New Mexican Machiavellian? The Story of Albert B. Fall Author(s): David H. Stratton Source: Montana: The Magazine of History, Vol. 7, No. 4 (Oct., 1957), pp. 2-14 Published by: Montana Historical Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4516182 Accessed: 03-04-2018 00:12 UTC

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This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Tue, 03 Apr 2018 00:12:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms New Mexican Machiavellian? The Story of Albert B. Fall

By David H. Stratton

A S INNUMERABLE booming headlines of the 1920's revealed, Albert B. Fall's chief claim to renown was his leasing of the Teapot Dome Naval Oil Reserve in Wyoming and a similar reserve at Elk Hills, California, to two oil magnates, Harry F. Sinclair and Edward L. Doheny. This occurred while he was Secretary of the Interior in the Cabinet of President War- ren G. Harding. Prior to this, Fall had served periodically, but never inconspicuously, as a pub- lic office holder in territorial , and had spent nine tempestuous years in the Senate as "The Gentleman from New Mexico" before his fellow senator and close friend, President-elect Harding, named him for the Cabinet in 1921. But it was the naval oil controversy which put Fall's name in the index of every general account of American history.

The more intimate aspects of Fall's nego- transgressions associated with the oil scan- tiations with the two oil millionaires were dal, and to a certain extent all the iniquity exposed when a Senate investigating com- of the besmirched Harding administration, mittee under the leadership of stern, deter- were imputed to him. Old and ill, the mined, Thomas J. Walsh, Senator from. former Secretary of the Interior, riding in Montana, disclosed first in 1924, and later an ambulance, went to prison in 1931 for in 1928, that Secretary Fall had also re- accepting a bribe, and became the first ceived personally at least $404,000 and as- American Cabinet officer ever convicted sorted livestock from the two oilmen, Sin- and imprisoned for a felony committed clair and Doheny.1 This inquiry placed Fall while in office. The two oil millionaires in an extremely disadvantageous position, went free. Fall was broken in health, repu- especially because the Teapot Dome revela- tation, and finances, and died in 1944 in tions erupted just in time to become a near poverty. Although in the eyes of the major issue in the presidential election of public as a whole he had been an unfaith- 1924. Calvin Coolidge and the Republicans ful public servant, he insisted to the end desperately needed a scapegoat for their that his personal acquisitions from Sinclair oil sins; Albert B. Fall, who had been the and Doheny were legitimate loans and nor- main target of the Teapot Dome investiga- mal business transactions having no bear- tors, was the most likely prospect. The ing on the official leasing policy for the Democrats, on the other hand, saw the so- naval oil reserves.3 called Teapot Dome scandal as a choice Until the Teapot Dome affair tainted his campaign issue, and they nourished it reputation, however, the most marked im- through the elections of 1924 and 1928 in pression Albert B. Fall had left on the particular, giving it so much notoriety as a public mind during the years of his public corruption label for their opponents that it service was that of an epitomized West- became a permanent part of their campaign erner. And he did not discourage this popu- repertoire, and is now a symbol of corrup- lar conception. tion in American political folklore.2 * * * In the decade of civil. and criminal litiga- Fall had not always lived in the West, but tion which followed the Teapot Dome in- he spent his entire adult life there after vestigation Fall again turned up as the leaving Kentucky. where he had been born scapegoat. He was the only defendant con- in the first year of the Civil War. He grew victed in the original cases resulting direct- up in the Reconstruction South. With some ly from the Senate probe of 1923-24. All the experience as a school teacher coupled with

2 MONTANA, the magazine of western history

This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Tue, 03 Apr 2018 00:12:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms | ~ ~ ~ ~ ...... a

This group of Westerners came to the Nation's Capitol as character witnesses in one of the trials resulting from the Teapot Dome scandal. Included are former Territorial Governor and Gongressman from New Mexico, George Curry (2nd row, 4th from the left) and Bob , son of the great Indian chief, who lived on the reservation adjoining Fall's vast ranch, (2nd from R., front row).

a short spell of "reading law" in Black- a try at the most celebrated calling of a cow stone's Commentaries in his spare time, camp, chuck wagon "bossing," or cooking. young Fall left Kentucky in 1881 for Years later he wrote of this experience: Clarksville on the Red River in Texas, hav- I soon learned . . . as no ranch cook ing been in that area briefly two years be- could be employed, that my [next] fore for the twin purposes of a prospecting occupation was to be the driving of the expedition and the regaining of his health. chuck wagon and purveying to the ap- Although for a time his one ambition was petites of about eighteen to twenty-five the amassing of a fortune large enough to cow punchers. I knew how to cook plain buy a Kentucky farm, Fall was never again food and to make good bread and coffee. in his native state for an extended period. Of course, I could drive a team and I The work of a bookkeeper in Clarksville rather enjoyed the privileges of a cook did not help the young man's fragile health; around camp. The boys, needless to say, so he turned to the life of a , hoping liked to stand in with the cook and it was that an outdoor life and hard exercise well understood, that if one of them ob- would be strengthening. While working jected too seriously to the food prepared with cattle outfits in Texas, he performed for him and would get rid of the cook the regular tasks of a cowhand and also had by any method, which might appear to FALL, 1957 3

