In 1841 the French hatmaker Don Germaine Baston Argot settled in Mazatlán with his wife Josefa Eugenia Camú and his two daughters, Eugenia Luisa and Maria de los Angeles and founded his haberdashery store on the corner of Principal and Ceres (nowadays Belisario Domínguez and Mariano Escobedo), in Mazatlán, Sinaloa....read more.
|
German Evers 1848-1930Friend and partner of Fritz Unger:1875-1941
In 1869 two young brothers, Hermann and Wilhelm Evers left their hometown of Birkom, in the Kingdom of Prussia and made their way to the port of Hamburg, Germany. Here they boarded a ship bound for the United States and arrived at California on November 27, 1869. Herman was 21 and Wilhelm was just 19 years old. One month after their arrival, on December 31, 1869 both brothers take the pledge of Allegiance to the American flag at the tenth judicial district in the county of Yuba, California, where they settled to live, Wilhelm became a carpenter, whilst Hermann became a mechanical engineer, working as a manufacturer...read more |
In the early 1920´s Don Benito Rodil Lombardero (1865-1949), a Spanish hotelier, was hired to advise and coordinate the building and management of the legendary Hotel Belmar in Mazatlán, Sinaloa. The owner and builder of the hotel was Lewis Bradbury Martinez, the son of an American millionaire, Louis Leonard Bradbury...read more
|
Gilberto Aguirre 1868-1913Gilberto Aguirre Galaviz lived in the small mining town of Bacubirito, Sinaloa with his wife Jesusita and their four children; Josefa, Juliana, Elena, and Maria Jesus. A merchant by trade, he worked at a store in Bacubirito, helped out his neighbor Miguel Tarriba with the administration of a small bar which was continuous to Tarriba’s home, and sometimes he played the flute in the small orchestra of Bacubirito which was led by Elias Soto...read more
|
The Mines of San José de GraciaCuliacan, Sinaloa, Mexico. Dec 13, 1911
San José de Gracia, Mexico, is situated in the northeastern part of the district of Sinaloa, state of Sinaloa, about 70 miles northeast of Bamoa, a station on the Southern Pacific Mexican railroad system. There is a wagon road for about one half of the distance, by way of Bacubirito...read more |
Dr. James Addison Thornhill 1863-1920About 1910 Thornhill went to Mexico to work in the capacity as a medical doctor for the brothers Tarriba at their mine Jesus María Anexas in San José de Gracia, Sinaloa. Over the years Thornhill formed a close relation and friendship with Miguel Tarriba...read more
|
Norman Tucker Tracy 1873-1938In the 1890s, a young British engineer left the rains and fog of the bustling London streets, and embarcked on a journey which would take him to to the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains of Mexico. Primarily under contract with the Anglo-American mining company, to manage and construct their mines in Chihuahua and Sinaloa, Norman T. Tracy would live the rest of his life in the mountain mining towns of Guadalupe Y Calvo, Chihuahua, and San José de Gracia and Mocorito, in Sinaloa. Like so many foreign men who arrived to Mexico at the turn of the century, Tracy would never return to England to live, dying when he was 66 years old in the 'Pueblo Mágico' of Mocorito...read more
|
The Peraza Family of San José de GraciaFrancisco Peraza Cañedo was born cerca 1833 in San José de Gracia, son of Vicente Peraza and Josefa Cañedo. As a young man Francisco travelled north to California, participating in the 1848 Gold Rush, returning about 1860 to San José de Gracia. Here he met DOLORES MARTINEZ OSORIO 1832-1891, also of San José de Gracia, daughter of JUAN NEPOMUCENO MARTINEZ & ISABEL OSORIO...read more
|
Gustav August Böving Burmeister 1879-1963The merchant Gustav August Böving Burmeister was born on January 8, 1879 in Teterow, in the north of Germany, son of Heinrich C. F. Burmeister and his wife Luise Böving, and was baptized on March 3, that same year. When was twenty years old he set sail for Mexico, Mazatlán, arriving in December of 1899 to work for the Bremen based trading company, Melchers Sucs...read more
|
Johann Hermann Bücking 1848-1926The son of the bridge engineer Adam Ludwig Bücking and his wife Gertrude, Johann Hermann Bücking was was a German civil engineer and senior construction director in Bremen.
