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Volume #37, Issue #1, Fall, 2004/5765

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Samuel J. Freudenthal:
El Paso, Texas Merchant & Civic Leader,
from the 1880’s through the Mexican Revolution to 1932

by Samuel J. Freudenthal
with research and annotations by Floyd S. Fierman
 

In 1886 El Paso had a population of about 12,000, ¹ in which the Americans predominated over the Mexicans; but the paisanos at that time had a metropolis of their own as large as El Paso across the Rio Grande about fifteen or twenty minutes away from us, even though our fastest form of local transportation was the horse. The railroads had brought in a cosmopolitan population about evenly divided politically between the Republican and the Democratic parties, and therefore between Northern and Southern elements.

Saloons and gambling dens were located on every block. ² In the more respectable of these emporiums, one met the political and social leaders of the city. All great questions of the day were discussed and settled before the bar. One saloon had a sign which read:
If drinking interferes with your business—quit business!

The Gem Saloon, one of the leading resorts in town, operated a vaudeville theater. The saloon was also the scene of numerous shooting affrays.

Louis Freudenthal, one of my Uncle Julius’ sons,³ helped out quite a bit in solving our business problems. He was a man of good judgment, but unfortunately he was not well and had to return to the East, where he died soon afterwards. The company, by the way, had been renamed “L. B. Freudenthal & Co.” by my uncle after he had taken it over from its former owners. The name, of course, was that of his son Louis.

I had a room over the store, which remained my living headquarters in El Paso for about fifteen years. For the benefit of those who may wish to know the location of this combined home and business office of mine: it was situated on the southeast corner of the South El Paso Street, at the San Francisco Street intersection, where the Blumenthal building now stands. One of my Clifton, Arizona, friends, Ben Michelson ⁴ was to live in it for more than thirty years.

Among my neighbors was J. Fisher Satterthwaite, ⁵ El Paso’s first real progressive citizen. We became lifelong friends. Dr. W. N. Vilas ⁶ was a Civil War veteran of the G.A.R., with whom I soon became acquainted. For many years he was my physician and friend.

Time never hung heavy on my hands in El Paso, for there was always plenty to do about the store. I worked hard, often late hours. After a few years we discontinued the retail end of the business and became entirely a wholesale concern.

The Case of A. K. Cutting
In those days, El Paso had plenty of excitement of one kind or another. If it was not politics or a killing, it was something else equally likely to arouse men’s passions. Shortly after I came here, an itinerant newspaperman named Cutting ⁷ published in his paper some articles in which he abused a number of government officials and prominent men of Juarez. Shortly afterwards, when Cutting visited Juarez, the Mexican authorities arrested him and clapped him into jail.

Immediately there was a great hue and cry in El Paso. Indignant mass meetings were held nightly. Some of the speakers at these gatherings solemnly advocated war with Mexico. The whole State of Texas was aroused with the Spirit of ’36. President Cleveland demanded that Mexico release Cutting right away, but President Porfirio Diaz of Mexico was not so easily bluffed.

Meanwhile Cutting remained in jail for a month or two while the diplomats of each country argued back and forth. Our government sent a New York lawyer to Mexico to make a legal investigation of the case. Some of the sports in Mexico took him in tow, filled him up with tequila (the Mexican national drink), and made a rather humiliating spectacle out of our official representative.

At last, however, some shrewd lawyer, not the New York gentleman, found a way out. Mexico had arrested Cutting for publishing articles in the United States. Under international law, his arrest was not admissible. If he had been charged with circulating in Mexico the paper containing the abusive articles, there would have been a good case against him. Both sides were glad to have an excuse to get out of the mess, so Cutting was formally released from prison.

On regaining his freedom, Cutting mistook the notoriety he had achieved for fame. He decided to capitalize on the generous publicity he had received and started out on a lecture tour with a young lawyer named Leigh Clark. Their first stop was at Fort Worth, Texas. Here is how the morning newspaper reported the meeting:

Mr. A. K. Cutting, the man who brought Mexico and the United States to the brink of war, lectured before a small but respectable audience last evening. That is, the one man who constituted the audience claimed to be respectable.

My Entry into Politics
Less than two years after locating in El Paso, I was a candidate for a political office. ⁸ There was a sharp contest on for control of the city government. I was drafted by one of the factions for the position of alderman and won the election after an exciting contest.
The beginning of my “political career” was auspicious, to say the least. For two years I served the city without pay under Mayor Lightbody. ⁹ We had a hard fight to overcome the opposition of some members of the council to the use of electricity as street lighting. Being approachable by outside influence, they tried to put gas lamps on the city’s streets instead of electric arc lights, which had proven their superiority to gas lamps wherever they had been used.¹⁰

On another occasion I forced a compromise on a resolution, passed at a previous meeting, to which the Mayor was opposed. His Honor had neglected, however, to write a veto message. I slipped some blank paper into his hands and told the opposition that the Mayor held a veto message in his hands in regard to their resolution. The ruse worked like a charm, and the compromise resolution, which was passed was worded to meet with the Mayor’s approval. Thus by a subtle trick, the dignity of the office of Mayor of El Paso was preserved.

I was not a candidate for reelection. In the next election, an extremely bitter political battle took place between a ticket headed by A. Krakauer¹¹ for Mayor and another headed by C. R. Morehead¹² for Mayor. Krakauer won by a small margin, but the other side cried “fraud” and instituted a contest that lasted for several months. I became disgusted and resigned from the Council before the contest was concluded, regretting that I had ever had anything to do with it. (I was young and had allowed myself to be used by one of the factions.)

Krakauer was eventually declared elected, but it developed that he had not yet taken out his final citizenship papers; therefore, he was not eligible to hold public office. As a result, another election had to be held; thus all the acrimonious squabbling had gone on for naught. This contest left a bitterness in El Paso that was overcome only after the passage of many years. As a result of the election, the people became divided into factions, and the lack of teamwork was painfully evident to both natives and newcomers.


Fraternal and Business Interests
Soon after my twenty-first birthday, while living in Silver City, New Mexico, I had joined the Masonic order, both the Blue Lodge and the “Chapter.” Later, I took the Scottish Rite degrees, and I became a Noble of the Mystic Shrine as well. While in El Paso, I formed many pleasant Masonic associations. El Paso Lodge, F. & A.M., was one place I could go where harmony and good fellowship prevailed. ¹³ In addition, I have made many lasting friendships in my own travels by visiting Masonic lodges and meeting Masons.

In the early ‘90’s a depression struck El Paso somewhat similar to the two others that have since come to plague it. Silver mining in New Mexico began to decline, and several years of drought played havoc with the cattle industry. Business conditions went from bad to worse. ¹⁴ In fact, our business earned no money for several years. My uncle Julius became heavily involved financially and about 1895 went into bankruptcy; he turned the business over to his principal creditors, Katz Bros.¹⁵ of Paterson, New Jersey.

For a few months I managed the business for these creditors, until a stock company was formed under the name of The H. Lesinsky Co. to take over the operation from the Katz Bros. Our new company organized itself by electing H. Lesinsky, ¹⁶ president; Ben Michelson, secretary-treasurer; and myself, general manager.

In addition to the three officers, Adolph Solomon¹⁷ and Horace B. Stevens ¹⁸ were members of the board of directors. All of us had lived in Clifton at some time or other, our president having been one of the organizers of the Longfellow Copper Company.¹⁹
The H. Lesinsky Company, unlike its two predecessors, made money from the start. With reliable Ben Michelson in charge of the home office, I was able to go out on the road and get acquainted with the trade, and was quite successful in bringing in new business. In my commercial travels I visited Silver City and Clifton, meeting many old friends at both places.

At Clifton I was the guest of the Fraissinets, ²⁰ a relationship that made my visit there a real pleasure. I also met the new manager of the Arizona Copper Company, Mr. James Colquhoun, and his estimable wife. The Arizona Company had been steadily going down hill after it had taken over the Longfellow properties. it was largely because of Mr. Colquhoun’s work that the company was put in a prosperous condition.

My travels also took me into northern Mexico, including Chihuahua City, Parral, and other points. We had the confidence of our customers in the Southwestern trade territory, a confidence that was never abused. As a result, our customers stuck to us through thick and thin, in bad times and in good times.


Prosperity and Progress
After McKinley’s election in 1898, El Paso and the Southwest in particular and the rest of the country in general enjoyed twenty-three years of rather continuous prosperity. Fort Bliss ²¹ was relocated on the Eastern Mesa and became an important Army post. Arizona developed into one of the greatest copper-producing regions in the world, far surpassing what it had been when the Freudenthals and Lesinskys were in Clifton.

In short, these twenty-three years were an era of expansion throughout the Southwest. El Paso’s population jumped from 12,000 to 80,000, ²² but the prolific Mexicans in town were increasing so much faster than the Americans that they were soon to be in the majority, although there was a fairly big immigration of Americans during this period.

Realizing the need for some kind of an organization to represent the business community, the leading citizens of El Paso got together in the early 1900’s and started up a Chamber of Commerce.²³ I was elected as its first president, and W. G. Walz, ²⁴ who had worked hard to get members, was made vice-president. I held the presidency for two years and afterwards served for a number of years as a member of the board of directors.

There were many problems, some of them of vital importance to the city, that were taken up by the Chamber. A freight bureau was organized to fight for better rates to and from El Paso. A State School of Mines was finally wrung from a reluctant Legislature in Austin.²⁵ We cooperated with the farmers in securing the construction of the Elephant Butte Dam ²⁶ on the Rio Grande by the United States government, a project that was to afford the valley above and below the city an ample supply of water for irrigation purposes.
At times, there was a sad lack of harmony within the Chamber. For example, the Phelps-Dodge Company, a large producer of copper, was building a railroad from Bisbee, Arizona, to El Paso. It had purchased a private right-of-way through El Paso, paralleling that of the Southern Pacific. Some real-estate owners objected to the City’s granting the right-of-way, on the ground that it would injure their sand hills located close to it. The City Council, being controlled by the real-estate clique, held back its approval of the grant. Then the Chamber of Commerce took a hand, holding open meetings to discuss the proposition pro and con, at which meetings many bitter words were exchanged.

