Mrs. Zach White and daughter Mary Boynkin - El Paso, Texas

Zach White, businessman, financier, and city administrator in El Paso, was born on March 23, 1850, in Amherst County in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, one of twenty-two children born to Willis and Jane (Drummond) White. In 1875, after receiving a grammar school education, he and an older brother arrived in Austin, Texas, and built the city's first waterworks. Two years later he built the first waterworks in Dallas, and in 1879 he constructed a water system in Waco. He had achieved such success that in October 1880 he left for El Paso on a stagecoach with $10,000 sewn in his vest. Anticipating the arrival of the railroad, in 1881 White built a mercantile store, and in the next few years he built the first brick company, the first gas company, the first electric company, the first mule-drawn streetcar system, and the first bridges across the Rio Grande to Ciudad Juárez. He bought thousands of acres of land in El Paso's upper valley, raised cotton, and played a major role in bringing about the construction of Elephant Butte Dam, a project that greatly stimulated the development of the regional agricultural economy. In 1912 White built his dream hotel, the Paso del Norte, long a showplace of the Southwest with its Tiffany dome lobby. For twenty years White was a director of the First National Bank; he also served on the school board, the city council, and as county commissioner. He donated the land for the construction of El Paso Country Club. White's first wife, Maggie Matthias, whom he married in 1882, died in El Paso in 1890. In 1893 White married Maude Bounds of Sherman, and they had two daughters. White died in El Paso on January 31, 1932. A public school near the country club is named in his honor, and his home on Mesa Street has been restored. The restoration of the Paso del Norte Hotel was completed in 1986. Image Description: Sepia photograph shows two women, Mrs. Zach White and her daughter Mary Boynkin, from left to right. They are both standing closely beside each other directly looking into the camera. Mrs. Zach White is slightly facing inwards towards her daughter with her right arm coming down beside her. Her left arm seems to be covered behind Mary. Mrs. Zach White wears a light-colored dress with a V-neck shape and a necklace at her chest. Her hair is up in a neat loose bun and her face wears a clam gesture slightly smiling at the camera. Mary slightly leans in towards her mother with her head tilted towards her as well. Her right arm rests across her body and her left hand is raised to her face with her pinky and ring finger barely touching her chin. She wears a ring on that same pinky and a bracelet on her arm. Mary wears a short sleeved light-colored dress showing her arms and neck. Her curly hair seems put together with few curls coming down her forehead and a more playful smile on her face.

Area: Central / Downtown

Source: El Paso Museum of History

Reference ID: V626

Uploaded by: El Paso Museum of History