Marc Simmons

An account of the early history of El Rancho de las Golondrinas from the ranch's beginnings to its establishment as a living history museum, including biographical sketches, histories, and photographs.

William A. Keleher always had an active curiosity and this made him an outstanding newspaperman and an indefatigable researcher of historical events. It led him into many intellectual adventures that resulted in a whole series of books of New Mexicana. In this personal narrative, he gives readers a glimpse behind the scenes of his career not only as a writer but as a lawyer. The pages of this last book are full of rich anecdotes and little-known episodes involving such men as Governor Clyde Tingley, Senator Bronson Cutting, Elfego Baca, and Senator Dennis Chavez. Here is the story of how a bank was saved, how political careers were initiated and blocked, the story of an editor who wrote the editorials on both sides of an important question for the competing newspapers, previously unpublished stories about Eugene Manlove Rhodes, and how Elfego Baca collected an insurance settlement. There is also the account of Franz Huning, whose "castle" was partly in New Albuquerque, partly in Old Albuquerque, and a story of visiting the Old Town jail to see an Albuquerque editor serving a term for contempt. Like his other books, "Memoirs" is essential for anyone interested in the history and culture of the American Southwest. William A. Keleher (1886-1972) observed first hand the changing circumstances of people and places of New Mexico. Born in Lawrence, Kansas, he arrived in Albuquerque two years later, with his parents and two older brothers. The older brothers died of diphtheria within a few weeks of their arrival. As an adult, Keleher worked for more than four years as a Morse operator, and later as a reporter on New Mexico newspapers. Bidding a reluctant farewell to newspaper work, Keleher studied law at Washington & Lee University and started practicing law in 1915. He was recognized as a successful attorney, being honored by the New Mexico State Bar as one of the outstanding Attorneys of the Twentieth Century. One quickly observes from his writings, and writings about him, that he lived a fruitful and exemplary life. He is also the author of "Turmoil in New Mexico," "Violence in Lincoln County," "Maxwell Land Grant," and "The Fabulous Frontier," all from Sunstone Press.

Recapturing the atmosphere of Territorial days, this 1962 extensively annotated edition of a Southwestern classic focuses on southeastern New Mexico, where "murder was a common offense" and stagecoach robberies were "nothing to get excited about." The delineation of this last, lively frontier begins in 1846 and ends in 1912 with New Mexico statehood. Here are the deeds, lives and legends of the colorful men who figure in New Mexico history. The lucky ones: John J. Baxter who struck it rich at White Oaks, Tom Wilson and Uncle Jack Winters of the Homestake claim, Jack Martin who brought water to the Jornada del Muerto and started the desperate struggle among stockmen culminating in the Lincoln County War, and the cattle king John S. Chisum. The land grabbers: Charles B. Eddy, accused of acquiring a county through coercion; the Denman gang dedicated to frightening settlers from their hereditary holdings; and Tom Catron, political boss and land-office man who owned more than a county. Writing men: Washington Matthews, Territorial army surgeon who told about the Navajo; Hubert Bancroft, prolific historian; Adolph Bandelier, pioneer anthropologist; Charles Lummis, the journalist who publicized life in the Territory through travel books; and Lew Wallace, Territorial governor who wrote "Ben Hur." The frontier newsmen: "Ash" Upson, chronicler of Billy the Kid; Major Bill Caffrey of White Oaks' "Lincoln County Leader"; Emerson Hough who mined his Western experiences for many a yarn; and Eugene Manlove Rhodes, beloved cowboy of the big circulation magazines. New appraisal is given Albert B. Fall, who with Doheny, another old timer, figured in the Teapot Dome affair. Not neglected are such celebrated frontiersmen as Patrick Garrett, nemesis of Billy the Kid, and Albert J. Fountain, who, with his little son, a buckboard and high-stepping team, disappeared from the face of the earth. All these and many more live again in accurate eye-witness accounts that make this a prime source book on the old West.

Lincoln County, New Mexico was once one of the largest counties in the United States and was the setting for a famous feud which lit up the horizon of history. Here between 1869 and 1881 were all the explosive ingredients for violence. On one side of the county was the Mescalero Apache reservation. A day away was an Army fort to keep the Indians "subdued." Along the Pecos River were hundreds of thousands of acres of public land, much of it claimed by settlers with deeds of "Squatters' Rights." Conflicts over land, politics, cattle and money, sparked by the tempers of young men fueled with six-shooters and cheap whiskey, set fire to the whole tinderbox. What became known as The Lincoln County War began over a dispute for the insurance money of Emil Fritz. It flared when the killing of John H. Tunstall became an international incident and started a chain reaction of murders. The Battle of Blazer's Mill presaged the four sultry days in July when Colonel N. A. M. Dudley marched U. S. troops into Lincoln and sided with the Dolan-Riley contingent against the McSween faction. This, along with the crack of Pat Garrett's pistol which ended the life of Billy the Kid, signaled the end of the outlaw heyday. Lew Wallace, governor of New Mexico (and author of Ben Hur), then wrote to Washington: "It gives me pleasure to report New Mexico in a state of quiet," thus bringing to a close a conflagration without parallel in the American West. Long out of print, the book is available once again with a new foreword by Marc Simmons and preface by Michael L. Keleher, William A. Keleher's son.

The vital history of New Mexico and Arizona during the formative years between the American Occupation and the coming of the railroad has been compressed by the author into one volume with hundreds of footnotes and many profiles that make this book of vital importance to teachers, students, and researchers. The book is broken into four parts: "General Kearny Comes to Santa Fe," "The Confederates Invade New Mexico," "Carleton's California Column," and "The Long Walk." Many famous men walk and talk through these pages, including Kearny, Doniphan, Baylor, Canby, Carleton, Sibley, and a host of others. In addition, the story of the impact of the Civil War in New Mexico on the Indians, and the tragic results, is told here in detail for the first time. Long out of print, the book is available once again with a new foreword by Marc Simmons and preface by Michael L. Keleher, William A. Keleher's son. It also includes brief biographies of Ernest L. Blumenschein and Oscar E. Berninghaus who provided the original illustrations.