I took a firm stand in favor of granting the right-of-way and was sustained by a large majority of the members. Eventually we won out with the Council also, and the right-of-way was granted. The El Paso and Southwestern, as the new railroad was called, was soon completed through the city and proved to be an asset that contributed materially to El Paso’s growth and prosperity.²⁷ The Chamber of Commerce justified its existence in many ways (of which its action in this instance is an example) and became one of El Paso’s most useful institutions.


Renewed Political Activities
I thought that my political career in El Paso had ended when I retired from the City Council in the late ‘80’s but such was not to be the case. My attitude was changed by a young business man, Robert F. Johnson, ²⁸ who had become a close friend of mine. For many Sundays through the years, Bob would hitch his horse to a wagon, put a couple of shotguns and some grub in it, and then invite me to go out to the country with him and spend the day camping and hunting. This outing was a most agreeable change from the steady, monotonous grind of the business day, and I enjoyed it immensely.

Bob was an ambitious politician. One day be asked me to be a candidate for election to the School Board on the same ticket with him. I could not refuse a friend, so I consented. With the aid of the “machine,” our ticket went through with a whoop. I soon learned that I was expected to be a sort of “yes-man” to the boss of the machine, C. R. Morehead. That kind of position in politics never seemed worth anything to me. I showed my independence at the first opportunity and cast the only negative vote against the boss’s selection for Superintendent of Schools. I was not asked to run for reelection.

But my absence from public office was a brief one. One day our County Judge, Frank Hunter, ²⁹ informed me that there was a vacancy on the Board of County Commissioners and asked me to accept the job of Commissioner (or Supervisor, as it is called in some states) for the El Paso district. I acceded to the Judge’s request and finished out the unexpired term to which I was appointed, but I did not seek election to the office at the end of the term.

A few years later, when Joe Sweeny, ³⁰ one of El Paso’s rising young politicians, was a candidate for County Judge, a number of influential men asked me to run with him on the ticket for Commissioner. They wanted a business man in an office that called for business judgment. Once more, I allowed myself to be a political candidate. The election was a walkover; so I became Commissioner this time by the choice of the voters of El Paso County and not by the choice of Judge Hunter.

My career as a Commissioner lasted for ten years. The Board met regularly once a month, but occasionally met at other times in special sessions. The regular meetings continued for four or five days, the special meetings for shorter intervals. We received the ditch-digger salary of $3.00 a day for our labors but worked as hard as if we were being paid ten times that sum.

We kept the county in fine shape financially and, what is more to the point, did it on a very low tax rate. I spent much time looking after the road building program, 31 and often visited the poor farm where the indigents were kept. On my insistence, backed by the support of another Commissioner, J.J. Smith, 32 a fine row of cottonwood trees was planted on each side of the Ysleta highway for about twelve miles below the El Paso City limits. 33 These trees proved to be a blessing to travelers during the hot summer months. In these days of widespread automobile ownership, the traffic along that road is just about ten times what it was when I was Commissioner. Not only do El Pasoans use the shaded highway, but also people from Dallas and San Antonio on their way to the Coast have to pass along on it. In fact, it is now a part of the Federal Highway System.

The Price of Public Service
Although I was regularly reelected every two years, I doubt if many of the citizens of El Paso appreciated the sacrifice I was making, to spend so many hours each month looking after the public’s business to the neglect of my own, at a compensation of only $3.00 a day.

In one reelection campaign, I was singled out for a series of nasty attacks by an El Paso newspaper, the one that failed to get the county’s printing business for that year. One important taxpayer even berated me for planting the cottonwood trees along the Ysleta road. He asserted that the project would just be so much money thrown away, because the trees could never grow anyway. Yet enough has already been said about these trees to show how far the gentleman erred in his calculations.

Very few of the taxpayers ever expressed any appreciation for the years of hard effort that I and my fellow Commissioners put into our work to give the county an efficient and economically run government. A few years ago, while on a visit to El Paso, my old colleague, Judge Sweeney, in discussing with me this lack of appreciation on the part of the populace for faithful service well done in public office, agreed with my contention that one’s only reward for years of untiring effort in the public service must come from the approval of one’s own conscience.

The most important event that occurred in El Paso while I was Commissioner was the fight against gambling. Public gambling was legal in nearly all the pioneer communities of the nineteenth century West, as the “Wild West” moving pictures of today so abundantly testify, and El Paso was no exception to the rule. During almost all of the first twenty years of my residence in El Paso, gambling was open and aboveboard. There was an interlude for a few months when my old friend Bob Johnson was serving as Mayor. He closed the gambling down tight, but his ideas were a few years ahead of his constituents. The “wide-open” element won the next election, which was soon followed by the restoration of gambling for the time being.

In 1905, however, a concerted movement was launched against public gambling, and the gaming houses were driven from the city once and for all.³⁴ Some people made dire statements at the time that the doom of the city was sealed with the departure of the gambling dens and the gamblers, but the results proved to be just the other way around. El Paso became more prosperous than ever.
Unfortunately, the gambling curse has not altogether left the city even today, twenty-seven years after the events above narrated took place. It flourishes like the bay tree in the city across the river, where many Mexicans are willing to do anything to relieve the “gringo” of his money. Five miles away, the State of New Mexico has recently followed suit under the guise of dog racing. Still more recently, gambling has been discovered surreptitiously going on even in the City of El Paso itself; but at least the practice is not the flagrant variety that existed thirty years ago.


Marriage and Family Life
The fight against gambling was one of the few controversies that I managed to keep out of while I lived in El Paso. The only reason was that I had more important business elsewhere at the time. On a visit to New York City in 1904, I met Miss Helen Galland. We became engaged and were married early in 1905.

The marriage was one of the things I have never had cause to regret, although it came rather late in my life—I was forty-two when I ceased to be a bachelor—another case of “better late than never.” Our wedding in New York called out a large gathering of friends and relatives. We left the party in a heavy snowstorm, with the music of bells, fastened to the cab by fun-loving friends, ringing in our ears. Our honeymoon was spent in Atlantic City, not Niagara Falls. After a few winter days in this world-famous summer resort, we were on our way to Texas, making short stops in Washington, D.C., and New Orleans.

On our arrival in El Paso, we were heartily greeted by my many friends who had come down to the station to see the newlyweds. For the first time, I was to have a home of my own in El Paso. As a married man, I felt it best to consider my boarding-house days to be over. Desirable residences were pretty scarce, however. We decided to rent furnished rooms for a few months until a house in the course of construction was completed.

The house, however, was not ours but belonged to the man living next door; it was an almost exact pattern of his own residence. This gentleman, our landlord and neighbor, was August Andreas,³⁵ president, as well as one of the founders and owners, of the ill-fated City National Bank.³⁶ He and his wife were very fine people, and we soon became the best of friends.

We lived in this house, located at 316 Upson Avenue, for about eight years. The children who came to gladden our lives—Walter, Richard, and Regina—were all born there.³⁷ I finally purchased outright a larger house in Sunset Heights, where we lived until moving to California—a period of about nine years. The address of our second home in El Paso was 1117 Los Angeles Street.

In the summer, my family and I occupied a cottage that we had built at Cloudcroft, New Mexico, a delightful resort in the Sacramento Mountains about a hundred and twenty-five miles from El Paso. We became very attached to this place, passing most of our summers there. Its 9,000-foot elevation gave it such a cool climate, in contrast to the terrific summer heat of the desert only fifteen miles away, that it seemed like a veritable paradise. At night, comfort demanded a log fire. The tall soldierly pine trees furnished plenty of shade to accentuate the natural coolness of the atmosphere, and the variety and profusion of wild flowers made the hillsides a gorgeous sight to behold.

There was one drawback to this Eden, though. Thunder storms, accompanied by lightning and heavy showers, were of too-frequent occurrence. The inferno of lightning crashes, of an hour’s duration and within a mile or two of our house, was an experience that could drive a timid soul into the lunatic asylum during unusually rainy summers.
Horseback riding was still a popular pastime up there, even during the second decade of the twentieth century. Automobiles were very rarely seen on the streets of Cloudcroft until a wide new road was built to it in 1920. Nowadays, big passenger busses, as well as Fords and Pierce Arrows, chug through the Sacramentos.


Fellowship and Fun
I was among those who helped to organize a temple of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine in El Paso, which we christened El Maida.³⁸ I took much interest in the order and in 1913 had the honor of being elected potentate of El Maida Temple for that year. I was also elected a representative of the Temple to the Imperial Council of the Shrine at the annual meetings for a number of years. This appointment gave me a wonderful opportunity to travel around the country and meet some outstanding men. Among the cities in which I attended Shrine conventions were Buffalo, Atlantic City, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Seattle, and Los Angeles. My first, last and only visit to Minneapolis was during one of these conventions. Although I have been through Atlanta and Indianapolis on railway trains, the only time I have stayed in these towns long enough to get a good look at them has been during Shrine conventions.

Just as I reached the heights in local Shrinedom as Potentate of El Maida Temple, so I managed to do the same thing in local Masonry by serving as Master of Mount Franklin Lodge of Perfection, Scottish Rite Masonry. ³⁹ I have often wondered recently how I ever found time to attend to the details of a large business and look after all my civic, fraternal, and political responsibilities, as well as to raise a family in the bargain. The middle years of my stay in El Paso must surely have been a strenuous time in my life.

There was a spirit of fun and good fellowship in El Paso, especially in the days when the place was still young and had not assumed the air of a metropolis. A unique organization known as the “McGinty Club” ⁴⁰ was brought into existence about 1889 and soon attracted the fun-loving good fellows about town. It provided entertainment for the general public at frequent intervals, featuring local talent and a band that furnished fairly good music, as well as a number of vaudeville entertainers.

On these occasions, oceans of beer flowed; then sandwiches and cigars, followed by more beer. D.W. Reckbart,⁴¹ a big burly German, was the leader of the club. He not only looked the part, but acted it even better. Many clever practical jokes were played by the clubmen, especially for the edification of visitors.

I recall one incident that occurred while a group of rainmakers was being entertained. We were in the midst of the long drought of the early ‘90’s. Veterans of the Civil War, in describing their experiences, had often told us that almost all of the great battles in which they fought were followed by rain. This gave someone an idea. Why not produce rain in regions suffering from drought by providing a miniature battle in the clouds?⁴² Our Federal Government, willing to try anything once, sent out some Army men to experiment with the idea. They had started to conduct the laboratory tests in another part of Texas, when leading citizens of El Paso heard of the experiment and induced them to give our section a tryout.

