Topolobampo, utopian community in northern Sinaloa, Mexico founded in 1886 by Credit Foncier Company of Sinaloa; supported by Canadian publisher Lowell
- Tom Monto
- 5 days ago
- 11 min read
Mexico
Topolobampo, northern Sinaloa, Mexico 1886-
Credit Foncier Company of Sinaloa
"The driving force behind this company was Albert Kimsey Owen (1847-1916). At the age of twenty-four Owen began working as a surveyor and civil engineer for William J. Palmer and the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, and in the spring of 1872 he was sent to survey the west coast of Mexico for promising harbour sites, and there he had his first look at Topolobampo Bay, near Los Mochis, Sinaloa. Thereafter Owen was committed to the dream of establishing a port at Topolobampo.
Owen’s original plan was to build a railroad from Texas to Topolobampo (the Texas, Topolobampo, and Pacific Railroad), but he also envisaged settlements at the Mexican end including a grand city called Pacific City as well as several agricultural colonies along the Fuerte River.
Having grown up with a Quaker father and having lived for a time at Robert Owen’s utopian colony in New Harmony, Indiana [see above], he was a staunch and idealistic socialist. So his plans envisaged a cooperative colony where the reorganization of labour and distribution followed the principles laid out in his essay Integral Co-Operation.
his essay Integral Co-Operation, a socioeconomic treatise, determined that labour was the source of all wealth, and that wealth, the end product of labour, should be justly dispersed through a system of credits."
Actually Albert Kimsey Owen published many things
-Integral co-operation - its practical application (1884)
-Integral co-operation - its practical application (1889) subtitle: "The Credit Foncier Company of Sinaloa A Social Study." 224 pages. published by John W. Lovell Company.
-Integral co-operation at work (1890). includes detailed Biography of A.K. Owens, p. 205/224-212/224)
(these two plus Integral Co-Operation are available online at Hathi trust)
also
-I Dream of an Ideal City, and
-various pamphlets on Topolobompa.
"The Credit Foncier Company of Sinaloa was started in 1886.
It issued stock, script and credits in return for labour.
the stock certificates or scrip were signed by John Lovell, a Canadian book publisher and reformer. [see below]
Supplies for the colonists were purchased through the commissary, and exchanged to colonists for credits (script) or money, whilst the produce of colonists were received by the commissary, credits being given to the producers.
Products delivered by colonists to the commissary were not always saleable, yet the producers demanded credits that they could exchange for other goods.
“Instead of giving credits on the basis of a service for a service, we have given them upon the communistic principle of ‘to each according to his needs’ ... we have got to conduct the Colony on business lines; we cannot afford to make it a charitable asylum where there is free food without labor.” [speaker not stated - Owen speaking?]
How to balance the needs of colonists against their earnings became a subject of much controversy. Single men earned as much as the heads of families - yet families have to be fed in a co-operative commonwealth. This issue was resolved by allotting a five-day ration per week to non-productive members of families [the children in the familes], but single men maintained that as they worked all day in the fields in exchange for credits, the same as the family men, and helped provide food for the families, they were entitled to have their clothes washed and mended, and their bachelor quarters cared for. At this point many of the women balked, although some women worked long and patiently in the cause of complete Integral Cooperation.
(from U.S. Mexican Numismatic Association, "Credit Foncier of Sinaloa" online)
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John Wurtele Lovell was born on 6 November 1851 in Montreal, Canada where his father, John Lovell, was the founder of the Lovell Printing and Publishing Company. John was apprenticed to his father at a young age and in 1873 was sent to manage his father’s printing plant in Rouses Point, New York.
Three years later, he formed the publishing firm of Lovell, Adam & Company along with his father and fellow Canadian G. Mercer Adam. The firm was soon renamed Lovell, Adam, Wesson & Company with the admittance of Francis L. Wesson in New York City.
In 1878 John W. Lovell became an independent publisher but failed in 1881. He established the John W. Lovell Company the next year, also located in New York City. Lovell took advantage of the lack of international copyright laws and was well known as a pirate and publisher of non-copyrighted books. Lovell reprinted cheap reprints for the masses both in series of paperbound and cloth volumes.
