Nogales, Arizona, during the Diaz Regime

 

Rev. R. T. Liston, a Presbiterian Minister, arrives to Nogales, Arizona, in 1885. The following year he starts the building of the Trinity Congregational Church. The same year, a Methodist Temple is begun near the border, while Catholics will be assited by a Missionary from Tombstone starting in 1887. Ten years later, the Nogales, Arizona Catholic temple is finished, on which Father Meurer will serve from 1900.

The Episcopalians had organized in 1899, and in 1903 the Saint Andres temple is started, on the corner of Crawford and Sonoita.

In 1892 Teresa Urrea, the "Saint from Cabora" is expelled from Mexico, being accused of promoting an uprising in her region. She will live for a while within the town, in a small house located a North of today's corner of Obregon and International. However, she will eventually decide to move to El Bosque, a ranch located some 15 miles North of the border, where she will remain for three more years, curing Indians that attend seeking for cure.

Two years later, Nogales witnesses the only Bank assault she suffered, when the Black Jack band steals $30,000 to the International Bank, located on Morley, near the border.

By then, Nogales, Arizona has been declared a municipality, on July 21 1893, although the legal possession of the owners of land within the town is in doubt. The reason, the Supreme Court hasn't decided yet on the appeal made by the owners of the Nogales ranch (by then they are Frank Ely, Juan Pedro Camou, and George Howard) for the official recognition of the Nogales de Elias grant within the Arizona limits. The Supreme Court decision will take place on March 2, 1896, rejecting the claim.

On September 18, 1897, the Masonic Lodge No 11, F A.M., dedicates their temple in Nogales, Arizona. This building will be a school during the Mexican Revolution, as well as offices of the Mexican Government in the same period: the Mexican Consulate as well as Mexican Post Office.

During the remeasuring of the border, which takes place between 1891 and 1896, some of the Nogales buildings are found to be located right at the border, with their isidewalks within Mexico. As this situation favours smuggling, the US Section of the Boundary Commission sends a recommendation to the State Department, dated November 29, 1892, in which they ask for:

"a reservation zone of no less than 50 feet to be declared by the United States, to be extended along the whole border, on the US side, and that Mexico be asked to set aside a similar area on the Mexican side. Also, that any building within this limit be prohibited by law, although allowing that this reserve be used as streets or roads..."

As a consequense, on June 25, 1897, President William McKinley establishes a strip of land of 60 feet on the US side as a public area, to be extended along the border for one mile, both East and West of the recently established Monument No 122. The following June the buildings located within this strip are removed.

One of those affected, the railroad station, a wood building, is divided in two, and each section is moved to allow for the establishment of this zone. At the same time, the Benson train station will be brought to Nogales, to be part of the station on the US side. One year before, the Southern Pacific had acquired in rent the Sonora Railroad, and in 1911 will buy it.

Another of the affected buildings by this widening of the international strip is the main bar in town, The Exchange, owned by J. T. Brickwood, another wood building located right at the border, with a niche in which the International Monument is located. It has a porch along the sidewalk located in Mexico, as well as a box hanging from one of the posts of the porch, to be able to sell cigars avoiding paying US taxes.

In that same Brickwood bar, in 1895 Clegg and Sheeline had shown the first Kinetoscope exhibitions in Nogales. They had phonographs attached, so the public wondered with the movements of a music band, at the same time that the music could be heard.

On March 15, 1898, the Santa Cruz County is established in Arizona, while a few weeks later, when the appeal to the Supreme Court is finally decided, the distribution of land titles can finally take place.

By February 1903, a parade celebrates the placing of the first stone of the Nogales, Arizona Courthouse, a building designed by James Vandervoot. It has a silver cupola that will dominate Both Nogales.

In 1907 gambling is forbidden in Arizona, so the Saloon Palace closes. This is only the beginning of the temperant current, which will culminate with the Prohibition.