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Inventory of the Albert Kimsey Owen Papers, 1872-1909
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Title: Albert Kimsey Owen Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1872-1909
Creator:
Owen, Albert Kimsey
Extent: Number of pieces: 418 pieces (including some duplicate copies)
Repository: The Huntington Library
San Marino, California 91108
Language:
English.
The collection was acquired from Ray Reynolds in July, 1964 and April, 1974.
Collection is open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information
please go to following
URL .
In order to quote from, publish, or reproduce any of the manuscripts or visual materials, researchers must obtain formal permission
from the office of the Library Director. In most instances, permission is given by the Huntington as owner of the physical
property rights only, and researchers must also obtain permission from the holder of the literary rights. In some instances,
the Huntington owns the literary rights, as well as the physical property rights. Researchers may contact the appropriate
curator for further information.
[Identification of item], Albert Kimsey Owen Papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Albert Kimsey Owen (c.1848-1916<), born in Chester, Pennsylvania, son of a Quaker physician, was a utopian reformer and founder
of a co-operative community in Topolobampo, Sinaloa, Mexico. By profession Owen was a civil engineer. He went to Colorado
to survey a railroad route, then on to Mexico to help lay out what was to become the Mexican Central Railroad. Upon first
seeing Topolobampo Bay in 1873, Owen's dream was to found the perfect city, a colony based on cooperative principles, complete
with workers, artisans, and intellectuals, to be supplied by a railroad line from the United States, with entry at El Paso,
across the Sierra Madred mountains, to the Bay of Topolobampo. Since this would be the shortest route to the Pacific from
the great industrial cities of the United States, he envisioned Topolobampo as a center for the Pacific trade.
In 1881 Owen was granted a concession by the Mexican government to form a company to be known as the Texas, Topolobampo and
Pacific Railway and Telegraph Company. Officers from 1883-1889 were William Windom, president; Ulysses S. Grant, Jr., vice-president;
and Owen, engineer. In 1885 the name was changed to the American and Mexican Pacific Railroad. On November 17, 1887 the first
of the colonists arrived and began building houses and irrigation systems.
The first railroad concession lapsed without a railroad constructed, and a new concession was granted in 1890, then renewed
to 1897, to be known as the Mexican Western Railroad Company. Owen tried desperately to interest Alexander R. Shepherd, former
governor of Washington, D.C. and owner of the Batopilas mine in Mexico, and A. Foster Higgins, who built the Rio Grande, Sierra
Madre & Pacific Railroad from El Paso to Casas Grandes, Mexico, in continuing that railroad line across the mountains to Topolobampo.
In the meantime difficulties developed among the colonists. The Kansas-Sinaloa Investment Company headed by C. B. Hoffman
had been formed to purchase land for the colony. The colonists split into two groups, one loyal to Owen, favorable to cooperative
policies; the other loyal to Hoffman and preferring private land ownership. There was litigation over the irrigation canal
and water rights. By 1900 the colony had almost collapsed; by 1903 Owen was no longer part of any plan. Arthur Edward Stillwell
took up the railroad concessions and built the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railroad. Benjamin Franics Johnston acquired
most of the land and developed the sugar industry.
Owen was a prolific writer. In addition to his works on Integral Co-operation and the Credit Foncier Company, he wrote articles
and pamphlets (many of which are in the Rare Book Department of the Huntington Library) on Woman's suffrage, Currency questions,
and, in later years, the auto-highway.
Although Owen never was able to bring his utopian dream to fulfillment, before his death two railroads were built where he
once had concessions, and the desert land was turned into a rich agricultural center.
The rise and fall of one of the utopian colonies so popular toward the end of the nineteenth century, and the development
of railroads in Mexico under Porfirio Díaz.
The letters are carbon copies written by hand on very thin paper, probably contemporary copies made for the colony by E. M.
Hussey, with a few signatures and notes that may be in the writing of Owen himself. Articles and other documents, and letters
copied after 1899 are generally typewritten.
Persons represented by 4 or more letters
- Brodie, Walter M.
- 6 items
- Caryl, Charles W.
- 5 items
- Díaz, Profirio
- 4 items
- Gibson, Albert M.
- 26 items
- Hampl, Joseph
- 18 items
- Herrera, Eduardo S.
- 7 items
- Lovell, John W.
- 6 items
- Rice, John H.
- 5 items
- Romero, Matías
- 4 items
- Shepherd, Alexander Robey
- 4 items
- Streeter, A. J.
- 5 items
- Wilbur, Alvin J.
- 7 items
Some interesting or important items
- Hale, Edward Everett.
- Letter declining to invest with group, though sympathizing with their ideals.
Date: Sep. 30, 1889
- Grant, Jesse R.
- (son of Ulysses S. Grant). His attempts to raise money for the railroad.
Date: Oct. 12, 1889
- Owen, Albert Kimsey.
- History of the Credit Foncier Co. (37 pages).
Date: Aug. 1, 1893
- Owen, Albert Kimsey.
- History of the Topolobampo Colony (32 pages).
Date: Mar. 15, 1894
- Kneeland, George S., et. al.
- Memorial to Porfirio Díaz re. the status of the colony.
Date: Aug. 22, 1896
- Proposed agreement
- with A. K. Owen to sell his interests to John W. Lovell and/or Thomas Lake Harris.
Date: Apr. 21, 1897
Bernard, L. L. and Jessie.
Origins of American Sociology. 1943, pp. 359-371. (HM 22 U5 B4)
Credit Foncier of Sinaloa. April 5, 1887 (and other issues) (274745)
Higgins, J. Wallace. The Orient Road
The Railway and Locomotive Historical Society, Bulletin 95. Oct. 1956, pp. 10-46
Kneeland, Clarrissa Abia. Reminiscences of the Credit Foncier Colony
Fresno Clarion. 1945-1946. Film 328
Owen, Albert Kimsey.
Integral Co-operation. 1885. pp. 199-206. HX 661 T6 09
Robertson, Thomas A.
A Southwestern Utopia. 1947. F 1391 T64 R6