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| Above, the statue of John Chisum in Roswell, New Mexico. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
Last summer, while in Roswell, New Mexico for the annual UFO Festival, I spotted a huge statue of cattle baron John Chisum in town. The photos of the statue that accompany this blog post were taken while I was in Roswell.
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| Above, John Chisum, Cattle King of the Pecos, sculpture by Robert Summers. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
A little history from Legends of America:
A cattle baron who moved longhorn herds from Texas into New Mexico in the mid 1800’s, Chisum would work with Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving, found one of the largest cattle ranches in the American West, and become involved in New Mexico’s Lincoln County War.
Born in Hardeman County, Tennessee on August 15, 1824, Chisum’s family moved to Texas in 1837, where the teenager soon found work as a building contractor. Later, he would serve as the County Clerk in Lamar County.
In 1854, Chisum moved to Denton County where he settled on Clear Creek, three miles above the town of Bolivar. He soon went to work for a large rancher as a cowboy and started to develop his own herd. It was during this time that Chisum purchased a mulatto slave girl named Jensie from some emigrants bound for California. The girl was just 15 years old and beautiful and Chisum began a love affair with her. The couple had two daughters.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Chisum freed all his slaves, including Jensie. He would later provide Jensie and his daughters with a home in Bonham, Texas as well as financial support for their needs.
By the early 1860s, Chisum had developed his own herd of over 100,000 head of cattle and became one of the first to send his herds into New Mexico. There, he started a ranch in the Bosque Grande, about forty miles south of Fort Sumner.
In 1875, he purchased the 40 acre South Spring Ranch, three miles south of Roswell, New Mexico and made it his headquarters of a cattle ranching empire that extended for 150 miles of land along the Pecos River.
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| Above, the statue is located in the Pioneer Square of Roswell, New Mexico. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
Of course, one has to mention the 1970 movie, Chisum, starring John Wayne that is loosely based on the Lincoln County War.
To read more, go here.
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