Henry Connelly

Henry Connelly (1800–1866) was the Governor of the New Mexico Territory during the American Civil War. He was appointed by President Lincoln and served from September 4, 1861 until July 6, 1866. During his term, the territory broke into two, and then three during Connelly's tenure due to the Civil War and administrative problems.

Connelly was born in Spencer County, Kentucky. In 1828 he received a medical degree from Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. He practiced medicine and ran a store in Liberty, Missouri from 1820 until 1824, when he traveled the Santa Fe Trail from Independence, Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico with other merchants. During and following these years of travel and trading, he no longer practiced medicine, except in the case of an emergency. In 1828 he moved to Chihuahua, Mexico where he lived until 1848, continuing to make business journeys to Missouri and New Orleans. He married a Mexican woman there in 1838, with whom he had three children. Sometime in the 1840s he moved to Peralta about 17 miles south of the town of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Connelly participated in negotiations between governor Manuel Armijo and James W. Magoffin in Santa Fe, prior to Kearny's 1846 bloodless Capture of Santa Fe during the Mexican-American War. In 1849, after the death of his first wife, Connelly married Delores Perea. Perea was the widow of Don Mariano Chaves, one of the governors of New Mexico while it was under the rule of Mexico. She was also the mother of Don Mariano's son, José Francisco Chaves,[1] who served three terms in the United States House of Representatives as Delegate from the New Mexico Territory, 1865 to 1871.[2]

Connelly was an associate in the incorporation of the New Mexican Railway Company in support for construction of a transcontinental railroad via the southern route through New Mexico in 1860. He was a main force behind the repeal of the New Mexico Slave Act in 1861. He was governor during the Civil War and General Sibley's New Mexico Campaign. During the Battle of Valverde, he was at Fort Craig, then moved the territorial capital from Santa Fe to Las Vegas, New Mexico prior to the Confederate occupation of Santa Fe.[3] Connelly was in ill health during a large part of his administration. He was absent from office due to illness for about a half year between the fall 1862 and the spring of 1863, during which Secretary William F.M. Arny acted as Governor. He died of an opium overdose on Aug 12, 1866 in Santa Fe after leaving office, July 16, 1866.[4]

References

  1. ^ Keleher, William Aloysius. "Turmoil in New Mexico". Sunstone Press. http://books.google.com/books?id=UZrdSINpaZoC&. Retrieved 16 November 2011.  p.484
  2. ^ Editors, loc.gov. "Jose Francisco Chaves". Hispanic Americans in Congress, 1822-1995. Library of Congress. http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/congress/chaves.html. Retrieved 16 November 2011. 
  3. ^ Keleher, William Aloysius. "Turmoil in New Mexico". Sunstone Press. http://books.google.com/books?id=UZrdSINpaZoC&. Retrieved 16 November 2011.  p.484
  4. ^ State Historian, Office of the. "Connelly, Henry". State of New Mexico. http://www.newmexicohistory.org/filedetails.php?fileID=23527. Retrieved 13 December 2011. 

Henry Connelly was born in either Kentucky or Virginia, depending on which resource is found. He graduated medical school in Kentucky in 1828 and moved to Liberty, Clay County, Missouri. This same year he left Missouri for Chihuahua, Mexico, and worked as a clerk there and later purchased the store. He married there in 1838 and had three children. Prior to the United States war with Mexico, he moved his children briefly to Missouri and when it was over, he moved his family back to Chihuahua. His wife died shortly after.

By 1848 he had moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, established homes also in Bernalillo County & Peralta and remarried.

(the above taken from the reading of "The History of the Military Occupation of the Territory of New Mexico from 1846 to 1851" by Ralph Emerson Twitchell, 1909)

In the 1850 Federal Census for the Territory of New Mexico, Bernalillo County, page 87, lines 25-32, we find him listed as the head of household with the following people listed in this home-

Henry Comelly - 49

Dalvies Comelly - 35 (his wife, Dolores (Perea) Chavez, widow of Jose Chavez)

Josefa Charvis - 11 (all "Charvis" should be spelled Chavez)

Bomipcia Charvis - 8 (Bonifacio, from Dolores' previous marriage)

Victorianra Charvis - 1 (Victoria)

Gregoria Charvis - 35 (sister in law?)

Rosa Charvis - 22 (unknown relationship)

Franco Garcia - 12 (unknown relationship)

note: The handwritten census is not too difficult to read and the transcriptions above are Genealogy.coms, not mine. I know this is Henry Connelly and Dolores. It is easy to decipher from the original document.

Sources- http://www.sangres.com/newmexico/valencia/bosquefarms.htm This marriage history is also reiterated at - http://www.bosquefarms.us/village_history.htm and page 281 of "War with Mexico, 1846-1847: Doniphan's Expedition and the Conquest of New Mexico"

By William Elsey Connelley.

Henry Connelly also served as the representative for Bernalillo County in the New Mexico Territorial Legislature for the following terms-

3rd & 4th Assembly- 1853-1855

6th, 7th and 8th Assembly- 1856-1859