Records of the Ferrocarril Noroeste de México

The Records of the Ferrocarril Noroeste de México were acquired by the Benson Latin American Collection in 1971. The records were described by the Benson's Mexican Archives Project in October 1994. The records, which comprise 2.3 linear feet or circa 2,645 items, are in English with a few items in Spanish.

The suggested citation for the records is "Records of the Ferrocarril Noroeste de México, 1910-1919, Benson Latin American Collection, General Libraries, University of Texas at Austin."

The Ferrocarril Noroeste de México (Mexico Northwestern Railway Company), a British-owned corporation, operated in the early 20th century between El Paso, Texas, and the lumbering, mining and agricultural areas of the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua. In 1909 the company was incorporated in Canada under the direction of Fred Stark Pearson. R. Home Smith of Toronto, Canada, was the company president; other company officials and managers included Luís Riba, Louis Roy Hoard, J.O. Crockett, and H.I. Miller. The company purchased four short railways and constructed one; it also acquired extensive timber lands and lumber businesses and formed the Madera Company (with mills at Madera and Pearson, Chihuahua) and the El Paso Milling Company in Texas. The Northwestern Railway suffered great damage during the Mexican revolution of 1910-1920. Communication and transportation of products and supplies became very difficult and, at times, impossible. Company officials negotiated with both government and revolutionary forces in an attempt to protect company property, employees, and their families, and successfully steered the company through the revolution. In 1945 the Mexico Northwestern Railway Company's properties in Mexico were sold to a Chihuahua banker.

Business records of the Ferrocarril Noroeste de México (primarily letters, telegrams, and translations of coded telegrams), newspaper clippings, and maps contain information from the years 1910-1916 and April-May of 1919 about events of the Mexican Revolution, its effects on the operations of the railroad company, and the company's relations with the Mexican and United States governments and Mexican revolutionaries such as Pancho Villa. Correspondence is between company officials, investors, managers and other employees, such as Pearson, Riba, Miller, Crockett, and Smith; Mexican and United States government officials; and revolutionary leaders such as Pancho Villa (referred to in the correspondence as General Francisco Villa). Newspaper clippings, mostly from U.S. and British papers, pertain to politics and revolutionary events in Mexico, especially those affecting the railways and/or foreigners in Mexico. Maps are of railroad routes in Mexico.

Aiken, Peter S.
Alexandre, H.
Babicora Ranch
Brown, E.N.
Bryan, William Jennings
Burr, E.S.
Bussing, G.H.
Carranza, Venustiano
Castañeda, A.
Castillo, Máximo
Clark, F.J.
Clarke, Walter
Colonia Dublán (Mormon settlement)
Cooper, C.H.
Corralitos [Company]
Cox, A.L.
Cravath, W.V.
Creel, Enrique C.
Crockett, J.O.
Cumbre Tunnel
Cusi Mining Company
Dudley, R.M.
Edwards, T.D.
Farragut, W.J.
Fernandez, Juan
(brakeman)
Ferris, H.C.
Flether, E.E.
Fox, B.S.
Glumaz, S.J.
Gow, Walter
Griscom, Lloyd C.
Hagan, Mrs. Jules
Harmon, E.M.
Harrsen, Harro
Hartman, L.M.
Herr, F.C.
Hert, A.T.
Holmes, Tom B.
Hopkins, S.G.
Houghton, E.C.
Hoyer, J.F.
Huerta, Victoriano
Jones, F.C.
Las Varas Ranch
Lascurrain, Pedro
Lathrop, A.L.
Ledwidge, Edward
Lester, R.T.
Lewis, H.C.
Littlepage, Thomas P.
Lind, John
Madero, Francisco I.
Masteller, M.L.
McClanahan, H.C.
McKenna, W.R.
Mercado, General Salvador R.
Mexican Light and
Power Company
Mexican Tramways
Company
Miller, H.I.
Morgan, E.D.
Myers, C.F.
National Railways of
Mexico
Orozco, Pascual
Paddack, J.E.
Palmer, Bradley W.
Parra, Kid
Pearson, Fred Stark
Phelps, Dodge & Co.
Pickett, A.J.
Pruett, J.J.
Riba, Luís
Romney, Junius
Ruiz, Apolonio
Rutledge, George
Salazar, José Ynés
Sanburn, J.N.
Saumenig, H.M.
Scofield, Bernard
Sierra Madre Land and
Lumber Company
Smith, William Alden
Taft, Charles P.
Taft, President Howard
Thede, Porter C.
Trueb, A.M.
Turney and Burgess
Velasquez, Herculano
(brakeman)
Villa, Pancho (Francisco)
Wemple, F.L.
West, Duval
West, O.C.
Williams, Louis E.
Wilson, Henry Lane
Wilson, Woodrow
Wisdom, C.R.
Woodcock, H.B.

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