News & Events

Edna Scotten Ferris

Edna Elaine Scotten was born on March 30, 1884 in El Paso, in a house on 1019 N. Campbell. She was the first child of Frank “Union” Scotten and Mary Collins. Her grandfather, Gerome Collins, founded a float transfer hack and drayage firm in El Paso. Frank  was involved in railroad and mining contraction and […]

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Ruth Munro Augur and Other Women UTEP Pioneers

Ruth Munro Augur was born in Austin, Texas in 1886. She studied art in New York, trained under two well-known artist, Robert Henri and William Chase. Augur studied at Otis Art Institute and California School of Fine Arts. In 1911 she worked as a sports and society page editor for the El Paso Herald and […]

ELEPHANT BUTTE DAMN

Elephant Butte Damn turns 100

Construction of Elephant Butte Dam was authorized by the United States Congress on February 25, 1905 and started in 1911. The 100-year-old dam is 301 feet high, 1674 feet long and used 618,785 cubic yards of concrete. Dedication ceremonies were scheduled for Oct. 14, 1916 but were postponed, “owing to the excessive rains in the […]

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1998 Union Plaza Development Report

Union Plaza Downtown El Paso Development Archaeological Project: Overview, Inventory and Recommendations, a report for the Sun Metro Transit Authority, City of El Paso, Texas. Dated December 9, 1998. Read the 1998 Report  

Early women principals of the Ysleta Independent School District

In 1891 Ysleta schools educated their girl and boy students separately. Kitti Gorbutt was principal of the Ysleta public Girls School in 1891. As early as 1901, Anna Hannah Ellison was serving as principal, until she left in 1904 and taught in the El Paso schools. Carrie Coleman, from Maybank, Texas, was appointed principal in 1910 […]

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Mattie Primrose Dillard Graves: The Rose Queen of Ysleta

Mattie Primrose Dillard was born in Nogales, Arizona, a mining town. She came to  El Paso working for El Paso County Tax Assessor, George Huffman. She married Milton St. John Graves who oversaw a water  irrigation system for the Franklin Canal. This system stretched from El Paso to Fabens. It was purchased  by the U.S. Reclamation Services. […]

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Mildred Vogel and Ida Ashley

Mildred Vogel was the only woman title executive  in the United States in 1929. Vogel had an office in the old Caples Building and presided over the El Paso Branch of Stewart Title and Guaranty Company. She handled hundreds of deals and owned the Vogel Hotel on West Missouri Street. Vogel also invested in various […]

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The El Paso Corral of Westerners

The El Paso chapter of the Corral of Westerners was organized in 1968 by a group of southwestern writers including  C. Leland Sonnicheson, who was the first sheriff of the group. Membership was restricted to women until 1976 when Betty Ligon, who  was the entertainment and art editor for the El Paso Herald-Post, became the […]

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Harriett Quisenberry

Harriet Quisenberry was born in Colin County, Texas. Quisenberry came to El Paso with her husband, Alfred, who she had married at age sixteen and her four children. When she came to El Paso she was in bad health and was told by doctors that she would not live much longer but Harriet recovered. She […]