Sign-In
Cart
La Posta: From the Founding of Mesilla, to Corn Exchange Hotel, to Billy the Kid Museum, to Famous Landmark
Paperback
Series: Mesilla Valley History, Book 1
19th Century United States HistoryRegional: West
ISBN13: 9780982870938
Publisher: Createspace
Published: Jun 1 2013
Pages: 118
Weight: 0.39
Height: 0.25 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English
The story of a 160-year old building, its people, and its place.
The building sits on a lot next to the plaza. The lot is a terreno de solar, a grant to a Mexican citizen by the state of Chihuahua, Mexico, on which to build a house. By the terms of the grant, the grantee is obliged to own a horse and a gun. Within a year or so the grantee - and his lot - are no longer in Mexico - they are both in the United States.
A merchant buys the home, and opens a store. He sells to a partner, who opens Samuel Bean & Co. The Civil War begins and the town is occupied by Confederates. The Confederates are driven out by the Union. Bean is denounced as a Johnny Reb, and a U. S. Marshal confiscates his store. It is sold for almost nothing on the town plaza. After a fast series of buyers make quick profits, Lola Bennett buys it and builds her dream home. She trades it to John Davis, who establishes the most famous hotel in New Mexico Territory, the Corn Exchange. Davis dies. His widow runs the Corn Exchange as long as she is able. She dies and the church inherits it. The church sells it to the town priest. The priest sells to George Griggs, the impresario of the Billy the Kid Museum. Griggs sells to Katy Griggs for $1, who opens the most famous eating place in southern New Mexico - La Posta.
The Corn Exchange hosts guest from as far away as London and Hong Kong, and cities like San Francisco, Denver, St. Louis, Chicago, New York, and Washington D. C.
Ulysses Simpson Grant, Jr., son of the president, stays at the Exchange. As does John S. Chisum, Cattle King of the West, just two days after being robbed of $100 and a gold watch in a Silver City stage holdup.
Virtually all of the significant people in Billy the Kid's life stay at the Exchange: Sheriff Harvey H. Whitehill, who arrests Billy for his first crime; Doc Scurlock, Charles Bowdre, and Richard Brewer, Billy's best friends; Attorneys Albert J. Fountain and John D. Bail, who defend Billy in his trial for murder; William Rynerson, the District Attorney who relentlessly pursues Billy; Simon Newcomb, the prosecuting DA in Billy's trial; and Judge Warren Bristol, who sentences Billy to be hanged by the neck until his body be dead. Even Billy's implacable enemies James Dolan and John Riley stay at the Exchange.
Did Billy stay at the Exchange? Someone signed his name. Was it he?
Also in
19th Century United States History
A Manufactured Wilderness: Summer Camps and the Shaping of American Youth, 1890-1960
Van Slyck, Abigail A.
Hardcover
The Rush: California Gold, the Civil War, and the Making of the Modern World
Philbrick, Nathaniel
Hardcover
The Wreck of the Mentor: A True Story of Death, Despair, and Deliverance in the Age of Sail
Dolin, Eric Jay
Hardcover
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
Larson, Erik
Paperback
The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War
Larson, Erik
Paperback
They Stole a City: Wilmington's White Supremacist Coup and the Families Who Live with Its Legacy
Collins, Lauren
Hardcover
Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History
Gwynne, S. C.
Paperback
A Perfect Coincidence: The Extraordinary Friendship and Astonishing Deaths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson
Rasenberger, Jim
Hardcover
Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West
Ambrose, Stephen E.
Paperback
The Rush: California Gold, the Civil War, and the Making of the Modern World (Large Print Edition)
Philbrick, Nathaniel
Paperback
Empire of Ink: The Printers, Rogues, and Radicals Who Invented the American Newspaper
Wright, Alex
Hardcover
Glorious Country: How the Artist Frederic Church Brought the World to America and America to the World
Johnson, Victoria
Hardcover
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex (National Book Award Winner)
Philbrick, Nathaniel
Paperback
Centennial: The Great Fair of 1876 and the Invention of America's Future
Bordewich, Fergus M.
