Auguste Lacome

US census records list Auguste LaCome's birthplace as both France and Spain, but he and his brother are referred to as "Frenchmen"[1][2] in contemporary sources.

Auguste married Maria Rosa Arellano April 26, 1855, at Nuestra Señora de Los Dolores in Arroyo Hondo.

Baptismal records note the brothers Auguste and Juan Bautista (Jean Baptiste) adopted José Pedro, a 3 year old Southern Paiute boy.

Based on the recommendation of Manuel Alvarez and William S. Messery, Calhoun charged LaCome to search for survivors of the White massacre and ascertain whether they could be ransomed.

They confirmed that the child had been taken by a band of Jicarilla Apache and killed shortly after Grier and Carson's attack on their camp, with her body thrown in a river.

At the same time as this second mission, an incident at the mercantile at Rio Colorado had a band of Utes arriving with local Mexicans as hostages to intimidate illegal trade.

[7] LaCome returned to Rio Colorado after his encounter with the Muache band and, based on these incidents, presented a petition on behalf of citizens of Taos County to Calhoun for a campaign against the Apache.

The Spiegelberg Brothers are listed on several of his licenses as providing the surety bonds required by the territorial government for trade with the Native Americans.

[11] A Pueblo Chieftain article dated June 8, 1872, lists LaCome's mercantile as one of three stores in San Luis in addition to a blacksmith, butcher, beer saloon, carpenter, and two hotels.

LaCome's .58 caliber percussion-lock prairie rifle is displayed in the Palace of the Governors museum in Santa Fe, where he is listed as a trader with the Zuni and Navajo.

LaCome died on November 11, 1888, and was buried beneath the floor of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores church in Arroyo Hondo.

LaCome's son, José Eulogio, inherited the mercantile and went on to serve as a sheriff and New Mexico state legislator, as well as owning a saloon and hotel and silver and gold mines.