Content preview - You need a premium account to view this content.
Wars and Rumors
BY THE FALL OF 1910 Colonia Juarez was at a high level of prosperity. Joseph C. Bentley and counselors Thomas C. Romney and Archibald Clayson presided over a ward membership of seven hundred souls. Church organizations, fully officered, were functioning effectively in educational, cultural, and recreational fields. Local peace officers, Alonzo L. Taylor as presidente and Guy Taylor as policeman, kept delinquency at a minimum. The schools required a faculty of eighteen teachers and occupied four buildings. Scholastic standards were on a par with comparable schools in the United States.
Industries were flourishing. The Colonial Mercantile Company, then a branch of the Union Mercantile Company in Colonia Dublan, had a stock of merchandise valued at ten thousand dollars and was housed in a handsome, commodious building with a roomy warehouse behind. John W. Wilson, an experienced Kentucky merchant, was the competent manager and he was supported by a well-trained sales staff and assistants. Orders were accepted by telephone and deliveries made free of charge. Doyle Humphrey and his fast moving delivery wagon symbolized the progressive merchandising of the Colonial Mercantile. The store also housed a central telephone office which connected service to homes, schools and business concerns in the community. There was also long distance connection with the other colonies.
The shoe and harness shop and tannery, merged into one business called the Juarez Tanning and Manufacturing Company, was operated by the Taylor brothers, Alonzo and Adelbert. The old Co-op served for shoe shop and sales and a new brick building to the east served for manufacture of saddles and harness and for tanning. Hides bought in the surrounding country, tanned in their own vats, finished at rubbing tables and made into a fine grade of leather, were manufactured into products that, besides supplying all local needs, found a ready market in all parts of the republic.
The old W. R. R. Stowell gristmill, by now owned and operated by Daniel Skousen, was grinding night and day, supplying a good grade of flour to all the nearby towns and carload lots to all parts of the state.
Homes were well stocked with provisions. Pantries were filled with preserved fruits and vegetables, and cellars contained barreled pork, beans, flour, corn meal and shorts, besides apples, rooted vegetables and squash.
The Pearson Lumber Company was but ten miles to the south. With two band sawmills, planing mills, operating and drying sheds, burners and other buildings necessary to handle the huge output of lumber, it was rated as the largest lumber company of the West at the time, and was fast developing into a lumber center around which a flourishing American city was being built. From the myriads of projects set in motion, men, boys and even women of Colonia Juarez found gainful employment, some taking temporary residence, others riding back and forth to earn their share of the many dollars put into circulation.