The Cast of Historical Characters

Francis X. Aubry: AKA: "The Telegraph." Pioneered the "Aubry Cutoff" on the Santa Fe Trail: from a point on the Arkansas just east of present-day Syracuse, Kansas, he headed across southeastern Colorado to the Cimarron River. Aubry is best remembered for a ride he made from Santa Fe to Independence, Missouri: 780 miles in 5 days, 16 hours. He rode through a 24 hour rain, 600 miles of mud, broke 6 horses, did business along the way and actually slept two and a half hours. They had to peel him from his blood-caked saddle when he reached Independence. Later, he returned to Santa Fe and was stabbed to death there during an argument with a journalist over the best route for a transcontinental railroad.

Glenn Aultman Sr. & Jr.: Father and son photographers and chroniclers of life in the Trinidad area in the early and mid 1900's.

Charles Autobees: Tall, with a commanding presence, Charles Autobees was a man "of force, but uneducated." He was a familiar figure to the Arapahos, Blackfeet, Cheyennes, Teton Lakota, Navajos, and Utes. Among his friends were William Bent, Ceran St. Vrain, Kit Carson, Jim Bridger, and James Beckwourth. After living as a mountain man and trader for many years, Autobees finally settled on a ranch near the junction of the Huerfano and Arkansas Rivers in 1853. In 1861, he became one of the first three County Commissioners of Huerfano County, Colorado Territory (another of the first three Commissioners was Joseph Doyle). Although he lived on his ranch for 30 years, his residence didn't qualify under the US Government Homestead rules: he lost his property and died penniless, a victim of government bureaucracy. Autobees half-brother was Tom Tobin, best known for ambushing and killing the Espinosa brothers whose widespread murder spree terrorized Coloradans in the mid-1860's. Charles spoke fluent Navajo, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Lakota, and Spanish. He spent portions of his life with six different women, including Juanita Gomez, his second wife with whom he lived until he died on June 17, 1882.

Felipe and Dolores Baca: The founders of Trinidad. In 1862 they moved up from Mora, New Mexico with 12 families who settled all up and down the Purgatoire Valley. They first lived north of the river near today's Commercial Street but they eventually bought the Baca House from John Hough in 1873, for $7,000 worth of wool. They are also famous for their donation of the land for the Holy Trinity Church and school. There is also speculation that Trinidad was actually named for one of their daughters.

Judge Spruce M. Baird: a friend of Sam Houston's, he dealt in both land and cattle and was attorney and agent for the Vigil-St. Vrain Land Grant. For whatever reason, Judge Baird wore his bright red flannel underwear on the outside over his clothing.

Alexander Barclay and Joseph Doyle: Frontier partners. While they engaged in ranching and farming, trading St. Louis goods to Native Americans was their business. English-born Barclay and American-born Doyle were storekeepers and bookkeepers at Bent's Old Fort in 1838. Barclay "married" Teresita Suaso and Doyle married one of her daughters. By 1843 Barclay had settled in El Pueblo as a trader. From 1844 to 1848 he worked with Doyle and George Simpson (husband of Juana, another of Teresita's daughters) to establish the settlement at Hardscrabble, 30 miles west of El Pueblo. Shortly after that, he and Doyle moved to northern New Mexico where they built Fort Barclay. Barclay died there in 1855. In 1854, Doyle had moved his family back to the mouth of the Huerfano River. When Barclay died, Doyle became owner of Fort Barclay and finally sold it in 1856 for about $7,000. Then he returned to the Huerfano River valley and built his ranch. By 1864, he was a member of the territorial legislature in Denver and the richest man in the Colorado Territory. He died later that year.

James P. Beckwourth: 1800-1866, son of a slave mother and a Virginia plantation owner. His father gave him a classical education. As a boy, he relocated with his family to St. Louis where he served an apprenticeship as a blacksmith. In 1824 he headed west and hung out with men like Jedediah Smith and Jim Bridger. For 40 years he worked as trapper, guide, adventurer and war leader of the Crows. He was visiting with the Crows in 1866 and they asked him to stay with them as a War Chief. He declined. They then served lunch and Beckwourth didn't survive the meal. (that's James Beckwourth above.)

