Interviewee: Prince McKenzie
Interviewer: Student, Ross Middle School, Grade 7
Teacher: Martha Pickrell
Place: El Paso, Texas
Date: January 18, 2000

Interviewee Prince McKenzie

"The Mexican Revolution and My Family"

When did your ancestors first come to the El Paso area?

They first came to El Paso when the third railroad came in 1882. My great-grandfather was named Samuel Gotlieb Heinrichs, and he came from Germany to Boston. He had two skills: he was a carpenter, and he could also play the violin. They said that he played the violin in the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, but that wasn’t important, as he couldn’t make a living playing the violin, so his primary skill was that of a carpenter.

He liked to build and construct things like bridges. So he went to work building railroad bridges, and he made very good money because he was a master carpenter. He traveled westward building bridges for different railroads, and when he got to Texas, he met James Augusta Hodges. They called her Gussie, for Augusta, which was her middle name. Her family, the Hodges family, was from Atlanta.

Young “Gussie,” James Augusta Hodges, c. 1880s. Courtesy of the McKenzie family

The Hodges family had left Atlanta during the second year of the war because many of their family had been killed fighting in the Civil War. They left, and they moved westward. The Hodges family and the Heinrichses met in the railroad town of Sweetwater, Texas. In 1881 they [Samuel and Gussie] got married in Sweetwater, and their marriage was the very first wedding that was recorded in the courthouse of Sweetwater.

Sweetwater was one of those railroad towns that was the end of the railroad for a certain number of months. As the railroad was built westward, another town became the railroad town at the end of the railroad. The railroad we are talking about is the Texas and New Orleans Railroad that came to El Paso in 1882. Later that came to be called the Texas and Pacific Railroad.

Samuel Gotleib Heinrichs married James Augusta Hodges, and they worked, they lived and worked, along the railroad until it came to El Paso. When it got here to El Paso, they stayed here in El Paso and lived here for a few years. They had several children: my grandmother, Miriam Heinrichs, was born here in El Paso in 1893.

After they lived in El Paso for a few years, Samuel went westward to find work.

Where was he looking for work?

Well, a master carpenter got paid a lot more money than most men, and he had to go where there was important work, where there were important bridges to be built. He could make a lot more money in Morenci, Arizona, so he left the family in El Paso.

El Paso, the railroad hub

How long did it take to go from El Paso to Morenci?

When he got settled in Morenci, Arizona, he sent for Gussie and the kids. It took two or three months for them to get from El Paso, across southern New Mexico, to Morenci, Arizona. Morenci is on the eastern edge of Arizona close to the New Mexico border, but it was very dangerous at the time, and it was very difficult to go [make the trip]. She [Gussie] loaded up her children into two wagons, and they headed out across the desert. After they had gone a certain distance, she became very worried because a couple of men on horseback were following them. She turned the wagons around, and they went back to El Paso and left on another day.

Railroad station at El Paso in 1900

She was a very strong woman, and she was able to get her kids, by herself, across New Mexico with these two wagons. But, along the way, the mules that were pulling one wagon died. She had to abandon the wagon and go on with just one wagon [filled with] all of their belongings. When they came to the Gila River, the river was flooding. They cut down trees, and they tied the trees to the sides of the wagon, and that allowed them to float the wagon across the flooding river. They finally made it to Morenci, Arizona, where Samuel was working.

What was his job there?

He was a carpenter there, and he made bridges. Also, inside the mines and the mine tunnels, they did what they call timbering. To do that they would cut wood and build beams into the tunnels to hold up the mountain to keep it from collapsing on the miners.

Looking down the canyon at the Morenci Southern Railroad bridges.  Courtesy of the McKenzie family

He built a special bridge for the railroad. The railroad climbed up the mountain through a canyon that went up to Morenci. Here is a picture of that bridge.