We had a great day when they came to town. Men were sent up skywards in ballons with explosives, and it was literally a case of “bombs bursting in air” as the “fighting” began. Many Mexicans, terrified by the thought that Man’s interference with Nature would bring the wrath of God upon the impious city, spent the day in church, praying. Nothing happened, however. The “battle” of El Paso failed to bring forth the earthquake the Mexicans were expecting.

That night the McGinty Club held an entertainment in an open pavilion on a hill known as Sunset Heights. ⁴³ where I was later to establish my home. The rainmakers were guests of honor for the occasion. Towards the close of the performance, President Reckhart rose and stated the McGintys had their own corps of rainmakers, who could produce results on a money-back-guarantee basis.
Without any elaborate preparations or ceremonies, Reckhart commanded the rain to come forth, and in a few minutes gentle rain drops descended on the Government rainmakers and all those in their vicinity. What had really happened was that some water pipe perforated with small holes had been installed under the roof of the pavilion and the “rain” had been turned on by the Watts brothers, who were managing the city waterworks, at a prearranged signal.


Business Growth
As the business of the H. Lesinsky Company continued to grow, we began to feel more acutely the need for larger warehouse facilities. About 1906, we decided to build a warehouse, together with an office, to accommodate the increased business. We were able to purchase what seemed to be an excellent site, located on North Santa Fe Street near San Francisco Street. One side of the lot faced the tracks of the G.H. & S.A. Railroad, thereby making it easy and inexpensive to construct a spur track. The move proved to be an excellent one and a big money saver as well. It did seem, however, like parting from an old friend when we left the place where I had worked for twenty years and called home for nearly fifteen years.

Shortly after the beginning of each year, the annual meeting of the company’s stockholders was held. As we had only about half a dozen of these favored security holders, our meetings were a much simpler affair than similar ones held by General Electric, but our stockholders made up in interest and zeal whatever they may have lacked in numbers.

One of the company’s owners traveled more than 5,000 miles to attend these meetings. This gentleman was none other than our president, Henry Lesinsky, who would come all the way from New York City, accompanied by his wife and at times by one of his sons, to be with us each year. He continued this custom, even when well past the four-score-year mark. He was indeed our “grand old man,” and his judgment remained keen, as his mind was active to the day of his death in 1924 at eighty-eight years of age.
About 1916 Ben Michelson expressed a desire to retire from the business. After twenty years of the steady grind, be felt the need of a rest and a change as well. E.M. Hurd, who had been with the company for a short while as credit manager, purchased the Michelson block of stock and became treasurer of the company.


Visits of the Presidents
El Paso was honored, and incidentally put on the map, by visits from three Presidents of the United States and a President of Mexico —all of which occurred during the thirty-six years that I lived there. Strangely enough in this normally Democratic city in a hidebound Democratic state, the three American Presidents who visited us - Harrison, McKinley, and Taft—were all Republicans. Hoover has also paid us a visit, but as Secretary of Commerce, not as President.

I can recall a banquet that we tendered for several members of McKinley’s cabinet and the Washington press correspondents who accompanied them, but which the President himself was unable to attend. ⁴⁴ A slightly flushed cabinet secretary delivered an eloquent speech with his arm around Governor Ahumada of Chihuahua. The champagne flowed like the Rio Grande after a spring freshet and lasted far into the night.

McKinley was by far the most cultured and dignified of the Presidents who stopped off to see us. I can never forget his kindly face. A few months after his visit to El Paso, his untimely death at the hands of an assassin saddened us all.
Taft’s visit was made memorable by the fact that President Porfirio Diaz was present in our midst at the same time. The idea of having the Presidents of the two largest republics in North America meet each other in person originated in El Paso and was finally brought to fruition on October 16, 1909. That date was a red-letter day in El Paso’s history. People came from afar to see and acclaim the two rulers of the neighboring republics.

I was a member of the reception committee, which honorable appointment cost me the price of a stovepipe hat and a Prince Albert coat, all for a day’s glory. Neither of these has seen an hour’s use since the first day they were worn. The Presidents met at the center of the International Bridge. Then both were paraded in carriages through the streets of El Paso, escorted by several hundred United States Army cavalrymen and a large force of picked men from the Mexican Army.

Diaz had a fine, intelligent face, while Taft looked like a jolly good fellow. There were banquets and receptions both in El Paso and Juarez. Enthusiasm was unbounded.⁴⁵


Revolution in Mexico
Alas for the fickleness of Man! About a year after Diaz had been eulogized here as the greatest of statesmen, our city became the headquarters of the Revolutionists who were trying to overthrow the Diaz government.⁴⁶ The rebels were not only encouraged by, but even given active aid by El Paso citizens. As a matter of fact, it was largely through the assistance given by these Americans that Madero was able to capture Juarez and start a tragic decade of revolution and terror in what had been the peaceful Republic of Mexico for so many years.⁴⁷

It is doubtful if any of the revolutions would have been successful if the Taft administration had stopped the shipment of—or rather smuggling of—men and munitions into Mexico.⁴⁸ Under Woodrow Wilson, leaders of the different factions, such as Pancho Villa, were aided and abetted by our government. Indeed, the blunders of the Wilson administration cost the lives of many Americans and made Mexico a hotbed of radicalism.

We could plainly see the fighting that went on in Juarez, as one Mexican government violently succeeded another. At first, the sight was quite a novelty, but as revolution after revolution occurred and Juarez continued to change hands, the scene finally became a bore. El Paso people began to ask one another, as a standing joke, “Did Juarez fall again last night?”

To the unfortunate inhabitants of Mexico, however, it was no joke. Essentially, the constant turmoil was a war between the upper and lower classes, or the rich and the poor. As the latter won out, the more cultured and refined Mexicans were the great sufferers. Many of them fled to El Paso, abandoning most of what they had worked a lifetime to possess.

We of the H. Lesinsky Company had a close-up view of the horrors of civil war. Our business in Mexico was literally shot to pieces. Many of our customers, being Spaniards, were special objects of the hatred of Pancho Villa, who robbed them of everything movable. As an everlasting tribute to those unfortunate men, I must say that with very few exceptions they paid their indebtedness to us, even though it took their last cent to do it. That is an example of the high sense of honor of the average Spanish merchant.


Pancho Villa Raids the Border
As an offset to the loss of Mexican trade, several thousand American soldiers were shipped out our way, ostensibly for the purpose of over-awing the Mexicans. These soldiers almost doubled El Paso’s population overnight, and they remained for several months, helping to make the year 1916 one that most El Paso merchants will never eclipse from a profit standpoint.⁴⁹

After the American Army had occupied Vera Cruz, Carranza sent Villa to Juarez. There is little doubt that the purpose was to attack El Paso. Only a small garrison was stationed at Fort Bliss at the time; and if the citizenry of El Paso had been caught off their guard, the city itself might have been captured and destroyed by Villa before help could arrive. Fortunately for us all, news of the Mexicans’ plan leaked out. El Pasoans were soon armed and they gathered in groups to resist the expected attack.

Villa, however, was too cunning and astute a campaigner to attempt it. But a few months later he made a surprise attack on Columbus, New Mexico, during which many houses were destroyed and about twenty residents of the town were killed.⁵⁰ To add insult to injury, he and his band escaped from the scene of the outrage on United States Cavalry horses.

A short time previously, near the city of Chihuahua, this same fiend held up a train, seized some seventeen Americans, mostly mining men, and murdered them in cold blood.⁵¹ I knew some of the victims. El Paso was in mourning, and hundreds of people attended the funerals of their brutally slain friends and neighbors.

Public opinion was now fully aroused and it finally prodded Washington into action. General Pershing was sent down to Mexico to bring back Villa “dead or alive.” ⁵² The rest of the story is too well known to bear repetition here; it forms one of the most humiliating chapters in American history. Those of us living along the border did not feel very proud of our country while this miserable fiasco was going on.

A few months after the end of the World War, Villa had the audacity to try his hand once more, this time in an attack on Juarez. The soldiers at Fort Bliss were given orders to occupy Juarez in case any shots were fired into El Paso. The night of the attack was an exciting one for us—a real war going on at our door, so to speak, just after we had been reading so much about the bigger war going on in Europe. As soon as it grew dark, the firing of small arms commenced. The bombardment of Juarez lasted for hours. Then suddenly, about two o’clock in the morning, we heard the crash of heavy artillery for a few minutes, after which all firing abruptly ceased. It seems that a few stray bullets did land in El Paso, probably fired by Villa’s opponents, the Federalists, who were in danger of being captured.

Meanwhile, the Fort Bliss troops, prepared for any eventuality, were soon on the move. In record time, they erected a bridge of their own making across the Rio Grande, hauled some field artillery pieces across it, and with a few cannon shots put Villa’s forces on the run. Fulfilling their instructions to the letter, they also occupied Juarez for a few hours.⁵³

The action of American troops brought back peaceful conditions to the border. Four years later Pancho Villa died at the hands of an assassin, ⁵⁴ and the Mexican government was once more recognized by the United States. Thus, twelve years after the Diaz regime was overthrown, El Paso was finally able to resume trade relations with its Mexican hinterland.⁵⁵


The Notable “General Stoneman”
Coming back again to the pleasanter aspects of the early days in El Paso: there was once a man in our midst who added much to the gaiety of the town, and, strangely enough, did not belong to the McGinty club. He was known as General Stoneman. The name was appropriate enough, because the General’s features were actually, as well as literally, carved out of stone.

Here is how he came to be located in El Paso: It seems that some slick schemers conceived the idea of sculpturing human features on a tree from the Petrified Forest and exhibiting the finished model as a prehistoric petrified giant. It was to be announced that the remains had been discovered in Mexico in an old abandoned mining shaft. The giant would then be taken across the border and placed on exhibition for the edification of the Juarez public at so much per look.

But the clever promoters, for all their subtlety, possessed very little foresight. When Stoneman was brought to El Paso, it was discovered that owing to his great bulk and weight, be could not be smuggled into Mexico. The next best thing was to try and get him into that country legally; so the would-be smugglers made inquiries at the Mexican custom house and were informed that the General would be classified as a work of art, on whom a duty of so much per kilogram must be paid. Again, the General’s great weight proved to be the principal obstacle keeping him out of Mexico. The duty would have amounted to several thousand dollars; so the slickers gave up in despair, abandoned Stoneman to his fate and fled.

