Whose House We Are

By Melanie Klink Wayne

The history of St. Clements Church in El Paso, Texas, chronicles the sacred movement of God through generations of people who have powerfully experienced His presence. Follow this churchs story from humble beginnings in a dusty western outpost over a century ago, through decades of extraordinary growth and great social upheaval, to the renewal of the 1970s and the groundbreaking separation of the Episcopal and Anglican churches in North America. The Lord faithfully led this once small, insignificant group of believers to become one of the most dynamic Anglican churches in the country today, with broad missionary outreach and inner-city neighborhood ministries. The story of St. Clements is told through historical records and the testimonies of men and women, ministers and lay people, civic leaders and humble workers, and writers and musicians who served through many decades, all empowered by Gods Holy Spirit.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Oct 22, 2014
• ISBN: 9781490856032

Melanie Klink Wayne

Melanie Wayne came into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ while attending St. Clement’s. A lifelong member, she has been discipled and well-loved by the extraordinary saints who minister within this community of faith. Melanie has been a teacher and administrator at the parish school, the head of the Mission Board, and a part of the intercessory prayer ministry. She is the author of A Grandparent’s Prayer Journal. She and her husband, George, are blessed to be counted as members of God’s flock along Texas’ shared border with Mexico.

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Part One

Chapter One

"For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life

for Me and for the Gospel will save it." Mark 8: 35 (NIV)

St. Clement’s founding is best defined by the lives of two men, a layman and a priest. A third, to a lesser degree, should also be mentioned. All three had similar personal characteristics which motivated them to abandon lives of some standing to embark on an adventure of bringing law and order as well as the Gospel to the unruly west. It can well be said that these men, Gaylord Judd Clarke, Joseph Wilkin Tays, and Albert Jennings Fountain, were of high moral character. They were undaunted by challenge and appear to have had backbones of steel. Educated men, they were not escaping some unsavory past, but were visionaries seeing potential in what obviously was not yet apparent. They had the leadership qualities to attract others to their cause to transform a rough frontier town into a more civilized and moral community.

1870 – 1884

In the 1820s, when Texas opened the West to American pioneers, the first settlers were required to espouse Roman Catholicism. (Mexico reluctantly allowed Americans to settle there, provided they became Mexican citizens and converted to Catholicism.) However, Protestants had already begun making inroads into the Texas Panhandle between 1815 and 1817, when Methodist circuit riders ventured into the northeast section of the territory. By the 1830s, the Baptists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and Methodists had established their churches. The 1850 United States Census tallied 328 churches of all faiths in Texas, with only thirteen being Roman Catholic. Just ten years later, the total number of churches jumped to 1,034, according to the Texas Almanac. However, no Protestant church was to be found at the Mexican border town of Franklin, later to be known as El Paso. In fact, at the time, there were no Episcopal priests serving in the vast territory between Santa Fe, New Mexico, Brownsville, Texas, and extending out through Arizona.

An outpost in far west Texas named Franklin was little more than a grouping of adobe buildings in territory that was still periodically attacked by Indians. The little village, since 1827, was the only rest stop for journeymen for hundreds of miles in any direction. The settlement was only a ranch until the Overland Stage Company built a rudimentary hotel on Overland Street in the late 1850’s. Then the San Antonio and San Diego Stage Company built a small hotel and corral and established a trading post. One of these hotels occupied the site of the present Mills Building.

A rudimentary attempt at laying out the town was undertaken by resolute settlers. By mid-century, the town had grown and El Paso Street, then known as Alameda, became the principal highway and ended at a ferry crossing over to Paso del Norte (now Juárez). At the end of Stanton Street, then called Camino Real, the highway was a ford. Between these two roads, a cable made of cactus fiber was stretched across the river. A large iron ring on the fiber rope made it possible to draw bundles from one side of the border to the other. Horses were often tethered to the cable and assisted across the river at a minimal charge of a few telacos, a coin now defunct. San Antonio, Overland, and San Francisco Streets were also main thoroughfares, taking their names from the stage lines that ran through them.

On the west side of El Paso Street stood a solid row of adobe buildings with a portale’ (large portal) supported by heavy square pillars, running from the corner of San Francisco Street almost to Overland Street. The north part of the block was owned by Henry Gillett and the rest by a Kentuckian by the name of Benjamin Dowell, who became El Paso’s first mayor and operated a saloon and post office. These were located on the property where the Camino Real Hotel (formerly the Paso del Norte) now stands and was a gathering place for the locals. The rest of the block was surrounded by high adobe walls or corrals that penned in livestock and horses. At the southeast corner of San Antonio and El Paso Streets was the Franklin House where a man named William Wallace Mills lived. On the opposite corner on the north side of San Antonio Street was a building occupied by Judge Allan Blacker. And farther up, at the junction of El Paso Street and the town plaza was a store kept by Abraham Abrahams. On the opposite side lived Mr. Henry Gillett and his family.

Other major structures included a general store on the north side of San Francisco Street run by Samuel Schutz and his brother; Judge Joseph Magoffin’s home and large corral which faced the plaza; down El Paso Street was the Customs House occupied by Dr. Dwight C. Marsh; the most pretentious building in town on San Antonio Street was occupied by James D. Hague. Opposite was the Zabriskie home, owned by Mr. Zabriskie, a lawyer of considerable prominence. And another building on San Antonio Street was occupied by Mr. S. C. Slade, editor and manager of The Times.

Old Fort Bliss, sometimes called Magoffinsville, was washed away by a rise in the river in the 1860s, and the government relocated it in 1870, just about a block south of the boundary of Concordia Cemetery, along the river and the main valley road, five miles from El Paso Street. A company of infantry and a troop of cavalry were usually assigned to the fort.

Simeon Hart’s Mill was located near a rough dam on the river which was over two hundred years old. It was repaired annually by inhabitants on both sides of the river, as it raised the water into the ditches which irrigated the valley on both sides. Hart’s Mill supplied the valley with flour.

It was in 1859 that the name "Franklin" was changed to "El Paso, when Anson Mills completed his plat of the town. El Paso was a name that resulted in endless confusion until the name of the town across the river, El Paso del Norte, was changed to Ciudad Juárez in 1888. El Paso was incorporated in 1873, and encompassed the small local communities of Magoffinsville, Concordia, and Hart’s Mill which had developed along the river. The town’s first election was held on August 12, 1873, and 105 votes were cast. Benjamin S. Dowell was elected mayor; and the first aldermen elected were Andrew Harnick, William Gryer, Joseph Schutz, Thomas A. Massie, John S. Gillett, and John F. Evans. Mr. Schutz removed himself from consideration and someone questioned the election of Mr. Massie and Mr. Gryer, who both subsequently resigned. M.A. Jones, Frank Marsh, and a man named Parson" Joseph Wilkin Tays were elected to fill the three aldermanic vacancies.

