The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 87, July 1983 - April, 1984 Page: 18
468 p. : ill. (some col.), maps (some col.), ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
source, were cast for county officers, and it should come as no surprise
that Charles A. Hoppin was elected chief justice of the county. Samuel
W. Barker was elected clerk of the county. Austin was the overwhelm-
ing choice of the voters to be the state capital, and San Elizario, with
a Mexican population of 1,2oo, became the county seat of El Paso
County. Just how this happened remains unclear since Neighbors did
not provide details, but presumably Hoppin's influence on the Mexi-
can population was decisive. At any rate, on March 23, 185o, Neigh-
bors reported to Governor Bell that El Paso County was fully or-
ganized, and that elected officials were discharging their duties. On
May 1, 1850, Governor Bell named notaries public, and Joel L. An-
krim was selected to be district judge of the Eleventh Judicial District,
composed of the counties of Presidio, El Paso, Worth, and Santa Fe.
On August 2o, 1850, Archibald C. Hyde replaced Charles A. Hoppin as
chief justice of El Paso County, and about that same time Lucas Doane
was named sheriff38
The organization of El Paso County, however, proved to be Neigh-
bors's only success. He could not organize Presidio County without an
escort, because the Indians were so hostile, and United States troops
in the region were insufficient for coping with the problem. The or-
ganization of Worth County, Neighbors believed, would follow the
establishment of county government in the Santa Fe region, but here
he encountered strong resistance. Opposition to the organization of
Santa Fe County came not only from Colonel John Munroe, who re-
fused to support the Texas cause, but also from President Zachary
Taylor, who argued that New Mexico was a United States territory,
that it should remain so until its boundaries were determined by some
competent authority, and that Texas therefore should not attempt to
interfere with the possession of the territory by the United States.
Neighbors's report of his activities on his return to Austin caused such
great excitement that the state legislature adopted unanimously a
resolution stating that "Texas will maintain the integrity of her terri-
tory at all hazards and to the last extremity." Both Texas and Millard
Fillmore, who had succeeded to the presidency on the death of Zachary
88"From El Paso," State Gazette (Austin), Apr. 27, 185o; Grace Long, "The Anglo-
American Occupation of the El Paso District" (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1931),
129; William H. Emory, Report on the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey, gi,
H. Exec. Doc. 135, 34th Cong., 1st Sess., 1856, Serial Set 861; Binkley, Expansionist Move-
ment in Texas, 181; Broaddus, Legal Heritage of El Paso, 34; Lucas Doane to the jefe
politico of El Paso del Norte, Sept. 25, 1850 (Juirez Archives, UTEP); Neighbours, Robert
Simpson Neighbors, go.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 87, July 1983 - April, 1984, periodical, 1983/1984; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117150/m1/38/: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.