Maj. Gen. Anson Mills
Teniente General Anson Mills

Maj. Gen. Anson Mills

Anson Mills, surveyor, builder, army officer, engineer, American boundary commissioner, diplomat, and inventor, was born at Thorntown, Indiana, on August 31, 1834, the son of James P. and Sarah (Kenworthy) Mills. He attended school in Indiana and New York and accepted an appointment to the United States Military Academy in 1855. After flunking out at West Point in 1857, he rode the Butterfield Overland Mail stage to El Paso, where he arrived on May 8, 1858. He was appointed district surveyor and surveyed Forts Quitman, Davis, Stockton, and Bliss, all in West Texas. He also built the Overland Building, for three decades the largest structure in El Paso. On February 28, 1859, Mills submitted a street map of a settlement called Ponce's Rancho, Franklin, and Smithsville. He called the little community El Paso, and the name stuck. The downtown is still practically as he platted it. Mills is best remembered, however, for the boundary dispute with Mexico over the Chamizal tract and for the Mills Building in El Paso. As the American boundary commissioner he refused to accept the 1911 arbitration agreement that gave the El Paso Chamizal to Mexico. The Mills Building began as the Grand Central Hotel, which Mills constructed in 1883. When the hotel burned, he replaced it with the Mills Building in 1911, at that time the largest concrete monolith in the world. Today it is no longer the highest building in El Paso, but it remains a major El Paso landmark. Source: http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fmi36 Image Description: Black and white photograph of General Anson Mills is shown. He stands to pose for the photo with his body and face slightly at an angel facing away. The image is taken from Mills thighs, up to his head where he wears a decorated military suit. The suit has six sets of buttons coming down his chest and several badges and pins to the left of his chest. Mills also wears shoulder pads and a belt as to complete his military look. His hair can be seen white from his long beard that hangs only from his chin and his multi shaded mustache. His hair is parted at the side and of white color.

Area: Central / Downtown

Source: El Paso County Historical Society

Uploaded by: El Paso Museum of History

Comments

Add a comment
Thank you for your comment

Report this entry

Choose the most important reason for this report

Your name

Your email address

Optional detail

Thank you for your report

More from the same community-collection

Richard M. Dudley, El Paso, TX, Mayor

Richard M. Dudley, engineer and El Paso mayor, was born near ...

Southern Lines Pacific

A brief history of El Paso Division - 1881 - 1923. Galveston, ...

The 24th Returning From Mexico

"24th---Just From Mexico" June 16, 1919" is the writing on the ...

Buffalo Soldiers - 10th Cavalry

Buffalo Soldiers of the U.S. 10th Cavalry Regiment who were ...

David L. Carrasco Job Corps

The center opened in 1970 in downtown El Paso as the El Paso Job ...

Harry Mitchell's Poster

Image of a Harry Mitchell Poster.

Burros In Downtown El Paso, Texas

Burros carrying wood in Downtown El Paso, Texas.

Looking to the Franklin Mountains

The image shows some houses on the Eastside of El Paso, looking ...

Recognition Ceremony

Recognition ceremony in Downtown El Paso, Texas.

Woman With Flag

Woman holding flag with five stars in a circle.

El Paso Sunbowl Parade

El Paso Sunbowl Parade in El Paso, Texas.

Downtown El Paso

A image of downtown El Paso during the 1960's.

San Jacinto Plaza looking towards Franklins

There is a locomotive on Main Street, a fancy carriage in the ...

Downtown El Paso - 1883

El Paso in the year 1883: two years earlier the railroad had ...

The Kohlberg Family

The Kohlbergs were successful business entrepreneurs who made ...

Ernst Kohlberg

KOHLBERG, ERNST (1857–1910). Ernst Kohlberg, El Paso civic ...

Kate Moore - El Paso, Texas

Francis Marion Moore, Kate’s father, began to suffer from ...

Harry Mitchell

Photo: Owner of Harry Mitchell Brewing Company, located downtown ...

Harry Mitchell Brewing Company

In picture Henry T. Bowie, Mayor R.E. Sherman, Hubert Hanter, ...

Looking across Main to San Jacinto Plaza

This view of the Plaza looks across the railroad tracks on Main. ...

Lightbody Dry Goods

Lightbody Dry Goods Company in downtown El Paso, Texas.

San Jacinto Plaza looking across St. Louis (Mills)

This view from San Jacinto Plaza shows both the domed City Hall ...

Pacific Hotel

In 1889, the Pacific Hotel (and saloon) was located at the ...

home.search_collection