A left panel of the Good Shepherd window above the main altar has this inscription: For Gaylord Judd Clarke – Founder, February 25, 1836 – December 7, 1870.

Gaylord Judd Clarke, son of Hiram J. Clarke and Rhoda Osbourne Reed, was born February 25, 1836, on a farm in Tioga County, New York. His father’s ancestors had fought in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. His father had presumed Gaylord would continue to operate the prosperous family farm, but with the help of his mother and through his own persuasive manner, Gaylord managed to convince his father that his ambitions lay elsewhere. He attended a preparatory seminary, then Union College at Schenectady, where he graduated with high honors in 1859. To help support himself, he worked as an assistant editor of the Schenectady Star and as an editorial writer on the Troy Daily Times. It was through these associations that he met his future wife, Frances Helen Corey, the daughter of the owner of the Troy newspaper, Allen Corey. Frances Corey had an unusual pedigree. She was born on June 14, 1836, at Whipple City (now Greenwich, New York), a town nestled between the Hudson River and the Battenkill. Her mother Ann Whipple Corey was a descendant of William Whipple – a signer of the Declaration of Independence – and a relative of Bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple of Minnesota. Frances Corey graduated from the Greenwich Academy and the Young Ladies’ Seminary at Saratoga Springs.

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Gaylord Judd Clark

Photo courtesy of the El Paso County Historical Society

Upon Gaylord Clarke’s graduation from Union College in 1859, the two were married. Clarke entered Albany Law School and continued his editorial work at the Lockport Advertiser from 1860-1863. During the next few years, the Clarkes produced four children: Anna, Rhoda Reed, Gaylord Junior, and Clement, for whom Mrs. Clark later named the little mission founded in El Paso. Rhoda Reed and Gaylord Junior died as infants, and Mr. and Mrs. Clarke felt that little Clement had been sent by the Lord to heal their broken hearts. However, when Clement was about six weeks old, Gaylord set out on a business trip during a smallpox epidemic, and contracted the disease from a discharged soldier who had appealed to him for aid. Gaylord became desperately ill, and though Mrs. Clarke was able to nurse him through his illness, their baby son Clement died. The Clarkes were devastated by their third child’s death; Mrs. Clarke fell ill in both body and soul. As advised by their physician, the Clarkes began to contemplate a change in location and climate – perhaps a chance to begin anew.

In 1862, Clarke had been elected on the Democratic ticket as an Inspector of State Prisons, serving in that capacity from 1863 to 1865. He was admitted to the bar and was already making a name for himself when he was offered a partnership with an old established law firm in New York. Despite this opportunity for professional advancement, his priority remained his wife’s well-being. Years earlier while attending the preparatory seminary, Gaylord had developed a friendship with a classmate named William Wallace Mills. The two had corresponded over the years, and Mr. Mills occasionally had tried to persuade Clarke to move to the frontier border town of Franklin. Clarke had never seriously considered the proposal until that time. Perhaps the dry desert air would offer his wife better health. They both realized this move would involve not only great financial sacrifice, but would require physical stamina and inner courage.

William W. Mills was an El Paso pioneer who had followed his brother Anson Mills to Texas. In the 1860’s, shortly after the election of Abraham Lincoln, eight Southern states, including Texas, adopted ordinances of secession. El Pasoans were almost unanimously pro-Southern, and at a local election on the question of secession, there were less than a half dozen opposition votes to secession. Two of these were the Mills brothers. Anson left for Washington, D.C., to serve the Union cause and later became a brigadier general; his brother William went to New Mexico to join Union forces there. Confederate forces occupied Fort Bliss in 1861, and William W. Mills was taken prisoner in Paso del Norte across the river. He eventually escaped to New Mexico, but he never forgot or forgave mill owner Simeon Hart whom he held responsible for his capture. With the restoration of Union control over El Paso in 1862, William Mills, who had been named United States collector of customs at El Paso, gave his full support to the enforcement of the congressional law of July 1862, which provided for the confiscation of property of any person who had aided the Confederate rebellion against the United States. This law gave Mills an opportunity to settle an old score with Simeon Hart whose property was seized.

During the Reconstruction period following the Civil War, William W. Mills assumed the leadership of the local Republican Party and formed the customhouse ring which was a conveyance for extending favors to local merchants, controlling appointments to office, and manipulating the elections. By 1868, Mills was named a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1868–69 in Austin, where Edmund J. Davis was selected as president. Mills had supported an opponent of Davis’ for that position, A. J. Hamilton, whose daughter he married in early 1869. Meanwhile, in El Paso, the Republican leadership was given to Albert J. Fountain, who also gave his full support to Hamilton. The victory of Edmund J. Davis in the governor’s race in 1869, resulted in Mills’ removal from his post as collector of customs, which sharply curtailed his local power and influence.¹

In the midst of these political intrigues, around 1867, Mr. and Mrs. Gaylord Judd Clarke and their only remaining child Anna arrived in El Paso. Accompanying them were their cousin, DeLoyd Clarke Baker, and their black servant, Emmanuel Nelson. They made their home in the old Overland Building, a large adobe structure built around a patio, one side of which was occupied by Albert J. Fountain and his family.

The Clarkes were not the usual pioneers, traveling west in covered wagons with thoughts of settling on a farm or ranch. They were urban people of literary taste – educated, cultured and religious. We can never know what it must have cost them to give up civilization and city life for primitiveness and village life. They were largely isolated and certainly, at times, lonely. The Clarkes discovered that private home tutoring existed among the Anglo population, but there were no churches other than the Catholic missions in Ysleta and Socorro which had been planted centuries before. Mr. Clarke found little established law in the small western town where saloons and gambling were more familiar than the Bible. There was lawlessness as well, and most of the citizens carried six-shooters for protection and for righting wrongs, real or fancied, which led to frequent shootouts. It is said that in many cases, death certificates read that the deceased died of gunshot wounds at the hands of parties unknown. Indian bands were continually attacking white travelers in their journeys to and from the town. And sporadic Apache raids pillaged supplies and livestock. While a good majority of the town’s citizens were peaceful and industrious – many with polished manners, education and culture – they also had acquired rough habits necessary for survival in the west. This was the situation Clarke hoped to remedy and improve. Shortly, Gaylord Clarke replaced his friend William W. Mills as collector of customs at the El Paso port. And Clarke’s law practice quickly expanded when he obtained several Federal cases.

