Tales from the Morgue

1909: TAFT AND DIAZ MAKE HISTORY FOR TWO GREAT NATIONS

PRESIDENTS TAFT AND DIAZ RECEIVE GREAT OVATIONS

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BANQUET BY PRESIDENT DIAZ IN HONOR OF PRESIDENT TAFT IN JUAREZ

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Great Military parades on Both Sides of the Border – Loving Cups Presented to Both by El Pasoans – One Hundred Thousand Greet Mr. Taft In El Paso

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SECRET CONFERENCE OF THE PRESIDENTS

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The boom of cannon, the ringing of bells, blowing of whistles and yells from a hundred thousand throats welcomed William Howard Taft, president of the United States of America, when he arrived yesterday morning to write El Paso’s name large in the history of America, and with Porfirio Diaz, Presidente de la Republica de los Estados Unidos de Mexico, to mark an epoch in the history of the two great nations of the western hemisphere.

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The President’s Train

The residents special train consisting of his private car Mayflower, two Pullman sleepers, two private cars for officials and a diner, drew in to the union depot yards shortly after 9 o’clock. The train then proceeded at slow speed to Oregon street where after a wait of only a few minutes, the president and his party alighted from the train and were received by mayor Sweeney and a delegation of El Pasoans who conducted them through the long line of committeemen into the hotel where the breakfast awaited them. Mayor Sweeney made a brief speech welcoming Mr. Taft to El Paso, and the party repaired to the beautifully decorated dining room.

The Dining Room

Never in the history of the southwest had more elaborate preparation been made for a breakfast than for this.

The decorations at the St. Regis dinning room were gorgeous. Places to accommodate 150 persons were set and the Taft party occupied a platform at the east end of the big dinning room under a canopy of flowers and silken decorations. The decorations for the occasion, it is said, cost in the neighborhood of $2,000.

When Mr. Taft, and his party and the committee entered the dinning room the assembled guest received them standing and with great applause.

Just before the banquet Mr. Taft received Mayor Barcenas and a committee from Juarez who extended to him a formal invitation to visit Juarez.

By Mr. Taft sat Governor Campbell and Mayor Sweeney.

Gold match boxes were presented to Mr. Taft and his party and silver boxes to the other guests as souvenirs.

Immediately after the breakfast President Taft and his party escorted by United States troops passed around San Jacinto plaza where 4,000 school children were assembled.

School Children’s Greeting

The greeting of President Taft by the school children of El Paso was one of the prettiest features of the occasion. As the president emerged from the St. Regis hotel after the banquet, in tuneful melody from four thousand little voices, came the strains “My Country ‘Tis of Thee, Sweet Land of Liberty.”

The president took off his hat and bowed in acknowledgement of the efforts of the children and their teachers.

The ride of the president around the Plaza park on the way to the chamber of commerce was one like the triumphant victors of old. On all sides the girls and boys waved flags and sang the patriotic airs. The line of the school children was formed on three sides of the plaza park.

Related articles:

OFFICIAL PROGRAM FOR TAFT'S VISIT

TAFT IS DUE HERE AT 8 O’CLOCK

PLANS FOR BREAKFAST IN TAFT’S HONOR TODAY

THE GREAT MILITARY PAGEANT

PRESIDENT TAFT TAKES A REST

GEN. DIAZ COMES TO EL PASO

MEETING AND A CONFERENCE

PRESIDENT TAFT MAKES SPEECH

GOVERNOR CAMPBELL SPEAKS

PRESIDENT TAFT TO MEXICO

DIAZ’S BANQUET TO TAFT

THE LOVING CUPS PRESENTED

TAFT LEAVES FOR SAN ANTONIO

1963: Bliss Cowboys Ride Missile Range; Keep Out Livestock

April 25, 1963

"Home, home on the range,

(Missile)

"Where the Ajax and Hercules

soar..."

Cowboys have long ridden the range and now in this missile age they ride the missile range.

Ft, Bliss actually employs four persons to do this.