General Stoneman, however, did not long remain an orphan. There was a saloon keeper in El Paso, Si Ryan by name, ⁵⁶ who had a small place on Overland Street. He soon adopted the General and set him up by the side of his saloon.

Then some of the wits of the town started something. One or more of the jokers would call on an acquaintance, take him to one side and tell him that a man named General Stoneman had been talking about him. The account of what the General had said was arranged to fit each individual case, and it is unnecessary to add that Stoneman’s remarks were anything but complimentary. Right then and there the fireworks would begin. The insulted victim would fly into a rage and demand to know when and where be could lay his hands on this blankety-blank General Stoneman. Always obliging, the guileless joker readily offered to lead his deeply wounded friend to the lair of the slanderer.

All hands then struck out for Si Ryan’s. That genial gentleman certainly knew his stuff. “Si, have you seen anything of a man named Stoneman?” the victim would ask.

“Why, yes, he was just outside a few minutes ago,” Si would answer; “let’s step out and see if be is still there.”
Everybody would go outside, including the regular saloon hangers-on. Then Si would point out the stone figure and announce with an air of bored familiarity, “That’s General Stoneman.”

With few exceptions, everyone introduced to the General in this way took the joke good-naturedly. Some, as a matter of fact, were very much relieved at not having to go through with a pistol duel that might well prove fatal to them, this being then the only method known of settling disputes of that nature out in the wild and wooly West. It is the one feature of old Western days that the moving pictures have portrayed correctly.

I can recollect having sold Stoneman to only one person, and that was Leonce Fraissinet. He enjoyed being hoodwinked as much as I did being the hoodwinker. It soon grew to be the custom for all those who fell for the Stoneman hoax to set up drinks for the crowd in Si’s place.

With this powerful assistance from General Stoneman, Si prospered exceedingly. Before long he moved into larger quarters and for years was a popular figure in El Paso. On St. Patrick’s Day, Si would invite his friends to a dinner at his liquor emporium. I was among the favored ones and can remember a witty lawyer named Hague⁵⁷ making a speech in which he classified the various groups present according to nationality and found out that the real Irish were conspicuous by their absence. Very likely Si thought St. Patrick was a Jew.


A Change in Party Allegiance
I had been a rip-snorting Democrat up to 1896. But after William Jennings Bryan took over the party at the national convention of that year, I began to shift my allegiance to the Republican side.⁵⁸ In 1912, I was a warm supporter of Teddy Roosevelt, the “Bull Moose” candidate, when a divided Republican party gave Wilson the victory. In 1916, I became a regular Republican and have remained one ever since. Wilson won that election over Hughes by a narrow margin. ⁵⁹

The slogan, He kept us out of war” was a big vote-getter for Mr. Wilson. Yet a little more than a month after his second inauguration, he put us into war. Thanks to the pacificist ideas of the President and his Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker, the country was totally unprepared for the great conflict.

The war brought on a great era of prosperity, with high wages and a steady rise in the prices of staple commodities. El Paso was the supply depot for a number of military training camps. ⁶⁰ We were kept busy bidding to furnish the supplies for these camps and we managed to secure a fair share of the contracts, always on the merit of our bids. Some of our competitors gave expensive gifts to several of the officials in the various quartermaster’s offices, but those gentlemen never got a red cent from us.

Notwithstanding the efforts of the government to curb profiteering, prices soared. For instance, sugar was selling for close to thirty cents a pound. A man in business could hardly help making money in those days. It was “easy come and easy go.” We made our share, but Uncle Sam took a good slice as income taxes.

I always had a hankering for politics, as one can readily understand after a perusal of some of the preceding paragraphs of this account. Time and again, Hurd and others in the firm urged and almost pleaded with me to keep away from our local political squabbles, claiming that it hurt business. I wrote to my boss and cousin, Henry Lesinsky, for advice on this matter at a time when the good people were trying to unload on the city of El Paso a political boss named Kelly,⁶¹ who had boasted that he could be elected Mayor for life. Mr. Lesinsky’s reply was typical of the man: “Be a hero in the strife.”

I went into the strife. Kelly was unhorsed at the next election, and a few months later I was elected a member of the School Board. I was reelected for a second term to this position and served on the board a matter of four years all told. While with the board, I held the strictly honorary title of Secretary, my principal duty being the signing of official papers.

I had to fight hard to get progressive ideas adopted, especially to keep in office our Superintendent of Schools, R.J. Tighe, ⁶² a very able educator but unfortunately not a good politician. El Paso’s school system, then as now, was one of the most economical in any city its size in the United States, the cost per capita being less than half that of the average California city. We had many stormy board meetings, but the windup was usually peaceful enough, and no black eyes or broken noses resulted to cause scandal.

Looking back on my El Paso political career now, I believe I can truthfully say that I enjoyed those years with the School Board more than I did any other part of it. ⁶³ The Assistant Secretary, Miss Clark ⁶⁴ did all the detailed work pertaining to my job as Secretary, so that the amount of time I had to spend away from business was practically nil.


Sports and the Theater
Who can speak of the El Paso of the ‘90’s and not mention baseball, America’s national game? The great ambition of every boy in the city at that time was to belong to a championship baseball team. Our own El Paso Browns ⁶⁵ were the pride and joy of all the citizens in the community. And when I say “our own,” I mean literally just that. The Browns were all hometown boys and fine types of American manhood.

One day, however, some of our New Mexico neighbors sent a team down to El Paso that gave our team a thorough trouncing, much to our painful surprise. El Paso’s pride was stung to the quick, and as soon as the citizens recovered from this stunning blow, a cry for revenge went up. Meanwhile, finally brought to a realization of what everybody now knows—that baseball is a professional, rather than an amateur sport—El Paso made an attempt to strengthen the home team with outside talent.

No very great trouble was experienced in raising the amount of money necessary to accomplish this purpose. With this war chest, two batteries—pitcher and catcher—were hired. The next time that New Mexico ball team came to town, our Browns simply ate ‘em alive. It was not unusual in those days for the merchants to close their stores on Saturday afternoon so that everybody could attend the ball game.

For several years after I came to El Paso, it had no building worthy of the name “theater,” but that was not strange, since there was no regularly organized drama company in our midst anyway. Plays were occasionally given in a few small halls, but the performances were mostly by amateurs. Finally, an Arkansas capitalist was prevailed upon to build the Myar Opera House.⁶⁶ The erection of this theatrical building was enough to induce some good stock companies to come to the city for appearances.

I believe the first attraction was Emma Abbott. A little while later, the opera house was the scene of one of the greatest dramatic treats any age has ever witnessed, Edwin Booth and Lawrence Barrett in Julius Caesar. Sitting back of me on that historic occasion was a wealthy cattleman from New Mexico, who had come to town with his wife and relatives to see the show. After the curtain had been run down on the last act, he complained to me in an “Irish whisper,” “Sam, this may be all right, but I would rather see a black-faced minstrel any day.”

Besides Booth and Barrett, many other stage luminaries of the day appeared at the old opera house. I have particularly fond memories of hearing Emma Juch sing there in Richard Wagner’s great opera, Lohengrin.

But the opera house was not always a place of soul-stirring drama and opera. Once in a while the place would be given over to vaudeville, and it was on one of those rare occasions that there occurred an event that gave the people of El Paso something to laugh at and talk about for many a day thereafter. A certain vaudeville company, with a little more insight or psychology than its competitors, stressed the fact that in its show one of the attractions would be a bevy of beautiful dancing girls in, more or less—negligee.

Business men were just as susceptible to the lure of feminine pulchritude in those days as they are today. So a number of our local tycoons, with what they thought was the greatest of secrecy, purchased a box on the side of the house at the foot of the stage. However, one, or perhaps several, of those gentlemen must have talked in their sleep, for the wives found out the plans of their husbands. When the men walked gaily into their box just before the curtain was rung up, there were their wives facing them from another box on the opposite side of the stage!

The rest of the audience, quickly catching on as to what had happened, burst into a roar of laughter. The comedian of the show may or may not have been in collusion with the ladies on the joke, but at any rate he sang a humorous little ditty that fitted the situation to a T. Next day the newspapers gave a detailed description of the incident, and the whole town had a lot of merriment at the expense of the would-be wife deceivers.


Growth of the Jewish Community
For a number of years after I became a resident, El Paso had no Jewish place of worship. Then, for a while, the Jews of the community made arrangements to meet once a year during the Rosh Hashonah and Yom Kippur holidays in whatever hall happened to be available at the moment.⁶⁷ A student rabbi was sent out from the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati to conduct the services and give us some spiritual food for thought.

About 1898 a successful movement was launched which had as its objective the formation of a regularly organized Jewish congregation holding weekly and holiday services in its own house of worship, conducted by its own paid Rabbi. A campaign to raise money for the erection of the proposed temple was soon under way. People gave generously, and such was the fine spirit of religious toleration and mutual goodwill prevailing in El Paso at that time, that several of our Christian friends figured prominently among the list of contributors. A Rabbi was soon secured, regular services were instituted, and the religious needs of El Paso Jewry were at last adequately taken care of.

As the Jewish community continued to grow, two more temples were built later.⁶⁸ Each of the three now functioning represents a different shade of Judaism (in customs and ceremonies rather than theological opinions). I was a charter member of the first temple to be established and continued to belong to it until we moved away from El Paso.


Last Days in El Paso
By now, I had been in business and lived in El Paso more or less continuously for thirty-five years. (They will form exactly half of all the years I have lived if I am alive next January, 1933, to celebrate my 70th birthday). Those years were pretty much alike in one respect. I remained essentially in the same line of work during all that time—wholesale groceries—although I worked for two different concerns and at two different places.

I had seen El Paso grow from a struggling little town of 8,000 that did not even have the distinction of being a county seat to a metropolitan city of 80,000, the sole distributing center of a territory almost as large as the United States east of the Mississippi River. I had seen my own concern grow from the relics of a bankrupt predecessor to a position of leadership throughout the Southwest within less than a quarter of a century. As proof of the high regard with which our firm was held in this territory, we had a large mail-order business that came to us entirely unsolicited.

Our employees were wonderfully loyal to us, and we sincerely tried to do right by them. There were very few changes in personnel from year to year, and our labor turnover was negligible as a result of this policy of mutual goodwill and devotion. Of course this method of treating the employees had its weak side. For the first few years we were in business, our overhead cost was less than five per cent of the gross sales; by the time of my retirement, it had risen to over ten per cent. But in normal times the extra efforts put forth by our men were well worth the extra cost.