This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Tue, 03 Apr 2018 00:12:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms The distinguished Gentleman from New Mexico at the peak of his career, as Secretary of the Interior

miner, as a timberman, mucker, and min- ing foreman. While serving his apprentice- ship, he became skilled in the operation of the hoist and the pump. He sorted ore, con- structed roads, and sharpened drills. Be- sides learning much about mining opera- tions, and making some investments of his own, he began to acquire a speaking know- ledge of Spanish, a faculty which after- wards served him well in the political arena of bilingual New Mexico. And, years later, Fall returned to Mexico as the manager and general counsel for Colonel William C. Greene, sometimes called the "Copper King" of Mexico, and made a fortune for himself in the gold and silver mines, tim- ber, and railroads of Chihuahua and Sonora. Fall came back to the United States in May, 1884, on the Mexican Central Rail- road's first througli train from Mexico City to El Paso, Texas. But after another several months in the Clarksvii'e area he was again engaged in mining activities.6 This time, along with his brother-in-law, Joe Morgan, he went prospecting in the mountains of southern New Mexico, and landed finally in the booming and brawling mining camp him, he was likely [to] fall heir to the of Kingston in the Black Range. His exper- cook's job and at the same time incur a iences at Kingston are among the most sig- certain degree of unpopularity.4 nificant and fabled of his life, mainly be- Fall's cooking must have been at least cause it was here that he met a fellow palatable because his health, which was al- miner, Edward L. Doheny, who later struck t rich in oil and in the naval oil episode ways uncertain, e v i d e n t 1 y improved enough to allow him to return for a short sent Fall a little black bag filled with $100,000. time to a more sedentary life at Clarksville. Again, in a desultory manner, he "read Kingston was one of those legendary law." He dabbled in real estate and insur- mining camps of the West where the rich cance, ran a grocery store, and, in 1883, mar- finds of silver and other ore helped to pre- ried Emma Garland Morgan, whose father cipitate the tidal wave of mining activity had been a representative from Texas to which swept through the Western states the Confederate Congress.5 and territories during that period. It pre- sented to the prospector all the "get-rich- The ideal of owning a Kentucky farm quick" possibilities fostered by Sutter's was now gone, and Fall looked around for Mill, the Comstock Lode, Virginia City, other possibilities of fame and fortune. The Montana, and Central City, Colorado. Al- mines of Mexico seemed promising; so he though overdrawn as to the actual oppor- left Clarksville for a prospecting trip south tunities for quick wealth, this description of the border. He rode on horseback sets the scene: through eight states of that republic, fi- It was at Kingston that the prospector nally locating at Nieves in the state of Za- sallied forth a poor man in the morning, catecas. There he worked as a practical returning a millionaire in the afternoon 4

This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Tue, 03 Apr 2018 00:12:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms for he had "struck it rich." Here f or- tunes grew in a single day to vanish as quickly by games of chance, under the shadow of the pines, at night. The clink- ing of glasses, in drinking to the health and good luck of a "pard" and the dizzy whirl in the dance hall under the flaring and flickering flames of pine knots and tallow candles, were vivid scenes of the stirring times in the "good old days" of the early eighties.7

When Fall and Morgan arrived at Kings- ton, they were armed with rifles and six- shooters, which prospectors there consider- ed as necessary as a pick. The Apache In- dians under , Nane, and Geronimo had terrorized southwestern New Mexi- co for years. Between 1879 and 1886 at least 140 casualties were suffered by the whites in Grant, Sierra (in which Kingston is lo- cated), and Socorro counties alone.8 Not Mrs. Albert B. Fall, at about the same period as her until 1886, with the capture of Geronimo, husband's photo left. From a fine study by Harris & Ewing, Washington, D. C. did the fear of these Indian depredations diminish. Valley. It was in the heart of a rich agri- Completely out of money when he cultural, mining, and stock-raising section. reached Kingston, Fall capitalized on his Nourished by the ancient Mexican ace qui- previous mining experience and had no as., or irrigation canals, which siphoned off trouble getting a job underground in the the muddy water of the Rio Grande, the Grey Eagle Mine on South Percha Creek, arid lands of the Mesilla'Valley blossomed about six miles from the town. This was with orchards, vineyards and alfalfa fields. tough, dirty work, the sweat and toil of practical mining with all the limitations of The hearings of this committee and its findings are in equipment and technique of a frontier U. S. Senate, Leases Upon Naval Oil Reserves, Hear- ings Before the Committee on Public Lands and Sur- locale. The newcomer from Texas worked veys Pursuant to S. Res. 282, 294, and 434, 67 Cong., "on the hammer" and performed the other and S. Res. 147, 68 Cong. (Washington, 1924) ; U. S. Senate, Leases Upon Naval Oil Reserves, Report No. tedious tasks of the hard rock miner at a 794, 68 Cong., 1 Sess. and 2 Sess. (Washington, 1924 and 1925) ; U. S. Senate, Leases Upon Naval Oil Re- wage of $3.50 per day. While working at serves, Hearings Before the Committee on Public the Grey Eagle, he lived in an earthen dug- Lands and Surveys, 70 Cong., 1 Sess., Pursuant to S. out a short distance away.9 Res. 101 (Washington, 1928) ; and U. S. Senate, Investigation of Activities of Continental Trading Co., Report No. 1326, 70 Cong., 1 Sess. (Washington, Fall decided to give up mining for the 1928). The term Teapot Dome scandal, or contro- versy, became an appellation which described the ir- time being and to move to Las Cruces, regularities in the leasing of both the Wyoming and when he concluded after several months California reserves. 2 Witness the statement made by Governor Frank G. in the Kingston area that other pursuits Clement of Tennessee in his keynote speech at the would provide a larger income for his Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Aug. 13, 1956, that the Republican Party from 1920 to 1956 growing family. His wife, whose poor had offered "nothing better than Teapot Dome-the health might benefit from the dry, sunny great depression -Nixon, Dixon and Yates, as well as Benson and McCarthy ...." Copy of speech sent climate of southern New Mexico, and his to the writer by Governor Clement. two young children were still in Texas.10 For accounts concerning Fall's life see David H. Strat- ton, "Albert B. Fall and the Teapot Dome Affair" (Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Department of Las Cruces, on the banks of the Rio History, University of Colorado, Boulder, 1955) ; an(d Grande River in Dona Ana County, was by the same author, "President Wilson's Smelling Committee," The Colorado Quarterly, V (Autumn, the largest town in the irrigatedl Mesilla 1956), 164-84.

