Overland Mail. The courts repossessed it and held it in trust. Fountain was named the trustee, and promptly moved both his family and the families of Gaylord Clark and J.P. Hague on to the properties.Fountain had quickly befriended W.W. Mills upon his arrival to El Paso. Mills was at the time the most influential man in the dominant political faction, the Radical Republican Party. Mills arranged for Fountain to become the assistant assessor and deputy collector of the internal revenue the district surveyor. Joining Mills and Fountain were Luis Cardis; Albert French, county judge; James Zabriskie, district attorney; William Bacon, district judge; Frank Williams; Charles Conely; Ben Dowell; Gaylord Clarke; J.M. Lujan; and parish priest of San Elizario, Reverend Antonio Borajo. These men constituted the “Mills Ring”. This group split, however, in 1868 over disputes about the rich salt deposits near Guadalupe peak. The earlier ring of Mills, Zabriskie, and French known as the “custom house ring” did not last long, but managed to grant favors to local merchants and secure political power long enough to acquire some lucrative properties.Fountain would not allow loyalty to Mills to blind him from the future opportunities in El Paso. He soon became friends with William M. Pierson, a man who wielded more judicial power than Mills. Pierson in fact was violently opposed to Mills. Fountain seeing that the balance of power was shifting aligned himself with Pierson shortly before Mills was removed from office and lost his vast power over the area. Fountain ran against Mills in a Legislative election even though he had told Mills in a letter that he would not. Fountain won the election and even though Mills contested the outcome, Fountain became the state Senator.By 1870 Fountain had already been Senate Majority Leader and was now President of the Senate and Chairman of the Indian Affairs and Frontier Protection Committee. His...
