El Paso’s Herald’s ‘Old Family Album’ feature ran throwback photos of prominent El Pasoans

Aug. 10--In August 1919, the El Paso Herald started a daily series, "The Old Family Album," in which it ran photos of prominent El Pasoans when they "were much younger than they are now."

Here are a couple of them, lightly edited.

H.W. Broaddus

From Aug. 30, 1919:

Horace W. Broaddus, prominent El Paso real estate operator, when he was much younger than he is now. When the above picture was taken he was about 17 years of age and was living at the old Broaddus home, in Glasgow, Howard County, Mo. He came to El Paso first in 1882 and went to Montana in 1884, returning here in 1887, and has lived here ever since that time.

Mr. Broaddus was for 17 years the vice president and general manager of the Las Norias Cattle Co., controlling 135,000 acres of range north of El Paso. In addition to the cattle he raised, he bought from 2,000 to 4,000 head of cattle annually and shipped them to ranges in Wyoming and Montana, where he sold them to ranchers. The late H.L. Newman was his partner.

Even as a youngster, he was a natural-born trader and his hobby was to trade jackknives among his boy friends. As he grew up, he traded in horses and other things -- and is said never to have come out a loser.

When he came to El Paso, he got into the trading game here as a "real estater," as Potash and Purlmutter would say, and has been trading ever since, having succeeded in trading himself into quite a bit of property during his time.

Mr. Broaddus will soon be the junior director in the Chamber of Commerce, as he was the highest "runner up" in the last election and will be selected by the board of directors at their next meeting, in keeping with past custom, to succeed the late E.M. Lawrence.

H.B. Stevens

From September 27, 1919:

Horace B. Stevens, kind reader, once looked like this picture. He admits that it is a perfect likeness of himself when he was 14 years of age and lived in the New England states where the weather is cold in the winter and the pie and coffee are cold for breakfast. He was born up there, in 1858.

Though educated at a normal school -- the state normal at Castine, Maine -- H.B. Stevens denies that he was ever a schoolmaster.

He first went to work, after finishing school, as a bookkeeper and paymaster for a woolen mill at North Andover, Mass., and later was a clerk for the banking firm of Lee Higginson & Co. in Boston.

He came west in his early youth -- in 1882, to be exact -- and settled at Clifton, Ariz. -- just how Clifton, Ariz. at that day and time would attract a young Yankee from Maine, nobody has ever been able to find out -- and he remained there for several years, working, as he admits himself, as a miner.

People who know him today would never think of him as a copper digger, but he says he was and Clifton is not far away, so the claim is generally credited.

Coming to El Paso in 1887 to engage in the real estate and insurance business, he was still quite young and active and he proceeded to get hold of some choice pieces of property. As the city grew, he got rid of it at good figures and used the money to put up buildings on the rest.

Then old man L.M. Sheldon came out from New York and erected the Sheldon building -- it was an office building and not a hotel when first built -- and gave it to H.B. Stevens to run. This gave the young realtor quite a bit of local notoriety, as the Sheldon was the biggest office building in the city.

Later, after it was turned into a hotel, he became the agent for the new Mills building, which likewise became the biggest office building in the city, and he still has the distinction of being the agent for the biggest office building in El Paso.

In politics, H.B. Stevens has always been a Republican and has never held public office, but has always contributed his efforts and his money to make the Democrats work as hard as possible for their victories. He was once foreman of the John Julian engine company in the red hat days of the fire department. He is a director in several big institution about the city, including the First National Bank, and owns some stock in The Herald, among other things. He has a reputation of being "a mighty good man," to use the words of E.M. McClintock, county judge, who says H.B. Stevens staked him money to build his first home when he didn't have a cent and had nothing to give his benefactor as security but his word. The judge declares he is not the only young man H.B. Stevens has befriended in a like manner in El Paso.

H.B. Stevens is an Episcopalian and drives an automobile with great relish and was a member of the McGinty Club when it was in existence.

Trish Long is the El Paso Times archivist. If you have a question about El Paso history, email her at [email protected].

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