Spanish settlers had sporadically occupied what is now known as the Mora Valley since the late 18th century. The settlement, of Hispanos and local Puebloans, was well established by 1843, when there was a raid on the town by freebooters from the Republic of Texas under Colonel Charles Warfield. They claimed the people in Mora had purchased stolen Texan cattle from the Comanche. The Texans killed five men and took eighteen women and children captive, as well as 75 horses. The people of the Mora V