I was now to have a vacation that has lasted ever since. My friends predicted I would soon be back in business, but they proved to be poor prophets. I have never had any desire to return to the world of trade and commerce. There was a strange feeling for a while after I found myself to be a gentleman of leisure with no place to go, but in time I managed to pass the days pleasantly and even usefully.
Meanwhile, the idea of moving to the Pacific Coast began to demand my serious attention. The thought of leaving El Paso was not a very pleasant one, but I was getting on in years, and California’s climate is a little less strenuous for an older person than El Paso’s. Moreover, my children were rapidly approaching college age, and the opportunities for higher education were better on the Coast than they were in the Southwest, as is evidenced by the comparatively large number of young people from El Paso to be found in the principal colleges of California. Yet it would be mighty hard to leave El Paso, where we all had so many friends, and take chances on making new friends in an unfamiliar land.

While we were torn by these conflicting desires, the political pot began to boil. The Republicans had won a landslide victory the previous fall at the election which placed Harding in the White House .⁶⁹ They had even succeeded in carrying the city of El Paso by a small majority, ⁷⁰ and it was this unheard of feat that probably induced them to enter a ticket in the city election the following spring.
I was prevailed upon to run for Councilman, the position to which I had been elected thirty-four years previously at the very beginning of my political career. We Republicans really thought we had a chance to win that election, but we were bitterly disillusioned when the votes were counted. Our ticket was simply snowed under, and El Paso returned to the good old days of one-party government.
I made a good enough race, only one other candidate on the Republican ticket receiving a larger vote than mine; so I had some consolation in spite of being beaten. This was my first defeat in an election and it was to be my last. With the people of El Paso deciding that they did not want me in local politics any longer, the way was now smoothed for the migration of S.J. Freudenthal and family to California.

On June 1, 1922, El Paso ceased to be our home. It had been home to me for nearly thirty-seven years, to my wife for more than seventeen years and to the children for all their lives. It was almost like leaving one’s family—the old town had become so much a part of all of us. As we rode down to the railroad station, we gazed fondly on the sights that had been so familiar to us, suddenly realizing that it might be a long, long time before some of us would see them again.

We arrived at the station. The conductor shouted, “All aboard.” At last we were leaving behind the old town and were about to enter a new environment. Soon, the Franklin Mountains faded from view, and with them disappeared the last tie that visibly bound us to El Paso, as the train sped westward towards the Golden State and our new home.

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About the Author

Samuel J. Freudenthal, the son of Regina and Joseph Freudenthal, was born in Sag Harbor, New York, January 5, 1863. Freudenthal came west in 1878, residing in Clifton, Arizona, from 1879 to 1882 and then briefly in Las Cruces, New Mexico. From 1883 to 1885 he toured Europe and then returned to the United States, living in Silver City, New Mexico, for a year. He then moved to El Paso. Freudenthal lived in El Paso from 1886 to 1922. After retiring from business, he moved to Piedmont, California, where be died on November 21, 1939, at the age of seventy-six.

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Extensive Endnotes and Added Material
by Floyd S. Fierman, Ph.D.

1. Samuel Freudenthal was in error about this population figure. According to the Census of 1890 El Paso had a population of 10,338.

2. “There are three classes of gambling houses paying licenses to the city, of which there are three licenses to each class. First are the Wigwam, Gem and Mint, patronized by mechanics, clerks and business men, and licenses amount to $200 a month. Monthly salaries paid out to conductors of games is likely about $3,500 per month in rent, etc. Total expense of gaming of the three establishments is over $4,000 per month, besides their profits which will certainly average over 25% or $1,000 per month for the three. From these figures the city reaps $200 a month. [The Gem Saloon was located at 127 S. El Paso Street (J. J. Taylor and George Look, prs.), Worley’s Directory of the City of El Paso, Texas, 1888-1889].... The second class is the Chief on lower El Paso Street; Monte Carlo on S. Oregon Street; and Charlie Townsend’s on East Overland , frequented by laboring classes, Mexicans and Negroes. The third class are the three Chinese joints.” El Paso Daily Herald, Jan. 26, 1893.
Some of the other saloons were the 00 Saloon, or Goose Ranch as it was called, Lone Star, May 2, 1883; The Look, Swain, Gates and Rainer saloons, El Paso Daily Times, April 8, 1884; Coney Island’s Saloon, El Paso Herald, Jan. 9, 1907. The saloons experienced difficulty with women customers: “All women who are caught in the saloons of this city will be arrested in the future.” Lone Star, May 2, 1883.
Various efforts were made to control the saloons. In 1906 the Citizen’s League was “on watch to see that this evil with 40 gambling joints with 600 criminals supported by honest people does not come back.” El Paso Herald, Sept., 1906. In 1907 Mayor Charles Davis notified the police to warn all businesses having gambling devices in their buildings that they were violating the law. Ibid., Feb. 11, 1907.

3. All of the Freudenthals living in the Southwest are lineal descendants of Koppel Freudenthal, born in Germany in 1789. He was the father of seven children: Abraham (wife unknown); Julius, married to Emma Barzan; Joseph, married to Regina (family name unknown; Louis (Lewin), married to Rosalie Wolf; Henrietta, married to (?) Smadbeck; Fanny, married to Leopold Lesinsky (Leszynsky), and Bertha (husband’s name unknown). Genealogical chart prepared by Louis E. Freudenthal, Las Cruces, New Mexico.

4. Ben (B.P.) Michelson was associated with H. Lesinsky Co. of El Paso. His sister Miriam was the author of The Bishop’s Carriage, a novel that was purportedly “a rage in the East.” El Paso Herald, May 24, 1904.

5. Satterthwaite was a real-estate operator who came to El Paso in March, 1880, by stagecoach. He had taken part in the Battle of Bull Run and had been captured by the Confederates. In El Paso he improved a large addition extending from Mesa Avenue westward and he opened these streets: Upson, West Missouri, North Santa Fe, and North Oregon. He also made the barren tract of San Jacinto Plaza a spot of beauty. El Paso Times, Jan. 9, :1931. (obituary notice).

6. Dr. Walter Nathaniel Vilas was listed as City Physician in the El Paso Times of Feb. 2, 1888. He also took care of Federal prisoners (ibid., April 8, 1888); performed a delicate operation with Dr. O. C. Irvin (El Paso Herald, Jan. 19, 1888). He was nominated by the Republicans for Mayor (ibid., April 15, 1891), appointed County Physician (ibid., Dec. 3, 1892), elected President of the El Paso Club, whose Directors were J. W. Magoffin, S. J. Freudenthal, and W. C. Walz (ibid., Jan. 11, 1898), appointed a member of the Statistics and Immigration Committee of the Chamber of Commerce (ibid., Feb. 12, 1902). He served as President of El Paso School Board for fourteen years, and was a resident of El Paso for thirty years. He died in Stockton, Calif., April 4, 1929. Dr. Vilas was the father of Mrs. H. E. Stevenson (El Paso Times, April 5, 1929).

7. A. K. Cutting arrived in El Paso in 1884 with little to boast of except the abandonment of a wife and several children in St. Louis. He published a paper in El Paso called the Bulletin and one in Juarez called La Centinela. In doing so, he libeled a Mexican named Medina and was brought to court in Juarez. To resolve the issue, Cutting published a retraction. But he then crossed to El Paso, purchased space in the El Paso Herald and reprinted in Spanish and English his slanderous charges against Medina. When he returned to Juarez, he was jailed. On Aug. 4, 1886, he was found guilty, sentenced to one year in prison and fined $6oo. The issue became a celebrated one. President Grover Cleveland discussed it with his Cabinet, as did President Porfirio Diaz with his in Mexico City. President Cleveland reviewed the legal issues in his Second Annual Message to Congress, Dec. 6, 1886. J. D. Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents (Washington, 1898), 111, 501 ff. The man who probably resolved the problem was Francisco N. Ramos, Chief Justice of the State of Chihuahua, who ordered Cutting’s release to U. S. Consul Brigham, who bustled him back to El Paso. Cutting soon faded from the scene. El Paso Times, April 29, 1956.

8. S. J. Freudenthal served as alderman from 1887 to 1889. This council was composed of J. P. Hague and M. A. Dolan, 1st Ward; R. F. Johnson (Mayor pro-tem) and Allan Blacker, 2nd Ward; Freudenthal and R. Caples, 3rd Ward; H. L. Detweiler and B. Schuster, 4th Ward. O. B. Beall was City Clerk and R. C. Lightbody was Mayor. El Paso City Council Minute Book, April 29, 1887 - Aug., 1889.

9. Robert C. Lightbody was Mayor of El Paso from 1887 to 1889. He was also the president of the R. C. Lightbody Clothing Company. He died on Feb. 5, 1942. El Paso Herald, same date.

10. The City Council faced additional problems. On April 18, 1889, Mayor Lightbody resigned his position as Mayor. He contended that an unruly mob had taken charge of City Hall. After he had resigned, “Councilman Freudenthal moved, which was seconded, that City Attorney Coldwell be authorized to take immediate steps to recover city property from the mob.” El Paso City Council Minute Book, op. cit., P. 478.

11. Adolph Krakauer, born at Furth Bavaria, Germany, May, 1846, emigrated to the United States in 1865. He remained in New York until 1869, then moved to San Antonio, Texas, where in 1873 he married Ada Zork, a daughter of Luis Zork, one of the pioneer settlers of that city. In 1875 Krakauer moved to El Paso, where in 1885 with his brother M. Krakauer, G. Zork and Ed Moye, he opened a hardware store on South El Paso Street. El Paso Times May, 1923. He served as City Treasurer (El Paso Herald, Nov. 2, 1881) and was elected Mayor in 1889, “but he was disqualified on being an alien.” El Paso City Council Minute Book, op. cit., Book E. P. 509. In 1899, he was elected president of the Temple Mt. Sinai Congregation, and during his administration the first building (southeast corner of Oregon and Idaho streets, now Yandell Boulevard) was erected. Rabbi Martin Zielonka, Temple Mt. Sinai Year Book, 1898-:1928, El Paso, p. 20.

