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Excerpt from History of Colorado, Vol. 2 of 3: Prepared Under the Supervision of the State Historical and Natural History Society of Colorado
The first successful colony on the neighboring Martinez grant, west of the Rio Grande, was established in 1854. The promoter of this colony was J osé Maria J aquez, who selected a site at Guadaloupe, on the Conejos River, in August of that year. While final preparations were being made to move to the new location in the autumn of 1854, the colonists were joined by Major Lafayette Head of Ser villeta.11 Head was a Missourian who had gone to Santa Fé in 1846 as a private under the command of Colonel Sterling Price. At the expiration of his term of service he decided to remain in New Mexico, where, as merchant and colonizer, he rose to a position of in¿uence among his Mexican friends as is shown by his subsequent elections to the legislatures of New Mexico and Colorado. In spite of troubles with the Indians, the Conejos colonists retained their lands; the population of Conejos County in 1868 was estimated at mostly Mexicans.12 Apart from an occasional Indian scare, it was a quiet life that the Mexicans lived in the San Luis Valley. Their principal industry was grazing, and for their¿ocks and herds there was an abundance of land and grass and water. In agriculture they followed the crude methods used by their fathers for generations before them. They were scarcely touched by the rushing currents of life in the outside world.
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