Many of them had arrived just before or after the first railroad, the Southern Pacific, reached El Paso in 1881, a time when there were many opportunities for an industrious young man. They started businesses, opened stores, learned trades, formed fraternal organizations and helped El Paso grow from a village of adobe buildings to a city with libraries, schools, public utilities and a promising future.
A small fraction of the Pioneers recorded accounts of their lives and experiences in a large, leather-bound book kept by the association. Below are some of those accounts as they were written, with the sometimes arcane language and spotty spelling and punctuation of the early 1900's.
The Pioneer Association of El Paso was active from 1904 until the early 1950's. By that time, most of the original members had died. The association's archives, which contained many historic items and documents, formed the foundation of the now extensive archives of the El Paso County Historical Society, which was organized in 1954 to preserve and protect the county's rich history.
