Lucien Maxwell was a mountain man, rancher, scout, and farmer.
Background
Lucien Bonaparte Maxwell was one of the twelve children of Hugh B. and Marie Odille (Menard) Maxwell and was born on September 14, 1818 in Kaskaskia, Illinois. The mother was a daughter of the noted Pierre Menard, the first lieutenant-governor of Illinois.
Education
Maxwell seems to have had a fair degree of schooling.
Career
Probably before he was twenty he accompanied a trading caravan or a trapping party to Taos, N. Mex. Here he met Kit Carson, with whom he formed a close friendship that lasted until death separated them. For a time, about 1840-41, he was employed at Fort St. Vrain, on the South Platte. He was the hunter for Frémont's first expedition (1842), of which Carson was the guide. With Carson he joined Frémont's third expedition, which left Bent's Fort in August 1845 and arrived at Sutter's Fort on December 9, and he was an active and valuable member of the Pathfinder's force in the events culminating in the conquest of California. He was one of the party of fifteen, led by Carson, that started from Los Angeles in September 1846 to carry dispatches to Washington; and on October 6, near Socorro, N. Mex. , where they met Kearny's expedition, westward bound, rendered a notable service by persuading the angry Carson not to ruin his career by defying Kearny's order that he give up his dispatches and return as guide to the army. He now settled down to the management of his father-in-law's estate. Beaubien had become the sole owner of the grant, a tract of 1, 714, 764 acres, the largest single holding in the United States, and Maxwell energetically applied himself to its development. Under the American rule the products of his fields found a ready market with the government purchasing agents, and he prospered. At the town of Cimarron, in the present Colfax County, N. Mex. , he built a large dwelling, with an encircling veranda and a central patio, where he entertained with princely hospitality. In the spring of 1853 he and Carson set out from the Cimarron for California with two large herds of sheep, some 12, 000 head. By way of the Oregon Trail and the Humboldt River they reached Sacramento in September. Selling their animals at a good profit, they returned by the southern route and on Christmas eve were again in Taos. Beaubien died in 1864, and Maxwell, by purchasing the holdings of the other heirs, became the sole owner of what has ever since been known as the Maxwell Grant--a tract that in later years was to be the subject of much litigation and the scene of occasional settlers' wars. In 1870 he founded the First National Bank of New Mexico, but soon tiring of his plaything disposed of it. In 1871 he sold his entire estate to a Colorado syndicate headed by Jerome B. Chaffee. A series of reverses followed. For a time he engaged in mining. His last days were spent at Fort Sumner, and he was buried there in the government cemetery.
Achievements
Personality
As a trapper, hunter, and Indian fighter Maxwell was brave and self-reliant. He was improvident, and he seems to have had more than his share of eccentricities; but he was a kindly, generous, and dependable man, who was universally liked and whose friends were devotedly attached to him.
Connections
In 1842, at Taos, he married Luz, the daughter of Charles Beaubien, one of the two owners of the vast Beaubien-Miranda tract granted by the Mexican government. Maxwell was survived by his wife and several of his nine children.