Yankee Gold: William Henry Blackmore

William Henry Blackmore

William Blackmore (1827-1878) remains a little known millionaire mid-Victorian polymath. He was a successful lawyer based in Liverpool and subsequently London. An international financier involved in numerous North American land grants, he was also principal financier of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. His reputation by the mid 1870s within London financial circles was that he ‘has means of obtaining information in the City such as very few men possess.’

Blackmore was acknowledged by contemporaries to have so effectively exploited photography to document North American Indians that his photographic collection was copied to form the basis of the holdings of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Beth Rogers’ research into New Mexico’s frontier history was triggered by an interest in the background of Stephen B. Elkins, a noted political figure of the post-Civil War period. She worked for Living magazine and was a parent activist in public education in West Virginia. Her active writing began when her analysis of a new school program was published in Charleston newspapers. She has written two unpublished novels, taught middle-school for three years, sold real estate in North Carolina, and served as a courtroom deputy clerk for the U. S. Court of Appeals, 4^th Circuit, in Richmond, Virginia where she resides.

Steve Elkins, a young Missouri attorney, flees an outlaw guerrilla band into New Mexico. His assignment: write a contract on a mine that divides the proceeds between private investors and the United States government. Competing forces of a general, a Mexican-American colonel, and a former local congressman undermine his mission. His legal expertise and connections are unrivaled and he sees in the territory the opportunity for advancement.

In New Mexico, Steve enters a political mine field which moves through the Lincoln, Johnson, and Grant administrations. His maneuvers demand increasing skill, diligence, and diplomacy. He faces bitter attacks in his aggressive moves against slavery, robbery, assassination, murder, and cattle rustling. He struggles for a private life while the exertions of his public role erode his quest to achieve a business environment, statehood, and a railroad for New Mexico.

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William Henry Blackmore

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