R.T. O'Hagan 1914 Interview
The following is an interview about events at the US-Mexico border near Calexico (CA) and Mexicali (Mexico), from The Billings Gazette, June 16, 1914. R.T. O'Hagan is Richard Thomas O'Hagan, my great-grandfather. Why he and my great-grandmother Aurora were in Montana is not clear. It is probable that Richard had contacts in the area from his days in the Army (1906-1909), when he was for a time stationed at Yellowstone (see below). Aurora had grown up in the Santa Paula region of southern California. Family letters dated April 1927 mention her having been away from that family for 13 years, suggesting she and Richard had not been together long by June 1916, although, as indicated in The Anaconda Standard (MT) on June 18, they arrived then in Butte "after leaving the war zone of Mexico several months ago." (There they stayed at the Bennett Hotel.) Perhaps they settled in Mexicali in 1913. Richard is registered to vote in November 1912 in Dixieland, CA, just north of the border.
REFUGEE FROM MEXICO HERE
Policy of President Wilson is Severely Criticised
"If President Wilson were to order intervention in Mexico, there would be hundred of volunteers ready in a few minutes in the Imperial valley of southern California and these men would cross the line from Calexico to Mexicali, and there would be things doing. But if intervention were to come it would take two years to conquer the Mexicans, for they eat next to nothing and they can get along on little or no sleep."
Thus declared R.T. O'Hagan, who, with Mrs. O'Hagan, arrived in Billings yesterday from Mexicali, Lower California, where he was engaged in the automobile business. It was on his wife's account that Mr. O'Hagan, an ex-cavalryman of the Second cavalry, was compelled to leave Mexican territory.
"The people of the Imperial valley are bitter against the American government," continued Mr. O'Hagan. "They feel that President Wilson should have taken definite action; they feel that his policy of 'watchful waiting' did more than anything else to make matters worse for American property owners in Mexico.
"In the Imperial valley the immense project of the California Development company supplies water to farms throughout the valley, through mutual companies. Just below the Mexican line are two of the headings of this company, and the Mexican federal troops, who are stationed at Mexicali, daily threaten to blow them up, which would let the Colorado river through and flood the entire valley.
"The newspapers, for some reason, don't get half of what goes on down there. Mexicali, which is just across the line from Calexico, is the toughest place in the world and a woman who walks along the street meets with insults at every step, no matter whther she be American or Mexican.
American Citizens Outraged.
"Nearly every deay there are outrages against American citizens. Only four weeks ago a beautiful Mexican woman, an American citizen who had been living in Los Angeles, was taken across the line from Calexico by a Mexican and placed in a house of ill fame. Her father went down from Los Angeles and with an American and another Mexican demanded the surrender of his daughter. The men were carried to an interior town and the Mexicans were killed. The American was shot but not fatally. He escaped across the desert to the American side and told his story. Nothing was done about it and the papers kept silent.
"Six or seven weeks ago an American named Brown, keeper of a small store, was murdered by federal soldiers after they had taken what they needed from the store. They placed his body inside the building and set it on fire.
"The American paper in Calexico was suppressed by the American authorities, who feared that agitation might stir American settlers in the Imperial valley to rush the Mexicans and drive them from near the headings of the project. Right now, if the paper were to come out with a scare head concerning the danger to the project, the whole country would be aroused and an invasion would be on.
"Only a few months ago some ex-soldiers of the United States mobilized 200 men and asked the war department for guns. They were turned down but Governor Johnson of California sent the guns and uniforms too. These men would be ready on a minute's notice."
According to Mr. O'Hagan, the constitutionalists are within 300 miles of the Mexican-California border and are working north. It is but a question of time, he says, when they will meet and overwhelm the force of 1,000 federals at Mexicali.
"Right now," Mr. O'Hagan said, "the settlers in the Imperial valley are concerned with the breaking of one of the levees along the Colorado river as the Associated Press has stated and are working with might and main to prevent the river from overrunning the valley, which is 50 miles wide and 80 miles long. The water is flowing into the Salton sea to a certain extent, but there does not seem to be much danger."
Mr. O'Hagan, who was formerly a quartermaster sergeant in the Second cavalry, stationed at Yellowstone park, will probably locate in Billings until the Mexican trouble is settled and he can return to Mexicali to re-open his garage.
REFUGEE FROM MEXICO HERE
Policy of President Wilson is Severely Criticised
"If President Wilson were to order intervention in Mexico, there would be hundred of volunteers ready in a few minutes in the Imperial valley of southern California and these men would cross the line from Calexico to Mexicali, and there would be things doing. But if intervention were to come it would take two years to conquer the Mexicans, for they eat next to nothing and they can get along on little or no sleep."
Thus declared R.T. O'Hagan, who, with Mrs. O'Hagan, arrived in Billings yesterday from Mexicali, Lower California, where he was engaged in the automobile business. It was on his wife's account that Mr. O'Hagan, an ex-cavalryman of the Second cavalry, was compelled to leave Mexican territory.
"The people of the Imperial valley are bitter against the American government," continued Mr. O'Hagan. "They feel that President Wilson should have taken definite action; they feel that his policy of 'watchful waiting' did more than anything else to make matters worse for American property owners in Mexico.
"In the Imperial valley the immense project of the California Development company supplies water to farms throughout the valley, through mutual companies. Just below the Mexican line are two of the headings of this company, and the Mexican federal troops, who are stationed at Mexicali, daily threaten to blow them up, which would let the Colorado river through and flood the entire valley.
"The newspapers, for some reason, don't get half of what goes on down there. Mexicali, which is just across the line from Calexico, is the toughest place in the world and a woman who walks along the street meets with insults at every step, no matter whther she be American or Mexican.
American Citizens Outraged.
"Nearly every deay there are outrages against American citizens. Only four weeks ago a beautiful Mexican woman, an American citizen who had been living in Los Angeles, was taken across the line from Calexico by a Mexican and placed in a house of ill fame. Her father went down from Los Angeles and with an American and another Mexican demanded the surrender of his daughter. The men were carried to an interior town and the Mexicans were killed. The American was shot but not fatally. He escaped across the desert to the American side and told his story. Nothing was done about it and the papers kept silent.
"Six or seven weeks ago an American named Brown, keeper of a small store, was murdered by federal soldiers after they had taken what they needed from the store. They placed his body inside the building and set it on fire.
"The American paper in Calexico was suppressed by the American authorities, who feared that agitation might stir American settlers in the Imperial valley to rush the Mexicans and drive them from near the headings of the project. Right now, if the paper were to come out with a scare head concerning the danger to the project, the whole country would be aroused and an invasion would be on.
"Only a few months ago some ex-soldiers of the United States mobilized 200 men and asked the war department for guns. They were turned down but Governor Johnson of California sent the guns and uniforms too. These men would be ready on a minute's notice."
According to Mr. O'Hagan, the constitutionalists are within 300 miles of the Mexican-California border and are working north. It is but a question of time, he says, when they will meet and overwhelm the force of 1,000 federals at Mexicali.
"Right now," Mr. O'Hagan said, "the settlers in the Imperial valley are concerned with the breaking of one of the levees along the Colorado river as the Associated Press has stated and are working with might and main to prevent the river from overrunning the valley, which is 50 miles wide and 80 miles long. The water is flowing into the Salton sea to a certain extent, but there does not seem to be much danger."
Mr. O'Hagan, who was formerly a quartermaster sergeant in the Second cavalry, stationed at Yellowstone park, will probably locate in Billings until the Mexican trouble is settled and he can return to Mexicali to re-open his garage.
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