‘exquisite manners’, adding: ‘I’ve always been puzzled by later reports of his arrogance and his self-centredness . . . I can’t identify that in him at all.’ The man he describesseems barely recognisable as the awkward, arrogant, socially maladroit teenager remembered by Oppenheimer’s schoolmates during his time at the Ethical Culture School, to whom the words ‘charm’, ‘gaiety’ and ‘high spirits’ certainly would not have suggested themselves when attempting to describe his personality.
One of the many ways in which the summer of 1922 brought forward a newly invigorated Oppenheimer was with respect to his interest in, and attraction to, girls. He later confided to his brother Frank that he had become strongly attracted to Horgan’s sister, Rosemary, and, later on in the trip, he met a woman with whom it would probably not be too much to say he fell in love. Her name was Katherine Chaves Page and she was then twenty-eight years old and just married to a man twice her age, an ‘Anglo’ fn5 businessman called Winthrop Page who lived in Chicago.
Katherine herself was a member of an aristocratic Spanish hidalgo family, who had lived in the South-west for many generations and had been in their day still more prominent than the Hunings and Fergussons. Their history was even more romantic and evocative of the ‘Old West’. Her grandfather, Manuel Chaves, had been a famous soldier, nicknamed ‘El Lioncito’ (‘the little lion’) because of his bravery. He was a cousin of the aforementioned governor of New Mexico, Manuel Armijo, and boasted that his lineage could be traced back to one of the original Spanish conquistadors. Having fought the Navajos and the Americans on behalf of the Mexicans, he swore an oath to the United States in 1848 after the American victory in the Mexican-American War and proceeded to fight Apaches and Mexicans on behalf on his newly adopted nation. In the Civil War he fought on the Union side and helped them to defeat an attempt to take New Mexico for the Confederacy. After his famous last battle as an Indian-fighter in 1863, in which he led fifteen men against 100 Navajos, he established a home for himself in the San Mateo Mountains, west of Albuquerque, where he made a living ranching and where he built a family chapel, in which he, his wife and his children were buried.
Katherine’s father was Amado Chaves, the second son of Manuel Chaves, whose life story could hardly have been in sharper contrast to that of his Indian-, American- and Mexican-fighting father. After studying law and business in Washington DC, Amado Chaves returned to New Mexico and pursued a career as a lawyer and politician, becoming mayor of Santa Fe, and then speaker of the legislative assembly of New Mexico and superintendent of the state’s public education system. In both capacities he would no doubt have had much contact with H.B. Fergusson,which is presumably how the links between the two families – later cemented by the close friendship of Katherine and Erna Fergusson – began. In 1893, Amado Chaves married the ‘Anglo’ Kate Nichols Foster, the daughter of an English-born architect, and the following year Katherine was born.
As well as the ranch that Amado had inherited from his father in San Mateo, the Chaves family also had a house in Albuquerque that Kate Nichols Foster had designed. In addition they acquired some land in the Upper Pecos Valley, near the town of Cowles, some twenty miles or so north of Santa Fe, where they built a guest ranch (or ‘dude ranch’) called ‘Los Pinos’, high up on the hills with splendid views of the Pecos Valley and the Sangre de Cristo mountains. It was here that Oppenheimer spent the most memorable part of his summer trip to the South-west, developing not only an attachment to Katherine, but also a deep affection for this part of New Mexico.
To Oppenheimer, the Chaveses, their history, the countryside of northern New Mexico and, especially,
One of the many ways in which the summer of 1922 brought forward a newly invigorated Oppenheimer was with respect to his interest in, and attraction to, girls. He later confided to his brother Frank that he had become strongly attracted to Horgan’s sister, Rosemary, and, later on in the trip, he met a woman with whom it would probably not be too much to say he fell in love. Her name was Katherine Chaves Page and she was then twenty-eight years old and just married to a man twice her age, an ‘Anglo’ fn5 businessman called Winthrop Page who lived in Chicago.
Katherine herself was a member of an aristocratic Spanish hidalgo family, who had lived in the South-west for many generations and had been in their day still more prominent than the Hunings and Fergussons. Their history was even more romantic and evocative of the ‘Old West’. Her grandfather, Manuel Chaves, had been a famous soldier, nicknamed ‘El Lioncito’ (‘the little lion’) because of his bravery. He was a cousin of the aforementioned governor of New Mexico, Manuel Armijo, and boasted that his lineage could be traced back to one of the original Spanish conquistadors. Having fought the Navajos and the Americans on behalf of the Mexicans, he swore an oath to the United States in 1848 after the American victory in the Mexican-American War and proceeded to fight Apaches and Mexicans on behalf on his newly adopted nation. In the Civil War he fought on the Union side and helped them to defeat an attempt to take New Mexico for the Confederacy. After his famous last battle as an Indian-fighter in 1863, in which he led fifteen men against 100 Navajos, he established a home for himself in the San Mateo Mountains, west of Albuquerque, where he made a living ranching and where he built a family chapel, in which he, his wife and his children were buried.
Katherine’s father was Amado Chaves, the second son of Manuel Chaves, whose life story could hardly have been in sharper contrast to that of his Indian-, American- and Mexican-fighting father. After studying law and business in Washington DC, Amado Chaves returned to New Mexico and pursued a career as a lawyer and politician, becoming mayor of Santa Fe, and then speaker of the legislative assembly of New Mexico and superintendent of the state’s public education system. In both capacities he would no doubt have had much contact with H.B. Fergusson,which is presumably how the links between the two families – later cemented by the close friendship of Katherine and Erna Fergusson – began. In 1893, Amado Chaves married the ‘Anglo’ Kate Nichols Foster, the daughter of an English-born architect, and the following year Katherine was born.
As well as the ranch that Amado had inherited from his father in San Mateo, the Chaves family also had a house in Albuquerque that Kate Nichols Foster had designed. In addition they acquired some land in the Upper Pecos Valley, near the town of Cowles, some twenty miles or so north of Santa Fe, where they built a guest ranch (or ‘dude ranch’) called ‘Los Pinos’, high up on the hills with splendid views of the Pecos Valley and the Sangre de Cristo mountains. It was here that Oppenheimer spent the most memorable part of his summer trip to the South-west, developing not only an attachment to Katherine, but also a deep affection for this part of New Mexico.
To Oppenheimer, the Chaveses, their history, the countryside of northern New Mexico and, especially,
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