12. “At the age of 17 young Morehead left home and went to Leavenworth, Kansas, then nothing but a trading post ... and entered the employ of Russell, Majors, and Waddell.... In 1880 he made his first trip to El Paso, coming to this town by stage from Fort Worth. . . . He early recognized that his banking business could prosper only in proportion to the general prosperity of the community. ... In fact, for a great many years and during a very critical period in El Paso’s civic existence, he was what might be termed a political boss. . . . [He] was elected Mayor of El Paso in 1893 ... and in 1893-94 when the school system was reorganized to accommodate it to the growing demands of the city, he was president of the board. [He] died December 15, 1921.” Owen White, Out of the Desert (El Paso, 1923), PP. 339-45.

13. For an historical account of Masonry in El Paso, consult John W. Denny, A Century of Masonry at El Paso (Texas Western Press, El Paso, 1956).

14. Freudenthal refers to the nationwide panic of 1893, “The Panic of 1893 was precipitated because of apprehension that the Government would not be able to maintain the Gold Standard.” W. I. King, The Causes of Economic Fluctuations (New York, 1941, 65 ff. The El Paso newspapers did not refer to an economic recession, except for an occasional news item like, “New York: for a number of years Samuel Benner has issued a prophecy regarding the various markets: the year 1895 will not be the proper time to make investments in property or to engage exclusively in business enterprise.” El Paso Times, Jan. 16 1895. Another index to economic conditions in El Paso was the newspaper advertisements: “Important Closing Out Sale, Krakauer, Zork, and Moye, having concluded to close out our Business here.” This advertisement, a full front page, ran for eighteen straight days. Ibid., June 30 - July 15, 1894. Also: “On Wednesday, the 18th, I will proceed to sell for cash the Stock of Boots and Shoes assigned to me by Shelton Bros. H. S. Beattie, Assignee.” Ibid., Sept. 22, 1895. “On and after January 1, 1896, will sell for cash only. Chas. F. Slack and Co., El Paso and San Francisco.” Ibid., Jan. 16, 1896. “Raising $10,000, we shall sell at the low price of 80 cents on the $1.00. Union Clothing Co.” Ibid., Dec. 8, 1895.

15. “Katz Brothers, Successors to L. B. Freudenthal and Co., Jobbers in Groceries and Dry Goods,” Ibid., June 27, 1896.

16. Henry and Charles Lesinsky (Leszynski) were the sons of Fanny Freudenthal Lesinsky and Leopold Lesinsky. Henry married Mathilda (last name unknown) and Charles married Bertha Weiss. Henry Lesinsky was a business genius in the new world. For a full account of the Freudenthal-Lesinsky-Solomon clan, refer to Floyd S. Fierman, Some Early Jewish Settlers on the Southwest Frontier (Texas Western College Press, El Paso, 1960).

17. Adolph Solomon, born at Krushwitz, Prussia, April, 1851, died at Safford, Arizona, Jan. 9, 1905. At the age of fifteen, he came to the United States, and in the fall of 1877 moved to Arizona, where he became important in the development of that territory. He was a member of the 12th Arizona Legislature in 1883. In 1887 he married Jennie Newman and soon thereafter settled in El Paso, where he served as alderman from 1890 to 1893. He was elected Mayor in 1894. Solomon was president of the Mt. Sinai Association before it was merged into the Temple; he was then elected president of Temple Mt. Sinai. Martin Zielonka, “History of the Jews of El Paso,” The Reform Advocate, Emil G. Hirsch, Editor, Chicago, Illinois.

18. Horace B. Stevens was one of the incorporators of the Herald News Company, a director of the First National Bank, and chief promoter of Hotel El Paso del Norte. He also helped organize the Southwestern Portland Cement Co. and served as treasurer of the El Paso Chamber of Commerce in 1902. He was named recording secretary of the Republicans in El Paso in 1890; elected a school trustee in 1890; and was one of five men who inaugurated the final campaign against gambling in El Paso in 1904. Stevens was a colorful figure who aroused strong animosities. In 1903 he brought civil charges of assault with a gun, a $25,000 suit, against R. F. and Edgar Campbell, and received a verdict of $1,000. Biographical File, El Paso Public Library.

19. Henry Lesinsky developed the Longfellow Copper Mining Company, which he sold to the Arizona Copper Company in 1882 for $1,200,000. In the 1920’s, Phelps, Dodge and Co. obtained a controlling interest. Fierman, Some Early Jewish Settlers, pp. 29-38; Arizona Bulletin Supplement, 3-903, University of Arizona Library, Tucson, Arizona.

20. Leonce Fraissinet married Koppel Freudenthal’s granddaughter, Rose Smadbeck. Rose was the daughter of Henrietta Freudenthal Smadbeck.

21. At various times the garrison of Fort Bliss was stationed at several different locations in the vicinity of El Paso. From 1849 to 1851 it was located at Smith’s Ranch; 1854-1868, at Magoffinsville; 1868-1876, at Concordia (Stephenson) 1878-1879, at Franklin; 1880-1893, at Hart’s Mill. Since 1893 the post has been located on the Mesa, north of town. Among the oldest buildings on the post are the Post Exchange (old Mess Hall), the two barracks on either side of the Exchange, and a veterinary building (old Quartermaster Stable). The Finance Office and Post Exchange Store (warehouses) and the old Post Headquarters (hospital) were all, with the exception of one warehouse, occupied in 1893. M. H. Thomlinson, The Garrison of Fort Bliss (El Paso, 1945), passim.

22. The United States Census listed the population of El Paso in 1920 as 77,560.

23. The earliest extant minutes of the El Paso Chamber of Commerce date from the year 1909. On June 20, 1965, Mark Miles, assistant executive director, conducted the writer to various storerooms, and no minutes prior to 1909 were in evidence.

24. William G. Walz came to El Paso in 1881 and built an estate that at one time was valued at $300,000. He was prominent in the development of El Paso and took much interest in the Chamber of Commerce in its early days. In 1889 he became the wholesale agent of A. G. Spaulding and Bros. for their athletic goods. El Paso Herald, April 13, 1889. Walz was a charter member of the Toltec Club. He died in Santa Catalina, Calif. Ibid., July 7, 1913.

25. After a number of unsuccessful attempts to establish a college in El Paso, the State School of Mines and Metallurgy was approved by the Thirty-third Legislature on April 16, 1913. A year later, the Board of Regents of the University met and formally established the Texas State School of Mines and Metallurgy. Stephen Howard Worrell, assistant in the Bureau of Economic Geology and Technology, was named head. Francis L. Fugate, Frontier College: Texas Western at El Paso, The First Fifty Years (Texas Western Press, El Paso, 1964).

26. The Elephant Butte Irrigation District was organized as a quasi-municipal corporation in August, 1917, succeeding at that time the Elephant Butte Water Users’ Association. The dam was constructed by the U. S. Reclamation Service. It is located in Sierra County, New Mexico, 14 miles from Engle, 82, miles from Las Cruces and 125 miles from El Paso. The dam is 1,20 feet long; the reservoir, 45 miles long (maximum) and 193 feet deep. The name comes from a mountain nearby called “Elephant Butte.” Construction of the water system was started in 1910, and the first water was stored on January 7, 1915. Handbook of Information of the Elephant Butte Irrigation District (Report of the President, H. H. Brook, for the calendar year 1920, Las Cruces, N. M.). The Elephant Butte Rio Grande Project furnishes water to farmers and electric power to cities and farms in New Mexico and Texas. El Paso Times, Nov. 16, 1941.

27. The first train of the Southern Pacific entered El Paso, May 13, 1881. The first locomotive of the Texas and Pacific came through town Jan. 1, 1882. The Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio arrived Jan. 12, 1883. The coming of the railroads immediately stimulated the growth of population. In 1881, El Paso had 1,500 residents; by 1885, the number had increased to 6,000 and by 1888, to 10,601. Figures are from the City Directories for these years.

28. “Mr. R. F. Johnson, so far as the Tribune has heard, has not opened his mouth concerning the School trusteeship, hence there was no occasion for the Herald’s abuse of him. In fact, we don’t think Mr. Johnson would accept the honor if presented him on a golden platter.” El Paso Evening Tribune, Dec. 21, 1892. “The friends of Mr. R. F. Johnson want him to succeed Alderman Berla from the fourth ward.” Ibid., Feb. 9, 1893.

29. “Judge F. E. Hunter arrived in El Paso September 26, 1883, and began the practice of his profession as a lawyer. In 1884 at the age of 25 be was made County Attorney for the County of El Paso. During the ten years from 1894-1904, when El Paso was trying to reform itself and become a decent and respectable community, Judge Hunter was one of the few men whose faith in the future never wavered.... He consistently and continuously voiced his opposition to open gambling and other vice conditions that existed in El Paso.... He was a member of the law firm of Goggin, Hunter and Brown.” White, Out of the Desert, pp. 378-80.

30. Joseph U. Sweeney was born May 12, 1836, in Ireland and he died in El Paso in 1906 at the age of 70 (El Paso Herald, May 12, 1906). Sweeney, County Judge in 1902 at the time that S. J. Freudenthal served as County Commissioner, was an energetic personality (Minutes of County Commissioner’s Court, November Term, Nov. 28, 1902). He was appointed to the City Council (El Paso Herald, April 8, 1893); started a movement to raise another volunteer company (Philippine War) from El Paso (ibid., June 31, 1898); signed a petition to protest to the Board of Equalization a raise in taxes (ibid., Oct. 1-5, 1901). He claimed that the first money be earned came from selling newspapers in El Paso (ibid., Aug. 8, 1905).

31. “Samuel Freudenthal will make a first class Commissioner. Sam is up on the road question, an accomplishment much needed in that position” (ibid., Jan. 3-8, 1894) .” . . . it is ordered by the Court that County Judge Sweeney and Commissioner Freudenthal be hereby authorized to obtain right-of-way for the County road along the Rio Grande east bank.” Minutes of County Commissioners’ Court, Feb. 9, 1904.

32. J. J. Smith is not to be confused with J. A. Smith, who was postmaster at one time and was also interested in the El Paso Herald.

33. On Sam’s death in November, 1939, the leading newspaper commented that “when you drive down the valley (North Loop Road) and admire those giant cottonwoods, you may thank Commissioner Freudenthal and his colleague, Commissioner J. J. Smith.” El Paso Times, Nov. 22, 1939.

