I decided to take a day of my vacation and spend in San Antonio to see if I could find anything about the Del Carmen Company, or its promoter, Carlos Moser.
The only thing I found, were these citations from the San Antonio phone directories, courtesy of the San Antonio Conservation Society.
From the 1908 City Directory:
Moser Carlos, r 221 Slocum Place
From the 1910 City Directory:
Del Carmen Mining Company (C Moser Pres), Alamo Bank Bldg.
Moser Carlos, pres Del Carmen Mining Co. r 106 W. Pecan. [His office was in Room 312; the phone book published tenant directory of major buildings in town.]
There was also a citation for a Thomas Palfrey. Maybe he's related to Paul Paulfrey, Farmer's boss.
From the 1912 Directory:
Palfrey, Thomas B. mgr The Medina Irrigation Co, off Swearingen-Mcrow Bldg. h 111 E Laurel (Barbara Lee); 0 1495, N 1279.
The directories published data from the previous year; so that for example, the 1910 directory is really from much of 1909.
This is cool. Now I know that Moser wasn't just the "promoter" as Farmer Jennings wrote. He was the President of the company. And, he's becoming more of real person, now that I know where he lived. 106 W. Pecan is currently a parking lot. Slocum Place didn't appear on the current map I had with me in my car.
My time spent in other libraries was a bust. No one's heard of Carlos Moser, nor the del Carmen Mining Company.
On the way back to Austin, I stopped off at the Humphries Cemetary in Martindale, near San Marcos. That's where Farmer Jennings is buried. I guess I went because I'm trying to understand the people who worked at the ore terminal as real people. While cemetaries are not my thing, it's satisfying to find the real people who make up the story.
Posted by Joelg at July 8, 2004 07:04 PM | TrackBack