And my father said that that bridge was 300 feet high [300 feet long]. The railroad circled around through the canyon, and each time it made a circle, it climbed higher and higher in the canyon. See, the tracks went underneath the bridge.

View of the Morenci Southern Railroad bridges from the canyon rim. Courtesy of the McKenzie family

They circled around, and then they came back. Then the train went over the top on this big trestle. He built this trestle. He worked on the construction of this trestle with hundreds of other men.

Men riding on top of the ore cars in Morenci. Courtesy of the McKenzie family

He was working in the mine and around the mining town of Morenci. He was riding on a mine car; the mine cars carried the ore. Here is a picture that shows ore cars right there.

The men would ride inside the ore cars. He was riding in an ore car [when it] was hit by something up on the bridge. He was knocked out of the ore car, fell off one of these bridges, and died.

What did Augusta do?

Augusta had several children that ranged in age from two years to about twelve years old. She took their money and bought a house from the company. It was a big house, so she and her kids lived in one part of the house, and then she rented out rooms in the other part of the house. We call that a boarding house.

She charged these people who lived in the boarding house; she charged them to live there. There were people that worked in the mines, some of the engineers that ran the mines, some of the business people that ran the company store lived in the boarding house. They lived in the boarding house and worked in the company store and in the mines.

“Gussie” Hodges Heinrichs when she was older. Courtesy of the McKenzie family

Well, [Great-grandmother] Gussie wanted all of her kids to have good jobs and get a good education so that they could support their families. She worked real hard, and each one of her kids went to school so that they could get good jobs. Grandmother Miriam [Gussie’s daughter] studied so hard that her teachers told her that she should go to college and that she could be a teacher. She went to college at the Arizona Normal School that was in Tempe, Arizona. Now we call that school Arizona State University. In those days it was called the Arizona Normal School.

College photograph of Miriam Heinrichs, Gussie’s daughter, c. 1912. Courtesy of the McKenzie family

Back in the boarding house in Morenci was a young mining engineer named Fred Marston, and he had watched Miriam Heinrichs grow up, get older, and go to school. He asked Miriam to marry him, and they got married in 1914.

Fred and Miriam Heinrichs Marston, maternal grandparents of the interviewee, c, 1914. Courtesy of the McKenzie family

He was a mining engineer, so he had to go where he could get work in the mines. He got a real good job offer in a place close to Parral, Chihuahua, in the state of Chihuahua. They went to a town called Palmia that was four miles from Parral. This is south of Chihuahua City in the southern part of the state of Chihuahua.

Francisco "Pancho" Villa, c. 1910-1920

He was working in the mines, and Grandmother Miriam was living there. During this time in Mexico, a revolution was going on, with the forces of the revolution being led by "Pancho" Villa. He was one of the worst bandits and became one of the leaders of the revolution. Grandmother Miriam saw a lot of Mexican people that were killed. When she would ride on the trains, she would see men hanging from the telegraph poles. As the trains would come into the towns after a battle, she would [see bodies] lying in the streets of the town. The people were too afraid to go out and take the bodies from the street until after the Revolutionary Armies had left. She saw an awful lot of this.

Raul Madero on horseback with Mexican revolutionaries and a breech-loading cannon in Juárez, Mexico, c. 1911

There was an awful lot of fighting, and the revolutionaries continually had to have money to feed their soldiers and to continue the revolution. At first they took money and food from the big landowners and ranchers. After that they started taking it away from the Americans. They went to the Americans, and at first they said, “You support our people, and we won't hurt you,” and then, “We’ll kill Americans if you don’t pay us ransom.”

In time they told Fred Marston, who was in charge of this mine, “You have to pay us fifty thousand dollars in gold, or we will start killing the Americans.” So for many days the Americans were so afraid that they were going to be killed that they went into the mine tunnels and hid. They abandoned their homes and hid in the tunnels because they were afraid that these bandits were going to kill them. They sent Fred Marston to El Paso to get the ransom, and he went to the man in El Paso who was the business manager for the company that owned the mine. He got the money and took it back. Each time they were forced to do something to help the “bandits,” they came back and wanted more money and more help.