Lovell's Library, a series of paperbacks priced at ten, twenty or thirty cents, was probably his single greatest achievement in terms of popularity.
In 1888 John and his brother Frank formed the Frank F. Lovell & Company in New York. In June 1889 John announced his intention to form a “Book Trust” in order to eliminate competition and intense price-cutting among the cheap book publishers. In essence, Lovell was proposing a monopoly to control production costs in the absence of international copyright laws. Publishers were offered the opportunity to join the monopoly or be forced out of business. Although many publishers were dubious of Lovell’s grandiose plans, he did manage to organize the United States Book Company in July 1890, which initially numbered about a dozen firms, including the Frank F. Lovell & Company. Within three years, however, this firm went into bankruptcy and by 1900 Lovell had completely disappeared from the annals of publishing.
Lovell was an ardent reformer and loyal supporter of Albert Kinsey Owen.
He played an important role in American theosophy, being a founding member of the Theosophical Society.
He died in 1932. The New York Times published an obituary on 22 April 1932
John W. Lovell, quoted in Reynolds, Catspaw Utopia, 25.
(Reynolds, Ray. Cat’spaw Utopia. 2nd ed, The Borgo Press, San Bernardino California, 1996)
Theosophical Wiki online has article on John W. Lovell
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the colony's newspaper, Credit Foncier of Sinaloa, began publication in New Jersey in 1885. edited by Mrs. Marie Howland.
dedicated to "integral co-operation".
it was moved to Sinaloa in 1888.
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(Marie Howland 1836-1921)
Her career as an author, political propagandist, and pioneering architect began as a result of her involvement with followers of the utopian socialist Charles Fourier in New York City in the 1850s. ...
During the 1860s, Howland lived in the Familistère, or Social Palace, a Fourieristic community in Guise, France. ...
Marie Howland, like Cridge, was a utopian-socialist who participated in the Associationist movement and lived in several communes throughout her life...
so said Ashley Garcia, "A HEALTHY PARADISE: ANNIE DENTON CRIDGE’S FEMINIST UTOPIA" online https://commonplace.online/article/a-healthy-paradise/
Marie Case divorced her husband, and married Edward Howland
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Edward Howland 1832-1890.
he wrote book Grant as a soldier and statesman; Annals of North America; History of the Sea; Ocean's Story.
then developed interest in labour issues.
"In the 1870s, his work focused on the railroad industry and was published in the periodical Harper’s.
He also authored The Palace of Industry: An Account of the Experiment at Guise, France (1872). (Pfaff (Bohemian New York) website)
Edward Howland was part of the Unitary Household experiment. It was here that he met Marie Stevens, the love of his life. (66,68)]
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Howland married Marie Case (nee Stevens) a “strong-minded New England school-teacher, who imbued him with schemes for the amelioration of the human race” (“General Gossip” 479).
Her husband at the time, Lyman W. Case, rescinded their marriage on account of how happy his wife and Howland seemed together, and the three remained lifelong friends (Lause 68).
Later, Howland and his wife journeyed to Mexico to become part of an "American socialistic colony at Topolobampo" (“General Gossip” 479). A
After his death, Howland’s widow continued their work in Mexico." [later moving to Fairhope - see below]
(from Pfaff (Bohemian New York) website, https://pfaffs.web.lehigh.edu/node/54188)
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from Wiki Marie Howland:
Working with her husband [Edward Howland], Howland for a brief period edited two journals devoted to the propagation of the principles of economic cooperation: the Credit Foncier of Sinaloa and Social Solutions.
Howland's 1873 translation of J. A. B. Godin's Social Solutions, an in-depth presentation of the political philosophy responsible for the founding of the Social Palace in Guise, was published in her journal Social Solutions.
[before her stay at the "Pacific Colony", she lived at J.A.B. Godin's Familistere de Guise (Social Palace) (see above)]
author of Papa's Own Girl (1874), a novel about a father and daughter living in a comparable fictional establishment in New England. The heroine, Clara Forest, goes on to live a satisfying life as an independent businesswoman.
The book was controversial but also a popular success in its day. Later editions altered the title to The Familistère.
