The Women of Boggsville, Colorado

In the 1800's, the Arkansas River Valley was an exciting and dynamic place to be. In 1819, the Arkansas became the official boundary between New Spain and the United States. In 1821, William Becknell made his historic trip to Santa Fe from Missouri, establishing the Santa Fe Trail as an important avenue of commerce. Heading west, he followed what became the Mountain Branch of the Santa Fe Trail and his return journey was along what became the Cimarron Cutoff of the Trail. In 1833, Bent, St. Vrain and Co. built Bent's Fort on the north side of the Arkansas and began many years of building a trading empire among the Indians, the fur trappers, the buffalo hunters and, eventually, the wagon caravans travelling the Santa Fe Trail.

By the early 1860's, the Valley saw Anglo, Spanish and American Indian cultures living side-by-side in relative peace. And, as usual, the women were at the heart of this melting pot. John Hough, a resident of Boggsville for a while, wrote, "The families of Boggs, Carson and Ritc were one half Spanish as the wives of these three men were Spanish women, the writer's wife being the only woman of Anglo-Saxon blood. The wife of Prowers being a full-blood Cheyenne Indian. Quite a mixture but we all got along very pleasantly."

Boggsville was founded by Thomas Oliver Boggs and his wife, Rumalda Luna Boggs (pictured at right). Rumalda was born into the Jaramillos of Taos, a very influential family in the early days of New Mexico. Raphael Luna, her paternal grandfather, was head of the customs house in Taos. Maria Apolonia Vigil, her paternal grandmother, was a member of the Vigil family, famous landowners and merchants. Francisco Jaramillo, Rumalda's maternal grandfather, was a prosperous and popular merchant on the Santa Fe Trail. Her great uncle, Cornelio Vigil, was the mayor of Taos.

Shortly after Rumalda's birth, her father died and left her mother, Ignacia Jaramillo, a widow. A few years later, Ignacia remarried. Rumalda's new father was Charles Bent, of Bent, St. Vrain and Co., builders of Bent's Fort. Shortly, Rumalda had three younger siblings named Alfred, Teresina and Estafina Bent.

In 1846, Charles Bent was named the new American Governor of New Mexico but on January 19, 1847, an angry mob of Hispanics and Taos Indians began the Taos Uprising. They stormed Bent's home and shot and scalped Charles Bent. By this time, Rumalda had married Tom Boggs and she and her aunt, Josefa Jaramillo Carson (wife of Kit Carson), were caught as they tried to escape from the house through a hole they had dug in the adobe wall. Held in the house by the rebels, Rumalda held her stepfather in her arms as he died.

Three years later, Ignacia had a fourth daughter and named her Rumalda also, but spelled it as Romalda. In the 1860's, Rumalda Luna Boggs, Teresina Bent Scheurich and Romalda Jaramillo Ritc (three of Ignacia's four daughters) all lived together in Boggsville.

Before the Americans took over Nuevo Mexico, Land Grants were given to influential Mexican citizens who promised to colonize the properties. Cornelio Vigil and Ceran St. Vrain (a French-Canadian born trapper, trader and citizen of Mexico) were awarded the Vigil-St. Vrain Land Grant: some 4 million acres spread across southeastern Colorado. Cornelio Vigil was also killed in the Taos uprising and his portion of the Vigil-St. Vrain Land Grant was portioned out to his heirs. Boggsville was built on Rumalda's 2,040 acre share of that grant.

In 1867, Rumalda was joined at Boggsville by her aunt, Josefa Jaramillo Carson (pictured at left with Kit Carson Jr. circa 1860), and her husband Kit and their family. Known as "the belles of Taos" when they were younger, Josefa was only three years older than Rumalda. Both grew up as "intimate associates, noted for their dancing, beauty and vivaciousness." Josefa also had a claim to the Vigil-St. Vrain Land Grant and the Carsons had been running cattle on the property for years. As Kit's health was failing, they moved to Boggsville to be near family and friends. Only months after their arrival, Josefa died from complications related to childbirth and Kit died a month after, despondent from the loss of his wife and already ailing from old injuries. As Kit had made Tom Boggs guardian of his children and Executor of his will, Tom and Rumalda raised six of the Carson children to adulthood, including the newborn Josefita.

By 1880, Boggsville was being abandoned and the Boggs family moved to Clayton, New Mexico. Albert Thompson, an early settler of Clayton, called Rumalda "a dark-eyed beauty with a daintiness of figure she kept into her old age." Rumalda had five children, three of whom lived to adulthood. When she died at the age of 75, Rumalda's obituary called her "one of New Mexico's most respected women." (The Clayton Citizen, June 16, 1906)

About 1846, Amache Ochinee Prowers (pictured at right, circa 1870) was born near Bent's Fort. Her father was Ochinee (meaning Lone Bear), a Cheyenne sub-chief. While in her teens, she met John Prowers, a young trader employed by Bent, St. Vrain and Co. and married him in 1861. Shortly thereafter, she gave birth to Susan, the first of their nine children.

In 1864, Col. John Chivington (a hero of the Battle of Glorieta Pass) and his men engaged in the Sand Creek Massacre, a one-sided "battle" in which Union soldiers nearly wiped out an encampment of unarmed Cheyenne women, children and elderly men. Although Amache's mother survived, her father and many of her relatives didn't. By way of atonement, the US Government gave a 640-acre parcel of land to each of the survivors of the Massacre. Amache, her mother and two of the Prowers' oldest daughters were all given tracts along the Arkansas River. It was on this and other Cheyenne lands that John Prowers primarily ran his cattle. For several years after the Sand Creek Massacre, the young Cheyenne dog soldiers (including George Bent, son of William Bent and Owl Woman, his Cheyenne wife) were running around the countryside killing and looting American ranchers and farmers in retaliation for the Massacre. It was Amache's presence at Boggsville, coupled with the common knowledge that everyone was equal and treated fairly there, that left Boggsville untouched by the warring dog soldiers.

Amache was born Cheyenne but married into the Anglo-Victorian world. In the photo shown here, she was dressed as a proper Victorian, except for the lack of a corset. Her daughters said she loved to skate and ride a bicycle but their favorite memories of her have to do with her Cheyenne ways. Every Christmas, she made buffalo candy out of dried buffalo meat and sugar. She often gathered wild herbs and greens from the prairie and made prickly pear pickles. Amache and her best friend, Mary Bent Moore (daughter of William Bent and Owl Woman), often went buffalo hunting together. In the summer, travelling Cheyenne allowed the women to lasso colts from their herd of horses and keep them until fall. Amache spoke fluent Cheyenne and Spanish and understood English, although she spoke it only when she chose to.

John Prowers died when she was in her mid-thirties and she remarried a local rancher named Dan Keesee. Amache died in 1905, at the age of 58. As her granddaughter, Mrs. Frank Nelson, later observed, "Amache lived a lot of years in the years she lived."

It was the women and their land claims that made Boggsville possible. The only woman in Boggsville with no land was Mary Prowers Hough, but her family was there because she was the sister of John Prowers. Another way the women of Boggsville influenced the settlement was in the architecture and artifacts they left behind. For example, the Prowers and Boggs homes were built of adobe in a U-shape around central courtyards. These were features of New Mexican Hacienda-style architecture. The open courtyard of the Prowers home also faced east, greeting the rising sun each morning just like a typical Cheyenne encampment. In the Prowers house, typical Cheyenne stone tools were found, as testament to the influence the Cheyenne way of life held throughout Amache's life. A number of metates and manos (stone tools used for grinding corn) were also found in the remains of Boggsville, testifying to activities related to Hispanic food preparation.