Hacienda de Beneficio “San Diego”
Mineral el Chico is a town about 15 kilometres north of Pachuca. "No one who has visited the mining camp of El Chico, a few leagues distant from both the Real del Monte and Pachuca, can ever forget it. Its situation is possibly one of the most beautiful of the many beautiful ones in this republic, and is a perfect change from the deary plains or bare uninteresting mountains that mark the great mining center of the state of Hidalgo”. By 1897 “the reckless destruction of the adjacent woods has limited the water supply and the chief hacienda, the San Diego, has to depend upon the assistance of steam power to run its machinery. This hacienda is the property of Mr. Christopher Ludlow, a Cornishman, who for many years has been a resident of this district, and who by steady attention to business and natural shrewdness has amassed no small fortune. The situation of the hacienda is most delightful and it commands one of the most beautiful views to be found in the republic. The present buildings are all new, for although in the Spanish days an hacienda bearing the same name occupied the site, there was little beyond a few old walls, to mark its position when Mr. Ludlow began the erection of the present works. They comprise a stamp mill, concentrators and the old patio system and the manager is young Mr. Sydney Ludlow.”The Mexican Herald, vol. III, no. 127, 1 July 1897
We know of cartones and cheques produced by the Tipografia Artistica, Pachuca. The cartones were for ten and twenty centavos, printed on the back of ledger paper from the tienda de raya. The dates range from to 14 May to 23 July 1915.
The following was cut from the same recycled boletas de raya as the above.
| Date on note | from | to | total number |
total value |
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| 10c | ||||||
| 20c |
There were also bearer cheques (cheques al portador) drawn on the Mexico City branch of the Banco Internacional e Hipotecario de México. An early $5 had the printed date of February 1915.
Later issues had the date handstamped.
Later notes were payable in (bank)notes currently in circulation (con billetes en curso).
| Date on note | from | to | total number |
total value |
||
| $1 | ||||||
| $5 | 8 April 1915 | includes number 1919 | ||||
| 7 May 1915 | ||||||
| 11 June 1915 | includes number 5[4]22 | |||||
| 18 June 1915 | ||||||
| 16 July 1915 | con billetes en curso includes number 9186 |
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| 11 August 1915 | con billetes en curso includes numbers 11382CNBanxico #11219 to 11731 |
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| 25 August 1915 | con billetes en curso (different typeface) |
All these notes were signed by Sydney Ludlow per pro Ricardo T. Sobey.
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Sydney Ludlow was an Englishman, who was born in Camborne, Cornwall, on 4 March 1876. In 1897 he was managing his father's hacienda de beneficio. In the first decade of the twentieth century he was frequently in the papers as captain of the local cricket team and a member of the football club. He and his brother, Hadley, also developed their interests in mining properties. In 1902 the Ludlows discovered that copper existed at Zimapan and the Ludloe-Armstrong company acquired many of the properties thereThe Mexican Herald, 12 January 1908. In October 1907 all of the Ludlow-Armstrong and company properties at Zimapam were put into the Hidalgo Copper Mining and Smelting company, capitalised at $,2,000,000 gold. The mines taken over included twenty-two producing properties, nine leased producing properties, and five virgin properties. The company also owned and operated a twenty-five ton lead-silver smelter and a thirty ton silver-copper smelter at ZimapanThe Mexican Herald, 17 October 1907. At the same time they formed the Amalgamated Mining and Milling company of Hidalgo, of El Chico. This comprised the properties formerly belonging to the Mutual Mining association, the Mexican Mining Syndicate and others of the Ludlows at El Chico, together with their San Diego mill. The company owns about twenty minesThe Mexican Herald, 12 January 1908. The Ludlow brothers controlled both companies. On 3 November 1910 he married Florence Matilda Dawe, who had also been born in Camborne. "The marriage of Miss Florence Matilda Dawe and Mr, Sydney Ludlow which occurred last week, was owing to many years that both families have been intimately associated with the social and business life of the city, one of paramount importance here. ... In the absence of the father of the bride, she was given away by her brother, W. E. Dawe. Two other brothers were present, Mr. Charles A. Dawe and Mr. Stanley Dawe. Sydney Ludlow died in Zimapám on 31 October 1943. |
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Ricardo T. Sobey was Administrador del Ramo de Aguas in Pachuca but resigned in June 1904 to pursue his own affairsPeriódico Oficial, Tomo XXXVII, Núm. 41, 1 June 1904. He was a business associate of Sydney Ludlow and was vice-president (in 1920) of the Hidalgo Copper Mining and Smelting Company, of which Sydney was presidentThe Mines Handbook, 1920. |
On 14 June 1915 it was reported that the Compañía de San Diego del Mineral del Chico had issued vales of five pesosTeodomiro Manzano, Anales del Estado de Hidalgo: Segunda parte (1869 a marzo de 1927), Pachuca, 1927 but known notes are dated from April to August.
In his August 1915 report on local issues to the Secretaría de Gobernación in Veracruz, Arturo Lazo de la Vega records that the “Blanca y Anexas”, “Maravillas y San Francisco”, “Real del Monte y Pachuca” and “San Diego”, had issued cheques for $1, $5, $10, $20 and $50 but does not know the amounts issuedAGN, Fondo Gobernación Periodo Revolucionario, caja 93, exp. 36, folletos 8 Secretario general L. de la Vega to [ ], Pachuca, 20 August 1915. In response, on 9 September the Secretaría de Gobernación replied that all these issues should be withdrawnAGN, Fondo Gobernación Periodo Revolucionario, caja 93, exp. 36, folletos 8.