34. See note 2.

35. August G. Andreas, born in northern Germany, came to the United States when he was a youth. He lived in Silver City before moving to El Paso in 1881. A vice-president of the ill-fated City National Bank, he died at the age of 64 in 1913. El Paso Herald, Oct. 29, 1913.

36. The City National Bank was organized Oct. 14, 1904. The original trustees and officers were: August G. Andreas, president; T. B. Dockery, vice-president; S. G. Harless, 2nd vice-president; R. M. Mayes, cashier. Trustees: J. H. May, F. W. Parker, T. McKinley, Edward A. Mann, and Sol Manasse. The bank was first located on Mills Street. It then moved to what was later called the Blumenthal Building, which at one time was owned by the Lesinskys. Finally, the bank occupied what is now called the “old” El Paso National Bank Building at Texas and Stanton Streets.
Regarding the failure of the bank, the Deputy Comptroller of the Currency writes that “our files are silent with respect to this,” but Laurence Stevens of El Paso has made the following analysis, “The largest contributor to its downfall was its assumption of the assets and liabilities of the El Paso Bank and Trust Company (located at Mills and Stanton Streets, the Sheldon Block) - only to find that the bank had less assets than what the buyers had anticipated.” Stevens also mentions that in 1924, shareholders of a national bank were subject to double liability when a banking house failed. This conclusion is substantiated by the Deputy Comptroller of the Currency, who writes, “The liability of shareholders is set out in 12 U. S. C. 55, an amendment to the Act of March 3, 1873, Paragraph 1, 17 Stat. 603.” Correspondence with R. Coleman Egertson, Deputy Comptroller of the Currency, The Comptroller of the Currency, The Administrator of National Banks, Washington, D. C., June 29, 1-965. Conference with Laurence Stevens, June 17, 1965.

37. Walter Freudenthal married Fannie Hartman; Regina married Robert Meyer; Richard is unmarried. L. E. Freudenthal, Genealogical Chart.

38. El Maida Temple, A.A.O.N.M.S., was chartered June 9, 1909. J. W. Denny, A Century of Free Masonry at El Paso, pp. 77, 122,

39. Sam Freudenthal was Master of the Mount Franklin Lodge of Perfection, Scottish Rite Masonry in 1911, April Program of 1965, Scottish Rite, El Paso, Texas.

40. El Paso, in the 1890’s, did not have movies or Juarez cabarets, but it did have the McGinty Club. The club got its name from a song popular in 1889 when the club was organized. At one time the club had 150 members. Its major diversions included a brass band, a typical orchestra consisting of mandolin, guitar and zither,” a double quartet, a quartet and burlesque, artillery, and infantry and cavalry organizations, which took part in all parades. The McGinty Club proper expired in 1901, but the band was kept together until September, 1903. El Paso Herald, May 12, 1923. Southwestern Room, El Paso Public Library.

41. Daniel W. Reckhart, called “Reek” by his old-time friends, born in 1864, came to El Paso in 1888, and died in El Paso at the age of 59 in 1923 (ibid., Aug. 31, 1923). He was elected a director of the Athletic Club (ibid., May 24, 1890), and was president and the driving force of the McGinty Club in 1892 (ibid., Oct. 10, 1892). The McGinty Club, according to one source (El Paso HeraldPost, June 21, 1937), originated in front of Reckhart and Heckelmann’s assay office.

42. Dynamite, balloons and acid went into the rainmaking. “It was September 18, 1891, in El Paso.... It was a drought year in the Southwest. D. W. Reckhart, president of the famous McGinty Club, agreed with the Mayor, Richard Caples, that whether it rained or not, El Paso was bound to get a lot of publicity and all for $800. The $800 was to go for explosives.
“They had heard of rainmakers in Midland, Texas, where two inches of rain fell after these experiments.
“We can’t count on rain, but as you say, the publicity will bring El Paso to the attention of folks all over the country, and right now there are a lot of people looking for a dry climate.
“On the one night the rainmakers were in El Paso, 12 balloons ascended, 175 shells had been fired and 1,000 charges of roselite set off, and no rain bad resulted. But one good thing came of the experiment, advertising for El Paso.” El Paso Times, Aug. 30, 1964.

43. Sunset Heights is on the western side of El Paso. Juarez can be seen from its hilltops.

44. William McKinley (1843-1901.) twenty-fifth President of the United States, visited El Paso in 1901. El Paso Herald, May 5, 1901.

45. William Howard Taft (1857-1930) was the twenty-seventh President of the United States. The El Paso Times, Saturday, October 16, 1909, reported: “President Taft and Diaz met at the Chamber of Commerce yesterday. President Taft then returned the call on President Diaz in the Customs House in Juarez.” The El Paso Herald, Saturday, October 16, 1909, noted: “President Diaz made the trip especially from Mexico City to El Paso, by invitation of President Taft to exchange visits on the border with the American President. Mr. Taft devotes a full day of his time on his swing around the country in El Paso that he might return the call and accept the hospitalities of a friendly sister republic through its chief magistrate.”

46. Jose’ de la Porfirio Diaz (1830-1915) was elected President of Mexico in May, 1877. In 1910 a revolt against his authority began, spreading swiftly through the country. The government was unable to control the Army, and on May 4, 1911, Diaz resigned his post and left for Europe. He died in Paris, July 2, 1915.

47. With regard to Americans assisting the Mexican revolutionaries, the El Paso Herald, Dec. 22, 1915, reported, “Villa had his chance and has been beaten. For a long time he was the beneficiary of a disgraceful and unneutral alliance on the part of the United States government which gave him every possible assistance, short of sending in American troops to fight for him.”

48. The United States eventually issued an embargo against the shipment of arms or ammunition to Mexico. El Paso Times, Oct. 14, 1915.

49. “Pancho Villa paid a debt for merchandise purchased to Don Mauricio with a shipment of ore.” Don Mauricio was Maurice Schwartz of the Popular Dry Goods Company, El Paso. El Paso Herald-Post, Nov. 27, 1961. Over the last ten years, the writer has often discussed Francisco Villa with Elias G. Krupp of El Paso, who knew Villa. Mr. Krupp was associated with Haymon Krupp, Inc., of El Paso. On one occasion Elias and Victor Caruso, Haymon Krupp’s brother-in-law, went to Chihuahua to discuss business with Villa. This shows that while the Mexican Revolution stimulated business activity in El Paso, business opportunities were not just for the asking. Haymon Krupp, Inc., sold Villa shoes, blankets, and clothing for his army. The company also accepted Villa script when it was first issued. Initially, two Villa dollars were exchanged for one American dollar. When Villa was in northern Mexico, Elias Krupp would visit him two or three days after Villa had taken a town, village or city, and then negotiate the sale of merchandise. These dealings took place during 1915-16. Interview with Elias G. Krupp, June 27, 1965.

50. The residents of Columbus given the most publicity in the national press were the Ravel family. Since 1950, the writer has been in touch with Arthur Ravel, now of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Dr. Roy E. Stivison, who at the time of the raid was principal of the schools of Columbus. Dr. Stivison writes: “As to the relationship between Villa and the Ravel brothers, I am not able to say. Popular rumor current in and about Columbus at that time was to the effect that the bandits were especially anxious to get their hands on Sam Ravel. It was a matter of common belief in Columbus that Sam had treated the Mexicans pretty sharply that he was inclined to cheat them when he could. This, of course, is largely a matter of hearsay with me.” Correspondence with Roy E. Stivison, M.D., Tenaha, Texas, June 11, 1951.
Arthur Ravel writes: “With reference to why Poncho Villa raided Columbus, there are a jillion opinions on this subject. Various rumors which we heard at the time are as follows: 1, That Villa was angered by the American government for recognizing Venustino Carranza instead of him; 2, That Villa’s thinking was that by raiding Columbus, he would create an international crisis and we would declare war on Mexico; 3, That Villa was very much perturbed when the American Government authorized transportation by rail of Carranza’s troops from Juarez [actually from Piedras Negras, Coahuila - ed.] to Agua Prieta, which is across the border from Douglas, Arizona, thereby helping Carranza’s government to defeat Villa’s troops at that point, which was a turning point for him in his entire career.” Correspondence with Arthur Ravel, Albuquerque, New Mexico, March 16, 1961.
Arthur Ravel writes in another letter: we never during the entire revolutionary days did any business with Francisco (Pancho) Villa. We did do business with practically all the other revolutionary groups that came to the Columbus border, but never with Villa. Ever since March 9, 1916, there have been all kinds of stories written about my brother’s relationships with Pancho Villa which are absolutely false and unfounded.” Correspondence with Arthur Ravel, Nov. 16, 1961.
For further information concerning the Columbus raid, consult Clee Woods, “Night of Fury,” N. Mex. Mag., March, 1958, pp. 22-23, 46-47. Facts About Attack on Columbus, N. M., on the Night of March 8-9, 1916, So Far as They Are Known to the War Department, Records of the War Department, Office of the Adjutant General, From 2377632, Mexican Border, General Service Administration, Washington, D. C., Sgd. Tasker A. Bliss, Major General, U.S.A., Asst. Chief of Staff. This document also includes a report from Commanding General, Punitive Expedition to Commanding General, Southern Department, Fort Sam Houston. Subject: Preliminary Report of Punitive Expedition, Sgd. John J. Pershing, Brigadier General , U. S. Army, Rec’d. April 5, 1916. Arthur Ravel gives a graphic account of a night of terror when Columbus was raided by Pancho Villa’s bandits. Silver City Daily Press (New Mexico), March 1-5, 1958. For a recent analysis based on official documents (Library of Congress, Division of Manuscripts), see Haldeen Braddy, “Pancho Villa at Columbus,” Southwestern Studies (No. 1, Spring, 1965, Monograph 9, Texas Western College Press, El Paso), 111, passim.
Dr. Stivison, Aug. 30, 1950, wrote from Waco, Texas: “It was my understanding that the Ravel Brothers (Sam and Louis) had more or less dealings with Villa and his Villistas. As to their relations with each other, I am not able to say. It seems to be a fact that Sam Ravel was in El Paso the morning the raid occurred. The bandits seemed anxious to find him, and it was current rumor in town the next morning that they would have killed him if they bad been able to find him. Louis had a narrow escape by hiding under a pile of hides in the store.”

51. The bandits forced the passengers from the border to alight and take off their clothing. After shooting twenty-nine Carranza military guards of the southbound passenger train, the Villa bandits looted the train. El Paso Herald, Nov. 2, 1916. A passenger train reported due in Juarez Monday afternoon did not arrive. Ibid., Feb. 15, 1916.