He was born on the 9th March 1848 in Cölbe, Marburg , and after attending elementary school in Kassel he studied at the Kassel Polytechnic School...read more |
Johann Emil Philippi 1861–On a chilly afternoon in the middle of December, a nervous young merchant from Bremen, Germany approached the house on the corner of Oro and Olas Altas, Mazatlán, Sinaloa. His name was Johann Emil Philippi and he was about to enter marriage with his sweetheart, Emilia Fernandez Galán.
Emil was born in Bremen, Germany in 1861, son of Heinrich Wilhelm Philippi and Anna Catharine Cattus. As a young merchant he had arrived to Mexico in December 1881, accompanied by his friend Enrique Schmidt Ybañez , to work for Carl Melchers and William Henry Sowerbutts in Mazatlán, Sinaloa...read more |
Jacob Schuehle 1843-1910Marcus Jacob Andreas Schuehle, the third of twelve siblings, was born on February 10, 1843 in Berwangen, Heidelberg, Baden, and christened on February 26, 1843. His parents were Georg Michael Schuehle and Elisabetha Keim.
In 1870 he emigrated to the United States, settling in Bexar County, Texas and marrying on April 25, 1871, Antje Heyen 1851-1904, a Texan girl of German origins. Between 1871 and 1885 the couple had five children, all born in Bexar, Texas...read more |
J. R. Southworth 1866-1947A tall, blue eyed, rather balding salesman, who with a catalogue in hand, visited the mines and industries of Sinaloa, and later published a magazine called ‘Sinaloa Illustrated’. There are anecdotes of his meetings with Don Miguel Tarriba at the Water Supply Company of Culiacan, there are listings of the many books that he published. But who was this man who appeared as if by magic, sold his goods, collected a wealth of information, and disappeared again without a trace? A travelling salesman, bearing a worn-out leather satchel, with a catalogue and a notebook, venturing to over 6 states of Mexico...read more
|
Feliciano Bello Margueriños 'Tio Chanito'Sitting on the big wooden armchair from Concordia in the courtyard of the Grand Hotel de France in Orizaba, Veracruz, Mexico, Feliciano Bello would observe the guests as they arrived for their holidays or business trips, not letting anything escape his notice. Many of the returning guests knew him, and would greet him upon arrival, or send a friendly adios as they left for their vacation excursions or business meetings. In fact, many at first glance believed, "Chanito”, as he was known to all, to be the owner of the popular hotel...read more
|
The Tannery ‘ Suela Viosca, S.A.’The tannery ‘ Suela Viosca, S.A.’ a society formed by Santiago Viosca Navarro, Antonio Ruffo and William H. Rocholl, was founded in the year 1903 in the city of La Paz, Baja California Sur and became one of the most important manufacturer of shoe soles in the country. This in part was due to the local plant known as ‘Palo Blanco’ which had natural curing properties. Santiago Viosca asked permission to build a tannery in La Paz on the 29th of June, 1903...read more
|
William Henry Rocholl 1874-1952William Henry Rocholl, was born in Haverton Hill, Durham, England, the eldest son of four children born to Heinrich Albert Moritz Theodor Rocholl 1842–1885 and Mary Ann Savell 1846–1930. His father Heinrich was an analytical chemist who was born in Germany but who had emigrated to England about 1870...read more
|
Supping with the Vioscas
Written originally by Fannie B. Ward
Quaint Customs and Charming Hospitality—Lower California's Ancient Capital, etc. La Paz (L. C), Mexico. You may search all the Encyclopedias of Universal Knowledge and the Gazetteers of the World — even the histories and geographics — without finding anything about La Paz, except the bare fact that it is the capital of Baja California and is located on the Gulf side of the peninsula, near its southern end, facing a bay which is also called La Paz. European eyes first looked upon the spot about 352 years ago, when a ship, under orders from Hernán Cortés, came sailing into the bay. Cortez himself came here a few months afterwards, while exploring the gulf which for three centuries bore his name: and, having anchored and looked about him, being impressed by the same calm that to-day prevails, he dubbed both sea and shore La Paz — "The Peace."...read more |
Joseph Scott: 1867–1958Joseph Scott was born on July 16, 1867 in Penrith, Cumberland County, England, the son of Joseph Scott, also from Cumberland and Mary Donnelly from Wexford, Ireland. He was educated at St. Cuthbert's College, Ushaw, Durham, England and studied law at London University, England. In 1889 he moved to the United States and became Senior Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature at St. Bonaventure's College, Allegany, New York, U.S.A in February 1890.