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This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Tue, 03 Apr 2018 00:12:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms THE POLITICAL CRUCIBLE OF DONA The editor of a local newspaper, who, of ANA COUNTY course, had often seen such perversions of But the principal activity of Las Cruces democracy and could confirm this foreign- and Dona Ana County was neither mining er's observations, wrote following an elec- nor agriculture; it was politics. The citi- tion: zens of that section, of whom the majority The money spent for whiskey and were Spanish-Americans, had a religious votes by the politicans of Las Cruces in zeal for politics, and almost every com- the late election would have built an ade- munity affair had some political signifi- quate system of water works for the cance. Through an aggressive group of lead- town, put the streets in decent condition ers of both parties Dona Ana always tried and planted rows of trees along every to dominate every political convention and important street.13 contest in the Territory of New Mexico, no matter what party was involved. Much of An opposing journal blamed the constant the time they were successful. The county "state of ferment" about who would fill the was renowned for its political battles, county offices and the overpowering in- which often resulted in mass demonstra- terest of the populace in this "absorbing tions and bloodshed, and bitter personal theme" for the retarded financial develop- feuds stemming from election quarrels ment of the community. In every election dragged on for years, sometimes punctu- old political wounds were torn open, heated ated by six-shooter duels in the streets or personal quarrels ensued, and the promi- public places, or by murders in ambush in nent citizens who; were most needed to pro- more secluded locales.'1 mote progress were rendered incapable of uniting.14 Some more sensitive souls were com- pletely repulsed by the operation of Ameri- It was in this tumultuous setting that A. B. Fall (he was not Albert B. Fall until can democracy in Dona Ana County. A so- he became a United States Senator) served phisticated Englishwoman, in New Mexico his political apprenticeship. He was no re- to regain her health, commented in horror: former, and there is little indication that Small-beer politics [is] the curse of conditions improved because of his pres- this fair land... .One method of securing 'Fayette A. Jones, New Mexico Mines and Minerals the votes of our enlightened fellow-citi- (Santa Fe, 1904), 96, 98. From the time of its dis. zens is worthy of mention. On the eve- covery to Jan. 1, 1904, the estimated production of Kingston, nearly all silver, was $6,250,000, probably ning before election-day, the henchmen the record for silver in New Mexico. of one political party rounded up forty 'Ralph E. Twitchell, The Leading Facts of New Mexi- can History (5 vols., Cedar Rapids, 1912-17, II, or fifty Mexicans well primed in advance 438-46; Hubert H. Bancroft, History of Arizona and with whiskey, and, putting them into a New Mexico 1530-1888, Vol XVII of The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft (San Francisco, 1889), corral as if they were a bunch of steers, 569-73, 744-47. kept them under guard all night for the 'Fall, "Memoirs"; Fall to Louis M. Sly, Sept. 20, 1918. purpose of ensuring their "straight" vote Fall Family Papers. U. S. Senate, Investigation of Mexican Affairs, Preliminary Report and Hearings on the morrow. This incident is only one of the Committee on Foreign Relations, 66 Cong., 2 Sess., Pursuant to S. Res. 106 (Washington, 1920), of the anomalies of a country whose free- 1130-31. dom is not only in perpetual danger of "Interview with Fall's youngest daughter, Mrs. Jouett degenerating into license, but which does Fall Elliott, Dec. 22, 1946, as cited in an unpublished manuscript, soon to be published as a book, by C. L. constantly degenerate into some of the Sonnichsen, "Tularosa: Last of the West," 82-83, worst forms of slavery ... 12 329ff. See Twitchell, Leading Facts, III, 185-223, for an ex- 'This statement and other interesting details of Fall's ample of one of these bloody mass demonstrations. early life are in his unpublished "Memoirs." Another Edith M. (Nicholl) Boyer, Observations of a Ranch- unpublished manuscript by Mark B. Thompson, "Bio- woman in New Mexico (London 1898), 80, 83-84. graphy of Albert Bacon Fall," gives supplementary This was a common scene on election day with both information. Both are among papers held by the Fall parties striving to fill their corrals, according to other family; hereafter referred to as Fall Family Papers. residents of Las Cruces at that time. Personal inter- ' The Standard (Clarksville), March 16, May 11, Aug. 3, view with Mrs. Katherine D. Stoes, Nov. 20, 1954, Oct. 26, 1883. at Las Cruces; Independent Democrat (Las Cruces), 'There is a possibility that Fall made a second trip to Nov. 7, 1894. Mexico before going to New Mexico. Clarksville 1 Independent Democrat, Nov. 28, 1894. Standard, May 15. 1885. 4 Rio Grande Republican (Las Cruces) May 22, 1891. 6

