The Old Stone Courthouse was built in 1882 when Ysleta was the county seat. It didn’t act as the courthouse for very long because Ysleta lost the county seat election of 1883 to El Paso. The Ysleta school district moved into the old courthouse in 1884. In 1915, after a successful bond election, construction started […]
Author: EPCHS
1976: Developer of pinto bean dies in El Paso
August 3, 1976, El Paso Times Manrique R. Gonzalez, pioneer agricultural engineer in the U.S. Southwest and northern Mexico who gained fame as a developer of the pinto bean, died Monday at Providence Hospital of an illness. Mr. Gonzalez, 96, gained prominence in this country just after World war I when, as a county agricultural agent […]
El Paso 1880-1900
Early El Paso street scenes, 1880-1890.
Event-Anita Blair: El Paso Legend, May 21
Coming up this month we will be hosting a very interesting talk and exhibit by local historian Joseph Longo about a force of nature in El Paso: Anita Blair. Anita was the first El Paso woman elected to the Texas Legislature and the first blind woman to be elected to office in the United States. Though […]
Curator’s Corner
One of the items accessioned into the archival collections last month was this special El Paso Times newspaper supplement from February 1968 celebrating the International Rodeo & Southwestern Livestock Show. Its pages are chock-full of articles & advertisements pertaining to the rodeo & all of its accompanying events. One of the main attractions was […]
Photos: El Paso Aviation
A collection of El Paso aviation photos.
Dead Reckoning: Where Were El Paso’s Earliest Cemeteries?
By Mark Cioc-Ortega Concordia Cemetery opened in 1884, Evergreen in 1893. The Smelter Cemetery was supposedly established in 1882, but was not used much before the 1890s. So, where did El Pasoans bury their dead before that? The answer, it seems, is “just about anywhere they wanted to.” Back yards, empty lots, hillsides. The population […]
El Paso’s Own Mona the Elephant
Mona was the first Asian elephant to be bought to the El Paso Zoo in November 1956. Mona was born in the wild in 1954. When she first came to the zoo she weighed 7oo pounds. During the 1950s, the El Paso Zoo collection of animal began to increase and the zoo begin to develop. […]
Event: History of Agriculture in El Paso, April 23
On April 23, 2016, 10am, at the Burges House, 603 W. Yandell, master gardener Bill Hooten will give a talk on early El Paso agriculture and what can be grown in El Paso followed by a Q & A about keeping your garden looking its best this spring and summer. Light refreshments will be served, and […]
Photos: Otis Aultman Scrapbook
Among the many treasures at the Historical Society is a scrapbook by photographer Otis Aultman. Aultman came to El Paso where he first worked for Scott Photo Company, was later in partnership with Robert Dorman, and eventually owned his own studio.
By 1911 El Paso was a gathering place for many of the main personalities of the Mexican Revolutionqv-Francisco Madero, Francisco (Pancho) Villa, Pascual Orozcoqqvand after the shooting began, many American newsmen also flocked to El Paso to cover the event. Aultman was a man in the right place at the right time. He photographed the battle of Casas Grandes, the first battle of Juárez in May 1911, and the Orozco rebellion in 1912. He was a favorite of Pancho Villa, who called Aultman “Banty Rooster” because he was only 5’4″ tall. Aultman worked for the International News Service and Pathé News and experimented with cinematography. In 1916 he was one of the first photographers to arrive at Columbus, New Mexico, after the famous raid on that town by the Villistas.