They ride the range, not to keep livestock inside the one million acre area, reserved for Army missile service-practice, but to keep them out.

JOHN ADKINS is range inspector foreman and chief of the Wildlife Division at Ft. Bliss. He and his three range inspector - cowboys ride the range daily to make sure the cattle and sheep are outside the danger zone. Cowboy – inspectors are Billy Long, James Trow and Clarence McDonald, all of El Paso.

Although they dress and look somewhat like the Western movie type cowboys, the similarity ends there.

They must keep six horses each, by contract with the Government, and a pickup truck.

The men, accompany the fish and game warden in surveys of wildlife in the area, originate game protection projects, control predatory animals and report violators.

THEY PATROL roads, check for trespassers, locate unexploded shells and check quantity of wild game on the reservation.

They maintain and control the range, put up signs, repair fences, work on water wells, report and check vandalism cases, check brands to aid in deciding ownership of strayed animals and inform ranchers of trespassing livestock, among other duties.

One qualification for the job is that the men must withstand the rigors of outdoor living in all conditions. They must have a thorough knowledge of the country.

IN 1961, three game wardens were stranded in the Dona Ana Range Mountains. The Bliss cowboys found them in a blinding snowstorm and rescued them.

Of course trucks, two-way radios and other equipment make the life of these missile range cowboys a lot easier than the life of the earlier day cowboys.

But there are only four of them to cover a 11700 square – mile area.

1937: Founder of Kern Place Killed By T.&P. Train at Arlington

February 8, 1937

Peter E. Kern, colorful El Pasoan who made and lost four fortunes and opened Kern Place here, was killed today by a Texas & Pacific passenger train at Arlington, Tex.

Mr. Kern, inmate of the 'Masonic Home for the aged, was taking his morning stroll when he was struck by the train, officials notified John Rice, prominent Mason of El Paso.

Here In 1881

Mr. Kern has been in the Masonic Home for the Aged at Arlington for the past five years. He left El Paso after a hectic career, saying he was "tired and willing to rest out his years in a peaceful place."

Mr. Kern came to El Paso in 1881 and went into the jewelry manufacturing business. He sold $2,000,000 worth of jewelry in 17 years. He lost his money, and in 1889 went to Alaska. He got there for the Klondike Gold Rush.

He bought diamonds on credit and sold them, "cleaning up."

With his Alaskan fortune, Peter E. Kern returned to El Paso in 1910 on the advice of a fortune teller. He spent $50,600 developing Kern Place in 1913. He built the famous "Kern Place Gate" at the entrance of the subdivision. It was a combination of Indian symbols on which 444 electric lights burned nightly for a year. World war conservation measures darkened the sign.

Went Broke

Mr. Kern became involved in financial difficulties. He assigned his property to the banks. His last venture in El Paso was an attempt at a comeback a little more than five years ago. He sponsored the development of Crazy Cat Mountain near Kern Place. Failing health and old age defeated him in this venture. He was finally sent to Arlington by El Paso Masons.

Mr. Kern was a member of the El Paso Lodge No. 130 for 50 years. Plans for his funeral in Arlington are tentative. Interment will be in the Masonic Home Cemetery there.

Mr. Kern is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Madeline Merz of New York City.

1997: Women part of area's history

By Teresa H. Alatorre

Guest columnist

The title of the book first alerted me to the delicate characteristic not usually associated with fallacies and stereotypes of the early "western woman"

"The Gentle Tamers-Women of The Old Wild West," by Dee Alexander Brown, has excellent information based on primary sources, which to historians are the most essential elements for any of our documentations and writings. It was with great interest then, as I read his book, that I found one of the "women of the old wild west" to be none other than the controversial lady of the 12 Travelers project in our city, Susan Shelby Magoffin!

Brown affirms, "Susan was the first white woman to travel the Santa Fe Trail. She was the antithesis of the gaunt-faced woman in the sunbonnet."