This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Tue, 03 Apr 2018 00:12:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms In the tumultous early legal days in New Mexico, Fall, center emerged as one of the great trial lawyers of his region. The man at left is identified only as Franklin. W. A. Hawkins is seated right, in Fall's law office.

ence. In fact, according to the opposition was Thomas B. Catron and his so-cal]led newspaper, he only stirred up more "strife "Santa Fe Ring." These Republican lead- and array," and, continued this partisan ob- ers, with influential ties in Washington, server, "When the blessed Redeemer ut- did their best to maintain a ruthless domi- tered that great humanitarian doctrine, nance over federal patronage and the fa- 'Blessed are the peace makers,' he evident- vors emanating from the territorial capital ly did not refer to A. B. Fall.""5 Fall did at Santa Fe.16 Frontier politics, reminiscent not cleanse Dona Ana politics, but he did of the Jacksonian period, resulted, and master all its Machiavellian techniques and often the practices of Dona Ana County maneuvers. He became the political power spread all over New Mexico. of southern New Mexico. A. B. Fall, only a short time ago a muck- er in the Grey Eagle Mine at Kingston, de- HE STARTED AS A DEMOCRAT cided to "fight the devil with fire."'7 He There was little question about which challenged the Dona Ana Republican ma- party Fall would choose. In many respects chine, which meant also, of course, that hie was still a Kentuckian, and for a South- he would be pitted against Thomas B. Cat- erner there was no other party but Demo- ron and the "Santa Fe Ring." As one of crat. This raised a difficulty. Territorial his closest friends has written of Fall: New Mexico was veneered with Republi- canism because most of the influential His nature was not one of those ordi- public offices were filled by appointment as nary individuals, who drop into the life the national administration in Washington of a community without ripple or dis- saw fit. And because Republican presidents turbance, and remain submerged a part occupied the White House most of the time of the general scheme of affairs, filling an unnoticed niche and creating no dis- for fifty years after the Civil War, this made it hard for Fall to obtain the impor- turbance . . . [in] existing conditions or tant political positions and recognition no change of usual surroundings. It was which his ambition demanded. A well-en- Ibid., Oct. 14, 1892. trenched Republican machine, feeding on cSee William A. Kelcher, The Fabulous Frontier, the beneficence of Washington, controlled Twelve New Mexico Itenis (Santa Fe, 1945), chap. V; Miguel A. Otero, My Life on the Frontier (vol. New Mexico, including Dona Ana County. 1, New York, 1935; vol. II, Albuquerque, 1939) II, 235. At the head of this territorial organization ' Fall, "Memoirs."

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This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Tue, 03 Apr 2018 00:12:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms inevitable that his presence should be fice on the east (Democratic) side of Main noticed, his activities observed, his am- Street, a member of the opposition, Ben bitions sounded and possibilities ana- Williams, who had the reputation of a gun- lyzed.18 man, came walking down the same side of He became a master of sulphurous the street. Perhaps it was because the Re- phrases and political vitriol. Whenever an publicans had hired Williams to kill Fall, opportunity presented itself (or he created or, perhaps, it was for other reasons, doubt- one), whether in a public meeting, in court, less political in some part, that either Mor- or in private conversation, he harangued gan or Williams, who had an old grudge, and castigated the Republicans. He cul- started shooting. At any rate, Morgan fired tivated the friendship and support of the the first shot to take effect. It grazed Spanish-American element, and they sel- Williams' head, badly powder-burning his dom forgot their "amigo" on election day. face. Another shot, perhaps fired by Fall, He purchased a struggling weekly news- passed through Williams' hat. A third shot, paper, the Mesilla Valley Democrat, which from Morgan's six-shooter at close range, had all but failed in its Republican sur- shattered Williams' left elbow, passed out roundings because of the bias signified by at the shoulder, and knoicked him to the its name. His father and brother ostensibly ground. Soon after this Williams, who had ran the journal, whose name was changed been returning the fire, got across to the to the Independent Democrat, but there Republican side of the street, shooting as was no doubt about who directed its edi- he went, backed into a saloon, shot out the torial policy. Fall learned to resort to more lights, and was quickly cared for by his forceful methods than the power of the friends. Fall w a s not injured, b u t his press, however, when it was a matter of brother-in-law had a flesh wound in the assembling a cavalry of armed cowboys upper arm.2' furnished by a rancher friend, Oliver ILee, One report had it that Williams was "out to disperse an opposing force of armed Re- to get" Fall and had stumbled into the publicans who were "guarding" the ballot saloon after the shooting saying he had boxes, or when conditions necessitated done the job. The Republicans denied this. more individual combat.19 They said Williams had been the victim of a As the Democrats gained power under premeditated and unprovoked attack. Fall Fall's leadership, political rivalry became maintained that he did no shooting in the even more heated. Both factions were con- episode.22 And when the grand jury, com- stantly armed and ready for trouble. By posed of sixteen Democrats and five Re- tacit agreement Main Street was a divid- publicans, convened, it refused to find in- ing line, the east side with the Palmilla dictments against Fall and Morgan, but Club (one of the better saloons) and the instead issued two separate nuisance in- town's leading barber shop was reserved dictments concerning matters apart from for the Democrats. The west side, where the shooting against Williams and Colonel the principal general store, the Masonic Albert J. Fountain, the county's leading Temple, and numerous saloons of lesser Republican. These last two charges were grandeur were located, was set aside for dismissed a short time later, and the Demo- the Republicans.20 cratic-Republican rivalry continued along