Mrs. Clarke gathered the few American children for companionship and incentive for her little daughter and taught the children every day, drawing from her bank of knowledge of literature, history, and culture. She may well be considered a pioneer in education in El Paso.

For a year or more after the Clarkes’ arrival, the only reminder that they were part of the broader Communion of Saints was Mr. Clarke’s readings of the meaningful Episcopal rites to his family and a few American friends who assembled in his home for that purpose each Sunday morning and evening. He also prepared short homilies for the small gathering. Among their small circle were Mr. S. C. Slade (the newspaperman) and Col. Albert Jennings Fountain. An old Indian priest from Paso del Norte (Juárez), often invited Clarke and his family to attend the Catholic services. While not supporting any other form of religion other than Catholicism, the priest and his flock always regarded the Clarkes with friendship and respect. The Clarkes were Anglican, however, and adhered to their familiar form of worship.

Fellow Episcopalian Col. Fountain became a supportive friend. He was instrumental in influencing Gov. Edmund J. Davis to appoint Mr. Clarke as Judge of the 25th Judicial District Court of Texas, as a Republican, in July 1870. Judge Clarke was described by an early newspaper as a gentleman of spotless character and irreproachable private life; a well read and thorough lawyer; an eloquent and electrical speaker; and a finished writer of both poetry and prose; and possessed the elements of popularity in a rare degree. When Judge Clarke received his appointment as Judge of the District Court, the Daily Express, the official journal of Bexar County and the city of San Antonio posted: [we] heartily congratulate the citizens of his District upon having so able and upright a judge. Judge Clarke will carry with him to the bench most refined manners, courteous deportment, keen discrimination, thorough knowledge of law, unquestioned honesty and integrity, and scholarly accomplishments of a high order.

Col. (Senator) Albert Jennings Fountain settled in El Paso as an employee of the United States Property Commission, which investigated and disposed of former Confederate property. Fountain, too, served as the Customs Collector for the El Paso region, was next appointed an election judge, and finally became the Assessor and Collector of the Internal Revenue Service for the Western District of Texas. In November 1869, Fountain won a seat in the Texas Senate and pushed through the bill that reestablished the Texas Rangers, which had been abolished after the Civil War. Later, in 1873, fearing for the safety of his family in El Paso since his occupation attracted many enemies, Col. Fountain moved to Mesilla, New Mexico, where he continued his legal and political career using his fluency in Spanish to good advantage in jury trials. He was eventually appointed assistant district attorney, served as a probate judge, and then as a deputy court clerk. He promptly became a powerful force in the Republican Party, serving in leadership roles in the territorial legislature.

Both Fountain and Clarke were committed to taming their corner of the Wild West. Recognizing the need for a Protestant church in the territory, they traveled to Austin to petition Bishop Alexander Gregg for aid in establishing an Episcopal mission in El Paso. The Missionary Fund of the District was very low, so Judge Clarke proposed that he would be responsible for a portion of the salary for a clergyman if the District Board would also provide a small sum. Bishop Gregg caught their vision and agreed to find a man who would be willing to serve at the frontier. Bishop Gregg had under his guidance at that time the Rev. Mr. Joseph Wilkin Tays, who had just come through a terrible personal tragedy and was open to devoting himself to an absorbing and meaningful ministry. Rev. Tays was currently serving as the Senate’s chaplain.

The Rev. Mr. Joseph Wilkin Tays, a man of Scottish-Irish descent, was born on December 13, 1827, in Nova Scotia, one of seven children. He was educated at King’s College in Windsor, Nova Scotia, hired to teach at West Point, and ordained an Episcopal priest in Texas. Two of Tay’s brothers, John and James, were Texas Rangers and pursued a life of adventure while Joseph focused his life on the Scriptures and faith.²

The Rev. Joseph Wilkin Tays had initially migrated from the east to Indianola, Texas (now incorporated into the city of Victoria), in 1860, with his brother and sister-in-law, George E. and Mary Parker Tays. He was a protégé of Bishop Potter and was ordained by Bishop Gregg. Rev. Tays was given oversight of the congregations at Bryan, Matagorda, Columbus and Indianola. In 1867, when Judge Clarke was initially making his move to El Paso, Tays’ brother and sister-in-law contracted and died from yellow fever during an epidemic. Yellow fever frequently broke out in the Gulf coast areas of Galveston, Indianola, and New Orleans despite the sea breezes, and during many of these epidemics, the residents who chose to stay in the contagious areas avoided others by shutting themselves in their houses away from friends and work. Understandably concerned, Mr. Tays pleaded with his 24-year old wife, Jeremiah, to leave the area until the outbreak was over. But headstrong and brave, the stalwart daughter of an English sea captain, Jeremiah Crowell Tays insisted that her place was by her husband’s side. Tragically, she and their youngest son caught the fever and died. Mr. Tays at the time of her death was also ill; nevertheless, he pulled himself out of bed to read the burial service over his wife and baby son.

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The Rev. Joseph Wilkin Tays

Photo courtesy of the El Paso County Historical Society

It was at this low point in Tays’ life that Judge Clarke and Albert Fountain presented Rev. Tays with the challenge of bringing to the few people there (in El Paso) the Church’s ministrations. Judge Clarke and Sen. Fountain described the Rio Grande Valley, its underdeveloped resources, and its lack of any Protestant presence on the frontier. Tays responded to their invitation to take the Gospel to a new country where there had never been a church service on this frontier. When the legislative term expired, he readied himself for the trip and employed a man by the name of Fitzsimmons to purchase an outfit. Fitzsimmons was a typical Western man, a good judge of horse flesh and a tempered frontiersman. Fitzsimmons purchased a team and wagon; and when everything was ready, early in September 1870, with Fitzsimmons as driver and guide, Mr. Tays and his two boys, Eugene and Joseph, aged nine and seven years respectively, started their trek from Austin to El Paso. It was a journey of over 500 miles and took them one month to accomplish. Their route brought them through Fredericksburg, which then was a typical German town; old Fort Concha; Fort Davis; Fort Stockton; Fort Quitman; and finally, El Paso. At Fort Concha, they were given an escort of ten men and a sergeant, and these soldiers were replaced at each of the forts. This armed escort underscores the threats they faced of Indian attack. They crossed the Pecos River at what was known as Horse Head Crossing near old Fort Lancaster.