Charles and William Bent: Brothers who founded Bent's Old Fort as part of Bent, St. Vrain & Company. Charles Bent was appointed Governor of New Mexico after Stephen Kearny and his Army of the West took the territory from Mexico in the Mexican War. Bent only had the job a couple of months when the Taos Uprising happened and he was killed by a group of Mexicans and Taos Indians. (that's William Bent on the left.)

Michael Beshoar: First doctor in Trinidad, set up the first pharmacy in Trinidad, founded the Pueblo Chieftain. He was five-foot-four and weighed 130 pounds. He wore his hair shoulder length, carried a .41 caliber Colt revolver and always kept a knife in his pocket.

Frank Bloom: Came to Trinidad from Pennsylvania in 1867. His first job was managing the Thatcher & Company store on Main Street. He later became head of the Bloom Cattle Company, was one of the first bankers in Trinidad, and held numerous mining interests. In 1882 he built the Victorian rococo Bloom House for his wife Sara.

William "Uncle Billy" and Red Bransford: Red was an Ogalalla Sioux, common law wife of Marcellin St. Vrain. When St. Vrain divorced her and left her and the kids, she moved to Mora, New Mexico and met and married Uncle Billy. Uncle Billy was quite wealthy and together, they moved up to Trinidad in the late 1860's. Uncle Billy was the Postmaster of Trinidad and carried the mail around in his hat. To get your mail, you had to find him. Red ran a boardinghouse on the corner of Main and Commercial where the Columbian Hotel now stands. Uncle Billy was so well liked that when he died, these words were his epitaph: "Here lies the noblest work of God: an honest man."

Christopher "Kit" Carson: Famous Indian scout, mountain man and military leader. (that's Kit Carson on the right)

Chief Conniach: Famous Ute Indian chief who spent many years around Trinidad observing (and pestering) the settlers. He and his tribe helped Uncle Dick build the toll road over Raton Pass in 1866-7.

Juan Bautista de Anza: Governor of New Mexico in the late 1700's. De Anza led the expedition that killed Cuerno Verde and finally stopped the Comanche raids on Taos and Santa Fe during the Spaniard days.

Wyatt Earp: Famous lawman/outlaw of the 1880's. After he took part in the Gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday came to Trinidad to confer with their old friend Bat Masterson. He helped them to get started in different ways of life. Wyatt laid low in Colorado for five years. He was spotted gambling in places like Trinidad, Aspen and Denver. He ended up living in Los Angeles, dying there in 1929.

Robert Ford: Cousin of Jesse James, Ford came through the area with a show called "How I Killed Jesse James" (he did the dastardly deed alright, shot him in the back as Jesse stood on a chair adjusting a picture on the wall). In the mid-1880's, Ford and his wife Dot lived in Walsenburg, where he operated a saloon on West 7th Street. The Fords moved to Creede when it became a booming mining camp. In Creede, Bob ran a rowdy saloon/dance hall/gambling house until the place was burned down. He left town for a while but came back again and opened up a new saloon in a large tent. Marshall Ed O'Kelly entered his saloon and emptied a shotgun into the back of Ford's neck on June 8, 1892. It seems that in his younger years, Bob Ford had robbed the O'Kelly home in Missouri and had burned Mrs. O'Kelly's feet and "pulled off her toe nails with pinchers" trying to get her to tell where the money was hidden. Frank James showed up in Creede for the funeral. (that's Robert Ford on the left)

Colonel John Francisco: With Judge Henry Daigle, one of the founders of La Veta, Colorado. The former suttler came to the area in 1862 from Fort Garland. He is credited with arriving in the area and saying "This is Paradise enough for me."