A camp of Mexican revolutionaries, c. 1912-1920

Mexican revolutionaries near the Rio Grande. Courtesy of the Aultman Collection, El Paso Public Library (A274-3116)

In the meantime, many Americans were leaving Mexico. It was very difficult for Americans to live down there. One time Pancho Villa had his headquarters in the hacienda of the Herrera family. He had taken the hacienda away from this family. One night the Herrera brothers, the sons of the landowner, attacked the Villistas [followers of Pancho Villa] and killed some of the Villistas. The next day Pancho Villa ordered that Mr. Herrera be executed in the hacienda, be murdered in his house. They killed him right in the same room [of his own home] where Villa now had his office.

When Grandmother Miriam and Grandfather Fred went into this room, his [Mr. Herrera’s] blood was all over the walls. The Villistas didn’t even think it was important to clean it up because Villa was proud of the people he had killed. There were so many Americans being killed or so many people were being killed that the United States government was more and more concerned. The president of the United States was more and more concerned about the safety of Americans that lived there.

Mexican revolutionaries Sam Dreben (center) and Tracey Richardson (left) during the Mexican Revolution, c. 1911-1915

The president decided to help some of the [Mexican] government forces that were fighting against Villa. He allowed them to use United States railroads to move some soldiers to a city to protect that city. When Pancho Villa’s army attacked that city, they were surprised because the government soldiers were there to defend it. When that happened, Villa got very mad, and he gave the order to kill Americans wherever they could find them. He wanted to get revenge, so he also gave the order to attack Columbus, New Mexico.

They crossed into the United States in the middle of the night, and they killed a bunch of Americans in Columbus. As the Villistas were going through the state of Chihuahua trying to find Americans to kill, the Marstons were trying to get out. They had hundreds of miles to go, and they went from place to place hiding from the Villistas.

Military airplanes from Fort Sam Houston were used at Columbus, New Mexico, in the campaign against Pancho Villa

One time they went into a train station to wait for the train so they could continue their journey to the north. When they were in this train station, they knew that the Villistas were coming, and so they asked the stationmaster if he would hide them. He hid them and probably saved their lives. Eventually they did get on the train, and they did make it. One train was stopped, not their train, but another train was stopped, and they pulled off thirty Americans and killed them right on the tracks. It was really a bad situation because so much killing had taken place.

Americans from Parral waiting by a train. Courtesy of the McKenzie family.

Mexican revolutionaries preparing to flag down a train near Mal Paso, Chihuahua, Mexico, c. 1912-1913

They had lost the objectives of the revolution, and they were just…all of the different groups were killing their enemies. Because of that, the [United States] president ordered General Pershing, who had his soldiers in El Paso at Fort Bliss, to march into Mexico, chase Villa, and try to capture him. They never did capture Villa, but they chased Villa’s army, which was called the Division of the North. They chased this army to the south. They [Villa’s army] never came back to El Paso.

Mexican revolutionaries in the ruins of the city hall in Juárez Mexico, c. 1916

When Villa’s army was in Juárez, across the river, there were a lot of killings and some battles. Occasionally stray bullets coming across the river would kill Americans. One time General Pershing gave the order for them to put artillery guns up on the top of the mountain, up there where Scenic Drive is now. They fired over the city into Juárez to where the Division of the North was camped. They destroyed their camp and forced them to move out of the city of Juárez. This was before General Pershing gave the order to march into Mexico. First they drove them out of Juárez, and then they drove them to the south. Then after they [Pershing’s troops] got so far to the south, they came back. In this old newspaper here, you can see a map where the American forces went when they were chasing General Villa. See, here is El Paso right here, and there is Columbus, New Mexico, and this shows where the different armies moved.

