Fountain, Albert Jennings, 1838-1896

Colonel Albert Jennings Fountain was born in Staten Island, New York in 1838. His early military career led him to various parts of the country, including -- perhaps most significantly, New Mexico. Fountain served with the First Regiment of the New Mexico Volunteer Militia during New Mexico's Territorial period. He was stationed at Fort Fillmore, in Mesilla, where he met and married Mariana Pérez. Fountain's pioneer activities included militia service, involvement in the capture of Geronimo, work as an attorney with the Southwest Cattle Association, and service as Senator of Texas, Senate Majority Leader, and Speaker of the House from 1888-1889. He was involved with the Masonic Order and contributed to his community in numerous ways, including as editor of a local bilingual newspaper (the Mesilla Valley Independent). He was a promoter of statehood for New Mexico Territory. Later in life, he moved from Mesilla to Las Cruces, New Mexico, as this became the new Doña Ana County seat. Fountain was active in the prosecution and fight against cattle rustling, including that done by Billy the Kid and other infamous outlaws. He disappeared in 1896, along with his youngest son, and was presumed murdered in Lincoln County by a notorious gang of cattle rustlers he had prosecuted unsuccessfully.

Colonel Albert Jennings Fountain was born in Staten Island, New York in 1838. His early military career led him to various parts of the country, including -- perhaps most significantly, New Mexico. Fountain served with the First Regiment of the New Mexico Volunteer Militia during New Mexico's Territorial period. He was stationed at Fort Fillmore, in Mesilla, where he met and married Mariana Pérez. Fountain's pioneer activities included militia service, involvement in the capture of Geronimo, work as an attorney with the Southwest Cattle Association, and service as Senator of Texas, Senate Majority Leader, and Speaker of the House from 1888-1889. He was involved with the Masonic Order and contributed to his community in numerous ways, including as editor of a local bilingual newspaper (the Mesilla Valley Independent ). He was a promoter of statehood for New Mexico Territory. Later in life, he moved from Mesilla to Las Cruces, New Mexico, as this became the new Doña Ana County seat,. Fountain was active in the prosecution and fight against cattle rustling, including that done by Billy the Kid and other infamous outlaws. He disappeared in 1896, along with his youngest son, and was presumed murdered in Lincoln County by a notorious gang of cattle rustlers he had prosecuted unsuccessfully.

The Mesilla Valley (now southern New Mexico and Arizona south of the Gila), once the judicial center for federal, territorial, and county courts in Doña Ana County, prior to Las Cruces' assumption of this role, has a long and significant history in New Mexico. Following its initial population by Native Americans, the Mesilla Valley was inhabited by the Spanish party of Friar Agustin Rodríguez in 1581. Later, this area was the subject of dispute between the United States and Mexico. After the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which signaled the end of the Mexican War, a colony of individuals not desiring American citizenship moved across the Rio Grande and established the town of Mesilla, then thought to be under Mexican jurisdiction. The Treaty, however, established only vague boundaries based on a map with inaccurate lines of latitude and longitude. This vagueness led to a dispute over this territory claimed by both nations, which James Gadsden was sent to Mexico to negotiate. The United States was particularly interested in owning the Mesilla area because it was seen as an ideal location for a railroad route to the Pacific, which would connect the rest of the nation to California, where gold had recently been discovered and to where a large population was moving.

The Gadsden Treaty was signed on December 30, 1853 after the region was purchased for ten million dollars, resultiing in the addition of Mesilla to Doña Ana County. This was the last acquisition in the Southwest. It is argued that the people of Mesilla, petitioned the United States government (via the governor of New Mexico) to maintain their citizenship with the United States. The Mexican government reportedly then considered Mesilla part of that nation, but did not consider the inhabitants Mexican citizens. On that basis, the Americans there were dispossessed of their land.

During the Civil War, a force of Union soldiers was stationed at Fort Fillmore in Mesilla which had, at one point, been occupied by Confederate soldiers who wished to attach this area to the Confederate States. In 1871, following the Civil War, an election riot broke out in Mesilla in which nine men were killed and many more wounded. It is considered that the Civil War delayed the entry of a railroad through this area, and, finally, the railroad was routed through Las Cruces, instead, which eventually replaced Mesilla as the county seat.

P.M. Baldwin considers the history of the Mesilla Valley "a record of the struggle of obscure, industrious, brave, and patient men and women against harsh frontier conditions and their gradual subduing to the uses of civilization." As such, that same author considers it "a stanza in the national epics of the American people."