Fall cl-aimed his life had been threatened Thompson, "Fall Biography." 19 Independent Deimocrat, Nov. 7 and 21, 1894; Rio Grande and he was seldom seen on the streets with- Republican, Dec. 15, 1894. out one or the other of his unofficial body- 20 Personal interview with Mrs. Katherine D. Stoes, Nov. 20, 1954, at Las Cruces; Sonnichsen, Mrs., "Tula- guards, his brother-in-law, Joe Morgan, or rosa," 134-35. his rancher friend, Oliver Lee. One Sep- Rio Grande Republican, Sept. 20, Oct. 4, 1895; Harry H. Bailey, When New Mexico Was Young, edited by tember night in 1895 the tense situation Homer E. Gruver (Las Cruces, (1948)), 192-93; was suddenly punctuated with gunfire. As personal interview with Fall's daughters, Mrs. Alex- ina Fall Chase, June 16, 1957, at Ruidoso, N. Mex. Fall, his law partner, R. L. ("Deacon") Fall always maintained that Williams was accom- Young, and Joe Morgan stood talking in panied by an armed escort of three men. 2Rio Grande Republican, Sept. 20, 1895; interview with the shadows outside the law partner's of- Mrs. Chase, June 16, 1957, at Ruidoso.

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This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Tue, 03 Apr 2018 00:12:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms other paths.23 By now the fiery Democratic chieftain was no longer a novice in the political affairs of territorial New Mexico.

BRILLIANT FRONTIER LAWYER Although he had practiced law in some capacity earlier, Fall was formally admit- ted to practice before the territorial su- preme court and the lesser courts of New Mexico in 1891, about four years after ar- riving in Las Cruces.24 This was the culmi- nation of a long process of "reading law" in- termittently since his youth in Kentucky. ~~~~...... Within a few years he was recognized as one of the most competent attorneys in that part of the Southwest. Much of his practice concerned, both United States and Mexican law, especially in cases regarding land ti- tles, water and mineral rights, and the legality of Mexican marriages under Unit- Mrs. Fall and daughters sat for this portrait about 1905. Their son is absent from this photograph, taken ed States law, because of the proximity of by Feldman in El Paso, Texas. Dona Ana County to Mexico, and because it was formerly Mexican territory. Cattle All of these trials ended in acquittal. In rustling cases also took much of his time. the events preceding and accompanying He afterward declared that he had de- the Fountain trial Fall was closely associ- fended some 500 persons accused of rustl- ated with Eugene Manlove Rhodes, after- ing and could not recall having lost one wards recognized as the bard-chronicler such case. Moreover, he was employed by of the Cattle Kingdom, and the two re- livestock associations in the prosecution of mained lifelong friends.27 In fact Rhodes rustlers and maintained that he had never used Fall as a character in some of his lost one of these cases either. Murder cases, stories.28 too, constituted a great part of his practice. A. B. Fall was a familiar figure in the Perhaps fifty of these involved first degree courts of southern New Mexico, and his murder, only one of them resulting in con- law practice became most profitable. In- viction, according to Fall.25 termittently for many years he was con- Three of the most famous murder cases nected with W. A. Hawkins and other at- in which Fall acted as a defense attorney torneys-in-law partnerships in Las Cruces, received wide notoriety. One was the shooting in El Paso of Hardin, 23Rio Grande Republican, Sept. 27, Oct. 4, 1895. the infamous Texas killer, by John Sel- 24 Certificate. "Authorization to Practice Before the Su- preme Court of New Mexico," dated Mar. 6, 1912, re- man in 1895. The celebrated Fountain case affirming Fall's authorization to practice before the of 1896-99, in which Fall's right-band man courts of territorial New Mexico, as of Aug. 6, 1891. Fall Family Papers. Oliver Lee and others were charged with 23 Fall, "Memoirs." murder in the disappearance on the White 26 In 1914 Fall wrote of the Fountain murders. "This Sands of the Dona Ana Republican leader, case involved hundreds of people arrayed upoIn one side or the other, not only in a political but a pre- Colonel Albert J. Fountain, and his nine- sonal feud." Fall to Roland Holt, Mar. 16, 1914. Fall year-old son, drew the anxious attention Family Papers. 27 When Rlhodes later moved to the East, Fall encouraged of the entire Southwest and threatened to him to return to New Mexico by saying, "You be- result in a bloody with the sides long to the West and while you may think you can write of, and with, Western Spirit and without being divided according to political alignments.26 directly under the inspiration of our Western sun Fall headed the defense again in the 1908 and skies, you will find that youi are mistaken." Fall to E. M. Rhodes (Apalachia, N. Y.), Nov. 11, 1907. trial of Wayne Brazel, the accused assassin Fall Family Papers. of Pat F. Garrett, the Lincoln C o u n t y a'W. H. Hutchinson, A Bar Cross Man, The Life and sheriff who had disposed of . Personal Writings of Euigene Manlove Rhodes (Norman, Okla., 1956), 100-01.