The Tayses arrived at Ysleta before noon on the first day of October 1870, and left there in the afternoon expecting to make the fifteen miles to El Paso before sundown. However, taking the wrong road, they crossed over into Mexico and spent the night at Paso del Norte. The next morning, Sunday, October 2nd, they forded the Rio Grande and drove their team into El Paso. Not knowing anyone, they pulled up to Ben Dowell’s saloon and post office on San Francisco Street where it seemed most of the prominent citizens had congregated. Albert Fountain was there, and the senator immediately escorted them to the old Overland Building where he and Judge Clarke’s family lived.

Mr. Tays stayed with the Clarkes a few days, then rented two rooms in the old Massie Building which was located in the center of the block between Mesa (then Utah) Avenue and North Oregon streets, facing the plaza. He set up the corner room as his temporary quarters; the larger room at the rear was arranged as a chapel with the help of Judge Clarke and Sen. Fountain. The chapel was about fourteen by thirty feet, and in the east end was a square window about four feet from the floor. This window was covered with a canvas screen on which Sen. Fountain, who was artistic to his fingertips, painted a large shaded cross. In front of this screen, a rude altar was constructed, and the rest of the area was taken up with rough benches to seat a congregation. All this was installed through the combined efforts of Mr. Tays, Judge Clarke, and Sen. Fountain, within two weeks after the minister’s arrival.

Parson Tays, as he was soon affectionately called, conducted El Paso’s first Protestant church service on October 9, 1870. By November, within a month of his arrival, Parson Tays started a mission day school. He enrolled the only American boys and girls in El Paso at the time: James, John, Mary, and Helen Gillett; Jimmy Magoffin; Mary and Juan Dowell; Anna Clarke; his own sons Eugene and Joseph Tays; as well as several Mexican children. Mr. Tays did all his own housework, cared for his boys and held services every Sunday. Recognizing that there was no hope of earning enough as a minister of the Gospel, he immediately applied for and was hired to serve as a county surveyor for El Paso, Pecos, and Presidio counties, using his training in civil engineering from King’s College. Even with the small additional income, his living conditions remained quite meager, the local people being as impoverished as he. He was often compensated for his work with barter and parcels of land.

Under Mr. Tays’ capable leadership and with the staunch support of Judge and Mrs. Clark, S. C. Slade and Sen. Fountain, the small congregation of four souls soon grew to about 50 people; not all, however, became communicants. His son Joseph wrote that the congregation was composed of all sorts and conditions of men and women who came to hear Mr. Tays hold service. Parson Tays was an earnest, strong-voiced speaker. Joseph was assigned to the back of the church in order to signal to his father when to lower his voice. It is said that Tays threw himself so earnestly and sincerely into the delivery of the sermon, that he would often go home after the service wringing wet from the intensity of his exertions. He never spoke extemporaneously, but always carefully wrote his sermons and memorized them.

The members of Mr. Tays’ first congregation were the most prominent and cultured men and women of the town. The membership (and place or origin) included: the Clarkes; DeLoyd Clarke Baker (New York); Albert J. Fountain (New York); Dr. Dwight C. Marsh, wife Nellie and son (Michigan); James Zabriskie (New Jersey); A.H. French Massachusetts); Dr. and Mrs. C. Diffendorffer and son (Pennsylvania); the Henry S. Gillett family (Missouri); Eugene and Benito Van Patten (New York, Mexico); Dr. E. H. Bowman (Pennsylvania); Col. Meriam (Maine); Col. and Mrs. Crandell (Pennsylvania); Lt. and Mrs. Gardner (Pennsylvania); G. W. Davis (Missouri); Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Rhomann (Germany); Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Burnam (Texas); Benjamin Dowell and family (Kentucky); Judge Jones (Maryland); G. W. Abbott (Michigan); S. C. Slade (Michigan); A. Hornick (Germany); Judge Allan Blacker (Ohio); Judge S. B. Newcomb (Nova Scotia); Mr. and Mrs. Hague and family (Texas); Mr. and Mrs. William Mills (Indiana); W.M. Pierson (Virginia); Mrs. E. Gilloch (Missouri); David Sperry (Missouri); W. Ford (Scotland); Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Massie (Missouri, Mexico); Pancha Lopez (Mexico); Mr. and Mrs. H. B. Amity (Louisiana, Texas); Richard H. Campbell (Virginia); Col. C. Benzoni (Germany); Capt. and Mrs. G. Purington (Ohio); Miss Mullins (Ohio); Lt. and Mrs. Hart (New Jersey, Washington D.C.); Miss LaMond (Washington D.C.); Lt. Vincent (Missouri); Lt. Floyd (Indiana); and Lt. Sweet (New York).

The reverend purchased a piece of land for a more permanent home. The property extended from what is now Mills Street to San Antonio Street, facing on Mesa Avenue and separated from Judge Magoffin’s home and Mr. Zabriskie’s place on the south by an adobe wall running north and south the length of the property line on the west. There was a home of adobe on the site which stood flush with the street. A small dike was built around the house to keep the water out during the infrequent downpours. John Tays, Joseph’s brother, was mechanically gifted and arrived in town to help, making all the furniture for the house and digging a well, lining it with rocks.

In January 1871, a copper bell was cast in Paso del Norte by an old Mexican named Giron. It was several times recast until it produced a good sound. This bell, with the exception of the one in the old Cathedral of Guadalupe in Paso del Norte, was the only church bell in the valley for a thousand miles. The bell not only called the faithful to services, but also alerted the town to fires and other urgent situations. Over the years, different men used the bell for target practice, and it acquired a number of dents, reflecting the dangers of frontier life. This bell would find a special place in the new church built several decades later.

For a time, the Tays and Clarke families seemed to be settling in. Judge Clarke sent for furniture and other items from his Eastern home. The mission was established and Mrs. Clarke’s health had improved. Then, quite suddenly, a tragedy befell this fledgling congregation. The man who is credited for establishing the first Protestant church in El Paso, Judge Gaylord Judd Clark, came to a calamitous end.