The picture in the book of Susan Shelby Magoffin, provided by the Missouri Historical Society, depicts a very attractive, well-dressed, proper and affluent young woman. Detailed facts in Brown's book also confirm that she did travel well and comfortably along her journey. These particulars are what, eventually, directed me toward another outlook of a gentler nature and conception of the "western" woman's role in our city's history.

With this renewed inference, and a softer perspective of the "Wild West," I recalled that there were other "great women," in this tender category, and in our more relevant past. Two ladies came to mind immediately.

Both women were resourceful, generous, and highly respected in their communities. Their expertise in business and industrious characters, in their vast holdings of lands and properties, were admittedly appreciated by their husbands. Those spouses went on to become prominent pioneers in our city, and these ladies became some of the great Western women behind the scenes of the early-day events that helped shape and chronicled our town.

The 12 Travellers board should consider them for recognition, long overdue, as El Paso's prominent "women of the old Wild West."

Juana Maria Ascarate, a pioneer family member, was the daughter of Juan and Eugenia Ascarate, of the large Ascarate Land Grant that extended into what is now a portion of the Lower Valley. In August 1828, she married Hugh Stephenson, who was born in Kentucky but raised in Concordia, Mo.

After their marriage, the Ste-phensons established their own prominent homestead on a land grant Stephenson was given. It was named the Concordia Ranch (now Concordia Cemetery). Both continued with many of their ventures and investments in El Paso, the Las Cruces area and in Mexico.

On Feb. 6, 1856, Juana Ascarate de Stephenson tragically passed away. She had been gored by a deer while on a trip to Ruidoso. Her grave is in the French family plot in the northwest corner of Concordia Ce-metery. She had been widely known as the generous and hospitable woman of Concordia, where she had established the first "private" chapel for Catholic worship at the time.

Juana Marquez was a full-blooded Tigua Indian and the young daughter of a Tigua cacique. Her father's tribe (Olguin-Marquez) had resided in Ysleta del Sur since the 1680s. Juana Marquez became "Doña Juana Dowell" at the age of 19 in 1852, when she married Benjamin Shackett Dowell in a ceremony presided over at the Concordia Ranch by Judge Rufus Doane.

Their first residence was on the old Ponce de Leon ranch (the Mills Building, which later be-came the White House department store and more recently the El Paso Electric Co.), where her husband was employed. Later, they moved to a separate ranch adobe structure, now the Camino Real Hotel on El Paso Street. That site became a hub for many of their area businesses. Like Stephenson, Ben Dowell was originally from Kentucky, and had also become very proficient in Spanish. Juana Marquez eventually spoke three languages.

In 1853, Marquez traveled to California on a wagon train to seek a better life. A year later, no longer wanting to put up with the unscrupulous occurrences in the Los Angeles area, they took another wagon train back to El Paso. They brought back with them a daughter, their first child, who had been born in California.

In 1891, 11 years after her husband passed away, Juana also succumbed and was buried at an Ysleta grave site. Both Juana and her husband Benito Dowell, as he was called by many of his friends, were later reburied at Concordia Cemetery, where other family members are now interred. Their own graves, however, are now unmarked!

Teresa H. Alatorre is a sixth-generation El Pasoan who is writing a book on the area's history.

1965: Magoffin Home's Place in History Will Be Recognized at Ceremony

September 18, 1965

Almost surrounded by a modern housing project, the old Magoffln home still stands at 1120 Magoffin avenue, symbol of a way of life now gone. History clings to its thick adobe walls.

It's historical significance will be recognized at a ceremony at 10:30 a.m. Friday, Sept. 24, when it officially will become a State historical site. A metal marker outside the home will be unveiled by Dr. Eugene 0. Porter, chairman of the County Historical Survey Committee.

BEHIND THE MAGOFFIN home rises the nine-story tower of a new low cost home for the elderly being built by the Housing Authority of the City of El Paso. At the sides are new cottages, part of the housing project.

Tower and cottages are of solid masonry, whereas the Magoffin home has adobe walls three to four feet thick. Its beams and floors were handsawed from timbers laboriously hauled by wagon from the Sacramento Mountains.

