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Wagon Tracks Volume 7 Issue 2 Wagon Tracks Volume 7, Issue 2 (February Article 1 1993) 1993 Wagon Tracks. Volume 7, Issue 2 (February, 1993) Santa Fe Trail Association Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/wagon_tracks Part of the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Santa Fe Trail Association. "Wagon Tracks. Volume 7, Issue 2 (February, 1993)." Wagon Tracks 7, 2 (1993). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/wagon_tracks/vol7/iss2/1 This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Wagon Tracks by an authorized editor of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. : Wagon Tracks. Volume 7, Issue 2 (February, 1993) VOLUME 7 FEBRUARY 1993 NUMBER 2 .- Ii I' A FEW THINGS MARIAN SLOAN RUSSELL NEVER TOLD OR FORT UNION NATIONAL NEVER KNEW ABOUT HER MOTHER AND FATHER MONUMENT HONORED .. ' by Bonita and Leo Oliva - FORT Union National Monument was twice recognized during 1992 for its [The Olivas found information about efforts in interpretingthe history ofthe Marian Sloan's mother and father military post and the Santa Fe Trail. ' while conducting research on the Congratulations to Superintendent history of Fort Union, New Mexico. Harry C. Myers and his excellent staff Bonita discovered the letter of Eliza for these well-deserved honors. Mahoney, reproduced here, at the In October 1992 Southwest Parks & National Archives and searched 'ex­ Monuments Association (SPMA) of tensively for a reply which was not Tucson, Arizona, announced that its found. Although Miss Sloan's given board of directors had selected Fort name was "Marion," she has become Union "as the SPMA "Outstanding widely known as "Marian" because .- Agency for 1992. The national monu­ that spelling was used in her memo ment was cited for its work in two airs, Land of Enchantment. The SPMA publications: Fort Union: A Photo popular spelling is used here. It is History and Questfor Quivira: Spanish hoped that others who have addi­ Explorers on the Great Plains, for the tional information about the Sloan design of a· visitor gUide to the Civil family will share that with the read­ War-era earthwork fort (the second ers ofWT.} EIlz8 St. Clair Sloan Mahoney Fort Union), and for a significant in­ crease in publication selection and MARIAN Sloan Russell Is probably the sales dUring recent years. SPMA is the the Mexican War, and presumably that best-known woman who traveled and cooperating association for Fort Union was what her mother told her. The wrote about the Santa Fe Trail. Her National Monument and 49 other Na­ daughter apparently never knew any­ delightful and informative memoirs, tional Park Service units from Kansas thing different, and one wonders to Land cif Enchantment, remain one of . to California. what lengths Eliza had to go to prevent the most popular books in the vast· her children from learning that their Director John Cook, Southwest Re­ Trail literature, treasured by, scholars father survived the Mexican War, trav­ gion of National Park Service, an­ and general readers alike. 1 Marian eled the Santa Fe Trail, resided in nounced earlier that Fort Union Na­ was a truly remarkable human being Santa Fe for four years (1856-1860), tional Monument was the recipient of as was her mother, Eliza St. Clair was honored with a brevet rank in the the Southwest Reglon's "Garrison Sloan Mahoney, who, a single parent, army for his services during the Civil Gold" Award for achievements in 1991. ventured across the plains not just War, and survived until Marian was 35 The award, in commemoration of Lon once but several times with her chil­ years ofage. Marian was born in 1845 Garrison, one of the leading propo­ dren (Marian and William). She made and had no recollections of her father, nents ofinterpretation in the NPS, rec­ the first trip in 1852 when Marian was whom she believed had died while she ogniZes the park within the region with seven years old and Will was nine. In was an infant. Except for "an old da­ the outstanding interpretive program her memoirs Marian reveals some in­ guerreotype" of Dr. Sloan, Marian of the previous year. Cook noted that sights into her mother's unique life but seemed to know very little about her F?rt Union's outreach programs, spe­ tells almost notWng about her father, father. Cial events, publication contributions, whom she never knew. A few pieces of and visitor services "reflected the best Eliza and the surgeon most likely information about Marian's mother of ~he best in the Southwest Region. were separated or divorced before or and father, things Marian never told ThIS was no mean feat, given the num­ and some of which she undoubtedly during the Mexican War. Soon after ber of outstanding programs" In the \ never knew, maybe ofinterest to those