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Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Provenance
Biographical Note
Scope and Content
General
Related Materials in the Huntington Library
Arrangement
Contributing Institution:
The Huntington Library
Title: Albert Kimsey Owen letters and documents
Creator:
Owen, Albert Kimsey.
Identifier/Call Number: mssAKO
Physical Description:
1 Linear Feet
(2 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1885-1909
Abstract: This collection consists of documents
and letters (mainly contemporary copies, some of which are in Spanish) related to Utopian
reformer Albert K. Owen (1848-1916), the rise and fall of the Topolobampo utopian colony in
Sinaloa, Mexico (1886-ca. 1903), and railroad development in Mexico under the regime of
Porfirio Díaz.
Language of Material: English.
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Publication Rights
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from
or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The
responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining
necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item]. Albert Kimsey Owen letters and documents, The Huntington Library,
San Marino, California.
Provenance
Purchased from Ray Reynolds in July 1964, April, 1974, and May 1974.
Biographical Note
Albert Kimsey Owen (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.
Scope and Content
This collection consists of documents and letters (mainly contemporary copies, some of
which are in Spanish) related to Albert Kimsey Owen, the rise and fall of the Topolobampo
utopian colony in Sinaloa, Mexico (1886 to approximately 1903), and railroad development in
Mexico under the regime of Porfirio Díaz. Correspondents represented in the collection
include: Porfirio Díaz, Albert M. Gibson, Edward Everett Hale, and Alexander Robey Shepherd.
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.
General
Individual call numbers included in the collection: mssAKO 1-198.
Related Materials in the Huntington Library
-
Albert Kimsey Owen
papers,
mssOwen.
Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Cooperative societies -- Mexico -- Sinaloa (State)
Railroads -- Mexico -- History -- 19th century -- Sources
Railroads -- Mexico -- History -- 20th century -- Sources
Utopias -- Mexico -- History -- 19th century -- Sources
Sinaloa (Mexico : State) -- History -- 19th century --
Sources
Topolobampo (Mexico)
Topolobampo (Mexico) -- History -- 19th century -- Sources
Letters (correspondence) Mexico
Díaz, Porfirio, 1830-1915
Gibson, A. M. (Albert M.)
Hale, Edward Everett, Jr., 1863-1932
Shepherd, Alexander Robey, 1835-1902
Topolobampo and Pacific Railroad and Telegraph
Company