Hardcover
The Flag Was Still There: A History of the American Experiment in Five Anniversaries
Bennett, M. Todd
McKean, David
Hardcover
Jefferson's Wolf: A Founding Father's Troubling Answer to the Problem of Slavery
Guyatt, Nicholas
Dierksheide, Christa
Hardcover
Chasing Lewis's Monkeyflower: The Amazing Afterlife of the Lewis and Clark Expedition's Wild Plants
Adelman, Elizabeth
Hardcover
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President
Millard, Candice
Paperback
We Pointed Them North: Recollections of a Cowpuncher
Smith, Helena Huntington
Abbott, E. C. Teddy Blue
Paperback
The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West
McCullough, David
Paperback
How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America
Richardson, Heather Cox
Paperback
The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War
Larson, Erik
Hardcover
The Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City and Sparked the Tabloid Wars
Collins, Paul
Paperback
We've Been Here Before: How Rebellion and Activism Have Always Sustained America
Days, Michael I.
Dodson, Angela P.
Hardcover
Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt
McCullough, David
Paperback
The Undiscovered Country: Triumph, Tragedy, and the Shaping of the American West
Hutton, Paul Andrew
Hardcover
Ghosts of Gold Mountain: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad
Chang, Gordon H.
Paperback
Brothers of the Gun: Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and a Reckoning in Tombstone
Gardner, Mark Lee
Hardcover
Midnight on the Potomac: The Last Year of the Civil War, the Lincoln Assassination, and the Rebirth of America
Ellsworth, Scott
Hardcover
Out Where the West Begins: Profiles, Visions, and Strategies of Early Western Business Leaders
Anschutz, Philip F.
Hardcover
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
Larson, Erik
Hardcover
Mountain Man: John Colter, the Lewis & Clark Expedition, and the Call of the American West
Marshall, David Weston
Paperback
America: The Last Best Hope (Volume I): From the Age of Discovery to a World at War
Bennett, William J.
Paperback
Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History
Gwynne, S. C.
Hardcover
Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant Volume 1/2: Large Print Edition (Large Print Edition)
Grant, Ulysses S.
Hardcover
Vengeance: The Last Stands of Custer, Crazy Horse, and Sitting Bull (Large Print Edition)
Clavin, Tom
Hardcover
John Doe Chinaman: A Forgotten History of Chinese Life Under American Racial Law
Lew-Williams, Beth
Hardcover
When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail
Dolin, Eric Jay
Paperback
Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth
Stanford, Jason
Burrough, Bryan
Tomlinson, Chris
Paperback
Wilmington's Lie (Winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize): The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy
Zucchino, David
Paperback
Her Hat Was in the Ring: How Women Won the Right to Run for Office in the United States
Norgren, Jill
Chmielewski, Wendy E.
Hardcover
Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America
Hartman, Saidiya
Paperback
Until the Last Yoke Is Broken: The Constitutional Vision of Frederick Douglass
Rebeiro, Bradley N.
Hardcover
Out Where the West Begins, Volume 2: Creating and Civilizing the American West Volume 2
Anschutz, Philip F.
Hardcover
The Heart of Everything That Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, an American Legend
Clavin, Tom
Drury, Bob
Paperback
An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873
Madley, Benjamin
Paperback
The Man Behind the Cane: Preston Brooks, Political Violence, and the Road to the Civil War
Quigley, Paul
Hardcover
The First to Go West: American Ambition, Bloody Conquest, and the Fateful Journey of Jedediah Smith
Clavin, Tom
Drury, Bob
Paperback
Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869
Ambrose, Stephen E.