==
from Encyclopedia.com (https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/howland-marie)
[Marie Howland was a writer and also an urban designer/architect.
"Her involvement was directly instrumental in changing Owen's initial plans for single-family dwellings to architectural designs stressing collective arrangements organized to reduce the domestic work of women, thus freeing them for more direct participation in the government of the community. In her studies of American women architects and social reformers, the historian Dolores Hayden has discovered and made public many of Howland's original designs. They include 'resident hotels, row houses linked to communal kitchen, and picturesque suburban houses with cooperative kitchen facilities.'
Howland lived at the Pacific Colony for several years but eventually left because of hostility to certain aspects of her feminism, primarily her advocacy of free love. [reference her free love to Edward Howland and how her husband Case stood aside to let them marry]
She subsequently lived in a Fairhope, Alabama, single-tax community, where she served as a librarian." (Fairhope -- see above)
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A charter was drawn up for the "Pacific Colony".
charter of the Company was filed in Colorado.
the colony's main remunerative industry was a tinware manufactury. But Owen also envisioned farms along the Fuerte River, a proper harbour at Topolobampo and a city (Pacific City), as mentioned above.
300 to 500 U.S. colonists were living and working in the colony at the harbour of Topolobampo by 1892.
[Edward Howland, husband of Marie Howland, died in 1890, likely at Topolobompa]
An optimistic future for the settlement was predicted in a leaflet issued in 1892 -- Credit Foncier of Sinaloa - The Topolobampo Colonists: What is Said of Them
And at that time, Mexican president Diaz is quoted as announcing that "the Topolobampo colonists have built a canal eleven kilometres in length and a customs house in accordance with the terms of their concession."
"The Custom House was 50 x 40 feet, with a 10 ft.-wide porch on three sides. It was built of red porphyry and was on the south-east corner of the block, 600 x 300 ft., which was reserved for Federal offices. [It was nearby to Pioneer Cove, which was intended to become a port]. The cost was $8,109 Mexican silver, and was entirely the work of the colonists, who even burnt the lime and made 80,000 bricks to cover the roof and to make the fireplaces and chimneys."
The canal had been completed and water was flowing through it, according to the leaflet.
Some colonists stated that they had been there five and a half years and found co-op life just fine. the climate was easy and irrigated fields grew crops and produce well.
At that time the colony contained 446 people, including 150 children. This was likely about its peak membership. (Encyclopedia of Social Reform)
(a new group of settlers moved in -- The Kansas Sinaloa Investment Company.
a photo on the numismatic website: "The Headquarters of The Kansas Sinaloa Investment Company at Los Tastes. It is a wattle, or a house with woven brush sides plastered with mud and having a flat brush roof covered with earth. The tree is a mesquite, a species of locust or acacia. The mesquite is the largest wood we have on our lands. Director Wilber stands in front of the door; next to him is Hon. C. B. Hoffman, President of The Kansas Sinaloa Investment Company, and on the extreme right is friend E.E. Thornton, who is now (July, 1892) in Puget Sound, Washington, getting lumber for the Colonists."
(from U.S. Mexican Numismatic Association, "Credit Foncier of Sinaloa" online)
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family life was preserved in the Topolobampo colony (not like other commune settlements where free love was engaged in). (Marie's affection for Howland went against the grain of this respect for family.)
"Even without the free love questions, difference did spring up. A Free Land Company was formed to oppose the original Credit Foncier Company headed by Owen, and the life of the colony gradually ended." (Encyclopedia of Social Reform)
The colony ultimately failed, for a variety of reasons. The colony was prone to variety of difficulties, practical and economic/social.
"Owen left the colony in 1893, and by then it was, for all intents and purposes, defunct. Owen’s proposed railroad, which eventually became the Chihuahua and Pacific Railroad, was not fully realized until 1962." (from U.S. Mexican Numismatic Association, "Credit Foncier of Sinaloa" online)
sources above:
Encyclopedia of Social Reform has a small article on this co-operative colony.
