By Joseph Longo, Board Member, Casa Magoffin Companeros and Mission Valley Trail Association
Two early El Paso County advocates and contemporaries were Joseph Magoffin and Moritz Loewenstein. Though Magoffin is associated with El Paso, and Loewenstein with Ysleta, the similarities between these two men, their families, and their homes are significant.
Both Magoffin and Loewenstein became advocates for the development of El Paso and the region through commerce, businesses, and jobs in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Magoffin, a self-labeled capitalist, played a significant role in the development of the city of El Paso. He used the extensive land holdings he inherited from his father, James Wiley Magoffin, to help bring the railroads, numerous public utilities, and new businesses to El Paso. He co-founded the first El Paso-owned bank, State National Bank, in 1881. His contributions were such that Magoffin was called the “Father of El Paso.” (El Paso Times, Saturday, October 16, 1909.)
Similarly, Loewenstein was a community builder and developer. Born in Westphalia, Germany, Loewenstein arrived in El Paso County in 1870. By 1878, he had married Juana Buchanan, started a family, and was a prosperous merchant, selling goods to military forts and local communities in the Southwest. At one point, he owned most of Ysleta and owned land in Socorro, too, including a prosperous farm like Joseph Magoffin’s. He built so many businesses in Ysleta during his lifetime that if they were next to each other, the buildings would stretch over 200 feet! Loewenstein had a street named after him in El Paso, although when a street in Ysleta was renamed in his honor in the 1950s, the El Paso Loewenstein Street was changed to Shuster Avenue.
Both Loewenstein and Magoffin served on the County Commissioner’s Court for the County of El Paso. Magoffin additionally served as county judge, customs collector, El Paso city councilperson, and mayor of El Paso. Loewenstein served as county treasurer from 1878-1884, overseeing general and school funds. Both men were supporters of education, with Loewenstein serving as the president of the Ysleta School Board and Magoffin also serving on the El Paso School Board when the first permanent public school building opened in El Paso.
Today, their legacies can also be seen at their residences, both of which still stand today as public institutions: the Magoffin Home State Historic Site at 1120 Magoffin Ave.and the headquarters of Mission Trail Association at the Mission Valley Visitor Center on 9065 Alameda. Both houses were central to the social and political life of their communities, although the Lowenstein Home was in the center of the Ysleta community, and the Magoffin Home was a “rural domicile.” The Loewenstein Home was built after 1873, the same year the Magoffin Home construction was started. Both adobe homes share similar architectural features, such as a grand hall and exposed vigas.
As prominent women in these communities, the spouses of these businessmen worked with their husbands to build associations and communities. Juana Buchanan Loewenstein, Moritz’s wife, hosted many political and social leaders in her home just as Octavia MacGreal Magoffin did. Like Octavia, she was known for her charitable activities and was called “La Madre de Ysleta” or “Little Mother of Ysleta” in her obituary (El Paso Times, Wednesday, January 31, 1940). Juana was born in El Paso when it was known as Franklin. Her mother came from a prominent family in Juarez and her mother might have been a distant cousin of Mexican President Porfirio Diaz. Like the Magoffins, their Catholicism, their embrace of different cultures, and family closeness connected each other to the hard and good times.
The contributions of these families are more deeply explored in the temporary exhibit “Early Builders of Commerce and Community: Moritz Loewenstein and Judge Joseph Magoffin." This exhibit will feature rare historical photographs of the Magoffin and Loewenstein families, fashion artifacts from the 1870s-1920s, insights into El Paso’s early commerce and urban planning, and the historical connection between the Magoffin Home and the Mission Valley Visitor Center. The exhibit is on display at the Mission Valley Visitor Center, 9065 Alameda Ave., El Paso, TX 7990, Tuesday–Thursday, 10a.m.–1 p.m. and Friday 12 p.m.–3 p.m. It is also available by appointment. Contact the Mission Valley Visitor Center at (915) 292-8516 or info@elpasomissions.org or www.elpasomissions.org.