Author and historian Charles Leland Sonnichsen (1901–1991) wrote that Colonel Albert Jennings Fountain and an attorney named Benjamin Frank Williams had become political enemies by 1870, after Gaylord Clarke was named District Judge, a post Williams coveted. On December 7, 1870, Sen. Albert Fountain was going into Ben Dowell’s Saloon, which was located at about the present entrance to the Paso del Norte Hotel. An inebriated Williams confronted Fountain, shooting at him wildly with a repeating derringer. As he began firing, Mr. Fountain, who always carried a cane, began caning Williams so that several of his shots went wild. One bullet hit Fountain on the forehead and glanced off, and another went through his left arm, lodging in his watch case which was in the pocket of his vest over his heart. Ben Williams then fled to his quarters and barricaded himself. Sen. Fountain ran out toward the old Overland Building to grab his rifle and encountered Judge Clarke, angrily reporting what had happened. Judge Clarke sprinted to Williams’ lodgings and attempted to persuade him to come out, pounding on the front door demanding entrance. Williams, hearing the blows, threw the door open and burst out with his double barreled shotgun and blazed away. Clarke jumped behind one of the massive adobe pillars lined outside, but Williams, anticipating his move, went the other way, met Clarke face to face, and emptied both barrels of his shotgun with deadly accuracy into Clarke’s chest, killing him instantly. Fountain, who was about fifty yards down El Paso Street, took a shot at Williams just after Williams shot Judge Clarke, but it did not down him. Then Albert French, a state police captain who barged onto the scene, shot Williams several times in the head. This gunfight happened in a matter of minutes in front of many witnesses. The entire town was horrified as all the men involved were prominent citizens.

Mr. S. C. Slade, editor of The Times, wrote fifteen years later to Judge Clarke’s daughter Anna Clarke Giles, I caught your father in my arms before he fell to the ground, and when near the house, yourself and mother came running out to meet me, your mother falling into the street screaming. After laying him on the bed, I noticed you with your eyes full of tears and seemingly hardly comprehending the situation. I spoke to you and told you not to cry. I shall never forget it.

Shocked and deeply stricken, Parson Tays and the congregation of St. Clement buried their beloved friend on December 9, 1870, just two short months after the mission’s first service. Judge Clarke was laid to rest in the old Masonic Cemetery. In 1887, when the town began to encroach on the cemetery, the Masons placed Judge Clarke’s remains in Concordia Cemetery. Later that year, Mrs. Clarke had his remains transferred to a Giles Family lot in the Oakland Cemetery of Troy, New York.

Following this tragedy, Parson Tays continued to hold services and Sunday school in the adobe building for three years, helped by Mrs. Clarke and Mary Dowell, daughter of the saloon owner Benjamin Dowell. Mary had learned to read in the lawyer’s office.

Rev. Tays married Sarah M. Perkins of Oxford, New York, on November 8, 1873. The ceremony was performed by the Rev. F.O. Barstow at the rectory. Witnesses to the wedding were James P. Hague and Judge Joseph Magoffin. Sarah Perkins Tays became a true helpmate to this lonely man and his two motherless little boys.

Then around that time, the townspeople of El Paso succumbed to the panic of 1873 when the Texas and Pacific Railroad was unable to work out a contract to complete the construction of railroad lines. With no railroad transportation to and from the town, the population began to vanish. Few people remained in the congregation. Of the 75 names on the mission record, Mr. Tays indicated their fate next to their names: six families returned to their former homes in other parts of the country; seven people had died; thirty-six removed primarily to New Mexico and Mexico and other parts of Texas; thirteen military personnel and their families were transferred; Lt. Vincent was killed by Indians; and the Hagues began attending the Catholic Church. Only Judge Allan Blacker had no designation recorded by his name. Bishop Graves in his 1909 article wrote: [By 1875] having written ‘dead’ or ‘removed’ opposite to the name of every soul connected in any way with the congregation of St. Clement’s parish, Mr. Tays yielded to persuasion and took his boys to Illinois that they might enter school.

The reverend deeded to the Rt. Rev. R.W.B. Elliott for church purposes, a whole block of property which he had acquired in exchange for payment of services rendered in his few short years in El Paso. Despite the circumstances, Tays still believed that the border town would grow to a city and his property would be a strong location for a church. He prophetically wrote, I trust that my prayers for displaced people will sometime be answered, and that the spiritual wilderness will yet blossom as a rose.

On December 15, 1875, the Tayses left El Paso with a train of twelve prairie schooners. They first headed for Joliet, Illinois, to enroll his sons in school as Eugene and Joseph were now old enough for more advanced schooling. Rev. Tays found sporadic ministry at Neviah, Wisconsin, then Maysville, Kentucky, and later Columbus, Ohio. Five years later, on September 24, 1880, Mrs. Sarah Perkins Tays died in New York, leaving Tays and his sons alone once again. In the fall of 1881, Rev. Tays married a third time to Miss Viola R. Kimball.

Eventually El Paso awakened from its period of stagnation. In 1881, the railroad contract was settled and the Southern Pacific, Texas and Pacific and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroads finally arrived. With a tempting green valley and a nearly perfect climate year-around, the town once again attracted a constant stream of newcomers including many merchants, entrepreneurs, and professionals. Parson Tays was among the first to return to help lay the foundation of a permanent town and reestablish the little church. While reorganizing the ministry, he and other town ministers who had begun arriving held joint services alternately in a big circus tent fitted with rude benches and boxes for seats.

Tays quickly discovered that his plans for building a church on the property he had deeded to Bishop Elliott in 1875, had to be abandoned. The title was not clear and several claimants disputed his ownership over the entire parcel of property. He consulted with the Bishop and decided to buy land further down on Mesa Avenue (then Utah Street), near Mills. He purchased property in the name of the Rt. Rev. Robert W. B. Elliott, Missionary Bishop of West Texas for $750.00.

By his own hands and with the help of George McIntire, a carpenter also from Nova Scotia (Bible Hall, Truro), Tays constructed a church and rectory. He drove nails, sawed lumber, and worked side by side with Mr. McIntyre. He purchased the materials, which he paid for out of his own pocket, from the O.T. Bassett Lumber Yard. The church and small rectory of four rooms came to $1,871.40, as carefully recorded in Tays’ parish records. However, when friends from all parts of the country heard of his attempt to rebuild, they sent donations which eventually replaced all that he had personally contributed.

