22 Facts About Lafayette Head

Lafayette Head was the first Lieutenant Governor of Colorado, serving from 1876 to 1879 under Governor John Long Routt.

Lafayette Head was born at Head's Fort, Howard County, Missouri.

Lafayette Head's grandfather, William Head, was a Revolutionary War veteran and a pioneer settler of central Missouri, arriving about 1811.

In 1841 Margaret Head married John Arnold, widower of one of Alfred Head's sisters.

Lafayette Head failed to disclose the enslaved children in an initial report he wrote on Native American slaves in Colorado.

Lafayette Head subsequently included them in his second report on the subject.

Lafayette Head served three years as US Marshall for the northern district of New Mexico Territory and a term as Sheriff of Rio Arriba County.

In 1854 Lafayette Head moved into the lower part of the San Luis Valley with fifty Mexican families who formed the village of Guadalupe along the Conejos River.

Lafayette Head was a pioneer in irrigation and built one of the earliest flour mills in Colorado.

Lafayette Head was commissioned a Lieutenant in Colonel St Vrain's regiment of volunteers in 1855 and served six months fighting the Utes and Apaches.

Lafayette Head was chosen to fill a vacancy on the council and served as president in 1857.

Lafayette Head's home served as a temporary church for two days while Fathers Machebeuf and Ussell heard hundreds of confessions and offered communion.

In 1859 Lafayette Head was appointed Special Agent for the Ute and Jicarilla Apache Indians.

Lafayette Head continued as an Indian Agent for nine years, primarily with the Utes, using his home at Conejos as the agency headquarters.

Lafayette Head accompanied the 1863 Ute delegation to Washington, DC to discuss a treaty.

Lafayette Head signed the October 7,1863 "Treaty with the Utah - Tabeguache Band" as US Indian Agent and Commissioner.

In 1868, Lafayette Head returned to Washington, DC with another Ute delegation and signed the March 2,1868 treaty as a witness, listing himself as US Indian Agent.

When Colorado Territory was formed in 1861 out of parts of the territories of New Mexico, Utah, Nebraska, and Kansas, Lafayette Head's ranch became part of Colorado.

Lafayette Head was one of 39 delegates, and one of the four Spanish speakers, elected to the 1875 constitutional convention in preparation for statehood.

Lafayette Head drafted significant portions of the Colorado constitution related to agriculture and irrigation.

Lafayette Head was chosen Colorado's first lieutenant governor in the October 3,1876 general election.

Lafayette Head received 14,191 votes to 13,003 for his opponent, Michael Beshor.