Scott moved to California June 30, 1893 and on June 6, 1898 he married Bertha Lucille Roth Savin (1870-1963), daughter of Adolf Benjamin Roth and Maria Delfina Savin Cota 1843–1933......read more |
Pearl Fishing in La Paz 1889 Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 61, Number 144, 10 August 1889
Article written by Fanny B. Ward. For a thousand miles around the coasts of Lower California, pearl oysters are found in detached beds, intercalated, at intervals —but the best shells lie within the 250 miles of shallow water extending between Cape San Lucas and the bay of Mulege, on the eastern side of the peninsula...read more |
Report on the Peninsula Missions; La Paz Early in 1861, Baja California's Governor, Don Teodoro Riveroll, commissioned Santiago Viosca, a local official, to make a detailed visitation of the historic outposts on behalf of the Mexican Government.
A recognized authority on mining districts, Viosca was 'a gentleman qualified by his official position to furnish authentic data. He fulfilled the commission with great thoroughness. Upon completing his visitation, Viosca compiled a report which he dispatched from La Paz to the 'Citizen Governor of the Territory, ' Ramón Navarro Castro on April 14, 1862. It is that report which is here presented...read more |
Triunfo Silver Mining and Commercial Company of Lower California.Organized under the Laws of Pennsylvania. "The Triunfo Silver Mining and Commercial Company " is chartered for the purpose of mining silver, and conducting commercial enterprises in Lower California, Mexico, and is the union of the Triunfo Gold and Silver Mining Company of San Francisco, and the Molinena Silver Mining Company of Philadelphia.
The property is situated in the Mineral District of San Antonio, about two leagues distant from the town of that name, and consists of the following mines, to wit: La Canoa, La Valenciana, El Carmen, La Molinena, La Mendocena, La Triunfanta....read more |
Frank William Moore 1874–1944Frank William Moore was born in September 1874 in Clerkenwell, Middlesex, England, son of Edwin Thomas Moore and Mary Weller. His father was the manager of a bread bakery. In 1881 his family are living on Alma Street, Middlesex, England.
Frank must have left England in the late 1890s, because in 1901 his father and siblings are still living in Middlesex and Frank does not appear, having left for La Paz, Baja California to work as assistant manager for the British pearl fishing Company, ‘The Mangara Exploration Limited of London’...read more |
Isla del CarmenOne hundred and twenty miles south of Guaymas, Mexico, and five miles east of the mainland of Lower California, in the Gulf of California, lies a small island known to the Mexicans as the Isla Del Carmen. Carmen Island, although only nineteen miles in length and six miles in width at its broadest part, is noted as one of the most remarkable islands on the American continent. At this place is found the only pure white natural salt deposit known, and the value of such a mine is secondary only to the fabled gold mines of King Solomon. The island is owned by a Spanish-American named Santiago Viosca, who went to Lower California thirty years ago and married a daughter of the Governor. He lived at La Paz, the capital of the lower half of the State, where he has been American Consul for a number of years...read more
|