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Church and Vicarage ca. 1881

Photo courtesy of University of Texas at El Paso Library

Special Collections Department

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Early El Paso with St. Clement’s located at the right (facing Juarez mountain range)

Photo courtesy of the El Paso County Historical Society

On Christmas Day 1881, the cornerstone of the church was laid. A February 15, 1882, article in the El Paso Herald describes the church and the first day of worship at St. Clement’s. The ceiling of the church was made of California sugar pine, while the wainscoting and seats were of redwood. The small church had a corner tower and organ. Remarkably, it was able to seat 150 persons. The article read, The church was crowded with an interested congregation and… there was not a single seat unoccupied. The church would become known as The Watch Tower on the Rio Grande.

The service was heralded by the ringing of the bell which had been cast in Juarez when he first arrived years earlier. Mr. Joseph Magoffin, though a Catholic, helped Mr. Tays by playing the organ for services on occasion. With his new wife and family, Parson Tays moved into the new rectory.

According to Esther Darbyshire MacCallum, the new church was named after Clement Clarke, the deceased infant of the Clarkes. The name of the church also honored the martyr Saint Clement, third successor to Peter as Bishop of Rome. It was said that Clement was exiled by Emperor Trajan to an island where he worked in stone quarries with prisoners. According to MacCallum, because the prisoners were denied adequate water, Clement prayed for help. When he saw a lamb on a hill, he dug in that area and found fresh water. This miracle caused the persecuting authorities to throw him into the sea with a heavy anchor tied around his neck. The symbol of St. Clement’s Church is the anchor of faith which is also the symbol of Saint Clement of Rome.

Mrs. MacCallum, in 1925, described Joseph Wilkin Tays: "Mr. Tays’ work in El Paso was a labor of love, for he received only a few hundred dollars from the mission board, all of which he used in the church. He was a man of tremendous energy and spiritual force, a natural leader of men. He would help and encourage anyone, no matter what his race or creed. It is said that he assisted many a small Jewish merchant to get a start, and his generosity in going on the bond of a cattle man, whose cattle died, cost him the valuable piece of property on which the Roberts-Banner Building now stands. He was greatly beloved by all in this little frontier town and affectionately called, ‘Parson Tays.’ The Mexicans had their own name for him, ‘Padre Tays’, because the cloth he wore resembled the dress of their priests. Besides being a leader of religious affairs in El Paso, Mr. Tays took part in the affairs of the city. At one time, he was member of the City Council, and also a director of the First National Bank, and from 1881 until 1883, he took over ownership of the El Paso Times in order to help out his friend, S.C. Slade. While in the real estate business with Judge Magoffin and Mr. Hills, he surveyed the Cotton Addition (a new development). Mr. Tays and Mr. Hills donated to the City, Alamo Park, bounded by Tays Street, Park Street, and Fourth and Fifth Streets. Tays Street is named for him. The Rev. Mr. Tays left his mark in El Paso in many ways, and his memory is cherished by all old timers as a man who devoted his entire life’s energy to the welfare of his people and the advancement of his religion. He was a liberal, broad-minded man, whose sympathies were not bounded by denominational lines. In charities and public works, he was a power, and few El Pasoans of the earlier times are remembered with greater affection."

Parson Tays felt it a privilege to serve as the missionary priest of St. Clement for three fruitful years – from the time he returned in 1881 until 1884. Then again, tragedy struck. According to a November 21, 1884, El Paso Herald article, Parson Tays contracted a virulent form of smallpox after conducting funeral services for a victim of the disease. A few days after the funeral, he was taken down with a fever, and Dr. Justice attended him while Mrs. Tays nursed him. His son Joseph, who was in Ontario, California, a town founded by the Tays and Chaffee families and named for their home in Ontario, Canada, was sent for and arrived to find his father conscious and rational, but with a very high fever. On the advice of the doctor, Joseph gave his father a hot bath, and the next day Mr. Tays broke out with black smallpox. (Black pox was a symptom of smallpox caused by bleeding under the skin which makes the skin look charred or black.) For three days Joseph and his stepmother Viola cared for him unceasingly. On the third evening, about five o’clock, they left him for only a few minutes to eat supper in the next room. Scarcely had they sat down when Joseph heard his father talking. He and Mrs. Tays rushed to his bedside. His last words were, There is a change taking place. A moment later, he died.

That evening about nine o’clock, two men from the city came, wrapped his body in a sheet, and rushed it to the cemetery as there was great concern about contagion. Rev. Tays, who had ministered at the bedsides of so many sick and dying people, was hurriedly buried without bell, book or candle, alone and unattended by friends amid a strong rainstorm. Historian Leon Metz wrote in El Paso Chronicles, Parson Tays, who had ministered to so many sick and dying, was himself laid away with only two drenched, grave digging strangers to say a kind and final word. He was buried in Concordia Cemetery on a lot provided by the Mundy family. No priest was within many days’ journey of El Paso, and not until a week after his burial was Bishop Elliott able to reach El Paso and hold a memorial service in the church Tays had built – a monument and proof of his devotion. The church overflowed with mourners. Bishop Elliott said at the service, J. W. Tays was of the stuff of which heroes and martyrs are made. On his tombstone was written this inscription: Reverend Joseph Wilkin Tays, Born Nova Scotia, December 13, 1827, Died November 21, 1884. The Memory of the Just is Blessed.

On the opposite right panel of the Good Shepherd window above the main altar is this inscription: For Rev. Joseph Wilkin Tays – Pioneer, December 13, 1827 – November 21, 1884.

After Mr. Tays’ death, Mrs. Viola R. Kimball Tays moved to Berkeley, California, and died there in the spring of 1924.

Col. Albert Jennings Fountain, too, had a woeful end to his life. In the mid-1880’s, he was prosecuting federal land frauds. In 1888, he was elected to the New Mexico legislature, eventually becoming speaker of the house. Afterwards, he became a special prosecutor for livestock associations and in 1894, convicted twenty men for cattle rustling. His roles as a politician and an attorney, however, made him numerous enemies. On February 1, 1896, after Fountain had attended a court term in Lincoln County, New Mexico, he and his eight-year-old son Henry disappeared near White Sands on their way home. When Mrs. Fountain reported the two missing, a search party was sent to look for them the following day. On the Tularosa-Las Cruces road, about forty-five miles from his home, his buckboard and team were found, along with Fountain’s papers, several empty cartridge casings, and two pools of blood. Missing were Fountain and his son, as well as the colonel’s Winchester rifle.

After an investigation, it was believed that a noted New Mexico gunman and rancher named Oliver M. Lee, along with two of his employees named Jim Gililland and William Billy McNew, had committed the crime. All three were tried for murder, but were acquitted. Because no one else was ever charged, the case remained open. The bodies of the Fountain father and son were never found.

