Romalda to live with her when she moved in with Charles. During his visits with Charles and family, Thomas became quite taken with the petite,14 year-old Romalda, in spite of her young age, and in May, 1846 they were married. Romalda considered her Tomás the “cleverest” person she'd met and their union would prove to be a mutually beneficial match that would endure for the next 50 years.

Romalda's aunt, Josepha Jaramillo, was the young bride of Kit Carson. Both she and Romalda were considered the belles of Taos prior to their marriages, given their beauty, grace and a lineage that included Cornelius Vigil of the Vigil-St. Vrain grant in southern Colorado. The grant would later provide Thomas and Romalda with an opportunity to lay the foundation for the community of Las Animas, as well as a place for Josepha and Kit to play out the last days of their lives.

Immediately after Thomas and Romalda's marriage, the United States declared war on Mexico. It quickly became clear that Taos was no longer a safe place for Americans and anyone associated with them. Rumors of the possibility of invasion by the United States swirled around the country and created an increasingly hostile attitude inflamed by daily speeches and tirades in the plaza aimed at the intruders. Alarmed over events, Boggs brought his young bride to Bent's Fort in July for safekeeping along with Charles Bent's family and Kit Carson's wife. At about the same time, the U.S. Congress voted to annex the territory. The Boggs, Bent, and Carson families remained at the fort several weeks until things appeared to have settled down and then set out for Taos. As the group made their way back along the trail, little did any of them realize the tumultuous events that lay before them and how profound an impact they would have.

When Stephen Watts Kearney entered Santa Fe in August, 1846 and declared it part of the United States, the world that the Boggs, Bents, Jaramillos and Carsons knew shifted rapidly and they found themselves in the middle of military strategizing and the formation of the new government. Charles Bent was put in place as the governor of the new territory, and in December, Kearney sent Boggs to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas with mail and dispatches. In spite of a “norther” blizzard that almost killed him, Boggs made it to Leavenworth mid January and remained there until mid March of 1847 awaiting orders. He was finally able to return to Taos in April. What Thomas learned upon his arrival stunned him. His employer, friend, and relative, Charles Bent was dead, a victim of the Taos Rebellion. The recent take-over of the territory by the United States was resented by a number of residents who had been in the area for centuries and who were fuming over the intrusion and changes in government. Tempers had been simmering and finally erupted in bedlam and violence on the night of January 19th, 1847. A mob had broken into the Bent home off the plaza, and attacked the newly appointed governor.

As he lay dying, head scalped and his body riddled with arrows, the young Romalda had held her step-father, tears running down her face. The family, including Ignacia, Josepha, and the young Teresina Bent, daughter of Ignacia and Charles, spent a horrific night huddled together with Bent's body in a small room, freezing in the cold temperatures. Family supporters managed to whisk them out of the house to safety almost two days later disguised as Indian servents. As Boggs took this all in, with heavy heart he regretted his absence during his family's hour of need and realized that with Bent gone and Carson away with Kearney in California, it was up to him to take on the role of guardian and head of the related families. For the next several months, with Boggs in the lead, they tried to pull themselves together and move on with life amidst the turbulent trials and hangings of the convicted leaders of the rebellion. Boggs surely also took an active role in guarding the interests of the Bent brothers' business in the absence of Charles leadership.

Around September of 1847, Boggs and his brother, William opened up a mercantile store in Santa Fe on Main Street. A series of ads in the Santa Fe New Mexican were placed by Boggs advertising the business, which moved from 5 Main Street to 78 Main Street, and included a variety of dry goods and hardware. He remained associated with the store until 1850 when he moved his family west.

Late in the fall of 1847, Boggs was asked to accompany John C. Fremont to Los Angeles where he took advantage of the opportunity to head north and visited with his mother and father, who along with his brother William, had moved to California in 1846. Boggs stayed until August and then returned to New Mexico via Sonora and Chihuahua. He was so impressed with California that upon his return to Taos, he made plans to return there. In 1850, with Romalda and his young son, Carlos Adolfo in tow, Boggs headed to the Bodega Bay area of northern California where they would live for the next 5 years.

Around 1855, Boggs brought his family back to Taos and once again hooked up with his friend and relative Kit Carson. Both joined Lucien Maxwell at the Rayado settlement with their respective families. That same year, Boggs went into partnership with Maxwell to supply Indians with flour and cattle, part of U.S. government contracts that Maxwell had procured. Living so far from Taos was dangerous with Comanches and Apaches increasingly becoming a problem on the plains east of the Sangre de Cristos.

One day a group of Comanches arrived at the settlement demanding food. Maxwell was away on business and Carson was stationed at nearby Fort Union. Boggs, once again responsible for the various members of each family assessed the situation and decided to hold a feast “in honor” of their visitors while he sent for help at Fort Union. The women quickly got to work cooking and began serving the food. The chief of the Comanches became smitten with the 12-year old Teresina Bent who was living with her Aunt Josepha at the time and insisted on buying her. Teresina was terrified and her tears in front of the chief filled him with laughter, her fear only increasing his desire for her. Fortunately for the settlement, Boggs' spur-of-the-moment plan worked. Carson and troops arrived from Fort Union in the nick of time – the chief had issued an ultimatum to deliver Teresina to him and it was sure to end in a fight.

