Territory of New Mexico

The Territory has an average breadth of 335 miles: length of eastern boundary, 345 miles; length of western boundary, 390 miles; the whole covering an area of 121,201 square miles.

By geographical divisions it is bounded on the north by the State of Colorado, on the east by the public domain and the State of Texas, on the south by the State of Texas and the Mexican States of Chihuahua and Sonora, and on the west by the Territory of Arizona.

Santa Fe is the capital of the Territory and military headquarters and a commercial, educational, religious and political center.

Albuquerque, Las Vegas and Silver City have been and still are developing very rapidly, and are each bidding stoutly for commercial supremacy.

The following are enterprising and growing towns: Socorro, Georgetown, Las Cruces, La Mesilla, Springer, Raton, Los Lunas, Mora, Tierra Amarilla, Lincoln, White Oaks, Taos, Watrous, Cerrillos, Deming, Lordsburg, Lake Valley, Hillsboro and Kingston. All are either on railroads or stage routes. They vary in population from a few hundred in the last named to several thousand in the first named.

The population of the Territory, with the recent increase may be set down at 130,000, or a fraction above one person to the square mile.

The masses of the people are simple in their tastiest and habits, peaceable and law-abiding.

Village settlements are the rule, this mode of living having been necessary, under past experience, as a means of protection against hostile Indians.

They are generally engaged in agriculture on a small scale, and in attending to herds and flocks. In a few instances agriculture is carried on quite extensively, and the flocks of sheep and herds of cattle are very large. The people engaged in the mining industry are generally those who have come to the territory recently.

The people of New Mexico have frequently given substantial evidence that they are a well disposed, patriotic, and liberty loving people.

In illustration of their love of liberty and friendship for the government the following instances are mentioned:

General Kearny occupied the county in 1846 without meeting an armed force or material opposition of any kind, although a few months later, under gross misrepresentations by a few restless spirits, a speck of war was developed, which, however, was easily suppressed.

In the convention called in October 1848, to consider questions with respect to local government, the convention adopted unanimously a petition and resolution, among which the following as were translated:

“We, the people of New Mexico, respectfully petition Congress for the speedy organization by low of a Territorial civil government for us"

“We do not desire to have domestic slavery within our borders, and until the time shall arrive for an admission into the Union as a State, we desire to be protected by Congress against their introduction amongst us.”

The resolutions have the more force when it is remembered that the best citizens of the Territory were elected to and served in that convention, and that more than two-thirds of the members were born in the Territory.

From 1848 to 1860 militia and volunteers of the Territory, under the command of native officers, were engaged in several successful Indian campaigns, notably 1854 and 1859.

In the same spirit and from like motives the Territory contributed to the Union Armies over 6,000 volunteers during the war of the rebellion, who performed arduous, gallant and effective service against rebels and hostile Indians, and notably at Apache cafion where the confederate troops were so completely discomfited that they at once abandoned the Territory.

Thus at their homes, in legislation, and in the army have the people given evidence of their love of liberty and fealty to the government placement over them by conquest.

The native population is not only law abiding themselves, but are a reliable element to be employed in repelling Indian raids and suppressing domestic disorders; they are seldom guilty of heinous crimes. Most of the desperadoes who have hereto infested the Territory, where adventures from other localities.

Immigration since the advent of railroads has been and now is rapidly on the increase. More than 10,000 people have come to the Territory for permanent settlement since the census of 1880. They are from every State and Territory in the Union, and a few from many of the foreign nations. As a body they are, like the mass of those who came here from 1846 to 1880, intelligent, patriotic, energetic, economical, honest and orderly.

The following table shows the distribution and locality of population according to the census of 1880.

Counties	Population

Bernalillo	17,225
Colfax	3,398
Dona Ana	7,612
Grant	4,589
Lincoln	2,513
Mora	9,751
Rio Arriba	11,023
San Miguel	20,638
Santa Fe	11
Socorro	7,875
Taos	11,029
Valencia	13,095

To mention a few human activities added or to which force has been given during the past three years; civic societies are represented in Masonry, Odd Fellowship, Good Templars and Knight of Pythias.

An annual Territorial Exposition was organized in 1881, at Albuquerque, which has held two exhibitions with encouraging results and has a their appointed with

One hundred post offices have been established; chiefly within the past two years.

Gaslight, water works, the telephone and horse railroads are among the modern improvement found at Santa Fe, Las Vegas, Albuquerque and elsewhere.

Thirty stamp mills and reduction works have been erected or are in the course of erection in various mining centers.

Grand hotel edifices with first-class appointments and substantial business blocks and fire proof warehouse are to be seen in all the principal towns.

Manufactories of various kinds are springing up and a general look of permanence is apparent.