Bishop Graves concluded his 1909 report on the Missionary Work of the West with these remarks: "One does not wonder that the parish thus founded is today the strongest in the city and one of the most potent factors for good in the community’s life. And the church may well congratulate itself on being thus well established in a city which must play an important part in the development of that portion of our land.

Such incidents as this give hope for the future of the American Church. It must be strong if built on the foundation of such lives as these; and yet the story of the Church in El Paso might help our generation to realize the damage wrought by its negligence. Only the grace of God could enable Bishop Kendrick and his faithful helpers to watch the waste and loss, helpless to change conditions.

The success of St. Clement’s Church encouraged the establishment of other Protestant churches. By the 1890 Census, more than fifteen other churches were registered in El Paso and the population had boomed to 10,000. The perilous border town in which Gaylord Judd Clarke and Parson Joseph Tays first settled was well on its way to becoming a city full of opportunity, just as they had envisioned.

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¹   El Paso Herald, February 11, 1913. Anson Mills, My Story (Washington, 1918; 2d ed. 1921). William Wallace Mills, Forty Years at El Paso (El Paso, 1901; 2d ed., El Paso: Hertzog, 1962). C. L. Sonnichsen, The El Paso Salt War (El Paso: Hertzog, 1961).

²   Sonnichsen, C. L., Pass of the North: Four Centuries on the Rio Grande. El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1968.

Main Source:

MacCallum, Esther Darbyshire, The History of St. Clement’s Church, El Paso, Texas: McMath Company (1925), pp.21-31.

Other Sources:

1.   The Spirit of Missions: Episcopal Church, Board of Missions. An Illustrated Monthly Review of Christian Missions. Volume LXXIV. New York: Published by the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America (1909); article, The Missionary Work of the Church in the West, by the Rt. Rev. Anson R. Graves, D.D., Bishop fo Kearney. pp. 198-201.

2.   Andrade, Laura, Cuevas, Myra, St. Clement’s Church, published by El Paso Community College.

3.   Metz, Leon, El Paso Chronicles: A Record of Historical Events in El Paso, Texas. El Paso: Mangan Press (1993).

4.   Timmons, W. H., A Borderlands History. El Paso: University of Texas Press (1990), pp. 74-5.

Chapter Two

"…and you shall anoint them and ordain them and consecrate them, that they may

serve Me as priests." Exodus 28: 41 (NASB)

Rectors of the Church of St. Clement

Joseph Wilkin Tays 1870-1884

James Hulme 1885-1887

George H. Higgins 1887-1891

Mayo Cabell Martin 1892-1902

Henry Easter 1903-1917

Fuller Swift 1917-1922

Benjamin Tibbetts Kemerer 1923-1928

Clarence H. Horner 1928-1937

DuBose Murphy 1937-1943

William Godsell Wright 1943-1953

Bertie Manners Gascoigne Williams 1953-1954

Robert Thatcher Gibson 1954-1965

John William Ellison 1966-1971

Ronald Reed Thomson 1972- 1996

Philip Hill Jones 1998-2005

William Cox Cobb 2006-

The biographies of the men who served as rectors through 1923 are thoroughly and lovingly presented in Esther MacCallum’s The History of St. Clement’s Church 1870-1925. For the reader who has no access to the rare copies of this work, the following summaries are offered.

The Rev. James Hulme

1885-1887

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The Rev. James Hulme

Photo courtesy of University of Texas at El Paso Library

Special Collections Department

Bishop Elliott quickly appointed Mr. T.H. Conklin and Mr. H.G. Turner, Wardens for the mission, to serve as business referees until such time as things could take shape. By 1881, Mr. and Mrs. Conklin with Parson Tays had made the beginning of the Sunday school work. After Tays’ death in 1884, the Conklins kept the little school together in their home for six months, until the room adjoined to the infected rectory where Mr. Tays had died was usable for Sunday school. In May 1885, Bishop Elliott appointed the Rev. James Hulme of Luling, Texas, to take charge of St. Clement’s which had languished without a leader. Mr. Hulme found only twenty-five communicants and the finances of the mission in poor shape. Mr. Tays had generously given his services without remuneration, but a debt of $325.00 had accrued. The remaining parishioners had been tasked with performing all the duties and responsibilities of a parish and were overwhelmed. Mr. S.C. Slade, Mr. H.M. Mundy, and the postmistress Mrs. Frances D. Porter dedicated themselves to raising money for the new minister’s salary, and generously gave to the fund themselves. A Ladies Aid Society was organized and undertook to eliminate the debt through an ice cream festival and oyster supper at Thanksgiving. In a very short period of time, Mr. Hulme announced that the little church was free from debt. The church realized a gradual and steady growth. By the spring of 1886, Mr. Hulme presented seven candidates for Confirmation. The reverend’s record reads that both in the morning and evening the church was crowded to overflowing so that after filling the aisle and every possible corner, quite a number had to go away. Would that there was always so much eagerness to hear God’s Holy Word. Of the evening service, he added, Almost every voice in the house joined in singing that beautiful hymn ‘Just as I Am’, as the candidates went to the chancel rail, and one felt that the Holy Spirit was indeed among us. At Christmas in 1886, an unusually large congregation came together on Christmas morning; the service was hearty, impressive and uplifting. The church was most elaborately decorated with banners and handsome monograms of flowers and wreaths of evergreen. The mission was in recovery. In early March 1887, Rev. Hulme received a call to Marysville, California. He left a strengthened congregation of forty-three enrolled communicants and a surplus of $196.75 in the treasury. God’s eye was still on His little flock.

The Rev. Dr. George Higgins

1887-1891

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The Rev. Dr. George Higgins

The congregation petitioned the Episcopal bishop, the Very Rev. Dean W. R. Richardson of San Antonio, to officially change its status from a mission to a parish. This was accomplished on May 3, 1887. The Rev. Dr. George Higgins of Colorado City, Texas, was unanimously chosen to become the first rector. Dr. Higgins, his wife and five children found the rectory to be too small, so they occupied a house at 818 San Antonio Street. He immediately re-fit the rectory as a Guild House where the various societies could meet. This included the first chapter of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew. At a parish meeting, the topic was brought up of exchanging the present church property for another in order to build a new structure which would accommodate more people. However, there was strong sentiment among the congregation against selling the church property, which was hallowed ground to them, full of sacred associations because of Parson Tays, who had freely given the land for church purposes. So, in the summer of 1888, additions were made to enlarge the building.