Boggs and his family remained at Rayado until the late 1850's when they accompanied Maxwell to the nearby fledgeling settlement of Cimarron. His home was just down the road from the Aztec mill that Maxwell built and both the mill and Boggs' home still stand to this day. The mill has been turned into a museum, and Boggs' home is now a private residence. By 1863, Boggs and Maxwell were running cattle in the lush bottomlands near the mouth of the Purgatoire where it joins the Arkansas near present-day Las Animas, Colorado. William Bent's stockade was nearby – 15 miles upriver from the site of Fort Lyon and Boggs likely found food and lodging at Bent's place whenever he was in the area.

Around 1864 or 1865, Boggs decided to return to the Purgatoire and start a settlement there. Both his wife Romalda and her aunt Josepha had claim to part of the Vigil-St. Vrain grant through their grandfather Cornelius, who also was a victim of the Taos Rebellion. Ceran St. Vrain, acting as the sole remaining grant landowner and as Romalda's godfather gave her and Thomas a 2,040 acre share of the Purgatoire bottomlands.

Boggs built 2 adobe structures and the new community took the name Boggsville. William Bent was a frequent visitor to the community which included Bent's daughter Mary and her family, John Prowers and his Cheyenne wife, Amache, and Josepha Jaramillo Carson, pregnant with her seventh child with Kit. Her husband was still at Fort Garland where he was the acting commander. In 1868 Carson retired from active duty and made his way to his family on the Purgatoire. Increasingly debilitated by injuries incurred during his many adventures, Carson moved with Josepha and their children into a small adobe on Boggs' property where his health continued to falter. Josepha's death shortly after childbirth on April 27, 1868, was the final bullet in Carson's quickly fading star. He died a month after Josepha at nearby Fort Lyon leaving 5 underage children orphans. Their other two children were old enough to fend for themselves. Upon Carson's death, Boggs not only became the executor of his will, he and Romalda became the guardians of the 5 Carson orphans and raised them until they were able to go out on their own. The trust that Carson placed in Boggs by leaving his children in his care, as well as Boggs' commitment to his old friend speaks volumes about the integrity of the man. Romalda, who had remained close to Josepha throughout their lives must have equally felt the weight of responsibility for caring for her beloved aunt's children.

In 1866, tragedy struck Thomas and Romalda when a group of Cheyennes, angry over a trade with Boggs, encountered one of their young sons on their way back to camp and killed him. He was overseeing some livestock a few miles outside of Fort Lyon. The record is not clear as to which son was felled by the Cheyennes, but the death struck a terrible blow. Thomas and Romalda, no strangers to suffering, remained in the area another ten years. The birth of their daughter, Minnie around this time must have helped to sooth some of their sorrow.

During his years at Boggsville, Thomas became actively involved in sheep raising and to this day is widely considered the “father” of the sheep business in Bent County, Colorado. Interestingly, his colleague and friend John Prowers became the father of the cattle business in the same county after Boggs' departure. By 1875, Boggs had an impressive 17,000 head of sheep. Every year, in addition to shearing his own flock, Boggs would invite his neighbors to bring their own heads of sheep to his facility to be sheared. However, success in his business ventures wasn't his sole path while at Boggsville. Thomas also was the first sheriff of the county and in 1871 was elected to the state legislature.

In spite of his vital role in establishing the area, and in spite of Romalda's claim to this part of the Vigil-St. Vrain grant, in 1877, the Land Grant office decided that Boggs could not sufficiently prove title to the 2,040 acres that St. Vrain had given Romalda. They were forced to vacate their successful sheep ranch and moved to Willow Springs, the site of present-day Raton where they opened a boarding house at the foot of Fishers Peak (then known as Raton Mountain) that was known for its hospitality and Romalda's fine cooking. However, a short time later, problems with land grants forced them to leave once again. The Maxwell Land Grant Company, now owned by investors from England, were able to prove that Boggs had no legal claim to Willow Springs and forced his eviction.

Boggs packed up Romalda and their two surviving children, Charlie and Minnie, and moved to Springer, New Mexico, just to the southeast of Rayado. With several thousand head of sheep in tow, Boggs made his way to the Pinavetitos River about 35 miles south of Clayton where he set up a ranch with two-foot thick adobe walls, and heavy solid oak doors, as well as a shed to shear his sheep. The only windows in the place were port holes through which a gun barrel could be thrust out. The area was still untamed and Indians were about – the Apaches were on the warpath and the Clayton area comprised part of their territory. Boggs maintained his residence in Springer while he kept the sheep raising venture on the Pinavetitos. His oldest son, Carlos Adolfo, known in the area by his Anglo name, Charlie, helped keep the ranch going while Boggs made his way back and forth between the Pinavetitos and Springer. Ironically, while in Springer, Thomas was employed as a receiver and agent for the Maxwell Land Grant Company – the very group that had forced him out of Willow Springs. Boggs kept the sheep venture until 1882 when he sold the irrigated land for $10,000 to a recently formed cattle company. Later, the timbers from his sheep shearing shed would be used to construct the first buildings in the town of Clayton.

