The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-11-25


that the authorities have any trouble
with a Mormon, and they pay their
taxes for the support of the govern
ment better than the Mexcans them
selves do For thrift and industry
they are proving what can be done in
building up the country materially and
are thereby an example to all with
whom they are in contact.
Came Twenty Years Ago.
These Mormon colonies were begun
little over twenty years ago, when
people of that faith began coming
overland in wagons from Utah, Ari-
IONA and other parts of the United
States to settle in Chihuahua at what
is now Colonia Juarez and ColOnia
Diaz, the latter about forty miles
south of the New Mexico line and Co
lonia Juarez about fifteen miles from
Nueva Casas Grandes. on the Rio
Grande, Sierra Madre & Pacific rail-
road. But there was no railroad in
those days nearer than Deming, n. NJ.
They came into the country with
nothing TO help them but the conces-
sion of the Mexican government for
some public lands and exemption from
federal and state taxes for ten years
for each and every cOlOnist as he came
in. Their land was bare and these
rugged pioneers set to work to take
out canals for irrigation and to build
their houses as best they could.
A Land Company.
All lands were acquired by the Mex
lean Agricultural & Colonization COM
pany, incorporated under the laws of
Colorado. Members of the colonies and
in Utah are the stockholders in this
company. which is headed by A. w.
WINS as president. 1t is principally
due to his exceptional business abil
ity that the success of the colonies is
due, supplemented, as il always has
been, by the hearty cooperation of the
cOlOnists collectively and individually.
The company is in no wise a specu
lative concern, but is a method of pro-
viding a perpetual and ever-increasing
fund for the acquisition of more lands
and d practical business organization
The plan is to acquire lands and sell
them out in small lots to colonists at
slight advance, on easy terms and
low interest. To be a colonist requires
certificate of good moral character
only.
The MormOns have at least 250,000
acres of land. Many individuals have
made purchases of lands from the
Mexicans.
Sierra Madre Railroad.
All of these colonies are tributary
to the Rio Grande, Sierra Madre &
Pacific railroad completed over nine
years ago from FL Paso and Juarez on
the international boundary to Nueva
Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, a distance
of 156 miles. Only one of the colo
MES, COlOnia Dublan, a little over
mile from Nueva CaSas Grandes, is on
this road. Up to the time of the con-
StructiOn of the road the cOiOniStS had
practically no market at all, and even
now they cannot reach the rest of the
state by rail except by the roundabout
way of JuareZ and the Mexican Cen
trail.
The extension of the road southwark
by Colonel w. c. Greene's Sierra Madre
& Pacific Railroad company, the con-
struction of which is already begun,
will give the colonies an outlet to Chi
huahua by a connection with the Chi
huahua & Pacific road; also by the
former road, with the great new lum-
Der town of MADEIRA and the mining
districts in the Sierra Madres, as that
road is projected on to the Pacific coast
| in Sonora. This road assures the fu-
ture prosperity of the thrifty colonies,
which have made all of their wonder
| full progress even without much in the
way of an outlet by rail.
Only a visit to these colonies can
! bring a proper realization of what the
Mormons have accomplished so quiet
| ly in twenty years. The writer made a
visit recently to COlonias Dublan and
| JuareZ, and he has no hesitation in
saying that the state government, the
Mexican people and the foreigners.
none of them, thoroughly realize what
| these people have accomplished, be-
| ginning with nothing almost
Their Work.
Try to imagine a bare, dry country
in the semi-arid region of Chihuahua,
and these Mormons locating in it over
| twenty years ago after the long, hard
| trip in wagons from Utah, Arizona and
other states. As stated. the first colo
MES were Diaz and Juarez. Now there
are Colonias Dublan, Pacheco, Garcia
and Ghiuchupa in Chihuahua and
Morelos in Sonora. besides several
small settlements which not yet have
| sufficient population to give the Dig
nifty of the name "colOnia."
Today, if one goes into the Dublan
and Juarez colonies he will feel that
| he has suddenly been set down in a
| thrifty American settlement, for the
| streets are lined with trees, the houses
on either side are one and two-story
| brick structures built in the American
| style. Fine school houses. good barns,
| flowers, fruit and ornamental trees,
nice farms and alfalfa pastures and
| good horses, cattle and hogs can be
| seen on every hand. Everywhere are
! the signs of thrift, and the people look
| the picture of health. happiness and
/ contentment.
In their homes hospitality reigns,
and one sees furnishings in modern put
simple good taste, with books and
newspapers in evidence, and often an
| organ and sometimes piano in the
parlor Every family owns its own
home or is paying for it. In all the
colonies the conditions are practically
| the same.
Farming. stock raising and some
manufacturing, some numbering and
| brick making are their principal indus
/ tries.
Agriculture.
AS farmers the Mormons excel any
thing in Mexico. Their apples and
pears and other deciduous fruits are
| equal to the best in the United States
They raise wheat, corn and vegetables
and splendid alfalfa.
In irrigation they also excel. Al
| Colonia Dublan the eolonists are pre-
pairing to put in a dam on the Casas
Grandes river. whence they will run
a canal TO six natural reservoirs which
will impound the flood waters of thai