Doc Holliday: Friend of the Earps, participant in the Gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. Doc was a cold fish, expert with a pistol, and tubercular. When he and the Earps arrived in Trinidad in 1882, he learned that Arizona was set on bringing him back for trial. Bat Masterson concocted a scheme with a local judge and arrested Doc on trumped up charges. As his case never came to court, Arizona couldn't extradite him, so Doc eventually died of his tuberculosis at a sanitarium in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. The saloon owners of Glenwood took up a collection to pay for his funeral: while Holliday was living in Glenwood, his presence at the gaming tables in the saloons had brought in a lot of business.

Mother Jones: Famous union organizer who came to southern Colorado during the great Colorado Coal Wars of the early 1900's. (that's Mother Jones on the right)

Stephen Watts Kearny: Colonel (later General) who led the Army of the West through the Raton Pass area in 1846 to take Santa Fe and northern New Mexico for the American government during the Mexican War.

Susan Magoffin: One of the first women to traverse the Santa Fe Trail.

Bat Masterson (1853-1921): A famous frontiersman and peace officer in the American West. As a young man, he became known as a brave buffalo hunter and Indian fighter. As a lawman, he was viewed as a cold-blooded gunfighter, but that reputation was untrue. Bartholomew Masterson was born in Henryville, Quebec. He later called himself William Barclay Masterson (although, to his friends, he always referred to himself as "the Genius"). Masterson began his career as a peace officer in 1876, when he became a deputy marshal in Dodge City, Kansas, county seat of Ford County. From 1878 to 1880, he was sheriff of Ford County. In 1881, he helped his friend Wyatt Earp enforce the law in Tombstone, Arizona. Masterson served as city marshal of Trinidad, Colorado, in 1882. At times, he earned his living as a gambler. In 1892 he was working as law enforcement and managing a gambling house in Creede, Colorado. In 1902, he moved to New York City, and became an authority on boxing and a sportswriter for the New York Morning Telegraph, where he died at his desk in 1921.

Lucien Bonaparte Maxwell: A descendant of the Maxwell family of Kaskaskia, Illinois, Lucien was a good friend of Kit Carson. When Kit married Josefa Jaramillo in Taos, Lucien married Luz Beaubien at the same time. As a wedding gift, Luz' father, Charles Beaubien (a Canadian-born citizen of Mexico) gave the couple 15,000 acres of the Miranda-Beaubien Land Grant. In 1847, after the American takeover of Nuevo Mexico and during the Taos Uprising, Luz' older brother was killed by the Pueblo Indians and Lucien stepped into his place in the family hierarchy. Shortly after the Americans put down the uprising and restored calm to the area, Kit Carson and Lucien Maxwell moved their families to Rayado, where they built a trading post and supply station for travelers on the Santa Fe Trail (Kit and Josefa didn't stay too long after completion of the construction). When Charles Beaubien died, Lucien Maxwell bought out the rest of the family and became sole owner of the Maxwell Land Grant. Of course, it took two acts of Congress to validate his ownership and finally, in the early 1870's, he'd had enough of the double-dealings and outright treachery of the American squatters on his property and he sold most of his remaining holdings to a consortium of Dutch investors (whose actions with the squatters/settlers on the Land Grant quickly escalated into the Colfax County War). With the money from that, he bought the Army holdings at Fort Sumner and Bosque Redondo in New Mexico and moved his family there. Maxwell died in 1875. It was in one of the Maxwell family homes at Bosque Redondo where Pat Garrett killed Billy the Kid.

Arthur Roy Mitchell: Illustrator of many dime novels from the early and mid 1900's. There is a museum in Trinidad named for him containing many of his illustrations. AR Mitchell was instrumental in buying the Baca House and saving it for the Colorado Historical Society.

Ouray: Famous Ute Indian chief. (that's Ouray on the left)

Alferd Packer: The famous cannibal of Hinsdale County.

Zebulon Pike: Famous American military explorer, he came to the area in 1807, probing the Spanish boundaries. Pikes Peak is named for him (although he never did reach its summit).

Marion Sloane Russell: One of the first women to traverse the Santa Fe Trail. She grew up with Kit Carson among her friends and married Captain Richard Russell before settling in Stonewall for the rest of her life. During the Maxwell Land Grant War, Richard Russell was killed by gunslingers working for the Maxwell in an attempt to break the unity of the ranchers and settlers in the Stonewall Valley.