52. “At the head of his column of 4,000 soldiers, Gen. J. J. Pershing entered Mexico at noon yesterday in pursuit of Pancho Villa.” El Paso Times, March 16, 1919.

53. “The first direct word from Francisco Villa since he was driven from Juarez by United States troops reached Washington Friday.” El Paso Herald, Sept. 20, 1921.

54. “Francisco Villa was shot and killed on the outskirts of Parral, Chihuahua, yesterday. Miguel Trillo, his Chief of Staff, was also killed.” El Paso Times, July 21, 1923. “Jesus Salas [Barranza], confessed slayer of Pancho Villa, has been sentenced to twenty years in prison.” Ibid., Sept. 14, 1923. Regarding Meliton Losoya as the murderer, see William V. Morrison and C. L. Sonnichsen, “They Killed Pancho Villa!” Frontier Times (Winter, 1959-1960), XXXIV, 610, 48-50.

55. Part of the surrender terms concerned the rehabilitation of the Villistas. “The men who served under General Francisco Villa, former revolutionist, will soon receive from the government land in accordance with the agreement made with Villa by the Huerta [President Adolfo de la Huerta] government at the time of the surrender in July, 1920. Two haciendas, one in Chihuahua and the other in Durango, will be divided by a commission of engineers appointed by the Department of Agriculture. It is estimated that each man will receive six hectares (approximately fifteen acres). El Paso Herald, Dec. 28, 1921.

56. “Mr. Si Ryan acknowledges over his own signature that he runs gambling rooms in connection with his saloon. It will be well for the District Attorney to take notice of this. The attention of the Governor will certainly be called to the fact and that Mr. Ryan’s is but one of several saloons that will be liable to a penalty Of $500 for each day they hold gambling in connection with their establishments.” El Paso Daily Herald, Jan. 21, 1893. “Mr. Ryan of the Mint practically says he runs club rooms in connection with his saloon.” El Paso Herald Post, Jan. 23, 1893.

57. James Price Hague was born in Cassville, Cass County, Missouri, March 8, 1848. His father, a physician, died when the boy was eight years old. In his youth, James moved to Texas to live with his sister and her husband. He studied law in Austin and was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-one. In 1869 he married Flora Brink of Louisiana. After he was admitted to the bar, Governor E. J. Davis appointed him as an attorney of the district court of El Paso and Presidio counties. During the 1870’s, Hague became well known in West Texas as an able prosecutor, but in private practice he preferred cases in civil law. Hague acquired many properties which became quite valuable after the arrival of the railroads. Most lawyers and judges considered him to be one of the leading lawyers of El Paso County. Hague died in 1893 after he had moved to San Antonio, Texas. J. Morgan Broaddus, The Legal Heritage of El Paso (Texas Western College Press, El Paso, 1963), 113-15, 117-19, 220.

58. “A mass meeting of the members of the Republican party, City and County of El Paso, to assemble at the Mayor’s Office Saturday, April 12 ... for the purpose of affecting [sic] a permanent organization and to select two delegates from this county to represent us at the State convention held at Ft. Worth on April 29, 1884. Signed by R. F. Campbell, J. P. Hague, S. L. Kahn, W. H. Tuttle, W. H. Sibley, J. Fisher Satterthwaite, James Marr, J. W. Tays, Joseph Schutz, S. H. Buchannon, C. F. Jones, S. C. Slade, W. W. Mills, L. M. Townsley, E. P. Clark, E. A. Stuart.” El Paso Daily Times, April 7, 1884. Although Freudenthal did not sign this call, he became active in the movement it initiated.

59. On election day, November 1917, President Wilson received a slight electoral majority over Charles E. Hughes (277 to 254) and a popular majority of 9,129,606 to 8,538, 221. Woodrow T. Wilson (1856-1924) was the 28th President of the United States. He was inaugurated for his first term on March 4, 1913.

60. The economic stimulant that Freudenthal refers to was probably the camps that were organized around Fort Bliss during this period. In many instances, these were occupied by National Guard units. Major R. K. McMaster (ret.) points to the existence of Camp Owen Bierne and Camp Cotton. Ralph Spencer, administrator of the Fort Bliss Replica calls attention to a photograph in the Replica, of Camp Stewart, where the 5th, 7th, 11th and 13th Cavalry Regiments were stationed. There were probably a number of other camps. For instance, Mr. Spencer says that he can account for the existence in El Paso of a tent camp in the area between the roundhouse of the Southern Pacific Railroad and the stockyards of the meat-packing plant. Commander G. McKinney notes there were also these camps: Newton D. Baker, Chigas, Pershing and Fusco.

61. Charles Edgar (Henry) Kelly came to El Paso in 1883 because of poor health. In 1893 he founded the Kelly and Pollard Wholesale Drug House. he was Mayor of El Paso from 1910 to 1915. Known to many as “Uncle Henry,” Kelly was reported to have led a political ring in El Paso. He helped organize Beaver Dam, a social club, along with W. D. Howe, J. W. Magoffin, W. K. Marr, and F. B. Gallagher. He died in 1932. El Paso Herald, Nov. 5, 1910; El Paso Times, May, 1923; El Paso Herald-Post, July 26, 1932.

62. R. J. Tighe was superintendent of the El Paso public school system from 1914 to 1919. Before coming to El Paso, he was registrar of the Federal Land Bank in Columbia, South Carolina. He died in Asheville, North Carolina, Jan. 26, 1937. El Paso Times, Jan. 26, 1937.

63. As early as 1881-, efforts were made to establish a school system in El Paso. In August, 1881, a school commission consisting of three prominent citizens was appointed by the County judge to act as school trustees. The School Board was formally organized in 1882 (Classified Business Directory, El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, 1892-.1893). Samuel Freudenthal was a member of the School Board on two different occasions, serving unexpired terms in the period 1892-1895. El Paso School Board Minutes, Sept., 1891, to April, 1902, p. 23. He served again during 1915, 1916, 1917 and 1918. Ibid., 1914-1915.
Freudenthal was not secretary during his first term on the Board but did fill this position during his second and longer term. There is no indication that the meetings of the School Board “were stormy.” If they were—and we have no reason to question Freudenthal’s accuracy in reporting—the various secretaries discreetly avoided any reference to disagreements.
The School Board in 1892-93 consisted of C. N. Buckler, president, G. E. Hubbard, H. B. Stevens, E. C. Pew, Judge Jos. Magoffin and Dr. C. T. Race. The members in 1893-95 were C. R. Morehead, president, Dr. C. T. Race, R. F, Johnson, F. E. Hunter, E. C. Pew and S. F. Freudenthal. The various superintendents were: Calvin Esterly (1884-1890), W. H. Savage (1890-1894), G. P. Putnam (1894-1908), F. M. Martin (1908-1910), N. R. Crozier (1910-1934), and R. J. Tighe (1914-1919). Elaine Lewis Morrel, The Rise and Growth of Public Education in El Paso, Texas (Master’s thesis, The University of Texas, 1936).

64. Miss Clark apparently typed Freudenthal’s minutes after each meeting. She is not mentioned in the minutes of the board but is referred to only as “assistant Secretary.” Perhaps the person who assisted Freudenthal was Miss Corrinne Clark, who was “reelected as bookkeeper, August 1, 1918.” El Paso School Board Minutes, April 6, 1918 - April 15, 1919.

65. “Professional and semi-professional baseball in El Paso fifty years ago was a fast game.... One of El Paso’s oldest players, Maurice C. Edwards, 80 . . . remembers the day when be stood on third base for the El Paso Blues, later the El Paso Browns. The Blues were reorganized into the Browns along about 1886. The Browns were an independent club. They formed no part of a league but their prowess on the diamond was known far and wide. Most of the players were either professionals or semi-professionals.” El Paso Times, Feb. 12, 1939.

66. Myar’s Opera House was located on South El Paso Street just south of Overland. J. J. Stewart was the manager. An example of the entertainment offered: “The attraction at Myar’s Opera House next Tuesday is one that will surely test the capacity of the house.... Katie Emmett in her great play, ‘The Waifs of New York.”’ El Paso Herald, March 27, 1890.

67. “The celebration of Rosh Hashonah on the first day of the Jewish year, 5654, begins at sunset this evening with services at 6:30 in Odd Fellows hall, conducted by Rabbi F. Cohn from the Union of American Hebrew College [Hebrew Union College], he having arrived in El Paso for that purpose.” El Paso Times, Sept. 10, 1893.

68. The presence of three congregations in El Paso was only of brief duration. There was a split in the B’nai Zion congregation for a few years, the new congregation being called Achim Nemunim. But the split was healed and the two groups reunited. Telephone conversation, August 3, 1964, with Nandor Schwartz and I. B. Goodman of El Paso. Freudenthal was vice-president of Temple Mt. Sinai during 1911-1914. Martin Zielonka, Temple Mt. Sinai Year Book, 1898-1928 (Issued in honor of the Thirtieth Year of its Charter), P. 39. The congregation was organized October 10, 1898, at the county court house, and at that meeting Dr. Oscar J. Cohen of Mobile, Alabama, was elected rabbi. He served the congregation for two years. On August 12, 1900, Rabbi Martin Zielonka was chosen as rabbi of the congregation. He served until his death in 1938.

69. The Republicans in El Paso were quite active this election year. “Nominations for the fall Republican ticket will be named at the general meeting to be held at 10 o’clock Saturday morning at the County Court House.” El Paso Herald, July 26, 1920. “A Harding-for-President Club has been formed by the women of El Paso County.” Ibid., Sept. 29, 1920. Warren Gamaliel Harding (1865-1923, was the twenty-ninth President of the United States. He was inaugurated on March 4, 1921.

70. Freudenthal was in error about El Paso County going Republican. The first page, column one, of the El Paso Herald, Nov. 3, 1920, reads: “County Stays Democratic But Barely So.”

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About the Author of the Endnotes:

Floyd S. Fierman (Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh) served as Special Lecturer in Philosophy at Texas Western College since 1953. Dr. Fierman has done intensive research respecting early Southwestern settlers. The result has been a series of monographs on the pioneers of New Mexico and Arizona, including “The Spiegelbergs of New Mexico,” published in Volume I, No. 4 (Winter, 1964) of Southwestern Studies.

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