4. Emigration Preparations

Preparing to Leave

By November 22, 1902, the membership list for the colony was closed and final preparations for the colony emigration had been made. The published shareholder list contained eighty-six entries purchasing a total of 1,080 shares. Thirty-one shareholders purchased twenty shares for a total of $31,000, four bought fifteen shares totaling $3,000, twenty-nine bought ten shares totaling $14,500, and twenty-two bought five shares for $5,500. The total purchase reported at that time equaled $54,000. At this time the shareholders were $1,000 short in revenues of the total purchase price of the El Chamal property; however they had collected enough money to meet their current expenditures and still had time to collect the balance.

The Magnum Star on November 27, 1902, provided an update on the status of the El Chamal purchase. It reported that, “The remainder of the first payment of thirty thousand dollars was turned over to Mr. G.T. Ingram and Mr. Green Parmer and they left Monday morning to land it safely in the hands of the party in Mexico from whom the track of land was purchased.”[1]

A list of the colony stockholders and the number of shares they purchased was printed in the Magnum Star newspaper on December 4, 1902. Also listed were those who had partnered together in order to purchase shares. Table 1 on the next page contains the names printed in the newspaper and the number of shares they purchased.