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Grant of Kingdom
1975 University of New Mexico Press trade paperback. 082630396x. Harvey Fergusson (The Conquest of Don Pedro). Novelization of the battle for land in the Southwest and the history of the Maxwell Land Grant in New Mexico.
311 pages
First published January 1, 1950
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December 26, 2018
Quoting from the book's Introduction
"Set against the grandeur of the northern New Mexico landscape, the narrative sweeps us through half a century of regional history ... A sense of movement pervades ... as an artistic whole it has the power to move the reader both emotionally and intellectually." ...
"Though he does not give any specific details ... the writer obviously refers to the history of the Maxwell Land Grant, an enormous tract of nearly two million acres centering on the town of Cimarron. Ceded to Carlos Beaubien by the king of Spain, the land was held during the middle decades of the nineteen the century by Beaubien's son-in-law ... "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell...
***
The author's Foreword
"More than twenty years ago I visited a beautiful valley at the foot of the Rocky Mountains and found there the crumbling ruin of a great house. Its walls were then still standing a few feet high, with great roof beams rotting in the rubble. I could count the rooms and there were thirty-eight of them, including a dining hall that might have seated a hundred guests.
"When I learned that a man had ridden into a wilderness where no human habitation had ever stood before, had built that great house, founded a society and ruled it as long as he lived, my imagination was stirred. I began talking to old-timers and reading old books, slowly reconstructing an episode which began about 1850, shortly after the American occupation of New Mexico, and ended in the late seventies, just before the completion of the Sanda Fe reailroad brought the epoch of primary pioneering to an end."
"The valley had been the heart of one of the old Spanish Royal Land Grants, and it had been truly a grant of kingdom, not merely to one man but to four, each of whom had achieved his moment of power in that dominion and by reason of that royal grant, as though the prerogative of empire had reached across space and time to quicken his life and test his qualities."
**
Part One: The Conquereror
Jean Ballard
The House of Coronel
...
Part Two: The Autocrat
...
Part Three: The Usurpers
...
Part Four: The Prophet
...
Epilogue
...
**
quoting from p 59 --
"For nearly a year he had lived in Taos, in a house his father-in-law had given him, with more servants than he needed and all the easy comfort of a way of life long established. During that period he had learned two things very surely. He had learned that he was profoundly married, for Consuelo held him, flesh and spirit. She had set limits to his life, made him a man who must spend his energy in the narrow circle of a binding attachment rather than scatter it all over the country.
"He had also learned that he had married much besides a woman--an estate and a way of life and a social positon. He could see that if he stayed in Taos he would become simply a part of the Coronel family and the Coronel domain. He could see also that in the course of years he might become the dominating figure in that great loose aggregation of people and lands and livestock which had grown slowly for generation. The Don was old and neither of his sons was a man of much ability. All three of them had begun by ignoring him with a politeness that covered a certain antagonism, but he had gradually won their confidence. He had made something of the slow conquest which the strong always make over the weak, which begins in resentment and ends in dependence.
"In particular, they had begun to turn to him in time of emergency. The routine of their lives and their business they managed well enough. In fact, their great estate, as he had come to understand, almost managed itself. Everything was done according to habits and customs which had been established for nearly a hundred years. Every spring the great sheep herds were gathered and sheared and then driven to the mountains for summer range. Every fall ... there was a period of reaping ... It was a slow and laborious business which required a great many horses and mules and men and women and boys, and it might now have been somewhat improved, but there was no need to improve it, for these people had more peons and slaves than they knew what to do with. Moreover, tradition was sacred. This whole great aggregation, from top to bottom, was imbued with the love of the past and moved by the power of habit."
... "It was the Mescalero Apaches who first gave Jean Ballard a chance to show his usefulness. Almost every fall, when the fat sheep came down from the mountains, the Mescaleros would make a raid ...
"Set against the grandeur of the northern New Mexico landscape, the narrative sweeps us through half a century of regional history ... A sense of movement pervades ... as an artistic whole it has the power to move the reader both emotionally and intellectually." ...
"Though he does not give any specific details ... the writer obviously refers to the history of the Maxwell Land Grant, an enormous tract of nearly two million acres centering on the town of Cimarron. Ceded to Carlos Beaubien by the king of Spain, the land was held during the middle decades of the nineteen the century by Beaubien's son-in-law ... "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell...
***
The author's Foreword
"More than twenty years ago I visited a beautiful valley at the foot of the Rocky Mountains and found there the crumbling ruin of a great house. Its walls were then still standing a few feet high, with great roof beams rotting in the rubble. I could count the rooms and there were thirty-eight of them, including a dining hall that might have seated a hundred guests.
"When I learned that a man had ridden into a wilderness where no human habitation had ever stood before, had built that great house, founded a society and ruled it as long as he lived, my imagination was stirred. I began talking to old-timers and reading old books, slowly reconstructing an episode which began about 1850, shortly after the American occupation of New Mexico, and ended in the late seventies, just before the completion of the Sanda Fe reailroad brought the epoch of primary pioneering to an end."
"The valley had been the heart of one of the old Spanish Royal Land Grants, and it had been truly a grant of kingdom, not merely to one man but to four, each of whom had achieved his moment of power in that dominion and by reason of that royal grant, as though the prerogative of empire had reached across space and time to quicken his life and test his qualities."
**
Part One: The Conquereror
Jean Ballard
The House of Coronel
...
Part Two: The Autocrat
...
Part Three: The Usurpers
...
Part Four: The Prophet
...
Epilogue
...
**
quoting from p 59 --
"For nearly a year he had lived in Taos, in a house his father-in-law had given him, with more servants than he needed and all the easy comfort of a way of life long established. During that period he had learned two things very surely. He had learned that he was profoundly married, for Consuelo held him, flesh and spirit. She had set limits to his life, made him a man who must spend his energy in the narrow circle of a binding attachment rather than scatter it all over the country.
"He had also learned that he had married much besides a woman--an estate and a way of life and a social positon. He could see that if he stayed in Taos he would become simply a part of the Coronel family and the Coronel domain. He could see also that in the course of years he might become the dominating figure in that great loose aggregation of people and lands and livestock which had grown slowly for generation. The Don was old and neither of his sons was a man of much ability. All three of them had begun by ignoring him with a politeness that covered a certain antagonism, but he had gradually won their confidence. He had made something of the slow conquest which the strong always make over the weak, which begins in resentment and ends in dependence.
"In particular, they had begun to turn to him in time of emergency. The routine of their lives and their business they managed well enough. In fact, their great estate, as he had come to understand, almost managed itself. Everything was done according to habits and customs which had been established for nearly a hundred years. Every spring the great sheep herds were gathered and sheared and then driven to the mountains for summer range. Every fall ... there was a period of reaping ... It was a slow and laborious business which required a great many horses and mules and men and women and boys, and it might now have been somewhat improved, but there was no need to improve it, for these people had more peons and slaves than they knew what to do with. Moreover, tradition was sacred. This whole great aggregation, from top to bottom, was imbued with the love of the past and moved by the power of habit."
... "It was the Mescalero Apaches who first gave Jean Ballard a chance to show his usefulness. Almost every fall, when the fat sheep came down from the mountains, the Mescaleros would make a raid ...
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