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Anson Mills Plat, 1859. Image provided by the
El Paso Public Library.
Anson Mills Survey and Plat
Research Packet and Narrative by:
Jesse Clark
Dr. George D. Torok
Honors Project
Spring 2002
National Endowment for the Humanities Historical Markers Project
Narrative: Anson Mills
Survey and Plat
In 1858 a new stagecoach route was opened to
connect St. Louis, Missouri with San Francisco, California. The
Butterfield Overland Mail Company, carrying mail and passengers,
joined the end of the railroad line at Tipton, Missouri with
California, completing the trip in less than twenty-five days. The
Overland Mail’s 2700 mile route ran directly through the El Paso area.
At the time, El Paso was a still series of five small scattered
settlements on the north bank of the Rio Grande with just a few
hundred residents.
Anson Mills (1834-1924) a native of Indiana, had come to Texas in
1857. Looking for new opportunities, he arrived at the Pass of the
North in May 1858. During his journey west he “traveled through the
most desolate country” and when arriving on a bluff overlooking the
Rio Grande he thought it “was the most pleasant sight {he} had ever
seen.”
He decided to stay and was soon appointed district surveyor for the
state of Texas.
During the summer he was hired by the Overland Mail Company to design
and build its stage station in Franklin which was located midway
across the 2700 mile route. By September the Butterfield Overland
Stage was in operation. Mills’ station became largest and best
equipped on the route. It spread over a two-acre site, had corrals and
a large prominent building that dominated the small frontier
settlement.
After completing the station, Mills was hired by the U.S. Army and
conducted surveys of several military installations in the west,
including Fort Bliss.
He was then contracted by a group of land
speculators, the El Paso Company, to survey one of five area
settlements, the town of Franklin.
At the time, Franklin was simply a ranch site owned by “Uncle” Billy
Smith, a Kentuckian. Smith had been selling small lots to new settlers
who staked out a site. Mills complained that because the lots had been
randomly built, with little regard to location or design, the “few
streets were neither parallel nor at right angles.”
Mills had to negotiate with the all six property owners to reach an
agreeable survey. In 1859, Mills finished his survey and created a
plat, or sketch, of the new town. Although many features have changed
over the years, the basic outline of his survey can still be seen
today. Missouri Street was the northern edge of the settlement and
Second Street (present-day Paisano Drive) along the river was the
southern boundary. South of San Antonio and San Francisco Streets were
rich agricultural lands including vineyards, orchards, wheat and
cornfields. An acequia, or irrigation system watered the lands.
The main street names indicated the direction that the roads headed
from the center of town. For example, the stage route to San Antonio
was named San Antonio Street. Other destinations, such as Santa Fe and
San Francisco, also became main streets. El Paso Street ran south to
El Paso del Norte (today’s Ciudad Juarez). Today’s Pioneer Plaza is
identified and a public square is at the site of today’s San Jacinto
Plaza. Mills’s plat shows a basic outline of the today’s downtown El
Paso most of the urban features are still in place.
Mills is also responsible for changing the name of
the settlement from Franklin to El Paso. He noted in his autobiography
that Franklin was located at the only feasible crossing of the Rio
Grande and suggested that the name “El Paso” would emphasize the
importance of the location.
Mills
stayed on after his work and played a major role in the development of
the new city. He served in the U.S. Army during the Civil War,
invested in commercial properties, and became an important promoter
and developer of El Paso. In 1913 the city changed the name of St.
Louis Street to Mills Avenue in his honor. Mills died in 1924 at the
age of ninety and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
.
John D. Peterson and Mark D. Willis. The Union Plaza Downtown El
Paso Development Archaeological Project: Overview, Inventory, and
Recommendations (El Paso, TX 1998), 44; Leon Metz, El Paso:
Guided Through Time (El Paso, TX 1999), 51.
.
Anson Mills, My Story (Washington, D.C. 1918), 51.
.
W.H. Timmons, El Paso: A Borderlands History (El Paso, TX),
141.
.
Metz, El Paso, 51; Timmons, El Paso, 142.
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