on file with the El Paso County Clerk. It reveals a substantial amount of land as public land, when in fact it belonged to the Tigua. This map is radically different form one made in 1825. This is the first map of the Tigua lands. The first rule to surveying land is to follow the surveyor before you. Tays’s boundaries cut out the vast majority of the land traditionally allocated to the Tigua. Additionally Tays’s survey allocated lands to J.P Hague, who had been a clerk of the states senate from 1867-1871 when he became the first district attorney to El Paso. This was during Fountain’s tenure in the Senate. Part of the Hague property also has the name of J.A. Buckler a notorious real estate developer. After three years much of the Tigua land had disappeared by way of 304 conveyances to individuals who wished to be citizens of Ysleta. Vast amounts of this land were later conveyed to friends of Fountain, including Ben Dowell. This took place despite the fact that a lawsuit reaffirmed the original Spanish grants made to the Indian tribes confirmed that the state had no authority in regards to the sale of Indian lands, and that the incorporation act was illegal. Ben Dowell was assigned by the incorporators to be one of the five commissioners to set up an election for officers of the city council. Dowell himself was elected Mayor. During the second meeting Fountain was elected city attorney. This prompted questions of appropriateness by three members of the aldermen. Within a month the tree naysayers were silenced, and resigned from office. An election was held to replace the aldermen. Among those elected was none other than Joseph Tays. The “Fountain Ring” had become the most powerful in the country. The Supreme Court soon stepped in and declared the Act to incorporate unconstitutional. I May of 1874 Fountain pushed through another bill, “An Act to Repeal an Act to Incorporate the Town of Ysleta in El Paso...