The housing project units are on the small side, usually one bedroom apartments. The Magoffin home, occupying a block size site, is more than 100 feet long and has many rooms, including four parlors and sitting rooms. It is built on three sides of a square enclosing a patio.

THE MAGOFFIN home is 90 years old. Brig. Gen. William J. Glasgow, who lives there with Mrs. Glasgow and their daughter, Miss Octavia Glasgow, is 99.

As stated on the marker, the home was built in 1875 by Joseph Magoffin, an outstanding civic and social leader. He was mayor of El Paso for eight years, and also was county judge and customs collector.

One of the items of historical interest inside the old homestead is a painting of James Wiley Magoffin, Joseph's father, done in 1852 by Henry C. Pratt, an artist who accompanied the first boundary commissioner here.

JAMES WILEY MAGOFFIN was a pioneer Santa Fe Trail merchant and diplomat who played a key role in the U.S. seizure of New Mexico in the Mexican War. After the war he built the first Magoffin homestead several blocks east of the present Magoffin home. A marker shows the location at Magoffin avenue and Willow street.

A settlement sprang up around the James Wiley Magoffin home and it was called Magoffinsville. U.S. troops were sheltered there in 1854 and the place was named Ft. Bliss. At that time the Rio Grande flowed nearby, and a subsequent flood damaged the buildings so badly that Ft. Bliss was moved to higher ground, No trace of the early Magoffin home remains.

THE FT. BLISS Replica at the present post gives an idea of what Magoffinsviile looked like.

The El Paso County Historical Society, in making its first posthumous Hall of Honor award, chose James Wiley Magoffin as honoree.

In building his own large home farther west, son Joseph was following his father's example. Both Magoffins were social leaders and liked to entertain.

They were hosts to many distinguished guests. Both helped to lay the foundations for modern El Paso.

1913: Police Judge Reads Prisoners’ Palms to Decide Their Sentence

December 27, 1913

THE COLD GRAY DAWN

When you wake up in the morning

And your head feels queer;

And your thoughts rise up

Like froth on beer;

And your knees are weak

And your voice is strong

And you’ve laughed all night

At some foul song.

You’re drunk, old man; you’re drunk.

-Walter Juan Davis

Like a fortune teller who reads palms, Police Judge Ballard Caldwell of El Paso passes judgment on the men and women who appear before his bar of justice on charges of drunkenness. If the hands are calloused from labor and the offenders have committed no other serious offense they are given a lecture and told that a second offense will mean a jail sentence and are given their freedom.

But if the hands are smooth, those like the hands of gamblers, vags, gamesters and others who don’t work they are given not only a lecture but a heavy jail sentence.

This method of passing on the cases is a novel one, but it brings results seldom obtained in police circles.

Before the bar of the public judge yesterday afternoon there were nearly 100 prisoners arraigned on charges of drunkenness. Instead of court opening at the unusual hour of 4:30, Judge Caldwell started it at 2:30, and it was dark before the last prisoner was given his sentence. The unfortunates were those arrest Christmas day and night, and many of them were given from 10 to 60 days in jail, while a few were released.

Standing at the jail the offenders presented a pathetic appearance. Old Colonel R.E. Morse was sitting on the shoulder of each, and it was a typical day after the night before scene. Each wore a dejected look and had a dark brown taste in his mouth and his head feeling about twice the usual size.

Six nationalities were represented. There were Americans, Mexicans, Spaniards, Germans, Jews and Irishmen. Some had bloody noses and black eyes, trophies of their fistic encounters of the night before, while others had cuts about the head from falling on the pavement. One offender, a tramp who came into the city on Christmas to spend his holiday had both eyes nearly closed and his nose flattened. Peeping out at the court, he said that he had taken a “few” drinks, not many, just about 25 or 30, and that as he started to walk to his rooming house some person, whom he thought was training for a prize fight, mistook his head for a punching bag, and after knocking him down stepped on his face. His looks were anything but deceiving, and he appeared as if a steam roller had been driven across his face four or five times.