Teresita Sandoval: Born in New Mexico in 1811, Teresita Sandoval married Manuel Suaso at 14 and in short order gave birth to 4 children. In 1835 the Suaso's left their native Taos to settle in the new community at Mora. In 1836, with her 4 children, she moved to a buffalo ranch near the junction of the Fountain and Arkansas Rivers where she lived with Matthew Kinkead, the father of her 5th child. Dreams of her illusive happiness eventually led her away from Kinkead and into the arms of Alexander Barclay. Barclay adored her and once drew a sketch of her complete with a blue reboso and a tub of fresh-washed laundry. By 1854, her marriage with Barclay was crumbling and Teresita moved to a one room adobe house on the ranch of Joseph Doyle (on the Huerfano River - Doyle had married one of Teresita's daughters a few years earlier) where she remained until she died at the age of 83.

George Simpson: Born in 1818, George Semmes Simpson received a fine education, including some training in the law. As a young man he became fascinated with everything mountain man: fringed buckskins, outrageous adventures and "erratic and seemingly purposeless lives." After a failed suicide attempt over a disappointing love affair, at the age of 20 his father sent him west. He was lazy, capricious and undisciplined but he finally learned to trap beaver, trade with the Indian tribes and pan for gold. Along the way he helped found and build the communities of El Pueblo, Hardscrabble and Greenhorn while living the life he had once only dreamed of. In 1842 Simpson married Juana Suaso, daughter of Teresita Suaso (Sandoval). Together they had eight children. In 1849, while traveling to St. Louis on a riverboat, Simpson contracted cholera. Taken for dead, he was packed in an ice-filled coffin. Miraculously, he survived the journey and returned to his family in Colorado where he lived for 36 more years. Simpson came to Trinidad with his wife and settled down in 1865. He was elected to the Trinidad School Board and sold office supplies, books and newspapers around town in addition to being the clerk of the magistrate court. He wrote articles for the local papers and some Eastern journals under the pseudonym "Senex". He is most famous for an escapade in which he taunted a band of Ute raiders for five days while the townsfolk summoned military forces to keep the raiders from looting the town. When it was all over, he asked to be buried atop the sandstone bluffs he hid in for the entire time: hence, Simpson's Rest.

James Stoner: One of the early settlers in Stonewall, Stoner was actually the Postmaster. In those days the great geological feature that exists in Stonewall was called Stoner's Wall. The settlement became known as Stonewall after he died.

Ceran St. Vrain: One of the partners in Bent, St. Vrain & Company, and one of the landowners of the Vigil-St. Vrain Land Grant. (that's Ceran St. Vrain on the right)

Cuerno Verde: Famous Comanche chief who led many raids against the Spaniards in Taos and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Finally cornered and killed by Juan Bautista de Anza and his troops near the foot of Greenhorn Mountain in southern Colorado.

Juan de Jesus Vigil: the patriarch of Vigil Plaza, near Stonewall. He was head of one of the original 12 families that settled in the area in 1862 with Felipe and Dolores Baca.

Richens Lacy "Uncle Dick" Wootton: Mountain man who built the toll road over Raton Pass and lived in the Pass for the last 25 years of his life.

Tom Sharp: Born and raised in Hannibal, Missouri in the company of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (who most of us know as "Mark Twain") and Margaret Tobin (who became known as "Unsinkable Molly Brown"). Tom Sharp roamed the West but finally settled in Malachite, Huerfano County, Colorado, and operated a famous trading post frequented by many travelers on the San Luis Valley branch of the Santa Fe Trail. Among his regular visitors were Ouray and and his wife Chipita, along many other parties of the Ute Nation. Tom's trading post stocked many English and Union Army uniforms and the Native Americans loved them (that's why we have so many photos from the time with Indians in military uniform). Tom also knew his horses and had a knack for breeding European racing horses with Indian ponies and producing some very strong and fast stock.