August 24, 1952
By CLEOFAS CALLEROS
(Editor’s Note: The first of a series on early El Paso history by Cleofas Calleros, El Paso historian.)
Response to my articles relating to historical topics which for the past eight months have appeared in The Sunday El Paso Times has been heartwarming. If requests by many to know even more about their own home town may be construed to mean that some degree of interest has been aroused in the colorful and exciting history that is El Paso’s, then plan for the next few weeks are justified.
A new series is starting, the subject of which will be “The City of El Paso – Then and Now.” After years of digging around, collecting, and filling old pictures that either had been discarded or forgotten, I feel that there is at my disposal sufficient material to interestingly illustrate El Paso of the gay ‘90s.
The years 1896-1897 have been selected as the period of time from which to begin the investigation. They were important years, right before the turn of the century. They marked the beginning of a new era of expansion, nationally and locally. El Paso by then was no wide spot in the road, no hick town, but a city, with its air of sophistication.
Men were addressed as gentlemen. Accordingly, women were held aloft and respected as ladies, which they were. The tough “guys” and the saloon “gals” had been replaced by a more genteel, more discreet, more purposeful gentry.
PAVED WITH CALICHE
They rode thought the well “paved” (with claiche) and sprinkled streets in their fine buggies and hacks. They enjoyed first-class telephone service. The water, gas, electric light, and sewerage systems here were a credit to the State of Texas. Then, as now, one international street railway connected the sister city of Juarez. But only then id citizens of both cities pass freely from one country to another, untroubled by some burdensome system of inspections, passports, visas and permits.
The El Paso Times, a morning publication, and three evening newspapers were circulated here. The evening dailies, the El Paso Tribune, the Evening Telegram, and the El Paso Herald found a wide reading audience. El Monitor, a Spanish weekly, served the Spanish-speaking public. The visitor, a religious weekly, was sponsored by some to the churches.
Sixteen churches opened their doors to worshippers of eight denominations. Five public schools and three private institutions provided for he city’s educational needs. An elegant opera house and a music hall were the cultural center of El Paso.
The most imposing structure was the County Courthouse, which drew attention from all over the state. The City hall, in the process of being remodeled, was at the corner of West Overland and Santa Fe Streets. The City Council met there every Friday at 7:30 p.m. Mayor Robert F. Campbell presided.
El Paso in 1896 was divided into four wards: First Ward was all that portion of the city west of El Paso and south of San Francisco streets; Second Ward covered the east side of El Paso and all of that area south of Magoffin; Third Ward constituents lived north of San Antonio Street to the intersection at Magoffin Avenue or east of Mesa Avenue; Fourth ward was all that portion north of St. Louis Street, and all of the west of Mesa Avenue.
The aldermen representing these wards in 1896 were James Clifford and John O’Keefe, First Ward; George W. Davis and F. Frederick Kachler, Second ward; J.L. Whitmore and John J. Stewart, Third Ward, and Edwin C. Roberts and A.S. Schutz, Fourth Ward.
Other city officials were James E. Townsend, city attorney; Charles W. Fassett, treasurer; Leigh Clark, recorder; James H. Smith, assessor and collector, and George C. Wimberly, city engineer. Dr. A White was the city physician and James T. Nesom was the scavenger and pound keeper. The city pound, incidentally, was at the corner of Chihuahua and Second Streets.
DIRECTORY PRINTED
By 1896, according to that year’s city directory, 15,468 souls led their lives within the confines of El Paso. The directory was thorough and adequate, having been compiled and published by the reputable firm of Evans and Worley of Dallas, Texas. Frank J. McDevitt also compiled a city directory late in 1895 which was printed by the El Paso Steam Printing Co. and released in January, 1896.
Had Walter Winchell or some such figure been covering El Paso “after dark,” he would have had difficulty finding much of excitement to report. For the city was a quiet, orderly, respectable place in which to live. So peaceful was it; that a police force of only seven patrolmen and one mounted law officer was deemed necessary. Edwin M. Fink was the chief of police; captain of police was Frank Carr; the seven policemen were James B. Chipman, James M Kinne, John N. Selman, Joseph S. Fernandez, John Denniston, John R. Tyra and Samuel V. Fuller. T.D. Featherly was the jailer.
The police department was quartered in the court rooms of the City hall. This was considered a logical place since its activities closely coincided with the daily sessions of court held at 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.
FROM 300 TO 15,000
Such is the first brief sketch of El Paso of 1896. It was a far different type of place from which the movies would have you imagine. It had, since 1880, grown and prospered, with an increase in population from less than 300 to more than 15,000. Thanks to the railroads.
In 1827, Jose Maria Ponce de Leon wandered across the Rio Bravo from Paso del Norte and decided that he would live over here. He built his house on the exact location of the present White House Department store, and established himself as the first permanent resident in downtown El Paso. The Rio Grande flowed past his front yard.
It wasn’t long before he had neighbors. And by 1850, the Rev. Ramon Ortiz, pastor of Mision de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe in Paso del Norte had decided that the people across the river should have a church. So he found Iglesia de San Jose de Concordia el Alto, the first church in El Paso, at Concordia.
In 1888 “El Fuerte Azul,” which is more familiarly know today as Fort Bliss, was moved to Concordia where it remained until 1876. The old fort and the church were visited by the Rev. Mother Mary Praxedes, superior of the Sisters of Loretto in Las Cruces, N.M., when she traveled through here in 1880 to visit St. Joseph’s Academy in san Elizario.
RAILROADS BROUGHT LIFE
Thanks go tot he railroads because when they came in 1881 they brought life to El Paso. Before then our home town was a single settlement in the present Brentwood Heights area and a few house around Ponce de Leon’s homestead, with a population of less than 300.By 1884, there were 3000 and by 1894 the population had mounted to the astounding figure of nearly 10,000.
The railroads made El Paso what it was – and is. January of 1896 saw two rail projects under way. These were the White Oaks Railroad and the Corralito Line. The white Oaks was originally the El Paso and Northeaster, later to become the El Paso and Southwestern that was eventually absorbed by the Southern Pacific Co.
The Corralitos, line, originally Pacific, later as the Rio Grande, Sierra Madre y Pacificio. Eventually was named Noroeste de Mexico. When construction of the line reached Chihuahua from Ciudad Juarez, immediate steps were taken to bring it to El Paso. To comply with Interstate Commerce Commission regulations at that time, the lien between Juarez and El Paso was named The El Paso Southern Railway. Today it is the shortest railway in the United States with only four-tenths of a mile of main line, extending from the international boundary line to the terminus at Mesa Avenue and Sixth Street, in the center o the disputed Chamizal Zone.
Comments