Newspapers during the past three years have more than doubled in numbers, quadrupled in quality, and in circulation undoubted command a dozen times the number of readers that they did prior to that date. Where there were no dailies then there are now eight, some of which in quality are equal to the best upon the high line of the continent. There are likewise 2 semi-weekly, 27 weeklies, 1 semi-monthly and one monthly.

All this and 12,000 of skilled industrial operatives have followed in the wake of the building and operating of a thousand miles of railroad.

The prevailing religion is largely Roman Catholic. The Territory with the State of Colorado and the Territory of Arizona, constitute an Archiepiscopal See or province of this faith, with Sante Fe as the metropolis, and His Grace, the Most Rev. John B. Lamy as primate.

The Jesuits, as an organization are represented in considerable force, having a provincial of the order and an ably conducted newspaper on the ground.

The Christian Brothers, the Sisters of Loretto, the Sisters of Charity are likewise represented in considerable force.

In addition there is a large force of priests. Protestant denominations are represented by the Espiopals in a new missionary jurisdiction, including New Mexico and Arizona, with the Right Rev. George Kelly Dunlop as primate, residing at Santa Fe, and having six clergymen in the jurisdiction.

The Presbyterians and Methodists are represented in principal towns by a dozen or more clergymen each and communicates to the number of 700 each, and probably five times as many more in sympathy with them if not all attendants at church.

The Baptists, Congregationalists and Southern Methodists have each a couple of clergymen on the ground, and bid fair to become permanent.

That the territory has superior sanitary advantages, as represented in high altitudes, equable temperatures, dry atmosphere, generous sunshine and mineral and hot springs is manifest.

Pulmonary complaints generally experience prompt relief, if the disease is not to far advance when the patient seeks the benefits. Frequent instances of aggravated cases in consumption, however, have received relief and life prolonged to ripe old age, simply by approaching the high altitude by slow stages, taking from thirty to ninety days en route from the Missouri River.

The experience of Dr. Josiah Gregg, an old Sante Fe trader, and author of the "Commerce of the Prairies” is a conspicuous illustration of this class of cases. The story in his book, Dr.Gregg crossed the plains with a caravan of merchandise and was three months en route. He started on the trip in desperation. Upon arriving in Sante Fe his relief was so satisfactory that he at once engages regularly in the trade and continued the business many years, enjoying comparatively excellent health.

The advantages of open air life on the plains, particularly as experienced in travel and camp life, is efficacious.

Asthma, as a rule is not benefited, although when "depending on derangement of the stomach", as stated by Prof. E. R. Peaslee, "is sometimes cured."

The best season for consumptives to avail themselves of the benefits of the climate is in June, the more aggravated cases approaching the high altitude by easy stages.

Rheumatism, coetaneous, and venereal diseases experience speedy relief by a few days, or weeks, bathing in the springs and drinking the waters. Sun stroke, it is said, never was known in the Territory; this by reason of the low humidity in the atmosphere.

Heart diseases and nervous complaints would be out of place in this rarified and electric atmosphere. In the mountainous and more humid sections rheumatism is more aggravated; while persons coming to the country afflicted with it experience great benefits in the dry and more sunny sections.

Along the lower Rio Grande malarial diseases have appeared periodically. The first known was in 1821, and since, respectively, in 1857, 1877, and again in a milder form during the past year. This will no doubt be overcome by proper drainage.

The amount of ozone (electricity) in the Rocky Mountain regions, especially in this altitude, is relative much greater than in the central and sea-board states.

Indeed ozone will not tolerate impurities and cannot remain in its presence. Hence, the extreme purity of the atmosphere. In illustration, raw meats are cut up and dried, preserved and stored for future use. In spite of the absence of any system of sewerage at such centers of population, among others, as Taos, Sante Fe, Socorro and Silver City, beyond natural drainage and the cleansing coming from occasional copious showers, there is an extreme healthfulness among the people. This fact has made the saying proverbial of the native population that:

"It is a country where none die except with their boots on" and the octogenarian "dries up and is blown away."

The mineral and medicinal springs of New Mexico are numerous and are found in nearly every section of the Territory. They are deservedly popular and universally known in the southwest, and by everybody familiar with the locality, as possessing, in a pre-eminent degree, for many complaints, the medicinal properties sought at the great health resorts of the world.

For centuries, not only the people of New Mexico but northern Mexico, and lately from central and southern Mexico, and from all point near New Mexico, have traveled in private conveyances long and weary journeys, beset by hostile Indians, in order to avail themselves of the curative properties of these springs. Conspicuous among those visiting these springs in the early days were the Franciscan and Dominican friars.

Now that the railroad has entered New Mexico from every point of compass, with lines running conveniently near to several of these springs, they are placed within easy and comfortable reach of the world. Good hotels and bath-houses and superior accommodations have recently been provided for the rapidly growing demand of invalids and tourists.