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This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Tue, 03 Apr 2018 00:12:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms El Paso, and Clifton, Arizona. He repre- THE COPPER-COATED COUNSEL sented irrigation and development enter- As manager, organizer, and general prises, mining companies, lumber concerns, counsel for the colonel's vast mining, tim- railroads, and other industrial interests.21 ber, and railroad enterprises principally But still he had time for politics. He in Chihuahua and Sonora, Mexico, Fall served in both houses of the territorial had a key role in a multi-million dollar op- legislature, having been elected to the eration. This was his big opportunity, and lower house first in 1890, as an associate he was equal to it. With a staff of lawyers justice of the New Mexico supreme court and thousands of Mexican laborers under from 1893 to 1895 by appointment from his supervision, he maintained offices in Democratic President Grover Cleveland, El Paso, New York, and at Concheno, Chi- and briefly as territorial attorney general huahua, and at other points in Mexico. This twice, once in 1897 and again in 1907. In his undertaking provided an intimate know- early public career, as later, he often acted ledge of Mexican law, government, and independently, sometimes refusing to at- society, besides affording an acquaintance tend Democratic caucuses, and he was al- with many influential Mexicans, including ways surrounded by controversy. 01ce, the old dictator, Porfirio Diaz. Later, when during a heated debate on the floor of the Mexico was convulsed in revolution and legislature, he impulsively stepped over American property and lives were lost, from the Democratic side to slap the face Fall was in the Senate and became the out- of Charles A. Spiess, one of the territory's standing advocate in that body for United most prominent Republicans. Spiess did States' intervention south of the border. not reciprocate.30 While directing Greene's operations, When t h e Spanish-American War Fall had an opportunity to make invest- erupted, Fall readily took time off from ments of his own in those enterprises and his political and legal activities to lead the elsewhere in Mexico. Then he closed out local company of militia, but the war was a large portion of his friend's interests, too short for Captain Fall to cover himself when Greene faced bankruptcy in the with the military glory which so enhanced early 1900's, and, by advancing money of the political fortunes of many New Mexi- his own to meet certain of the Colonel's ob- cans who served with Theodore Roosevelt ligations, he secured titles to a remnant of and the Rough Rider Regiment. The closest the Greene properties, some of which he he ever got to the fighting was the peanut still held during the revolutionary period.32 fields of Georgia, where he and his troops With the profits from his Mexican in- underwent training at Camp Churchman.3" terests A. B. Fall acquired a historic ranch Following this brief army experience, near Tularosa, New Mexico, from Patrick Fall returned to Las Cruces and his law Coghlan, who was reputed to have been a office. He expanded his practice, increased friend of Billy the Kid and the entrepre- his mine holdings in New Mexico, in which neur of a cattle rustling gang of which the he had been interested since his early days Kid was the titular leader.33 The ranch in the territory, acquired bank stocks, and was located at the edge of the Tularosa made additional investments in Mexican Basin (where the first atomic bomb was mining. These interests were the founda- exploded in July, 1945) in the rough hill tion of his fortune, but the cornerstone Muster roll of Company H, First Regt. of Territorial Volunteers, July 15, 1898 to Feb. 11, 1899. Fall Family came through his association with that Papers. colorful Western capitalist, Colonel Wil- 32 U.S.Senate, Investigation of Mexican Affairs, 1131-32; liam C. Greene. Fall to H. B. Hening, Sept. 20, 1918; to James S. Fiedler, Feb. 2, 1912. Fall Family Papers. Dr. I. J. Bush in El Paso Times, Mar. 16, 1925; personal inter- 9 Fall, "Memoirs"; Fall to H. B. Hening, Sept. 20, 1918; view with Harris Walthall, Nov. 23, 1954, in El Paso. to President Theodore Roosevelt, Oct. 29, 1907. Fall Walthall was at one time one of Fall's law partners, Family Papers. long a confidant and friend, and also employed by 3 Miguel A. Otero, My Nine Years as Governor of New Greene. Mexico 1897-1906, edited by Marion Dargan (Albu- Sophie A. Poe, Buckboard Days, edited by Eugene querque, 1940), 12; Otero to Marion Dargan, July Cunningham (Caldwell, Idaho, 1936), 100-01, 117-18; 3, 1939. Dargan Papers, Special Collections, Univer- Charles A. Siringo, A Lone Star Cowboy (Santa Fe, sity of New Mexico Library, Albuquerque. 1919), 269-70. 10