U.S. Mexican Numismatic Association, "Credit Foncier of Sinaloa" online.
also The Credit Foncier of Sinaloa. Mar.13, 1888 (print on demand book) not seen:
Topolobampo Collection (USC San Diego) (described online)
Extent 137 digital objects.
Description:
The Topolobampo Collection contains Albert Kimsey Owen's business records and promotional materials related to the colony and railroad enterprise established on Topolobampo Bay, Sinaloa, Mexico between 1872 and 1910. Materials include business correspondence, writings by Owen, legal documents, descriptions of corporate entities, promotional materials, images of the colony, maps, and plans of Pacific City. Prominent correspondents include C.B. Hoffman, John W. Lovell, J.H. Rice, and Arthur E. Stilwell. Corporations represented in the collection include the Credit Foncier Company; the Texas, Topolobampo and Pacific Railroad and Telegraph Company; the Mexican Western Railroad; and the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway Company. Materials that describe day-to-day life in the colony are not represented in the collection.
comprehensive listing of collection fonds online)
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as well there is this comprehensive history of the settlement and project:
Sarah Copenhaver Matherly
“The Age of Associated Effort”: Communitarian Reform at Topolobampo, Mexico, 1872-1896
A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY RECOMMENDED FOR ACCEPTANCE BY THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
Adviser: Sean Wilentz
September 2019 (accessed online feb 2025)
some notes:
p. 200 201 land ownership in doubt. Owens had the concession
Credit Foncier leadership had control of company but not the land
Kansas CL came in with Owens approval, split community
p. 202 Ira Kneeland expected TCFC to be an agricultural co-operative along line of the Farmers Alliance or the Grange
p. 202 money question -- CFC scrip, inspired by Owen's days as Greenbacker
p. 203 some of Kansas CL people were, like Owens, former political reformer involved in labour politics. giving that up, they, like Owens, had decided to engage in direct action through association. ...
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Ira Kneeland's photos of Topolobompa
Topolobampo Collection
Owning Institution: California State University, Fresno
(Calisphere University of California website)
The Topolobampo digitized collection consists of photographs taken by colonist and official photographer for the Credit Foncier Company of Sinaloa, Ira Kneeland. The photographs document the area around Topolobampo bay during the late 19th century, focusing on the efforts of Albert Kimsey Owen and others to establish a socialist utopian colony.
The Topolobampo co-operative colony was founded at Topolobampo Bay near Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico, by a group of American colonists in 1886. The colony was established and governed under a set of idealistic bylaws, predicated on socialistic reforms. The driving force behind the colonization effort was Albert Kimsey Owen (1847-1916).
Owen began working as a surveyor and civil engineer for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. In the course of his work, Owen was sent to Mexico's west coast to look for promising harbor sites, and there he had his first look at Topolobampo Bay.
From 1873 through 1880 Owen worked to implement his dream of a port at Topolobampo Bay. He quickly organized an American syndicate and with a small contingent, embarked on a journey in late August of 1880, bound for Vera Cruz, Mexico. The ship was lost in a hurricane off the coast of Florida with only four survivors. The accident set back Owen five years.
Owen’s original plan was to build a railroad from Texas to Topolobampo (the Texas, Topolobampo, and Pacific Railroad). However, Owen’s family background and experiences living at another utopian colony in Indiana led to him being a staunch and idealistic socialist in addition to being a railroad promoter and engineer. His plan included a cooperative colony in Sinaloa where the re-organization of labor and distribution followed the principles laid out in his essay Integral Co-Operation. Out of this plan came the Credit Foncier Company of Sinaola. The Credit Foncier Company issued stock, script and credits in return for labor which benefited the colony. It was also the agency used to acquire and hold land for Owen and the colony.
Plans for the colony included a grand city called Pacific City, based on Owen’s utopian ideal, as well as several agricultural colonies along the Fuerte River to the north of Topolobampo Bay. The railroad and the colony were to be mutually beneficial.
However, the colony never had much success and the premature settling of twenty-seven colonists at Topolobampo in 1886 ultimately concluded with the "grand experiment's" failure. The reasons were multifarious and complex.
The digitized collection consists of photographs taken by Ira Kneeland, the colony’s official photographer.
View this collection on the contributor's website.
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