At that time, who was the president of the United States, and what year was all of this taking place?

General John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing and the U.S. Cavalry troops pursuing Villa into Mexico, c. 1916

President Woodrow Wilson ordered General Pershing to lead the cavalry into Mexico, and they chased the army of Pancho Villa to the south. They were trying to capture Pancho Villa because of all of the people, all of the Americans, who had been killed in Mexico and because of the people of Columbus who were massacred when they [the Villistas] crossed into Columbus, New Mexico.

United States Army supply "train" in Mexico

Just to give you an idea of how bad it was, this newspaper of March 16, 1916, [describes that] Villa set fire to 100 Mormon homes, and the Mormons were Americans that were living in Mexico.

Mormon refugee camp in El Paso. Courtesy of the Aultman Collection, El Paso Public Library (83)

A lot of battles took place, and, as a result of all of this, a big change took place in El Paso. At first the families of the landowners and the ranchers came to El Paso and crossed over so that they wouldn’t be killed by the revolutionaries. Then finally hundreds and hundreds of people came across the river every day. Many of these Mexican families had no husbands and no sons because they had already been killed. These people came and they settled in El Paso first as refugees, and they never went back.

Mexican refugee camp at Fort Bliss during the Mexican Revolution, c. 1911-1916

Mexican family at the Fort Bliss, Texas, detention camp, March 1914

There were a lot of Spanish-speaking Mexican Americans that were citizens in El Paso, but thousands more came across [the border] during this time, and they were refugees of the Mexican Revolution. This is the second big group of Mexican people that became citizens of El Paso. They never wanted to go back to Mexico because so many of their friends and relatives were killed in Mexico.

Fred and Miriam Marston had three kids: the first one was Fred Jr.; the second one was Jim, and he was born in 1918; and then Elizabeth, my mother, was born in 1920. The Mexican Revolution, after thousands and thousands of people were killed, ground down to an end in about 1923. Pancho Villa was living in Parral [where the Marstons had lived] during the revolution. A bunch of people who hated Pancho Villa ambushed him and killed him. He was buried in the cemetery at Parral. The next day Fred and Miriam took their kids to the cemetery. There was the grave of Pancho Villa, and it was covered with flowers.

Fred Marston with children, (left to right) Fred Jr., Elizabeth, and James, in Parral, Mexico. Courtesy of the McKenzie family

Grandfather Fred said, “There lies Pancho Villa.”

His son Fred Jr. , said, “You mean he hasn’t gone to heaven?” and then his son Jim said, “I wouldn’t want to lie underneath all of those flowers—those flowers would make me itch.”

They lived and worked in Mexico for a few more years, and then they returned to El Paso. Grandmother Miriam loved to teach, and she went to Texas Western College [now the University of Texas at El Paso], received a master's degree and became a teacher in the El Paso schools. She liked the Mexican people so much that she enjoyed teaching about the history of the revolution and the things that she had experienced. She taught at Zavala Elementary School and Bowie High School [schools on the southside of town where the Mexican refugees settled]. She taught history and English, and then she was a librarian at Burges High School. Then she taught history at Austin High School and at Alta Vista Elementary School. She always enjoyed teaching about the Mexican culture that she had experienced.

I remember listening to her. Sometimes we would hear mariachi music, and sometimes they would sing corridas. These are the ballads, ballads of historical events. Sometimes, when they sang a corrida that was about the Mexican Revolution, she would sing along with them because she knew all of the words of the songs that were written during the revolution when she was there. Later on they lived and worked in other countries, but my Grandmother Miriam always loved Mexico. She loved living there, and she loved the people of Mexico. She always told us that the Mexican people that settled and became citizens of El Paso and citizens of the United States helped to enrich our city and our country because Mexico has such a beautiful culture, and I will always remember that.

Thank you very much. It is very important to know how the Mexican Revolution affected El Paso and the lives of many people. Thank you.

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