On December 11, 1884, Minnie Boone Boggs married George Alexander Bushnell. George, who hailed from Cheltenham, England, came to the Springer area as an auditor for the Maxwell Cattle Company. They most likely met through the business dealings George had with Thomas since both worked for the same company. The wedding took place in Springer and was such a major event in the area that it made the news in the Las Vegas Optic newspaper. After the wedding, Minnie and her husband moved to his ranch on the Tramperos River south of Clayton. George and his brother Charles became important pioneers of the area and contributed much to the development of the town, which was officially established in 1888. George became the first merchant to establish a business in Clayton and was instrumental in establishing the school system in Clayton.

Tragedy struck deep once again in early June, 1887 when Boggs' son, Charlie was gunned down in his home five miles east of the Bushnell ranch after just returning from Raton with supplies. His body was taken to Springer for burial. Details about the murder are sketchy but the prime suspect in the murder was his good-looking wife. Boggs and his family, in spite of suspicions, refused to prosecute and his son's widow left the country for parts unknown. After Charlie's death, Romalda and Thomas left Springer and moved in with Minnie and George on their ranch on the Tramperos.

Bogg's greatest joy in his final years would be his first grandson, Charles Lilburn, whom he spoiled “shamelessly,” and whom Boggs loved to boast about to friends and acquaintances. As the years passed, and his brood of grandchildren grew, he and Romalda became known as Uncle Tom and Gramma Boggs. In all, Minnie gave birth to 4 children: Charles Lilburn, born in 1887, Thomas George, born in 1891, Rose May, born in 1893, and George, who was born in 1896.

After a lingering illness that persisted for several months, Thomas Oliver Boggs passed away at Minnie's home on September 29, 1894. Romalda Luna Boggs survived him by 12 years, doting on her grandchildren and living quietly with her daughter, who became a widow herself when George passed away from pneumonia at the age of 33. Romalda passed away on January 13th, 1906. In her obituary the local paper, the Clayton Citizen, referred to Romalda as one of the town's most respected citizens and the last “oldtimer.”

Thomas Oliver Boggs and Romalda Luna Boggs were extraordinary individuals who led extraordinary lives during extraordinary times. Both left their indelible marks upon a wide swath of the history of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. Their names, although not well known even to this day, are intimately entwined with the Bent brothers, Kit Carson, Ceran St. Vrain, Lucien Maxwell, and other individuals who played a major role in shaping the history of the Southwest. What an ironic twist of fate it is that their graves, unmarked for years are now lost somewhere in Clayton's boot prairie cemetery…hardly a fitting end for such a remarkable man and his equally remarkable wife.

Sources:

Boggs, Thomas O. (1885) Dictation from Springer, NM. Bancroft Library MSS P-E30.

Dean, Marshall S. History of Bent County. http://www.phsbc.info/historyBC.htm

Fridtjof Halaas, D. & Masich, A.E. (2004). Halfbreed. The Remarkable True Story of George Bent. DaCapo Press.

Gail's Cemetary Roundup. Clayton Memorial Cemetery. New Mexico ALHN. http://newmexicoalhn.net/unclaytonb.htm.

Garrard, Lewis H. (1955). Wah-to-yah and the Taos Trail. New edition. University of Oklahoma Press.

Hafen, Leroy (Ed). (1930) W.M. Boggs Manuscript. Colorado Magazine, VII, (2).

Herzstein Memorial Museum, Clayton, NM.

Hyde, George E. (1968). Life of George Bent. University of Oklahoma Press.

Lavender, David. (1954) Bent's Fort. Doubleday.

Murphy, Lawrence R. (1983). Lucien Bonaparte Maxell: Napoleon of the Southwest. University of Oklahoma Press.

Sabin, Edwin L. (1995) Kit Carson Days, Vol 2. Revised edition. First Bison Books.

Stanley, F. (1972). The Thomas Oliver Boggs Story.

Thompson, Goldianne; Halley, William H.; Herzstein, Simon. (1962) History of Clayton and Union County, New Mexico. Monitor Publishing Company.

Thompson, Albert W. Collection. MSS 79BC. Center for Southwest Research, University of New Mexico.

Thompson, Albert W. (1930). Thomas O. Boggs, Early Scout and Plainsmen. The Colorado Magazine, VII, (4). Pp. 152-160. Women of Boggsville. http://members.tripod.com/~boggsville/women.htm