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Aerial view of El Paso. St. Clement’s Church is shown at left. Church faced west on Utah Street (now Mesa); the Juarez mountains are seen in the background.

Photo courtesy of the El Paso County Historical Society

It was not long before Dr. Higgins realized that he could not support his family on the small salary provided, and he began to practice medicine on the side. Shortsightedly, the vestry felt all his time should be given to the church, and in September of 1891, after four years of faithful service, he retired from full time ministry. He was, however, called on to minister and preach at St. Clement’s throughout many subsequent years. Mrs. MacCallum wrote, Dr. Higgins was universally and deservedly popular and much beloved during his ministry… he is a man ripe in spiritual living and experience, and his teaching and preaching is a veritable benediction. The present congregation of St. Clement’s ask no greater pleasure than to see him in his robes with snowy white hair, occupying the pulpit, which he has been called on to do many times by the rectors and vestries of every ministry since his retirement in 1891.

The Rev. Mayo Cabell Martin

1892-1902

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The Rev. Mayo Cabell Martin

The Rev. Mayo Cabell Martin arrived in May of 1892, from the Church of the Holy Trinity in Nashville, Tennessee. He was from a long line of clergyman who, at his birth, was dedicated by his father to the ministry. In 1889, Mr. Martin took a trip to Europe to study the cathedrals. While in Paris, he contracted la grippe (influenza) and never fully recovered. Regardless, he was utterly devoted to the ministry and often overtaxed himself physically. He immediately set to work making repairs in the rectory, and the Young Ladies Guild refurnished it with rugs that were models of beauty and furniture thoroughly in keeping. Late in October, he surprised the parish by departing on an unannounced trip to Nashville, marrying a young woman named Laura Farrar and bringing his bride back home to El Paso. A close personal friend Mr. Canby wrote, The Rev. Mr. Martin had an absolute manliness, such as enabled him to so successfully combat the gambling evil, combined with great sweetness of character and a diffidence which made it difficult for him to confide, even to a close friend, of his engagement to be married. A charming and capable Laura Farrar Martin became greatly loved and appreciated by the parish and immediately immersed herself in supporting her husband’s work.

Cabell Martin organized several new societies: an Altar Guild, the Girls’ Friendly Society, Boys’ Club, and Junior Chapter of the Daughters of the King. His sister Margaret Martin was instrumental in forming the first branch of the Women’s Auxiliary. The organist Mr. E.H. Offley wrote: From the day of Mr. Martin’s arrival and taking over the rectorship at St. Clement, the parish began to grow in size and efficiency, and new bands of workers were formed. His sweet, powerful example and influence for good were soon felt, not only in his devoted parish, but throughout the city. He built the parish up into one of the largest and best in the whole Missionary District of New Mexico and West Texas. The whole parish became as one large family, united with and led by him in earnest efforts to do God’s work. I do not know of any community…so generally influenced by one man’s example, as was El Paso by Mayo Cabell Martin. During his ministry, many beautiful memorials that are still placed in the church today were given, including the Good Shepherd window which was dedicated in memory of Judge Clarke and Rev. Tays.

By 1890, the vestry acknowledged the church was too small. The building was lifted and moved to the edge of the lot, and a large addition was placed on the south side. A chancel was constructed in the rear, and a new belfry added.

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Remodeling of original building without vestibule, 212 Mesa Street (or Utah Street). Church was at this location from 1882-1907.

Photo courtesy of the El Paso Public Library

The Rev. Mr. Martin, who never enjoyed robust health, was given a horse and phaeton by the ladies of the congregation. He and Little John, as he called the horse, became familiar figures about El Paso as Rev. Martin went about his ministry. In May of 1899, the young Mrs. Martin died from a lingering illness while she was in Nashville visiting her family. It was said that Rev. Martin never fully recovered from this personal loss. A new, beautifully carved altar was erected and dedicated in memory of Laura Farrar Martin by the Daughters of the King, and her name is inscribed on the brass plaque attached at the right side of the altar in today’s chancel.

Under the leadership of J. W. Leighton, a petition was sent to the Presiding Bishop requesting that, the Rev. Martin be delegated to take charge of the Episcopalians in Chihuahua as a congregation… The missionary arm of St. Clement’s was reaching out. The petition was granted, and Mr. Martin took that congregation under his charge. One of the last trips before his death was made to the church in Chihuahua. In October of 1902, Mr. Martin left for Philadelphia to attend a Missionary Council. He died of heart failure at the home of his uncle William Cabell, at Norwood, Virginia. Rev. Martin left a communicant list of three hundred and fifty six and a church which had doubled in seating capacity. More than that, He watched beside the sick, comforted the distressed, and upheld the bereaved by his faith. He was a most lovable man and came as near as mortal could come to following in the footsteps of Jesus.

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Street view of church with added vestibule, 1906

Photo courtesy of the El Paso Public Library

The Rev. Henry Easter

1903-1917

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The Rev. Henry Easter

Photo courtesy of Institute of Historical Survey Foundation

The Rev. Henry Easter, also the son of a clergyman, had been a boyhood friend of Rev. Martin in Virginia, and he felt it was his great privilege to carry on the work that Rev. Martin had begun. Mr. Easter would serve fourteen years as rector, the longest of any before him. He, too, continued to grow the societies which supported the work of the church and organized a Men’s Club and Social Club for the young people. The Social Club grew to such proportions through the addition of young people from all over town that the hall in which they met scarcely accommodated the crowd.

Not long after his arrival, Rev. Easter saw, like his predecessor, that the moral state of the town was quite beyond endurance. He cycled around the neighborhoods on a bicycle he had used to travel through England, France, and Spain in 1900. El Paso’s business section was centered between Second and San Francisco streets, and then between Stanton and Santa Fe streets. To the south of Second and west of Santa Fe streets was an area known as Chihuahuita (Little Chihuahua), where most Spanish-speaking residents lived, as well as a number of African American families, and the three hundred Chinese residents who built the railroads and then stayed to run laundries and restaurants. The English-speaking Anglo population primarily lived north of these areas, their residences lining San Antonio, Myrtle and Magoffin streets. Northwest of all this lay Sunset Heights, a fashionable area originating in 1884, which was first called the Satterthwaite Addition. Here was Mesa Gardens, an upscale bar and restaurant. And near Mesa