Louise Seymour was born in 1900 in Evanson, Indiana. Seymour came to Canutillo after WWII with her brother, Bill. Seymour was interested in the stories of her brothers journey and experiences in the West that came in letters he sent to her. Bill had been stationed at Ft. Bliss during WWII and stayed West, seeking to create a new life for himself. Seymour joined her brother for vacation, but after driving through Texas and California, she decided not to return home.
Seymour and her brother established an 160 acres farm in Canutillo. The duo started with the poultry business, raising and selling chickens, but that business venture eventually folded and left them broke. Seymour worked for the Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine for the U.S. Agriculture Department to help support the farm and to help out her brother. Seymour and her brother then went in the cotton business and started raising cotton on their farm. She ended up working in the office of a cotton gin her brother had bought into.
In 1951, Seymour started breeding and raising Aberdeen Angus cattle. Seymour was one of the first few, and earliest, breeders of Aberdeen Angus in the county. Seymour’s original cattle business started with 44 cows, 23 calves and one registered bull. After Bill’s death in 1954 she took over sole operation of the farm. Seymour was a co-owner of the Lone Star Gin and served on the board and as secretary of the Borderland Co-Op Association.
Seymour served as chair of the El Paso County Programming Board and was appointed by U.S. Senator John Towers to the National Cotton Advisory Committee of the U.S. in 1971. Seymour was also one of the few women to served on the elected El Paso County Water Improvement Board in 1965.
Seymour was one of the first members of the Canutillo School Board in 1959, serving as vice-president. Seymour served on the board until 1966. She was also active in the Aladdin Woman’s Club and served as president of the Crescent Club. Seymour was active in the Thursday Book Club and the El Paso Color Camera Club. She also help organized the Canutillo Volunteer Fire Department. Seymour never married or had children. She died in 1982.
Note: Photo is clip from an El Paso Herald Post article dated Jan 21,1961.
-Joseph Longo