that conflict Eliza married a man region. who have developed an affection for named Mahoney (first name un­ Marian and her family. known). Marian recalled ofher step-fa­ ther, "I do not know why I was not There Is a mystery connected with taught to call him 'father' To me he Eliza St. Clair Sloan Mahon~yand her was always Mr. Mahoney."2 That made family that remains to be unraveled: sense ifher father were alive, which he Eliza's first husband, the father ofWill w~ until h880, an army surgeon until and. Marian, was an army surgeon, hIS death. Mr. Mahoney was killed by William James Sloan. In her memoirs . Indians when Marian was about five Marian stated that her father was killed at the Battle of Monterey dUring (continued on page 6) February 1993 1 Published by UNM Digital Repository, 1993 1 Wagon Tracks, Vol. 7 [1993], Iss. 2, Art. 1 PRESIDENT'S COLUMN be selected to receive Awards of Merit. The presentation ceremony will occur CONFEDERATE REMAINS THE 1993 SFTA Symposium at La during the SFTA's general business FROM GLORIETA BATTLE TO Junta and Bent's Old Fort, Colorado, meeting at the coming Bent's Fort/La September 23-26, will be another mile­ Junta Symposium. beginningSeptem­ BE REINTERRED APRIL 25 stone in the growth of the SFTA. The ber 23. THE remains of 30 Confederate sol­ program itselfwill be outstanding, and In addition this year. the SFTA will diers killed at the Battle of Glorieta name the first recipient of the newly we members will be asked to approve established Jack D. Rittenhouse Me­ Pass in 1862 will be reburied at the what amounts to a new set of bylaws: morial Stagecoach Award. The honor Santa Fe National Cemetery on April The SFTA has grown from a loose-knit will be for extraordinary lifetime con­ 25, 1993. The remains of 31 Texas group of disciples residing along the tributions to the Santa Fe Trail. Nomi­ soldiers were exhumed in 1987 and ruts into a nationwide membership nations are now being accepted. Cur­ have been held by the archaeology de­ with influence in Congress. The growth rent officers of the SFTA, as well as partment of the Museum of New Mex­ of chapters has been faster than any members of the Awards Committee, ico. An attem pt was made by Texas of us imagined. The changes in the are ineligible. offiCials to have the remains buried at organizational structure will allow us The award consists of a cash prize of a Confederate cemetery at Austin, but to make ourAssociation more active in $250, a plaque, and a handsome the regents of the Museum of New Santa Fe blanket from the Southwest Mexico voted to rebury them at the preserving the history and ruts of the Trails Blanket series, designed by .Trail for future generations. noted Hopi weaver RaJ.l1ona Saki­ Santa Fe National Cemetery. The re­ The proposed bylaws will give more estewa and produced by the Pendleton burial will occur during a four-day en­ formal organization to the board of Woolen Mills of Oregon. The SFTA is campment in the courtyard of the Pal­ directors and to the chapters. The for­ grateful to Ray Dewey of Santa Fe for ace of the Governors, April 23-26, of mation of an executive committee will 'initiating and supporting this special the Sons of Confederate Veterans and allow the officers and board to take award. It commemorates the work of others interested in the Civil War. supportive action when historic sites the late Jack D. Rittenhouse, chief Of the 31 Confederate dead only are in jeopardy, and to solve the day­ bibliographer of the Trail. three were identified. The bones ofMa­ to-day problems' which arise in our jor John S. Shropshire. who was 28 growing 1,300 member plus organiza­ COLORADO REMEMBERS years ofage at the time, were returned tion with members throughout the BATTLE OF GLORIETA PASS to his descendants in 1990. Private S. country and in Canada, Japan,' Ger­ L. Cotton, age 20. was identified by the many, Great Britain, and the Nether- THE Colorado State Legislature will inscription on a ring he wore. Private lands. travel to New Mexico and dedicate a Ebineezer Hanna, age 17. was identi­ Several telephone calls have come to monument to the Colorado Volunteers fied by his age. the groin wound that my office and home from persons in­ killed him, and the journal and writing terested in joining the SFTA. They who fought at the Battle of Apache Canon on March 26, 1862, and the implements ·hecarried as the com­ learned about the Association from pany's scribe. Cotton and Hanna will reading Wagon Tracks. Not being Battle of Glorieta Pass two days later be reburied in separate graves and the members, each one must have re­ (including the destruction of the Con­ 28 unidentified soldiers will be placed ceived a copyo(WagonTracks from one federate supply train at Johnson's in a single grave.

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