This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Tue, 03 Apr 2018 00:12:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms The famous, historic Fall ranch near Tularosa, N. M., purchased with profits from his Mexican operations. He moved his home here in 1904. country at the foot of the Sierra Blanca A NEAT POLITICAL SWITCH Mountain. It controlled most of the lower Mexican operations had taken most of part of the Tres Ritos (more correctly "Tres his time for a few years, but Fall could not Rios,") or Three Rivers Valley, just to the stay away from New Mexico politics. He north of the great mountain. astounded everyone in the territory by In 1904 Fall moved his home to the Three switching to the Republican Party, and Rivers ranch, whose headquarters ranch- voting that way in the 1906 election. It was house, shaded by giant cottonwoods, had not uncommon in New Mexico for top poli- walls of adobe three feet thick. Ownership tical leaders to change parties; however, no of this rugged ranch gave him tremendous other switch was as surprising as Fall's, satisfaction, and although he could never for he had been "one of the most uncom- be there as much as he wished, he was able promising of democratic partisans ever to devote more time to its supervision when identified with the political history of the his Mexican investments declined, and he State ... .," or, even worse, "the most rabid spent his fortune expanding and develop- and intense Democrat in the whole South- ing it until eventually it encompassed about west. .. ."34 But his affiliation with the Re- 650,000 acres. In fact the ranch brought publican Party was quickly accepted, and about his downfall. Most of the $404,000 soon he was blasting the Democrats just he obtained from Sinclair and Doheny was as energetically as he had the Republicans. used for the addition of more land, the con- This did represent nevertheless, a signi- struction of a hydroelectric plant, the lay- ficant point of transition in Fall's life. With ing of several miles of concrete irrigation his switch from the Democrats to the Re- ditches, and other improvements at Three publicans, Fall lost the last important ves- Rivers. This show of affluence was the first tige of identification with the South. When thing to raise questions in the Teapot Dome " Twitchell, Leading Facts, V, 113; quoted in Otero, My investigation about his financial affairs. Nine Years as Governor, 153.

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This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Tue, 03 Apr 2018 00:12:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms This rare photo shows the not-unusual winter snow- fall which came to the stately Three Rivers Rancho.

resigned as Secretary of the Interior, and within a year the Teapot Dome investiga- tion had unleashed the revelations which ruined him politically and financially.

...... The time to view Fall as an epitomized Westerner, then, is not at the end of his life, but in 1923, just as he retired from the Department of the Interior, and before his reputation crumpled. This was when his prestige was at its height, and the public still seemed to regard him as a "typical," highly successful Westerner. Why had he left this impression during the years of his public office holding, and how well did he measure up to the popu- lar conception? To begin with, Fall was a self-made man, a feat always dear to the he was willing to turn his back on the promoters of the Western tradition. He had South's traditional party, he was no longer only a few years of formal schooling; this a Southerner. He was now a Westerner. was all the education he ever got from Toward the end of his life, when asked other men. Also he loved horses, and for about this change of party allegiCance, Fall that matter, any kind of fine blooded stock. simply smiled and replied, "I know when Every year he attended the Kentucky to change horses.":"5 And this probably ex- Derby, and a friend once declared, ". . . I plainsyerV nteSnt,Flhis political a lvtdtmetamorphosis as well think if he was in his grave and you men- as anything else. Some day New Mexico th 2aie y i redPrsdn ad tioned a race horse he would jump right up v,as ing going Tw4er to become ae,i a state, ac,12,h which in all and ask about it"36 A black, broad brim- probability would mean the election of med Stetson hat became his trademark, two Republicans to the United States Sen- just as he was noted for his combative, ate. By this time Fall's aspirations de- nature, his soft drawl, which, incidentally, manded more prominence thanl local po,Li- was probably more Kentuckian than West- tics could bestow; he wanted to be one of ern, and his bronzed compexion. The ru- the newly-admitted state's first Senators. mor got around that he always carried a After that, who could tell what would gun and was not afraid to use it.37 come next? A. B. Fall's driving ambition Fall had a special talent for being a had taken him a long way since the days crony and played poker with a passion that w;hen he had served up sourdough biscuits, made him a natural chum in his Senate coffee, sow belly bacon, and other delica- days of poker-loving Warren G. Harding. cies to Texas cowhands from his chu-k His erect posture indicated to many that wagon. he was a "man who had spent much time SENATOR FROM NEW MEXICO in the saddle."'38 He was described as a In 1910 he was a delegate to, the conven- "fighting man whose career, to some ex- tion which produced a constitution for tent, is reminiscent of .. .," and New Mexico's stateho-od. Then, in 1912, the 3' Bailey, When New AMexico Was Young, 195. first legislature of the forty-seventh state 7'Edward B. McLean testifying before the Teapot Dome investigating committee, U. S. Senate, Leases Upon elected him and his old Republican enemy Naval Reserves (1924), 2691. of Las Cruces days, Thomas B. Catron, as 3 "He showed me his six-shooter one afternoon; he carried the first United States Senators. After nine it always, a habit of frontier days." Evelyni Walsh McLean, Father Struck It Rich, with Boyden Sparkes (Boston, 1936), 253. 3S Mark Sullivan, The Twenties, Vol. VI of Our Times The United States 1900-1925 (6 vols., New York, 1926-1935), 288-91. 12

