Mexican Railroad

Workers In

Franklin County,

Kansas

Photo courtesy of Jesse Pacheco

Pullmans,

Boxcars &

Section

Houses:

In 1905, Ottawa Kansas was the county seat of Franklin County and

a railroad town intersected by the Santa Fe and Missouri Pacific

lines. These young ladies are posed during the Chautauqua

Assembly in Forest Park, one of Ottawa’s cultural amenities.

By 1907, the railroads

had begun to bring

Mexican men up into

the US to do the hard

work on the railroads

that the Irish workers

had done before them.

The map shows the

sites of Mexican camps

where Latino section

workers were housed.

These were sometimes

shacks built of cast-off

wood belonging to the

railroad companies,

and sometimes they

were old box cars, or

in the case of LeLoup,

Pullman cars.

Later on, the ATSF

built section houses

(multifamily apartment

houses) along their

right-of-way north of

Ottawa.

Ottawa Latina

“The Triangle”

The ATSF Car

Shops

The ATSF

Hospital

“The Bottoms”

Sacred Heart Catholic Church

ATSF Passenger Depot

Missouri Pacific Passenger Depot

Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church

Built in 1888, the passenger depot for the Santa Fe sat at the end of

the large railroad property which included car shops, a roundhouse, a

hospital, a freight depot and other structures.

Although almost every trace of this complex of railroad shops is

gone now, the area west of Main Street north of the Marais des

Cygnes river was taken up by a large industrial area where

railroad cars were made and engines serviced in a 13-stall

roundhouse.

Although originally

built to provide health

care for all ATSF

workers, by 1907 most

of the patients were

Mexicans.

Dr. Edward B. Gossett and his

wife Edna were among the

staff who served the Mexican

population on the north side

during the 1930s at the Santa

Fe Hospital.

Edna Gossett, an R.N.

supervised the care in the

hospital and made house calls

in the Mexican camp in the

Triangle.

The Missouri Pacific railroad crossed Ottawa going east and

west, and a small number of Mexican workers also worked for it.

Holy Guardian Angels

The local Catholic church, first known as Holy Guardian Angels and later as

Sacred Heart, was quite a distance from the Mexican workers’ homes. (See

previous map.)

Sacred Heart

This is a photo of the Boys’ Club building in Forest Park, built for the Chautauqua

Assemblies held annually. The man standing on the right is James Naismith, inventor of

basketball. Naismith conducted the Boys Club and taught many of the boys the game.

1916-1936

After the Chautauquas

had ceased to be held in

Ottawa, the buildings

were sold off. The Boys

Club was acquired by the

Catholic Church to be

used as a mission church

for the Mexicans on the

southwest corner of

N. Locust and

W. Wilson.

“Nuestra Señora de

Guadalupe” translates

to “Our Lady of

Guadalupe,” the

patron saint of Mexico.

This was the procession

which came from the

Triangle neighborhood on

the north side of Wilson

St. to the site of the new

church, Our Lady of

Guadalupe.

With banners and pennants flying, the church was dedicated in

1916. Many local non-Mexicans came to observe the event.

The interior of Our Lady of Gaudalupe, decorated with American

and Mexican flags. The altar was donated by another Catholic

church.

Besides the Catholics, the Baptists sought to convert some of the

Mexicans. They established a mission for them in 1918 which

survived until 1936 changing sites three times. The Santa Fe

superintendant’s wife, Kate Williamson, (pictured at the right end

of the third row) was credited with the success of the mission.

Although we don’t have a good photo of it, the third

Baptist mission, built of concrete blocks, was built on

land donated by Manuel Pacheco, a lay preacher to the

congregation who built it with his sons.

Santa Fe and other railroads start hiring

Mexicans c. 1905.

Ottawa Catholic Church, Holy Guardian

Angels, discriminates against Mexicans

This group of unidentified Mexican section hands

was taken near the Richter depot.

Photo courtesy of Bruce Fleming

An unidentified section gang of mixed ethnicity with

their white foreman on the left.

Photo courtesy of Sam Pacheco

Two Santa Fe railroad lines crossed just north

of Ottawa, forming a triangle of land where a

Mexican camp was built. The Triangle

consisted of small houses built of railroad

scrap lumber.

Soledad Morales Rodriguez with Eloise Leocadio Rodriguez, railroad worker

Leocadio,

family and

friends.

Eloise Rodriguez after graduation from St. Mary

College in Atchison, Kansas, age 21.

Sister Eloise’ final vows, May 2, 1958.

Because Juan Martinez could speak English well, he served as a

spokesperson for the Mexican community.

Back row, left to right: Juanita Garcia Blanco, Esther Garcia Flores,

Lupe Garcia Rios, Paula A. Garcia holding Encarnacion Garcia. Front

row: Enriqueta Garcia Soriano and Natalia Garcia Martinez, standing

in front of their house in LeLoup around 1930.

An unidentified LeLoup boy, Encarnacion (“Chon”) Garcia, Albert

Hopkins and Carlos Garcia.

Paula and Juan Garcia with five of their eleven children next to a water

pump in the Triangle where they moved from LeLoup.

The Garcia

family around

1951. Lupe

Garcia Rios,

Aurora Garcia

Ottinger, Natalia

Garcia Martinez,

Amelia Garcia,

Enriqueta Garcia

Soriano, Juanita

Garcia Blanco,

and Esther

Garcia Flores.

Seated are

Encarnacion,

Paula, Juan and

Carlos. Front

row, Alberto and

Fernando.

Manuel and Sarah

Pacheco in their

garden.

Manuel Pacheco and his

sons, Leonard, John,

Jesse and Samuel.

Sarah, Ruth and Samuel

Pacheco in front of their home

in the Triangle.

Shirlee Ann Garcia

and Jerrie Lee

Pacheco.

The Pacheco home at 815 King St.

Leonard

Pacheco at

work on the

railroad.

Juliana and Jose with

their grandson Delfino

“Sonny” Larios.

Francisca Cortez Larios

and her daughter.

Unidentified Mexican railroad workers near Ottawa.

Mexicans weren’t allowed to swim in the public pool in Ottawa. Several

reminisce about watching the other kids swimming and envying them the

cool water. Kate Williamson of the Baptist Mission arranged for her Mexican

wards to swim in the (Baptist) Ottawa University pool.

While Mexicans

could attend

movies, they

were required

to sit in

designated

areas, usually in

the balcony.

Mexicans couldn’t eat at

the tables in Ottawa

restaurants. Juan

Martinez turned the

building that had been

Our Lady of Guadalupe

church into a restaurant

called the Victory Café.

“Short History of Latinos in Franklin County, KS”

by Deborah Barker. Produced for “Kansas

Collects” grant-funded project of the Kansas

Historical Society. 2009, FCHS archives.

“History of Sacred Heart Catholic Church” 1917.

“Register of Injuries” book of the Ottawa Santa

Fe Hospital in the Franklin Co. Historical Society

archives.

Videotaped interviews with John and Jesse

Pacheco conducted in 2009, FCHS archives.

All photos are courtesy of the Franklin County

Historical Society unless labeled otherwise.