Paperback
The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920
Sinha, Manisha
Paperback
Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America
Nelson, Megan Kate
Hardcover
Contempt of Court: The Turn-Of-The-Century Lynching That Launched a Hundred Years of Federalism
Curriden, Mark
Phillips, Leroy
Paperback
I Am Murdered: George Wythe, Thomas Jefferson, and the Killing That Shocked a New Nation
Chadwick, Bruce
Paperback
Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant Volume 2/2: Large Print Edition (Large Print Edition)
Grant, Ulysses S.
Hardcover
For the Hope of this Land: A Visual Learner's Workbook for Early American History
Newhouse, Amy
Paperback
The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn
Philbrick, Nathaniel
Paperback
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President (Large Print Edition)
Millard, Candice
Paperback
The Undiscovered Country: Triumph, Tragedy, and the Shaping of the American West
Hutton, Paul Andrew
Paperback
Slavery by Another Name (Pulitzer Prize Winner): The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II
Blackmon, Douglas A.
Paperback
Native American History: Accurate & Comprehensive History, Origins, Culture, Tribes, Legends, Mythology, Wars, Stories & More of The Native Indigenous
Alive, History Brought
Paperback
Ghosts of the Wild West: Stories from Deadwood, Tombstone, and the Old Frontier
Freeburg, Jessica
Fowler, Natalie
Paperback
Lost Kingdom: Hawaiia's Last Queen, the Sugar Kings, and Americaa's First Imperial Venture
Siler, Julia Flynn
Paperback
Appetite for America: Fred Harvey and the Business of Civilizing the Wild West--One Meal at a Time
Fried, Stephen
Paperback
Bandit Heaven: The Hole-In-The-Wall Gangs and the Final Chapter of the Wild West
Clavin, Tom
Paperback
African American History: A Captivating Guide to the People and Events that Shaped the History of the United States
History, Captivating
Paperback
Thunder in the Mountains: Chief Joseph, Oliver Otis Howard, and the Nez Perce War
Sharfstein, Daniel J.
Paperback
The Apache Wars: The Hunt for Geronimo, the Apache Kid, and the Captive Boy Who Started the Longest War in American History
Hutton, Paul Andrew
Paperback
Death in the Haymarket: A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement and the Bombing That Divided Gilded Age America
Green, James
Paperback
The Man from the Train: Discovering America's Most Elusive Serial Killer
James, Bill
James, Rachel McCarthy
Paperback
Wakara's America: The Life and Legacy of a Native Founder of the American West
Mueller, Max Perry
Hardcover
Last Seen: The Enduring Search by Formerly Enslaved People to Find Their Lost Families
Giesberg, Judith
Hardcover
Last Seen: The Enduring Search by Formerly Enslaved People to Find Their Lost Families
Giesberg, Judith
Paperback
New Women in the Old West: From Settlers to Suffragists, an Untold American Story
Gallagher, Winifred
Paperback
Until Justice Be Done: America's First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction
Masur, Kate
Paperback
Black, White, Colored: The Hidden Story of an Insurrection, a Family, a Southern Town, and Identity in America
Noble, Leeanet
Noble, Lauretta Malloy
Hardcover
Acts of Love: Black Performance and the Kiss That Changed Film History
Field, Allyson Nadia
Paperback
Vested Interests: Trusteeship and Native Dispossession in the United States
Connolly, Emilie
Hardcover
The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church
Swarns, Rachel L.
Paperback
American Infidelity: The Gilded Age Battle Over Freethought, Free Love, and Feminism
Green, Steven K.
Hardcover
Promised Land, Crusader State: The American Encounter with the World Since 1776
McDougall, Walter
Paperback
Trail of Tears: A Captivating Guide to the Forced Removals of Cherokee, Muscogee Creek, Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw nations
History, Captivating
Hardcover
Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West
Stegner, Wallace
Paperback
Where Custer Fell: Photographs of the Little Bighorn Battlefield Then and Now
Brust, James S.
Pohanka, Brian C.
Barnard, Sandy
Paperback
The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States During Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896
White, Richard
Paperback