La Unión Central

Gualterio Carlos Palmer Bodmer was the son of Federico Orlando Palmer Blamey, who had been born in Callington, Cornwall, England on 29 February 1844 and brought by his parents to the United States and then Zacatecas. Federico was both a mining engineer and a mine owner and by 1892, if not long before, he was the owner of the Parroquia mine, which was located just two miles northwest of Zacatecas and produced both copper and silver. Federico owned some properties in the hacienda of San Bernabé and shares in the Banco de Zacatecas. He married Rosa María Julia Bodmer, daughter of the British Vice-Consul at Taxco, about 1865 and they had thirteen children.

Gualterio was born in August 1865. In 1895 he advertised himself as a metal buyer and commission agent (Comprador de metales y comisionista) based in the offices of La Unión mine^{Se compran metales de todas clases en partidas desde 10 libras hasta cualquier cantidad, así facilitando la realización de sus productos a los mineros y sobre todo a los buscones y cateros, a quienes se liquida diariamente todas las partidas de metales entregados antes de medio día.
Los metales de alta ley se exportan para fundirse en la fundición "El Paso Smelting Works", sucursal de la “Consolidated Kansas Cite Smelting and refining Company”.
Los metales de baja ley se benefician en Zacatecas. Agencias en Sombrerete y Minillas.
Empleados y operarios 100, todos mexicanos.
Se reciben metales por carro entero en cualquier estación de ferrocarril, haciendo en seguida sus liquidaciones.(                )}. In August 1910 Palmer received from the governor of Durango the concession for a railway from Durango to Estación Gutiérrez, Zacatecas, on the Ferrocarril Central. When Pánfilo Natera levied a force loan on the commercial and financial houses in the city, Palmer was one of the largest contributors, at $500^{SD papers 812.00/7910 letter of Consul Gaston Schmutz, Aguascalientes, to Secretary of State, 12 June 1913}.

When Cualterio married Lucy Lisle on 7 June 1908 the record names him as Carlos Gualterio but he appears in later records as either Gualterio Carlos Palmer or the Anglicized Walter Carlos Palmer. He claimed British citizenship when he crossed the border at Laredo in 1911 and again in 1919.

By 1930 he was living in Tlalpan, Distrito Federal, and died there on 27 March 1941^{Information from Bob’s Genealogy Filing Cabinet}.

In November 1918 he issued the following notes.

M4523 25c La Unión Central

M4524 50c La Unión Central

M4525 $1 La Unión Central

The text on the reverse states that the quantity issued in vales had been deposited in the Jefatura de Hacienda, where the notes could be exchanged.

These have two signatures on the face and yet another on the reverse.

G. López