This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Tue, 03 Apr 2018 00:12:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Here is the more normal setting of the lovely Three Rivers Rancho which figured so prominently in the Teapot Dome hearings. with "the sort of eyes that one learned to beware of in the early frontier days as in- dicating a man who could take care of himself in almost any sort of corpanv ")' A subordinate in the Interior Depal U1ic, said of him: Fall was certainly a man ot ability. He was a fighter who gave and !~~~~~~~~~ _I took hard blows. I think that, and party politics, was the major cause of opposition to him rather than any special jealousy. I was fond of him but to be fair we must remember that his code was that of the frontier and frontier politics.40 Fall himself put it another way in a let- ter in which he had frankly assessed the capability of a local politician and had concluded by telling the man, "You will excuse the 'poker' terms which I have used, but the game of politics is so much like a game of poker that these, it strikes me, are most appropriate."'4' His enormous ranch became a legend, especially with Easterners, and some- I became unintentionally the kicker of one enamored with the West was for- the Cabinet. It got so I was expected to ever writing him about a job on it, or want- make objections. Most of the rest of ing to send an ailing or erring son, which- them were more reserved. I wish no g ever the case might be, there for restitu- that I had been, too. For every time I tion. And sometimes in true Western his- kicked about something I made an ene- pitality Fall graciously favored these re- my, and in later years all these little dis- quests. One such Eastern boy, of the ail- affections piled up against me. As we ing variety, lived on the Three Rivers say out west, I spoke too many times ranch for eleven months, at the end of when I should have been listening.4) which the father asserted that his experi- ence would no doubt prove more valuable Somne of these quali'les mentioned might to his son than any two or three years in appear in any mani, Easterner as well as the boy's lifetime.42 Westerner. but in his attitude toward the conservation of natural resources Fall was THE SPIRIT OF THE UNTAMED WEST without dou-b' typically Western. He was In the Harding Cabinet, as in the New by no mean, a consorvationist in the popu- Mexico territorial legislature, Albert B. lar conception of the term, as many of his Fall showed what some Easterners might speeches and actions while in the Senate consider the spirit of the "untamed" West. and Interior Department reveal. Fall ad- Actually, he was simply a rebel, or some- mired Theodore Roosevelt and nominated times, as he afterwards characterized his him for the Presidency in the 1916 Republi- position in the Cabinet, a "kicker." can National Convention. Roosevelt once 'Louis Siebold in New York World, as quoted in Cur- called Fall "the kind of public servant of rent Opinion, LXXI (July, 1921), 34. 40 H. Foster Bain, Director to the Bureau of Mines under whom all Americans should feel proud," Fall to Cyril Clemens, Apr. 14, 1940. Copy, Fall and another time he stated, "For two or Family Papers. 4' Fall to John R. McFie, Dec. 2, 1907. Fall Family Papers. "El Paso Times, July 22, 1931 (article four in a series 42 Matthew Luce (Cambridge, Mass.) to Fall, Sept. 3, of fifteen by Fall with Magner White for the North 1921. Fall Family Papers. American Newspaper Alliance.)

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This content downloaded from 128.95.104.109 on Tue, 03 Apr 2018 00:12:47 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 4~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.

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Left, an admirer, Lillian M. Lane sent this drawing of Mr. Fall to him after he had retired to New Mexico. It was based on a photograph in the PORTLAND NEWS of July 4, 1928. Above is one of the innumer- able and expensive irrigation developments on the Three Rivers Ranch, which figured so prominently in the Teapot Dome affair

I'm surprised at you. You've had a good education. You know something about history. Every generation from Adam and Eve down has lived better than the generation before. I don't know three years Senator Fall has been on the how . . . [the next generation will] do whole, with the possible exception of Sena- it - maybe they'll use the energy of the tor Poindexter, the man with whom I have sun or the sea waves -but . . . [they] been able most cordially to co-operate will live better than we do. I stand for among all of the people at Washington."44 opening up every resource.46 This friendship was based, however, on a mutual disapproval of President Woodrow Consequently it should not have been Wilson's "watchful waiting" policy in Mex- surprising that as Secretary of the Inter- ico rather than on common ground in con- ior, after rather surreptitiously assuming servation views. In fact Fall was specifi- control of the naval oil reserves, set aside cally repulsed by Roosevelt's conservation for the Navy's use only in case of emer- program as expressed in the 1912 Progres- gency, he negotiated leasing arrangements sive Party platform. with Sinclair and Doheny for these re- Fall had been exploiting the natural re- serves. The astonishing part came when it sources in the Southwest and in Mexico as was discovered he had taken money from a rancher and in various mining ventures the two oilmen at about the same time the for nearly forty years when he became leases were being made. Fall went to Secretary of the Interior, and he believed prison for accepting a bribe, but it must that the land, timber, and minerals of the be said in his behalf that with his typically Western states should be used for the im- Western attitude of unrestrained and im- mediate development of that section, just mediate disposition of the natural re- as they had been in the older states. Once sources, and for this reason alone, he no when an official of the National Park Ser- doubt would have turned over the re- vice challenged him on his wide-open at- serves to Sinclair and Doheny, or to some titude toward the public lands, asking other representatives of private enterprise. what sort of heritage this would leave the In a peculiar manner the natural re- next generation, Fall replied easily: sources of the West made and broke Albert B. Fall. His life is "an American success " Quoted in Robert Shankland, Steve Mather of the Na- tional Parks (New York, 1951), 219-20. story" with an unhappy ending! 14

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