A khaki-clad fighting man had a face that resembled the tramp’s. He too had been used as a punching bag and there was blood all over his uniform. Several soldiers were in the jail on charges of running amuck during the night.

The majority of the prisoners were Mexicans. They celebrated Christmas by trying to make the breweries and distilleries work overtime.

Those who engaged in cutting affairs, robberies and holdups were not tried during the afternoon. They were taken to the county jail and many of them will be arraigned before a justice of the peace next week.

The two Mexicans who were cut in a fight in Chihuahuita are still confined at the county hospital and are in a serious condition. One of them has a dozen stab wounds on his body and is very weak from loss of blood.

1951: It Happened in Old El Paso

01/03/1951

FIFTY YEARS AGO

From The Herald of Jan. 3, 1911

The new 1911 City directory is now being distributed and is much fatter than any of the previous City directories. It contains 45,000 names.

El Paso's newest railroad came into being Monday. It is the Rio Grande and El Paso line, of which W. R. Brown is general manager, vice president and the rest of the works.

State Commander J, E. Sawtell of the Knights of the Maccabees, on recommendation of the local Tent, has appointed Harry J. Gottleib deputy state commander for El Paso.

Gus Momsen is having E. Krause draw plans for a reinforced concrete warehouse at the corner of Virginia and Overland streets. It will cost $15,000.

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TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO

From The Herald-Post of Jan, 3, 1936

Gross receipts for the Southwestern Sun Carnival will total approximately $12,000,  Jack Chaney, Association auditor, said today.

Miss Roberta Meyers, 15- year-old El Paso poet, has sold a volume of poetry to the Banner Press of Atlanta, Ga.

Miss Elena Escudero will be in charge of ushers for the concert given by the Banda del Estado Mayor of Mexico in Liberty Hall.

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TEN YEARS AGO

From The Herald-Post of Jan. 3, 195I

Traffic patrolmen investigated 53 car crashes on City streets in 24 hours.

Mrs. Katherine M. Briesch has sold a home at 1215 Rim road to S. Leslie Hays for $50,000.

The board of directors of the El Paso National Bank declared the regular semi-annual dividend, payable Jan. 2 at the rate of $1.20 per share.

Christmas seal sales totaled $22,000, Mrs. Gertrude Gardener, executive secretary of the El Paso Tuberculosis Assn., announced.

This Fabulous Southwest

By CHESTER CHOPE

A WILDCAT RIG is prospecting for oil in the Hachita area southwest of Deming, N.M. The location is a half mile east of the Matlin Everhart ranch, and a few miles east of the old Berry wildcat which was abandoned several years ago. The Deming Graphic says the project is sponsored by Deming and Roswell residents. Walter Herkimer of Deming is in charge of the drilling

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HOLLYWOOD, N. M. residents who are opposed to annexation by Ruidoso are talking about incorporation or annexing their community to Ruidoso Downs. But the Ruidoso News notes that others in Hollywood say, “We don’t believe Ruidoso is trying to annex us.”

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A PHANTOM telephone caller has been pestering Police Chief W. A. (Bill) Pence of Kermit. When the phone is answered, no one responds. 'This is a misdemeanor,' the Chief warned in the Winkler County News. He promised to prosecute the troublemaker when he or she is caught.

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THE LAS CRUCES Sun-News is urging approval of a 50,000 bond issue for improvement of the local library building in a Jan. 9 election.

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HUGH MCMILLAN inc. of El Paso submitted a low bid of $250,024 for surfacing 9.2 miles of U. S. Highway 90 between Marfa and Valentine. The project will extend from the Culberson County line to a point 8.9 miles west of Valentine, the State Highway Department informed the Alpine Avalanche.

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A NEW $208,800 elementary school building is scheduled for completion by Aug. 15, the Van Horn Advocate noted after the construction contract was awarded to Robert Lacy of Midland.

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TEXAS HIGHWAY Commission has allotted $52,500 for road work in Winkler County in 1961.