Otero, Miguel A. (Miguel Antonio), 1829-1882

OTERO, Miguel Antonio, (nephew of Mariano Sabino Otero), a Delegate from the Territory of New Mexico; born in Valencia, N.Mex., June 21, 1829; attended private and parochial schools and St. Louis University, Missouri; was graduated from Pingree's College, Fishkill, N.Y., and later became a member of the faculty; returned to St. Louis, Mo.; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1851 and commenced practice in Albuquerque, N.Mex., in 1852; member of the Territorial house of representatives 1852-1854; attorney general for the Territory of New Mexico in 1854; successfully contested as a Democrat the election of Jóse M. Gallegos to the Thirty-fourth Congress and served from July 23, 1856, to March 3, 1857; reelected to the Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth Congresses (March 4, 1857-March 3, 1861); was not a candidate for renomination in 1860; delegate to the Democratic National Convention at Charleston, S.C., in 1860; appointed by President Lincoln as secretary of the Territory of New Mexico and Acting Governor in 1861, and served for one year; engaged in mercantile pursuits at Westport Landing (now Kansas City), Mo., 1861-1864, and at several other places in the West until 1877; interested in the construction of railroads and engaged in banking; unsuccessful candidate for election in 1880 to the Forty-seventh Congress; died in Las Vegas, N.Mex., May 30, 1882; interment in Riverside Cemetery, Denver, Colo.

<p>The second Hispanic Delegate to serve the New Mexico Territory, and the longest-serving Hispanic Member in the 19th century, Miguel Otero belonged to a powerful business family. A successful entrepreneur, Otero engaged in politics as a full-contact sport and was, in the words of one scholar of New Mexico territorial affairs, “dynamic, intelligent, and very much on the political make.” His rise to public office symbolized the emergence of a new generation of New Mexican politicians: a bilingual social elite that bridged the territory’s Hispanic and Anglo worlds. In a bid to advance the cause of New Mexican statehood, Otero aligned himself with Southern Democrats, who supported the expansion of slavery into the territories.</p>

<p>Born in Valencia, New Mexico, on June 21, 1829, Miguel Antonio Otero was the youngest son of Vicente and Doris Gertrudis Chaves y Aragon Otero. Vicente Otero was a farmer, a merchant, and occasionally a judge under the Mexican government. He also served as an alcalde (mayor) and in the New Mexican government. The family lived comfortably, if not lavishly. Even before the outbreak of the Mexican-American War, the Oteros displayed an attraction for American culture. At least one biographer claimed Otero “was one of the first New Mexicans to travel east to the United States for an education.” Moreover, the Otero clan developed an “aristocratic flair that would distinguish them from other Hispanics in New Mexico. They were well-received and regarded by the Anglo-American community in or outside New Mexico. They would be decidedly pro-American rather than pro-Mexican in nationalistic sympathies and would … be more identified with Anglo-American culture and values than most Hispanics.” Otero was educated in private and parochial schools and attended St. Louis University from 1841 until the outbreak of the Mexican-American War in 1846, when he returned to New Mexico at his family’s request. The following year he enrolled at Pingree College, a small school in Fishkill, New York, where he served as a teacher and as an assistant to the principal. He began studying law with a local attorney and continued under the tutelage of senior attorneys in New York City and St. Louis from 1849 to 1852, when he passed the Missouri bar exam.</p>

<p>While studying in St. Louis, Otero befriended fellow law student William G. Blackwood, who introduced the New Mexican to his visiting sister, Mary Josephine Blackwood. Otero married her in 1857. Raised by a maternal aunt in Charleston, South Carolina, Mary Josephine was a descendant of the family of Senator Charles Carroll of Maryland and, as her son recalled many years later, “quite a society woman and popular, well known and admired” by her peers wherever the Oteros resided. The marriage connection contributed to Otero’s Southern sympathies during the secession crisis and the Civil War. A year after his marriage, Otero arranged to have his new brother-in-law, William, appointed as a New Mexico supreme court judge. Miguel and Mary Josephine had four children: Page Blackwood; Miguel, Jr.; Gertrude Vincentia; and Mamie Josephine. Gertrude died as a child. Many years later, under the William McKinley administration, Miguel, Jr., became the only Mexican American appointed to serve as governor of the New Mexico Territory.</p>

<p>M.A. Otero was a merchant in Leavenworth, Kansas when he and his head bookkeeper started the commission firm of Otero, Sellars and Company in Hayes, Kansas. Otero started the practice of moving his business to the railroad terminus as the rails continued to be built westward. The Kansas Pacific and the Santa Fe Railroads had a race to the Arkansas Valley.</p>

<p>His first Colorado business was in Kit Carson. When the KP eventually lost out to the Santa Fe, Otero switched his freight business from the KP to the A.T. & S.F. and moved his business to Granada, Colorado. When the railroad reached La Junta in 1875, Otero again moved his business to the new terminus by loading his buildings on a flat car. That train also carried a depot 12 * 14 feet, a water tank and two old warehouses of Manzanares & Co., a wool commission firm.</p>

<p>As agents for a number of eastern firms, Otero shipped in merchandise and reloaded it on wagons that took it across the mountains and plains to New Mexico and as far as Tucson, Arizona. The town was a busy place. Sometimes, there were as many as 15 wagon trains at one time with 20 to 25 wagons in each outfit.</p>

<p>Miguel Antonio Otero (June 21, 1829 – May 30, 1882) was a prominent American politician of the New Mexico Territory and instrumental in the economic development of the territory.</p>

<p>Miguel Antonio Otero was born in Valencia, Nuevo México to Don Vicente Otero and Doña Gertrudis Aragón de Otero. Don Vicente had held prominent civic positions as judge and mayor in Valencia County, under both Spanish and Mexican Governments.</p>

<p>Otero received his early education in Valencia. In 1841 he enrolled at St. Louis University in the state of Missouri and subsequently graduated from Pingree College in Fishkill, New York, where he taught while he began his study of law. In 1851 he returned to Missouri, where he studied law and was admitted to the bar.</p>